The Doll Forum

Well; it is working on 7 months that Kayla and April has had their retrofit neck assemblies surgically installed. (Installed in September of 2016)

So far neither of them have had to have anything done to it at all, they are both still absolutely quite in operation and smooth as silk. So, since they have both outlasted their original horror of a gooseneck neck assembly I do believe that they can be counted as successes. The surgeries were drastic indeed, but so were the outcomes. They both are very pleased and say that they would not trade their neck assemblies for anything. I will post some pictures as soon as I get time. That seems to be at a premium lately.

For more information on the neck retrofit, Pictures of the retrofit and videos can be found at: http://missatleur.com

Thanks! CrazyCajun

Really cool bean looking for something like this. Can you make me one for a 140 cm chassis

You do know that the information to do it is available for free at missatleur.com right. But if you would still like me to put together a materials kit for you, PM me and we can work something out I am sure.

Have a great evening!

CrazyCajun

Just had a look through your repair log. Excellent work! I'm sure April appreciates your ingenuity and craftsmanship.

yougivelove;
Thank you for your words of encouragement, April really does like the new neck assembly, it has been working flawlessly since September of 2016. But in the Retrofit pictures that is actually Kayla Lynn Nelson, she was the first WMDolls doll in the world to get a fully articulated and hinged neck assembly. April was the worlds second. I am getting ready to do Miss Roxanne Marie Morrison next, a member of the forum has graciously consented to film the procedure for me. So I will have a video of that one!

Have a great evening!
CrazyCajun and the Girls

Well, we are still editing the video from Roxie's surgery, we are not editing anything out, but we are attempting to get a 5 hour procedure down to a reasonable time. Don't think anyone would care to watch a 5 hour surgery video. But TommyLLama did a very good job of capturing all of the details of the procedure, including the problems that we had, and so would anyone who attempted the surgery, that is why we want to leave in the problems and how we dealt with them as they arose.
But until we get the video edited and posted here are a few pictures of the neck assembly that was removed from Roxie. This is the worst of the three dolls that I have performed this retrofit procedure on. Remember this doll is not yet a year old!















Remember these images when you get ready to purchase a doll with a gooseneck neck assembly!

CrazyCajun and the Girls

Thanks for posting - these are most interesting findings!

Sandro

This is the third one that I have done. This is also the worst that I have seen to date. However I must point out that when you consider the number of dolls that they produce yearly, the number of failures is small, but that does not make it any better if you are one of the unlucky ones that this happens to, especially if the doll is less than 1 year old. And in the worst case that I have seen less than 90 days old!

CrazyCajun and the Girls

We finally have a live video of a Full Neck Retrofit Replacement. This video is brought to you by TommyLLama and we at MissAtleur cannot thank him enough. He volunteered his time " and it was considerable " his talent and it was considerable and his equipment to bring a full documented video to the doll community. This video is long, it is about 76 minutes, but if you are even remotely considering performing this retrofit procedure, I would highly recommend that you WATCH THIS VIDEO. If you would like it on a DVD contact us and we will get one to you.

I must warn all This video is very graphic. If you have a week stomach, Especially if you are a Synthetic "TPE" individual you may find some scenes disturbing, but I can assure you that the young lady Roxanne Marie Morrison was very pleased with the outcome!

Almost forgot The link: http://missatleur.com/Retrofit.htm

Thank you!

CrazyCajun and the Girls!

Hey CC do you know anything about shortening a neck? I'm interested in a certain doll head and a certain body but the neck is like 2 inches to long for my tastes with that particular head.. and i was considering getting the body and maybe trying to cut away 2 inches of tpe and maybe shorten what ever there is to shorten lol. Just wondering if you might have read any such thing being done before? Thanks!

Thankyou all for the time and generosity
MG

Zippy81; It isn't as easy as simply cutting off what you don't want. Wish that it was. First what type of neck assembly is used in your doll? Is it the dreaded gooseneck or is it a hinged unit? Because if it is the gooseneck you will have to remove it from the doll. Then replace it with a new neck assembly. When you build this assembly that is when you make any length modifications that you want. If it is a hinged neck assembly, depending on the way it is made, you could simply replace some of the assembly components. But it would depend on how it was made and assembled.

Actually; the 153cm WMDolls bodies from 2015 to late 2016 had a neck assembly that to me looked to long, it is very subtle and as far as I know no one has ever noticed. But all of my girls have necks that are about 1/2" shorter that the original, but as a result their necks are a little bit thicker. This is because I made the neck assemblies a little shorter and when I install the heads, they push down on the TPE around the neck and push it out a little. It gives them a fuller looking neck line! The 153cm bodies from that era actually measured as standing flat footed on the floor to the top of their head with no wig on at: 60 and 1/2 inches. All three of mine were within 1/8 of an inch of each other. After the surgeries they are now all 5' or 60 inches even give or take about 1/8 of and inch!

So yea; you can shorten the neck, but it does take some work to do so!

Awesome!gGood to know! I dont own a doll at the moment I'm in in the process of deciding though. I want the 161 body but the head I want makes the neck look just a bit long. I plan on gettingbyhe shrugging shoulders skeleton and i've seen a picture of it and it appears to have bending sections on the neck.

Hey CrazyCajun- I just got a 125cm TPE doll and it has a .. yeah, neck problem.


I think inside the connector to the body, towards the bottom, there is what looks like a drop of weld or metal drop. When the head is screwed on, it contacts with the weld or metal drop and the head cannot be completely screwed in.

Then the head swings around freely since its not seated all the way at the bottom. Its very disturbing when I turn her over, her head swings around backwards and looks at me!! Yikes!!

Other than that my girl is flawless. If anyone has had this problem or knows if there is anything that can be done, let me know.

Somebody was telling me to put a nut, washer and rubber washer on it so that when the head makes contact with the rubber washer, it will resist the natural turning. I dont know.. maybe I will look into this further.

Thanks for any help..

@Kevin21108; Pictures would help a lot, but it seems that you have indeed been given some pretty good advice, assuming that there isn't anything actually wrong. On some dolls their head attachments are simply looser than on others and the lack of friction causes their heads to simply turn any old way at all.

I use what is called an "arbor shim" you can get these at almost any hardware store and even some auto parts stores. You can get them in any thickness from about 0.001 to as thick as 1/4" a 5/8" an arbor shim will sit really good on a 16mm bolt or stud and the OD is smaller than a washer, unless you can actually find a 16mm arbor shim, good luck on that one in the states! Next, a 5/8" hose washer works OK, but stay away from the silicone ones. They are growing in popularity as they hold up better for their intended purpose. But I would advice only using the rubber ones! Also if you can find a really thick 16mm or 5/8" O'ring. But what works best for me is a 7/8" electrical hole grommet. This fits
snuggly around the 16mm threaded pipe supplied by the manufacturers and is like 1/4" thick, but it is soft enough to compress easily and gives good friction to the
bottom of the head. This is the setup that I use on all my girls!

Hope this has been some help to you! and Good luck!