I'm a toy collector. I often modify and repair older acquisitions. This is a gallery of some of those repairs and modifications.
I bought a new-in-box Trendmasters: Voltron - The Third Dimension set. The front-right leg of the Blue Lion wouldn't rotate. I tried to give it a twist with pliers and a hand towel but ended up marring the leg a bit anyway.Taking the figure apart was straight-forward. This seemed like the final piece to remove to free the leg.It turned out the figure didn't need to be taken apart. The paint of the leg had fused to the body of the figure. Prying the leg away from the ratchet joint broke it free.The leg was pretty well stuck.After the easy repair, the lions combine and stand with little trouble.I wanted to redeco Kingdom Rodimus Prime as Primus from the e-HOBBY Spin Off comic's Primus Vanguard. My goal was to simply repaint it gold and red in line with the character.The first thing I did was tape off the bits of the figure that shouldn't be gold and sprayed the rest of the figure gold. I gave it three coats.I then disassembled the figure to prepare to paint the red parts.I mixed two Citadel paint colors: Leadbelcher and Blood Angels red. I then sprayed them on to the pieces which required it. I gave them three coats.Primus, finished and standing with his Vanguard. If I had to do it again, I would put in the elbow grease to remove the chest tampograph first. For the red color, I would apply an undercoat of metallic silver and contrast it with a thinner red on top.One of Treadbolt's rubber treads broke.Nothing a little rubber cement can't fix. I stuck a rubber band over the tread to keep the mend sealed while it set.Treadbolt's tread is now nearly as good as new.I bought a Super Go-Bots Bug Bite. The die cast legs sheared in half. I welded them back together. You can hardly tell they were ever broken.I also applied some acrylic floor wax to Bug Bite's elbows as they were very loose. Now it's looking pretty good!I bought a Leader Cybertron Megatron missing a number of pieces. All of the weapons are missing: the Death Claw, the Death Machine Gun, and both missiles. I may fabricate a new Death Machine Gun if I can't find a replacement. Two small fins are also missing on the back of the alt mode. Those will be easy to fabricate.Thankfully, there's virtually nothing wrong with the robot mode.I found a replacement Death Claw and a missile.I bought a Generations Junkheap of which its handlebars, brakes, and side mirrors were sagging.I dipped the plastic in boiling water for 15 seconds, reshaped the parts, and then dipped the plastic in ice water for 15 seconds.I bought an MP-20+ Wheeljack with a broken wing.Wheeljack also had a bent side-view mirror.A little PlasticWeld fixed up the wing. You have to let it set for a day but the break mark is hardly visible after the repair. Thankfully, MP-20+ came with a spare set of mirrors on a sprue. So, the fix for the mirror was a simple replacement.RotF Ravage has some bent spines as well as loose joints all over.Dipping the spines in some boiling water for a few seconds, reshaping them, and then dipping them in ice water for a few seconds fixed them right up.Getting some acrylic floor wax in all the joints and allowing it to dry gives the joints more friction.Ravage now has a straight, spiny back and is able to stand without problem.I have an original Radio Shack/Tandy Galactic Man. I need to repair the legs which are attached incorrectly. I also need to repair the trigger, repair the electronics, tighten up some joints, and replace the missing barrel.For joints like these which have die-cast parts, I use medical tape to provide friction and tighten them up.
The mechanical repairs simply involved taking the figure apart and putting it back together correctly (although this particular figure is a real pain to reassemble) The electronic repairs required resoldering, reseating, and cleaning the electronics. I repaired everything except the light. It's an incandescent light which is directly wired in and has burned out. I'll need to figure out a replacement. I replaced the missing barrel with a G1 Shockwave barrel.
Repaired Galactic Man in robot mode.Repaired Galactic Man in alt mode.Repaired Galactic Man electronic sounds.I bought a G1 Grand Slam and its weapons had lost a lot of chrome.Here, I have re-chromed the weapons with a Molotow Liquid Chrome pen.Along with Grand Slam, I bought its counterpart, Raindance. However, Raindance had a lot of rust.Here, I've removed a good bit of the rust from Raindance. I removed the screws and soaked them in 70% distilled white vinegar for a few days. Every quarter day or so, I would shake up the container to break away rust and allow it to sink to the bottom of the container.
I'm a big fan of Toyhax as well. Here are a few toys on which I've applied a selection of Toyhax decals.
Earthrise Wheeljack's robot mode with Toyhax decals.Earthrise Wheeljack's alt mode with Toyhax decals from an isometric perspective.Lots of sponsorship decals.I really dig the license plate.The whole hood deco was reshaped by the decals. I love that grill, too. Good stuff.The only toy Rack'n'Ruin has seen has come from the Cyberverse line. Consequently, it was in desperate need of some deco. I think this new robot mode deco with those rad Wrecker insignias looks dope.The turret now has nice windows and the wheels have blue rims.The warning strip makes a ton of difference.Another rad license plate.I love those knuckle tattoos so much.This is a great Smokescreen mold and the decals elevate the deco to another level.Smokescreen's alt mode looks so rad with the decals.The safety net is textured. Smokescreen has also been changed back to number 38 with Don Devendorf as the driver.Toyhax added tail lights, a brake light, and another killer license plate.I love all the sponsorship decals.The Datsun and 280 ZX Turbo decals are perfect.A fun little custom Scramble City-style combiner of mine which I've named, Starcry.
