How are your old DDs holding up?

As we ring in a new decade, I'm curious as to how dolls from 10+ years ago are faring. (kinda because I'm eyeing one lol) 

So, how are your dolls from the 00's to early 10's doing? Any yellowing, smell, brittleness, etc.? 

So far all of mine are doing very well.  My original Rei Ayanami that I bought in late 2010 came with a DD1 body but 3 months after I bought her in Osaka, I got a DD2 body to replace it.  And she has stayed on that same body ever since.  She may have a little yellowing to her but if so, it's very even and hard to tell.

Manami has moved thru several bodies over the last 9.5 years but her original body is still kicking!  She donated it to Midori a while back and it's been doing very well.  I did break her spine about 3 years after I got her but I repaired it with Permatex epoxy.  That repair has held up for 6 years or more.

As far as face ups go, all my old Volks girls with their original factory face ups have had no problems.  But others that have been done by artists have had some problems here and there.  Some of them fade, some get shiny and have needed to be redone.  Most of the time it was due to me handling them improperly ( touching their faces with my hands too much ) or failure of the sealant used on the paint.  At least it has been easy enough to have them repainted by people I trust. 

So depending on what you're looking for, I'd say an older default Volks girl in NS should be no problem to adopt.  If anything, the old hot glue Volks used to use in them will be turning all greasy and slimy so that will cause the eyes to fall out and need cleaning and replacement.  The only other thing you need to watch for is WS girls.  A lot of the originals have begun to turn either yellow ( like Nia ) or a greenish hue ( like the MDD girls from Dragonsbane ).  Otherwise you're good to go.  The older bodies are VERY durable and sound, I actually prefer them to the newer versions for the most part.  😉  

 

 

Billy

Yellowing of the vinyl may be the only real issue that I'm noticing for some older DDs. From experience, each DD ages differently and I think it's largely due to the formula in the vinyl that Volks use for each DD or a span of DD releases. Other factors that may also contributes to how DD ages include storage conditions, temperature changes, open displays, etc. I have mine in a cool room, here's what I have observed.

I believe that all of my older releases must have yellowed to some extent. I see that some are extremely light and evenly yellowed that it's hard to tell, while others have yellowed in small spots here and there upon inspection. I notice little yellowing in the bodies, across all releases DD1/2/3/f3. The heads however, is a different story. Here are a few examples.

Saber Alter V1/V2 have evenly yellowed over time. Saber Extra, Saber Lily -no yellowing, yet.

As for Saber V1 from 2008. For some reason, it has shown weird yellowing all over the head. Volks must have experimented with something really different in their vinyl formula for the V1 Saber head that unfortunately, had made it extremely susceptible to yellowing and a bit more brittle. All of my V1 copies have yellowed significantly! Even ones I've stored away in their boxes for years.

My oldest one is probably Nemu Asakura which I recall, is a 2004 release, has yellowed very slightly throughout. But it is an even yellow from head to toe and shows a nice progression of the doll's age. My various other DD from early 2000s to 2010s have shown very little yellowing or none so far.

So it's probably best to ask who owns the specific older released DD you have in mind to see how it is holding up today. But ultimately, I think that yellowing is an inevitable trait of the vinyl. It'll happen sooner or later to all DDs. Aside from that, all else is still perfect including face up, frame joints, etc.

I don't have any personal experience not having been in the hobby that long, nor owning any older DDs, but from pictures, I've noticed that same thing that it seems like certain heads are perhaps more likely to have yellowed with age. Specifically, I know I've seen pictures of more than one Beatrice where her head is not the same color as the body and appears to have yellowed. To a lesser degree I think I've seen this with Neris as well.

Being the anal picky person that I am, the thought of my lovely DDs yellowing sort of terrifes me.

Considering my age, I may yellow first.

Edited January 5, 2020 by cfx

Being both a vintage toy collector and a Dollfie Dream collector I have some thoughts and opinions on soft vinyl aging.

With things like soft vinyl My Little Ponies from the 80s, they are now anywhere from 31 to 39 years old. The varying conditions they can be found in is almost unbelievable. Some are riddled with issues including break down of the vinyl, leaking plasticizer (makes the vinyl soft), and parts or all of the vinyl yellowing or changing colour. Whereas other vinyl toys of similar age very rarely suffer the same issues but do have their own problems.

Then there are toys that look and feel like they have never been touched and were manufactured yesterday. The conditions they are kept in definitely affects this, but some toys kept in ideal conditions show age that toys kept in damp basements never do. Basically, it seems random.

I am fairly confident to say that the way the toy is manufactured is the major thing that affects the way they age.

This should be true of the vinyl of Dollfie Dreams as well. Even the oldest DDs were manufactured in the 2000s. The manufacturing process would have evolved in the time between 1983 and 2001. Not only that, Dollfie Dreams are not mass produced in third world facilities the way toys were in the 80s. 

Other than occasional batch issues for some of the DDs people have already mentioned, I don't feel like DDs will be breaking down significantly any time soon. 

I also have one older release doll from 2010. She is a Sakuno Uryu. Her vinyl hasn't changed since I purchased her used in 2013 or so. She doesn't look yellowed even against my much newer bodies. Her paint is also flawless. Her head does seem a little harder than my newer dolls, but not significantly and considering she has a hard head, I think this is more to do with her formula at manufacturing than leaking plasticizer like other toys.

TLDR: Old toys still hold up well and they were produced in less than ideal conditions 40 years ago in third world countries. So I don't think DDs are going to have problems for a very long time 

Edited January 5, 2020 by Katiazza

16 hours ago, baldylox said:

So far all of mine are doing very well.  My original Rei Ayanami that I bought in late 2010 came with a DD1 body but 3 months after I bought her in Osaka, I got a DD2 body to replace it.  And she has stayed on that same body ever since.  She may have a little yellowing to her but if so, it's very even and hard to tell.

Manami has moved thru several bodies over the last 9.5 years but her original body is still kicking!  She donated it to Midori a while back and it's been doing very well.  I did break her spine about 3 years after I got her but I repaired it with Permatex epoxy.  That repair has held up for 6 years or more.

As far as face ups go, all my old Volks girls with their original factory face ups have had no problems.  But others that have been done by artists have had some problems here and there.  Some of them fade, some get shiny and have needed to be redone.  Most of the time it was due to me handling them improperly ( touching their faces with my hands too much ) or failure of the sealant used on the paint.  At least it has been easy enough to have them repainted by people I trust. 

So depending on what you're looking for, I'd say an older default Volks girl in NS should be no problem to adopt.  If anything, the old hot glue Volks used to use in them will be turning all greasy and slimy so that will cause the eyes to fall out and need cleaning and replacement.  The only other thing you need to watch for is WS girls.  A lot of the originals have begun to turn either yellow ( like Nia ) or a greenish hue ( like the MDD girls from Dragonsbane ).  Otherwise you're good to go.  The older bodies are VERY durable and sound, I actually prefer them to the newer versions for the most part.  😉  

 

 

Billy

Thank you for all the info! That's good to hear the your dollies are doing okay. 😄 I will be looking for an NS girl, so hopefully there'll be less yellowing. That's good to know about how sturdy they've been. Do you have any tips on how to clean the glue? I've heard that popping the head in the freezer will make the glue come right out in one piece, but idk how the glue being degraded/melted would change things. 

12 hours ago, burokkori said:

Yellowing of the vinyl may be the only real issue that I'm noticing for some older DDs. From experience, each DD ages differently and I think it's largely due to the formula in the vinyl that Volks use for each DD or a span of DD releases. Other factors that may also contributes to how DD ages include storage conditions, temperature changes, open displays, etc. I have mine in a cool room, here's what I have observed.

I believe that all of my older releases must have yellowed to some extent. I see that some are extremely light and evenly yellowed that it's hard to tell, while others have yellowed in small spots here and there upon inspection. I notice little yellowing in the bodies, across all releases DD1/2/3/f3. The heads however, is a different story. Here are a few examples.

Saber Alter V1/V2 have evenly yellowed over time. Saber Extra, Saber Lily -no yellowing, yet.

As for Saber V1 from 2008. For some reason, it has shown weird yellowing all over the head. Volks must have experimented with something really different in their vinyl formula for the V1 Saber head that unfortunately, had made it extremely susceptible to yellowing and a bit more brittle. All of my V1 copies have yellowed significantly! Even ones I've stored away in their boxes for years.

My oldest one is probably Nemu Asakura which I recall, is a 2004 release, has yellowed very slightly throughout. But it is an even yellow from head to toe and shows a nice progression of the doll's age. My various other DD from early 2000s to 2010s have shown very little yellowing or none so far.

So it's probably best to ask who owns the specific older released DD you have in mind to see how it is holding up today. But ultimately, I think that yellowing is an inevitable trait of the vinyl. It'll happen sooner or later to all DDs. Aside from that, all else is still perfect including face up, frame joints, etc.

Thank you for the info! It's amazing to hear your girl from 2004 is still in good condition, if yellowed. I'll stalk owner pics of the girl I want to see, but I haven't noticed any yellowing on her in particular. Either way, yellowing isn't the worst issue a doll could have, so I'm glad to hear that that's the main worry. 

 

11 hours ago, cfx said:

I don't have any personal experience not having been in the hobby that long, nor owning any older DDs, but from pictures, I've noticed that same thing that it seems like certain heads are perhaps more likely to have yellowed with age. Specifically, I know I've seen pictures of more than one Beatrice where her head is not the same color as the body and appears to have yellowed. To a lesser degree I think I've seen this with Neris as well.

Being the anal picky person that I am, the thought of my lovely DDs yellowing sort of terrifes me.

Considering my age, I may yellow first.

lol. but yeah, I've def seen yellow heads! as long as they're not, like, bananas, I don't mind so much. probably cuz I've come the resinbjd community, where some dolls really do turn bright yellow haha. 

 

1 hour ago, Katiazza said:

Being both a vintage toy collector and a Dollfie Dream collector I have some thoughts and opinions on soft vinyl aging.

With things like soft vinyl My Little Ponies from the 80s, they are now anywhere from 31 to 39 years old. The varying conditions they can be found in is almost unbelievable. Some are riddled with issues including break down of the vinyl, leaking plasticizer (makes the vinyl soft), and parts or all of the vinyl yellowing or changing colour. Whereas other vinyl toys of similar age very rarely suffer the same issues but do have their own problems.

Then there are toys that look and feel like they have never been touched and were manufactured yesterday. The conditions they are kept in definitely affects this, but some toys kept in ideal conditions show age that toys kept in damp basements never do. Basically, it seems random.

I am fairly confident to say that the way the toy is manufactured is the major thing that affects the way they age.

This should be true of the vinyl of Dollfie Dreams as well. Even the oldest DDs were manufactured in the 2000s. The manufacturing process would have evolved in the time between 1983 and 2001. Not only that, Dollfie Dreams are not mass produced in third world facilities the way toys were in the 80s. 

Other than occasional batch issues for some of the DDs people have already mentioned, I don't feel like DDs will be breaking down significantly any time soon. 

I also have one older release doll from 2010. She is a Sakuno Uryu. Her vinyl hasn't changed since I purchased her used in 2013 or so. She doesn't look yellowed even against my much newer bodies. Her paint is also flawless. Her head does seem a little harder than my newer dolls, but not significantly and considering she has a hard head, I think this is more to do with her formula at manufacturing than leaking plasticizer like other toys.

TLDR: Old toys still hold up well and they were produced in less than ideal conditions 40 years ago in third world countries. So I don't think DDs are going to have problems for a very long time 

Your perspective was really valuable to read! If something like an MLP toy can survive that long, then DD's shouldn't have too much trouble for a while. Plasticizer, I heard, is a carcinogen when it degrades, so I wanted to make sure there were no DDs getting gooey or anything haha. 2010 is around the era I'm looking at, so that's really helpful. Shout out to Volks' great manufacturing haha. Thank you so much for the response!  

I'm really curious how long DDs can last and if they will inevitably start leaking plasticizer..it'd be heartbreaking to have a doll for a long time and then it starts melting.

Checking now, I have a DD I bought as new-old-stock that's actually 7 years old, and there really wasn't anything about her to not think she was manufactured recently in terms of any kind of noticable aging.

Besides vinyl there are a few other things to consider. If the doll has an outfit that has any potential for staining, that could be worse with one that's been sealed up in a bag for years; there have been a few posts here about how clothing apparently can outgas as well.

If you are looking at a DD from around 2010, then I assume it's a DDII body. If a bit newer and it's an early DDIII, then there's a real possiblity that parts of the frame may be cracked or broken even if it's an NOS DD. I believe it's Saber Extra that is especially known for this issue. Of course the solution to that is new body parts or body, but it's an extra expense to be aware of.

 

39 minutes ago, rainglow said:

I'm really curious how long DDs can last and if they will inevitably start leaking plasticizer..it'd be heartbreaking to have a doll for a long time and then it starts melting.

Thankfully when plasticizer leaks, it doesn't melt the vinyl. It sort of just creates a sticky residue on the surface that you can wipe off. The vinyl actually gets much harder when the plasticizer leaks, so it's the opposite of melting. That being said, even when vinyl has hardened completely and become solid, it doesn't become brittle like resin is. I've dropped vinyl toys that have fully hardened and I've never seen one break or snap!

The plasticiser leaking is also something that happens to nendoroids, especially older ones, and usually when they’ve been boxed up for some time. If you’ve ever left nendos in their boxes a long time due to lack of space or whatever, you might have experienced the gross stickiness yourself. I had this issue when I took out a bunch of nendoroids to sell. 

Assuming if/when this happens on a DD it’s the same or similar as on a nendoroid, merely wiping it off doesn’t work (in fact depending on what you use for that you’re more likely to get small fibres of whatever stuck on the stickiness). What you have to do is dissassemble and soak the parts in a solution of (looots of) dish washing liquid and water. I soaked them overnight, left to dry and then soaked again. For most of them, the stickiness went away. More recent nendoroids (ie from 2014 onwards) didn’t have this problem.

It seems to happen because when they’re boxed up and start outgassing, the plasticiser has nowhere to go so makes a film on them. I’m not sure if keeping dolls cooped up does anything similar, but I thought about it when I took my SuperDollfie out of his box after months of having him in storage and there was a very strong resin smell which he didn’t have when out in the open. I also recently got a cabinet for my dolls to keep dust off them and I noticed when I opened it after not having time for them for a while, that familiar ‘new vinyl’ smell that I hadn’t smelled since unboxing Luka hit me. I don’t know if this affects the dolls in any way, but I found it interesting.

Edited January 5, 2020 by Monty

4 hours ago, sweets said:

Thank you for all the info! That's good to hear the your dollies are doing okay. 😄 I will be looking for an NS girl, so hopefully there'll be less yellowing. That's good to know about how sturdy they've been. Do you have any tips on how to clean the glue? I've heard that popping the head in the freezer will make the glue come right out in one piece, but idk how the glue being degraded/melted would change things. 

You're welcome!  I think you will be fine in getting a NS girl.  

As for the glue, it gets REALLY greasy and let's loose.  You'll have no trouble getting the eyes out if the glue has done that but cleaning up that nasty residue takes some doing.  I had to use a lot of Dawn detergent and let the head soak for a few hours in a bowl of that and hot water in order to get it out.  But if the Volks glue is dry and in there tight, doing the freezer trick works well.  You can also use a heat gun or hair dryer to soften it some and get them out that way.  I think freezing is the cleaner way to do that tho.

 

 

Billy

I have two of the original Rin Tohsaka, so the 2009 release. Both are second-hand dolls, although they come from very different conditions. One was well-kept, stored carefully away from the light, kept away from dark/stain-prone clothing, etc. The other was not so lucky. She was displayed, often in direct sunlight, and in kept in her original outfit for years (!!!). When she arrived, she required repeated Oxy10 treatments to remove the awful staining.

Today, I can't tell them apart unless I study them very, very closely. They're slightly yellowed -- but the exact same amount, despite their very different backgrounds, oddly enough. I have one on a much newer body (circa 2016) and you cannot tell that it's not her original body. The newer body is only because sometimes I'm lazy and I'll swap doll heads around instead of undressing and redressing a body... I did have Alisa on the old body for a long time and you couldn't tell it wasn't her body, either.

I think next oldest are Marisa and Reimu, who are both 2011 releases. Neither are yellowed at all. I don't think of them as "old dolls" -- I never notice any difference between them and my newest girls.

I wouldn't be concerned about getting an older girl as long as she was NS and photos showed her to be in good condition.

 

4 hours ago, Katiazza said:

Thankfully when plasticizer leaks, it doesn't melt the vinyl. It sort of just creates a sticky residue on the surface that you can wipe off. The vinyl actually gets much harder when the plasticizer leaks, so it's the opposite of melting. That being said, even when vinyl has hardened completely and become solid, it doesn't become brittle like resin is. I've dropped vinyl toys that have fully hardened and I've never seen one break or snap!

Oh interesting! I thought plasticizer was toxic when it leaks and not necessarily something you'd want around though? Imagining it getting on the clothes sounds like a pain omg.

I have two dolls that I think of as older releases, because they were released a bit before I started this hobby. They are Sakuno Uryuu and Yuki Morikawa. I adopted both second hand, one from YJA and one from Mandarake, so I don't know how they were kept. Sakuno is a very slightly darker color than a brand new NS body, but not by much. This may just be due to a change in the color formula over time as well. Yuki is evenly yellowed and is noticeably darker than her newer body in person. However it isn't too noticeable in photos, and doesn't bother me enough to care even in person, since people can have variances in the color of their face vs body anyway. Both have the original faceups, which are in excellent condition. Yuki has her original eyes still installed with no issues.

 

For me, the only issues in aging for DDs that I've had is with joints loosening over time in earlier series bodies. I either repair them, or if they are beyond what I want to tolerate, replace them.

 

Though, I do have some hybrid DDs heads on Obitsu bodies where the bodies have given me yellowing issues. The torsos are made of very soft vinyl, whereas the limbs are a bit harder, and the limbs on two of mine are noticeably more yellow than the torso. This bothered me enough on one doll to make an even more hybrid doll by replacing the limbs with DD parts. There is a slight color difference but it isn't as bad as the yellowed limbs were.

49 minutes ago, Jezrah said:

Though, I do have some hybrid DDs heads on Obitsu bodies where the bodies have given me yellowing issues. The torsos are made of very soft vinyl, whereas the limbs are a bit harder, and the limbs on two of mine are noticeably more yellow than the torso.

Now this, this must be incredibly common. I've seen it often in Mandarake's pictures of dolls with Obitsu bodies. I wanted an example to link to, so just now I searched Mandarake for "Azone 50" and clicked on the first thing I saw, and she has this issue:

https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/detailPage/item?itemCode=1122337995&categoryCode=02011&lang=en

I could put Volks NS arms and legs on a SW torso, and I don't think it'd be as noticable as what I see there.

I've also noticed that even when the vinyl isn't color-mismatched, that the plastic Obitsu joints are often a poor match for the vinyl in color. I think that's a big part of the reason I dislike those knee joints so much; especially when they don't match in color I think that they look like knee pads of the type worn in hockey or roller derby.

Edited January 6, 2020 by cfx

I recently purchased an MDD body made in 2007. From what I can tell the original owner took really good care of the body. There's no visible yellowing and no discoloured spots. The vinyl is still soft as well. Since I own resin already, all my dolls are kept out of the sunlight for the most part, I don't see why this body wouldn't last even longer. Now, the looseness is a different story. The ankles are the worst but I've been able to tighten the knees and hips so she doesn't just flop over. Eventually I'll probably invest in a MDDf3, but until that time comes I'll treat my girl with love and care.

19 hours ago, Monty said:

The plasticiser leaking is also something that happens to nendoroids, especially older ones, and usually when they’ve been boxed up for some time. If you’ve ever left nendos in their boxes a long time due to lack of space or whatever, you might have experienced the gross stickiness yourself. I had this issue when I took out a bunch of nendoroids to sell. 

Assuming if/when this happens on a DD it’s the same or similar as on a nendoroid, merely wiping it off doesn’t work (in fact depending on what you use for that you’re more likely to get small fibres of whatever stuck on the stickiness). What you have to do is dissassemble and soak the parts in a solution of (looots of) dish washing liquid and water. I soaked them overnight, left to dry and then soaked again. For most of them, the stickiness went away. More recent nendoroids (ie from 2014 onwards) didn’t have this problem.

It seems to happen because when they’re boxed up and start outgassing, the plasticiser has nowhere to go so makes a film on them. I’m not sure if keeping dolls cooped up does anything similar, but I thought about it when I took my SuperDollfie out of his box after months of having him in storage and there was a very strong resin smell which he didn’t have when out in the open. I also recently got a cabinet for my dolls to keep dust off them and I noticed when I opened it after not having time for them for a while, that familiar ‘new vinyl’ smell that I hadn’t smelled since unboxing Luka hit me. I don’t know if this affects the dolls in any way, but I found it interesting.

You're completely right, getting the plasticizer off is a bit more complicated than wiping it. I should have elaborated but I'm on mobile and it sometimes takes a long time to write out responses. The good thing is that eventually the plasticizer will leak out completely, and then it will be gone. The bad news is then the vinyl becomes solid. It doesn't affect paint at all when it comes off though which is good. Artist face-ups might suffer but original Volks ones should be safe. 

I'm not perfectly certain but resin doesn't have plasticizer to leach out so the resin children should be fine. Plasticizer is used specifically to make plastics squishy which resin doesn't do. 

There are a lot of theories on why the plasticizer leaks, specifically ones that I haven't heard about with figure and doll collecting but no one seems able to pinpoint why exactly it happens. Outgassing is possible, but I've seen toys kept in tight totes for decades be fine and others in climate controlled display cases for years who leach it for apparently no reason.

It's funny because a lot of collectors are themselves scientists, chemists, and they still can't quite figure out what it is that causes it