Maintenance Restringing - what's the use for the little rings???

New I'm yet to understand *why* exactly they're there, maybe to stop the S-hook from getting lost inside the limbs? I've found them a bit annoying sometimes if they don't sit just right. In any case, you can take them out if you want to, it sometimes easier to get the ankles/wrists tighter without them. They won't make the whole body floppy, though, I think you'll just need to tighten the elastic for the body's loop to fix that.

Here's how it is supposed to sit in the wrist (the pic is from an SD body but it'll look the same):

Spoiler

 

New They're washers, and they're used to catch the S-hook should you accidentally let go of it and it gets pulled into the channels by the elastic tension. Typically, if the S-hook gets lodged inside the channel of a limb because it got yanked in by elastic, it can be very stuck there. It's a pain in the butt to fish out and can potentially jeopardize restringing of the doll if you can't remove it from the channel. The washers are big enough that they can catch the S-hook and prevent them from getting stuck. They're not necessary for typical stringing, but they're useful quality of life measures that you might wish were there should you have a stringing accident with S-hooks.

You can put them back in place without completely restringing the doll. Here's my method - I hope it makes sense.

(1) Pull out the hand far enough that you can stick a chopstick through the elastic loop, then remove the hand, the wrist ball, and the S-hook. The chopstick rests on the wrist and prevents the elastic from shooting back into the channel.
(2) Use a restringing tool, or a piece of florist wire, and thread the washer onto the wire.
(3) Hook the wire/restringing tool around the elastic, remove the chopstick, and push the washer off the wire onto the elastic loop.
(4) Reattach the S-hook, the wrist ball, and the hand to the elastic. Now the washer will sit inside the channel and catch the S-hook if it gets pulled in.