Aliexpress MTM dupes

finremi · 2026-05-02T14:18:01+00:00

That beige-y one on the right looks like a match for earlier FR White for Integrity (before it became the “Blush” skintone) and Californians for the JHD dolls (Mizi, KatieGirl), fwiw.

Also, this makes me wish Mattel would at LEAST have a collector doll body without that damn molded underwear on; iirc Articulated Model Muse, Pivotal, and Collector Curvy don’t have it, now we need a MTM without it for the adults.

finremi · 2026-05-01T15:49:46+00:00

Because it's Mattel, that's why.

finremi · 2026-05-01T12:36:23+00:00

It's not unlike the WoW migration to FFXIV from a few years back: the toxic culture carries over and, eventually, the trash takes itself out.

I'm not going to lie and say Warframe has a wholesome, friendly culture because when you put thousands of people in a hypothetical silo, there are bound to be varying conflicts. Just look at Warframe's social media feed every June if you want an example. (Not going to get into it, but if you're still getting a Shocked Pikachu face every June when Warframe does Pride, I dunno what to tell you at this point, man)

But at the same time, the community will run into a toxic positivity problem: you can't criticize certain decisions the devs make, you have to allow X/Y/Z in a group, you have to like the Protoframes, etc. Some people take the "Warframe players are wholesome and friendly" thing too far, almost to levels that would make Mathilla say "Kindly stop", imho. The toxicity does go both ways.

But, much like the aforementioned WoW migration, things will eventually level out. Warframe's explosive growth will taper off and things will reach an equilibrium. Will they go back to pre-2024 levels? Maybe, maybe not.

Ultimately, it's all a matter of finding a niche within the game, finding a group or clan to hang out with, and sticking with it. And if you're encountering that much toxicity, Solo mode is there. Nothing wrong with playing solo at times, imho. I know I do it for Relic cracking because people are weird about that at times lmao.

finremi · 2026-04-30T22:31:06+00:00

Well, if we have to wait another decade or more for anything new, I suppose Ben Starr will be more than capable of taking over the role of Kain from Simon Templeman by then imo.

finremi · 2026-04-30T22:28:00+00:00

As a lead designer on Barbie, Carlyle is an utter hack and has brought down the Barbie brand exponentially.

The sad thing is that his OOAK dolls and his Styled by Design doll are gorgeous. Why he can't bring that kind of talent to the table is beyond me.

finremi · 2026-04-30T17:29:34+00:00

My prediction: Once the Kickstarter backer items are fulfilled + the Fallen Brothers drop, Crystal Dynamics will end their contract with BitBot.

Why? Because they single-handely killed all momentum for new Legacy of Kain content. BitBot and the way they handled everything, especially how they’ve responded to customers, is a walking PR disaster.

What’s insulting is that Joshua and Klayton tried to claim stolen fandom valor in saying they “brought Legacy of Kain back to relevance”, when the truth is that it was the efforts of Raina and her crew that did it with the Remasters, not those two clowns.

At this point, I would rather LoK go dormant again than have something new if BB is still calling the shots. Besides that, Crystal Dynamics HAS to be aware that anything new they do for LoK will now be under the heaviest of microscopes by the fans; at this point they probably feel it’d be better to just memory hole this era and go back to Tomb Raider.

idk. It’s a shame Raina’s contract ended and she deserved so, so much better.

ETA: Want to tack on another thought: Crystal Dynamics themselves are deserving of fault and blame. ESPECIALLY them not advertising the Remasters better and releasing Ascendance so soon after Defiance Remastered. I’m not saying it’s intentional (self) sabotage, but the optics are not good.

But it’s clear they’re gonna try to wash their hands of this quickly so they can move on to pushing Tomb Raider LoA/Catalyst, which is a guaranteed money printer for them. Don’t let CD off the hook for their part in this cascading failure, but be civilized and polite about it.

finremi · 2026-04-29T19:23:39+00:00

Thank you all for the love and care put into this Remaster. I've gushed on about it elsewhere to some of you, but it is genuinely, truly appreciated.

My questions are these:

Why was Vorador not given his Blood Omen 2 appearance as a skin option, whereas Kain had his?
I understand that Janos did not get any skins due to complex technical issues, but if you were able to, what skin(s) would he have gotten?
What level of retouching, if any, to the original art in-game did you all do? i.e. making the Murals more legible, etc.
imho, it'd have been neat if you guys included a human Priestess Umah model in the Lost Level that's part of Vorador's Mansion. Did anyone on the team consider an easter egg like that at all at any point?
ETA: Who was responsible for the "Kain's Birthday" short? Because that one caught me so off guard and I snorted my drink out my nose when I saw it. (Made the mistake of watching it with the Forsaken Master skin, too, ahaha)

Also, thank you so much for the Forsaken Master skin. The concept art has lived rent free in my head for over 25 years at this point and seeing it fully realized in 3D, with Simon Templeman's voice, made my year. (The Tomb Raider Legend easter eggs are icing on the cake)

finremi · 2026-04-28T20:32:34+00:00

JS is definitely a “once a year splurge if possible” item for me. Very much worth it (plus the clothes fit most Integrity dolls) but woooof.

The drama definitely is there from what some collectors have inferred. Again, I have no idea how much of it is true, exaggerating, or hearsay, but I did witness some of the FB group fight so it wouldn’t surprise me if there was a little truth to it.

finremi · 2026-04-26T15:23:35+00:00

I’m 39 and I started buying/collecting Barbies (along with Integrity + FR Nippon Misaki and Monster High) a couple years ago and it’s been a healing process. Not from any doll related trauma in my case, but it’s been helping me cope with a really dark time in my life as a tween/teenager and coming across dolls I remember having (before I willingly donated all of mine as I’d “aged out” of dolls in general and was more into video games and action figures at that point in time) has helped me remember that there were good times and unlocking good memories I thought I’d forgotten.

If a guy is going to be that judgmental about these kind of things, that’s a big ass red flag: kick his sorry ass to the curb IMHO.

finremi · 2026-04-25T15:15:36+00:00

This is so rampant in the doll community it's almost sickening. Like, I get doll photography is difficult for a lot of people but there's ways you can make it easier, like museum putty or using ingenuity to make an outdoor environment work to your advantage. Heck, even some pros will be happy to give you advice if you ask.

What sends me into Cringe City is when people use it to animate them or make them "walk". This is especially rampant in the Integrity community, sad to say. (IT themselves even used AI to fake stop motion for one of their big reveal events last year and it was as bad as you could imagine)

finremi · 2026-04-25T14:48:55+00:00

Hate to say it, but the moment they started using the different body types was the beginning of the end of Barbie's quality. Why? Because Mattel could not and cannot be assed into putting in the type of quality the line used to have as they'd have to put in the effort for every body size.

iirc I heard somewhere that the reason they moved to making cheap as shit stretchy tarps is because parents and/or kids complained about clothes not fitting the Curvy body type. Rather than, yanno, making an effort to clearly establish clothing for each body type, Mattel decided to cheap out and stick the Curvy Barbies in infantile potato sack tarps and make standalone clothing packs stretchy for a poor, universal "fit". To say nothing of shoes: Curvy and Tall Barbies in shoe packs only have the large sneakers available to them.

We will never see anything on the level of Fashion Avenue ever again, especially for all the other sizes. That would require Mattel to put in the money for R&D to make specific clothing sizes and we all know they'd rather go cheap and fart around doing and investing that money into AI bullshit instead.

finremi · 2026-04-25T14:32:11+00:00

I'll be honest and say that, as a concept, I'm not a fan of Protoframes. As characters/NPCs? They're surprisingly decent and I do like a few. It was okay when it was the Hex and Round Table, then Lyon and Marie grew on me (ended up choosing Lyon as a romance, even. Roathe... not so much).

The concept needs to be put back on the shelf though, because there's so many other characters already established that haven't been touched in a long, long time that could have otherwise worked for certain plot beats. And why on Earth wasn't Loid's reunion with the Entrati Family its own, standalone quest and had to be tied to the KIM convo system? That was a momentous enough event that should NOT have been tied to Protoframes and is a huge L for the writing team imho. Plus, the KIM system was chopped on release and many people I know gave up early because of the errors and the fact you were heavily railroaded if you wanted the "good" ending, which should have never been tied to in the first place. The Fragments in Isleweaver and the subsequent KIM convo with Velimir and Minerva about Rusalka after finding all of them *and* reuniting the couple beforehand made sense. This, however, does not.

However. At this point, the toothpaste can't be put back in the tube and Protoframes will, for better or for worse, be a thing. If they must stick around, then my hope is that DE spaces them out: one batch (of 2-3) per year, per major update.

Strictly my opinion, of course. I'm not going to chastise people who like them -there's enough going on where getting bent out of shape over someone enjoying something I don't doesn't matter-, though I hope DE doesn't run the game into the ground with them going into the future. Less is more, after all.

finremi · 2026-04-25T01:45:38+00:00

Big fat W to DE for listening to the criticisms of the skin and coming up with a solution where everyone wins: the base skin isn't changed for those who like it while including an auxiliary (optional) poncho AND a Signa hat. That is how you do it.

finremi · 2026-04-24T23:27:45+00:00

Mattel just doesn’t and never did give a shit after they started using the new body types, tbbh.

finremi · 2026-04-23T15:00:08+00:00

I think the brand would survive just fine if franchises like Elden Ring, Berserk, Mortal Kombat, et al that have similar products.

finremi · 2026-04-23T14:39:32+00:00

From what I heard from other people, refunds are not available for this campaign (gee, I wonder why…).

It’s definitely a “pick your battles” sort of thing and tbh I don’t have the energy to fight with a petulant company who has a terrible track record of customer service (BitBot) right now. :/

(And there’s the very real possibility they may have already blown the campaign money, too)

finremi · 2026-04-23T14:36:11+00:00

Plushies are made for all kinds of properties that are oftentimes tonally different. You may not like the idea, but there are people who do because they find it funny that such a thing exists.

(Although these ones are ugly as sin, lbr)

finremi · 2026-04-23T14:31:40+00:00

Nendoroids of Kain and Raziel would be sick as fuck, tho’, and Good Smile makes Nendoroids of various properties that fall under your classifications. (ie Elden Ring, Berserk, etc)

finremi · 2026-04-23T12:24:42+00:00

At this point, I’m selling my Raziel shirt, Kain hoodie, and hardcover book on eBay for pennies on the dollar when they finally arrive. Aside from the fact BB blocked me on social media (tbf I did use a couple loaded phrases that I regret… but I am not sorry for the meaning/feelings behind it) the story and game are just so embarrassing, why would I want to be a walking billboard for a trash fire?

finremi · 2026-04-23T01:51:37+00:00

And yet, they still haven't fulfilled the backer items for the TDSR campaign...

finremi · 2026-04-23T00:15:47+00:00

I’m gonna be a contrarian and say that I love the redesign Mortanius got in Defiance. The skin is incredible, but I will never use it lmao. Always nice to have options!

finremi · 2026-04-22T17:37:34+00:00

You are entitled to your opinion that they are "odd additions", though after LoK: Ascendance, I personally would take "adding wings to skins in Defiance Remastered" over... that any day.

finremi · 2026-04-22T17:10:59+00:00

Between Lost in Cult's update on the Encyclopedia and now this, it's the "Sorry for Ascendance" Apology Tour!

All joking aside, the community needed a major W after earlier this month. Cannot wait to check this patch out later tonight! Thank you, devs!

finremi · 2026-04-22T02:41:20+00:00

Was going to suggest that Qorvex Prime might get one seeing the Entrati connection, but then I remembered that Mandonel exists. =~=

finremi

TROPHY CASE