My sweethearts knee joint broke HELP!!!!!

Brian545 · Post by **Brian545** » Fri Aug 21, 2015 9:45 pm

I couldn't be more upset, I've had my 145 doll for about three months and have been very careful not to let any harm to come to her. I have followed the recommended range of motion, and even with all that her knee joint snapped! I ordered the tight joints, and when I got her they seemed like they where too tight so I proceeded with caution and even then it snapped! I am heart broken and distraught, this was a major financial investment for me, and I was hoping for advice. PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!

AMBI157 · Post by **AMBI157** » Fri Aug 21, 2015 10:53 pm

Try to get into contact with DS Doll again and explain what happened. I'm not sure with your case, but they have made replacement dolls for others.

Post by **jiayi** » Fri Aug 21, 2015 11:23 pm

I am sorry to hear of your dolls knee breaking. Contact DS with specific details and photos of your doll. As AMBI said, they have replaced dolls for customers and may replace yours as well.

Please keep us informed.
Jiayi

deadpringle · Post by **deadpringle** » Fri Aug 21, 2015 11:30 pm

Brian545 wrote:I couldn't be more upset, I've had my 145 doll for about three months and have been very careful not to let any harm to come to her. I have followed the recommended range of motion, and even with all that her knee joint snapped! I ordered the tight joints, and when I got her they seemed like they where too tight so I proceeded with caution and even then it snapped! I am heart broken and distraught, this was a major financial investment for me, and I was hoping for advice. PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!

Hi Brian545,

I'm very sorry to hear about that. Like the others said, contact DS, and let them know what happened. You might need to cut the leg open in order to photograph and document the damage, but see what they say first.

DS has stellar customer service, and they will do what they can to make it right.

dasmurf · Post by **dasmurf** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 2:41 am

As some customers here have mentioned before, damage will occur over time. Having a tube of sil-poxy will do wonders!
To fix the knee, you will need a scalpel, a tube of sil-poxy, and some cleaning agent (I believe they recommend either acetone or isopropanol). The knee shouldn't be difficult to fix. Definitely way easier than the other joints described on this forum.
Either way, my recommendation is to contact DS doll anyway. It is my personal feeling that the joints should not be breaking so easily.

luckyleaf · Post by **luckyleaf** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 5:23 am

I am very sorry about it.
But don't worry if you cannot repair it by yourself you can ship the doll back and repair her for free with guarantee. I mean DS gives one or two years guarantee for their products, or not?

Seems DS forgot to moor the screw

Joke

Glascia · Post by **Glascia** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 7:44 am

DS have some of the most beautiful dolls in the market. I maybe will get one in the future, but your issue can make me change my mind.. Keep us in touch about how they manage your situation. It would be a shame if a company who make such cuties give bad aftersale service.

luckyleaf · Post by **luckyleaf** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 3:08 pm

Glascia wrote:DS have some of the most beautiful dolls in the market. I maybe will get one in the future, but your issue can make me change my mind.. Keep us in touch about how they manage your situation. It would be a shame if a company who make such cuties give bad aftersale service.

Wrong! DS have the most beautiful dolls in the market.

They also have the best customer support I've ever seen. Brands just like 4woods, coverdoll can learn from them.
No brand is perfect and most of the brands in the world have so much wastrel, much more as DS ever had! Look at statistics for product recalls (goggle) DollSweet is one of the brads with less wastrel and recalls!

MY OPINION:
DS dolls have problems with their feet in my opinion. The feet aren't resistant and cannot hold the 18 kg or more for long. If you let the doll stay in a moist or wet place (example bathroom) and barefoot, so they can be damaged very fast. You always have to use cotton socks and shoes if you want to stand the doll up and even with shoes and socks the feet can get damage if they stay to long. That's the only big problem in my opinion.

DS have the most wonderful dolls with the best customer support worldwide- Every coin is worth a buy.

haremlover · Post by **haremlover** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 3:57 pm

OUCH!

So sorry to hear of this. Things will go wrong some of the time and so no brand of doll can be wholly immune from the occasional problem and . . . thank goodness . . . the nature of this thread is . . . rare.

It's a terrible shock and one's first reaction is shock but I urge a cool head.

The first thing, for anyone reading this column who's worried about a choice of doll, is that this is a 145 rather than a full size doll and everything on the doll is scaled down by 80% or so - so this model will be slightly less robust than the larger dolls in which there are many of us who have experience and full confidence in the quality and construction.

With regard to your doll, currently she's near to useless and whatever you do it's difficult to make her worse.

So it's worth taking a scalpel to her.

There are repair videos on the DS website but personally I'm on a slow connexion and rarely look at videos.

You'll see a seam line down the side of her leg. It's there that you can make a neat incision and if you can follow the line 5 or 6 inches will give you room to inspect, photograph and see what the problem is.

After repair, that seam line is easy to glue together. You'll find a layer of foam inside. The two surfaces of foam are to be stuck together using superglue - cyanoacrylate - and then one uses a silicone to stick the two silicone surfaces together. I have used Permaflex flowable windshield repair successfully. It's best to use only a very small amount. Wipe the surfaces with acetone first. Then put the silicone into the deeper part of the wound and press together in a position adjusted for the point at which it's wanting to meet correctly. Then wrap with sellotape or clingfilm so that the wound is squeezed together ensuring the best possible meeting of the two surfaces at the surface. After 24 hours, unwrap and insert any necessary glue, the minimum, any section which the minimal amount of glue did not stick before. The idea is not to have any surplus on the surface. Bind again and you might possibly end up with an invisible joint.

So making a repair is not disastrous.

Eventually all of us have to make such incisions to tighten up the joints of any make of doll, and if it's a component that requires replacing if necessary, it's not a lot of work to do so beyond tightening joints. Member Samurai had a 4 Woods with such loose joints that he had to perform a similar operation to tighten them up and the operation was a success.

If you can identify the part that's broken and photograph it - you don't need high resolution photos - I use only 1200x1600 to send by email - and this will enable DS to be able to decide if they might be able to send you a part to achieve a repair and the extent to which a repair can be successful.

When joints are tight it's absolutely essential to follow Chloé's safety briefing for all dolls which is a sticky thread in this section: one must be strict in breaking down motion into the direction of the hinges, moving one hinge at a time vectorially and moving from the hip first, then the knee to achieve the required direction rather than levering from the extremity.

Of all manufacturers, it's DS who really love the ladies that they create and they don't like to see any of their maidens in distress.

Hoping that things will turn out right and that the story will have a happy ending,

Best wishes

Harem

Jimjam · Post by **Jimjam** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 4:09 pm

dasmurf wrote:As some customers here have mentioned before, damage will occur over time. Having a tube of sil-poxy will do wonders!
To fix the knee, you will need a scalpel, a tube of sil-poxy, and some cleaning agent (I believe they recommend either acetone or isopropanol). The knee shouldn't be difficult to fix. Definitely way easier than the other joints described on this forum.
Either way, my recommendation is to contact DS doll anyway. It is my personal feeling that the joints should not be breaking so easily.

Don't do this yet! I would advise against any home repairs at the moment. Contact DS first. If the doll is only three months old, there's a good chance you may get a replacement - DS has excellent customer service. Cutting into her now will definitely void any warranty.

Jimjam

haremlover · Post by **haremlover** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 4:12 pm

Jimjam wrote: Don't do this yet! I would advise against any home repairs at the moment.

With respect, the doll will have to be repaired or scrapped.

Shipping back to China for repair is hideously expensive so making the investigatory incisions will be important to know what failed and why and as to whether local repair is possible and this will help DS in deciding the best course of action.

Best wishes

Harem.

rubherkitty · Post by **rubherkitty** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 4:37 pm

I would still wait for authorization from DS before I started cutting.
And if cutting is authorized, study the joint design and repair threads first. Gather all the materials for the repair first so the doll is not left cut open for a long time.

Did the knee slowly loosen up like a nut backed off or did the knee snap like a weld broke? Can you weld?
Can you tell if the shin bone is completely detached from the thigh bone?

haremlover · Post by **haremlover** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 5:08 pm

rubherkitty wrote: knee snap like a weld broke? Can you weld?
Can you tell if the shin bone is completely detached from the thigh bone?

Good advice above, and DS won't be long off the mark in coming back to you . . .

As far as I'm aware nothing on a DS skeleton relies on a weld - all components are specifically fabricated and none are welded certainly in the sense that other makes are with nuts welded on the ends of things.

The knee is a double yoke inserted into a triple yoke with washers between. A photo of the joint will show whether the break arose from a sideways force as a result of moving the limb at 90 degrees to the direction of the hinge, which is an operator mishandling, or whether on account of the extreme stiffness reported, the metal of the yoke shows a twisting buckling under the proper force applied in the correct direction. It's for this reason that investigation photos are vital.

Best wishes

Harem

rubherkitty · Post by **rubherkitty** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 6:21 pm

No welds on a DS skeleton?
I see 3 welds just on the attached pic.
I assume there is a couple of welds at the knees where the yokes attach to the leg bones/ tubes.
I do not have a close up of the knees.

I believe it was poor or light welds on the neck piece of Deadpringles 145 that failed.

haremlover · Post by **haremlover** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 6:35 pm

I meant not fabricated welds like that but the sort of welds we saw elsewhere from other manufacturers where rods were welded to the sides of nuts . . . much more in the nature of backyard welding rather than production fabrication that we see on DS quality skeletons.

Best wishes

Harem