The Energon Pub

I'm gonna have to try that hair dryer trick.

El Duque wrote:I'm gonna have to try that hair dryer trick.

Yes you do my friend. Check out this result on my original G1 Hot Rod

Seibertron wrote:

It Is Him wrote:It's easy. Just borrow your wife's hair dryer, set it to high heat and low blast, or whatever settings those things have, and let'er'rip. Hopefully you'll see a difference after a minute or so. The trick also worked decently well on Animated Arcee's hands. As for storing them, try a little bit of bubble wrap.

Um wow. Thanks for the tip. My Masterpiece rear wing tips look like nothing was ever wrong with them. And the one Skywarp tip doesn't look bent at all any more after this. Amazing! Is this a widely known fix for plastic stress?

I also tried this on my Classics Rodimus where the shoulder ball joint connects. I fixed one side with this but the other side was taking too long. I was getting worried about the hair dryer causing damage to the plastic so I decided not to continue.

Definitely want to try this on Henkei Wildrider's shoulder ball joints at some point as well as TFA Arcee.

Great tip!

Honestly, if this is the first time you're hearing about this tip, then I'm guessing it isn't commonly known.

Those are some nice results. I took some before and after photos with a few of my other guys, but nothing that noticeable. TFA Arcee definitely was an improvement though (I've got some before-and-after pics somewhere...)

Seibertron wrote:

It Is Him wrote:That's pretty amazing. You know, my beat up G1 Jetfire could definitely use an H202 bath, and I don't think I would mind if I accidentally ruin it, even if it is that rare sticker variant. I'll have to think about it some more.

It might be worth taking him apart instead of damaging those Robotech stickers. The H202 will rust the metal / die cast on the figure slightly (which might be removed with a rust remover but i haven't tried that yet). Alternatively, you could try to make this Retr0brite stuff at http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/ and then apply it only to the pieces that need some TLC. I wouldn't damage the near unreplacable sticker variants, especially if it's a carryover Robotech sticker(s) on the wings.

Really I'm conflicted about doing it. On one hand, those stickers are rare and several parts are broken beyond repair, and on the other, it would be a fun experiment to try out. My Jetfire is really a junker, as are all of my 84-86 childhood toys. And the truth is, I don't mind if he's yellowed. It builds character.

Seibertron wrote:

El Duque wrote:I'm gonna have to try that hair dryer trick.

Yes you do my friend. Check out this result on my original G1 Hot Rod

Wow.

That should work on plastic building blocks too, right? I have some Mega Bloks and Lego pieces strained from trying to force compatibility between them, and (toy) plastic is plastic, right?

[Edit: It's unfortunate that human stretch marks can't be removed so easily.]

Quaternion wrote:Woah, flashback...

I just realized that had Lander as a kid but I completely forgot about it. It feels really eerie deja vu when new galleries pop up and then a bunch of memories of that figure just come flashing back to me. But then again, I suppose Lander was a rather forgettable figure.

Hah, that's funny, I know exactly what you mean. The same thing happened to me about 3 weeks ago. The last 4 years or so I'd been thinking I never had any pretenders when I was a kid. Then I saw a pic of the forgettable Groundbreaker and a few old memories clicked back into place.

The worst thing is, I'm kind of tempted to get my hands on a few Pretenders now. I think they're a horrible idea, but something in them is starting to appeal to me. Maybe it's Seibertron's awesome photography making some very average toys look cool.

Oilspill wrote:The worst thing is, I'm kind of tempted to get my hands on a few Pretenders now. I think they're a horrible idea, but something in them is starting to appeal to me. Maybe it's Seibertron's awesome photography making some very average toys look cool.

I think it's a great idea to start collecting Pretenders! The prices on the whole line seems to have jumped recently. Get 'em while the going's good.

I've always loved the Pretenders. How come noone ever comments on Skullgrin's unpainted lower jaw? Loved his characterisation in the Marvel comics and Cloudburst and Landmine.

Would love to see Classics Jetfire repainted as Cloudburst and Cybertron Ransack as Iguanus.

Seibertron wrote:

El Duque wrote:I'm gonna have to try that hair dryer trick.

Yes you do my friend. Check out this result on my original G1 Hot Rod

Amazing, looks like brand new.

I told my wife about the stress-mark fix and she freaked, began immediately looking for pieces of plastic to damage and deface so she could test it.

It does indeed work on Mega Bloks pieces, and she is now wanting to find out if she's right about why it works.

Caelus wrote:I told my wife about the stress-mark fix and she freaked, began immediately looking for pieces of plastic to damage and deface so she could test it.

It does indeed work on Mega Bloks pieces, and she is now wanting to find out if she's right about why it works.

It has to be melting the plastic on some level. Would love to know why as well. Can't believe we didn't know about this fix and that no one mentioned this to me before yesterday.

Anyone else got some neat tricks to fix our figures besides H2O2 for yellowing and hair dryers for stress marks?

Seibertron wrote:

Caelus wrote:I told my wife about the stress-mark fix and she freaked, began immediately looking for pieces of plastic to damage and deface so she could test it.

It does indeed work on Mega Bloks pieces, and she is now wanting to find out if she's right about why it works.

It has to be melting the plastic on some level. Would love to know why as well. Can't believe we didn't know about this fix and that no one mentioned this to me before yesterday.

Anyone else got some neat tricks to fix our figures besides H2O2 for yellowing and hair dryers for stress marks?

I haven't tried this yet, but a fellow Aussie fan swears by using lighter fluid for sticker removal and reuse. It allows the sticker to be removed but retain it's stickiness. Good for realigning stickers that have been poorly applied to vintage figures. He documents it in detail here.

Seibertron wrote:

Caelus wrote:I told my wife about the stress-mark fix and she freaked, began immediately looking for pieces of plastic to damage and deface so she could test it.

It does indeed work on Mega Bloks pieces, and she is now wanting to find out if she's right about why it works.

It has to be melting the plastic on some level. Would love to know why as well.

She tentatively suggested (and I'm hoping I repeat this right) that the stretching of the plastic pulls the suspended pigment particles away from each other in one spot and bunches them up in another spot, creating a section of discolored/colorless plastic. Exposing the plastic to heat, however, adds kinetic energy to the system encouraging the pigment particles to diffuse back through the plastic and return to their original, natural distribution.

If you've ever noticed how much easier it is to add sugar to hot tea than iced tea, it's fundamentally the same phenomenon.

But she's not sure. She's hoping she gets a chance to bring it up in either her polymers class or her materials engineering class.

Seibertron wrote:

It Is Him wrote:It's easy. Just borrow your wife's hair dryer, set it to high heat and low blast, or whatever settings those things have, and let'er'rip. Hopefully you'll see a difference after a minute or so. The trick also worked decently well on Animated Arcee's hands. As for storing them, try a little bit of bubble wrap.

Um wow. Thanks for the tip. My Masterpiece rear wing tips look like nothing was ever wrong with them. And the one Skywarp tip doesn't look bent at all any more after this. Amazing! Is this a widely known fix for plastic stress?

I also tried this on my Classics Rodimus where the shoulder ball joint connects. I fixed one side with this but the other side was taking too long. I was getting worried about the hair dryer causing damage to the plastic so I decided not to continue.

Definitely want to try this on Henkei Wildrider's shoulder ball joints at some point as well as TFA Arcee.

Great tip!

does it work for scratches???my MP rody's wing had a little spot there