Have you ever broken a doll’s joint?

Have you ever broken a doll’s joint? 
 

   Sadly, my Mash’s shoulder joint was very warped and recently twisted right off, as I was posing her during a photoshoot.

   I think this is due to aging, as the person who had owned her prior said that she was very loved, and a little worn down— but I can’t help to feel heart broken and that I could’ve been more gentle with her. Now I’m too sad to touch her, until her new set of arms are delivered. It would help me feel better to know I’m not alone in this experience. 
 

Thanks! 
 

Here’s a photo of Mash from before “the injury”

 

I snapped my Natsuki's back joint (DDII body, it's common breakage point) while posing her.  I got that body fixed, but she's since been upgraded to the DDF-3 body.  I also had a shoulder joint lock up and shear off on my Lucy (DDIII white skin).  Easy enough to replace the broken part with the SK Cool Cat repair part, but I did end up buying the semi-white Lucy as my primary "play" Lucy, due to the dis continuation of DDwhite skin making replacement parts scarce.  

Doll injuries happen.  I've had an elbow joint twist right off because the shoulder was too tight when I was trying to pose it.  I totally get you on the disappointment and sadness (although in my case, one of my other girls donated her arm to finish the shoot.  I didn't spend 45 minutes setting up a scene to call it off.)  I did jokingly call her Mrs Nesbitt until her new arms arrived.  

13 hours ago, Galvatim said:

I snapped my Natsuki's back joint (DDII body, it's common breakage point) while posing her.  I got that body fixed, but she's since been upgraded to the DDF-3 body.  I also had a shoulder joint lock up and shear off on my Lucy (DDIII white skin).  Easy enough to replace the broken part with the SK Cool Cat repair part, but I did end up buying the semi-white Lucy as my primary "play" Lucy, due to the dis continuation of DDwhite skin making replacement parts scarce.  

Wow! I didn’t know there were ways to repair the frames themselves! 
 

I looked to see if maybe someone was selling an inner arm frame/shoulder frame (DDf3) as only one tiny piece that connects the arm to the shoulder joint broke off, buuuuut it looks like I’m looking at just buying 2 new arms lol. 
 

Lucy is so beautiful! It’s amazing that you own such a rare doll!

^-^ 

13 hours ago, DesertPhantom51 said:

Doll injuries happen.  I've had an elbow joint twist right off because the shoulder was too tight when I was trying to pose it.  I totally get you on the disappointment and sadness (although in my case, one of my other girls donated her arm to finish the shoot.  I didn't spend 45 minutes setting up a scene to call it off.)  I did jokingly call her Mrs Nesbitt until her new arms arrived.  

Thanks so much for sharing your experience with me! 
 

This is eerily similar to what happened with me and Mash, ahaha.
 

The show must go on! 
(Can I see the photos from that photoshoot?)

1 hour ago, alinekodesu said:

Thanks so much for sharing your experience with me! 
 

This is eerily similar to what happened with me and Mash, ahaha.
 

The show must go on! 
(Can I see the photos from that photoshoot?)

Yeah, it looks to me like it was a weird weak spot in the frame.  Here's hoping it doesn't happen to the others.  

I'd be happy if you looked at the photos, I maintain a thread on here that has most of my photoshoots in it.  The one in particular where this happened was for August of this year with my doll Lydia.  

It's the last set on this page, it happened right between the first two pictures in the beach scene.  

Edited August 9, 2023 by DesertPhantom51

Oh no! I wish your Mash a speedy recovery.

 

Until now I had two breakages, both on my Ellie's Obitsu skeleton:

The first happened when I changed her from her default to magnetic feet. When reattaching one foot, I put the retainer ring for the ankle joint (see image below) on the wrong way (with the nub down instead of up). So once I started tightening the screw, the retainer ring snapped and the foot came loose. A fix with super glue lasted for a while, but I ended up getting her a new set of ankles not too long after.

 

The second breakage happened earlier this year, when I realized one of her shoulders felt very floppy. - After opening her up, I discovered a deep crack in in the shoulder socket. While it was still somewhat holding together, I grabbed a new chest skeleton assembly, the next time I saw it in stock at Azone.

Nobody has had any such injuries here, although we've had a bit of staining. Also both DDP have floppy heads and Kirika's feet often fall off.

Alternative skeleton parts are a possibility - my first Mochi-Ashi has a metal pin neck which surprised me but it's a really good idea.

On 8/9/2023 at 10:55 AM, alinekodesu said:

Wow! I didn’t know there were ways to repair the frames themselves! 
 

I looked to see if maybe someone was selling an inner arm frame/shoulder frame (DDf3) as only one tiny piece that connects the arm to the shoulder joint broke off, buuuuut it looks like I’m looking at just buying 2 new arms lol. 
 

Lucy is so beautiful! It’s amazing that you own such a rare doll!

^-^ 

It depends on the break.  If it's a clean snap, like the back peg of my DDII body, it's not hard to fix with the right glue.  Lucy's arm, on the other hand, got stuck in the shoulder socket, and twisted off, so the was no salvaging it.  

I haven't seen any F-3 repair or upgrade parts yet.  If there are any, they'd be limited run items released in Japan...  At least by buying the 2 arms, you'll have some spare parts if you have another arm breakage.  

On 8/9/2023 at 9:17 PM, Tierparkzone said:

The first happened when I changed her from her default to magnetic feet. When reattaching one foot, I put the retainer ring for the ankle joint (see image below) on the wrong way (with the nub down instead of up). So once I started tightening the screw, the retainer ring snapped and the foot came loose. A fix with super glue lasted for a while, but I ended up getting her a new set of ankles not too long after.

My Obi50 girl, an Azone Akemi Homura, also had this ankle break--after I'd only had her for about a two years! I think this was a design flaw, because hers broke even with the retainer ring/paddle the right direction. That part is actually loose within the foot, so it gets a disproportionate amount of torque. After replacing the joints, I padded the inside of the foot vinyl with some craft foam, and they haven't broken in the seven years since. I think it's also telling that the new Obi50 body is supposed to have a totally different ankle design. 

Oddly one of my other frame breaks, on a DDIII, was ALSO an ankle. Miku had been wearing these high heeled platform shoes that my friends and I nicknamed her "stripper shoes". She lost her balance, fell off her stand, and her ankle snapped. Luckily Volks USA still had like, two pairs of semi-white DDIII feet left, because they never restocked DDIII parts again in the wake of the F3. 

And I almost forgot, Katya, my DDS Marisa, had her elbow  basically disintegrate. She was on the original DDS body from 2010, and I got her in 2021 from Mandarake. I have NO clue how she was stored before she came to my home. By that point the OG DDS/DDIII parts were long discontinued, so my only real option was to sell her old body to @baldylox for parts, and then buy her a new DDS F3 body. 

Sadly nothing lasts forever, and that does go for our dolls. . . the frame is more brittle, and it bears the actual load, so it makes sense that it'll break now and again. Honestly, I've been in this hobby for 13 years and only had these three breaks, so that actually speaks pretty well to how sturdy DDs are. 

Sadly, if you can name it, I've probably had it break on me.  😉 

Like @Poofiemus said, I collect parts for the older bodies so I can either fix one of my girls if she falls or gets damaged, repair broken ones I already have or to replace/rebuild other spare parts bodies I have to make into new complete spare bodies.  I think I currently have about 9 or 10 spare bodies and 3 drawers of misc. parts.  Most of them are for the old DD2 and DD3 bodies since that's what the majority of my girls use.

As for breaks, my Manami has suffered a lot due to her being my first doll.  She arrived home on June 22nd 2010 and has gone thru many bodies and setup iterations since.  Her spine broke in half, one of her shoulders exploded, an elbow blew out, a foot broke off.... all sorts of things.  But having to deal with these things taught me a lot about how they are built and what you can do to repair them.  There's so many different ways to fix things like the broken shoulder tubes on a DDS or DD3 inner frame piece.  Zip ties, plastic weld epoxy, metal rings, etc.  Same for actual spines.... you can use plastic weld epoxy in combination with metal wire or you can use a soldering gun with a wide tip to literally melt the frame back together.

Knowing how to make things work when you have no parts takes time and loads of trial and error.  But it's super satisfying when you adopt a broken girl who had no hope of recovery and then you put time into getting her back up to snuff so she can have a second chance at life.  I'd say a good 1/3 of my girls arrived this way.  Either as broken bodies I added heads to later or building entire bodies out of random left over parts I had lying around.  Hell, I've even used wooden dowel rods to replace the lower leg frame bits on my Sinon because the original owner lost them.  Whatever works!  😄 

 

 

Billy

Knocks on the woods.

Only one accident happened with Saber’s ankle rods (or how that part is calling). When adding the rod to the harness shoes you will notice that it is a very close fit. In fact with normal strength you don’t get the rod in the joint. Issue, the rod got stuck and I couldn’t either push it further or pull it out. So I tried something that most people won’t recommend doing: grabbed a hammer and carefully smashed the rod in the ankle joints. Which was a succes. New problem: those rods can never be separated from the joints without breaking. So I have to look for a new pair of ankle rods to use her standard feet again. Or I have to make them. Thinking about metal as material. Anyone experience with some more weight put lower in the body? Especially for posing for photo’s without stand? 
 

Until very recently, no. However someone's knee fell apart and this is why.

Upon disassembling the leg in question, I could not find the bolt that goes with the nut pictured. Does anyone know the measurement for a replacement part or does Volks sell them individually?

 

3 hours ago, Mega Negi said:

Does anyone know the measurement for a replacement part or does Volks sell them individually

From volks youd be looking at the whole leg as a replacement. But DD's are mostly built with standard inexpensive metric hardware (unless you want to go titanium which is a thing in RC cars...) and you should be able to get assortment sets from hardware stores or even amazon. I think the knea is put together with M3 (or M4, id have to take someone apart to check) nuts and screws the more annoying stuff are the few smaller M1 or 2 sized things in the F3 body.

Edited September 23, 2023 by finnleo