Have you ever ruined a doll?

Nope. Never ruined. It's very very very hard to "ruin" a resin doll because the paint and faceups are infinitely re-doable. Even awkward mods can be modded over or have something else done with it. The only doll I have ever seen properly ruined was a little thing that fell out of a scooter bag onto a busy highway and got shattered. The owner kept the pieces and was still going to mod it back into something.

 

Both of my dogs ruined couple of my doll/wig. First one was when I started out in the hobby 9 years ago, my chihuahua stole a wig and destroyed it. Then recently last year, my Australian Shepard mix took a bite into one of my doll. But luckily, I was able to replace the wig and get a head/arm replacement. Lesson learned and both dogs now know to not touch the dolls. ^_^

 

I got a Dollmore Banji in a trade and it arrived badly yellowed, like neon yellow. Plus the eyes were glued in with super glue! I broke the face plate when prying off an eye. I glued the face back together and tried to remove the neon yellow areas (not even yellowing). I consider this doll a complete disaster and no longer have it. My only ‘ruined’ doll.

 

Once when I was very new in the hobby, I had a tan doll nosedive of a table and onto the stone floor. She landed on her nose. It didn't break, but there was this weird white ring round her nose. I removed the msc around the nose and that seemed to remove the ring, but it scared me a lot and I was sure the head was broken. The doll had come with two heads (romantic and open eyes), so I switched heads.

 

I once left a beautiful MSDoll Drayton to soak in acetone nail polish remover trying to remove a very stubborn bit of face-up. The head went all soft and as I pressed a tooth pick into an eyelid crevice to get some of the gloss out the whole eye area just disintegrated. It was awful, I felt terrible, and really did not have the skills to repair him. That was a long time ago, I know better now, and am so so careful with my dolls, even wearing gloves to handle them, but that poor ruined eye socket still pops up in my mind every now and then, usually when I am trying to reposition eyes!

 

I've had a doll badly stained by some underpants. Now she has a greenish groin. Not completely ruined, but annoying and her resale value is ruined.

 

My first doll took a tumble onto *cement* during a photoshoot and his nose chipped. I was hoping the chip was small enough for repairs but even with a professional new faceup I can see that the chip took a small chunk forever from his nose. I don't consider him ruined, and I'll never ever sell him, but it did teach me caution.

 

Hmm, I can't say that I've never had a doll I've ruined - though there were definitely a lot of faceups when I started that were just Not Great. Worst I've heard of are the dolls that have been caught in a house fire. It's a nightmare and always makes me feel a little ill.

My friend's doll was in a car accident and her hand shattered but the company replaced it really fast!

 

I've had a lot of bad faceups, none ever permanently ruined the doll. As long as you use safe supplies, you should always be able to wipe the doll clean and start over.

I have had a few scratches and some yellowing here and there, but again, nothing I would consider "ruined".

But I have ruined two dolls. Well, a head and a doll.

First, I decided to dye a NS Angel of Dream tan. He was secondhand and the first owner had sanded him a little, but I didn't know that. It was my first and only dye attempt, and I used the wrong dye. The combo of bad dye and unevenly sanded doll resulted in uneven blotchy, scratchy brown dye all over him. It was awful. The sanded parts and scratches took the dye much heavier than the rest, and it also streaked horribly because it was dye meant for natural fabrics, not resin. I tried wiping it, no luck. I tried sanding him evenly and redoing it, it made it worse. I ended up selling him dirt cheap to someone who wanted to learn restoration. I don't know what ever came of him.

Second, I wanted to learn subtractive mods, so I got a Dollzone Ying yellowed old head. Opened the eyes more, sanded the cheeks, chin and lips, planned to do more of an anime style on him. The base sculpt was really not good for these mod ideas, and I turned him into a mess. The head was originally worth about $120 and I sold him for $20 including shipping.

I don't regret either. No one is born knowing how to do these things, and sometimes, you need to make mistakes to learn to do things right. I have not tried dyeing another doll, but I have done several mod jobs since, including a full eye opening from a sleeping sculpt, and I'm pretty confident in my work now. I learned to research better and plan things out instead of just diving in.

 

I hate when that happens. Dark tights have a reputation for stains, too.

 

Ruined-no but there have been times that...I am incredibly sad over

-I had a gorgeous soul doll girl she was stunning with factory faceup and everything. Toppled and broke a finger. My husband was upset about her anyway and wound up making a terrible trade.(I should have kept her)
-my DIM doll I dropped her head and now she has a slightly flat nose tip not bad though
The next two guy me to think about
-my husband knocked both my dollshe and Elfdoll off a shelf and broke both of them. My dollshe broke a finger and my Elfdoll the resin hook used to stabilize the faceplate (ensure it stays on) the finger I superglued on but that resin hook was never found and I’m so sad

 

The closest thing I've done to 'ruin' my doll was by leaving her standing on my desk unattended until she fell face first onto the surface of the table. She ended up receiving minor damage on her nose region - a tiny chip on the tip of her nose. Luckily I managed to repair it by using a magic eraser over it, phew! ><

 

Has anyone had a doll stained by tea-dyed clothing? There's a lovely dress I'm looking at but it's tea dyed and I'm scared.

Back when I was restoring vintage motorcycles, one of my dogs not only chewed up an irreplaceable seat, he also chewed off all of the wiring! Also chewed up a leather couch.

This used/traded doll story is very concerning as I'm definitely interested in buying used, particularly since reading here that it's currently a buyer's market. May I assume this information was not divulged beforehand? Were there pictures and if so were they misleading? Was the trade facilitated through the marketplace and if so was the trader reported in some capacity?

 

I ruined my practice doll. There is so much I need to learn! Literally have spent hundreds of hours reading, watching tutorials and let me say this! Just because it's on YouTube does NOT mean it's the right way to do something. Like using acetone to clean the face and using nail polish for lips. Ruined. Utterly ruined.

 

Clothing and wig stains can be removed, pretty easily. I don't consider them stains so much as dirt.
Damaged faceups can be redone.
Small scratches and chips can be repaired.
Even serious stains using materials that you should not be using on your dolls (anything with oils, sharpies and the like) can be removed if you catch it soon enough.
Broken hands can be replaced.
Uneven yellowing can be disguised.
None of this is anything I'd consider ruined.

I have only seen one doll that I would consider ruined. I was asked to do a faceup on a head by someone in the area, they were new, and it was their first and only doll. They said there were a few scratches on it, as they'd had trouble removing the faceup, and asked if I could sand them out. I said yes and they shipped me the head.

When I got the head it looked like they'd removed the faceup by sanding it off with rough sandpaper...along with most of the dolls features. The mouth was almost gone, the ears and nose were mangled, and there were deep gouges carved in the face. I sent it right back, saying there was nothing I could do, they'd have to send it to a professional modder to fix the damage, if it could even be fixed.

That poor head was ruined. Even if it could be remade, it would never be the same. It was inexpensive and IMO it would be better and probably cheaper to just buy it all over again and start fresh.

 

@AdamK the trade was done on another forum, not here. The yellowing was not disclosed as I honestly think the other person didn’t think it was damage. I’ve purchased many dolls secondhand with no issues, so I’ve learned to look at the pictures very closely and ask for more if I have a question. In the eight years of buying/trading dolls, this was the only unfortunate trade.

 

i did that time i shoot photo for my doll and he fall down and his cap was broken