Modification The Saving of God-Master Heliot

Just recently I purchased a 2008 fullset Heliot God-Master from a person on another website. I was lucky to find it -- he's got every single one of the options that were available, and still has his CoA and all other items -- and I'm glad I got him.

Having said that, I have also learned many things.

One, that whenever I buy on the second hand market, I should expect that I am not getting a "playable" doll right from the start. I am getting a project.

Two, however many years old the doll is: magnify the requirements of the project by that number.

I had asked if he was from a smoke-free home, and he was. I didn't ask if he was from a pet-free home, and I should have. Every single porous part of this doll's outfit smells like animal of some kind; I think it's dog. The doll himself as well as his accessories: everything has dirt of some kind on it.

So here's my project list so far.

• DONE: Wig: matted. See if it can be cleaned/restored at all or (more likely) replace it.
  • Cleaned it and it turned out okay; I'm willing to use it as a backup even though I'll be making others.
• DONE: R.Heliot head:
  • DONE: Horn has come loose apparently during shipping; clean and reattach (figure out the best way to do this?)
    
  • DONE: Remove eyelashes.
  • DONE: Remove eyes and old eye putty.
  • DONE: Clean as thoroughly as possible while (hopefully) not removing the original faceup.
    • Actual dirt is possibly involved in at least one spot.
  • DONE: Glue magnet back in on cap.
  • DONE: Attach new eyelashes.
  • DONE: Put eyes back in.
• DONE: Human Heliot head:
  • DONE: Clean the inside of the head (wtf exploded in here? what is this nastiness?)
  • DONE: Gently spot-clean the outside of the head, hopefully not removing the original faceup.
    
  • DONE: Remove old eyelashes.
  • DONE: Attach new eyelashes.
  • DONE: Put new eyes in.
• DONE: Body:
  • DONE: Okay, here's some difficulty. His body is basically filthy, and not in any conceivable good way. So I've got to unstring him and see if I can save his elastic -- at least he poses well, thank the gods for small favors.
  • DONE: Then I've got to clean his body. The body blushing may have to be sacrificed because he has so much grossness on him -- he turned a pair of white gloves yellowish!
  • DONE: Dry and restring him.
• Outfit:
  • DONE: Remove necklace part sewn into vest-like piece.
  • DONE: Sew hooks/loops to use to connect it in the future to permit for easier cleaning. (Decided instead to make it into a real necklace so he can wear it with other outfits)
    
  • DONE: Everything reeks of dog/some animal. Gently handwash in warm water with Oxyclean and hang to dry.
• Bow and arrow:
  • DONE: Also filthy. Clean all over. (May use this to experiment with how deep I can clean before I start losing blushing, because the clear resin is deeply yellowed and I may just paint the whole bow)
    
  • DONE: Figure out how to keep the bow together (it splits in 3 parts for storage/shipping) -- eye putty?
    
  • DONE: Personal item -- I want to get some small pieces of clear rubber filament to use to hold the bow and arrow in his hands while posing.
• Wings:
  • Determined too filthy to salvage; the construction would not permit immersion for cleaning.

Then reassemble his outfit and show everyone how good he still looks for an old man such as himself.

Dear gods... what did I sign up for?

I'm not going to pitch a fit. I'm not going to seek a refund. I'm not going to cause drama.

But I'm going to remember what I learned from this.

And I will save God-Master Heliot. Watch this space for updates soon.

 

Thank you so much! It's a bit trying, especially since I just got my first BJD's this year -- and technically although Heliot is not my first purchase, he is the first one to arrive. So I'll be learning on what is now a rare doll of some age and trying to restore him to his former glory. We'll see how it goes! Even if I wind up having to make him into something totally new, I'll still love him.

 

First of all I want to thank EVERYONE for the support and helpful tips -- Like I said, I've wanted dolls of my own for at least the last decade; it's only this year I've been able to afford the investment. So I'm new to the practical parts of the hobby, and all of your advice is very helpful and encouraging.

Thank you! Yeah I know it doesn't "always" mean that -- but if I think of it that way in the beginning and buy with that understanding, and then I get a perfect doll that can play immediately and needs no work? Bonus! It's just a mindset change for me that might help me be less disappointed next time.

Thank you! Very good help. I wondered about wtf happened to separate it out; I'll invest in some tacky glue!

Thank you! I'm going to need it. I basically made this thread so I could keep a historical record of every time this beautiful doll made me want to cry all the cryes. Day 1: received doll. *cries*

Thank you so much! I appreciate the confirmation on Oxyclean (and I agree about Febreeze; it's just that I was really more upset than I let on last night and could barely think of how or where to get started on this mess at the time).

Yeah I did not buy from the MP here because I don't have access yet; I bought on "another website" (trying to anonymize a bit in case the seller has an account here; I don't think they do but hey) -- and I got some of the (*sigh*) "story" before the purchase of the doll. Seller is advanced in years and health is declining; Heliot belonged to seller's spouse who was killed (?!) some time ago and now seller is having to part with a number of dolls due to increasing bills.

O_O

So it's like... yeah, they didn't disclose... and this is an older person who, if they live with several pets, may not even be aware of the smell and may not have sufficient eyesight to see the dirt specks. I did have a few moments where I was like... "could I just package all this up and send it back?" But even with the gloves on I could barely stand to touch everything, and the thought of re-wrapping what is at heart a gorgeous doll back into bubble wrap that also had specks of dirt and who-knows-what in it... I just couldn't do it. And I also figured that trying to get a return back from a person who is already admittedly in fairly dire straits might be more drama than I could ever want.

Thank you! Everyone's been so supportive and I need it -- I was really hoping to have a doll that I could be proud of, straight out of the box, and it was a huge disappointment. I tend to have my meltdowns quietly and privately, so nobody saw how upset I was. I focused that energy into determination to make it right, and I know I'll be satisfied once I have some good results.

QUESTION FOR EVERYONE: Would a soak in a lukewarm bath, unstrung, with oxyclean help to clean the body but leave the blushing intact? Or would I be better off with a non-scented basic dishwashing soap? Are there some generally preferred brands? Thanks again!

 

Thanks much! I don't mean to be a n00b -- I had glanced over that yesterday (again, kinda in a state of upset) but missed where they mentioned "Dawn" brand by name. I'll start gathering up materials and look to see about doing some work on this project later this week.

 

Wooo, so here we go. I got a wild hair tonight and decided to go ahead and do the simplest bit: Heliot's clothing.

Here's a picture of his clothing in the empty wash bin -- on top of my white cotton gloves. ... I thought his outfit was supposed to be white?



Down the left hand side and up on the right center top you can see various little speckles and spots. I have no idea what sort of dirt or biological component these might be. >_<

So I did as suggested: luke-warm bath of Oxyclean, gently hand-agitating the clothes. Then I rinsed each item in cold water and hung it up in my bathtub to drip dry.

Here's the color of the water after everything was out of it.



I'll see what the items look like tomorrow, and decide from look (and smell) if they need another go-round...

 

Yes, tackling the clothes seemed like an "easy win" -- they're just strips of various fabric, mostly, so even if I "ruined" them in the wash somehow I could pretty easily create new versions. I won't be surprised if they need another wash; I might give them one as a just in case measure anyway. Plus this motivates me to get on to the work of unstringing him and cleaning him and his heads -- I can't very well put clean clothes on a dirty body! Thanks so much for following along on this thread; I need all the moral support I can get, as you see what I'll be having to deal with!

 

So here's also a bonus shot of the human head with Soom original faceup.



The spot I've circled in red is one of the outside bits of dirt on this head.

Now, this head was apparently for the most part left in the box with the face mask and ear covers, so the faceup is in better condition than the R.Heliot head's -- but surprisingly enough, the inside of the normal head looks like something gross just exploded all in it. Photos tomorrow as soon as the light is better.

It also helps to have feedback on the thread because, as this is my first received doll (since others I've bought are direct from companies or agents) and my first second-hand market doll, I have no idea what would be considered normal wear-and-tear (that I might be reacting to because my standards for how I treat luxury goods like bjd's might be different than other people's) and what is just egregious to receive in a doll purchased from an original owner.

I've got new blonde eyelashes to put in, and I've ordered some blonde wefts by which to make him a new wig... but just look at that delicate, opalescent, ethereal faceup underneath the schmutz. Is it any surprise that I love him nonetheless?

 

First shot this morning, same sort of composition as the original -- look, they were actually white!



And the water stayed pretty much clear afterwards:



Now, the glitter did basically fall out of the bottom half of Heliot's outfit but I don't much care -- that was the part that was nastiest, and I'm not really sure I'm loving the drape of that scratchy material, so just GIVE ME an excuse to go buy some nice sparkly new fabric by which to make a robe/kilt and oh I will! Side effect: my bathroom sink looks like I put a glitter bath bomb in it.

Once they've dried this time I'll do another rinse with just cold water to make sure I get allllllll the soap out for sure, then his clothes are basically done. YAY.

Today's goals are to put together my office desk so I have a good workspace, then I'll start unstringing Heliot's body. Once that's done, I'll start working on his human head with lots of pics so you guys get to see what I'm having to deal with. -_-

 

WELCOME TO THE INSIDE OF MY DEMENTED HEAD. (actually it's just a bit nasty...)



Told you it was gross. It was a gross explosion. Oh look, stuff behind the ear too:



So check out the stuff on the leg and inside the hip (as representative of the schmutz on nearly every single piece of Heliot -- just assume that all the pieces look like this and you'd be right); I'm thinking that this doll might never have been cleaned, during however many years of play/display.





But here's the absolutely great news: a gentle bath in luke-warm water with a good dollup of Dawn scentless/lotionless detergent in it, and some careful work with a q-tip and a white paper towel, and the grease disappeared like MAGIC. The inside of the head is perfectly clean. And the faceup is saved! Turns out also that much of the yellowing on the doll body might just be various filth, which is great because it can be removed! Take a look: first shot is the outside of the head right before cleaning and the second shot is right after, while I was trying size 16mm eyes (which work perfectly, even though Soom said more like 14mm). He's 1-2 shades lighter!





Next I'm going to line his new plastic "resting box" with a white towel, then start washing his bits one quadrant at a time and let them dry. I didn't know this beforehand but Soom has all the arm/leg parts etched with "L" or "R" which makes things very simple. I'm glad cleaning is such a fairly straight forward process. Thanks again for watching!

 

Yeah, I'm basically considering this my "personal charity" act of the year. And I've learned a lot from browsing DoA and reading everyone's replies to my particular situation, so if I ever get a doll that's even a quarter of this bad shape without full disclosure beforehand, I'll pursue a partial refund immediately (first with seller, then with Paypal).

That, and I might walk quickly in the opposite direction when the "story" gets to a certain level of weirdness... *cough cough*

More pics here in a minute -- I got excited and did the R.Heliot head also just now. He was pretty bad on the outside!

Here's a shot inside the Human head to show how clean he got.

 

Let's take a moment and peruse the awfulness that is on the R.Heliot face. Spot on eyebrow, massive collection of nastiness in the inner corner of the eye, dirty chin. The eyelashes are all over the place, and I also think they might be kinda... rotted?



Apologies for the poor centering on this photo; lately my phone has decided it only wants to focus about 1/3rd of the time. Nastiness/grease on this eyebrow, dirt/dust in and around the ears.



Nice shot of the ick that's across the front of both original eyes.



Prrrrreeeeettty sure that q-tips are supposed to be white...



Oh hey, there WERE eyes under that ick.



Clean on the left!



Clean on the right!

 

My claim to fame: "On a scale from 1 to Voxxy's Heliot, how dirty was the doll you bought?"

>_<

Thank you for the support, and for helping to reaffirm my sense of reality. I can be kind of a clean-freak/germaphobe, in that general nastiness will start bothering me apparently before it will start bothering my friends or relatives, so I was like... is it just me?

 

The faceup does have some tiny scratches/dents along that eye. However that's kinda the least of my worries now, and I'm thinking that once I'm done with the rest of his fixups I can go back with a watercolor pencil and touch up with the same color in those areas and make it less noticeable. That sort of minor issue I was expecting and accepting on a doll of his age...

 

I will admit: the ONLY possible benefit of all this is the feeling of accomplishment when I see the beauty coming out from underneath as I clean. (A secondary possible benefit is... maybe this caking of goo kept him from getting very yellow? Because he looks very good underneath.)

When I opened the box where he was earlier after I unstrung him, a cloud of dog-fumes came out at me! >_<

So I went absolutely nutzo tonight and cleaned all of him! Here's before:



Here's after:



Again, 1-2 shades lighter! And his whole texture changed: when previously he was either grossly slick or sticky (seriously) now he's got a nice toothy feel like good drawing paper. I guess that's resin + sealer. So awesome! And hopefully now the smell is gone FOR REAL.

Time for relaxation and ibuprofen for my aching back...

 

Oh, I'd forgotten to share the best part! The disclosure on the other website where I bought the doll? "There is a mark on one human leg."

Yeah. That was literally all.

(I haven't even looked at the human legs yet. Kinda afraid to...)

 

So I restrung him on the first try! (Cheating a little; I have several years' experience stringing off-topic BJD of my own creation.)

Here's the dream-team restringing kit:

• All the hemostats. All of them. I have two I got originally, then bought another 10 pack on Amazon. These are the first 3 I could find in my wreck of a home office right now.
• A foot long piece of craft wire bent into an open-ended narrow needle shape.
• One of about two trillion sets of round-nosed pliers I have laying around.
• And a bobby pin.

Why a bobby pin? I'm glad you asked. It's because the holes in the horse-feet for Heliot are SO DAM NARROW that I can't even pass the needle through them. I eventually got the brilliant idea to put the bobby pin on the elastic, push it through, grab hold and pull with the pliers -- and that got the job done. You can get a pound of bobby pins on Amazon, and for a crocheter they're terribly useful.

So I redressed Heliot in some of his dry clothes, annnnnnnd...



He even stands up on his own!

I just bought some more clothes for my new boys in general (all at or around 60-70cm) so I doubt this will be his permanent outfit (especially since I'm still suspicious that the kilt smells odd), but it gives a good look at the moment.

I'm idly considering my next steps. I'm undecided on trying to save his original wig; I've got materials coming to make a new one, but it could be a temporary option for him in the meanwhile. I should probably go ahead and put in eyelashes and eyes on both heads. I need to prepare his "resting box" with bubble wrap. At some point I should unwrap and look at the rest of his human stuff. So much still to do! But already got some great progress.

Thanks so much, everyone who's giving encouragement and tips. I really appreciate it.

 

Thank you everyone for your kind words -- the encouragement and support means more than I could ever say.

So on to the next bit: the wig. I was back and forth on trying to save it at all, but I figured hey -- nothing lost beyond some Oxyclean and a little bit of time...

Here it is in all it's original filthy glory.



A good washing in lukewarm water with Oxyclean, and some gentle nit-picking (no seriously, I found at least one actual dead flea (can you imagine his surprise? I digress... ) and some specks of what appeared to be "flea dirt") and it was at least clean, even if it still looks rough.

The water wasn't as bad as the clothes... although it still turned a bit yellowish...



... but after I emptied it out I did get to see residue as proof of what nastiness had been in it...



And now the wig is clean -- but it's still matted and dry.



So I grabbed up my hair conditioner according to this tutorial and went to town with an extra Monster High hairbrush. (Why is it I've got 10,000 of those laying around but can't find even ONE when I actually want it?)

The bottom of the long hair was just wrecked; it didn't seem to get any better no matter what I did. In a fit of frustration I chopped off the bottom 2/3rds.

Then, clean, rinsed, and dried -- I tried it back on him. Looks pretty decent, actually!







I still plan to make him and his other head new wigs (more in the next post), but this is good for now!

I also had a red wig for another doll laying around so decided to try that on him too.



... nah. Not exactly his style...

 

THE HORN.

WHAT IS THIS GROSSNESS ON THE HORN.



(Please ignore my current ugly fingernails; usually my manicure is much better than this.)

I was worried about the clear resin parts. I was really worried that they were going to look like pee-sticks no matter how clean I got them.

Yet 5 minutes (warm water, Oxyclean, magic eraser)...



Much better! I got inspired and pulled out the bow pieces.

TW: GROSSNESS



Wow look at how there was pretty clean fairly non-yellowed resin under all the gunk.



Then I sat in with some tacky glue and the clean horn and put it back in place. (Sorry for the blur/non-focus)



BETTER. There is now one small crack at the opening of where the horn joins the forehead, but I'm honestly not sure if it was there before I started work or not, and I'm not too bothered by it.

Yes, I've already had a pretty busy weekend, actually.

 

All props to you because, without your tutorial, I probably would have just thrown the wig in the trash. It was hella nasty and matted. Your tutorial showed me that (even though you worked on a wig probably a little less damaged) there was some hope for saving it and how to go about it, and I did! So your tutorial was very helpful. Thanks so much!