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Are they really that fragile?

Feb 8, 2011

    1. Yeah.
      I have dropped all of my dolls at one point or another. All of them are fine, as far as I can tell.

      I broght my bambicrony girl to school one day, and someone ask to hold her. When they picked her up, they set her down almost instanly.
      Their rsponse was both funny and shocking:
      "I think I might break her!"

      Andi t got me thinking, Resin cna take a hit as far as I can tell, but do you think BJDs are as fragile as everyone makes them out to be? I mean fingres and toes, yes. But what do you think?
       
    2. well that's kinda hard to say. Personally i think that my dolls can withstand alot more than i thought they could originally. but the part i think is most fragile (other than the hands and feet) is the head. but really i don't think there that fragile. and they can take a fall (depending how high). :3
       
    3. I think it depends on which part of the doll you are talking about. I personally cast tiny quarter sized horses out of resin with legs thinner than toothpicks and have dropped them on their legs without the resin ever breaking. Resin is incredibly strong and although dropping the weight of a doll on one of their fingers may snap it you certainly wouldn't break it with normal handling.

      However, faceups can scratch quite easily and the white or pale resin picks up marks fairly easily. So I would say they aren't delicate but need careful handling :)
       
    4. Nope, I think they're tougher than people make out. Several of mine ahve been dropped - one took a dive from a tatue onto a cobbled street. Yes she broke a finger, but that was the only damage and the hand was soon replaced. Mine get taken palces and played with and small children have played with them too.

      The only other damage has been the tip of an ear on my RealPuki SoSo which got dinked (but I have no idea when because it took me a while to even notice, the damage is so little) and the face-up and blusing taking a couple of rubs on a doll (wrapped in bubble-wrap, inside a box, inside a bag) which got caught in some train doors as they closed.

      I'm not saying they should deliberately be treated roughly, but they're not fragil objects either.

      I think people get caught up int he high-cost and translate that into kid-glove-treatment.

      Teddy
       
    5. My Rashida regularly took headers off a high bookshelf, into tiles floors, without so much as a chip. So no, they aren't as fragile as people think.
       
    6. I think that because there are fragile parts on them, such as faceups, fingers etc. as people have mentioned they tend to be treated very delicately, and are sometimes just left untouched for fear of the worst. I don't really like this idea myself, though. Yes, the resin can scratch and chip at thinner places, I've found it to be far stronger than I had originally thought when I first started to learn about BJDs. I think (though have no data to back it up ;P) that they probably could take a hit, though I wouldn't want to test that concept myself. It would seem to be the idea of "I know my shiny and new car would probably survive a crash with a lamp post, but I want to know just how well..." No one wants to be the one who finds out the limit. =P
      However I can't blame people for treating them with care, they're quite expensive and there are many rare dolls and limiteds, and hold a lot of sentimental value. It seems they can take a tumble, but I wouldn't want to try and fire them out of a cannon.
      Although that would be fun. :)
       
    7. They don't need to be treated with absolute kid-gloves-- just plenty of respect.

      They're sturdy enough, but resin's brittle... So you never know when the impact will hit just right & take off a chip, or make a crack, or crush a corner, or splinter off an edge. My Soom Namu once took a tumble onto some brickwork, & his faceup was utterly untouched, not even a scratch in the sealant, although he broke off a finger. On the other hand, my friend's Elfdoll Wu took almost the same tumble onto brickwork, & his poor nose got totally pulped on the end, requiring reshaping-surgery. It's hit-or-miss, so I treat them with great care. Why go chasing after damage?

      If I know I'm going to a crowded meetup/convention, or if I'm travelling, I prefer to bring the Volks boys-- their bodies are sturdy, and their resin is thick & strong & really really hard to scratch. (Even for dolls who wear lots of metal zippers & jewelry.) My SDC Arashi travelled in my backpack for 2 weeks across Japan, and stayed fresh as a cherry blossom. ^^
       
    8. I shot a Resinsoul hip joint into this bowl and the pile of catnip next to it:

      [​IMG]

      The hip joint wasn't even scuffed. I wouldn't try that with a head, though, especially not with elf ears.
       
    9. It depends on several factors:

      1. What kind of resin your doll is made out of. Some (like Supia) are more delicate than others). Coloured resins, like tan and grey, are also more fragile because often, the resin is not dyed the whole way through, it is just one delicate layer on top.
      2. It depends which part of your doll is dropped, or, in what proximity to parts with less density (like fingers and pointed ears, or hooked claws). If your elf doll falls on it's head, right on it's ear, it is very likely for the tip of the ear to come bouncing off. You see this all the time. The same goes for fingers. If your doll part, like a singular hand or ear, as shown in the above catnip experiment, will probably not break. Why? Because it is not connected to a body with a larger mass. It is virtually weightless and will be able to sustain more damage because the force of the fall will be less, you see. If you were to attach that ear to a head, or even more, the ear to the head, the head to the whole doll, it still might not break, but the probability of the ear breaking increases largely and exponentially from there.
      3. And most importantly, it depends on what the doll is dropped on. Sometimes floor isn't so bad, especially if it's carpet, sometimes if it is laminate, which has a certain amount of plasticity to it. If you drop your doll on concrete, however, even from short distances, concrete is meant to be resilient and porous. It does not absorb anything (especially impact), it just absorbs moisture. Your doll will, almost certainly) have a broken piece, like a finger or a nose or an ear, or at least be scratched.

      Dollies can be more resilient than what we think. I've dropped my Euclase a few times, and though I knew in advance his claws (both on his hands and feet) would be delicate, he still turned out alright. A friend of mine wasn't so lucky, though! Hers fell in a face plant (just from standing, mine fell from a table onto my floor two feet below) onto concrete during an outdoor shoot. His face, his hands were ruined. She had to send him away to a specialist to be restored. (But he's okay now.)

      So, still, treat your dolls with care! Even if they don't break the first time, they very well may the second!
       
    10. I have not personally had the opportunity to actually find out how robust my dolls are, but I will agree with the above post, just treat them with care! For me, just the idea of them falling over and possibly breaking is lost in the fact that I FEEL responsible to ensure they dont fall over because they cant prevent that themselves! I am their guardian. I know it will happen, it HAS happened, and I always get a knot in my stomach when it does!
       
    11. I've never had one of my dolls break, if it's any consolation. I've been in the hobby over six years and have not had a single accident yet, though I've seen many. Sometimes breaks are the result of the owner being careless, sometimes it is out of their hands.

      Still. I'm smart enough to know that 'breakable' doesn't mean 'drop it on the sidewalk'. Have care when you move your dolls around, play with them gently, don't leave them unsupervised when you are not the only person around them, and they should be (from falls, anyway.).
       
    12. I was devastated when I found out that my Audrie has a chip in her ankle! D:
      It just appeared there one day!
      I've always been careful, but not like I wont take her places with me.
      After that though, she doesn't get too much handling. T^T I don't want it to damage more. I'm trying to get it fixed.
       
    13. I don't like the thought of treating my dolls like they're made of porcelain, and having owned porcelain dolls before, BJDs really are waaaay more durable. However, I really don't like having them fall from any sort of height, unless there's carpet and nothing hard in the area to damage them. Even then, I'd say it's safer just to keep them from tipping over- dollies can be surprisingly easy to chip sometimes. The only one I'm afraid of having seriously damaged though is Maxxie. He's tan, but not all the way through, so if he were to get scratched, there'd be no way to fix him. That said- his resin is ROCK HARD. Seriously, I'm glad I can't sand him because I really don't think I could XD.

      Just treat 'em with a little care (a bit like an appliance or something, it's good 'n sturdy, but don't drop it.)
       
    14. I really think they're tougher than people think.

      Faceup wise, it depends. My Bluefairy has the company faceup, I swear it's permanent. It's been through scrubbing, touching, rubbing on the blankets. I rough house with that doll so much it's almost abusive xP It's perfect just as the day I got it where as my Delf Miyu has a commissioned face up. It's not sealed as well as the Bluefairy one so it's already chipped and I'm not happy because I take such good care of my Miyu. She's boxed all the time and I try not to touch her.

      Dropping...well I haven't dropped my dolls from any large height *knocks on wood* xP but I've had them tip over and smack their heads on the edges of things >< No damage though :D
       
    15. My Epidos face-planted onto concrete once.

      I think I went into shock for a few minutes before I actually picked him up to check for damage. I fully expected a scratched faceup, broken nose or chipped head or finger.

      Nothing. He was unscathed.

      The only "damage" he has is a tiny, almost pock-like mark on the back of his hand which is not even noticable unless you look really closely.

      First words out of my mouth were: "omg thank you Soom for your wonderful expensive resin" XD
       
    16. I've got four resins, one pair is about 2 years old and one pair is almost 1 year old, and none of them are chipped, scratched or cracked in any way. The worse I've had is a scuff of bright red nail polish (thank you, mother) on my DZ's face-up, which came off with a smidgen of dry magic eraser. Can't see it at all now. I've had them all over, and I've had a couple of falls where I swore something had to have broken or smashed, but nothing. Much much sturdier than they seem, honestly. Mine end up all over the place and they're still awesome.
       
    17. purajo: That is INCREDIBLY fortunate. Especially since Epidos is so heavy! I'm glad that Soom granted you some miracle resin or something.
       
    18. They're not as fragile as I thought they would be, before owning one. I'm sure if you just treat it with care, nothing too terrible will happen. Most small mishaps don't have any effect on the dolls, from my own personal experience.
       
    19. This. For example, I know from past experience that both my cell phone and my doll can survive a fall of one or two feet down to a hardwood floor and come out pretty much unscathed. But I really try to make it a habit not to drop either one. XD

      Like cell phones, BJDs are generally not so fragile that they're going to shatter into pieces if accidentally dropped, but they can become dented/scratched/chipped/broken if handled carelessly.
       
    20. Besides fingers and a few other parts, I don't think they are that fragile. My DoC Wi's head fell on to my kitchen floor at one point, my boyfriend who couldn't care less about my hobby was more worried about any damage than I was. Amazingly though there was no damage at all. I do realize that I should worry/be more careful but then again, I can't control gravity.