Dollieh Sanctuary

Sorry for being kind of absentee, including from a thread I started... but on top of other RL things (sick cat, bad weather, weird bank paperwork...) the Evil Overlord won a huge lot of dolls in online auction that we split. It was roughly $20 total, and even NOT counting broken headless bodies we ended up with 40 dolls - 20 of which are now mine. The whole lot was a mix of Barbie and Bratz, and I'm still trying to identify the ones I've got.

Among those were two girls with a rubbery middle that, as far as I can tell from websites, is called an 'Ever-Flex' body. The arms and click-legs are fairly normal.

Now, here's the thing. One of the two girls (Jam N Glam Barbie) has a broken back. That is, the joint inside the rubber is broken or dislocated. The other one (Jewel Girl Barbie) is fine, but... it worries me.

Does anyone know how easy these are to break? How careful should I be with the unbroken girl (not that I'm not careful anyway, but I want to know if I should use extra caution.)

And, tho I doubt it, has anyone heard of a repair for this?

Do you have pics?

The "Ever-Flex" waist was notoriously fragile, which was probably why it was produced for so brief a time. Also, the rubbery waist felt unpleasant and made the doll difficult to dress.

The whole Ever-Flex idea was to give Barbie a smooth waist while still allowing her to be able to twist her torso. The construction of the "belly button body" made the old TNT style joint impractical. The Ever-Flex concept was supposed to be a solution for that, but it failed miserably because the rubber skin was icky, subject to rips and stains, and the interior joint broke very easily.

Because it was produced for such a brief time, there aren't many dolls with this waist joint, and I myself don't own any dolls with this waist, or I'd happily sacrifice one to open it up and see if the joint could be repaired.

Sadly, you may have to write off that body as a loss and be ver-r-r-ry careful with the one that's intact.

Wish I could be of more help...

maywong wrote:Do you have pics?

Here you go, tho it's impossible to see the break visually. I'm probably lucky there are no tears or stains to the rubber with either of them. The purple-haired girl is the damaged one. The waist doesn't pose, she jiggles a little when picked up (because the only thing holding her middle together is rubber), and if you look closely she leans a little to the side (left in the pic, her right) when sitting). When I hold her rubber middle and press slightly I can feel where the joint is disconnected.

embyquinn wrote:The "Ever-Flex" waist was notoriously fragile

I was afraid of that. I'll make sure to be extra gentle with the unbroken girl.

embyquinn wrote:Also, the rubbery waist felt unpleasant and made the doll difficult to dress.

LOL! I have an early Phicen Seamless (another doll to be very gentle with - I rarely actually pose her even though she technically can), so I didn't even notice it as feeling weird. It actually feels like the same kind of rubber as used on the tail of my Mermaid Fantasy Christie...

embyquinn wrote:the rubber skin was icky, subject to rips and stains, and the interior joint broke very easily..

I guess I'm lucky one of them is unbroken, and neither one have any rips or stains in the rubber. It did hold a lot more dirt than the rest of their bodies, initially looking a shade darker than the rest of them, but it washed off nice and easy...

embyquinn wrote:I myself don't own any dolls with this waist, or I'd happily sacrifice one to open it up and see if the joint could be repaired..

Oh, no need for that. As I said, it feels like the same kind of rubber for Mermaid Fantasy Christie's tail, which was ripped when I got her. I've purchased some various glues (I feel especially hopeful about the silicone fish tank sealant) that I plan to see if they'll stick to the rubbery coating enough to repair it, even if it leaves 'battle scars'. If that's successful, I'll schedule the purple-haired girl for back surgery... an exacto knife in a nice straight cut down the back would be easy to reglue once I'm sure I have a glue that will stick (vinyl does not work and glues that dry hard are a no-go based on Mermaid Christie, hence why I'm all the way to 100% silicone :/), and I'll make certain to document and photograph the internal joints when I do. (Neither of these will happen soon, due to lack of workspace, winter, and resulting lack of proper ventilation when using the glues)

embyquinn wrote:Sadly, you may have to write off that body as a loss and be ver-r-r-ry careful with the one that's intact..

I probably won't even move the joint on the intact one except carefully for an occasional picture. Most Bellybutton Barbies don't even have a joint there, so easy to treat her as if she actually has the same poseability as them. As for writing off... she looks ok. I was planning on getting a Becky someday. Now I need to mug her wheelchair when I do, because Becky's a nice jointed doll and I have a legitimately paraplegic Barbie. And if the glue works, I'll give back surgery a try. And if the joint can't be fixed, I'll glue it back up and I'll still have more diversity on my shelves. (Yes, I do have a weird habit of working damaged dolls' damage into the personas of the dolls, including the potential of a paraplegic girl with a scar from failed back surgery, if the joint can't be fixed XD)

embyquinn wrote:Wish I could be of more help...

Hey, you were a lot of help in verifying the joint's fragility and other useful information about it. I love finding out more about the more unusual dolls I've picked up.