Minidoll heads and minifig hats

[rollermonkey]

So, the daughter put a princess hat/hair from a previous CMF onto a Jasmine minidoll head.

Surprising to me, they aren't compatible. The head is on straight, yet it is still wedged in place and I cannot separate them.

Suggestions?

(and I searched the forums but the archives seem to be oddly truncated and nothing useful came up)

Edited May 3, 2015 by rollermonkey

[Blondie-Wan]

Huh. That's strange. Could you post a picture?

[rollermonkey]

Yes I can.

[deraven]

That's very odd. I grabbed 2 of those hats from the CMF princess and tried them on about 10 or 12 minidolls, and on the majority I'd even say that it was a little loose (clutch power was fine and it didn't easily fall off, but they rotated easily and were far from hard to pull off). On one of them, however, the fit was much more snug and I noticed that on that one, other hair pieces were also stiffer. No where near getting stuck, but requiring easily 3x the amount of force to remove.

I'd say that either the princess hat or more likely the Jasmine head are slightly mis-molded and has caused it to get stuck with the hard plastic princess hat vs. the soft minidoll hairpieces… unless they've updated the mold slightly or something, but an oversight of that magnitude would be surprising from TLG (even with some of the other molding/coloring issues they currently have). I'd be interested to know if other items are tight on Jasmine's head, or if the princess hat you have is difficult to remove on other minidoll heads.

As for getting it un-stuck, I think your best bet is gently using very small needle-nose pliers (and grasping inside the neck hole onto the back of the head where any mark left will be less noticeable), or a very small screwdriver or other solid object small enough to get into the head hole and apply pressure at an angle while you gently work the hat off against that counterforce.

[Master_Data]

badboytje88 posted a Friends figure customization thread here where he combined that headpiece with a Friends head. Try contacting him to see if he had any problems and, if so, how he solved them.

[rollermonkey]

Thank you, I will.

I suspect she just has a minor flaw in the parts that is causing the issue.

I don't have needlenose small enough to grab inside the neck hole, so they are still attached.

[dr_spock]

You could try putting some rubber tubing on the ends of pliers to grab the head without scratching.

[rollermonkey]

This particular hat doesn't leave much space on the sides of the head... it's not even enough that the sides are parallel yet.

<Very frustrated at this point.

[Artanis I]

Would using something greasy or soaking it in water or soap or whatever loosen the parts over time?

[Mr Meleca]

Strange, I have this minifigure And my daughters use her hair in minidolls. They fit perfectly

[badboytje88]

I didn't have any trouble taking these parts apart... Best of luck with that!

[rollermonkey]

Starting to sound like one or the other isn't within tolerances, causing them to bind up.

I'll ask customer services, see if they have any suggestions.

Sent this:

You asked about:Anything elseHello, my daughter (age 5) was playing with her LEGO this weekend and put a minifig hat/hair on a minidoll. When she wanted to change the hair back to the original, she could not separate the parts. The hat/hair is on perfectly straight, yet they still will not come apart. I have tried gently using pliers or a small screwdriver to separate them, with no success.

The head is Jasmine's from 41061:

HEAD, FEMALE 1, DEC. 16

Color Family: Orange-brown

Exact Color: M. NOUGAT

Category: Bricks, Special

Element ID: 6101038

Design ID: 19690

The hat/hair is from the 13th series Collectible Mini Figures, 71007, princess and as such, cannot be ordered via Bricks and Pieces.

Please let me know if it is possible to replace these parts.

Yours, Chris and ____

We'll see how that goes.

Edited May 4, 2015 by rollermonkey

[Hoschiebaer]

as i only have 2 friends mini-dolls and 0 cmf princesses i cant try it myself.

but what helps me when trying to separate a stuck head/headgear-combination is the "tissue trick":

dismantle an ordinary tissue into its layers - put one layer on top of the head-connecter of a random torso (friends in your case) and put the head on the torso.

this trick will give you much better clutch power and maybe you will be able to wiggle the headgear off the head again.

good luck

[rollermonkey]

Those minidolls have far less clutch power on the necks than on regular minifigs... If I can't pull it out with pliers, I don't believe I could get enough clutch power from the neck to overcome the binding/clutch power between the hat and head.