The Doll Forum

Hi there!

I got a TPE doll about a month ago and when I was cleaning her recently I noticed some rather worrying hairline cracks around her right nipple - see attached photos.

Unfortunately they don't show up that well in the pics. They look somewhat worse in real life...though not terribly so (you'll probably need to open the pics & expand to full size to really see the "cracks").

I'm just worried that this could be the first signs of something worse to come. I've treated the area with Vaseline for now, but I was wondering if there is anything else I could / should do?

Is this something that could be remedied with a hot air rework station? Not a problem getting one...more my lack of experience with this sort of thing.

Any and all advice welcome...

Let me ask this... when you squeeze her boob does the hairline crack become bigger?

From what I am looking at I'd just keep my eye on it for now... if it splits more than a soldering iron with the knife tip will be able to seal that wound up. But as with any surgery, steady hands and taking your time prepping is always important. Also, before working on your lady get a piece of TPE and practice before doing the actual surgery.

No the cracks don't get bigger (but then I squeeze fairly carefully).

They only appear to be surface cracks at the moment. But like I said, I've had previous experience of minor damage propagating into something major, so I'm a little nervous.

I can get my hands on a rework / soldering station easily enough. Guess I'll need to Google where to get TPE from to practice on...just in case...

Scrublord wrote:No the cracks don't get bigger (but then I squeeze fairly carefully).

They only appear to be surface cracks at the moment. But like I said, I've had previous experience of minor damage propagating into something major, so I'm a little nervous.

I can get my hands on a rework / soldering station easily enough. Guess I'll need to Google where to get TPE from to practice on...just in case...

I know it can be frustrating... I'm starting to see more and more of these issues coming up on the forum where the TPE is tearing at the stress points I think it's more a quality control issue than anything else.

You can always go to your vendor and ask if they have a piece of TPE they can send you.

At this point, I would not do any repairs on her and just keep the area oiled and keep your eye on the issue...