Saturday, March 17, 2018

Phicen Phiasco

Edited to remove all text, photos, and labels. Hopefully this finally resolves the issue. This post was previously about damaged dolls.

22 comments:

  1. This is horrible. I have no suggestions on how to repair. Using a blow dryer to warm and reshape Phicen's leg and breast shouldn't hurt.

    I do think the reaction was caused by heat and the materials touching. You said the room was cool, but were they in an enclosed area in that room that might have been warmer than 65 degrees?

    I think the silicone is the issue. It is more unstable than plastics and known to do some weird things in addition to being a dust magnet. In approximately 2004, several artist/collector doll manufacturers had the not-so-bright idea to combine silicone and vinyl to give baby dolls a more realistic feel. It worked, but with time, some of these dolls developed unsightly indentations in their faces and heads where the materials were breaking down. I was horrified and never found a fix for it.

    I hope you are able to cosmetically repair yours.

    dbg

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    1. Thanks Debbie! The dolls were stored in an armoire with the doors closed. It may have been a couple of degrees warmer in there, but nothing drastic. All of my Phicens were stored in there, they are all scantily clad, and they were all touching other dolls, but this is the only one that was damaged.

      I'm sorry about your baby dolls that showed damage over time. I would have been deeply disturbed by indentations on a baby doll's head and face. :(((((( I think I'm going to try one more time to find a steel framed replacement for this body, and then I'll probably do some experimentation on this damaged body.

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  2. It's probably the plasticisers in the Jakks Pacific that leeched out onto the silicon and melted her.

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  3. So sorry this happened to your Halle Berry Phicen doll! I found this post on One Sixth Warriors forum where somebody repaired a Phicen with a bad tear in the foot using Devcon Silicone Adhesive. Maybe you could trim off some of the damaged silicone and follow his steps to do a repair? Might be worth a try! Here is a link to the forum post: http://www.onesixthwarriors.com/forum/sixth-scale-action-figure-news-reviews-and-discussion-/851985-can-i-fix-phicen-devcon-silicone-adhesive.html

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    1. Thank you, Phyllis! We have some silicon adhesive around here somewhere. I'm not sure it will help with the type of injury my Phicen has suffered, but who knows.

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    2. You could post a photo on that forum and ask for suggestions. Now, don't get any bad ideas about me, but later I found instructions from a guy repairing a huge gash in a lifesize doll (yes, they are for what you are thinking!) but they are made with a similar material as Phicen and apparently the repair worked! They even mentioned that this would work for repairing Phicens! If you want me to send you the link let me know. There is nothing bad shown in the tutorial, so it is safe! Good luck!

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  4. I saw something similar caused by a soft shoe on a hard foot: http://bit.ly/2Iw31U6
    I don't know what happened to the shoe, as it wasn't my doll, but apparently hard and soft plastic do that sometimes. Something about plasticizer leaking from the softer plastic onto the hard one and melting it. There's no way to know which plastics interact like that other than checking regularly to catch it early. I sanded the hard plastic to level the damage. No idea how to fix the soft plastic. If you find a solution, I'd love to see it.

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    1. Thank you for sharing that, BlackKitty! This has all been quite a learning experience.

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  5. Oh, I hope you can find a replacement body for your beautiful Halle doll! I don't know if the other doll is easy to replace, but I hope for the best for her as well!
    Plastics can react unpredictable, apparently! Good luck!

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    1. Thank you MillicentAndFriends! I'm not as worried about the Valerie doll because her damage isn't as extensive, and clothing will easily cover her damaged areas. I'm a little hurt over the Phicen though, because with her seamless body, she was made for lounging around in her bikini. I'm going to have to put some clothes on her now, obviously.

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  6. I am sorry that happened to your dolls, but my goodness, it's a fascinating reaction. It makes the mad scientist in me all a twitter.

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    1. Thank you, Muff! I suppose it would be interesting to wrap a piece of Phicen silicone in Jakks Pacific rubber to see how fast the silicone would completely dissolve. I'll leave that experimentation to someone else. :)

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  7. I am sorry this happened to your little lady. I am thinking this could be a chance to give a nod to handicapped people. She had an accident yet still pretty!

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    1. Thank you The grandmommy. That's a good suggestion. I do have a wheelchair for her to use...

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  8. Oh, that is a shame. My sympathies. I don't have any Phicen dolls so I don't have any contribution on that end. However, I have had many a melted plastic doll - Mego Diana Ross, Ideal Suntan Eric, Eegee Dolly Parton, etc. I think mine were due to heat. I've also had leaky plasticizer Mattel dolls AND doll accessories.

    Good thinking on your part to isolate the Phicen figures. The Jakks Pacific dolls might also need to be kept apart from other dolls; their bodies seem to be an odd plastic. Best wishes for your other dolls to remain unscathed.

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    1. Thanks for your sympathies D7ana. Good thinking on isolating my Jakks Pacific dolls also - I'll have to do that. I'll also need to isolate my Jiaou doll, who also has silicone "skin". She (and the he that will be arriving soon) can hang out with the Phicens, but they will not be allowed to touch.

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  9. Smile about the "not allowed to touch" bit.

    But it IS for their good.

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    1. I'm kind of short on space for storing dolls without them touching. I'm trying to work it out, though.

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  10. Yikes! Brings to mind "The Thing. I'll admit that I laughed a bit at your clarification of exactly what *kind* of dolls they were, though.

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    1. Thanks Imawerecat Productions. The plight of these dolls is kind of scary, isn't it? I made my clarification because I got flagged for a violation due to "sexual content" and "sexual toys". Removing the photos and adding that clarification made no difference, sadly. I'm still being flagged for this blog post for whatever reason.

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