Neo-Angelregion iMda doll - Discussion Thread

I was thinking the exact same thing! I can understand that they have to document all losses. It costs them a lot of time and money to correct all these mistakes.

 

I see! Well, I'm happy to provide pictures; it wasn't difficult for me. I just didn't think that the problems I'm describing require photos, but, if their insurance requires them for whatever reason, then I can take all the pictures they want

 

ANNA, good luck with Soom!! (She is a pretty doll!!

SCOTTIEDOLL, your Monica looks so lovely like that, I love the red hair!!

I took pictures last night and after 125 blurry pictures later, I kept only a few!! I had oil or something on the lens as it turns out! I love these girls.

 

Mydaffer, your Natassas are so cute together. I love how you have them styled!

 

I got Soom's reply to my pictures. They would like me to send her back because they want to fix the issues I have with her. I very much hope that they will be able to make her sit! Not sure what will be done about the dress, though, but I guess we'll see when I get her back. At this point, I'm happy that Soom acknowledged that my concerns are valid and are willing to do something about them. If anyone else got a Monika that cannot sit, or are unhappy with the way the dress fits, I recommend contacting Soom about it. If this is a general fault of the iMda 5.2 body, then I hope permanent changes will be made to it, so that any future 5.2 dolls don't have the same problems I'm experiencing with Monika.

 

I'm waiting two Natassa : the Festy dreamer and Natassa Seasons. They seem so lovely!

Yes Mydaffer your Natassa are wonderfu! Is it Val Zeitler make up?

 

Yes on the one with red hair! I got her from scottiedoll! I love Natassa so much, I had to have two also. I can not wait to see yours, please post them as soon as you can. I made a IMda picture thread and there is a link on my signature, you can post there also.

 

Ah that is sad you have to send her away Anna.
Hopefully they will fix her for you!!
My Natassa does not sit the best either, I was figuring it may be a design flaw.
So if they fix your Monica, maybe I can get my girl fixed also, depends if I am capable of doing the changes myself.

 

Well, Soom got my girl and after doing tests on her, here's the summary of their reply and my response to them (I did not receive a follow-up to my reply yet):

- "after a little patience" they were able to sit her several times
(my reply to this: a BJD should be able to at the very least sit without needing patience on my part; also, while I was able to sit her in a very specific position - head titled all the way down, knees bent and hanging off the shelf for balance - she did not keep this position long, leaned back and fell; she's not stable or safe in any sitting position for extended periods of time)

- "this is the first time we hear about this kind of problem"; basically, I was told that I'm the first to bring it to their attention that iMda 5.2 girls have difficulties sitting
(my reply: a link to this thread, specifically, to a post made my another Monika owner about her doll not being able to sit or stand. From reading this thread, I am certain that I'm not the only one who noticed sitting issues)

- in the future, they promise that the full-set outfit descriptions will mention if hands will have to be taken off to put it on

- I was offered a refund for the doll, should I choose not to keep her. Otherwise, there's nothing they can do because "iMda 5.2 dolls are not easy to pose"
(my reply: I definitely want her back. Had I known that her inability to do basic sitting pose was part of the design, I wouldn't have bought her, but, because I did buy her and did bond with her already, I want my doll back)

I have mixed feelings about how this whole situation ended. Had I known, I would never have bothered wasting time sending her back. I never had to send a doll back the entire time I was in the hobby, but Monika's total lack of sitting ability even after I tightened her strings made me truly believe that I got a flawed doll. On the other hand, I'm thankful that Soom took a look at her and obviously felt that Monika's issues are annoying and unusual enough to warrant a refund - that is much more than most companies would have done, and I do acknowledge that.


If anyone does have problems with their 5.2 girls sitting abilities that are as severe as mine, perhaps writing to Soom about them is a good idea, since I was told I'm the first one to contact them about this. If enough people bring up this annoyance, perhaps the 5.2 body will be tweaked to at least sit well.

If I get any other communication from Soom that sheds any new light on this, I'll post it here

 

Well it doesn't surprise me! it was not just your girl for sure. AND I know the outfits can't go on.
I didn't think they would offer to remake an outfit with wider holes. It was pretty stupid they asked you to mail her back. I think you should ask for a refund for the outfit part if I was you?

I am sure offering a refund now the doll is in their hands is easier than sending it back.

 

TreeLore, I'm sure you are right that it's probably easier for them to refund me. But, if they don't refund, they still make some money off her even considering that they have to refund my shipping and pay to ship her back.

I find it hard to believe that Soom never got any feedback about the 5.2 body, seeing as many people report problems in this thread alone. But, that's what I was told.

As far as the dress, I'm not exactly sure what the resolution on it is. I was asked to send it back so it would be "fixed", but in the reply I was only told that in the future, they will mention if hands need to be removed when selling outfits. I already replied asking if anything can be done to my dress. Hopefully, I'll hear back tonight.

 

horrible. I would want a refund on the dress if it was me at least this way you won't be reminded of that flaw all the time.

Yes strange noone mentioned it with the other girls this size, they all seem to have large heads too. But I did see people saying they couldn't get Monika to do much on this thread once she arrived.

 

Yay! My new Monika arrived today and I am simply In Love with her

I really like the Soom default eyes -- they're a soft eye and don't have that 'hollow' look that some pupil-less glass eyes give -- so it's more of a sweet-look as opposed to I-want-to-suck-out-your-brains-look ;P

And, as others stated, the default wig is nice and full ... and heavy!

Forget about worrying if she can sit (she's propped in the photo) -- she was shipped loose like everyone said and I've never re-strung a doll (I don't feel like tackling it right now) so she's staying 'as is' -- my girls mostly sit for photo shoots, anyway



More on **My Flickr**

 

I got my girl back from Soom (they weren't able to do anything for her sitting, and I didn't figure that they would). So, I tried some things on my own.

Here is what I found for anyone who wants to attempt to do this to their 5.2 girls.

-You need to have a very thin stringing tool in order to string these bodies; the channels inside the limbs (especially the arms) are very narrow - the narrowest of any of my SDs, and the SD-sized restringer that I have (from Volks) did not fit into most of the limbs. I ended up using a combination of very thin wire (which kept breaking due to tension of the string) and a long ribbon for most of the restrining. It was a frustrating process, to say the least.

-In order to get proper tension, I needed to string very tightly. The 5.2 body actually has nice resin groves in the shoulder socket that I didn't even know were there due to the fact that she came so loose. To take advantage of them, though, you need to tightly string the arms. The upper thighs have a small tab to help the legs latch onto the torso for easier sitting - again, need to string tightly to take advantage. Given all this, a proper stringing tool is a must - it was extremely difficult and annoying doing all this with wire and ribbon! I think an MSD-sized stringer will work fine, since it's narrower than the SD ones.

-4mm string is ideal; but, due to the lack of a stringing tool, I just didn't have the strength to get the right tension. That, and 4mm string just barely fits into her arm channels. I ended up using 3.5mm; it's much better than what she came with (I'm guessing 2mm). Monika actually handles more like what I'm used to in a BJD with it. The 3.5mm string provides much more tension than the 2mm.

-When you string, you must make sure to have all the string knots inside the torso and not over her neck, otherwise he head won't go on (the knots are too bulky to go through the small neck opening in the head). I learned this the hard way.

Finally, since I put in close to 3 hours of work to have her restrung, I decided to wire her as well. I used 12 gauge coated wire that I got from Home Depot. I used hot glue on the edges to prevent them scratching the resin inside the doll. The arms did not have enough space for a wire due to such small channels (the 3.5mm string took up practically all the space inside the arms). Let me know if you are interested about how I wired her, and I'll post more details!

And, here she is sitting all by herself, unaided! She no longer leans back or flops over. I feel she's safe sitting like this for extended periods of time. She will never be a natural sitter, as the body design prevents it. But, with the steps above, the 5.2 body is definitely much less frustrating to me. Sorry for the bad picture, but I snapped it for Soom after I was done fixing her up and was extremely tired to mess with camera settings

 

Oh Anna I am so happy for you and I am happy that you posted the information! Where do you order the string and can you if you do not mind, post about the wiring? You doll looks wonderful. How does she stand?

 

Here's more details on the wiring:

- I used 12 gauge single white-coated wire (this is a stiff wire, which is perfect for this top-heavy girl). I chose coated because I don't want metal rubbing against the resin, and white because I didn't want the coating to stain inside of the doll.

- I cut two pieces of wire. Each piece is long enough to go from lower thighs to about mid-torso. I wanted to have the wires go past the knee joint and into the lower leg (to just above the ankle joint). However, because the lower leg channels are so narrow, the 3.5mm string took up most of the space and the wire just wouldn't fit comfortably.

- I used a glue gun to coat the ends of the wires because I didn't want the edges to scrape against the resin. The glue coating makes the wire edges nice and smooth.

- After the glue cooled, I inserted the wire by feeding it through the knee joint into the thigh until the wire was all the way in. The bottom of the wire rests just above the knee joint quite comfortably and doesn't affect knee movement. I did this for both legs.

- Ideally, I would have liked to have the wires go all the way up to the neck, since it would provide extra support when sitting. But, due to the narrow channels in the chest and especially the neck, it was impossible. But, the way I did it works great as well! I'm much happier handling this body now.

I made suggestions to Soom about using at least a 3.5mm string and considering having the inside channels a bit wider to accommodate a 4.0mm string. We'll see if they do this. I think stringing these girls with a thicker elastic is a must.

Let me know if you have any questions about the wiring! It's very very easy to do and you can do it when the doll is strung. Actually, it's much easier to do it when she's already strung!

 

Anna, I appreciate the information and I am sure others will appreciate the information! I am going to try this, because of the dolls I have now, the IMdas I love the most, but they are hard to pose and its a struggle to pose them for pictures, otherwise they are so unique.

Where did you order the string from? Thank You!!!!!!!

 

Oh, sorry, I forgot to include information about the string!

I get my doll-fixing supplies from CoolCat on Ebay - http://stores.ebay.com/Cool-Cat-Collection-Doll-Accessorie?_rdc=1

Currently, they seem to be out of stock of their elastic, but give it a few days - they usually restock quickly and ever since I began shopping with them, they've kept it pretty well stocked.

I bought string, KIPS and tools from them multiple times and was always happy with the product. The string they sell is very good for stringing dolls - it has the right tension without being too tense (a problem I ran into when I bought generic string). This store also has good feedback here on DoA's feedback forum.

I recommend two forceps for iMda 5.2 restringing - it will make it so much easier for you. I have two pairs, and never thought that I'd need to use both on one doll, but with Monika, I did!

I got these, and they work very well: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cool-Cat-6-Locking-Straight-Forceps-Tools-x-1-pc-/350495299471

Oh, and I also put KIPS between her elbow joints, since I couldn't fit the wire in there due to narrow channels: http://www.ebay.com/itm/CoolCat-Repair-parts-Care-Kips-10mm-Mini-MSD-YO-/150400037034

I link the small ones because I had to cut down my SD KIP in order to fit her - her joints are made so that a lot of the bigger KIP sticks out and is aesthetically unpleasant. I made it smaller, and it fit perfectly, allowing me to pose her arms much better!

 

Excellent information, thank you!!

 

Your girl look beautiful. I'm still debating if I'm should get the 5.2 doll.. after hearing it don't post well.. I'm not an expert with BJD .. just a beginner.. I'm not sure if I know how to tighter the doll after I receive it...