Small Scale Military Headquarters

This has happened to me a few times:

I buy some old 21C figures and am soooo excited to get them into action. I open the package, begin to move the joints to loosen them up and *SNAP*, I end up decapitating, dismembering or delimbing them.

I don't know if it is from toys sitting on the porch in the cold, from almost ten year old plastic degradation or simply my greedy sausage fingers. I have tried letting them warm up and taking extra care but still break them sometimes.

Anyone else suffer from this?

I once bought a lot of some 15 of the original XD figures on ebay several years ago. I had the same problem, particularly with the "elbow" joints on the arms. The same also happened with some of my BoB-series Germans. Essentially, if a little glue or misshapened plastic gets in the joint, it can cause problems. Fatigue due to age is also certainly a factor. More recently, I had problems with the arms on my BBI Tanker figures breaking.

Usually I put some of my figures into boiling hot water for 1-2 minutes right after I've removed them from the package. The plastic becomes flexible again This way nothing will break when you move the joints of the figure for the first time. Also sometimes parts of the figures are bent and when you heat up the figures with boiling water those parts get back in their right positions. I hope this method can help you.

I find that if i push in while turning that will loosen the limb. it's mostly the hand that sticks so i'll push in while turning.

I worry a bit now with FOV figures. They seem to be made of a more 'rubbery' plastic. So I run them under hot water and try to pull the limb out. Then I put some vaseline on the post and stuck it back in.
I'm also finding out now that with Osternoh, that after a while, the German cap won't stay on his head...
AND it would be NICE if most of these guys could SIT UPRIGHT.

Yeah the FOV figures really worry me thanks to that weird ass plastic they use. The ankle area seems like it might be a trouble spot later on as well.

holensock wrote:I worry a bit now with FOV figures. They seem to be made of a more 'rubbery' plastic. So I run them under hot water and try to pull the limb out. Then I put some vaseline on the post and stuck it back in.
:

Be careful using Vaseline. It doesn't happen with all plastics, but Vaseline is a petroleum based product and can sometimes interact with some plastics over the long term (meaning weaken or even dissolve)

I ruined several mechanical plastic models over the years before I was made aware of this.

I have a "plastics compatible" lubricant that I bought several years ago at a hobby shop and that is what I always use to be safe.

Cheers

Thanks for the info! I'd better wash that off...FOV does use this 'weird ass plastic' as Rowsdower said and it'd be my luck they'd all be dissolving...like the witch in the Wizard of Oz... EVEN the 'stands' are made of that soft plastic-one reason why if you put the FOV figs in a walking or running position, they fall over...

MandaloreSC wrote:Usually I put some of my figures into boiling hot water for 1-2 minutes right after I've removed them from the package. The plastic becomes flexible again This way nothing will break when you move the joints of the figure for the first time. Also sometimes parts of the figures are bent and when you heat up the figures with boiling water those parts get back in their right positions. I hope this method can help you.

This is what I also do. The second I sense that the joint is sticking I heat up some water. Works like a charm!

holensock wrote:Thanks for the info! I'd better wash that off...FOV does use this 'weird ass plastic' as Rowsdower said and it'd be my luck they'd all be dissolving...like the witch in the Wizard of Oz... EVEN the 'stands' are made of that soft plastic-one reason why if you put the FOV figs in a walking or running position, they fall over...

Yup! You'd think they could spare a bit of harder plastic for the stands.

Rowsdower wrote: Yup! You'd think they could spare a bit of harder plastic for the stands.

21C got it RIGHT with their stands!!

To those interested smalljoes sells stands for a pretty reasonable price.

grunt1 wrote:

MandaloreSC wrote:Usually I put some of my figures into boiling hot water for 1-2 minutes right after I've removed them from the package. The plastic becomes flexible again This way nothing will break when you move the joints of the figure for the first time. Also sometimes parts of the figures are bent and when you heat up the figures with boiling water those parts get back in their right positions. I hope this method can help you.

This is what I also do. The second I sense that the joint is sticking I heat up some water. Works like a charm!

well - great minds think alike.

Wow, my english is so bad. You needed one sentence to describe the same what took me so many sentences.