The Panda kit and Photos of the body that goes with it

Thought some of you might like to see the blank kit. Interesting vinyl. It is very much like the old vinyl that Real Effects used to use but maybe not quite as orange. It feels like their old vinyl, not quite as squishy and soft as the newer vinyl that Real Effects uses or BB or similar companies. Still soft enough to root and all though and probably will take the paint very well. Came with one of the brushed nylon type material bodies.

EDITED TO SAY: READ FURTHER DOWN TO SEE PHOTOS AND DISCUSSION ABOUT THE BODY THAT COMES WITH THIS KIT.

Don’t get me wrong, this vinyl is soft. It just has a bit of a different feel than the BB vinyl. It is very close though. Hard to explain. Much softer than Secrist vinyl if that helps.

I will PM you. Since Nevin said we can’t advertise for other companies here I am not sure if I can post it.

I was a little hesitant to order it because that company can be slow to ship sometimes but I had a customer request I reborn it for her. It was mailed the same day I ordered it and arrived 2 days later so that was great service this time.

That is the body that comes with the kit. In my photo it looks smaller than it actually is. It is hard to get it stretched out without stuffing it. I was mostly photographing it to show the material.

I have to be honest, I was a bit unsure about the body when I saw it too but I know this is what they are selling with it. The arms and legs do have a slight curvature at each end like a shoulder and hip that makes them look like full limbs. I will stuff the body in a minute and lay the limbs and head up in it and take another photo so we can see how that looks.

Okay, here is what we have. I took a bunch of pics and loaded them in photobucket so click this link to see them:

Photobucket | The safer way to store your photos … da%20body/

IMO this body does not look right. The shoulders give the baby that “football player look”. The legs seem to sit okay but the shoulder and neck area does not agree with me.

Both the arm caps and leg caps on this body are cut so that the outer side is longer than the inner side, making the limbs rest more towards the body but that still does not solve the issue that this is a 3/4 limbed body and this kit has full limbs.

It appears to me that there is enough of a shoulder curve to the arms to put them on a standard jointed full limbed body. However, I can’t tell if the legs have enough curvature to the top of the thigh to put them on a standard jointed full legs body or not without them sticking out at an odd angle. I could be wrong but it appears to me that they don’t.

My thinking at this point and recommendation would be that the Bountiful Baby Riley body would probably work well on this kit. The arms on the Riley body are jointed and set so that there is a bit more cloth on the back of the cap than the front, causing the arms to set closer to the body and not stick out. It has been a long time since I used this body but I am pretty sure the leg caps are made the same way so that they would cause the legs on this kit not to stick out. I am going to ask Nevin to be sure.

Since I can make my own bodies, I will be making a full limbed jointed body for mine that has the arm and leg caps set to angle the limbs towards the body so that they do not stick out.

I am not sure. I put in a question to Nevin and Denise asking them to look at this thread and comment.

I know that Riley has really long limbs so that is part of what makes her bigger. I don’t remember the body looking any bigger in the torso than the 20" bodies but it has been over a year since I used it so I am not sure.

A regular jointed full limbed body that has the leg joints set more towards the crotch also might work fine on this kit. I just know that the legs on Panda are not quite the same on the hip curvature as the full legs like on a Berenguer doll so I would have to just put them on a jointed full leg body to see and I don’t have one made up right now.

The fingers on the right hand are partially separated and partially attached. I don’t think they look webbed in person but it depends on your perception I guess. I wouldn’t recommend cutting them apart because it would leave holes in between I think.

I just got someone on DF who had a Riley body to measure the torso for me and she said

— Begin quote from ____

laying the body completely flat, with the neck edges even, the length is 12 1/2". The back is a little larger than the front, for the butt you know, so the front, from neck to crotch seam is 12" , and the back is 13".

— End quote

So the Riley body is going to be too long in the torso. I also got response from another person on DF who said they used the BB 19-20" full limb jointed body on their Panda and it worked fine.

So giving ~HHB~ comment about using a full limb body and someone else telling me that my recommendation at this point is that you all buy or make a 19-20" full limb jointed body. I plan to make one for mine using a pattern that size and just make sure I don’t set the leg caps up high on the sides.

— Begin quote from ____

I used a body for 20 inch baby with FULL limbs.

— End quote

That’s what I was recommending but maybe I didn’t make that clear.

I wrote to Elena and discussed the body with her and she said she has been made aware that they are an odd fit. She said she just wanted to give out a free body with the first few kits that came in and that they are almost sold out. After the first ones she sold she is not going to sell it with a free body.

She also said that Ping is going to make her new limbs after IDEX but production schedule issues with the factory shutting for the Chinese New Year means it’s a long wait. She does say that eventually she will have that solved to a better set of limbs.