Dollieh Sanctuary

My 60CM obitsu arrived today (YAY!) - no pictures because she's as nude as can be, no face-up, eyes or wig. I love the scale of the doll, and I can tell I'm gonna like her.

However this complete newbie needs some help.

She has the new neck piece from Obitsu, and an un-painted Gretel head. I have a Sheba head that Misheru has given a face-up and while I have a face up put on the Gretel I want to put the Sheba on the body. I read through K2's new neck piece tutorial, which was great, but I have a question. I want to remove the Gretel head from the doll and put the Sheba head on for now. The tutorial seemed to suggest that it's better to buy additional neck pieces for other heads because installing the neck piece is a pain (and dangerous to a faceup), and removing it is a double pain (even more peril for face-ups).

So that leads me to the question - how do I remove the head and neck piece from the doll body?

Second question (and I think I already have an answer for this one....One of her hips is extremely loose, I believe that the correct procedure is to give it a push to properly seat it? Would I be better removing it and then replacing it?

Once she has a head with a face, eyes and hair, I'll persuade her to sit for a few pictures...

Grab the head and pull straight up. That's what I did to my 50cm and the head and neck piece came off together.

TheHighlander wrote:My 60CM obitsu arrived today (YAY!) - no pictures because she's as nude as can be, no face-up, eyes or wig. I love the scale of the doll, and I can tell I'm gonna like her.

Yea! Vinyl love!

She has the new neck piece from Obitsu,.... I want to remove the Gretel head from the doll and put the Sheba head on for now. The tutorial seemed to suggest that it's better to buy additional neck pieces for other heads because installing the neck piece is a pain (and dangerous to a faceup), and removing it is a double pain (even more peril for face-ups).

Try removing and setting the neck piece when you switch to the Sheba. From doing the swap once or twice, you can determine if you want to go the extra neck piece route. Some people have a lot of trouble with them. Some people are just lazy (me). Also if you are only making the head switch a rare occurrence, you can skip the extra neck piece.

So that leads me to the question - how do I remove the head and neck piece from the doll body?

As suggested by PF, just pull up. If the amount of pressure and slight deformation of the head the "grunt and pull" method takes disturbs you, take your trusty blow dryer and shoot it into the head to warm the vinyl up a bit. As the vinyl warms it will soften and will take less pull pressure. There's not much danger of melting the vinyl with your hair dryer unless you touch a heating element to it.
The warning about face ups is just the obligatory "Watch what the hell you're doing" statement. If you grab the head behind the ears by reaching over the top of the head you can easily avoid coming near the face.

One of her hips is extremely loose, I believe that the correct procedure is to give it a push to properly seat it? Would I be better removing it and then replacing it?

From the posts here this seems to be common. With the legs straight down, place the doll on her side the floor (something really solid that you can push on) on top of a folded towel or soft carpet. Push down on the hip ball firmly. You may feel a bit of a "click" as the hip ball snaps in, or you may not. If the hip remains loose, you may not have pushed hard enough. It is a little surprising (and a little scary) the amount of pressure this can take. Just make sure to keep the doll on her side so your force is transferred straight across the two hip joint balls.

Once she has a head with a face, eyes and hair, I'll persuade her to sit for a few pictures...

This is (of course) mandatory.

I had to have my enormous, very strong husband push the leg in for me. You can try heating the joint too with a blow dryer, maybe that will help it fit in. My husband's opinion is that the dolls must have been assembled warm- so when they cool down it makes for a very tight fit.

I might try the method described for the neck piece removal.

The thing is that I have two heads for this girl. So I may indulge in a bit of head swapping. I'll get a couple of spare neck pieces and put one in my Sheba and one in the Gretel head. Since Gretel has no face-up, and Sheba has one, I may try removing the Gretel head so that the Sheba can use the body for now, while Gretel finds a face-up.

I managed to get the hip joint working right. I pulled the leg off, checked that there was none of the soft vinyl from the abdomen in the way and pushed it home. She can stand now. Before with only one secure leg she would topple dangerously.

BTW, a question about the neck pieces. When removing them, why not take the head and neck piece off the doll, remove the head cap so that the neck piece is revealed and then push the neck piece up through the neck hole instead of trying to pull against the spring loaded cap on top of the neck piece. The vinyl flexes better in that direction anyway and the diameter of the lower portion of the neck piece appears to be no bigger than the bop part is. Installation might still be a bear, but I bet you'd put less stress on the head pushing the neck piece upwards through the neck opening in the head and out through the top of the head, instead of trying to extract it downwards.

TheHighlander wrote:BTW, a question about the neck pieces. When removing them, why not take the head and neck piece off the doll, remove the head cap so that the neck piece is revealed and then push the neck piece up through the neck hole instead of trying to pull against the spring loaded cap on top of the neck piece. The vinyl flexes better in that direction anyway and the diameter of the lower portion of the neck piece appears to be no bigger than the bop part is. Installation might still be a bear, but I bet you'd put less stress on the head pushing the neck piece upwards through the neck opening in the head and out through the top of the head, instead of trying to extract it downwards.

On the rare occassion when I need to remove a neckpiece that's how I do it But being essentially lazy I usually have spare neckpieces so I don't have to do that LOL.

TheHighlander wrote:BTW, a question about the neck pieces. When removing them, why not take the head and neck piece off the doll, remove the head cap so that the neck piece is revealed and then push the neck piece up through the neck hole instead of trying to pull against the spring loaded cap on top of the neck piece.

You can do it that way. Whatever works best for you! I prefer the "out through the bottom" method for several reasons. The neck piece base is a little larger diameter than the locking collar and harder to get through the head slot for some people. If you have one of the ribbed neck pieces it can become a series of pulls not just one. The 60cm NNPs are quit a bit longer than the 50cm version. Also if you articulate the head a lot (like I do), the slot in the head tends to widen, sometimes coming unseated. Pulling the neck piece body up through the head tends to widen the slot even more. A wide slot will make re-seating the neck piece completely more difficult. One good pull through the bottom actually pulls the sides of the slot back towards a more "closed" position as the vinyl relaxes back.

K2! wrote:You can do it that way. Whatever works best for you! I prefer the "out through the bottom" method for several reasons. The neck piece base is a little larger diameter than the locking collar and harder to get through the head slot for some people. If you have one of the ribbed neck pieces it can become a series of pulls not just one. The 60cm NNPs are quit a bit longer than the 50cm version. Also if you articulate the head a lot (like I do), the slot in the head tends to widen, sometimes coming unseated. Pulling the neck piece body up through the head tends to widen the slot even more. A wide slot will make re-seating the neck piece completely more difficult. One good pull through the bottom actually pulls the sides of the slot back towards a more "closed" position as the vinyl relaxes back.

Hmmm... Lots to think about.

Can you get the new neck pieces through Junky Spot or do they need to be ordered direct from Parabox?

If your wallet can take it, I suggest getting a neck piece AND a chest plate. Looks like Emory is temporarily out of stock on the neck piece, but yes he can and probably will be getting it in. He either has, or can get, the chest piece too! The neck connector usually costs $8.00 and chests start around $12.00 (for the older hard style) $15.00 for the ball joint style, and more for the extra large ones. And taking off the head and chest as one piece - priceless! (Pop off the arms, remove chest/head #1, put on chest/head #2, done!) Also, you can then display your second head on the chestplate instead of keeping it locked away. It fits fairly well on an old empty can of MSC.

zirconmermaid wrote:Also, you can then display your second head on the chest plate instead of keeping it locked away.

What a great idea!
Now I know what I can do with all of those small busts I've got languishing in the drawer!

"Hello, Emory? Send me 14 Haruka heads..."