Coral Reef Discussion Thread- Minis

Finally got into my Flickr! Here is a quick snap of my black swan. I can't wait to start getting her put together while she's off to the spa for a faceup!

IMG_20240827_181722_509 by Lisel Rodriguez, on Flickr

 

Oh wow, she's amazing!

 

@LiselT Those wings! Really beautiful. I love the Doll-Chateau-esque proportions of the Mantis body.

 

@Caramello_Cat Right?? I was seriously blown away by her when she arrived!

@lutke The wings are so flippin' cool! They pose so nicely, too! I'm still trying to figure out how they will be blushed.

I think she has decided she is some sort of ancient owl librarian, maybe with a deep navy, copper and white color scheme. I have an outfit being made for her, but I gave the faceup artist full artistic license to play. Very excited.

 

Can someone who happens to have both a Whale Island doll and the Jiu Er Mao 1/4 extra hands (or even just the Mantis body's standard ones) confirm that the hands are not different than those on the Whale Island? Are they slimmer or substantially different in other ways?
And on top of all are they compatible with the Whale Island?

 

@lutke I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the default hands are the same size.
Here is the extra human hands for the mantis on my Caroline:

The mantis hands have a slightly different design, sure - but note that my mantis is from their first release.
I will not be putting the hands on the mantis for any pictures, as I'd have to restring her arms completely. So you'll just have to take my word for it when I say that they (both Caroline's and the default human hands) fit the wrist joint on the mantis perfectly - I have tested them both against the joint.
So I see no reason why they wouldn't fit. But I cannot say anything about them proportions-wise (I wonder if the jiu er mao extra hands are slimmer/daintier?)

 

That was pretty much my concern, but if the default human hands are so similar in size and design to the Whale Island, the extras can't be so different. I'll probably get them and then I'll report.

 

Coral Reef confirmed that the hands will look a little thinner on the Whale Island body, so that's worth considering. I will probably still get them at a later point.

 

I've figured out one thing that I wish I had known before ordering, but at least I can leave some advice here: if you're buying a doll on the Whale Island body, pick the "wide shoulder" version. The small shoulder version's arms pose well, but I could not understand how to do this on my Caroline. I thought it was something I had to figure out. Then I realized that the body shown is the wide shoulder one, and looking again at the arms, I noticed that they're not the same and the joints have a slightly different design, so I assume that kind of movement is only possible on that version?
I can still get elbow rotation by pulling the joint out and I prefer the small shoulders aesthetically, but I'm kicking myself a bit because I would've loved to have that kind of easy elbow movement like on my Maskcat. Or maybe I'm actually missing something? Can anyone give me some input?

 

@lutke The joints in that picture look like split elbow joints to me, so that explains why you can't achieve the same range of movement. Not sure if all the WI bodies have them now or just the wide-shouldered one tho! I've got a few dolls with split elbow joints and I really like them.

 

@lynxie I didn't know about split joints! In this case no, they're one piece in both cases, but the cut and size are slightly different. I have sent a mail to Coral Reef to ask about it.
I could also be wrong and the picture there is showing a joint that's been pulled out of the socket, but if that's the case it really doesn't look like it.
Does anyone have the wide shoulder version?

EDIT: Coral Reef said they have updated the body with better elbow joints at some point, so I guess the cast they used for my fullset is the older version. Wish I got a fresh cast of the updated one but I was way past the ordering time for that fullset, and that's the body I would've received if I had made the order on time. So I'm more than happy as it is. Mystery solved, there's no engineering difference between shoulder sizes.

 

I just bumped into that company. I didn't know it and I fell totally in love ! Caroline is my favorite! She's such a beauty !
I may have missed something but if default feet are the heel ones, where to get flat feet? I can't find them on there website, just extra hand parts...

 

@Sillyan just ask when you place the order, if you do direct (the site doesn't accept payments so you're going to have to send a mail). On Alice there's an option for "extra feet parts"

 

Great ! Thank you ! I think I will order through acbjd then ! But I just finished a layway for my dollzone Nana, another layway in progress and 2 heads waiting for there bodies, I'll have to wait a little while for this beauty... too much beautifull bjd in this world

 

Hello, just drop in to see does anyone have similar experience or any good adivce for my case: I have a 1/4 Coral Reef Whale Island body and I had a bad feeling about that because the hooks on the legs were very thin (almost like wire) and fragile. When I was trying to put the legs back together, they broke in half and ended up getting stuck inside the leg parts and I couldn't get them out... This is the first time this has happened, so what should I do? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!

 

@Clementia I assume you tried a crotchet hook or needle-nosed pliers already? Also there might be a problem there... unless you removed that piece in the process, there should be a circular resin seat for the hook where you see that gap in the leg. If it wasn't there, that might be the reason why the hook fell in? The hook doesn't look broken from the picture.

 

Thank you for your advice @lutke Yes, a circular resin seat was inside of the leg (other one didn't have it and it's okay) but the hook went inside of the resin part. I tried to pull it with a thin wire then I was able to pull out and the circular resin seat came off as well. Unfortunately I could not hold it longer and now the hook is even deeper inside. I tried to drill the both end but no luck. Even worse, the leg part is a bit cracked now...I don't know really what should I do.

 

Hi, I just found a crochet hook and could finally to take the hook out. The top of the hook was broken.
Thank you very much for your help and advice. I hope I could restring the body again.

 

Oh glad to hear! Though I think the missing seat won't be a good thing in the long term. You could try to contact Coral Reef? When I did contact them directly they were corteous and willing to help, so maybe if you ask them for a spare piece and spare hooks they will send them to you.

 

I'm quite worried about them too. - My dolls have all arrived very tightly strung, and I'm both impressed, and worried, at how the thin hooks are able to hold together!
Hope Coralreef will be able to supply you with replacements!