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Taking
Care
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You don't have to treat your Pullips like they're made of glass. They
are delicate in places, it's true, but they can take quite a bit more
than some people like to make out. Most breakages, though not all, are
due to factory faults (like something not being glued properly, or a
too tight joint) or bad treatment. If you do break something, whatever
it's down to, it is usually fixable in some way. Also, always bear in
mind that many parts of these dolls are designed to come apart, for
ease of redressing or due to the method of articulation, so that hand
that just went flying across the room may not actually be broken, it's
just come out of it's socket.
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| Hair
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Pullip hair ranges in quality from "OMG why isn't MY hair that nice?!!"
to "What the heck is this, hay?". When a big part of the fun of Pullips
is playing with thier hair, the latter type can be a huge old PITA. One
answer is to just buy a better quality wig, but most of the time it
is possible to tame those stock locks.
Try washing her hair with conditioner (the same stuff as you'd use on
your own hair will be fine). Comb her hair out while
the conditioner is on it, then leave it for a few hours
for the conditioner to really sink in. Wash it out and comb her hair
again while it's still wet, then let it air dry. Once it's dry, it
should be nice and soft, untangled and unfrizzy again. If it gets nasty
again, recondition it.
If the hair conditioner doesn't work out, try
using a fabric softener instead with the same process. Sometimes one
works better than the other.
Some of the old rooted girls hair (Squall and Venus for instance) can
benefit greatly from straightening.
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Staining
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Ever noticed how some Pullips come with bits of plastic wrapped around
their limbs underneath their
clothes? That's there to stop the stock outfit from staining the doll
while it's in the box.
JP does not make alll their items of clothing from colourfast fabric,
so you may find that after extended wear without protection, your doll
may be staining the colour of her clothes. This most often happens with
colours like black, purple or red (cornice's outfit is a prime
offender, as are China's knickers).
Staining can be removed using some kinds of acne cream. The key
ingredient is benozyl peroxide, which will basically bleach out the
stain. However, it can bleach out the dye in the doll which you want to
keep, so use it sparingly! Spread some of the cream over the stained
areas, trying not to get much on unstained areas and then leave in
direct sunlight. Check the doll once a day, removing the cream to check
the progress of the stain and reappying it to areas that have not been
removed yet.
To make sure it doesn't happen again, colourfast te offending articles
of clothing! This can be done with a mixture of vinegar, salt and
water. Mix up 60ml of vinegar, 1tsp of salt and 950ml of water and dunk
the clothing in it. Make sure they're saturated, and leave them to sit
for half an hour. Remove them from the vinegar mix and rinse them out
with water and soap, then allow to air dry.
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Body Problems
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Tummy Popping (type 2s)
Some of us have a problem with love handles, or overhanging our waist
band a little, and Pullip's no different, she pops out sometimes too.
Her problem is a little easier to fix though!
Roll up the soft torso (this is much harder than it sounds). Get some
thin craft foam (4mm thick is probably more than enough) and cut four
strips. Two should be around 3.5 cm wide, while the other two around
1.5 cm wide. All four should be about 6cm long. Take one of your wider
strips and insert the end into your dolls hip joint. Insert the other
end up under the soft torso and smooth it out. If it turns out to be
too long, pull out the hip end and snip a bit off then re-insert it.
Repeat with the other wide strip, but at the back. The thinner strips
should be inserted along her sides. Once it all seems flat, roll down
the torso. This won't completely elliminate the tummy popping issue, it
will still sometimes come out from the hips, but the foam padding now
inside it will ensure that it goes back in without kicking up a fuss.
Loose pegs
Loose pegs are possibly the most common problem, and they affect all
body types as far as I know. It's also one of the simiplest to fix. The
problem is caused by the peg not fitting snuggly enough in it's hole.
What you need to do is expand the peg a little. Remove the troublesome
limb, take a little bit of cling film (you may also know it as "saran
wrap") and wrap it around the peg. You really don't need much, once
around may well be enough. Next, push the peg back into it's socket and
experiment with it. Try twisting it around in it's usual range of
movement, and tugging at it to see how easily it comes out again. If
it's still too loose, add a little more cling film around the peg. If
it's too tight, take a bit off. You can use this method on any of
the limbs that attach with a peg and socket.
Acrobatic hands
(type 2s and boys)
Another annoying problem, which often leads to much time spend on hand
and knees, muttering a chant along the lines of "Where the hell has it
gone, it can't have gone far; I was only standing over there."
Pull out and take apart the offending hand. Put a little dab of craft
glue (general use PVA. DO NOT ever use superglue for this) in one half
of the ball joint. Leave it until it goes
tacky (almost set but not quite) then put the joint back together. As
it finishes drying, twist the joint a little to make sure it doesn't do
too firm a job of gluing them together! Once it seems dry, push the
hand back into the arm socket. As
long as you don't use too much glue then the movement should be kept.
It'll be a little stiffer, and it's still not foolproof, but the two
halves should
stay together better and not launch too many more expeditions into your
carpet and behind large heavy pieces of furniture. You may need to
re-do this after a few months of use as the glue will wear off.
Stil not happy?
Well, you're not alone. The default Pullips bodies do leave something
to be desired for a lot of people, and many swap their body out for
once made by Volks or Obitsu. See the customisation
resources page for links to places where you might buy these. But
remember they have their own issues and ANY highly articulated body of
this size will.
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