Weekly summary 43/2020

Hi,

this is a summary of what was going in the doll world in the 43rd week of 2020, as far as we at Dollstudio & DS Doll Europe were concerned.

1) Novel Coronavirus situation.

a) The pandemic situation in general. In the past week, the total amount of so called new 'cases' per day has skyrocket. On average, it is now around 450,000 per day worldwide. Most active hot spots in the past week were India, the U.S., Brazil, Argentina, Russia, France, the UK, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Czechia and Poland. On two days, Germany also entered the five-figure-group. Continuously, more than ten countries have been reporting five-figure-numbers with new 'cases'.

The total number of so-called confirmed 'cases' has exceeded 43 million; as of today, it is at 43,289,569. As of today, 1,158,106 deaths were recorded.

But again, it is crucial to distinguish between actual cases with the Covid-19 disease and test results which indicate the existence of antibodies, but not necessarily a current infection. A positive test result is not the same as an ongoing disease, and the currently reported new 'cases' can not be directly compared to the number of reported cases back in March and April because a) there are now working treatments available, and b) ICU capacities are not even remotely overburdened as they were in spring. For comparison: Over here in Berlin, the ICU workload is currently around 4.8%, and in Australia it's even below 1%.

Thusly, just watching the reported 'case' numbers grow is misguiding. At least at the moment, there is no exponential growth vector for sick people requiring intensive care. Excess deaths do not explode. Failing to understand these crucial differences is going to lead to bad decisions which will cause much more harm than the disease itself. However, political management in many countries has chosen the route to sure desaster. There is even a new wave of lockdowns emerging.

According to a BBC report, the Czech Republic was the first country in Europe to announce a second nationwide lockdown. In France there is a night-time curfew in nine cities and gatherings are limited to 10 people. Spain issued new local lockdowns with a duration of two weeks and Madrid is in a state of emergency for 15 days. The Netherlands have a partial four-week lockdown and bans for most public events are in place. Ireland issued a new partial national lockdown with a duration of six weeks. Also, since Saturday, Wales is under a new lockdown as well. It's madness. Time to prepare for more unemployment, receding standard of living, poverty, inflation and a brutal recession.

What else could happen if people can not go to work, pay less taxes and consume less?

b) Impact on the doll business. In a nutshell, requests for dolls are at zero for most of October. Customers do not even buy miniature dolls or torsos anymore. Business is as dead as it was in February and March.

2) New arrivals.

This week, three new heads were introduced:

• Irontech ›Yumi‹ head - TPE
• SE Doll ›Alex‹ head (SE no. 090) - TPE
• WM Dolls no. 382 head (Jinsan no. 382) - TPE

No new body styles were released.

As always, you can follow the latest updates in our Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/DollStudioEU

Also, we have the New products listing on all three Dollstudio websites. It is sorted in reverse chronological order, so the latest additions to our portfolio are on top of the listing:

• Dollstudio US - http://us.dollstudio.org/new-products
• Dollstudio EU - http://eu.dollstudio.org/new-products
• Dollstudio DE - http://de.dollstudio.org/new-products

On Dollstudio EU, there is also the New arrivals timeline http://eu.dollstudio.org/timeline with a slightly different display style.

3) Business updates, technical updates and dolls in development.

This regular column report about things like noteworthy events and model line changes.

• Config update: unified wigs for D4E, Piper Doll & DH168
• Irontech Doll promotion fall 2020

4) Latest blog posts.

Our daily blog posts feature mostly new photo sets, showcasing dolls and heads in various configurations.

• 25.10.: New photos with Xycolo XC-158/F body style and ›Emily‹ head
• 24.10.: New photos with Doll House 168 DH20-80/E body style and ›Shiori‹ anime head - black rabbit outfit
• 23.10.: New photos with HR Doll HR-174/F body style and no. 27 head
• 22.10.: New photos with YL Doll YL-168/B body style and ›Allura‹ head (Jinsan no. 193)
• 21.10.: New photos with Irontech Doll IT-165/A body style and ›Yumi‹ head
• 20.10.: New photos with SE Doll SE-163/E body style (= SED 101) and ›Alex‹ head (= SE no. 090)
• 19.10.: New photos with WM Dolls WM-162/F body style and no. 382 head (Jinsan no. 382)
• 18.10.: More photos with Piper Silicone PI-130/D body style and ›Phoebe elf‹ head by Piper Doll

These blog posts are mirrored on the Latest blog posts section all three Dollstudio websites. It is sorted in reverse chronological order, newest posts on top:

• Dollstudio US - http://us.dollstudio.org/blog
• Dollstudio EU - http://eu.dollstudio.org/blog
• Dollstudio DE - http://de.dollstudio.org/blog

(EU and US sites in English, DE site in German)

5) Factory photos and shipped dolls.

This week we had three completed dolls:

• This Ildoll IL-140 body style with C15 head in silicone travels to Washington (state)
• This Xycolo XC-153/A body style with ›Nao‹ head organic/platinum silicone hybrid travels to the Netherlands
• This WM Dolls WM-162/F body style with no. 33 head travels to Western Australia

6) Weekly Top 10 Dolls.

Based on our website access stats, here is the weekly report: What's trending this week?

These stats reflect what our (potential) customers are interested in; however, it does not indicate conversions. The stats are broken down by the geographical distribution area, so this might give some insight about varying regional tastes or preferences.

Once more, there was a clear pattern: People do window shopping, but they do not research for an actual purchase. About 80% of the most popular dolls have never been and probably will be never sold. From the remaining 20% of the most popular dolls, there is a reasonable chance that one or two of these dolls will be sold [i]once[/i] within the next three months.

Dollstudio EU

1. Xycolo XC-158/F
2. Sino-doll SI-161/E
3. SE Doll SE-163/C
4. Ildoll IL-151
5. Xycolo XC-170/E
6. Doll House 168 DH20-80/G
7. Xycolo XC-153/A
8. Gynoid GT-170/E (Model 13)
9. Piper Silicone PI-130/D ›Phoebe Elf‹
10. Xycolo XC-163/A

Dollstudio US

1. Doll House 168 DH20-80/G
2. Gynoid GT-170/E (Model 13)
3. Gynoid GT-162/D (Model 11)
4. WM Dolls WM-156/H
5. Gynoid GT-155/E (Model 12)
6. Doll House 168 DH20-80/E
7. Piper Silicone PI-150/J ›Ariel‹
8. Gynoid GT-160/F (Model 6)
9. Doll Sweet DS-168 ›Summit‹ - Alexa
10. Xycolo XC-158/F

Dollstudio DE

1. Doll House 168 DH20-80/E
2. Xycolo XC-170/E
3. Doll House 168 DH20-80/G
4. Xycolo XC-163/A
5. Irontech IT-159/D
6. WM Dolls WM-172/B
7. Gynoid GT-170/E (Model 13)
8. Xycolo XC-158/F
9. Doll Sweet DS-168 ›Summit‹ - Alexa
10. Gynoid GT-172/D (Model 10)

Sandro

https://twitter.com/DollStudioEU/status/1320486910675046406?s=20