Basic SMD Care and Cleaning?

Hello everyone! I'm new to the forum and vinyl dolls. So far I just have one Smartdoll, a Milk KantanaI I bought used. My question today is about basic routine care and cleaning for Smarties.

I've been in the resin BJD hobby for years, but not super active for a long time. So I'm aware of basic maintenance for them. But unlike a resin BJD that I can unstring and clean as needed, I don't know a lot about vinyl dolls other then clothing stain prevention and treatment.

If you have any tips to share about basic and routine maintenance, cleaning, etc. to keep Smarties fresh and well-cared for please share below 🙇🏼‍♀️ TIA 

50 minutes ago, ladyroselie said:

If you have any tips to share about basic and routine maintenance, cleaning, etc. to keep Smarties fresh and well-cared for please share below 🙇🏼‍♀️ TIA 

With vinyls the face up isn’t as fragile as a resins, but in general you should avoid touching their faces. You can pretty much wipe dirt off with a soft damp cloth, but dry them off completely when you are done. 

SmartDolls aren’t hard to take apart, but their frames are known to be a bit brittle so use caution when disassembling. 

1 minute ago, BeyondTime said:

With vinyls the face up isn’t as fragile as a resins, but in general you should avoid touching their faces. You can pretty much wipe dirt off with a soft damp cloth, but dry them off completely when you are done. 

SmartDolls aren’t hard to take apart, but their frames are known to be a bit brittle so use caution when disassembling. 

Thank you for the info! I'm glad they are easy to clean with a damp cloth, I was a bit worried after seeing a video of dissembling a SMD. And wondering how often I'd realistically need to do that 😅

I don't really live in an area that is good for outdoor photoshoots, so she won't be going outside too often. But I still wanted to make sure I'm keeping my dolly in good shape.

I was reading another thread where someone mentioned buying a second-hand doll that was all grimy and needed a lot of TLC and that's what got me thinking about this and just general care. 

While I do find some of DC's SMD videos helpful, I feel like there's some information missing there and on his site about these kind of things (or maybe I just haven't come across it yet, I've read a lot on that site, but honestly there's a whole lot of info to read...some of it just seems like rants 🙃) 

3 hours ago, ladyroselie said:

And wondering how often I'd realistically need to do that

I haven’t had to disassemble my SmartDolls yet, but with the new Dollfie Dream f3 frame you sometimes need to disassemble them and tighten parts of the frame. It was designed with tensioning screws that give you a way to deal with the joints loosening up over time as the parts wear down. More work, but less need for replacing body parts. 

I did have a used SmD arrive in pieces, and putting her together was a snap. 

13 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

I haven’t had to disassemble my SmartDolls yet, but with the new Dollfie Dream f3 frame you sometimes need to disassemble them and tighten parts of the frame. It was designed with tensioning screws that give you a way to deal with the joints loosening up over time as the parts wear down. More work, but less need for replacing body parts. 

I did have a used SmD arrive in pieces, and putting her together was a snap. 

Thank you for the tip on Dollfie Dream! I don't have one yet, but it's next on my "do exhaustive research and then break down and buy" list 😆 That doesn't sound too bad tho, because it's like how you have to restring BJDs after a while.

That's good to know about SMD too! I suppose  that when you're used to certain types of dolls (and I've had all kinds in my collection from Monster High, to LE Disney, Tonner, BJD, Pullip, Blythe, Azone) getting a new one seems so scary! Like, "oh no she's not like my other dolls what if I mess something up?!" 😱 But that's just my anxiety talking 🙈