The OHC Rebody Project feat. my lost Volks package

Lo and behold, the package I thought was lost arrived today! Apparently a whole bag of mail had gone missing over the weekend, so at least it wasn't personal. I did have to pay VAT though, so I suspect they've started being more careful when checking the smaller/lower value packages. Oh well, at least I can finally show you what I bought and what I did with it.

Stuff from Volks

 
It's been a while since I ordered from Volks - the 1/6 bodies are discontinued, but they're still selling the rest of the stock at the international site (I know Volks USA had a big final sale of their 1/6 stock a year or so ago). Most models are sold out, but it seems like once in a while they find some forgotten boxes at the back of the warehouse and suddenly the body you're after is available again. Usually while your're broke, but this month I managed to get the last white Mini-A body before they sold out again.

A match...?

I've been looking for articulated bodies for my Only Hearts Club dolls for a while now - their original cloth bodies are perfectly servicable and also kind of articulated with their internal wires, I just really really hate that particular fabric. All of them have different skin tones. This is Lily Rose, who is one of the palest of the lot. Volks normal might match some of the others, but it's too dark for her, so I decided to take a chance and order a white Mini-A (the normal skin tone was out of stock anyway). It doesn't quite match her head, which is almost sickly grey, but it comes quite close. (The best match is probably the vinyl of the soft bust parts on the 27cm Volks body, but these heads look really weird on an adult body so that's not an option.)

Left: Volks tan, right: Volks white

Olivia Hope (left) lives on my boy Mini for now - it's a bit too dark, but normal skin tone might be too light. I still plan to get one as soon as they're available to try it out. Something I discovered here is the torso of the male body is a bit wider over the shoulders, BUT if yuu measure them and include the actual shoulder part of the arm, they're the same width. So basically the joint sticks out more on the female body, which can look a bit weird. Another thing about these bodies is that, in contrast to Mattel's molded flower print underpants, these actually have something resembling sculpted genitals. I know the molded panties are one of my pet peeves, but when it comes to more realistically sculpted child bodies aimed at adult collectors - I realized that it actually does bother me a bit. So there's that.




I bought the tan Volks from someone on the doll forum and it didn't come with all the extra connector parts, so when rebodied Olivia I had to improvise a bit and made a simple neck connector from a plastic bead and a bit of elastic. It's a bit wobbly but it works. For Lily Rose I decided to sacrifice this neck anchor I had laying around - I thought it was from a Skipper, but I can't remember dismembering one of those lately so I think it might be from a Bratz. Either way, it's smaller than a regular Barbie anchor (which won't fit; I've tried).

Internal torso spring after I messed with it.

Initially the new body wouldn't bend forward at the waist, but instead tended to bend backwards any chance it got. That's not quite as useful for posing, so I opened it up and determined the cause to be the spring. Since the last few loops that go over the pins inside the body aren't centered, they pull the spring in one direction and don't easily bend the other way. I tried just turning it but it didn't fit, so I pried open the next loop too so they would go on the other side. It's kind of hard to explain in words, but here's basically how it looked:

Beautiful and informative drawing of the spring before and after

The operation was successful: the body now bends in the right direction (forward), and with the added effect of being a bit tighter, or at least that's what I imagine. If necessary I guess you could just replace the spring, but that's entering a part of the hardware store I've never even thought of visiting (how do you classify springs anyway? What are the parameters - tension, length, diameter? Is there an ISO standard, and if so does Volks adher to it?).

All in all I think this was a successful rebody, even though the body's a bit paler than the head. The neck is a liiiitle bit long and I'm considering shaving a bit off, but I'm not sure how far I could carve without damaging the pin. Also if I use the original connector and it fits into the head in the same way, there might be a gap between the head and the top of the neck, or the head might wobble a bit more, but a custom connector could fix that (maybe just a bead on some elastic like I did with Olivia's body). Also since the bodies are getting harder to come by, I'd have to be absolutely sure I'll never want to use it with another head before I start cutting. So for now I'm leaving them as they are.

All the OHC girls together, except Briana's feet.

Poor Briana still needs a better body: this one has articulated arms at least (shortened by removing the middle bit) but the waist doesn't turn, the legs have click knees, and those hips look way too mature for her age. Ideally I'm after the type with articulated knees but not the new, taller kind. Just like the Volks, the Bratz bodies have too long necks for the OHC heads, but again that modification will have to wait until I actually have the body. I'm sure I'll come up with something.

(I know someone put their Briana on a Bratz body, but I can't remember who or I'd link to it to give an idea of what it would look like.)


To fill out the order I bought a bunch of tights for the 27cm dolls as well, but I don't like the large knit of the fabric. The fishnets look a lot better, imo. I also bought a pair of simple black plastic shoes, to see what a pair that's designed to fit the 27cm body would look like. I must say I'm surprised since they don't fit. Like, at all.

Note the space behind the heel

Even with stockings they're way too long. The best explanation I can think if is that they're actually intended for Volks' 1/6 BJDs (is that SD or DD? I can never remember what the letters stand for), who I assume have larger feet. Not sure how I could have missed that, though, since they're found under the old 1/6 body + spare parts headline. Oh well. Whatever went wrong it''s hard to be too annoyed, since shoes of all sizes are always needed around here.

All: GIVE US SHOES!
Briana: and FEET!