MH Care & Repair: Fixing Broken Legs **OUTDATED**

** WARNING!! This post has been UPDATED and the information contained here, in the original, is NO LONGER ACCURATE. If you're looking for fixes for an MH doll's broken leg, please see here on how to fix a male doll's broken leg, and here on how to fix a female doll's broken leg using CAM pieces. Thank you! **


Howdy y'all!
So for Christmas this year, my kids gave me my gift early.

It's Battle Damage Ghoulia! Now with real amputee action!
Needless to say, I wasn't exactly thrilled with this turn of events. But it turns out my favorite dollies have some accident-prone legs, and they've been around long enough that others have had to deal with similar problems.
I found a few good solutions online but none that really fit my issue exactly. This wasn't a Wave 1 elastic break. It wasn't a peg slip-out repair. And it wasn't quite a leg modification using CAM kit parts.
But that last post got me thinking, and soon I had a plan! So, without further ado, I present:
How to Repair Monster High Doll Legs Broken at the Knee Joint

Materials:
- any super-strong adhesive - I used Krazy Glue but Gorilla Glue and Superglue are also great.
- an Xacto knife or other craft knife with a thin, sharp blade
- a pair of thin tweezers
- a small pair of pliers, any size, but needle nose would probably be ideal (not pictured)
Due to the number of potentially dangerous items on this list, it is highly recommended that you have a friend, sibling, or parent to assist you. I'm serious! Please be very careful!

Step 1:
First, take a good look at the break you're dealing with. This is a pretty clean break from one leg being pushed out to the side, resulting in a stress fracture in the joint plastic. Breaks due to twisting, pulling, or forcing the leg into unnatural positions, or eventual brittleness of the plastic, will need different amounts of preparation and care.

Step Two:
Use your Xacto knife to cut slowly along the seam on the back of the leg. This seam is easier to cut into than the front, and the damage is ultimately less visible. Once you've cut halfway up the thigh, insert one leg of the tweezers to prop the gap open, as seen here, and use your pliers to remove the broken peg, as seen below.

Step Three:
Coat the broken ends of the peg and joint with your adhesive. Hold them together long enough to cure. I used the heat of my desk lamp to hurry the curing process; you could also use a hair dryer on low heat or a portable heater or.. I don't know.. a kitten maybe?

Hey, remember when I said Please be careful? That neon green Band-aid is the result of me stabbing myself with the tweezers. So yes! Exercise caution please! And keep Band-aids handy!

Step Four:
Once the glue has cured (e.g., it no longer appears wet and sticky; the pieces can be released without sliding away from one another), you can re-attach the broken limb. Note that those two pegs will have to pass between a narrow gap to return to their original place, and if the glue has not cured, you run the risk of gluing the joint to the inside of the leg. It can be undone but it's a pain in the butt, so, don't do it.

Using your pliers, slide the repaired joint back into the leg socket, being careful to replace it in its original spot and no further. Once the leg has been returned, you can remove your tweezers and press the two halves of the thigh together again. There's going to be a slight gap.

Step Five (optional):
As you can see in the picture above, I did a pretty rad job of actually increasing Ghoulia's leg damage in the course of her repair. If you can get your hands on some Epoxy, Sculpey, or Milliput, you might wish to fill in and smooth over those cracks, which can later be painted to match her skin.

In my case I used a homemade mixture of tissue paper, glue, and a little bit of water to create a crude papier-mache mix, which I plastered over the injury. Once it's dry I plan to sculpt it down against the skin better.

And voila! There you have it. An irreparable doll returned to active duty. Don't know about you, but that just about makes my day.