Vindoll Udell Overview
Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2017 8:16 pmThis is an overview of my new Vindoll Udell by Granado, their first vinyl doll. This overview is of the doll’s materials, construction, operation, etc., not of its aesthetics.
Udell finishes out at a height of approximately 67cm. This Udell is the Normal skin tone. The normal skin is slightly yellower than other “normal” vinyls as seen here.
I found this yellowness was exaggerated by my 3000K photo lighting. Under normal room lighting Udell appears almost identical in color to several of my Obitsus.
Here is the default face up with the included random eyes and wig.
Udell arrived in a very bruised cardboard container. Inside was an undamaged clear plastic box, which contained the bubble wrapped Udell along with his accessories. The bubble wrap was secured with thin elastic cords and did its job. My Udell was undamaged and had no loose appendages. The bubble wrap completely obscured the doll rendering the transparent display box superfluous.
After unwrapping Udell the first thing I noticed was the varying gap between the vinyls surrounding the two ankles. The knee joints appeared even so I guessed the ankle issue was due to incomplete/incorrect assembly of the lower leg. I tried to push the left foot in but had no success. Some disassembly would be necessary. The repair is addressed at the end of this report.
Like other vinyls, the Udell body is constructed of a similar number of external vinyl parts. All of these parts are made from a medium hardness vinyl. This hardness gives the body a more resin like feel unlike other vinyls which use softer vinyl in their skins. These harder vinyls are claimed to be more stain resistant than the softer vinyls. The hardness of the torso parts renders most of the jointing of the torso skeleton, from shoulders to pelvis unusable. The mid torso joint is located just under the pectoral muscles, where there can be some twisting and bending, but not much. The hard plastic used for the Udell skeleton appears slightly more brittle than those plastics used in most other manufacturer's skeletons.
Overall the skeleton and vinyl parts yield good ranges of motion, similar to other vinyls. Most of the joints look pretty good when moving through their range except the knees and elbows. These extremities appear to have been sculpted completely as one piece then cut at the knee and elbow. When these joints are bent you can see the excessive thickness of the vinyl castings. The edges of these parts should have been tapered and fit closer to the ball joints of the skeleton. The legs can bend sufficiently to allow the body to sit comfortably. The body is well balanced and the relative stiffness of the joints allows Udell to stand in a wide variety of poses without the aid of a stand. For long term storage Udell should be placed in a secure position, sitting, leaning, or with the aid of a secure stand.
Owners who bought Udell as their first vinyl will at first notice the significant decrease in weight and secondly the relative stiffness of the joints. This stiffness is normal for vinyls and some care must be taken when manipulating the joints. Joints should be bent slowly and carefully, bending one axis at a time. Rotational axes are best manipulated by bending the joint to a right angle then rotating. An example would be posing the hand. Bend the wrist joint to 90 degrees, carefully twist the wrist joint as desired, then re-bend the wrist/hand to the desired position.
For those who have Udells that are experiencing “leg drop”, when reinstalling the leg make sure the hip joint is completely pushed together as shown below.
For those experiencing arm drop, when reinstalling the arm make sure the shoulder socket of the skeleton can be seen through the hole in the vinyl and the shoulder joint peg is inserted through the vinyl and into that socket.
The leg repair
I have over 9 years of experience disassembling, repairing, and modifying vinyl dolls. Repairs of this nature are not recommended for first time vinyl owners. Proceed with caution.
The foot/ankle came off by twisting and pulling, without any heating. After slipping off the shin vinyl I tried to push in the “shin bone” into the knee joint again without success. The next step was to disassemble the other foot for comparison. With the other foot removed, I could see a difference in length of the two shin bones. The left shin bone was approximately 5mm longer than the right. I attempted to remove the locking collar on the lower knee joint but it wouldn’t budge. All of these parts were extremely tight. I separated the left knee joint from the thigh, again without heating, bent the knee joint 90 degrees, placed the knee on a sturdy padded surface, and attempted to carefully hammer the shin bone into the knee joint. It did go in several millimeters but its overall length was still longer than the right shin. Having tugged and pulled and hammered the parts as much as I felt prudent, I resorted to trimming the left shin bone to the same length as the right.
Udell finishes out at a height of approximately 67cm. This Udell is the Normal skin tone. The normal skin is slightly yellower than other “normal” vinyls as seen here.
I found this yellowness was exaggerated by my 3000K photo lighting. Under normal room lighting Udell appears almost identical in color to several of my Obitsus.
Here is the default face up with the included random eyes and wig.
Udell arrived in a very bruised cardboard container. Inside was an undamaged clear plastic box, which contained the bubble wrapped Udell along with his accessories. The bubble wrap was secured with thin elastic cords and did its job. My Udell was undamaged and had no loose appendages. The bubble wrap completely obscured the doll rendering the transparent display box superfluous.
After unwrapping Udell the first thing I noticed was the varying gap between the vinyls surrounding the two ankles. The knee joints appeared even so I guessed the ankle issue was due to incomplete/incorrect assembly of the lower leg. I tried to push the left foot in but had no success. Some disassembly would be necessary. The repair is addressed at the end of this report.
Like other vinyls, the Udell body is constructed of a similar number of external vinyl parts. All of these parts are made from a medium hardness vinyl. This hardness gives the body a more resin like feel unlike other vinyls which use softer vinyl in their skins. These harder vinyls are claimed to be more stain resistant than the softer vinyls. The hardness of the torso parts renders most of the jointing of the torso skeleton, from shoulders to pelvis unusable. The mid torso joint is located just under the pectoral muscles, where there can be some twisting and bending, but not much. The hard plastic used for the Udell skeleton appears slightly more brittle than those plastics used in most other manufacturer's skeletons.
Overall the skeleton and vinyl parts yield good ranges of motion, similar to other vinyls. Most of the joints look pretty good when moving through their range except the knees and elbows. These extremities appear to have been sculpted completely as one piece then cut at the knee and elbow. When these joints are bent you can see the excessive thickness of the vinyl castings. The edges of these parts should have been tapered and fit closer to the ball joints of the skeleton. The legs can bend sufficiently to allow the body to sit comfortably. The body is well balanced and the relative stiffness of the joints allows Udell to stand in a wide variety of poses without the aid of a stand. For long term storage Udell should be placed in a secure position, sitting, leaning, or with the aid of a secure stand.
Owners who bought Udell as their first vinyl will at first notice the significant decrease in weight and secondly the relative stiffness of the joints. This stiffness is normal for vinyls and some care must be taken when manipulating the joints. Joints should be bent slowly and carefully, bending one axis at a time. Rotational axes are best manipulated by bending the joint to a right angle then rotating. An example would be posing the hand. Bend the wrist joint to 90 degrees, carefully twist the wrist joint as desired, then re-bend the wrist/hand to the desired position.
For those who have Udells that are experiencing “leg drop”, when reinstalling the leg make sure the hip joint is completely pushed together as shown below.
For those experiencing arm drop, when reinstalling the arm make sure the shoulder socket of the skeleton can be seen through the hole in the vinyl and the shoulder joint peg is inserted through the vinyl and into that socket.
The leg repair
I have over 9 years of experience disassembling, repairing, and modifying vinyl dolls. Repairs of this nature are not recommended for first time vinyl owners. Proceed with caution.
The foot/ankle came off by twisting and pulling, without any heating. After slipping off the shin vinyl I tried to push in the “shin bone” into the knee joint again without success. The next step was to disassemble the other foot for comparison. With the other foot removed, I could see a difference in length of the two shin bones. The left shin bone was approximately 5mm longer than the right. I attempted to remove the locking collar on the lower knee joint but it wouldn’t budge. All of these parts were extremely tight. I separated the left knee joint from the thigh, again without heating, bent the knee joint 90 degrees, placed the knee on a sturdy padded surface, and attempted to carefully hammer the shin bone into the knee joint. It did go in several millimeters but its overall length was still longer than the right shin. Having tugged and pulled and hammered the parts as much as I felt prudent, I resorted to trimming the left shin bone to the same length as the right.
