Modification Miracle doll 68cm mobility joint modification

I recently received the new Miracle doll 68cm male body. Unfortunately, much to my disappointment the upper thigh mobility joint didn't actually do much to add any mobility as I've shown in this video.

Miracle Doll Mobility Test by Cloudedmind, on Flickr

As, you can see the mobility joint can't just do a smooth turn, the parts have to be pulled apart and then turned because of how they're designed. When I try to cross it's legs the knee joints pop out in the process, and pulling the legs up towards the chest is a no go.

So, yesterday I decided to modify the joint to look like this.


First thing I did was destring the legs, and then mark where I wanted the new joint line to be. For the right leg I tried using a jewelers saw to cut the leg in half, but that didn't work so well, and why I ended up with that extra cut line you can see in the picture. The jewelers saw was just to small of a blade and kept breaking so I broke out my hack saw, and that worked better. I could have used my Dremel but that would have created to much dust, and it was dark and cold outside.

Anyway this is what I ended up with.


Then, I sanded smooth the two cut halves by wet sanding with some medium fine grit sanding paper.

There's still a few deep grooves, but they're smooth enough for what I need.

 

Next, I took the top hip piece and super glued the top cut piece to it. I glued all long the inside of the top cut piece and the top edge, and then pressed the two pieces together to get this.



Afterwards, today I took my Dremel and carved out the inside of the bottom cut piece so that the nub sticking out of the new combined top joint piece could rotate better. As the nub is more of an egg/peanut shape then round/spherical so it needed more room in the bottom joint piece to be able to swivel well. And, this what I ended up with.

And, I just realized I didn't take a before picture, sorry guys.

Finally, I wet sanded the inside of the bottom before restringing the legs, and this what I ended up with.

 

The body can now cross it's legs without it's knee joint popping out. Yay! It still doesn't sit straight unless the joint is completely engaged like in this picture.

But very much an improvement.

I may take another video showing off the new mobility better, but next I plan on tackling the arms which has locking pieces I don't care for.

Anyway, I hope this helps someone out there.

 

Haha yes, that's why I wanted to include a comparison so people would know it's not just because I'm bad at posing, which I am, just not in this case.

Thanks everyone! I had quite a bit of fun making these mods. *starts eyeing some other dolls in the house*

Honestly, I'd like to know why they've continued to use this type of joint as well. I sometimes wonder if doll companies are afraid of being called out for "copying" so they try to make their dolls as unique as possible even down to the joints. But, that's like trying to reinvent the wheel, there's no point if your new "wheel" doesn't roll.

Or who knows maybe MD has some kind of magic touch where they can get their bodies to do those poses just fine. There is one picture for this body where they've gotten one of the legs bent and pulled up to the chest, but I couldn't get the body to do that at all.

 

Here are some more posing pictures.

 

So, I've now updated the elbow joints. This was a pretty simple process. I just needed to sand down the little nubs that stuck out, which I did by wet sanding with a sanding sponge. It took less then 10 minutes to do both peanuts. The purpose was to make it easier to pose the arms from a straight to bent position.
Before




After: Nice and smooth




And a disembodied upper torso for fun.


I also sanded the very top of the neck to make it thinner as the neck was just a tad bit to big at the very top for the head I was going to use to fit properly. Anyway my LLT Edria now has a functioning body!

 

@Cattya Before doing this mod, I'd only done neck opening mods for some of my heads, which required taking a Dremel with a round sanding bit to the inside of the dolls neck. So if you've ever used a Dremel, or Dremel like tool I think it's something you could do. The most nerve racking part was just cutting the top part of the leg off, but once I had the right tool (my hack saw) it made it so easy. Hack saws can look scary, but because they're manual you have more control over speed and force.

Can you let me know which pictures are showing up broken for you? They all show up for me.

I got the body in Normal Yellow, and I'm glad you could find some use from this.

 

@Cattya Oops, just remembered that Miracle doll only has one normal color, but I would say their normal is more yellow then pink. Unfortunately, it looks like MD may no longer be selling this body. It doesn't show up on Alice's Collection and on MD's own Taobao shop it says sales are closed. I'm hoping maybe it's just being revamped.

 

@Cattya Good to know about that body. Thanks for asking her! Hopefully, that'll still be the case when I have the funds.

 

Sorry to bump this thread, but I was coming back to it and noticed so many of my image links are broken. Is that the case for anyone else?

 

Thanks! Don't know why it's being so weird for me.