Posted on 8 Comments

Sideways Floppy Leg

We recently delivered a doll to a customer and one of the legs was a little floppy. He used the fix we showed in another post and this solved the problem for front and back motion but the leg remained slightly floppy in a sideways manner. He was largely happy with the doll so simply asked if there was a method of tightening up this action. Presently, we’ve sent the following video to the manufacturer and are awaiting a response.

Has anyone else experienced this and/or have a fix?

[Update 15/6/20: the factory have said that this is fairly normal and can be fixed much the same as the other problem, where the leg flops forwards and backwards – let’s see if this helps the customer]

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8 thoughts on “Sideways Floppy Leg

  1. Hi All,
    I have this issue with the right leg and to the best of my knowledge its been that way since I purchased it 6 months ago. I haven’t brought it up as im still undecided about it. I am concerned that it might eventually completely unscew with the leg movement, I tried the ‘fix’ from the floppy up and down video but it didnt work or seem to tighten it.

    1. try the same fix but this time move it to the left and right, as if you were tightening a bolt with a ratchet

  2. I have a WM doll and mine developed this fault easy enough fix if you have the tools. The bolt has come loose from the Nyloc nut at the top of the leg.
    All that is needed is a bit of surgery, place the doll on its side with the loose leg facing up. feel along the top of the leg where it joins the hip pressing down hard so you can feel where the leg and hip meet.
    You will be able to feel the top of a allen head bolt using a Stanley knife cut down through the skin until you reach the top of the bolt, the cut only needs to be about an inch long.
    you can now tighten the nut, when I did mine I backed out the nut so I could put some thread loc on the threads so it would not come loose again.
    I used a ratchet wrench with a allen head bit to tighten up the bolt but you could get away with a long handled allen key.
    Then just close up the cut in the skin you can either use the solvent sold on the website or use a hot air soldering iron.

  3. They all go that way eventually but it just should not have hapened so soon.
    Looks as though she can still stand but I wouldn’t trust her to for any length of time.
    For bed and genneral photographic posing there will be no issue and if anything I find photographing some of my girls with more rag doll bodies much more natural.
    As a side note are you sure thatts a 166C? Probably just the angle but she looks nothing at all like my 166C

    1. I agree and they’re actually so much more realistic when they’re completely floppy. We’d offer floppy dolls but not one person has ever asked for them. I think for new owners it can be a worry when one limb behaves differently from the others.

      It’s a WM155L (sometimes called WM155DD), maybe you’re thinking of another video

      1. Hi Graham,
        oops, I looked at the description above the blog which is actually pointing to the previous blog (Doh!).
        I just look at the floppyness as part of the ageing process and a bonus as they get older opening up a whole new set of opportunities to capture them on camera. I don’t think that I would actually buy one new with the floppy skeleton unless the intent was only as a bed doll in which case the floppy skeleton would make her easier for that and as you say even more realistic.
        All the best,
        Shamus.

  4. This loose leg problem is interesting. I’m guessing the joint is some kind of ball joint, but this wouldn’t explain why the problem exhibits only in different planes. It would be great to see pictures of the skeleton from the factory to understand how the doll moves.

    1. Hi Bob,
      don’t know how to post images in replies or I would post a pic of the skeleton.
      Its not a ball joint, that the territory of 6YE and some prototype Irontechs.
      For the hips imagine an upside down U. On either side of the base of the U is the bolt mechianism for up and down. but rather than that attached to the leg itself it is attached to a second bolt which controlls side to side.
      The bolts are generally weld closed to prevent them ever coming off. With time as they age the bolts do become looser but she won’t ever have a leg drop off. Unfortunately though it does mean that you cannot simply open up the thigh and fix the bolts.
      HTH,
      Shamus.

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