LDD Collector Care Guide

So you're interested in collecting Living Dead Dolls. 

Are ya sure? Because here's a document of all the reasons it can be frustrating to own them. Consider this a primer and a warning if you're interested in entering the hobby, because these are really fun toys and real pains to keep up.

Living Dead Dolls are not an item to collect unless you are really truly passionate about the design and artistry and horrror theme and personality of the dolls, because you won't be rewarded for your investment with the finest, easiest dolls to primp and handle. LDD products don't age the best and have some manufacturing quirks which can be either disagreeable or outright detrimental to their longevity, which will be discussed here. As with anything enjoyed after its new period, the older the doll, the poorer the aging.

If you are comfortable with having an irrational interest in these dolls, then let this information prepare you. 

This document is only to discuss the classic "G1" LDD line, prior to the Return line.

Warning for some frightening and gory imagery. This is Living Dead Dolls.

Packaging

All Living Dead Dolls come in cardboard boxes, and the most common style in the classic era is a four-piece coffin--lids, tray, and box body. The coffin has two lids--one a plastic window and one a cardboard opaque piece matching the body. 

While this is a Series 33 coffin shortly before the end of the classic run, the functional design of these boxes was virtually unchanged since the very first LDDs. 

The plastic lid has been rendered opaque black for stylistic effect for three releases I know of--the variant dolls which were slipped randomly as chase copies into complete sets ordered of the Series 5 dolls, and the Resurrection X dolls. I've seen a picture of exclusive doll Jeepers' coffin with an opaque lid, but other pictures of her seem to contradict this, so I don't know the status of her packaging for sure.

A Series 5 chase-variant plastic lid.

Series 5 variants ordered directly from Mezco had clear window lids like normal. No later variant dolls, to my knowledge, were released as chase acquisitions acquired randomly by purchasers.

In all cases, the dolls are factory-packed with the plastic lid on the front of the coffin over the doll, while the cardboard lid is placed around the back face of the coffin, as shown above. The coffin lids are not mutually exclusive and the two can be stacked on the front, but the fit is tight and it is recommended you be gentle when fitting the cardboard lid on while the plastic lid is on too. 

Some copies of the coffin may have a more difficult fit stacking the lids.

The plastic lid will get wedged inside the cardboard lid when you do this, and will have to be gently extracted when taking the cardboard lid off again. 

The plastic lids fit more loosely, and some might fall forward off the coffin if you want to display it standing upright with the plastic lid on. You can try pinching the corners to tighten the fit a little, but you could risk cracking the plastic. The plastic lids may sometimes be found mirrored, likely as a result of the printed plastic sheet being folded in the wrong direction, but I wouldn't count a mirrored lid as a major asset to a doll copy's value. I only ever pursued one doll because it was a copy with a mirrored lid, and that was because it enhanced the theming of the doll character--Bloody Mary, the ghost in the mirror. The plastic lids are also commonly subject to yellowing from age and heat/sunlight, which can affect the display of the doll inside by adding a color tint. 

All coffins are factory-sealed with a layer of shrink wrap around the outside holding them together, and there is no tape or adhesive to manage when removing the lids. You'll be certain a doll is untouched if it's sealed, though this isn't a perfect guarantee against the ravages of time or poor storage. A sealed doll is still the most authentic untouched experience you can be sure of--warts and all. I had one experience with a secondhand doll resealed secondhand, but it was obvious he had been unboxed previously, and there was no deception and the doll was complete and in good condition.  I would say you can trust that the doll is untouched if it's shrink-wrapped-- 99.9% of the time.

Around the doll's legs in the front of the coffin is a chipboard, a three-sided piece of printed card naming the doll and its release and providing one of the two poems. Chipboards started off taped to both side walls of the coffin, requiring full removal to take the doll out, before switching to a system where the right fold of the board was tacked to the coffin with adhesive while the left side could swing out like a gate to let the doll tray come out. 

The chipboard can be considered an essential piece of the doll and package for some. 

Inside the coffin, the doll is on a cardboard tray lined with colored tissue. This tray is propped up from the back wall of the coffin box, leaving some hollow space underneath.

The tray lifts out of the box, allowing you to flip it over and access the wire twist ties holding the doll in, as well as the plastic packet containing the death certificate and any accessories the doll had. Some dolls have the accessory in the same packet as the certificate, while others have multiple packets and perhaps a piece fully loose in the back as well.

Ember's extras on the back of her tray--separate packets for her death certificate, her mask, and her pumpkin bucket, while her hat was loose.

Some trays had atypical modifications. Early brimmed-hat dolls had a slit cut out of the back of the tray to nestle the hat brim in, but this didn't do well to protect the fragile hats. My Macumba was sealed, but his hat brim wasn't properly slotted into this cutout at all.

Isabel had a square cutout in her tray so her updo bun hairstyle wouldn't be squished.

Later dolls replaced the upper third of the cardboard tray with a molded plastic cradle contoured to snugly hold a doll's head for safe packing. In Series 23, this plastic tray was a separate piece from the cardboard tray, while in Series 33, it was attached to the cardboard tray and lifted out with it.

Series 23 Betsy's coffin. The plastic cradle for the hat was a third separate piece from the tray and body. The upper third of the tissue is tacked inside the coffin body. This system was shared by Jennocide in the same series.

Betsy's tray fully assembled.

Series 33 Maitre des Morts' one-piece hybrid tray. This system was also used for Madame La Mort in his series.

A hybrid tray like this was also used for the two editions of the Resurrection Bride of Valentine, who had a vertically-oriented all-gelled hairstyle that called for more protection, though I don't know if the plastic cradle was loose or attached to the tray. Other dolls might have also used this system.

The tissue lining the coffins is fragile and can tear with rough handling, and some releases, particularly early ones, nearly mandate damage by having the tissue taped to the walls of the coffin, preventing the doll tray from cleanly lifting out.

Most coffins don't have this frustration, but be wary for taped tissue. Look out for the tissue color and condition when buying, as it can help you determine how close to "original condition" the doll is. Looking up pictures of a doll will easily inform you of the correct tissue color via the majority of boxed pictures having the correct color, even with variants who sometimes have separate tissue colors from the main edition. Series 7 also uniquely features a separate tissue color for each of the seven dolls in its cast, making it valuable to learn each. Every other collection in coffins with tissue shares a tissue color across the group. A replaced tissue or a swapped coffin can be easily identified by knowing the color isn't what the doll's original coffin was lined with, and a home tissue replacement is identifiable because the LDD factory tissue lining shape is precisely folded and taped down and not crumpled or stuffed in--unless you had to unbox a doll whose tissue was taped to the coffin!

The dolls are typically held in for packaging with just three twist wires--on the neck and ankles. Some cases break this standard. Isaac is a soft-bodied doll to emulate a scarecrow, so two extra ties are put around his wrists, plus another tie holding down his pet. (All of the Series 6 dolls have pets and extra ties, but Isaac has three extra ties on account of his wrists.) Other dolls have plastic shoulder braces behind them to protect neckwear.

Jezebel and Dahlia in Series 5 both had these props under their shoulders, between the doll and the coffin tray. (Pictured: Variant Dahlia.)

LDDs are not typically posed in any manner inside their coffins, but Gluttony comes packed with his left arm raised and holding his serrated knife forward.

The next most-untouched standard for LDD after "sealed" is what I call "wired". If a doll is visibly still wired into its tray, like since it was packed in the factory, bets are good that the doll is still complete with all pieces and is in "factory state+time elapsed" as such. An unsealed open doll that's still wired is still a good bet for complete-doll collectors--just check the pictures and description for indicators that both coffin lids are present and that the accessories and certificate are not lost.

Most collectors do not care to keep the wires or twist the dolls back into the package for storage. I'm most collectors.

The death certificate is usually a document rolled in a dark maroon ribbon (the ribbon never changes) in a distinctive looped manner that indicates whether it's been touched or not. These pieces are glossy poster paper and if you're very precise about untouched status, then you'll want these rolled up by the factory. Series 5's certificates were flat slips styled as coroner's reports and were never rolled or tied by ribbon.

The coffin boxes themselves can also have different print designs or novelty colors for certain releases, though the majority of coffin bodies are black. The graphic design and text copy on the boxes has also changed subtly between releases, but the easiest way to know your coffin is correct for its doll is to know what the color and/or print of the coffin for that release was. For example, the doll Nohell should not be coming in a black coffin, and that counts for both of her variants. Nohell is unique in the brand for having a cream-colored coffin, so it'd be very clear when she's been given the wrong box secondhand.

All of this information also applies to coffins for two-pack sets, which work just the same but are merely twice as (or slightly less than twice as) wide. 

Later LDD releases changed the tissue-lined cardboard tray for molded plastic trays, and many LDD items, particularly in the LDD Presents licensed line, have cardboard window boxes instead of the classic coffins. 

In all cases, it's recommended to store LDD packaging because it's repackable and worth displaying for many, and to keep the boxes somewhere clean and out of extreme sunlight or heat, which can cause the cardboard layers to bubble and vein.

For God's sake, do not store your coffins in a hot garage filled with motor oil fumes. This is what will happen to them:

A Nohell doll's coffin in like-new condition.

A Nohell doll's coffin in...not.

Hair

Don't collect LDD for the doll hair experience.

Seriously.

Fittingly, though, they were never intended for hair play. It's well-known that many many LDDs have bare-minimum hair rooting that may not even be successful at that, failing to cover the scalp properly. Some dolls have obviously, deliberately sparse hair for scary design effect, but many thin-haired LDDs are not among them. The fiber of many older LDDs is also not the finest, and you may encounter many of them whose hair is fried and tangly at the ends. This cannot be remedied, short of replacing the hair yourself. Boil washes and fabric softener or conditioner can help improve the texture of some drier hair, but if it is fried and constantly catches on the comb, the most you can do is trim a little of the damaged part off to mitigate the tangles and volume created by the frying. More newer LDDs have better hair quality and age better, but be warned. Also, LDDs are more like art pieces and display dolls, so their hairstyles are not intended to be altered, meaning any doll with tied-up or specially styled hair is rooted just for that look. Any LDD hair that goes into a tie should be assumed to be rooted solely around the perimeter of the ponytail area or scalp to keep the proportion of tied hair realistic. As such, this hair really only can be displayed in its designated style. You can deal with some unruly antigravity hair, especially bangs, by boiling it down with hot water (a wet cloth helps hold down pieces of hair too)...

...but prospects are often limited for hair improvement, short of rerooting the hair yourself. Lottie here looks okay, but the top of her scalp is a barren wasteland of sparse hair plugs on a very thinly-rooted scalp.

This is actually a doll who could keep her factory hair that exists and just have additional hair hand-rooted into what's there. Something I might consider if it's that important to me.

Fortunately, the fiber and rooting of later LDDs did improve significantly, so the later in the brand you collect from, the nicer the hair situation will be.

And be aware of when hair messiness is deliberate and designed, because it can be!

Quack, with a toddler's wisp of fluffy yellow hair suited for an innocent madness befalling a goofy drugged kid in a duck suit.

Bloody Mary, an absolutely deranged ghost designed entirely to be terrifying and unruly.

A few Living Dead Dolls utilize flocking to simulate close-cropped shaved/buzzed hair, which is done with adhesive and a powdered material that creates a fuzzy texture when adhered. Flocking is known to be vulnerable to abrasion and can scrape off when wet, so those few dolls with flocked hair should have the flocking handled gently and not wet. Fabric glue lightly dabbed in has the potential to reinforce hair flocking, but I haven't tested it and wouldn't consider it necessary when it's nice already and you're careful.

Some LDDs have yarn hair, which is tended to only by finger-combing and hand-arranging. A comb will only unravel or snarl the fibers and has no use for yarn-haired dolls, and keeping the yarn dry is generally recommended because there's no reason to wash it. Daisy Slae has painted green blotchy accents in her yarn hair, which are a deliberate effect. Other dolls have red coloring in their hair to correspond with blood dousing them, but I haven't handled any such cases in person yet to tell if the coloring is such that the hair fibers are stuck together or stiffened by it.

Other dolls have gel keeping the shape of their hairstyle. Gel can wear out over time and relax, which can disturb the desired tidy or compressed or vertical design of a hairstyle, so styling gel can be bought to restyle the hair if needed.

Costume

Most LDD costume elements hold up well. A few pieces are deliberately ragged with unsealed edges, so may be subject to fraying if not careful. Also, the twine tying the bag mask on Series 8 Angus Litilrott may have to be replaced by the owner, because it disintegrates easily with its rough fibers coming undone.

I also had an abysmal time with my Isabel. Her costume is a dress with a brocade bodice and arms of a different fabric, and the brocade frayed and tore right out of the seams on her right sleeve.

I glued it together ineptly as best I could. I took this as a dire warning for variant Isabel, and when I got her, I very very carefully took her dress off and then fabric-glued the edges of the brocade seams inside her dress sleeves to ensure the same disaster couldn't happen to her. Variant Isabel's dress is overall better-constructed for some reason, so I don't know how necessary these preventative measures were, but I wasn't taking chances.

She was the redemption I needed for a very messy doll, though. Shame both Isabels weren't made as well.

But these are less pressing concerns for upkeep. Let's discuss a more common threat: plastics.

Plastic decays over time in poor conditions, and some materials are practically doomed to degrade. The most pervasive and well-known to doll collectors is a simple clear elastic band, often used to tie hair or hold on headpieces or temporarily secure things for packaging. These elastics decay and crumble apart over time, and will likely demand replacements. 

For large enough sections of hair that need new ties, I typically favor a band of fabric elastic superglued into a loop that can be used as a hair tie. For the scale of LDD, the band isn't offensively large and it's very easy to work with and bonds to itself with superglue incredibly quickly. 

Alternatively, a thin sturdy macramé cord can make a tight, strong hair tie with just a simple single knot if it's for a hairstyle you'll never need to touch. The nice thing about LDD proportions is that their heads and hairdos are large enough that most of the time you can replace the elastics with something sturdier. Smaller dolls have fewer options of lasting hair ties that suit their scale. For replacing elastics holding on headpieces, fabric elastic band may work, or else a thin elastic fiber cord which is a little less conspicuous. 

Fragile plastic pieces feature for some costume elements. Brimmed hats in LDD are usually made of thin brittle plastic covered in fuzzy flocking and are a known risk for cracking or crumbling apart. 

Macumba's hat came to me cracked and it formed a hole.

Similarly, the masks used for some Halloween characters, Pestilence, and Series 27 Milu are fragile thin plastic, and Nurse Necro's headband is a stiff plastic prone to cracking and yellowing, in addition to being held on with an inevitably-decayed elastic. 

The final concern is vinyl fabric, which is fabric coated with a layer of thin vinyl to give it a glossy, plasticky finish. This kind of vinyl layering is extremely susceptible to either shriveling and hardening or cracking and peeling off depending on the conditions of its storage, and there isn't a whole lot that can be done for it once this happens. Preventative measures with good temperature control are recommended.

While not an issue with physical quality of the pieces, many LDD characters have boots but do not also have socks. The boots always fit loosely on dolls who were not given socks, causing them to wobble inside their shoes and stand less stably. Be aware of this issue. Mezco never accounted for it. Several casts of other LDD shoes might also be loose on the feet even when the doll does wear socks, so there's not enough consistency with how tight the footwear fits and many dolls are shaky on their feet as a result. The only ubiquitous LDD shoe piece that seems to fit correctly always is the sandal worn by fancy ladies.

Finally, not all costume pieces on the dolls are designed to be normally removable, and as such, lack velcro closures or ways to take them off without disassembling the doll. Some boots are also tight and have no slits in the back, meaning the vinyl would need to be heated to loosen them and pull them off. Hook-handed dolls also obstruct their costume pieces from detaching. More often than not, an LDD costume is normally removable like a doll designed to dress in multiple outfits, so keep an eye out for the exceptions where the outfit won't come off with the doll's pieces all together.

Bodies

Like many dolls, LDDs are made of vinyl, but are somewhat unusual for dolls in that all pieces of a LDD body are cast from the same material and consistency therein, meaning all of their vinyl behaves the same. Many dolls have mixes of hard and soft plastics in the construction of their bodies, leading to inconsistent aging or physical/chemical properties, but, save for the plastic pegs connecting the body parts of ball-jointed LDDs, all pieces of the body are the same vinyl, ensuring you only need to know how one material behaves with their body parts. LDD vinyl is sturdy when cool and softens with heating, and is able to bend and deform a little--the property that allows a stake to be plunged into a slit in Series 3 Lilith's chest or for wider-handled accessories to fit into the thin curve of a select doll's gripping hand. The vinyl will relax and return to shape slowly when the object isn't stretching it. 

The older swivel-jointed doll bodies are just six entirely vinyl parts that fit together without joint pegs, making them very safe and easy to disassemble for cleaning, though heating first is recommended before doing so, and pretty much required to reassemble them. Ball-jointed LDDs require a more careful and extended heating to soften their vinyl enough that the integrity or connection of the plastic joint pegs is not disturbed when disassembling. 

Ball-jointed LDDs have a greater range of motion by being able to tilt their heads, spread their arms, and widen their hips a little, though most classic LDDs have just the five points of articulation and all have a very wide sitting shape with their legs gapping out as their hips swivel forward. Exceptions with further articulation are Viv, whose bisected torso is able to rotate at the waist as well as split in two, and LDD Presents Leatherface (at least, the original release of the doll), whose unique arm sculpts have forearm swivel joints to aid in posing with the chainsaw prop. Series 30 variant-exclusive Wurm, by virtue of being constructed from only a head and a torso, has the lowest articulation, with only a head ball joint.

Lighter vinyl colors can discolor and yellow, but yellowing can be treated and reversed with immersion in hydrogen peroxide under UV light and heat--sunlight is often easiest for this. While many LDD characters appear stark white, their original vinyl cast may be off-white and naturally more yellow-toned, or else the doll has fully and evenly yellowed with age--difficult to tell since all of the body is the same grade of vinyl. 

Patchy discoloration on Frozen Charlotte...

...but she was never pure white to begin with. This is her post-cleanup.

If a doll doesn't have patchy spot yellowing, I'd err on assuming an off-white LDD vinyl color is the natural original cast, if only to save the time and supplies. 

The default texture for LDD vinyl is matte or satin with no shine or gloss. A few dolls have glossy finishes as an artistic effect--Series 8 Faith, the Series 27 Hopping Vampire, and Resurrection XI Isaiah. Res Isaiah's shininess is subtler but evident.

Faith's glossed body.

Any other doll that looks shiny to you will also be physically greasy due to poor storage conditions and vinyl reacting. This is very disturbing to witness and feel, but the grease easily washes off and the doll is restored with soap, water, and a gentle scrub with baking soda. Popping the doll apart on greasy swivel dolls may be needed because the grease can get inside the joints. 

Gluttony with greasy vinyl on his head. This doll was sealed and untouched, but evidently stored poorly. The blue spot on his temple was a whole other issue; seems to be errant factory paint that penetrated the vinyl around the tiny dot. I covered it with red paint to blend with his blood splatters.

Washed off and matte.

Be aware that immersing LDDs in fluid can cause the hollow pieces to fill up. For swivel dolls, they pop apart and drain and dry out easily, but ball-joint dolls will require drainage holes pierced into the torso and perhaps feet if they get internal fluid, which is an action many would be unwilling to take, as it constitutes an invasive alteration. Legs can be drained by popping them off the ball joint instead.

LDD legs can have some problems, with the factory molding not being as consistent as needed for the dolls to stand firmly and evenly. Some legs may be molded in such a way that the doll leans or tips forward if their hips aren't turned to lean them back further than normal, and some dolls have uneven leg lengths that can make them harder to display. On ball-joint LDDs, uneven legs can be adjusted for by widening the stance of the hips, but swivel dolls with the problem have less recourse.

The last major concern is staining, and while this is a clothing issue, the impact is on the body. Different from an aging issue that compounds over time, staining occurs when the pigment from a Living Dead Doll's clothing seeps into their vinyl, and anywhere a vivid or dark colored fabric touches their vinyl, pigment may be trapped in that point, leaving visible discoloration when the clothing piece is removed.

Stains from the edge of Quack's animal hood.

 In the worst cases, applied pigment on clothing for gory effect may get into the vinyl behind the fabric, as I encountered discouragingly with my Dr. Dedwin, who wears a bloody surgeon's face mask. 

Unlike paint on the surface, this did not come off with acetone, confirming this was a pigment/dye stain. Unfortunately, there is very little recourse for LDD dye stains and the best solution for your sanity is to do nothing and let the costume cover the stains back up. Acetone (as in nail polish remover) will not remove the stains because they have penetrated into the vinyl, and I haven't found luck with peroxide UV soaks either. I was only able to (imperfectly) restore my Dr. Dedwin by aggressively sanding the vinyl around his mouth, which still left a few red marks and damaged the vinyl in spots.

It was important enough to have the ability to display Dedwin bare-faced that I went to this extreme, but it's simply not worth it for most LDDs. I didn't have much success with Quack, which is a shame because she's so fun with her hood down.

To protect against further seeping dye, the clothing can be rinsed and wrung in warm water with laundry detergent until the water no longer significantly discolors. If you are obtaining a Series 18 Ember who is still in her factory packing and twist wires, it is strongly recommended to give this treatment to her witch hat, which Mezco wisely packaged off her head. Putting the hat on her and keeping it on without this dye-reducing wash seriously risks staining her forehead black with marks that stand out against her paint.

Excess dye discoloring the bath I put Ember's hat in. I had to do this process twice due to getting both Ember variants!

Hips

Yeah, this gets its own section. 

One of the most frustrating common quality problems with LDD occurs on the Series 9-onward ball-jointed dolls--a hip with faulty rotation. LDD's ball joint pegs are hard plastic popped and glued into sockets on the vinyl torso while the vinyl legs are able to move freely on the ball at the end of the joint peg. The plastic of the pegs changed materials over the course of the classic brand. Series 9 through 12 and somewhere beyond used pegs of translucent yellow plastic, while somewhere up to Series 17, the pegs were translucent white. Series 18 and onward used opaque plastic. The translucent plastic is harder but more brittle and prone to cracking, while the opaque plastic can be carved or bored more easily but is unlikely to fracture. In my experience with LDD, several dolls have had problems with hips--and only in the hips. The arms and head, all of which are ball joints of whichever same plastic the hips were, have been pretty flawless. I assume a major factor in this joint specifically having problems comes from the hip balls being molded with a spiky texture that increases friction, something the other joints lack. 

Spikes on the leg ball, present on all ball-joint LDD leg pegs.

The first thing to advise on a ball-joint LDD is to very gently try to rotate each hip. If the hip is not budging, stop immediately. The ball joint is too tight inside the leg cup. Heat the vinyl with a hairdryer or a dip in boiling water to soften the leg and loosen it enough that it can move on the joint. This should be enough to solve the problem. If you persist in trying to move the joint while it is stuck, one of two things is likely to happen.  

1. If it is an older ball-joint LDD with brittle translucent joints, the peg will likely snap in two, splitting the joint.

Half of my Series 12 Chloe's broken right hip peg, stuck in the leg cup. This also happened to my Frozen Charlotte from the same series.

In my experience, a broken joint peg has never broken cleanly in pieces that realign tidily to glue back together, making the joint peg something of a lost cause. If this happens, I recommend heating the leg to pop out the ball and check just to make sure the peg can't be reassembled, but it likely won't work. 

2. If it is a newer LDD with opaque joint pegs, persisting in moving an immobile hip will likely break the glue and tear the whole peg out of the vinyl of the torso socket. If you're lucky, the socket won't be damaged much and the piece can be glued and pressed back in like it was. Taking the peg out of the leg joint cup is recommended before re-affixing the peg to the torso socket--after that, the leg can be put back on the joint. If the leg is on when you reattach the peg, it's harder to gauge the fit and alignment of the peg in the torso. You'll know when it's put back in right because it "pops" a bit and the base of the peg lies flush with the contour inside the torso cup. If the peg tore off a piece of vinyl with it, then that can also be easily realigned like a puzzle piece.

It is very unlikely that a stuck joint on an older ball-joint LDD will ever twist out of the body. The older translucent joint plastic is fragile enough to snap before that happens, and when I tried, extracting a broken translucent peg from an LDD body proved very difficult and badly stressed the vinyl around the socket due to strong glue bonded to the material. Conversely and infuriatingly, it is still possible for the later opaque plastic pegs to twist and break in two when the ball is stuck in the leg and the peg is affixed firm in the torso. This scenario is very discouraging, but will only happen if the peg is glued in very tight to the torso. Most stuck hips with opaque pegs seem to just twist out of the torso socket when the leg is forced, leaving the peg intact. Still--don't ever force a stuck leg. Heat it first to get it mobile on the joint.

Repairing a broken joint peg is an exercise in frustration. Replacing the rod between body and ball is difficult, especially with the hard translucent joints which cannot be effectively bored out to insert a new rod. You can carve out an opaque joint's ball more to replace the peg. 

My ideal solution when a doll's hip snaps is not repairing the pieces. It's something inconvenient but more easy to execute and have faith in--harvesting a peg from an opaque-ball-joint LDD. You can buy headless LDD bodies on AliExpress for customs where you could harvest pegs if you want a guilt-free source. Getting the broken peg out of the torso, if it's a translucent peg, is diffcult and unfriendly to the vinyl around the socket, but installing the opaque peg in its place takes far less time and engineering scramble than contriving a home repair.

However you go about the issue, I would also recommend cutting some of the spikes off the hip ball and maybe cutting a very thin bit of vinyl out of the ring around the ball in the leg's cup socket. Since your joint is repaired, you want to reduce the likelihood of it getting too tight again and having a second break. Reducing the friction inside the joint cup just a tiny bit can help and ensure your repair isn't undone. Going too far can loosen the joint too much or make it sometimes pop off the joint accidentally, but these scenarios don't force you to repair the peg again. You can re-tighten a joint you loosened too much by coating the ball with a thin layer of gel superglue so it fills the leg cup more when they're reassembled.

The other scenario you may discover with a doll's hip is that it rotates too loosely. It may hold a pose and let the doll stand up, and can spin in a full circle without the peg tearing out of the body, but you'll know it's not right and is just too loose. In this case, your problem is that the joint peg is rotating within the circular torso socket while the ball joint is static within the leg. Sometimes the factory glue isn't securing the peg inside the torso. It's best to heat the leg and hip to be able to safely extract the peg and minimize any damage to the torso socket. Once done, remove the ball from the leg cup, maybe cut off the spikes, and glue the peg into the torso.  If a leg is just loose, you're less likely to have to worry about the vinyl it was glued to being torn. If the leg is stuck and then you twisted the peg out of the torso, you're more likely to come away with vinyl.

Since the swivel dolls are all vinyl pieces that pop together, any stuck joints on them can be cracked into motion without delicate parts being broken.  

That's all I have right now! I left comments open on this page to answer further questions, which can be incorporated back into the body of this page as well, and this is a living document that can be updated as more cases and photographic illustrations come to be relevant discussion on the topic.