Help! New Doll Emergency

Did your doll come with a guide to re-stringing? If not, what is the doll's type?
Sometimes those guides can give you an idea on how to approach this situation.

 

Well, the first thing to do is calm down...
It's repairable, I know that much.
I don't have knowledge of what this doll's internals are like, so I can't adivse you on how to go about it....

but rest-assured, Megan will be FINE. So calm down... keep cool... give her a cuddle, and sit tight. Someone else here will know what t'do.

 

My guess is that you or someone you can get to do it for you, will extract the string, hopefully with hook, or make another hook and epoxy it into the hand, You can get white epoxy, and I believe in the US you can get something that is flesh coloured. All it needs is a new hook attaching and then hauling the string out and re attaching the hook.

Its horrible isnt it! (hugs) but don't worry she's repairable

 

I know how that is. When Elina turned up, the eyes she came with were stuck in with a ton of Hot Glue, and she was so tightly strung getting the head cap open was a nightmare. After a lot of angst though, she's doing fine now.

Right. From what I can understand from what Sue said (I used to sculpt somewhat), your only expense will be buying some Epoxy putty - which you should be able to get nice and easy from any good crafts store. Due to where the accident happened, the colour tone won't be that noticeable, so I don't think you'll have to worry too much about paying for makeup work on the effected area either. Epoxy putty shouldn't set you back more than $10.

 

I never worked with sculpy. Epoxy putty has the advantage of drying naturally in the air over a short period of time. Especially the grey stuff. That dries up quite fast.

 

Look at her other hand and tell us what the difference is.

Your pictures are too blurry/grainy to see what's wrong. It looks like the hand has a hole in the wrist end with a slot that goes all the way through to the outside of the wrist. Is that correct?

Here are three ways hands are often put on and yours could be any of these.

1. A large hole that the arm elastic loops through.

2. A hole that a thinner piece of elastic, thread, or nylon fishing string is put through and then that is tied to the end of the loop of elastic in the arm.

3. A slot in the end of the wrist has a very thin hard metal wire that crosses the gap. This type is also strung on as in #2 but the wire may have fallen out leaving no way to string it.

Look at your doll's other hand and see whether it is attached via method 1, 2, or 3.

If 1 or 2 (i.e. the other hand's hole does not have a slot to the outside) then the hand has broken. You should contact the company for a replacement hand.

If the OK hand is attached by method 3, then look at the hand that fell off and see if the small metal wire is still present crossing the slot. If the wire still crosses the gap, then the hand is fine and can be retied to the arm elastic. If the wire is missing, carefully see if you can find it in the box. If yes you may be able to fix it with a bit of glue. If no, then you will need a replacement.

If for some reason you cannot get a replacement (Ebay purchase, whatever), the hand could be fixed with the right equipment and skills (one issue of Haute Doll shows how to convert a hand to type 3).

Carolyn

 

Epoxy will fix broken hands all the same. Plus it has the advantage of the hand being an exact colour match. You have to remember, the original poster had to save up a lot for this - doesn't have the luxury of shelling out for a paintjob to matchup a new hand if the colour's off.

 

I wasn't talking about anything that needed epoxy. 1 or 2 are broken and company should send a replacement hand.

#3 can be fixed by reinserting the wire (if fell out) with a dot of crazy glue on tip of the wire to hold it in the tiny hole that is already drilled, and retying the hand on. Or getting a replacement.

From the photos it may be type 3, and if the wire is still present, the hand may just need to be tied back on (or hooked back on). I have a doll that has a type 3 hands and a hook on the end of the arm elastics hooks to the hand.

Look at the other hand and see if the hook is inserted in the resin or hooks to a wire in the hand. If the hook comes out of the hand's resin, then yes the hand is broken and they should replace it because the doll is so new.

And BTW - I have never seen an epoxy that is an exact match for doll resin - epoxy modders stain or paint the epoxy to match. If it needs epoxy, and the doll is new, it is broken and should be replaced by the company.

Carolyn

 

First, breathe. It's horrifying, I know. *hugs tightly*

Nuts to the epoxy. I'm sorry, but a doll should not break like this on her first day home. You are right to contact Dollheart. You want a new hand and they ought to give you one, stat. If, in the meantime, you want to fix the current hand with epoxy, go ahead and do that, but Peaks Woods owes you a new hand. That's just shoddy manufacture and shouldn't happen with hand-cast things, you know?

 

You should first of all email the store you bought her for and tell them what happened. They maybe able to replace the hand for you. The other option to take is to send the had out to a customizer. There are quite a few people here would be more than happy to fix it for you and mostly cut you a good deal scene it seems like it would be an easy fix.

Its probably an air bubble in the resin. These things happen, especially with the smaller companies. This is far from the first time something like this has happened and you should be glad that it was not something worse. I'm just trying to say that these types of things happen to everyone at some point. It does suck that this happened to you so early in your bjd experience but you will learn from it.

 

Does your camera have a macro mode? It should be a little mark that looks like a tulip? If so you should be able to take much clearer photos to show whether or not the hand uses a bar or a string or whatever.

Other then that, take a deep breath, make sure that it's not just something simple like the hook popping off it's support, and if it is actualy broken then contact the company and they should send you a replacement without much trouble at all.

 

I do feel for you - it's not good for something like that to happen with any new BJD, but it must have been horrifying to have it happen with your first.

The companies are generally good about replacing parts that are defective. Just use simple sentences, common words, etc. and include your order number. And remember that this is the weekend - it may be a couple of days before you get a reply.

Carolyn

 

Do you have a lot of makeup accessories? a pair of tweezers may be enough to get inside the arm and pull the hook back up the way it came. Then you could put something to hold the elastic and prevent it from going BACK up there, while you work on your hand solution.

 

I didn't mean the epoxy would be, but it's a tiny breakage on the back of the ball of the hand. Epoxy to cover it would be trace amounts.
The hand it has now was moulded in the same batch, and thus a perfect colourmatch.
A replacement hand could vary somewhat, requiring makeup work to blend it in with the rest of the body. The epoxy, due to location, would rarely ever be seen, and thus wouldn't need the makeup work.
That's what I meant to say, in not so many words.

 

you can try snaking a ribbon in there to tug the elastic out ribbons are easier than wires or stringing tools to get the elastic out, imo! (and a lot less stressing on the hands)

and once you get the elastic out , slip a pen or something in there so it doesnt shrink back in again!

it would actually be easier, i think, to pull that part of the arm out and just restring it. that way the elastic is more exposed and you can get the ribbon through it a lot easier.

it sounds like the hand is broken, i would suggest using epoxy to fill up the gap like eksdee said :0 it's a terrible accident on behalf of the company, but definitely repairable don't worry! i love mori moths and im sure your girl is very lucky to have a doting mom like you~