Question about a loose hip joint on my GGR50

Hello,

I recently purchased an Obitsu GGR50 in white secondhand. (Just want to clarify- this is a different model from the regular Obitsu 50cm) Everything about her is great besides her hip joints- her right leg is very floppy and has trouble staying up when I pose her with the leg all the way up. The left one isn't as bad and can I actually stay when I pose it like that, but it still feels floppy compared to the rest of her joints. All of the rest of her joints are very tight and are kind of squeaky, as they're supposed to be. 

I was mainly just wondering if there's anything I can do to fix this, but also how this could have possibly happened, as she arrived in this condition. I'm also wondering if the thighs are detachable without causing potential damage- if I remember correctly some smaller Obitsu dolls have thighs that cannot be easily taken off without damaging their internal structure, and I'm wondering if the GGR50 is the same way.

The GGR50 is my first big Obitsu, and I have not taken her apart all the way yet, but if the solution is internal repairs I would greatly appreciate any tips or suggestions regarding this. As of right now, two solutions that I'm thinking might work are either tightening her hip joints if they're able to be tightened, taking them off and putting them back on again, or potentially stuffing her torso area if I can't fix the actual joints themselves. Since the GGR50 is fairly rare due to it being limited edition, I really can't find very much information about it online at all besides the info from the official Obitsu website, translated from Japanese. I do have a zoomed in screenshot of some.info about how the hip joint on the frame from the official website, although I'm not sure if it would help because it's very blurry and in Japanese.

Since I got her secondhand I'm fairly certain that I can't return her. Although, since the only problem she has is her loose hip joints and since the GGR50 is so rare anyway, I'm pretty determined to either fix her myself somehow or have her fixed professionally by someone else. Her sculpting is probably one of if not the most gorgeous looking doll body I've ever seen, so. I'm definitely not going to give up on her easily. I would highly appreciate any help regarding this. Thank you for reading!

Edited January 21 by DragonTamerLeilah
Clarification that my doll was like this when I received her

I have experienced something similar with an Angel Philia. Since APs are on the classic obitsu 50, that may not translate 1:1 to your GGR, but the hips may be similar enough that they have the same issue. 

On the Obitsu 50, you can remove the legs by pulling out the thigh joint sideways from the abdomen. When putting it back on, it has to lock in with an audible click, otherwise the leg will be super floppy. Reason is usually some vinyl of the body shell getting in the way, or sometimes just not pushing in enough.

I'm not sure if the GGR hips can be taken apart in the same way (they're only depicted assembled on the Obitsu website). If the thigh joint is really just not seated properly, it should come off without needing excessive force that could break the part. Give it a gentle pull and see if it pops off. If it doesn't I'm not sure what could be done instead.

6 hours ago, DragonTamerLeilah said:

I do have a zoomed in screenshot of some.info about how the hip joint on the frame from the official website, although I'm not sure if it would help because it's very blurry and in Japanese.

There are a handful of us on the forum that are fluent in Japanese, so don’t let that stop you from posting when you need help!

I don’t have a GGR myself, but like @Tierparkzone mentioned above, the hip joint in the ob48/50 is really finicky so you might just have to seat it correctly and push it in all the way.

The other possibility is that the hip joint is cracked. If it’s cracked, it won’t hold the leg properly. This can happen even if the body is new because the vinyl contracts and expands with the temperature, and it may have been exposed to extreme temperatures (and temperature changes) while in transport.

I have both Obitsu50 and GGR, and they are not radically different. 

Obitsu50 Frame

GGR50 Frame

You can see the hips are almost identical.

In my experience, hip issues are very common with Obitsu models. I actually keep a pile of spare hip joints around just because it's the part I've had to replace the most often.

As @ragnamuffin said, the most likely problem is an incorrectly seated hip peg OR a cracked hip joint. 

You should be able to remove the entire thigh piece without damaging anything. It just pulls straight out. Once that's done, you can inspect the hip joint. If it's cracked, it's time to order a replacement part! Once cracked, there isn't much that can be done other than fully replacing the joint. (A temporary fix is to put a zip tie around the cracked joint to hold it together, but that only works for so long).

(Note you will need a proxy service to order replacement parts from Obitsu. They do not accept international orders.)

If it's not cracked, you can re-seat the joint and see if that helps. You want to be careful to NOT get any vinyl trapped in the joint and to make sure that the peg is FULLY inserted into the joint. 

If it's not cracked and re-seating the joint doesn't help, you can also put a little bit of white sticky tack around the peg (a VERY thin layer) and then re-seat the joint. The sticky tack will provide a little extra friction.

Hi everyone, I'm so sorry it's been a whole month since I've replied to this topic! I've been dealing with some personal problems irl. I finally found the time to take apart my GGR50 today and I've discovered a few things:

• I'm pretty sure the main problem is her waist connector joint (I'm not 100% sure what it's called), specifically the screw in it. I tried to tighten the screw but it would not get to the point where I could stop screwing it in and tightening it didn't seem to help, so I think there's an issue with where it screws in and I think I need to replace the screw. Does anyone know the specific size of screw used on the waist connector joint? I'm inserting an image of the part from the Parabox website so everyone can see which part I'm talking about. Due to the nature of the problem I'm also wondering if getting a *very* slightly longer or *very* slightly bigger screw would help, since the screw that's in mine now doesn't seem to properly fit for whatever reason.

• I cannot seem to get her hip joints out of the waist connector joint, I don't know if the GGR50 is different from the regular Obitsu 50 in that regard although from what it looks like it in pictures it doesn't seem like it is so I'm not sure why I can't get them out. I unscrewed all the screws and the hip joints still would not come out- although one of the screws would not come out either even though I got it all the way unscrewed. Thankfully the hip joints do not seem to be the problem though (at least I don't think so), but if I do end up needing to replace the waist connector joint itself and not just the screw I will need to figure out how to get them out safely without harming her, so if anyone has any tips regarding that with the GGR50 specifically I would highly appreciate them. 🙏

• One of her thigh shells seems to have a larger hole to insert the hip joint than the other one, and it is the looser leg. I'm wondering if heating it up gently with a hair dryer and then "molding" it with my hand while it cools down would be safe to do? Also, do we think this is part of the reason why that particular leg is more loose than the other one?

 

I really appreciate all of the tips and advice you all have given me so far! I would be super grateful to anyone who could help me with any more info about this.

22 hours ago, DragonTamerLeilah said:

• I'm pretty sure the main problem is her waist connector joint (I'm not 100% sure what it's called), specifically the screw in it. I tried to tighten the screw but it would not get to the point where I could stop screwing it in and tightening it didn't seem to help, so I think there's an issue with where it screws in and I think I need to replace the screw.

Does that mean the horizontal bar in the pictured part rotates freely without much resistance? If the screw is not binding that sounds more like either a missing nut or a stripped thread inside the plastic part. You could go for a slightly larger diameter screw that self-taps a new thread into the plastic, but that might lead to the part cracking sooner or later.

23 hours ago, DragonTamerLeilah said:

• I cannot seem to get her hip joints out of the waist connector joint, I don't know if the GGR50 is different from the regular Obitsu 50 in that regard although from what it looks like it in pictures it doesn't seem like it is so I'm not sure why I can't get them out.

So the one you pictured above is the waist connector? And the hip joints are where the legs connect to it left and right? On Obitsu 50/48 these indeed pop off. For GGR I've only ever seen them connected.

But if that's indeed the parts that we're talking about, if you can't get those off, how did you adjust the screw inside the bar? Maybe a few photos of your problem geometry might clear this up?

23 hours ago, DragonTamerLeilah said:

• One of her thigh shells seems to have a larger hole to insert the hip joint than the other one, and it is the looser leg. I'm wondering if heating it up gently with a hair dryer and then "molding" it with my hand while it cools down would be safe to do? Also, do we think this is part of the reason why that particular leg is more loose than the other one?

I do not think that the shape of the vinyl shell contributes in any way to the skeleton being loose. The vinyl usually only limits poseability. Have you tried reassembling the skeleton without the shell and test if the problem persists?