Changing eyes for Odeco & Nikki

May 13th, 2009
by Sue

There isn’t a whole lot you can do to customise Petworks’ Nikki, but changing the colour of her eyes is something the designers have given us the means to do.

As ever, the first step is to choose your victim. This was an easy one for me this time as my gorgeous black Nikki, Rocky, had stock eyes that I thought were much too dark for her:

I’d also bought a ‘Monster’ Odeco because I loved her pink hair and bone-white skin, but was a bit spooked by her pinky eyes.  Here’s her stock picture from Petworks:

The first step was to whip off Odeco’s wig.  Easy done!

The next step is to gently squeeze and twist the ‘hatch’ on the back of the head to remove it:

Odeco’s ‘hatch’ is much bigger than Nikki’s:

You’ll now be able to see the sleep-eye capsules resting in their little plastic sockets inside the head:

Use your finger to push the eye capsule from the front into the head.  You’ll need to push firmly:

Each eye capsule is an eye, sleep-eye mechanism and set of lashes all in one (Odeco on the right, Nikki on the left):

Repeat with the other eye and you should end up with a very spooky-looking eyeless dolly:

Now you’ll need to put in some new eyes.  You can either put in eyes you’ve swapped from another Odeco or Nikki, or use acrylic eyes.  Nikki takes 22-24mm eyes and Odeco takes 20-22mm.

I chose blue for Odeco and yellow for my Nikki:

It’s always weird to get boxes of eyeballs in the post.

The next bit is the tricky bit.  You will need to try to hold open the plastic eye socket flaps as well as you can with one hand whilst slipping the new eye in with the other.  It’s pretty awkward, but perseverance pays off:

Put band-aids on your bleeding cuticles (you might not need this step of the process, but I did) and repeat with the second eye.

You may also want to give your dolly some new eyelashes.  I gave Odeco very light lashes (cut down from human lashes bought at the pharmacy) after her eyes were in.  I simply used a pin to push the pre-glued lash band just slightly between the eye and socket above her eyes.  Pop her wig back on, and she’s as good as new:

I think Odeco’s little-girl face is suited to light lashes, but you can choose any thickness or colour you can find.

You’ll also now be able to adjust your doll’s gaze and expression:

Now go customise your dolls and send me pictures!