Silver eye happens literally overnight...

[moderator]

Nooooo! [img]graemlins/cry.gif[/img]

My Molly doll is 15 years old, a very old doll with a white body, made in West Germany. I've had her since I was a child. I scrimped and saved for a year to get her.

I've been reading the threads here about silver eye with some measure of happiness coupled with trepidation, because for some reason or another my doll--who should have developed silver eye--had not.

You guys, it happens in one day.

I always look at Molly. She sits right by my desk in a display. Today as I sat down I noticed Molly's eye looked like it had a ring of glitter in it. How is that for scary? It happens that fast. It's not a slow process. She looked fine one day and had silver eye the next.

There's no way I would replace the head since, like many of you, to me that would be like replacing the doll itself. This is the doll I took to my friends' homes and on trips. I'll probably just keep her this way and hope the other eye will match in time. Although Anne's instructions at least give me hope that I could switch them if I wanted to. Yet these are the eyes that went on trips, etc. (Ew, but true.)

She was in mint condition...it seems so unfair that something beyond my control changed her into an old-looking doll. [img]frown.gif[/img]

[schallerwoods]

Ack! Poor Molly.

Maybe you could get daring and replace them?
Its scary, I know, but it would keep her looking mint.

Nann

[Peachysweetdream]

Oh Melissa, I'm sorry... that's so very unfortunate. Who'd have thought that it happens overnight like that too? Kinda eerie. If you do decide to try an 'eye transplant', I wish you luck... though I think it'd still be okay if you left her as she is. Even imperfect, she's still your same doll.

[kitschywoman]

Nooooo! Poor Molly! Anastacia's silver eye happened very quickly, too. She was fine when I got her about three weeks ago, then developed her silver eye after I'd had her about a week and a half. Hers started small, then got worse over the course of about 3 days. [img]graemlins/cry.gif[/img]

Maybe you could try that trick with the gray contacts? Then she'd at least have her same eyes. I've got another idea for repairing the existing eye that I'll try this weekend, using Anastacia's old silver eye. Maybe it will work.

Anne

[courtneysunshine]

Melissa, that is horrible. I think AG should be able to replace just the eyes and not have to replace the whole head. Just a thought, though, if it bothers you, maybe kitschywoman could donate the other blue eye from her donor head so you could fix her? Oh, that's right I forgot, she has grey eyes. I can understand why AG wouldn't just sell the doll heads, but you would think they could help out someone with an heirloom like yours. Let us know what happens

Kim [img]smile.gif[/img]

[courtneysunshine]

Anastacia's silver eye happened very quickly, too.

Anne, isn't your doll a Kirsten? Yikes!! I thought the silver eye was only found in Mollys. I think it seems odd that lately we seem to be having rash occurances of silver eye. I wonder if they could be particular batches of dolls?

Kim [img]smile.gif[/img]

[AGTeacher]

I'm am so sorry to hear on Molly's eye Melissa! How about calling AG and have them replace the eye only and not the head! explain how old the doll is, and how special she is to you, then ask them if they can only exchange the eye, or ship you an eye and you can inplant it. Good luck! tell us what happens!

[kitschywoman]

I have no idea of what they do with the leftover head, but the ones with bad hair would be a treasure for those of us who don't mind rewigging dolls. If I had access to their castoffs, I would take a chance at replacing the eyes, too. AG could heat brand the backs of the head so it would never come back to them. I would buy some of these castoff heads...

Taffy

--------------------

You and me both, Taffy! They're a treasure just for the sleep eyes alone, nevermind the rewigging potential. I wish I had a connection with someone in their doll hospital who wouldn't mind slipping me some leftover parts on the side. [img]tongue.gif[/img] I do use the word "hospital" lightly, though. I see them more as a "chop shop" for dolls, replacing old parts with new instead of fixing what's there. I don't even know that they're capable of doing an eye replacement, let alone willing. I also think they need to be a little more realistic in their pricing, given the amount of labor involved in what they do.

Melissa--I think Anastacia's eyes may have failed more to past water damage than anything else. When I took them out, the housings were rusty! But you're right, you never know.

I didn't take any close-up photos of the bad eye, and I can't now because I dissected it to learn how it was put together. [img]redface.gif[/img] I'm also curious as to whether anyone has had non-gray eyes go silver or if it is just limited to that color?

Anne

[moderator]

Anne, I don't blame you! I would also probably take the eye apart to see what in the world was going on in there. [img]wink.gif[/img]

I uploaded a couple of zooms. I hope these are clear enough for people to see. I also want to give open permission for everyone to post these on their websites if found to be helpful as a resource.

http://www.angelfire.com/mi/FAST/silvereye.html

My mom didn't think it was bad (bad eyes) *until* I showed her the zooms. Now she has offered to pay for new eyes if I decide to put new ones in. She says to do so would be being respectful of Molly. [img]wink.gif[/img] She also thinks the head shouldn't be replaced. I think we're both kind of attached to this doll since she was the one who made my wardrobe for Molly all during my growing up years. But I've looked and it looks so advanced I'm not sure I would want to, and the mentions of having to cut the vinyl with an Exacto knife sound scary.

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ August 06, 2004 01:53 PM: Message edited by: Melissa ]</font>

[littledarling]

I never thought about it, but I bet the Molly doll I had had silver eye in one eye. It was really creepy and the biggest reason I didn't like her. Her eye seriously gave me nightmares. I had received her in 1997 or 98 and she seemed to develop the condition rather soon afterwards. If it helps any, to this day she still only has it in that one eye. A friend of mine has her, so I have seen her and know that her other eye is perfectly fine.

Samantha (whom I've had since I was 9) begs you to think about how Molly must be feeling. It must be humiliating to have silver eye, if not painful. If you could manage, she thinks it would be worth trying to replace the eye. Samantha's had a head transplant and it took me years to actually send her in, but I finally saw that she was miserable. Her hair was missing in a large section and what was there was in horrible condition even after several rescue attempts. It was awful sending her in but she came back healthy and happy and I fell in love with her all over again so it was definitely worth it.

Talk to Molly. Find out how she feels about having a silver eye and whether she'd be happier if it were fixed. If you do decide to replace the eye, maybe someone on the board could do it for you so you won't have to see Molly in that state.