Are they really that fragile?

As many before me here, I also confirm that they´re not that breakable, but why to take any more risks than necessary? My dolls have been outside, in nature and rocky places, on concrete and wood as well as in high places like branch of a tree for the photoshoots, but I have been lucky and never dropped one or if they´ve fell I´ve catched them in time.

Also I think a small doll hardly "hurts" herself when falling over, but a 70cm doll may very easily get broken if falls straight on his face.

I´ve heard situations when doll has fallen over his face and got face-up chipped off or even broken nose, broken fingers etc, but they´re still quite rare. Still though, as they are as expensive as they are, why to take unnecessary risks with them? Lots of people holding my dolls have put them quickly away when I have told the price. Even if they wouldn´t drop or brake the doll, they feel worried to be the one to pay if something happens.

I´d say that it´s safe to handle the dolls normally, but keeping an eye. You wouldn´t leave a laptop on the edge where it might easily drop on floor, or put the cell phone or camera in a risky place. That´s the same thing, I think.

 

Milly77 has a point about smaller dolls getting less damage than a bigger doll, if you think about it the larger dolls are heavier so when they fall they have more of an impact. BOOM!

I know my msd has fallen a few times on his face (thankfully on carpet) but he's so light that I don't really worry about damage. My SD however I'd worry if she was to fall over, she has had her finger broke before.

 

I don't have my doll yet (ordering tomorrow!) but with things people consider fragile, I usually treat them like spun glass when I get them until I find their limits..... like with my camera. When I first got it I was terrified I would break it and cradled it, but by now I've realized the thing is practically indestructible so.... uh, not that careful with it anymore. I know some people would freak, but really, I think people over exaggerate how fragile many things are.
You know your doll! You know how fragile they are, you know how much they can take!

 

Just like people-- the taller they are, the harder they fall. ;;^^ If one Hound in the back row of a group-photo suddenly gets knee-fatigue, he takes a lot of comrades down with him!

 

They're not as fragile as I first imagined they would be. Before I had a doll I had this picture in my mind that at first tumble they'd be shattered or the like.

Once I got dolls though, that image shattered itself. My AOD NiNi has taken a few tumbles with nothing to say for them. One of the tumbles being off of a table onto concrete floor -_-;; The sound she made hitting the floor made me not want to pick her up to see the damage. There was none whatsoever.

Lesley though, he's face planted bad once into some rock, the faceup was ruined and he has the smallest of dents above his lip but unless you look for it you wouldn't even notice it. He has taken some scratches, the worst of the damage he's received though is a chip in his shoulder joint - the cause of a fall I couldn't stop in time and his arm was up, and fell on that arm that bent inward at the force, and chipped the thinner resin.

Even then though, I don't handle him or any with kid gloves. I'm just careful and treat with respect. I always try to stop falls when I see them coming, but I'm still mastering the doll-owner reflexes.

 

I have to agree with some here and say they're not easily breakable. I think they're kind of in between the breakable-ness of porcelain and plastic. I mean, don't be totally oblivious that they *are* breakable, but don't be so careful that your obsessive carefulness gets in the way of doing what you really want to do. Most stains come off pretty easily, dents can be repaired, and if worse comes to worst, most companies sell bodies, feet, hands... parts are replaceable if need be.

Of course, if you've never had a doll in your arms yet, it's hard to really understand. When I got my doll, she was the first I ever saw in real life, so I handled her with the utmost care. When I first held her, and her head moved forward, I was like "OMG - her head moved!!!"

As I got more used to handling her, posing her, etc, I found that I didn't have to be extremely gentle. I knew all the things that might happen, and slowly, I began to be a little less 'gentle'. I used to always want to put her on a tissue when I sat her somewhere in case anything would stain her, but then I got a little more risky, and now she just hangs out.

 

I always handle them carefully.
Still one or twice my boys suddenly bent forward and hit their nose into desk..
But to my surprise, they looked just fine and nothing broken.
Doll's resin is much tougher than I thought.

 

Reason why I started collecting BJDs. I had a close encounter to one of my sentimental porcelain doll being smashed. I dropped my girl on concrete couple times and she got tiny dents from it. Head plats go flying and they survived. Now, if you forcefully smash it on concrete lets say the head, then yeah it would crack or do some damage, but it will not shatter in many pieces like porcelain.

In any case, still treat them gently even they are pretty strong dolls.

 

I try to be rather careful with them. I know they aren't as fragile as glass, but I would cry if something serious happened. I was really bothered when I saw some scratches on my first, but I know now that they can be fixed and it doesn't bother me as much.

Mostly the damage my two have is minor stuff; Ichabod has a chip in his wrist from hitting a table, a chip in his ankle (reason unknown), and scratches all over his neck and the part of his head that sits there, caused by being left tightly strung too long. I think most of it can be sanded away no problem. James has one little, almost unnoticeable chip in his wrist from a chopstick. I think I turn into a ninja when they start falling- I usually can catch them. I think there've only been a couple of times I didn't/couldn't. Heck, even as far as face-ups go, they hold up ^^ Magic eraser, fingers, being carried in my purse, nothing bad has happened to the face-ups yet (save for something that was already there when I got Ichy).

 

Fingers, faceups and other thinner than my pinky finger parts? Yes, I tend to treat them a bit more delicately than say, a foot or solid forearm part. While dressing my dolls or others' I pay more attention to be very careful with fingers and faceup's. As for rare or limited sculpts, I would treat them with more respect than I would a doll that was more common or easily replaced... not to say I sling other people's dolls around either.

I believe the fear of breaking someone's doll is probably where most of my gentle handling comes from. That and the fact that I am just a respectable person and I treat other's property very well in my care.

They are not made of glass but they are not invincible either.

 

Once while doing a photoshoot, I stupidly balanced my Dorian on top of a cars side mirror. He kept wobbling, but after a while he seemed to be sitting fine. Then as soon as I let my hands down and picked up the camera, he fell straight froward! The mirror is as high as my head, so he had a 5 foot drop. I was able to quickly snag onto his hood and keep his torso and above from hitting anything, but his legs and feet smacked right into the street! Thank god nothing happened, no chips, no scratches. He had taken falls before but i was really expecting somthing to happen that time.

 

I was terrified I'd break my girl......then I re-strung her. You learn real quick just how tough they are doing that. My fingers have taken more damage from her joints than she has from her minor tumbles (how her default faceup got chipped and scratched I honestly have no idea, and it was during my uber-delicate phase). Now granted, I rarely leave her standing unassisted for long periods of time, and certainly not where my cats or something could knock her over, or on high places. I'm not paranoid, but I know my own luck. :P They aren't fragile, but they do require a respectful touch- just be careful with them and they'll be just fine.

 

I kinda thought it was almost as fragile as glass before I got my boy in the mail.. now I see it is a sort of plastic material. xD I don't plan on testing his sturdiness any time soon though. O__O I'd hate to hurt him.

 

Can't believe this subject keeps coming up. So far I have:

Burned resin
Hacksawed resin
Hammered resin
Dropped resin into dry ice
Left resin in Coke, wine, grape juice, and bleach (The wine turned the WS resin a fun marbled red, but it came right off during rinsing)

There's video evidence of this elsewhere on the forum. Resin is MUCH tougher than you think. Even with the dry ice supposedly making the resin weaker, my friend had to chuck it at a painted cinderblock wall REALLY hard to get it to shatter. And THAT was a piece from the infamous batch of flawed DollZone tan resin, even.

Just try not to faceplant your one-off and you'll be fine. Heck, my Yo-Tenshi Yuki fell out of my carrying basket and ate concrete. Major scratches, but no breaks, so I sanded her entire body and sent her for a new faceiup. Ta-da. Even IF you break your doll, there's many folks who can tell you how to fix dolls and even do it for you.

 

I really don't think they are that fragile. All of my dolls have taken a header off things and fallen with a loud crash at least once in the short time I've had them. They turned out to be fine. Not that I didn't have a heart-attack each time. I do think it would be nice if they didn't fall, because the risk is always there. My doll reflexes are getting really good now though. So that's a plus?

 

They may not be super fragile but I still handle mine with great care. When I first got my DoD DoT I stupidly stood her in front of me on a table as I tried to put shoes on her (hey, I never even dressed a child, I was new at this). Next thing I know her legs gave out and she face-planted on my forehead. Suffice it to say I was freaking out a bit. She had some oils on her forehead but was fine otherwise. While that might not be a great fall on concrete, I tell you what, I think she hurt my forehead more than I hurt her in any way. That resin is pretty hard. So don't hit people with it. :P

 

Since having him, I have dropped Davin's head in the sink while cleaning off his faceup. He went face first into a metal pot...but thankfully his nose didn't chip and his resin remained unscathed. His headcap went flying once and that was okay as well. I'm a bit of a klutz, so I'm quite thankful for how sturdy these dolls are. Only thing thats kind of fragile about him are his wrists and hands...the resin in his wrists is kind of thin, so I have to be careful when I restring him. (of course this means my fingers get more of a beating from getting pressed on while trying to relieve the elastic tension.) Otherwise, my boy is sturdy.

 

Anyone who's been in the hobby long enough will know that they can take some force, so it's not us that makes out they're fragile!

I think that for people not in the hobby, BJDs are so unusual and outside their normal everyday viewing uh, pleasure, that they don't know how to handle them except cautiously XD Which makes sense - if you had something you've never seen before, you wouldn't exactly be throwing it about with abadon.

 

The only thing I worry about is their face-up chipping, face chipping (hasn't happened yet), staining, and his fingers. And seeing how he always falls down face first, resin is pretty un-fragile-like.

 

Not so fragile...but not so NOT fragile!

Last night I had my first BJD breakage, and I just about died. I was showing friends how my IH Luna could stand in heels when I heard a horrific crack. It turns out the resin hook inside of her foot snapped off. I am thankful that it was just that, but I am still sad face. At least it is easily replaceable?