Breaking and damaging dolls :(

I gladly didn't do any permanent damage, but I stained my new doll with pen ink while I was drawing clothes patterns for him. I was sooo panicked, he had so many spots on all his body. I got the magic sponge and started to check him under sunlight and clean all the stains, there were a lot on his butt
After that, I made him a pair of grandma underwear, high waisted and long half thighs to prevent the staining as much as possible (i usually pick him up by his waist/butt, so that's where I touch him more).
I am now more careful and wash my hands before touching him if I used anything that could stain him again!

 

My first doll's head cap doesn't have very strong magnets. It fell off one day and hit the floor, and the little piece that keeps the front part attached to her head broke off. It isn't noticeable, but I have to be careful about how I move her or it'll fall off again.

 

I sometimes end up liking my dolls more because of the damages, and the damage ends up becoming a part of that character. For example Shana (my RS Fei), came to me secondhand with a broken finger, and as I quite ended up liking that "battle damage". Eventually as I had her faceup redone years later, I also had the broken finger sanded a little and blushed to make it look like an actual injury rather than just a resin snap.

Some things are more annoying, especially if they have an effect to the function of the doll though, such as very prominent cracking or something though. But if the doll still functions, I do have a tendency to incorporate damage as scrapes and bruises

 

I have a secondhand doll who came to me with three previously broken, glued on fingers (I knew this when I purchased him). I bought some little doll-sized rings to help cover this up, but when attempting to put a ring on one of the fingers...it broke off again. I then had to go out and buy superglue (I thought I had some but it was dried up), had several mishaps involving the glue going all over MY fingers instead of on his (the "easy to use" directions accompanying it did not work), and after fighting with teeny tiny rings and gluing his finger back on twice, I really, really hope everything will stay where it should be.

I mean, technically he has no more damage than he did before, but the fact that *I* was the one who (re)broke his finger did make me feel guilty.

 

Thankfully, I’ve never caused any major damage to a doll (fingers crossed I never will), but I’ve had a minor chipped nose and a few deep scratches/gouges. At first, it was devastating, but I ended up just writing it into the character. Humans have scars, why not dolls?

 

Shortly after I bought one of my dolls, I was pinning fabric onto her and scratched her chest. I was mad at myself, but it looks similar to an actual scratch a person might get, so I've accepted it. Also helps that it's on her chest, and easy to conceal.

 

I've been taking calculated risks in this hobby so far. I take precautions when it comes to the actual doll but everything else like irreversible modding of hands and feet, restringing with no instructions, anything involving paint and glue and gloss I just recklessly experiment with.
At the rate I'm going there will be a day when something goes horribly wrong but I'll worry about it when it happens.

 

The worst damage I ever caused to my dolls was when I had my Luts Kid Delf Centaur standing on the wood floor and he just... keeled over. It wasn’t even a dramatic fall but he ended up losing three fingers that I had to glue back on.

Despite that, I’m not too bothered by damage. It makes the doll feel more unique and personal to me in a weird way. One of my dolls has teeth marks embedded in both of her hands from where my cat chewed on her. My cat has since passed on, so now I look at the teeth marks fondly because they remind me of my kitty.

I’m not very delicate with my dolls, so I except much more damage in the future, ha ha. Oops.

 

So far the worst damage I had was when my roommate's husky Kuma stole most of the doll I was de-yellowing and hid the parts in the couch on the other side of the apartment. There were some teeth marks, but the vast majority boiled out. Jono still has marks on one shoulderblade and the bottom of one foot. I've incorporated them as scars. (Kuma had opened two doors to get to the doll parts.)

 

The worst damage I've done to one of my dolls is the neck on my Souldoll Robb. I guess it's the way the hole for the strings/s-hook at the top of his neck is shaped, but for some reason, when I have taken his head off for dressing or to have him painted, I've had an issue multiple times with his s-hook snapping back and getting wedged down inside of his neck so tightly I had to get my husband to pull it back up with pliers. Or it will slip halfway down into the hole and gouge the resin...and again, it will be so tight I have to get help pulling it back out. It's really weird, because I restring my dolls fairly frequently, I'm really used to handling their hooks and strings, and I don't have him strung any tighter than I do anyone else...but he's the only doll that does that to me. It's happened enough times now that the top of his neck definitely has some visible damage around the hook...nothing you can see when his head is on, but it's easily noticeable when it's off. I was sort of bummed at first, but given that it's hidden most of the time, it doesn't really bother me anymore.

 

I remember you hen I first got my doll, and a wig for her, I wanted to trim the bangs. I didn’t know how to cut hair, so I just... left it on her, and trimmed with scissors. No comb, nothing to protect the delicate little face. I ended up “bumping” the scissors right into her eye. Thank god only the faceup chipped. It could’ve been so much worse!

 

My favourite doll has a pretty damaged chest, due to a rough attempt at giving it breasts, and then an even rougher effort to remove them. His chest has scratches and chips... but to be honest, it's not a doll I'd realistically manage to sell anyway (he's too old for certificates of authenticity, I've long ago lost the box, and he's not exactly a popular sculpt since I think there's only three of it on DOA and no others that I've seen on instagram) so it doesn't really change his already low value.
He's old, he's damaged, but he's my doll and I don't really care, it's just part of our journey together

 

I drop my head that i was painting 3 floor down! She had scratches on her face and dent all over her forehead! Good thing is her nose and ears are not broken! I sanded her and after faceup, its not too visible.

 

The damage I’ve done so far has been from trying to customize / do maintenance on my dolls. I wanted to mod the nose on my first doll, and ended up giving it a weird shape... I also damaged her faceup by trying to remove some dirt from it. Newbie mistakes. Since then I have been more careful with the actual dolls, but I have ruined a bunch of wigs when trying to trim / style them

 

The worst damage I've caused to one of my dolls was leaving my first doll , who's tan, where she periodically was in full sun. The poor girl has yellowed unevenly, and her face has faded to a greenish color. I'm no longer attached to her, but finding her a new home might be hard.

 

My very first doll, my precious Annix, fell over onto hard cement during my very first photoshoot and it took off a chunk of his nose! I got so upset with myself for not taking more precautions and I feel a little guilty every time I notice the damage. It's not so bad but it's not something I'd like to repeat. I also had a coworker accidentally drop one of my tinies onto stone, chipping her ear. I eventually plan to replace that damage with something cool like an ear cuff. And my very first large, my Echium, lost a finger in a railway mishap (he fell on a pedestrian bridge so that the finger fell onto the tracks below) but I had it replaced with a metallic digit because he's eventually going to have a cybernetic hand. It's all about making lemoncello with your lemons.

 

I badly scratched my Minifee Chloe. But I then gave her the same burn marks I got from a car accident. She’s now my victory trophy, waking up after almost 4 years of coma, I think her scars were meant to be .

 

My Ell got a scratch on his face from packing him in a suitcase for a con. And I messed up the dye a bit on one of my dolls. The dye mishap I now see as scars, but the scratch, despite sanding, still makes me cringe when I remove his faceup.