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Polyurethane Resin??

Oct 29, 2008

    1. You cant trust wikipedia anyone can edit it :|

      But yes resin does sound a lot nicer then plastic. I think plastic I think cheap.
       
    2. Adae is right: the word "plastic" is heavily stereotyped.

      If I was talking to somebody about my doll and said "she's made of plastic", the conversation would quickly derail into "OMG you paid how much for a hunk of plastic?!" But if I say "resin"...now I sound all cool, and the other person nods and continues asking more normal questions. Speaking from personal experience, most people don't know that resin = plastic.

      I don't really care what others think about my doll. I just don't want to spend the next 20 minutes defending my spending habits.
       
    3.  
    4. Resins (thermoset resins, if you're being formal about the class of compounds) and plastics (thermoplastics, ditto) and both usually referring to the synthetic groups of polymeric materials still aren't defining the terms narrowly. *_*

      Nylon or polyamid may be swimsuit or stocking materials, but bulletproof Kevlar and fire resistant Nomex are also nylons. There are hundreds of nylons, though many fewer in industrial production. :o

      Likewise, there are thousands, no joke, of polyurethane resins. :o
      I, myself, make the joke that my doll could've finished a floor instead--but they are actually not very closely related sorts of polyurethane.
      {yes, my dolls are highly offended at the comparison. ;) i live to torment my dolls. they let me live because i get them stuff. :p}

      Our dolls are not vinyl or mystery-plastic, like cheaper dolls that can be found more widely. That's the type of plastic dolls ours aren't.

      Ann in CT
       
    5. 'Plastic' has such a feeling of cheapness when applied to dolls; even the owners of vinyl bjd don't call their dolls plastic. 'Resin' really isn't too much better, since that's what dollar store figurines are made of. The people I meet usually don't venture a guess as to what my dolls are made of, so I say resin just because that's the word all the doll collectors and companies use.

      And no, I didn't know resin was technically plastic; that's DOA, always educational. :)
       
    6. I do say resin because it makes them sound more expensive. Not because I wanna look rich but because it seems to imply they aren't just regular ole' action man plastic, and non doll people are a lot more careful when handling them. I've had an action man collection my whole life and people are WAY more careful with my Dollfie's than my little action dudes. I hope I don't sound arrogant but I like people to know they are expensive to protect them. I guess if you hand some one a glass vase they are inclinded to be less careful with it where as if you hand them a crystal one they will be a lot more aware. It's the resin that makes the so expensive after all ;)
      I wouldn't get offended if someone said plastic though. Good topic!
       
    7. Polyurethane resin is a type of plastic, just like porcelain is a type of clay.

      Porcelain dolls can be described as being made of clay, but when you say porcelain, it denotes a very fine, high quality clay vs. other types of clay. 'Clay' is accurate, but 'porcelain' is more descriptive, and brings to mind dainty china, whereas 'clay' makes me think of the adobe mud in my parent's back yard.

      If you describe your doll as 'polyurethane resin', many people will visualize this: :? but at least they won't think of injection molded swizzle sticks and margarine cups.

      But yeah, our dolls are plastic.
      Really expensive thermoset plastic, hand cast in really expensive silicone molds, using expensive vacuum chambers.
       
    8. To me, Plastic, quite simply, sounds cheap.
      But Resin, to me, sounds expensive and high quality.
      But, most people round here* don't even know what resin is, as they are dimwits :B

      *This town - They can't even speak correctly.:lol:
       
    9. Good point strangeangels! I never thought about that, porcelain being a type of clay. It does make a huge difference when you imagine the two. If some one says a clay pot you imagine it a certain way and the same with porcelain. Hmmm gets you thinking ;)
       
    10. Honestly, I didn't know they were the same thing. Someone once asked me what resin was and I told them I didn't know. They asked if it was like porclien (sp?) and I kinda though it was. I always though to plastic as thin flexible and brittle material. Whereas I though resin was hard strudy stuff. *Shurg* well I learned something new today.

      I still don't care for the term plastic because: I'm used to the term resin. So yeah.

      Wait, so what's the difference between Volks and other companies then? I was always though the difference was "Volks dolls are made of plastic and other companies make theirs from resin." This is what I was always told. (Note: I know that they are different companies, I meant material)

      Can somebody answer the real difference? Or are they the same material?
       
    11. Er...if someone was looking at your doll and you said it was made of resin, I don't think they will think, "Oh yeah, that's amber." We're talking about synthetic resin here. I didn't realize that needed clarification.

      The same statement made earlier still stands. All synthetic resin are plastic, not all plastic are synthetic resin. Resin is a type of plastic and is a more specific term than the word plastic that covers a lot of other things. Polyurethane resin would be even more specific of course. And you can definitely still go even more specific than that because there are different types of polyurethane resin.

      That's your assumption that people only use the word resin because it is more 'agreeable'. Sorry, but I do say resin and I do say polyurethane resin because it paints a more accurate picture, not because it's 'agreeable' - not that I'm sure why we're using the word agreeable here. Other people here have said the same thing about a more accurate representation.

      As I said before, if we're going to insist on using the most general term possible, why not call all the eyes for our dolls plastic (save glass of course). Acrylics, silicone and urethane. They're all plastic.

      Or, instead of Teflon-coated, call it plastic-coated.

      I wouldn't correct someone if they said our dolls are made of plastic, but I don't think there's anything wrong or 'elitist' (as being implied in this thread) when people say their dolls are made of resin.



      Resin is a type of plastic. Dolls from different companies are made out of different types of resin. That's why you have people saying resin from so-and-so company is heavier, yellows faster, has more tooth, etc. All companies differ from one another because of the type of resin, the style, the jointing system, etc. Volks produces ball jointed dolls in resin and they also produce the 27cm scale dollfies in vinyl, which is a different type of plastic as well.
       
    12. Ooou, I see! I know what vinyl is! Thank you! I was so confused :doh
       
    13. Volks makes polyurethane resin dolls (Super Dollfie line... SD17-16-13-10, MSD, SDC, Yo, and various other tinies)

      ...but they also make vinyl (?) dolls (Dollfie Dream, MDD) as well as Dollfies (the Barbie sized 1/6 dolls). Vinyl is a different kind of plastic.

      ...they also have some other types of plastic dolls (Customize, like little action figures) but I am not sure exactly what kind of plastic they are.

      Volks makes a lot of different lines.

      Other companies make polyurethane resin dolls, too... (all the dolls allowed on DoA are resin, except Volks Dollfie Dream, I believe).

      Within polyurethane resin there are also different types... Japanese resin (Volks), French resin (Narin and others), various flavors of Korean and Chinese resin, and one company actually imports resin made in the USA (but can't remember who)... they are all resin, with slightly different formulas. And all synthetic resin is a type of plastic.

      And there are so many different types of plastic, when you describe your doll as 'resin' or 'polyurethane resin' it narrows the description down to a certain type of plastic (although 'resin' can also be tree pitch, a non-plastic material).

      Whoever said this to you: "Volks dolls are made of plastic and other companies make theirs from resin." was misinformed. *edit* maybe misinformed is not the right word... confused (?) Volks makes resin dolls and other types of plastic dolls.
       
    14. resin sounds...

      delicious

      Ahahaaha i dunno. Resin is easier to work with on a small scale. I generally don't think 'giant heated vats' when i think resin....more of a personal, artistic compound...the difference between 'paint' and 'print'. Completely my retarded non-sciency mind here....but hey...It's pretty much what everyone else has said. Plastic sounds...well...plastic. Awesome for post apocalyptic poetry...not so much for your doll dressed as Marie Antoinette.
       
    15. Hahaha :lol: My thoughts exactly ;)
       
    16. I used the word 'agreeable' because -to my empty lil' hed, anyway- it fit the concept I was trying to express. As other peeps in the thread have stated, they don't want to call the dolls 'plastic' because it 'sounds cheap'. This semiotic hair, I didn't wanna to start on splittin', y'know? I mean, really - in this day and age, we should know better than to think plastic=cheap. My iPod is mostly plastic, and my cellphone...blu-ray player? plastic, so is my hdtv and iMac- none of these were 'cheap'...plastics happen to be the best materials to comprise the greater bulk of these items and safely house their operating components.

      It's not inaccurate in the way people saying 'silk' when they mean 'satin' is (ohhh that one would have me tearing my hair out when I worked retail textiles. Because you just can not tell by looking at a person if when they say 'silk' they truly mean silk) but it suffers from a factual deficit by being vague. I myself would not feel comfortable telling people my doll was made of 'resin' because it sounds better...I'd be more prone to using the full, correct term 'polurethane resin' or maybe 'fancy plastic':lol: Besides, in the circles I run in, people tend to think of 'resin' as Fiberglas resin or epoxy, more so than polyurethane (or something you scrape out of a pipe, but that's another story entirely:roll:) - so, it would be misleading.

      I was wondering if celluloid (dolls that go 'splodey ftw!) was technically a 'resin' and bumped into the website of the Plastics Historical Society - fascinating stuff!
       
    17. As others in this thread have said, calling these dolls "plastic" has some kind of a connotation of cheapness and mass production. And they tend to be called plastic by someone who is already denigrating the hobby anyway so there is just a whole negative vibe to it for me.

      But whether or not plastic is a form of resin or resin is a form of plastic makes no difference to me in theory.

      The people so far who have asked me have been respectful (friends & family members) and I've just told them they're made out of resin. One person asked what resin was and I described it as being basically the same as the material that some of my mermaid figurines are made out of. That seemed to satisfy her curiousity.
       
    18. I use the term "resin" because that's what the doll forums and so forth expect me to use, and also in terms of the casting material it seems like the more accurate name. For example, if you go to order some casting product it's likely to be called "resin" in the suppliers' catalog rather than "plastic" even if it's a form of plastic. I also think there is a tendency to identify "plastic" with the light, shiny, hard plastic mass-marketed dolls like Barbie and Blythe.

      But really, if you ran into me and called my doll a "plastic doll" I wouldn't care. I'm not a snob and don't care if you really think it's plastic or if you think it's cheap. I don't care, period.
       
    19. When people ask me what the dolls are made of, I usually say "they're made of resin, which is a type of hard plastic". I don't have a problem with people calling them "plastic", since it is true. I do think that "resin" or "polyurethane resin" is more specific and gives a more accurate idea about the dolls for those who might just be getting interested in the hobby, which is why I use it.

      When you just say "plastic", it could mean any number of materials with different weights and textures, from vinyl to the brittle plastic used for packaging toys. For me, it's not so much a status thing as just giving a better idea of what the dolls are like. I've never really felt snotty or annoyed by it though. ^_^ If someone says "plastic", I just agree with them and say "yep, they're made of a hard, durable plastic called resin".
       
    20. When I bought my phone ages ago, they told me it was made of resin. At the iMac store they were all about polycarbonate and aluminium. Just looking at a website to buy shelves and tables, you get hit by all kinds of words that ultimately mean a hard, more durable plastic. In this day and age, we have so many things made out of all types of plastic that it's not surprising when people try to give better descriptions of what a material is rather than just 'plastic'.


      Well, if I wanted to use a word because it sounds better, I would look for something else other than resin because it doesn't sound all that crazy impressive to me. If I ran in your circles, I probably wouldn't use the word resin either then since you would link it to other things.