This post relates to my original Zenith comparison again. And this entry is going to be looong.

Remember how I said I’d love to have the new body’s legs and the rest from the old body? Well, with Iria that’s not an option because she needs the new arms for the armour parts, but changing the torso would also be a HUGE step-up because the new body torso joint is just insufferable. I get so frustrated with its lack of posing and snapping back that I’ve been ready to throw the doll at a wall several times. ｡゜(｀Д´)゜｡

So, I went and asked Souldoll if they would sell me the old body torso alone. To which they replied that it’s impossible. They have issues with casting the old bodies (which is why any orders with the old female body are delayed by a lot apparently). I replied and posted them photos of my body comparisons and said that I was very displeased with the new body and that it’s not worth what I paid for it. I also pointed out that they’re still selling the old body, so why can’t they make the torso for me. But they replied that they’ll be discontinuing it shortly. Clearly, they’re not willing to fix the master molds despite a lot of people liking the look of the old body. (｡ŏ﹏ŏ)
They said they’d offer to sell me parts from the new body, but what the hell would I do with those? The new body is the problem in it’s entirety. And also that they’ll be looking into fixing the problems with the new body… sometime. Mainly the resin dust and gapping issues, probably not the shape of the joint, I don’t know. But for now there was no solution for me, so I gave up.

Then, later that same day I got an email from Souldoll that said they found an old body from their warehouse that had resin dust issues in the arms, but the torso was okay, so they could sell that to me. (ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧ I nearly jumped out of my seat. But the message didn’t mention a resin colour, so I was a little wary and asked them if it was white skin. But nope, I got an instant reply saying that they’re sorry, they got confused and that the body they had was normal skin. (╯°Д°）╯︵ ┻━┻

At that point I was even more disappointed. When I messaged them, I was thinking that the worst they could do was say no. After their email I got my hopes up and then got shot down even lower than I was before. I wanted to forget the whole thing at that point. =____=;;

But then, the next morning I had another email from Souldoll waiting in my inbox, saying that they found one more body from their warehouse and that was white skin. （ﾉ｡≧◇≦）ﾉ Whoop~! I was instantly like yes, yes I’ll buy it, yes! Let me buy it (even if it’s yellowed, I’ll take it )! I was afraid of mentioning this purchase anywhere because I was still kind of sceptical that I’d get it. They could send me the ns one, or a new torso… or it could get lost in the mail and I’d never get it ever… endless possibilities for a pessimist. :P

But now it’s here!
ヽ(´∇´)ノ　(∇´ノ)　ヽ(　　　)ノ　(ヽ´∇) ヽ(´∇`)ﾉ
Even more miraculous that it managed to slip past customs. Nowadays they grab even damn tiniest letters, so how they let this one slide by, I have no idea. But saved me some 30€ there.

tl:dr Bought a new (old body) torso for Iria from Souldoll

Had to make a box opening because this almost feels like getting a new doll (mostly because Iria has just been sitting on my doll shelf since her arrival as I hate the body):

I also ordered string and the box is a pair of gift eyes. Too bad they’re one of the large pupil models, so I have no one to wear them. They’re pretty otherwise; half-orange and half-green.

So far so good…

And here it is compared to the new body torso:

Oh yess!! It’s so pretty. I looove how long and relaxed looking it is in comparison to the new squished one. It’s even more apparent now that they’re unstrung and next to eachother.

The “new” old torso is somewhat yellower, but I was expecting about this much of a difference. Who knows when it’s been made and Sigrun has also yellowed (would’ve been a perfect match with her).

I sanded off the seams and gave the torso a pretty thorough surface sanding, which brought the yellowness down slightly. However, my wrist started hurting and I stopped before I got to the boobs and buttocks, so they’re still a little bit more yellow. I should finish that job and coat the torso at some point.

I also noticed that the right shoulder did not fit into the torso properly, so I took out my dremel and made the hole bigger. Actually I could’ve sanded both sides but I rather like her to have wider shoulders, so I don’t want them to go in as deep as in the new torso anyway.

Then, I put her together:

Eheh ♥

Okay, there’s nothing that can fix those idiot elbows but I’ve learned to handle them a bit better. However I can’t pull them out if she’s got long sleeves and it’s also hard with the arm armours, so those are still annoying.

Omg, just lookit that posture! In comparison to this.

Okay, this is where I realized I left out a really important part from the original old vs. new body comparison. The new body can’t spread the legs and have the knee bend in a relaxing pose, like this. Yeah, okay, it’s not that ladylike, but she also can’t really have her leg out with the knee bent and then have the other leg above it. Most dolls can do it if they have a rotating knee (like the old Zenith) or a rotating thigh joint. But the new body doesn’t have either, so she’s really limited in her sitting poses. Clearly not a pose fit for a (stiff) lady? :’D

But back to this ‘hybrid’. She can’t really lift her leg above the 90 degree angle anymore because the thighs sit deeper inside the torso, BUT the movement of the torso joint makes up for this. Also if she can get support from somewhere, she can lift the leg like this if you don’t mind pulling it out of the socket.

Woohoo! No more stupid broken torsos in sitting poses -and no more curse words when I try to force that stupid joint to move. In my ideal body, that torso joint would be even lower still (below the ribcage) but this’ll do.

Prettyy~ And I don’t know if it’s just me but she seems more mature. Maybe it’s the longer neck?

And then clothes:

(I’m really sorry these pictures are crappy, I was forced to use flash because it was dark)
This top looks a lot better on the old torso. Mostly cause it’s longer and thus more proportionate to the insanely long legs but also because the shoulders are more relaxed.

And armour testing:

I tried this on Sigrun so I knew it would fit, but it was a bit tight with this outfit. Then again, once I got it on, it fit better than before. Also she’s got less of a hunched -look than before. Again, thanks to the more relaxed shoulders and longer neck.

This may not look like much but she wasn’t able to turn her head to the side with this armour previously. The Uha head has a deep neck hole and the new body has a much shorter neck than this one. Now she can turn the head without any problems. Her cheek or chin wont get caught on the collar again. This is amazing ♥

And if it’s needed -for whatever reason, she can also bend her torso with the armour on!!! With the new body it was effin’ hard because that joint is so stiff you need quite a bit of strength and then it moves too much and snaps back with a loud snap (and finger crushing strength). Not to mention the new torso joint is inside that armour so grabbing it at all is hard -let alone trying to pose the thing. Ughh. But no more problems on that front. The old torso joint is just below the armour and it’s smooth so it turns just fine. :3

The light finally came around a bit, so I abandoned the flash:

She’s pretty~ And she has a neck!

Full body. To my eye, all of these armours fit the old torso better. I’m not sure if it’s visible from photos but in person the waist guard also fits better (it’s ironic that the armours were made for the new body) and looks nicer because the torso itself is longer so the waistband wont be pushed right up to the chest guard.

I actually dug out the helmet to test it as well:

I could consider keeping this now that she got a neck. I can turn her head and there’s much more room for the helmet. Previously it didn’t work for her at all, so I wasn’t even considering keeping it. But I’d need to dye and paint it if I was gonna keep it. x_x

I tried the wings on her as well, because I was afraid that the floppier old torso wouldn’t be able to support them properly, but I shouldn’t have worried. The torso can handle them just fine. Sure, it likes to snap back to the default position, but that one isn’t half as bad as on the new torso, lol, so I don’t mind. It can also be bent forward in the right pose, like this one.

I’m so happy, it feels like I got a new doll. ≧(´▽｀)≦ I’ve been so uninspired by the new body that I hadn’t even sueded Iria. Never mind sand her seams. Both are things I usually do to all my dolls, but with her I just couldn’t be bothered. Hopefully now I’ll be more inspired to take her out in the armours. (I should also finish editing a story I shot with her weeks ago ^^;).

I really gotta hand it to Souldoll’s customer service. They’re a little stiff at some things, but the fact that they actually emailed me after I considered the matter closed was really cool. And then dug up some MORE at their warehouse after the second disappointment to find me a body they hadn’t sold yet. Once they emailed me, I also got instant replies back, so it was like talking to them in real time, and not waiting at least a day for every new reply on the Q&A board. (~o3o)~ This whole thing is proof that it never hurts to ask.

The old bodies are now discontinued, so the new body is the only option. Needless to say I have zero interest in Zenith girls now (unless I’m gonna hybrid). Though I’d love the Lime head. We can hope they’ll be a little smarter about the tera Zenith female body -whenever they make that one. But I’m not holding my breath, because lately they do dumb joints in all their bodies. I loved what they used to do, but not so much anymore.

…Now I gotta sell this new body torso to someone who likes boob joints and wants to make a hybrid. :P

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November update

I ended up modding the elbows very simply. After enlarging the holes for the string a bit, I basically sawed the elbow nugget in half, inserted a piece of copper pipe inside and done: the joint rotates!