The Doll Forum

Arthur1960 wrote:Hi Dr Dollinger, thanks for your kind comments. Well I can see that WM have made some improvements this year, Athena's new 158D body arrived in perfect condition and didn't feel at all tacky and only had a very faint odour. I still gave her a good clean and a light powdering and 3 weeks on her tpe feels smooth, not tacky and barely has any odour. As for the softness, it feels the same as the WM145 that I got in the summer, so it's softer than my YL148 (18 months old) but not too soft, to me this particular blend feels just right as although it's soft it's not getting loads of compression marks from clothing etc. As for the fingers, well the finger wires on the 158 and the 145 from this year are thicker, probably twice as thick as my YL148, so they feel more robust but are also harder to bend into a pose but I would rather have them like that. I don't think these wires are pushed into the narrow coils that are then cemented into the palm plate like my YL148 so they don't flop about but I can see that they could snap where they go into the palm plate if you caught one of the fingers when going through a door etc. So far they are all intact and my 145 is about 5 months old now, then again I've learned to be careful with the fingers, even my older YL148 has all her fingers intact but they can appear a bit floppy due to the spring fixing. The wrists feel solid on the 158 and the rotation is now done by carefully twisting the forearm. What I am curious about is the neck assembly as it's clearly different from the traditional goose neck. When I first attached Athena's head and moved it I couldn't hear anything so I assumed that the neck is now hinged, since then I can hear something but its much quieter than say my YL148 or my OR156 so it's either a new improved goose neck or a hinge assembly, the 145 is the same. So all in all some welcome improvements, as Athena will be used, primarily for photography I'm hopeful that she will last quite a while, it will be interesting to see. You read about the problems that occur with tpe but with this newer blend and the right care I can see it lasting a lot longer, time will tell of course, in the meantime I will try and get some more pics done of Athena, I love to use her as a model now, especially with her ability to stand, just need some good light alas it's been quite dark here in Suffolk for the past week!

Arthur1960 wrote:Thanks Dr Dollinger and a happy Christmas to you too! Hi blindwebster, Athena has the popular WM56 head, as you say, one of the hottest Asian looking faces you can get. She's high on the cuteness factor but if you invest in some of the movable eye lids that Mannequin fan sells you can get a more sultry look, just check out DollDaddy27's Kianna and you will see what I mean, she's still a 56 but has a smouldering sexy look that will break your heart!

Arthur1960 wrote:A few more pics from yesterday, this time from my Nikon, it was another dark day so I used the light from a ceiling spot lamp...