Loose MDD Body, What Are My Options?

This is my first post so I apologize if this has been asked before, I tried looking for a topic on this and couldn't find much.

I recently purchased a MDD body at a good price because of it's age and loose joints. I'm always up for a project and at it's price, I wasn't going to pass up my chance at finally getting into vinyl dolls. (I've been in the resin BJD hobby for years now)

The joints that seem to be loose are...everywhere. It's not terrible at the shoulders and hips, but the knees buckle very easily and the ankles are very floppy. I was told the hips could probably be fixed with some clear nail polish, but the knees and ankles would be a different problem altogether. Basically there's a few things I would like to know:

1.) If there's an easy fix to any of these, please let me know.

2.) It seems that Volks is only selling MDDIII and MDDf3 frame parts now. Is there any compatibility between the parts?

3.) Is there any parts that may replace the mechanisms that aren't from Volks but are meant to fix body issues? (Kind of like the replacement neck piece that coolcat has)

Ohhh boy.  You're in for some fun.  😉

The original MDD bodies were bad to start out with, even brand new.  As they got used and played with, they only got worse.  As you have seen, the knees and ankles are the first to go.  The good news is that these can be repaired.

For the knees, the best thing I've found is to take them apart and put in rubber/plastic washers called kips.  They go in between the knee joints easily and then you just tighten them down with a screwdriver and put the legs back together.  Some people have used a light layer of clear nail polish in there but I don't trust that as much as the kips.

I've used clear tape on the hip studs before and it worked okay for a bit but I think a light layer of the clear nail polish lasts longer there.  That socket and peg get worn down and loose so they just need some friction between them to make them tight again.

As for the ankles, those are a lot harder to repair.  The main thing that goes wrong with them is the screw holding the ankles together gets stripped out and won't tighten anymore.  So if you're lucky you can just replace it with a slightly larger screw and call it a day.  To get to it you'll need a heat gun or a hair dryer to heat the foot vinyl and then pry it off the hard plastic frame underneath.  I used a very small and thin flatblade screwdriver to do that.

 

BUT....

 

If that small screw has been stripped out AND the socket it screws into has broken off, that's when you have real issues. But that's still fixable if you're good with a drill and small pliers.  😉  You'll have to get a variable speed drill and a tiny drill bit to drill into that wallowed out screw hole to make it bigger.  Once that's done you can either use a nut and bolt to put everything back together or you can use a slightly bigger screw and SLOWLY make your new threads in the hole using the new screw.  Both ways are hard and fiddly to do but they CAN be done with time and patience.  I've done both repair styles on several MDD bodies in the past and had good success with them.  Just be slow and extremely careful when doing this.

 

As far as replacement parts for the original bodies, there really aren't any.  The skeletons on the newer bodies are a bit different from the old ones and *most* parts aren't interchangeable but a few of the major ones will work.  The feet cannot be swapped because the old ones have pegs going up into the leg, the newer ones are reversed.  But the entire leg can be swapped out because the hip holes in the upper thighs are the same size.  Same for the arms, the shoulder joints are the same size between the two bodies so swapping whole arms is easy.  Also, the wrists can be swapped but the pegs might be too long to fit properly and need to be cut down a few millimeters.

 

The last thing that goes wrong often on the originals is the small ring ( looks like a donut ) that goes around the inner tube inside the frame between the top and lower torsos.  It gets cracks in it over time and breaks away.  You can either use epoxy to fix the cracks or use large industrial strength zip ties to keep it in place and help prevent cracking.  Pretty easy fixes there.

 

In closing, you can definitely repair the old MDD bodies or even swap some parts out.  But depending on what parts you go after, it might be smarter to just buy a new body altogether.  

 

I wish you luck on the repairs!

 

 

Billy

Thank you so much for your input. I'll definitely take a look at things and see what I can do. Eventually I'll want a new body but for the time being I'll fix this one up

I wanted to edit my post with an update but I can't edit! I wanted to just update with what I did now that she does stand on her own!

I used some clear nailpolish on her foot screw. It did not really solve the issue completely but the feet no longer wobble uncontrollably. I believe that the feet will need bigger screws sometime in the future.

The knees were tightened slightly and kips were placed. I took the upper knee joint out of the thigh (do NOT recommend unless you absolutely have to because getting it back in is hell on Earth) and tightened that screw. That one was much looser and contributed to a lot of the knee buckling. Thighs were coated with clear nail polish and kips were placed here.

Forearms were coated in clear nailpolish and no longer fall out of their sockets easily. The balljoint in the shoulder is still loose but not so much I'm going to worry with it because it does not appear to have screws.

You'll be able to edit older posts once you have member status.

12 minutes ago, RikunFrances said:

I took the upper knee joint out of the thigh (do NOT recommend unless you absolutely have to because getting it back in is hell on Earth) and tightened that screw.

I don't know if you are aware of this or not so I'll mention it--you can use a hairdryer to heat the vinyl to do things like this, it softens the vinyl making it more flexible and makes it much easier to get the frame parts in and out, and less likely that something will tear or get gouges etc. This is also the eaiest way to take hands on and off the wrist frame.

3 hours ago, RikunFrances said:

I wanted to edit my post with an update but I can't edit! I wanted to just update with what I did now that she does stand on her own!

I used some clear nailpolish on her foot screw. It did not really solve the issue completely but the feet no longer wobble uncontrollably. I believe that the feet will need bigger screws sometime in the future.

The knees were tightened slightly and kips were placed. I took the upper knee joint out of the thigh (do NOT recommend unless you absolutely have to because getting it back in is hell on Earth) and tightened that screw. That one was much looser and contributed to a lot of the knee buckling. Thighs were coated with clear nail polish and kips were placed here.

Forearms were coated in clear nailpolish and no longer fall out of their sockets easily. The balljoint in the shoulder is still loose but not so much I'm going to worry with it because it does not appear to have screws.

Yay!  I'm glad to hear you got some things fixed!  Once you have enough posts I hope you share pics of her! 

 

 

Billy