Modification Old Volks SD-13 boy torso flexibility

While I haven't tried this modification myself, I have heard of people removing the channel piece in the lower torso or putting notches in it to improve poseability.
I have received an SD13 boy where the part had detached – Maki Tsuyoshi from 2008, bought from Mandarake. I don't know if reassembling him without this piece would have increased his posing capabilities as I reglued it (there were fragments of resin in his leg channels from the piece breaking loose and I was concerned about future damage).
Good luck with your modding endeavours!

 

I'm following this thread, because I want to hear some experiences too. My SD13 girl's torso also has a piece like that, I would like to detach it to see whether her mobility improves. And I also hesitate, because this piece is glued in place in my doll, and I have no idea how to remove it without resorting to extremes.

For reference, the piece that I (and I think Evie the kid too) am talking about is the piece jutting up from the lower torso. It's a separate piece that seems fit into place without needing to be glued, but in my doll's case, it is cemented in with some sort of permanent substance and absolutely won't budge. The solutions I can think of are - either use some kind of solvent to dissolve the cement, or take a hammer to it.

I do know someone who once removed the piece completely from their SD13 doll -- they didn't care about ruining the body so they took a hammer and chisel to it. They told me the doll's torso became very floppy when the piece was gone, but they filled up the torso with foam or bubble wrap, which helped to stabilize it while allowing posability. I imagine that wire will also help stabilize the torso.

 

If it’s held in with superglue, you could always try freezing it out!! Just pop the part into the coldest part of your freezer and leave it there for awhile and that should do the trick at getting it to detach.

 

I already tried the freezer with my girl's torso - froze it for over 24 hours, then tapped that piece gently with a hammer covered in a towel, to see if it would dislodge. No luck, it's solidly cemented in. I hope you have more success, Evie!

 

Makes me wonder if Volks have changed to a stronger adhesive for keeping that part in place...
Of course with secondhand dolls, you have no idea how they've been stored and handled in my Maki's case: perhaps the humid Japanese climate helped the glue in mine degrade over time, or it naturally wore out over 15+ years, or the formula was different, or the jostling around in the post was the last straw enough to both free the part and break small pieces of it off

 

I had an extensive chat about this on a Discord server, with someone who had experience with this inner torso piece (it got dislodged out of their SD13 boy and they had to repair it). The doll owner told me that this piece is structurally load-bearing: when it's removed, it seems to severely compromise the body's ability to keep the upper torso upright. They were not keen on wiring or stuffing the torso with foam etc, said it wasn't worth it, any potential increase in posing ability is not worth the loss of structural stability.

They also told me that the SDGrB and GrB 13 Revival bodies have this inner torso piece, but it's shorter and had notches in it. So maybe modding the SD13 piece to add notches may be a way forward?

That's what I know so far. It'll be great to see how Volks structured it in the GrB bodies, so I'll see if I can find out more.