alt.dev.modder.S-Doll
Instructions for producing a Child Doll from a Sensu-Doll
By Patrick McDermott (Formerly a senior software engineer with Borin Labs)
Having lost my daughter Collette in an accident many years ago, I admit I did not choose the most healthy method to vent my grief. But after the 2015 highway accident that rolled a school bus and killed 15 other students along with my daughter, I had no release from my regrets.
I began my project simply wanting to sculpt a child's toy into an approximation of Collette, like a living statue, but made cheaply. However, the robotic toys use a hard rubber compound which is hard to reshape. These rubber faces are not mounted to the plasteel frame, and so "bone structure" plays no part in shaping their faces either. Finally, all I could do to give her a voice was record clips of my daughter from old home videos. Which made a toy that looked kind of like Collette, and that spouted 20-30 phrases according to stimulus. This was a pale shadow of what I felt I needed, which is why I began looking at modifying a Sensu-Doll.
I must warn you, the kinds of modifications I'm proposing are not easy. Plasteel is nearly as hard as steel, but about 15 times lighter. The exterior looks vaguely like dark grey styrofoam, but to cut though this without damage, you'll need a class 6 laser saw. Then to repair it, you'll need a liquid plasteel kit, probably the two bottle version so it's easy to mix and sets in approximately 20 minutes.
Another caveat: I have attached a cutting model for the body skin, allowing you to first remove the silicon shell with the least number of cuts, and I've included diagrams and charts for where to cut off excess skin without damaging any of the coolant tubes. (The excess is stored inside pockets cut into the plasteel limbs.) But I have offered no guidelines for making a face, as I do not wish for people to attempt to duplicate my daughter, obviously. However, I have included two very small images for comparison so you can get an idea of how I went from the Asian Annie model to my android daughter Collette. This means you will have to be a modder of considerable skill to carve up your doll's face without cutting coolant tubes or facial motor mount points.
One more time, with feeling: this is not a task for amateurs. If you screw this up, you're out $30,000-$40,000 for a scarred, ugly doll. And if you do that, DO NOT write to me asking how to fix it. I don't work for Sensu-Doll, and if you violate your warranty by modding your doll, Sensu-Doll is going to make you pay through the nose to make your doll right again.
And don't think I haven't already had a hundred requests for tech support over cut coolant tubes. "Oh, it's just a little request"? Then just take that "little request" to Sensu-Doll and see how much the technician wants to repair the damage. And you want me to work for free. Sorry, buddy, but I'm retired. I don't work for anyone anymore.
With those dire warnings out of the way, click the next link to see the comparisons from the original 5'3" Asian Annie to my 4'8" Collette…
