Trouble and bad experiences

I have not had my Dollfie Dream for long and can say that I am quite the DD n00b. But when I started out with resin BJDs I was no more experienced, of course... But I still have not had this much trouble with any of my resin dolls, over the years I have been in the hobby, as with this Dollfie Dream (which I have barely even had for two weeks)!

 

As I purchased her, I brought those reinforcements, from coolcat, for her shoulders and hips. As well as the aluminium neck piece.

I took her apart and put the shoulder and hip reinforcements on. No problem.

Getting the arms and legs back on... That took about 80 years and a lot of frustration... The legs seem to not want to stay on either. But I think that it is safe to assume that it is just me not being used to a DD. (You have to make sure you push the joints or body pieces back together pretty much after every time that you have played around with your doll, yeah?)

Then getting to replacing the neck piece, I had to loosen the screw that keeps it attached. It was just impossible to budge. So I applied enough force that the friction from the screwdriver burned or pulled a layer of skin off from the side of my hand. So in the end I had to have someone else help me = do it for me...

But I do not think I got any blood on the doll that time, just the screwdriver. Which brings me to the optional hands I brought along with her.

Some of them are quite small in the openings, so they are about impossible to get on. So I have to cut the openings a bit bigger.

I am used to using this dull hobby knife for my pastels when doing faceups. I use it to scrape pastels off. And when I am done, I use my fingers, or a piece of cotton, to drag the excess pastel powder off the blade so I do not contaminate the next "crayon".

And what do you think I did when I wanted the vinyl scraps off the blade of the knife I was using to make bigger gaps..? Yeah, I drew my thumb right over the sharp blade and sliced it open.

Washed it and on a band-aid. Back to work! But the blood seeped over/under the band-aid and got all over the optional hand I was trying to put on her, as well as smeared onto her shirt sleeve.

At least it was no problem getting it cleaned off. But I am starting to suspect that this doll could be the death of me at this rate.

 

Wow, long post...

 

But I am curious - what are the troubles you have gotten into because of your dolls? Money trouble is probably the most usual one, so I assume that we all could agree on that that is a given... But other troubles or bad experiences - big or small - share your story (and maybe save lives).

Ouch, that had to hurt but glad you were able to get your doll's hand and the clothing cleaned back up again. As you said usually it's money woes in the hobby for me. Either I wish I had more or I feel buyer's remorse after spending a lot. Eh, I guess that can happen to anybody, but this one time I did blister my hand while trying to remove a DDII leg with the blow dryer. Lesson learned there.

I don't think I've gotten injured working on my dolls so far, beyond poking myself with a needle when sewing, but I did cut my finger with a coping saw working on Toothless's armature. (I really shouldn't have been trying to cut complex shapes out of plastic in 100+ degrees F.)

 

I did do something dumb to Agatha's head once though. I was trying to stain-treat and get the last of an old face-up off, and to get it to go faster I put her under a lamp so the heat would speed the reaction of the zit cream. . . and put her WAY too close, and her head got singed. ^^;

 

I painted over the burned areas and redid her faceup anyway. It was another two years before I finally got her a new head!

protip: heat really helps with those doll hands. vinyl and heat make for easier job gettin things on/off!

 

My only big trouble involved my camera.

At one point it was either catch Her Grace (about to fall off a bridge's edge, not kidding) or well...

 

As awesome luck had it, the doll fell forward into safe space (and my hand) ... but my camera gleefully bashed into the iron railings, cracking one of the internal sensor things. What pisses me off the most is the sheer stupidity of it all. The camera didn't even hit the ground!!

Yes, heat is very important when dealing with the vinyl hands. Except for the ones that came with the dolls which seem to be stretched enough, I always have to use a hairdryer to heat the hand up a bit.

 

As for trouble getting the limbs back on, the only thing is to make sure the parts are aligned correctly. If the bust is in slightly the wrong position (like too high, and the shoulder blades can move forward/back), or if the leg sockets are slightly rotated the wrong way, it can be hard to get things to connect and not understand why.

For me, since my first girl won't be here until next week, I haven't had any injury experiences yet . However, I have had bad experiences with money. I'd been trying to save up for her for nearly 5 years now, but each time I earned enough a resin kid would steal it away . Then on top of that, every time I would try to order her standard model she would sell out just before I earned the cash ... Fortunately, I found a way around it and used some willpower and now my grail doll is on her way.~

Right now, lack of more income in our household is severely restricting my ability to get a Dynamite body for

Merri, when she gets finished and comes home.

 

My bad experiences were at my first meet with the local "Ecchizonans", where, I feared the worst as I watched

Tana fall down for the first time! *also, her floppy knee was easily fixed, thanks to scripple, giving instruction

and a small screwdriver to tighten it up* Some bad staining on Maiko's head, due to a wig I'd bought on evilbay,

and, finally, both a pair of jeans and a set of stockings that really stained Tana's new MDD body.

*all taken care of, now!*

Rika has been trouble since I bought her. XD Really though, I almost got scammed by her seller. It turned out well for me in the end, but others involved in transactions with her at the same time weren't as lucky.

 

She is adorable in everything, so she gets a lot of expensive outfits. However, I often find out the hard way what stains. But she's on the one-piece torso body, so I can't just switch out her bust part to be treated with a spare. I've needed to do a longer treatment for a while, so I've been considering getting her an entire spare torso so that I can do it. She always looks too cold if I stand her naked wearing nothing but RemoveZit. Also, it makes me look like a pervert when people walk in and see her like that. D: Not that a random torso covered in white goop and wrapped in clingfilm will make people not instantly think I'm a creep, but at least Rika herself will be able to dress warmly and cutely while I get judged by my family and friends.

 

I also have the CoolCat shoulder reinforcement pieces, but I can't for the life of me get her upper frame out, or even in a position to put them on. I've tried hot water since we don't have a hair dryer, but I don't want to immerse her and get everything metal wet, so it won't come out. At this point, I'll just save them for when I can afford the spare torso. D:

 

I've been trying to save for a friend for her for a while, but previously mentioned expensive outfits keep stealing it away. She can't wear them all, why does she need them? She looks great in them, and eventually another girl will be able to wear them too. Then I'll need two school uniforms and two sexy Chinese dresses, and ten new wigs and pairs of shoes!

I also have the CoolCat shoulder reinforcement pieces, but I can't for the life of me get her upper frame out, or even in a position to put them on. I've tried hot water since we don't have a hair dryer, but I don't want to immerse her and get everything metal wet, so it won't come out. At this point, I'll just save them for when I can afford the spare torso.

 

Curious, where does it get stuck? I had almost no problem taking the upper part out of Melty even without a hair dryer being used. It only was a tight fit in the waist area. Does it get stuck in the waist for you or in the leg hole?

I was starting to feel like I got the acbleepulated bad luck/trouble of the DD folk. But I guess I am not too alone now, Coco.

- Your experiences feel like they are just on my level.

 

Coco, I would stress the issue a bit about how the reinforcements can "stain", or rather, if there is some oily part that gets on your hands and thus transfers to your doll.

If of course happened to me when I removed my girls head (she has the neck reinforcement piece). Some oil got on my hands without me knowing/feeling it and yeah... I smeared it over her upper forehead/side of the head as I removed her head-cap.

It was easy to remove with a magic eraser. But still!!

 

And then I had some more troubles with another optional hand. I thought I had opened it enough - Getting it on worked well.

But it just would not come off! I tried and tried, but it was just stuck. So I tried warming it up by a heat source, but still not good enough, so I settled for a hairdryer (was not sure we had one at first) in the end.

That got the hand off luckily, but I suffered yet another "skinned finger"... A patch of skin peeled off from the friction on my other hand this time. (It still has not fully healed :/)

(and my girl has painted nails, so that rubbed off (just a pastel job) from all the pulling, of course. So I have had to repaint and reseal the hand too)

 

It kind of makes me wary of her... Bad experiences-wise, will I enjoy keeping her when she is associated with so much bad luck..? -kind of thing.

 

Hope your experiences does not taint your interest in your girl, Coco. Or anyone else for that matter!

Curious, where does it get stuck? I had almost no problem taking the upper part out of Melty even without a hair dryer being used. It only was a tight fit in the waist area. Does it get stuck in the waist for you or in the leg hole?

It does get stuck in her waist! It's so narrow for me, I'm really surprised to hear you don't have trouble with it. I've tried pulling it out, finagling it out, heating it out, it just won't come out. I don't like to try to force it too much, because I have a tendency to break things, and last thing I need is a broken piece I can't remove or replace.

 

I've also had problems getting her extra "peace" hands off. I used hot water to get them on, but it did nothing when I tried to get them off. After an hour of working on them, I finally managed to pry them off. Whew, they're cute but I'd only put them on again if I had an extra wrist joint to keep them on permanently.

 

Despite the problems I've had with her, I really love my Rika. She's just too adorable, and being troublesome just makes her cuter. It makes her seem more mischievous.

Oh, I've had many doll related troubles, heart attacks, frustrations... I don't like to remember them too much, but they are there! One time the very same day a new girl arrived, she got a streaky stain on her face from her outfit T_T I used fine grit sand paper to get it off before it could seep in >_< That article of clothing is not going anywhere near vinyl, it stains instantly on contact.

 

Also there's that time I accidentally broke Iris's arm while dressing her, I had to make an emergency thread here to figure out how to save her... She's back in one piece, but I'm VERY careful when handling that arm because it's still rather fragile.

 

 

I love my DDs, any bit of damage to them can be devastating... but I can't let myself get too down over things.

Curious, where does it get stuck? I had almost no problem taking the upper part out of Melty even without a hair dryer being used. It only was a tight fit in the waist area. Does it get stuck in the waist for you or in the leg hole?

It does get stuck in her waist! It's so narrow for me, I'm really surprised to hear you don't have trouble with it. I've tried pulling it out, finagling it out, heating it out, it just won't come out. I don't like to try to force it too much, because I have a tendency to break things, and last thing I need is a broken piece I can't remove or replace.

 

I've also had problems getting her extra "peace" hands off. I used hot water to get them on, but it did nothing when I tried to get them off. After an hour of working on them, I finally managed to pry them off. Whew, they're cute but I'd only put them on again if I had an extra wrist joint to keep them on permanently.

 

Despite the problems I've had with her, I really love my Rika. She's just too adorable, and being troublesome just makes her cuter. It makes her seem more mischievous.

 

I think I stuck a metal knitting needle in through her shoulder hole and used it to push down on the frame part. It looks weird coming out, like it's warping the vinyl, but it won't permanently hurt it.

 

And yeah, peace hands are the worst to get on and off. The only options are to leave them on a wrist permanently or maybe widen the hole a little bit to make it a little easier. The openings onthose hands are soo small. I have ended up hurting my fingers struggling with hands, especially MDD hands. But they're so cute it's worth it.

Just finished experiencing the joy of the harder vinyl on older girls. I am so thankful she arrived with her head-cap off.

 

I heated the head-cap with a hair dryer and still couldn't get her head-cap back on. In the end I had to put her head on Mint's body, wrap my legs around the body to hold it in place, put one hand under her head to support it and push down on the head-cap until it popped in.

 

She is never getting new eyes. I am not doing that again if I can help it.

Thats about the worst thing with DD, they can honestly be just a plain old headache. Between staining, fragile joints, wig caps and body suits, fragile clothing, dusting, sunlight etc. Sometimes I spend more time worrying about them then enjoying them.

I had a troubling experience recently. Since a lot of the new outfits I have purchased have been black I decided to wash them before I dressed my dolls in them. And as I let them lay in my sink for around 10 minutes the water started to stink REALLY bad???

My dolly troubles all stem from my Dynamite body's middle joint being broken u_u; Despite being repaired somewhat, her top half falls off all the time. Recently a friend and I went to take pictures at the river and I was trying to walk over some slippery rocks and lost my balance for a few seconds before recovering. However, her upper torso and head fell into the river >_

I just wanted to say that for the longest time I've loved having Rise customized, but I now really really regret it I think the issue is that I've had other people paint her who have not been able to accurately represent my vision. In addition, I recently had Rise repainted by a well known and expensive faceup artist. I paid $90 for dust sealed in the faceup and lips that were very tacky and as a result have finally dried due to dust and fuzz sticking on them.

 

I have decided to take faceup practice more seriously with the hopes that I can be great enough to repaint all my dolls to how I see fit. I think this will really help me to appreciate them more

 

Good can come out of the bad at least

My dolly troubles all stem from my Dynamite body's middle joint being broken u_u; Despite being repaired somewhat, her top half falls off all the time. Recently a friend and I went to take pictures at the river and I was trying to walk over some slippery rocks and lost my balance for a few seconds before recovering. However, her upper torso and head fell into the river >_<

 

I'm not sure how you fixed this or if this is appropriate to your particular broken part, but a common way to assemble or repair resin figures involves using metal pins and epoxy. Think sort of along the lines of a surgeon repairing a badly broken bone, but a bit different because in this case the pin goes in the center of each half of the break.

 

Scroll down to the "assembly" section in this link to see it illustrated. Scroll past the images for instructions.

 

http://www.gremlins.com/jim_bertges/first.html

 

You can ignore the bits about "shaping" since you are fixing a break not fitting two parts cast from different molds.

 

You can get metal rods in the modelling section of Hobby stores. Buy one of acceptable thickness, and then cut it to size using wire cutters. Then you basically drill holes in the two pieces you want to join together and then use strong epoxy to glue the rod into each part. The key is to make sure the two parts line up properly. Fit everything together dry before you glue to make sure it all lines up.

 

You also need a pin vise which is basically a micro drill. You can get them at hobby stores, and possibly at auto parts stores. They were used to fine tune carburetors before fuel injection became all the rage.

I'm like you in that I started with resin dolls. I got my first DD last week and I'm still getting used to her. One day her right leg just randomly fell off and I had a really hard time getting gettiit back on. I think the problem is i move her legs in a different manner than my resin dolls.

 

So there's handling that is troubling and of course worrying about stains. But those are just my newbie problems

I'm like you in that I started with resin dolls. I got my first DD last week and I'm still getting used to her. One day her right leg just randomly fell off and I had a really hard time getting gettiit back on. I think the problem is i move her legs in a different manner than my resin dolls.

 

So there's handling that is troubling and of course worrying about stains. But those are just my newbie problems

 

I totally know what you mean! Getting my first DD was so weird because I didn't want to break her haha! you can move the strung joints every which way, but the internal skeleton is a bit fragile. I accidentally broke my DD's shin (the plastic skeleton piece) because her lower leg fell off That wasn't fun.

I've only had my doll a couple months, but I'm already freaking out when I see tiny imperfections that I not sure were there before she arrived at my door. A really faint smudge on her cheek? A super tiny dot on her hand? Where did they come from? Have they always been there? Am I just way too obsessed over silly things like this or am I expecting too much from a really expensive vinyl doll?

Stuff like this might ruin the hobby experience for some people who are OCD-ish like me, but it's forced me to be tender with things that I never thought about before and I take that as a good thing.

Now let's hope I don't break a limb or I might just have a nervous breakdown.

My newest girl had some issues when I got her body. I bought a pre-assembled body with an optional bust and hands. The extra parts are off on the skin tone even though they are both normal skin, but those parts are a better match to her face. I'm a little irritated there but hopefully it will smooth out over time. She has a bump on her collarbone and I'm not sure how to take care of short of sandpaper and I'm a bit too nervous to do that yet.

 

Also for whatever reason there was some sort of dirt that got on her body. Mostly the spare bust and hands I ordered. It stained her bust and I'm still trying to get them out.

 

I also had to tighten up her knees and ankles using a bit of tape my dad gave for the job when I inquired about it. I added too much to the peg at first and had it so tight I basically had to wrestle it off. Close call but I'm still just glad she's here.