I love my dolls and that is why we are here. For as long as I can remember, I have always has dolls and they were either vinyl or plastic or a combination of some sorts. I am a doll collector that likes to play with her dolls, dress them up, take photos, do photo strips/stories and design rooms for them. For me one of my big needs in a doll is to be pose-able. That is why I was so glad when I discovered Obitsu and glad that some dolls in the US are making their dolls pose-able like Liv dolls, some Barbies and so forth.
Then I recently started to get into BJD. I love how pose-able they are. Love how you can customize them (change eyes, hair, even some body parts). I did do research on them before I purchased the two Littlefee dolls and the Pukipuki doll (which are both resin), but I am still learning more as I go and have hands on with them and kind of wish I knew what I do now before I spent the money on the dolls. I am not saying I regret getting the BJD resin dolls, I do like them a lot, but I think I wouldn't have gotten them if I had known more. Like the problems that resin dolls have with yellowing, chipping and so forth.
Yes I know that all dolls have their problems. Even a vinyl doll can yellow, break, have other issues just like anything. But it just seems to me that there are more cons to a resin doll now that I have been doing a lot more reading on forums and also from experience with my own dolls. My resin Littlefee dolls have magnets in them to hold on their hands and feet. I thought this was a really cool feature of this doll that you can change out their hands and feet when need be. But the first week of having Kaley...I was trying on a new top that her hand would not go through and had to remove her hands...and the magnet in the arm popped out with the hand that is suppose to keep her hand in place. I was able to get her hand back on but the magnet continues to slip out. I am gentle with my dolls, so it wasn't me being rough or forceful with her. I know I can glue it back in place but am concerned of me making a mistake like I read someone else had done. The glued the magnet in backwards with super glue and couldn't get it back out. I have actually read several cases of something like this happening with magnets but in different parts of the doll. I also read that some one was posing their dolls hand and part of the resin cracked and broke off and now the hand will not stay on.
Again....I am always careful with my dolls. I have accidentally broken a few vinyl dolls with doing head swapping and such, but for the most part I find they can go through a lot more abuse/handling then the resin dolls. Kirahfaye posted CustomHouse Vinyl Dolls on here and I so wish I had seen this before purchasing my resin dolls.
I would like to know what the rest of you feel about vinyl dolls vs resin dolls. What are your pros and cons about them? Maybe this could help me see more of the pros for resin and more of the cons for vinyl.
At the moment I am feeling a bit flustered with the flaws of my resin dolls, but I do love the resin dolls I have. I didn't buy them for investment, I got them cause I loved how they looked, they were pose-able and I wanted to be able to play with them. And now I am starting to feel more afraid to play/handle them so much like I do with my vinyl dolls. I am already starting to notice I am not handling them as much now. Should I just continue to play with them and risk doing more damage to them after paying that much for them or do I keep them for display only and limit my handling of them? Or resell the resin bodies to get some money back and just stick with vinyl dolls? I did spend a lot of money for them and my concern is that if I have to limit my handling of them, I don't want them just sitting there collecting dust and aging. Then the value of them will go down and if I did end up reselling them then I would not get as much for them. I just don't know what to do.
I am also freaking out how to glue the magnet back into my dolls arm. I so don't want to screw that up. What glue should you us for doing that?