DokiDoki Creations / @dokidoki_furrystudio / Yixuan Wang / dokidokifursuit.com
Suits That Don't Exist
This documents my attempt to buy a fursuit head from DokiDoki Creations, and why you should never buy from them. The purpose of this page is threefold:
- To prevent potential victims from being scammed, by disrupting DokiDoki Creations' web presence with an attention-grabbing headline.
- To teach you how to find the original artists of items listed on websites such as DokiDoki Creations, circumventing the need for them.
- How to protect yourself in situations like the one I ended up in.
Who is DokiDoki Creations?
DokiDoki Creations is a company registered in New Zealand as DOKIDOKI CREATIONS LIMITED, founded by a Yixuan Wang. Googling the company will give you the website and a couple reddit threads talking about how shady it is.
DokiDoki Creations is part-fursuit manufacturer, part-fence for mainland Chinese creators. However, this information is not disclosed, and DokiDoki Creations prefers to present itself as a single entity under whom the artists work without revealing who they are. A pessimist may call them a gatekeeper.
"Fencing" is the act of taking goods or currency on behalf of someone else who may not have access to a western payment network or are otherwise prohibited by a language barrier. This is how the business works. DokiDoki Creations takes a cut of payments received, forwards it to the Chinese seller, and instructs them to ship the item to the buyer.
DokiDoki Creations also produces self-made goods.
The website has a few features, prominently sense-of-urgency features like a completely fake "x people are viewing this right now" feature, which is just picking a number from 1 to 100.
Part One: Tail
In the beginning, I did not trust DokiDoki too much, so I had the foresight to use my credit card, since the option was there.
I was looking to buy this. Cute, right???
I went in knowing that it was a fenced item by a Chinese maker, and I'd be overpaying a bit. But it was cute, I can afford it, I wanted it, and this removes the hassle of trying to send money to someone in China. Here begins an email conversation.
The blue text is mine, the green text is DokiDoki. DokiDoki Creations asked that if I ever shared this story, I don't leave out any details as I am clearly in the wrong. I kinda obliged, but any "Hi"'s, names, and other fluff not relevant is removed. I'm also skipping over entire emails that have no relevancy.
Hello, very interested in this one ^^
Would it be possible to order paws + tail that match the design of the character?
As a footnote, I did actually mention paws on three different occasions, but they were never acknowledged in any way.
We can offer $180 for the tail added on. If you have any questions please let us know.
Before I make a decision, did you mean that the tail is already made and isn’t listed on the store? If so, are there any pictures anywhere? Or were you willing to create one as part of the order?
No, the tail will be custom made by the artist after you ordered it. It is made to order item. Hope it helps.
Okay! Great! No need for a reference! A tail made by the original artist for the suit!!! A few messages after payment:
Hi, Thank you for your order! Would you like the fur head shipping with the tail together? And do you have your reference for the tail?
A reference for the tail? Why would you need that for a character that exists? This was very confusing! So, I reply to clear this ambiguity:
Sorry, I’m confused. It was implied that the tail would follow the original reference design. Did the artist not use a reference to build that head?
What you implied, and what I want, is for the original artist to make a tail based on same specification that was used to build the head.
Can you please explain what you intend to do?
Thank you for your reply. To clarify, we only wanted to confirm whether you have any specific requests for the tail design. If you do not, we will simply ask the original artist to design the tail according to her own judgment, ensuring it matches well with the head she created.
Please let us know if you would like to provide any details, or if you are happy for the artist to proceed with her own design.
Okay, great. We have explicit confirmation from DokiDoki, again, that the original artist is making the tail. Ambiguity resolved, right?
Hello, thank you for your reply.
Yes, I trust the judgment of the artist and wish for the artist to do it according to their own vision.
Here, a second payment was taken because this option ($180 tail) wasn't on their storefront. I'm skipping over the part where payment is handled, okay, whatever. But then, I receive this:
Thank you so much for the payment! Could you please pick a matching fur colours you love from the below options?
え？
Wouldn't the artist... who spent days working on a craft... know the answer to this question?
Optimistically, they were just trying to be an agent and helping in the most useless way possible.
It would be a bad idea for me to give an answer without a proper comparison, as the lighting conditions here are different to the store photos.
I’d rather the artist handle it, as they will know what fabrics to use if the head was already made.
About four hours later, I get this:
Here is the tail design from the artist. Are you happy with that or please feel free to share your ideas.
More alarm bells were ringing. Again, why was I being consulted? Did the artist not already do this illustrative process when they made the head?? If so, why use a photo of the head as a reference instead of the illustration??? And of all things, why would the artist use a screenshot from your website as a reference????
And the artist happened to be immediately available to work on this? Surely Ms. Wang wasn't trying to do this all by herself!!!
At this point I'm spooked and decide to abort. It was becoming more and more clear that the artist is not involved as described. Plausibly, at best, they drew that and that counted as "designing" it. But, we cover why that wasn't so in part two.
I’m making the decision to cancel this order.
On 17th September, you wrote:
> No, the tail will be custom made by the artist after you ordered it.
It is becoming increasingly evident that you don’t have the original item in your possession, and the original artist is no longer involved in any way other than providing a reference. I do not appreciate the dishonesty.
And then I change my mind, because maybe it was legit, so I gave her a second chance. Stupid of me. Thank fuck she didn't reciprocate.
I wish to retract the previous email. Please disregard the previous email. I was talking to a friend who assured me this wasn’t a scam.
What I would like is clearer, unambiguous communication. I have wrote a few things that have been ignored. I don’t understand why I was being asked for references and opinions on colours, when I made it clear several times I don’t want any creative input here and I want the original artist to take charge, with the stipulation that the item is made to match the character.
If I interpret it correctly, the top-left picture-in-picture that was sent was just an example and has nothing to do with this particular request. Is that correct?
The drawn design looks absolutely fine.
The tail shown in the top-left picture was only a preview of the finished shape, while the drawn design is the actual preview sketch. You didn’t specify clearly and said that this design had no connection to your original suit, which is why we mentioned you could provide your own design.
If you’d prefer, we can cancel and refund the tail order for you. We sincerely apologize for the misunderstanding.
I still have no idea what "your original suit" means here. But an hour later, I receive this!
We’ve reviewed your previous messages, and after consideration, we will process a refund for both of your orders. Please note that we will not be able to provide further services in the future. Thank you for your understanding.
I'm banned from using DokiDoki Creations forever! Surprisingly, I did receive a full refund without having to fight for it, which I can confirm through my credit card statement.
Part Two: The Head Was Already Fucking Sold Over A Month Ago
小红书 (Xiaohongshu), better known as RedNote, is a popular social media platform in mainland China. RedNote has a reverse image search feature. This lets you, for example, take an image from an online storefront and find where it originally came from.
So, I looked up and found the original creator. I reached out to them and informed them of the situation using shitty AI-translated Chinese. More importantly, I really just wanted to buy the item. We had a very alarming conversation.
Rough translation:
> Hello! I am baka gaijin. I bought this item from DokiDoki, but she got mad and now I'm banned. She also lied about your involvement in making a tail. Can I just buy the head from you uwu
< Thanks for telling me! Sorry that happened, I'll talk to DokiDoki about it. Is this the item you're referring to? Thank you for your interest, but it was already adopted >ワ<
> Yes, that's the one! Unfortunate... (T T) Apologies, I'm using AI for translation. How long ago was it purchased? I placed my order a week ago, but now I see it's back on sale in her shop again.
< It was adopted August 15. Would you mind sending me a screenshot of their shopfront? I'm only collaborating with DokiDoki Creations, I'm concerned this might be a shopfront using stolen images to impersonate us.
> (Sends a screenshot of the DokiDoki Creations website listing)
< (Crying cat)
< Thank you! I'll go ask them.
> After I bought it, it was marked as "sold out", and now it's back in her shop.
< I'll ask in the morning. What is the name of the software?
> Eh? Software? I don't follow @w@ Are you referring to the website? It's dokidokifursuit.com.
< Yes, hahaha, thank you for telling me that www
tl;dr: This has two conclusions, take your pick:
- Plausibly, someone bought the item and immediately passed it to DokiDoki for resale. This would be highly unusual and with negligible financial incentive. It would also put you in an awkward situation with the artist you are collaborating with, especially when you're supposedly doing extra made-to-order work with them. Would you accept an item swiped from a partner flipped to you with markup? Probably fuckin' not.
OR:
- Someone already fucking bought it.
If Ms. Wang was in communication with the artist about product accessories at any point, knowing either of these facts would be very important!
And, the artist was not involved in the tail order at all! DokiDoki had indeed drew that tail reference themselves, pretending the artist had done it. Effectively, they are misrepresenting the artist and stealing work from them.
As of September 26, it is still listed as for sale on DokiDoki Creations, despite no longer being in possession of the artist. So, what the fuck was I buying? And more importantly, if someone buys this now, what the fuck are they going to receive? Luckily, I've avoided this thousand-dollar question.
I have since notified Yixuan Wang of this, but the store page has remained up.
Customers: If you just ordered from DokiDoki Creations, discovered this page and you are now concerned, disregard the toilet paper store policy and immediately demand a refund. After 24 hours, if they do not oblige, immediately contact your bank or credit card company and ask for a chargeback (they prefer you try to resolve the issue with the merchant first, so have proof that you've tried to do so). Execute this before the item is marked as shipped for less issues.
The Consumer Rights laws of your country and your financial institution are there to protect you. Whenever making risky purchases like this, and you are able, use a credit card. Often, paying with a credit card transfers more liability to the payment processor and they have more incentive to get your money back.
Reverse Image Search tools are at your disposal. Sites like DokiDoki Creations are taking their images posted on social networks, by the artists they are fencing for. Use them and contact the artist directly. PayPal is taking more of a hold in China and it's easier now to pay a mainlander than it was ten years ago, and often, someone knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who can accept foreign payments.
Artists: Hello, I'm also an artist. I would be annoyed if someone pretended to be my agent, misrepresenting me and taking money for a commission with the intent of not telling me and doing a sloppy job at the expense of my reputation.
Yixuan Wang / DokiDoki Creations, allegedly, has a habit of "love-bombing" creators into a partnership. I cannot confirm nor deny this, since I don't really use Instagram. Take a step to protect your reputation and do not collaborate with this fraud.