Very bad luck with my Ulrika (broken)

[TimesSeven]

Agreed. I've had bad luck with my WM doll fresh out of the box, but the vendor and WM say, "it's not that bad, just Macguyver this and this and this..." like I'm an expert with tools. Even when the actual doll owners here say, "this is BAD" they ignore my requests. Sadly, this has really turned me off of doll ownership. Once my Lisa goes to Silicone Heaven, I doubt I'll purchase another.

[anonymousdfuser]

Hi !
I have had an answer from Zelex : They say it is my fault because the doll sleeps standing and, that caused the broken foot . They say that it must be hanged on a hook ( this , in my opinion ends with a broken spine because legs' weight will broke the welding between spine and legs , I mean , the pipe that they use in these skeletons is very thin and , all that legs' weight ... well you know what it will happen . With all this , the only thing I see here is that they wash their hands and whistle . I have other doll and she also sleeps standing ,never had a problem with a broken foot . Thank you all . I will try to repair on my own (they say it is very difficult to mend) . Doll's experience with Zelex : bad support to customers ,not to repeat .

You really shouldn't keep your dolls standing. If it works for you, that's great, but you still shouldn't do it. Dolls aren't made to support their weight in a standing position for long periods of time. It's best to keep them lying down or hanging.

With that said, I will say Zelex has fairly decent customer support. But, and this is important, their skeletons and paint need work. My doll broke her back today. That was the second body for my doll. The first one was decommissioned after the back broke in the exact same way. I didn't move it in any strange ways that could cause damage, and I kept her in a neutral position most of the time. So I will agree that their skeleton needs improvement. And the paint. That rubbed off quite quickly for some unknown reason. At this point I'm not going to try to repair anything because nothing I do will hold the skeleton together, plus I have a RealDoll on the way, so I am not too bothered about the broken Zelex doll.

[anonymousdfuser]

Agreed. I've had bad luck with my WM doll fresh out of the box, but the vendor and WM say, "it's not that bad, just Macguyver this and this and this..." like I'm an expert with tools. Even when the actual doll owners here say, "this is BAD" they ignore my requests. Sadly, this has really turned me off of doll ownership. Once my Lisa goes to Silicone Heaven, I doubt I'll purchase another.

Haha I had something similar happen. I accidentally broke the finger on my Zelex doll, and one of their staff suggested asking someone I know to weld it for me. Umm.. no, I don't think I will do that. Although I will say their staff are quite friendly and helpful, even offering to send parts for repairs for the paint that rubbed off within maybe two to three months.

[vinylmaster13]

Hi !

I have other dolls from other brands and they are standing with no problem (they are older), even in their forum I was told to keep them standing moving their position a bit when I could . The fact is that if you buy a standing doll the skeleton should be good enough to resist doll's weight . As I have seen the skeletons are rubbish , bad welded , pipes too thin , etc ... I mean , if you pay a lot of money you should receive something that works fine , never a doll that is broken in 4 months and when you say them what happened they only whistle , walk away and say you are guilty . I am sure if I had said that it was hanging or lying in bed the answer would have been the same . Come on , after the foot an arm joint was loosen and then I had an alien arm ( her elbow can rotate 360 degrees ) and I am still the guilty . Nonsense . Beers

[TChris]

I'll say that in my case, I haven't had any issues with my doll standing.. and one of them stands for weeks at a time.

My original dolls back broke, but not at the hip bar, it broke between the lateral torso tilt and fore/aft torso tilt joints. When this happened, it was already being replaced due to a issue with the silicone pour. The broken piece was a piece of metal about 1 inch with the two brackets on each end (one piece of cast steel). My dolls back broke directly as a result of a ridiculously tight leg putting fatigue on it due to huge amounts of leverage needed to move the leg up (which acted againts the upper back on the bed/surface). I fixed it, and eventually the next weakest link in the leverage chain, the knee broke (no bar above the joint and it hyper extended back). Fixed that and then finally the bracket itself on the hip broke. I fixed it and then opened the bolt after grinding the weld nut loose. I should have loosened that nut after the back broke. So far nothing else has broke and I don't expect it to. Note this was on the doll I actually use for sex so it gets lifted up and such.. the replacement is just a curio in the living room a shown in the 170 photos..

[john1972]

Hi !
I have had an answer from Zelex : They say it is my fault because the doll sleeps standing and, that caused the broken foot . They say that it must be hanged on a hook ( this , in my opinion ends with a broken spine because legs' weight will broke the welding between spine and legs , I mean , the pipe that they use in these skeletons is very thin and , all that legs' weight ... well you know what it will happen . With all this , the only thing I see here is that they wash their hands and whistle . I have other doll and she also sleeps standing ,never had a problem with a broken foot . Thank you all . I will try to repair on my own (they say it is very difficult to mend) . Doll's experience with Zelex : bad support to customers ,not to repeat .

You really shouldn't keep your dolls standing. If it works for you, that's great, but you still shouldn't do it. Dolls aren't made to support their weight in a standing position for long periods of time. It's best to keep them lying down or hanging.

With that said, I will say Zelex has fairly decent customer support. But, and this is important, their skeletons and paint need work. My doll broke her back today. That was the second body for my doll. The first one was decommissioned after the back broke in the exact same way. I didn't move it in any strange ways that could cause damage, and I kept her in a neutral position most of the time. So I will agree that their skeleton needs improvement. And the paint. That rubbed off quite quickly for some unknown reason. At this point I'm not going to try to repair anything because nothing I do will hold the skeleton together, plus I have a RealDoll on the way, so I am not too bothered about the broken Zelex doll.

Ok tell me this...
When my doll is standing her weight is pushing down on the feet pegs and the weight downward on
TWO legs and those joints..
You say hang her?
Ok so you screw the hook style neck bolt into the neck and hang her...
Now the weight is doing the exact same thing except the other direction..
The only thing that might not take as much damage when being hung is the weight on the feet pegs.
Either standing or hanging the joints take the same amount of pressure from the weight of the Silicone or TPE.
In fact you now have ALL of the weight of the doll on just the neck joint lol..
If that crappy weld on that basic neck joint breaks the entire doll falls to the floor causing even more damage .
Hanging a doll is worse then standing if you ask me.
Laying down is fine if its a firm Silicone..
But if you lay down a TPE doll for long periods of time they can end up with flat asses...
Sorry but ill stand my girls gently and have there weight on TWO legs instead of hanging by one basic U joint in the neck.

[seagull]

My Kimber has spent the last year or so on her back although she gets rolled over every time the bedding gets changed and no sign of flattening
Superior elastomer blend n no gel

[TChris]

I'll say this, defects notwithstanding.
Leverage plays a huge part in the health of a joint on stand-able dolls (not dolls which need a jig or other extra shit to be vertical, which is also why their skeleton health shouldn't be compared to stand-able dolls)). Imagine tightening a sparkplug on a car with a breaker bar instead of a small ratchet. You'll probably break it or strip the threads out the block. When you lift the leg of a doll, its usually by the foot/ankle area because the leverage makes it easier assuming the joints are properly tight). The whole leg is basically a giant breaker bar at that point (this is an important consideration when moving joints to their maximum and continuing to push against the "stops"). If you tried the same thing at the thigh, it probably wouldn't work or would need a large amount of force. The same can be said for any other joint.

With that in mind, if you are moving joints when the limb is at an angle (not in the plane of movement), you are putting a huge leverage on the joint at an angle to which it can't move. The same thing can happen when standing the doll up in weird positions for photoshoots and such. If you have a leg bent and one straight with the calf turned for some cute stance for example, you are placing force on the joints outside of the plane to which the bracket of the joint moves (extra fatigue). Doing this over and over, especially if you are trying to find place of balance (even if you are leaning it on something) creates fatigue and can leads to failure. The same forces can also loosen poorly tightened joints. Rapid movements can also create excess fatigue. Without using an impact wrench, rapid jerks on a breaker bar is a way to break very tight bolts as well. So when you rapidly move tight joints you are risking loosening them, or breaking them.

[anonymousdfuser]

You say hang her?

I don't say that. Most manufacturers do. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[vinylmaster13]

Hi !:
foot problem fixed . I used a long nut with the screw inserted in just to make it stronger .

Not good quality but more or less you can see the piece

sparepart.JPG (430.29 KiB) Viewed 477 times

Then I put it on doll's place

inserted.JPG (361.91 KiB) Viewed 477 times

.


And finally the foot on his place , back's screw is used to make the foot and the piece together , and doll repaired .


So , right now I only have to fill in that hole with silicone . Why did not Zelex gave an small idea on how to mend that , having in mind that what I have done is a shit , they could have some spare parts for skeletons to have those problems fixed : piece , liquid silicone and a piece of cloth like the one on the skeleton. Thank you Zelex I did it on my own on my holidays in 10 minutes . Beers

[vinylmaster13]

Hi!

Bad news ,but it was something that I knew well it was gonna happen due to skeleton and doll quality . Ulrika has died . Last Saturday skeleton was broken , right hip broke apart , impossible to repair . I will post photos for you to see the skeleton bullshit they use , I have "peeled" the doll . Of course Zelex will say it is my fault and blah blah blah as always to whistle and walk away. Her " flesh" has gone to the garbage , I only have the head and the skeleton right now . As I said on other post I will never buy a zelex doll again ( a doll I am still paying for , thank you Zelex but you stole my money) .

[PDutus]

Hi!

Bad news ,but it was something that I knew well it was gonna happen due to skeleton and doll quality . Ulrika has died . Last Saturday skeleton was broken , right hip broke apart , impossible to repair . I will post photos for you to see the skeleton bullshit they use , I have "peeled" the doll . Of course Zelex will say it is my fault and blah blah blah as always to whistle and walk away. Her " flesh" has gone to the garbage , I only have the head and the skeleton right now . As I said on other post I will never buy a zelex doll again ( a doll I am still paying for , thank you Zelex but you stole my money) .

Just read through this thread again. Sorry to hear this, vinylmaster13. Despite being attracted to some of their dolls, I would not buy a Zelex on the basis of this complete lack of customer care.

One of my JY dolls developed a TPE problem, which got worse over the ensuing three months or so. JY replaced her. I wasn't accused of storing her badly or mistreating her, or anything like that. My Sino arrived with a faulty head. It was replaced. And like others here, my dolls have been left standing for long periods of time with no issues. To say that this caused Ulrika's problem is utter rubbish!

The skeletons of most dolls are utter crap, in my view, although some undoubtedly fare better than others. I am seriously thinking about buying a DS Summit when funds permit, purely on the basis of the quality of the skeleton, which seems to me to be vastly superior to anything else out there. I have seen the Summit Alexa in the flesh and so have first-hand experience of what she's like.

[blindwebster]

Their dolls are breathtaking, but it is stories like this that scare me away.

[vinylmaster13]

Hi !:

you are right , most of the manufacturers use the same skeleton that is a crap , and they know it well that it is a crap but they do not mind . I have another doll that is kept standing and she has three years old : no skeleton broken DO YOU COPY THAT ZELEX? THREE YEARS STANDING AND NO PROBLEM AT ALL ! , you can design the most beautiful doll , use the best silicone but , if the inside is a crap all your job ends like my ulrika : in a container and with a very angry client that even you do not mind at all ( they say :it is your fault ) . So , avoid these manufacturers and that's all folks .

[vinylmaster13]

Oh shit , those shots are rubbish , I will take them again , terribly sorry