DDIII White Skin Shoulder Joint

So, I was changing the outfit of my Lucy, on a DDIII white skin body, and noticed the right shoulder was loose.  

Yeah, that peg is nearly sheared off.

I'm not sure if this is fixable, beyond digging up a new joint.  I've already checked both Volks stores and eBay for replacement arms, with no luck.  Any thoughts?  Am I SOL, and should get semi-white Lucy?  

If that piece of the frame is made from ABS or certain other types of plastic, you can 'weld' it back together with MEK (methyl ethyl ketone, available at a hardware store in the paint section), but it may break again at the same place. Since you've got the bust there with the small arm hole, there's a fair chance you've also got the internal frame with the thick solid shoulder sockets, which seemingly don't have the amount of give the newer flanged version does, and in my limited experience can have the death grip on the shoulder pin causing that point to be stressed when you pose the arms. In this case I might suggest sanding the pin or at least removing the ridge so it's not tight to move since it may be weaker after the repair.

MEK is kind of nasty so be careful with it if you try this; wear gloves etc. It will melt the plastic together (if it's the right types of plastic) so the repair will be a lot stronger than using epoxy, superglue, etc. Use the MEK the same way as liquid model cement, hold the pieces together and with a brush or other applicator let capillary action pull it into the joint. It will flow anywhere it can so take everything apart first, or you'll also have a joint that no longer moves as it's been melted together. How strong you can make the repair will largely depend on how steady you can hold it in the short time it will take to dry.

I have repaired some things with this and the repair is as strong as the surrounding plastic i.e. it's as likely to break somewhere else as in the same place again. Random example:

Spoiler

I had an old refrigerator that had a plastic version of drawer slides to hold the shelf and crisper drawers in the bottom. One of these supports was broken; a replacement was some ridiculous price like $25. I repaired the broken one with MEK and it may not have been pretty but worked just fine.

Volks' own pages and videos for DDs are inconsistent in claiming what the frame parts are made of. Some places say ABS, some say nylon. To me, none of the parts behave like I would expect nylon to behave. If this is nylon, what I've described won't work.

Mandarake, Volks USA, or Yahoo Japan are probably the only sources for white parts now. Volks Japan will not have anything as they removed them from their store (only and physical) after whenever that cutoff date was, so as a longer term solution semi-white Lucy may not be a bad idea at all.

Edited May 25, 2020 by cfx

It hurts just to see these things are very common. One friend had a similar problem where the peg was completely broken and the arm was totally loose. Acorrding to him, he "solved" it adjusting the screw until the left peg was completely pressed between the screw and the nut but I think that's a brutal and innefective solution. It works for the moment but every time I see his doll, I imagine her arm is almost going to explode or something.

Even so, he's still looking for a simple upper arm joint (or the complete arm in the worst sceneario). Unfortunately nobody seems to sell it, even with mandarake (maybe someone does it right now, I didn't check recently). So, at the end, the only thing I could think is a pair of new arms, or waiting for a good offer.

You can't try some special glue solution as well. Unfortunately I don't have enough knowledges to recommend one but here in the forum shoould be some topics.

Edited May 25, 2020 by Pit

Another option that might be a bit easier to find may be to use that piece from a semi-white arm. The only part of that frame piece that is visible is the underarm bit when the arms are raised, so it would never show much. I haven't taken things apart to know this yet, but that piece might also be identical on both DD and DDS arms.

III-generation arms in general are one of the parts that are mostly sold out on Volks though.

@cfx Yeah, the shoulder peg is definitely stuck in the upper torso.  It's not a clean break, the arm is twisted off...  Well, almost off, and to get the peg out, I'll probably have to snap it off.  I think it's a lost cause.  I've already put an order through on Manda for Lucy Magical Princess version, just waiting to hear back.  

I'm thinking about keeping the broken body in case I need spare parts for my Saber Alter 2nd.  A friend has a DDII white body that we'll pair with my current Lucy head to sell.  If Volks releases a Saber Alter in semi-white, I might sell off all my white skin DD stuff.  

28 minutes ago, Galvatim said:

@cfx Yeah, the shoulder peg is definitely stuck in the upper torso.  It's not a clean break, the arm is twisted off...  Well, almost off, and to get the peg out, I'll probably have to snap it off.  I think it's a lost cause.

Yeah, if the plastic is distored due to this happening while twisting the arm, the repair I suggested will not work.

I'm concerned about this happening to my Miki Hoshii. I got her new/unused, but she arrived with those "version 2" thick shoulder sockets, which were already cracked and the really tight arms, at least on one side. I moved her arms just to remove the hands to sell (because I really don't like those loosely-fisted hands lol) and one arm was so tight it squeaked when I rotated it and I could tell I was stressing that area where the pin attaches. I noticed it wasn't pushed in all the way, and it doesn't go in further. Took it out and noticed it was so tight that the portion that was inserted has the ridge flattened compared to the rest of it. It's not broke, yet, but I fear I may have damaged it just doing this. I'm replacing her torso with the "flat" version which I prefer which will fix the broken shoulder sockets, but I haven't taken the time to do any of this yet and she's still living in her box for now. I should probably get a spare set of flesh DDS arms for her, which I see Volks USA now has. I thought those were gone, but Volks USA has been restocking some of the old body parts, oddly.

41 minutes ago, Galvatim said:

If Volks releases a Saber Alter in semi-white, I might sell off all my white skin DD stuff. 

That'd be nice if they did that. I felt like Santa Alter should've been released as semi-white, as by that time white was already effectively dead, and it wasn't anything new for Volks to change skin colors for dolls.

Related: Anyone tried DD-f3 arms on the old frame? On some random Japanese blog I saw an article that suggested the pin size is basically the same and that they work. I wouldn't buy them for the purpose but in the future when the old arms are unavailable it would at least be an option if it's the case that they do work well enough.

So, I ordered the Cool Cat shoulder replacement parts.  After waiting for a month for them to show, Lucy is now whole again.  I didn't take photos of the process, it was just a hair dryer and brute force to get the broken part out, and then slip the new joint in the vinyl upper arm piece.  I had to pull the peg out of the inner frame with pliers, which messed up the peg.  Volks uses soft plastic for these joints.  I'll be keeping Lucy 1st, but more as a display doll, along with Saber Alter.  At least Cool CXat seems to have white skin frame parts in production, to fix what Volks won't.