So, it’s no surprise that some of these dolls have really, really stiff hips/legs. It seems like the 156cm dolls suffer the most from this problem, and after a bit of experimenting with Boxer, I‘ve picked up on a certain technique that seems to help combat against the stiff bolt in her left leg.
For awhile, Boxer’s legs were fine- I didn’t encounter any issue with them, until I noticed that her left leg would try to seize up on me when putting it down. Not up, not side to side, just down. When this would happen, her leg would almost get stuck at a weird angle, and I’d have to push down pretty hard to make the joint move. I was worried that this hard pushing on her leg would do more harm than good over time, so I started playing around with the leg to find that sweet spot in moving the leg with ease. And, last night, I think I found it… For now, lol. I first put her legs as close together as they can go, and once I did that, I would push down. If the leg tried to seize, I would just bring it back up and try again, making sure the legs were close together. Usually, on the second attempt, it’ll go down, but I found that the key lies in how close or far apart the legs are from each other. If the legs are spread apart, it’ll cause the leg to seize up, but if I keep them close together then it won’t happen as much. This is just from my personal experience with Boxer, but I thought I’d share this with everyone else, since it may help out those who are having the same issue with their dolls’ legs. It also might spare the tragedy or risk in having the hip pop out, too, as I’ve heard of that happening on some people’s dolls.
Yes, my main complaint with these is the fact that the skeleton‘a joints can be, or become extremely tight and noisy!
I have a 165 that the left hip swing outward/inward is very tight, and creaks so loud I don‘t play with her anymore when anyone is home.
I mean it is LOUD!