Posablity of Soom Super Gem boys

My Lupin arrived very loosely strung - so much so that holding him by the waist would sometimes cause his leg joints to pop out. I hot-glue sueded him and restrung him, pulling about four or five inches of slack out of the elastic, and he poses a lot better.

He stands fairly well now, and he can be posed to look like he's putting his own hair in a long ponytail - his double elbow joints allow for that kind of poseability.

His knees aren't double-jointed, but they do actually lock to improve his standing. His hip joints come with a tiny bump and socket inside the hip cups, to line his legs up correctly under string tension.

His torso jointing is rather nicely done. While a loosely strung Lupin has a tendency to slouch, tightening the stringing improves his posture without any sign of the belly popping out or anything like that.

His ankle joints I found were too smoothly sanded, so while they were structurally sound they kept sliding when I stood him up, anyway, leading to falls. Sueding solved that problem right out.

He did have a bit of trouble looking up (I seem to have a very emo Lupin) but the neckjoint hot-glue sueding solved all that.

- Mel

 

All Soom dolls are loosely strung to prevent damage in shipping. I found this out when I went looking through the Certificate packet hoping for re-stringing instructions. Soom says they add about 3".

So, any Soom will need to be tightened or sueded and wired.

 

Mine was lucky then it was well strung and it can stand on it own !

 

Very lucky indeed! Mine came very loosely strung too. I finally tightened him not long ago and now he is much much better. Before, he could barely stand at all. Now he poses like a good little boy.

And agree about the slouching - before I restrung him his chest kept sliding back or forward. Now it sits perfectly.

My boy's still a teensy bit too loose, needs about another few cm off, but I can't be bothered restringing him again. He poses fine as it is.

 

SuperGem boys can stand and pose even loosely strung. I managed to stand up my Lazule easily when he was just from a box. I restrung him later and I suppose that he is still not strung tightly enough because body parts have a tendency to pop up when I hold him horisontally. But it is not a problem when I need to pose him. Soom did a very good engineering work.

 

Absolutely awesome information!!!!!!!!!

This is info I can work with. I have one on layaway and I'm glad to find this thread. I'm sorry to hear about the ankle joints, that bothers me a bit. I am not good with hotglue sueding and haven't yet tried real sueding.

I will be subscribing to this thread.

 

Ditto all this, and yeah, the Lupins are kinda emo. LOL I've wondered if a mod to the back of the head/neck piece would allow them to lift their chins a bit more.

 

I've found that Soom elastic just isn't very good. Even after taking a good five inches out of the doll, once you start to pose them a lot the elastic stretches really easily. It's especially problematic in the hooved MDs, because once you make them crouch a few times, they're loose all over again. Completely changing the elastic to something better (like Dollmore elastic, I've only had to tighten my girl once in three years) makes a huge difference.
If you want a more loosely strung doll so it can slouch easily, I'd suggest sueding the torso piece and hips, to avoid him from flinging backwards easily. Helps a lot with stability when trying to stand.

 

Ok, I got the Heliot human body for my Spinel head (proportions are excellent just in case anyone does wonder). BUT, this is my first soom body and I can't really stand his incredibly correct posture!! When he came it was typical of what you all say: he was too loose!! I couldn't tighten him myself, and had the boyfriend do it, it was even hard for him and all he could get was about an inch and a half to two inches tightened.
He couldn't get to his arm strings, so his arms are still floppy.
At least he stands better now but I am bothered at how his upper back arches back. I pulled the slack of his stringing out the back just to give him a more realistic posture and that works but what more can I do to keep it that way? Obviously I don't really want to keep the string out like that! Should I just get some super thick sueding? What's the suggestion for that in particular?

Problem is, my boyfriend won't want to tighten him anymore. When he did tighten him it was VERY hard to get his S-hook up into his head and because it slipped a few times it almost shot down into the neck!!

Thanks for listening. Any suggestions?

 

I have no problem posing my boy. He doesn't stand on his head or anything super amazing but he holds the poses I need him too. He came fine form the box, he wasn't loose at all. Where as my SUper Gem girl's arms were lovely but her legs were loose as heck and needed restringing.. in fact the string was too long for her so I had to tie a knot in it.
It's the luck or the draw I guess.

 

I'm pretty sure I want to get a Soom SuperGem body for my next doll, but I read somewhere that they're difficult to pose.
So, I want to hear from some owners what they think of the bodies:
What's wonderful? What's terrible? What little quirks does it have compared to other boys?

and and all information is handy, So if you think it, lemme know!
Thanks!

 

I think my Supergem boy has very fat ankles!

That's pretty much all I don't like about it though.

 

Super Gem boys aren't bad posers at all - they're just not amazing.

My boy does all the things normal dolls do: he stands, sits, touches his face. This is with hot-glue sueding though. Without it, he can't hold poses that well, but once the sueding is done he's fine.

One qualm I do have is his small feet - it's a weird thing to say, but his feet are so small, it creates problems sometimes when standing him because he can't balance properly. A pair of large, sturdy Hound/Model shoes usually corrects this.

Having said the SG boy does all the usual stuff, he is not amazing. He will not pull of quirky poses, or do too much of something. For instance, you can move his torso forward into a semi-slouch, but he won't go into a full on slouch. I think that example pretty much sums up the SG body.

Hope that helped.

 

Chizzie, I also use a very large pair of shoes on my SG boy. Actually, they are not even BJD shoes, they are from some other doll, I bought them from another doll owner so I don't know what doll they are originally from. But they make him PROPORTIONED!!!! His feet actually look proportioned in these boots. I love them. Naturally, everyone says "Oh, his shoes look REALLY big", and my response every time is "They look proportioned!"
My biggest doll-pet-peeve is the unproportioned feet! What's that about anyway?!!!

Big feet: http://i723.photobucket.com/albums/ww231/DanceCatPoppet/Kane Perdita/october2209005.jpg

Big feet: http://i723.photobucket.com/albums/ww231/DanceCatPoppet/Kane Perdita/october2209012.jpg

These are the best photos I have right now.

 

Edit: Oops, just read back in the thread and got my answer... Sorry >.<

 

My guy is alittle hit or miss. He can't SIT well, which is annoying, he just flops over backwards. He stands ok but not great and the extra joint in the elbow doesn't give him much range of movement. BUT, the sculpt is hot so I forgive him.

 

The sculpt is gorgeous and the torso joint gives him mobility to slouch very well, or bend backwards a bit. I played around with how much cooltemp hotglue I wanted to use to limit the torso mobility by enough, but not too much. Once I got the amount where I wanted it he became much easier to pose. Experiment with yours!
He is tricky to stand, but some good shoes with ankle support help. Lir hasn't got any, but even the straps on his footwrap shoes help somewhat.

 

I think my Bob poses very well, especially for a 70cm doll.
Of course I have him in his hooves... but he sits upright with no problem, bends at the knees well, can touch his head and face, can stand with one hoof infront of the other. He stands like a rock and I can leave him for days.
I do need to tighten his elastic as he has been "played" with alot. He isn't a fairyland doll so he doesn't hold a karate pose like they do (but who does?).
I would suggest tight elastic and possibly wiring for stability in holding the poses.

I'll try to take some photos to show his range.

 

I can pose my Adrian contraposto at meets. I don't know if it's because of the hot-glue sueding and tightening I did.

- Mel