Just how delicate are dolls?

They're pretty durable as long as you don't throw one against a brick wall. Several of mine have taken tumbles with no damage what so ever. And I've had head caps fly across the room when I was changing eyes & too lazy to unhook the elastic so it unhooked itself.

The resin does change colors but I've never had any turn green, just a sort of yellowish color like the antique wax dolls.

 

I'm glad this thread got posted--I have been wondering this very thing. From this thread it seems like it's mostly fingers and elf ears that break. I've definitely manhandled my dolls a bit while restringing, and they were fine.
I saw a French resin Narae that was 5 years old or so, and the owner considered her really yellowed, but she still looked fine. It was like an Asian-person-with-a-slight-tan kind of tone. It looked natural and pretty. I know tan Iplehouses can turn really green (like jade green), but with most dolls it's fairly subtle. I'm actually looking forward to it happening to my Bobobie Ariel--her normal skin is a little pink for my tastes.

 

Just get the doll you like - as long as you're reasonably careful any of them will be fine, and there's very little that can't be fixed or worked around with these dolls. I think all my dolls have fallen over at least once (Riddick has at least twice from table-height onto hard floors), and I've had a couple head-rolling incidents and the top-heavy Puki acrobatics happen also. The worst that's happened so far is a couple barely-visible scratches behind the ear from a head rolling, and a scratched/blunted nose that you really have to look for that came from a faceplant on asphalt.

 

I'm so glad that this thread came up. I'm clumsy by nature, and I'm paranoid about hurting my boy in some way, but I will be very very careful with him! It's nice to see that they can take a fair bit of damage.

 

Mine have been through quite a bit and never had any injury. They've been tossed into duffle bags, boiled, dropped (not very far though and not onto a hard surface), I've done faceups and amateur modifications and never had any issues. They're MUCH sturdier than you might think.

 

As has been said several times, they really aren't THAT fragile, but they can break.

As far as yellowing goes, it's not as bad as some people say it is, though perhaps I've also been quite lucky. Micah (AR Warrick from about 2006) and Eros (IH Ryushin from late 2007) are the only two I've had any noticable yellowing, and they both sat in a room with no curtains for several years before I'd even noticed it a few months ago. Even then, I have to be looking SUPER hard to actually notice it.

 

Oh man, my guy takes some pretty bad ones, but luckily they're normally on carpet. ^^; He stands really well, but I seem to like to have him in stupid poses or on really unreasonable surfaces when I take photos of him, and sometimes his knees just kind of give out after standing so ridiculously for so long.
The only thing he has to show from them is a little black mark (like a beauty mark) above his eye (that his wig covers) when he fell face first into my camera.

 

Lots. I have some defective resin parts in my possession that I've been systematically torturing in the name of BJD science. It took me nearly an hour to cut an MSD thigh into pieces using a hacksaw. And that's resin the company admitted was defective!

My dolls fall off their shelves all the time, actually, because I am clumsy. I keep them strung fairly loosely, so as long as they fall face up, nothing happens, lol. And often nothing happens when they fall face down since they do it onto carpet.

The faces and anything that's thin/small/sticking out are always fragile, but that's anything in life, isn't it?

 

Lex fell off my bed a few times and came out unharmed, and once a bit of his eyebrow got scratched off by something. But the worst that's ever happened is he was standing and faceplanted on the plexiglass in front of the fireplace. One side of his nose was a bit flat; nothing that can't be fixed, though I'm not going to be the one to do it >.>;

 

As soon as I first held my Knox I realised that they're really not too brittle. I yank him around a bit, and he's still fine. I've found that it's more the MSC chipping that I need to worry about than the doll shattering.

 

Well. at first i was completely terrifed of even just bending her! But know i mena, of course i do treat her with respect i dont just toss her around or anyhting. But i am not so nervous when my co-workers pick her up or brush her hair back Obviously I'd be afraid of them dropping her, but really now? the chances of these women dropping them are pretty frigign slim. Plus they always handle her over my desk so she wouldnt fall far....and she has fallen over a few times on my desk with not a scratch, thought i AM more careful now becaurse i dont wanna scrap her face-up...

 

When I was spraying an MSC substitute on my first doll's head ready for face up, he fell out of my hand four feet onto concrete.

All that he got was a minor nick on the edge of his head where his headcap fits at the back.

I still swear he did it on purpose, the git. My fingers were inside his head and thumb in the neck hole and he still managed to get away from me and I just can't figure how.

This is another reason I get someone else to do the faceups for me now.