How to fix a jankey Mythdoll head, by Wolfie!
Alright, so I'm posting this specifically for DoA user ZestroY, who wants to know about what I did to fix Jonnny (Mythdoll Leroi) and make his head easy to remove! This is a sort of tutorial, and of no particular relevence to those without Lerois, but I figured I might as well post it here so I can just point to this if anyone else asks later.
First off, this should be a familiar picture (albeit a rather baffling one) for anyone who's ever opened up a Little Leroi's head expecting the usual head system. The grey around the edges is kneaded eraser added to stick his head on firmer, don't worry about that.
Now, normally, in dolls from every other company I personally have looked at, the base of the head is an open hole, usually more or less round, and the expectation is that you will pull the loop of elastic from the body up into the head where it will go over an S-hook or some sort of little resin piece (like in Serendipity Sharmin) made to take the place of said S-hook and hold the string in the head. Mythdoll is not sold on that idea, and as we see here they have a bar built in across the middle with a notch in it. When you first recieve the doll, he is strung like a "W" (the ends are tied in the wrists) with the middle point in the head, looped directly over the bar with the string sitting in that notch, no hope of removal in sight. This tends to be a rather panic-inducing revelation. How on earth can you remove the little bugger's head for a faceup?! Sadly, you will have to completely unstring the first time to manage it. What I did was restring him with an improved method. It may or may not be worth noting that I restrung him top to bottom, starting at the neck without the head and a pencil through the elastic, then went on to work on the head.
Essentially, what I did was make this. Looks weird, but it works. This is made of super sculpy because it needs to be nice and strong and that stuff is easy to work with. This is shown from the top.
And here it is from the side.
Here's how it fits in the head. It was sculpted directly on the inside of the head, making it shaped for the notch and bar mechanism, with one side wide to cover that half of the hole and the other side narrower than the opening to allow the string to come up around it on both sides. Yes, the piece does have to be baked.
Now, as you can see, while holding the body with my feet and using some sort of string puller (fishing line here to make it easier to see, but I usually use a thin, flexible wire) to pull the elastic up through the side of the hole that gets the narrow part of the piece. It takes both hands, so I couldn't get a picture, but next you have to slip the piece in just like the usual S-hook or other piece, making certain to settle it right on the notch like it was sculpted.
After you let go of the string and remove your string-puller, it should look like this, with the piece settled down nice and snug and the elastic securely on it.
As you can see, this leaves plenty of room inside the head for even eyes with stems. Very helpful thing to have. So this is what the inside of Jonny's little noggin usually looks like.
...And that makes him happy!
Well, I hope that was helpful for anyone who needed it! And thank you
nakadah for letting me steal Jonny for this tutorial!
First off, this should be a familiar picture (albeit a rather baffling one) for anyone who's ever opened up a Little Leroi's head expecting the usual head system. The grey around the edges is kneaded eraser added to stick his head on firmer, don't worry about that.
Now, normally, in dolls from every other company I personally have looked at, the base of the head is an open hole, usually more or less round, and the expectation is that you will pull the loop of elastic from the body up into the head where it will go over an S-hook or some sort of little resin piece (like in Serendipity Sharmin) made to take the place of said S-hook and hold the string in the head. Mythdoll is not sold on that idea, and as we see here they have a bar built in across the middle with a notch in it. When you first recieve the doll, he is strung like a "W" (the ends are tied in the wrists) with the middle point in the head, looped directly over the bar with the string sitting in that notch, no hope of removal in sight. This tends to be a rather panic-inducing revelation. How on earth can you remove the little bugger's head for a faceup?! Sadly, you will have to completely unstring the first time to manage it. What I did was restring him with an improved method. It may or may not be worth noting that I restrung him top to bottom, starting at the neck without the head and a pencil through the elastic, then went on to work on the head.
Essentially, what I did was make this. Looks weird, but it works. This is made of super sculpy because it needs to be nice and strong and that stuff is easy to work with. This is shown from the top.
And here it is from the side.
Here's how it fits in the head. It was sculpted directly on the inside of the head, making it shaped for the notch and bar mechanism, with one side wide to cover that half of the hole and the other side narrower than the opening to allow the string to come up around it on both sides. Yes, the piece does have to be baked.
Now, as you can see, while holding the body with my feet and using some sort of string puller (fishing line here to make it easier to see, but I usually use a thin, flexible wire) to pull the elastic up through the side of the hole that gets the narrow part of the piece. It takes both hands, so I couldn't get a picture, but next you have to slip the piece in just like the usual S-hook or other piece, making certain to settle it right on the notch like it was sculpted.
After you let go of the string and remove your string-puller, it should look like this, with the piece settled down nice and snug and the elastic securely on it.
As you can see, this leaves plenty of room inside the head for even eyes with stems. Very helpful thing to have. So this is what the inside of Jonny's little noggin usually looks like.
...And that makes him happy!
Well, I hope that was helpful for anyone who needed it! And thank you
nakadah for letting me steal Jonny for this tutorial!