This Week In Your Plastic Crack, Action Figures and Toy Collection 26 26

[Bronty]

Uh-huh.

[F For Fake]

1 minute ago, Bronty said:

Uh-huh.

I'm just sayin', this could all be yours. What you do with them...that's your business. 

[Bronty]

Awwwwkwaaard

[F For Fake]

1 minute ago, Bronty said:

Awwwwkwaaard

What, you're more of a Sporty Spice guy? 

[Bronty]

Just now, F For Fake said:

What, you're more of a Sporty Spice guy? 

Well, I like steak spice on my meat.

Errr.... awkward again.

[ADAMANTIUM]

4 minutes ago, F For Fake said:

I'm just sayin', this could all be yours. What you do with them...that's your business. 

Why does one have a bag over its head?

[F For Fake]

Just now, ADAMANTIUM said:

Why does one have a bag over its head?

They originally all had bags, I believe, in order to keep the "hair" decent looking.

But if you'd prefer to believe that it's because of weird sex stuff, I won't correct you. Whatever gets them sold!

[ADAMANTIUM]

Just now, F For Fake said:

They originally all had bags, I believe, in order to keep the "hair" decent looking.

But if you'd prefer to believe that it's because of weird sex stuff, I won't correct you. Whatever gets them sold!

no....i'm good

[F For Fake]

4 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

no....i'm good

Ok man, but if you need your spice fix, you know where to find me!

[followtheleader]

This site will showcase the Legacy Collection Falcon so much better than I could:

http://jediinsider.com/index.php?catid=244&itemid=11272

I'll find one for the AT-AT.  

I've never seen the inside of a vintage X-wing.  Always interests me how they were put together. 

Patrick

[followtheleader]

Pics/info for the Legacy Collection AT-AT: 

http://www.jeditemplearchives.com/content/modules.php?name=JReviews&rop=showcontent&id=415

One Youtube Review said the same thing I felt.  It's hard to understand how amazing they are until you see the enormity.  Read somewhere that the Falcon is 35% larger than the original. 

Patrick

[srezvan]

12 hours ago, F For Fake said:

That's awesome, would love to see the pics!

My current plastic crack obsession is restoring my vintage X-Wing! Recently I've been helping my folks clear out a storage room in their basement, and it has yielded up some forgotten treasures, like the X-Wing fighter from my childhood.

Yellowed and missing most of its parts, it didn't look like much, but I decided to restore it for my personal collection.

First two pics are from disassembly and cleaning. Third pic is after I gave the plastic parts a nice peroxide and sunshine bath, and now she's as white as the day she rolled off the assembly line!

Got some new stickers and cannons on the way. Just need to find a clean canopy for less than an arm and a leg, and I'll be set.

I'll no doubt put more money into this than it's technically worth, but the restoration is fun, and the pleasure in seeing a beloved childhood friend brought back to life is immeasurable. 

 

Could you please post your process for cleaning the vehicle? At some point I need to do the same to tubs full of aged toys.

[F For Fake]

10 hours ago, followtheleader said:

This site will showcase the Legacy Collection Falcon so much better than I could:

http://jediinsider.com/index.php?catid=244&itemid=11272

I'll find one for the AT-AT.  

I've never seen the inside of a vintage X-wing.  Always interests me how they were put together. 

Patrick

It's interesting, I'd never taken one apart before, but they're not very complex. The whole thing is held together by about 6 screws. In fact, there are spots for two more screws, but Kenner apparently cheaped out and went with "Eh, 2 screws will hold this piece on as well as 4."

[F For Fake]

9 hours ago, srezvan said:

 

Could you please post your process for cleaning the vehicle? At some point I need to do the same to tubs full of aged toys.

Sure!

This is what I did with the X-Wing, but I've used a similar process with other pieces in the past as well.

1. Remove the stickers. Mine came up with no problem at all, they were so dried out and brittle. I used Goo Gone on a couple of tiny spots where there was still some stickiness. If yours are stuck on, then goo gone, or sometimes using a hair dryer, should help get the stickers off. I ordered repro stickers for the X-Wing. I am not a purist with stickers, so I don't worry about keeping them perfect when I remove them. To me, since it's staying in my personal collection anyway, if the sticker looks like the real thing, that's good enough. 

2. Disassembled the whole thing and set aside the piece with the electronics attached, as I didn't want to get those parts wet or damaged.

3. Gave the rest of the pieces a bath in warm water and Dawn dish soap, and then scrubbed it clean with a soft tooth brush, to get the dust out of the nooks and crannies. Let it drain dry and then wiped it all down with a soft cloth.

That's my standard procedure for cleaning up old toys. This particular piece was all white plastic, many spots had yellowed, and there were even some brown spots as well. So, since it was white plastic, and I wanted to return it to white, I went with the peroxide and sunshine method:

                                A. Place the toy in a clear plastic bin, and fill it with 6% peroxide. Most pharmacies only have 3% so you will probably have to go to a beauty supply shop to get it. I went to Sally's Beauty Supply store. In these shops, it is usually called 20 Vol Liquid Developer. You can get a gallon for about $8.  You want the clear liquid stuff, not the creamy stuff. (Some people use the cream, but I've never had good results with it.) You'll want to be careful with the peroxide, wearing gloves is a good idea. 

                               B. Seal it up with a clear lid or clear plastic wrap, and set it in direct sunlight.

I let it sit for most of a day, and that seemed to take care of it. Some folks will leave it out for a few days, but I worry about that damaging the plastic. In fact, leave it too long, and your toy will probably melt or dissolve. I always figure if one day in strong sunlight won't fix it, it's probably just not going to come clean.

Once the sun has done its magic, be sure to clean all of the pieces in another warm, soapy bath, to get all of the peroxide off.

And that's pretty much it! I'm not expert, this is a process I put together from years of reading toy forums. There may be other ways to do it, but this has always worked for me.

 

[badback83]

Took me a long time to find one I liked.  The card is really clean.  

[badback83]

I forgot, it is also the purple heart varaint. 

[batmiesta]

[comicwiz]

A little over a year ago I'd started a collecting focus with my youngest son who had taken an early liking to Batman. The pictures below show a shelf which I've been slowly building up for him with preproduction items. Most are first shots, but I also have several hard copies and waxes. The picture I took showing the entire shelf was some time ago and is now running out of space. I heard from a fellow collector who was selling all his JLU prototypes except for the all flesh Wonder Woman and the one with the pink hair. The Superman is a third addition to the battle armour and grey with red legs and cape. The Batman is a duplicate but with test markings. The Shazam, Ms Marvel, Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl are great new additions to the set and I was really appreciative they were offered to me:

 

Edited October 5, 2017 by comicwiz

[F For Fake]

18 minutes ago, comicwiz said:

A little over a year ago I'd started a collecting focus with my youngest son who had taken an early liking to Batman. The pictures below show a shelf which I've been slowly building up for him with preproduction items. Most are first shots, but I also have several hard copies and waxes. The picture I took showing the entire shelf was some time ago and is now running out of space. I heard from a fellow collector who was selling all his JLU prototypes except for the all flesh Wonder Woman and the one with the pink hair. The Superman is a third addition to the battle armour and grey with red legs and cape. The Batman is a duplicate but with test markings. The Shazam, Ms Marvel, Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl are great new additions to the set and I was really appreciative they were offered to me:

 

Very cool! I love production pieces. I used to collect protos and test shots, but got out of them because it started getting too easy to get ripped off with fakes. But it's definitely a fun and different way to collect!

[comicwiz]

Thanks, I would buy more but they don't turn up as often. You're right about fakes, but it is very important to buy from trusted sources. Here is the Kenner hardcopy pictured in that group shot I posted, but exploded and framed next to the first phase wax sculpt. I don't keep them on the same shelf I showed, but have them pretty much setup like this on a shelf where I keep some of the more valuable preproduction pieces. It's one of only two pieces I own where I have both the hardcopy and wax.