Pimp My DS: Decal Girl Skin Review w/ pics

Maddgief

Maddgief

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First off, let me say, I by no means have the hands of a surgeon. This process immediately took me back to my GI JOE days when I had to put stickers on the vehicles. The nice thing about the DG skins are that they're much more forgiving than the 'no step' or 'danger' stickers hasbro sent out back in the day. (Note: to reduce glare I turned off the flash on my camera. The result are some slightly blurry pics...)

First pic: My DS Lite in all of it's Polar glory. I do very much like the white color, but on an impulse purchase (and in a fit of nostalgia) purchased the Retro skin from DG:http://www.decalgirl.com/browse.cfm/4,4194.htm



Second: The skin sheet. The directions are a little brief and the link that it recommends checking for additional assistance is a dead page. Tarrying not, i dove in head first.



Taking on the easiest part first, I applied the outside cover skin. Before and after Pics (you can't tell from the crappy pic, but the DS logo shows through the skin...cool!). It was simple to get it straight and this vinyl sheet was easy to work with. The sticky side is forgiving and I only had to adjust it once before smoothing it out.

[URL="http://img310.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img30534ro.jpg"]

Now things get hairy. The decals for the inside of the DS are pretty precisely cut and there's little room for error. I attempted the top one first and had to peel and restick 3 or 4 times before it fit right. The biggest pain was having to punch out all of the holes for the speaker vents. They were pre-punched, but getting them off the skin required poking them with a pencil and tearing them off. The result was pretty good though:



Applying the bottom skin is where things got more troublesome. Above the touch screen is a narrow strip of white and on the skin is a corresponding narrow strip of the skin. Well, in my attempts to ensure the skin was taught and bubble free, I apparently stretched out the vinyl for that strip and it would no longer fit properly. As a result I had to snip it with a sharp knife and overlay it over itself above the upper left corner. Also- and I believe unrelated, the skin would not lay properly over the lower left corner of the touchscreen either. Snip there as well. Unless you scrutinize, you can't really tell.



The finished product! I tried to get a detail shot of the lettering around the buttons but everything was blurred...



It's quite slick looking in person-especially the outside skin which is easily my favorite. The internal skins I like but don't love and when I tire of them they'll be coming off. The outside one's going to stay though.


Overall, the skin is very high quality and it's mostly my unsteady hands that resulted in any problems I had. I would give the skin itself a 9 out 10. The process to install it was a 7 out of 10 and my overall experience was a solid 8.5 out of ten earning a recommend from this gamer.[/URL]
 
Thanks for the detailed review. A couple questions:

1. What was the total cost? Saw that it's $9.99 for the skin and what for shipping?

2. When you reapplied, did the adhesive come off the skin? They state no residue.

That retro skin is definitely nice.
 
Good job op, even though I don't have a lite yet, I was looking at these skins(the retro on to be exact) so based on your review, I'll pick one up.
 
Hmmm... I wonder if they'll go on top of invisibleShield? Although, everyone I show my DSL seems to think it's pretty good-looking as it is.
 
I have the hori screen protector on my top screen (i botched the bottome one and have another on order) so I reckon it'd work with invisible shield.

As for the re-sticking. There's no sign of any residue or residual stickiness anywhere...

The retro rang up at 9.99. i had a coupon (gimme10 for 10% off) and shipping was 2.45 I think.

What's OP mean? As in Good job op?
 
Please take no offense but dear god that looks bad. It seems as though you've put them on as best as one can, but I don't see how that messy cheap look is in any way better than the simple look of an unadulterated lite?

My personal taste differs, I guess...

But if you like it thats all that matters

Are they on for good or can you remove them without f'ing up your dslite?
 
I have the same Retro skin from Decalgirl. I ordered Digital Pink for my girlfriend. At the same time I ordered screen protectors.

1) the hori screen protectors were extremely easy to install. my advice is to lift them on the left side of the screen and let them fall. I did have problems with air bubbles at first. they disappear after "popping" them out with the stylus. Highly recommended. I don't fear speaking into the microphone now and getting the screen wet with spitter!!! As well as scratching it...

2) retro skin was extremely hard to apply. took me a while to figure out how to remove the speaker parts, finally popping them out with a pencil. Had to be 2 to do this one properly on the pink skin, but kinda stretched the retro one.

3) it does seem as though the interior skins aren't perfectly sized compared to the top skins. I'm not gonna cut them up like OP though, and I'll probably keep them on for a while, not for looks but protection.

4) WARNING for canadian customers... three skins + three screen protectors cost me around 25$ of customs... and around 20$ of shipping. Very expensive as an end result, but still cheapest place to get screen protectors, fast too.
 
I think all the decal skins have the inherent problem of not covering up all the seams and other surfaces--so it always looks like a decal.

I'm taking a different approach to pimping my DS. Back in March I imported a Lite, but the only color I could get was the Tampax Blue one. Certainly not my first choice, but perfect for my daughters. So, when the US version came out, I bought another and swapped the GBA cart plug and the stylus on the two which made a kind of cool two-tone effect. I liked that so much that I'm now working on getting the D-pad and buttons swapped too--so I'll have a white one with light blue accents and a light blue on with white accents.
 
[quote name='mik']I think all the decal skins have the inherent problem of not covering up all the seams and other surfaces--so it always looks like a decal.

I'm taking a different approach to pimping my DS. Back in March I imported a Lite, but the only color I could get was the Tampax Blue one. Certainly not my first choice, but perfect for my daughters. So, when the US version came out, I bought another and swapped the GBA cart plug and the stylus on the two which made a kind of cool two-tone effect. I liked that so much that I'm now working on getting the D-pad and buttons swapped too--so I'll have a white one with light blue accents and a light blue on with white accents.[/QUOTE]

Be careful...id love to see photos when you're done, but don't screw up because your warranty will be voided once you pop them open. Still sounds like a cool idea.
 
I love decal girl. I've been buying my skins for all of my devices for about a year now.
I wish some company would fix the problem of spacing in skins. By spacing I mean when you can see the product under the skin because two pieces don't touch.
 
I have to agree with the poster above who said it looks awful

I was really thinking of getting these, but I guess those fake DS Lite decal pics on the wbesite really fool the eye.

In reality it looks uneven and doesn't cover crucial parts. I an tell it's not the fault of the user applying the decal, it's just the design of those DecalGirl skins that just aren't up to par.
 
[quote name='Requiem']I have to agree with the poster above who said it looks awful

I was really thinking of getting these, but I guess those fake DS Lite decal pics on the wbesite really fool the eye.

In reality it looks uneven and doesn't cover crucial parts. I an tell it's not the fault of the user applying the decal, it's just the design of those DecalGirl skins that just aren't up to par.[/quote]

I think, the problem is that the decal doesn't cover everything and the exposed parts stand out. The only decals that would look good are the ones that are printed on white/black/navy/green/pink (DSL colors) and you don't notice where the decal ends and the DSL begins.

FWIW, I'm more than happy with my invisibleShield: http://www.shieldzone.com/item_description/NTNDSLF.html
(when you pull out a key and start mutilating the console, people kinda freak out until they see that there's no damage).
 
I bought the Solid State Black skin on a whim when I purchased my Hori screen protectors from Decal Girl. I was going to post pictures of the finished product for you guys, but it looked so bad that I peeled it off and threw it away. As a disclaimer, I have always been extremely bad at applying decals. I applied the top cover pretty well, though, and it looked nice and slick. The inside skins gave me a lot of trouble, and it seemed like I could not get it just right no matter how many times I tried. Even though the skins are very high quality and the DS logo clearly showed through the solid black material on top, the end result still looked like a DS with stickers on it rather than the beautiful technological marvel that it is.

Anyway, maybe skins just aren't for me. Too bad I had to pay $10 to find that out, but oh well. Again, my results may not be your results, but I was not impressed.
 
I tried to get them to custom make a Liverpool FC logo for me like the one under my username, but they sent me a message saying they couldn't because of copyrights. I ordered a Union Jack from there instead.
 
I bought a DS Lite skin from Pinkstatic on Ebay because they looked tight, covering the entire DS on all 4 sides. The good news is that it was cut great to fit flush at the edges, but the bad news is that the clear transfer tape that is used is way too sticky for the thin vinyl, which caused random air bubbles all over. I had to tear it off because it looked ghetto. If you can get the pinkstatic skin on exactly perfect the first try, then it's a good skin, but there's no room for re-adjusting, because the skin will stretch if you try to peel it off. And it did leave a bit of residue from the adhesive, but that was easily wiped off.

right now, I switched over to use a silicone case made by capdase. It's semi-rigid so the fit is snug, allowing the DS Lite to close all the way. It looks and feels great.

I was considering buying a DS Lite skin from DecalGirl. sounds like this one is easy to readjust if not put on perfect the first time. Do you have to use any tweezers or special tools, or do you just use your fingers? What other companies have you experienced for DS Lite skins?
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']I forget which company makes them, but I have the RE4 decal on my GCN and it rocks ass. I totally recommend it.[/QUOTE]

I have it also, it's made by gamer grafix.
 
[quote name='commander']I
I was considering buying a DS Lite skin from DecalGirl. sounds like this one is easy to readjust if not put on perfect the first time. Do you have to use any tweezers or special tools, or do you just use your fingers? What other companies have you experienced for DS Lite skins?[/quote]

I used my fingers and the knife. Using tweezers probably would have been a good idea. This was my first skin experience, but all these weeks later I still have it on there.
 
decal girl and gamer graffix are not the only players in the skin game. There is the inventor of the console skin, designerskins.com. , as well as one of the biggest now skinit.
 
Hi everyone..
I bought new Ds lite console last week and i need some solid skin cover on it. So could anyone here please suggest me some websites providing nice ds lite skin covers .


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Hi guys.
I am thinking of buying a new Ds lite console but i also want some good looking skins on it, So could anyone here please suggest me some websites providing Ds lite with nice skins?

Ds lite skins
 
I found a very new and different skin for ds lite gaming console which looks great. I need some more new existing skins for my gaming console any suggestion please..

ds lite skins
 
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