Help! Dollieh Emergency! Volks DD2 has broken waist!

[TheHighlander]

Hey,

I was helping Misheru with some Volks work tonight. She found a DD2 on the secondary market, and was moving some heads around,and replacing a broken neck piece with an all metal one. Well, the new girl apparently arrived with a severely compromised waist joint. The manipulations to change out the neck pieces were too much for it and it gave way. I found a great visual guide on how to fix it.

http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/narycc/article?mid=1097

I don't read Chinese, and Google's translation is nonsense, but the pictures are clear enough.

Now, the problem is how do I get the abdomen off the skeleton without breaking anything else? Do the legs come off like they do on an Obitsu?

Also, I notice that the Volks joints all have one or more compression rings to keep the joint tight. To my uneducated eye it looks rather like the joints were too tight and that caused the plastic of the skeleton to take more load than it could bear, and it broke. If I remove one of the compression rings from the shoulder/chest piece of the skeleton where it attaches to the waist, will that loosen the joint? I have no experience with Volks internals at all (heck, I'm just now learning about the Obitsu side of things!), so any advice is appreciated.

I can't believe that someone at Volks would design such a small and thin cylinder of plastic to take the complete load of the upper body and all the twisting that is done. It almost seems like an intentional choice to design something that appears strong but is actually flimsy. Worse than that though is the fact that the internal skeleton in this body Misheru just got appeared to have frozen in place, they were *extremely* stiff. I cna only imagine what happens if the doll is posed by twisting at the waist when the internal jointing has locked up. That's a guaranteed breakage.

Well, since i was the one holding her when the joint broke, I feel responsible for fixing her. If I can get at the skeleton, I can fix it.

[MiQ69]

Hi!

I saw, that some DD owners replace the internal skeleton (at least the "spine") with plastic stuffed toy armature. Or segmented PVC pipe. Something like this


http://may.nijiura-doll.info/fullmirror/08keta/77/may_77601821/1252831791839.jpg

http://parabox.jp/eng/skelton_usagi.html

[TheHighlander]

Hi!

I saw, that some DD owners replace the internal skeleton (at least the "spine") with plastic stuffed toy armature. Or segmented PVC pipe. Something like this


http://may.nijiura-doll.info/fullmirror/08keta/77/may_77601821/1252831791839.jpg

http://parabox.jp/eng/skelton_usagi.html

I may have to buy some of that just to see how well it works...

BTW, the blog link I posted for the broken waist repair, twhoever's blog it is does some awesome repair work on ABS jointing on DDs

Have a look at these;

Repairing (not replacing) a shattered joint.

http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/narycc/article?mid=1533

Molding custom replacement parts, including a wire re-enforced joint hook!

http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/narycc/article?mid=2553

Some of these blow my mind. Here even re-constructing a broken MDD wrist.

http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/narycc/article?mid=3931

Seems like they use a micro-drill and metal pins, I'm presuming the pins are super-glued into position.

[K2!]

Hey,
Do the legs come off like they do on an Obitsu?

With out one of my DDs sitting here in front of me, from what I remember the legs can be pulled off at the hip to the side, just like an Obitsu.

Also, I notice that the Volks joints all have one or more compression rings to keep the joint tight. To my uneducated eye it looks rather like the joints were too tight and that caused the plastic of the skeleton to take more load than it could bear, and it broke. If I remove one of the compression rings from the shoulder/chest piece of the skeleton where it attaches to the waist, will that loosen the joint? I have no experience with Volks internals at all (heck, I'm just now learning about the Obitsu side of things!), so any advice is appreciated.

I have not delved into the DD body as much as the Obitsu. I do find it odd that the skeletal structures inside the DD torso are quite a bit tighter than any of the limb joints. I am convinced the major reason these internal parts break is because the doll owners can't see exactly where exactly the internal joints are located and how they are set to move. There are no clear indicators like seams between parts, as there are with resin dolls. So the owner just grabs hold and twists and bends. The hidden internal joints do their best to respond but often the plastic is stressed and this continued stress leads to the inevitable material failure.

I'm sure the material and design of the skeletal parts is more than adequate to handle the loads of "normal" usage. Normal usage being when the joint is rotated or flexed exactly where is is meant to be rotated or flexed. Unfortunately without knowing where these joints are located and the direction they were meant to flex, they are frequently called upon to operate beyond normal usage.

With unavailability of DD replacement parts it is not surprising the lengths which owners have gone to repair their beloved dolls.

[MiQ69]

I knew, that I saw it somewhere besides Parabox.
Here it is - SNAP-PROOF! Armatures & Stuff - http://www.monique.com/access01.html

And similar thing is used in machinery for water or air adjustable nozzles
http://www.jeton.com.tw/stop1_index.html

[TheHighlander]

Hey,
Do the legs come off like they do on an Obitsu?

With out one of my DDs sitting here in front of me, from what I remember the legs can be pulled off at the hip to the side, just like an Obitsu.

Also, I notice that the Volks joints all have one or more compression rings to keep the joint tight. To my uneducated eye it looks rather like the joints were too tight and that caused the plastic of the skeleton to take more load than it could bear, and it broke. If I remove one of the compression rings from the shoulder/chest piece of the skeleton where it attaches to the waist, will that loosen the joint? I have no experience with Volks internals at all (heck, I'm just now learning about the Obitsu side of things!), so any advice is appreciated.

I have not delved into the DD body as much as the Obitsu. I do find it odd that the skeletal structures inside the DD torso are quite a bit tighter than any of the limb joints. I am convinced the major reason these internal parts break is because the doll owners can't see exactly where exactly the internal joints are located and how they are set to move. There are no clear indicators like seams between parts, as there are with resin dolls. So the owner just grabs hold and twists and bends. The hidden internal joints do their best to respond but often the plastic is stressed and this continued stress leads to the inevitable material failure.

I'm sure the material and design of the skeletal parts is more than adequate to handle the loads of "normal" usage. Normal usage being when the joint is rotated or flexed exactly where is is meant to be rotated or flexed. Unfortunately without knowing where these joints are located and the direction they were meant to flex, they are frequently called upon to operate beyond normal usage.

With unavailability of DD replacement parts it is not surprising the lengths which owners have gone to repair their beloved dolls.

I believe what happened here is that there are two tension rings on the joint socket on the bottom of the chest piece, and the stem at the top of the lower half of the skeleton that inserts into that socket became frozen into place because of the tension. The lower half of the skeleton was oddly angled too, as if it had been doing twisting it wasn't really supposed to do. The stem had come partly out of the socket before freezing up and so there was almost nothing to protect the weakest part of the joint from excess force. When the rest of the skeleton got out of alignment, it looks like it too stuck, and the total load was being transferred by two quite thin pieces of plastic. One of them broke, the other was deforming. The previous owner was almost certainly unaware of the issue, because without removing the outer vinyl, there is no way to tell. When we got the doll and tool the chest piece off, it became clear that the skeleton wasn't aligned properly, and then we noted that the waist joint was on the way to complete separation.

The skeleton looks fine, and decently strong, except for this one stem joint. If it isn't properly seated, a lot of force is applied directly to it with nothing to help re-enforce it. It just seems an odd design considering the remainder of the inner skeleton is so robust. It kind of looks like the double tension rings make the joint socket too tight.

I can definitely fix it, but I need to find a way to get the skeleton out of the abdomen. If anyone has any experience of completely dismantling a Volks DD2, I definitely would appreciate a suggestion on how to accomplish this, or failing that, if anyone knows of a tutorial anywhere that illustrates how, I'd be grateful.

[K2!]

I can definitely fix it, but I need to find a way to get the skeleton out of the abdomen. If anyone has any experience of completely dismantling a Volks DD2, I definitely would appreciate a suggestion on how to accomplish this, or failing that, if anyone knows of a tutorial anywhere that illustrates how, I'd be grateful.

The legs and arms come off sideways, just like an Obitsu. I've never had a DD2 head so best not to fool around. A Sawzall should do the trick. The abdomen is again, just like an Obitsu. Threading the two hip joint pegs through the holes in the abdomen vinyl. The DD2 has a rigid plastic part inside the bust vinyl, which resembles a ribcage. I'm not exactly sure why Volks put it in there. Perhaps they were worried about crushing issues...Anyway, it's probably best to heat the bust vinyl up a bit as it is a tight fit on the ribcage. Once that is pealed off, you have to jockey the shoulder sockets out of the holes in the ribcage to push them into the ribcage. Then pull the whole spine assemble out the bottom. Aaaaaaaand I think that's about it.

[TheHighlander]

I can definitely fix it, but I need to find a way to get the skeleton out of the abdomen. If anyone has any experience of completely dismantling a Volks DD2, I definitely would appreciate a suggestion on how to accomplish this, or failing that, if anyone knows of a tutorial anywhere that illustrates how, I'd be grateful.

The legs and arms come off sideways, just like an Obitsu. I've never had a DD2 head so best not to fool around. A Sawzall should do the trick. The abdomen is again, just like an Obitsu. Threading the two hip joint pegs through the holes in the abdomen vinyl. The DD2 has a rigid plastic part inside the bust vinyl, which resembles a ribcage. I'm not exactly sure why Volks put it in there. Perhaps they were worried about crushing issues...Anyway, it's probably best to heat the bust vinyl up a bit as it is a tight fit on the ribcage. Once that is pealed off, you have to jockey the shoulder sockets out of the holes in the ribcage to push them into the ribcage. Then pull the whole spine assemble out the bottom. Aaaaaaaand I think that's about it.

We have the upper vinyl off, and I can get the 'rib-cage' off after heating it - it goes nice and soft.

The problem is the skeleton inside the abdomen. even if I pull off the legs, I can't for the life of me see how I can pull the rest of the skeleton out the top of the abdomen, the opening is tiny.



The end I have circled in red on this picture (not my picture) is the part visible through the top of the abdomen, and I can't see how on earth I get the other end of the skeleton - the larger 'pelvic' bone/hip joint out - of the abdomen.

[kiki-chan78]

If you want, and since I've got a DD2 on hand that's already begging to be pulled apart so that I can get to her neck-connector... I can look into modeling out a new part to put into your girl. I've already been thinking about doing something similar for the Obitsu's 'problem' part. Apparently it seems, that as long as I'm NOT making a model to be animated, I'm not half bad at computer modeling. >.>;;;

<3

-Kiki-chan78.

[TheHighlander]

If you want, and since I've got a DD2 on hand that's already begging to be pulled apart so that I can get to her neck-connector... I can look into modeling out a new part to put into your girl. I've already been thinking about doing something similar for the Obitsu's 'problem' part. Apparently it seems, that as long as I'm NOT making a model to be animated, I'm not half bad at computer modeling. >.>;;;

<3

-Kiki-chan78.

Well, I have micro-drills and screws on order and will be measuring the problem area to get the correct bolt to act as a replacement spine as shown in the blog post I linked. Honestly though, I think that there may be a market for someone to make replacement 'spine' parts for DD2s since Volks will not make them available. Even if Obitsu has a problem part, there's always a ready supply at JS or Parabox. But DDdy/DD2 owners are SOL if they break something internal. Of course you couldn't just make a copy of their part since they no doubt copyright/patent the specific design. But as some have shown, there are alternatives. Just like in computing, it doesn't matter how the spin works as long as it connects to the peripheral items (aka limbs and neck...).

However, goal number 1 right now is to fix this body so that we don't have a Volks lady in tears 24/7. Though, to be honest I understand why the poor girl is in tears, she looks like she's been sawn in half at a magic show...that doesn;t even mention her Mom....Misheru is not happy that she has a girl who went to pieces...