Just finished an easy and long overdue Spacetroopers upgrade. After my recent Han headswap festival, I had a handful of now-headless Han Stormtrooper bodies, and another handful of terribly yellowed LC Spacetroopers - Seemed a logical idea to combine them. The only real obstacle was mounting the jetpacks. After bouncing through a few overly complex ideas involving magnets and double-sided automotive emblem tape, I decided the cleanest method would be to transfer the Spacetrooper back plates to the new bodies. For anyone not familiar with the LC Spacetrooper, the back has a separate plate with slots on the sides for the jetpack clips.
Pessimistically expecting the plate to be glued in and hard to remove, I hacked the first donor torso apart with plastic cutters. My plan was to cut as close as possible, then sand the plate down as necessary. I didn't want to damage the edges by prying anything. While trimming, though, I could feel and hear the plate shifting around in what was left of the torso. As an experiment, I
loosely pried it with a razor knife and it popped right out! The next four plates took about a minute to remove.
Caution: I bought these five Spacetroopers in a lot from one of the Chinese sellers years ago. Probably Tunghori or the late, great Viperskingdom. The point being, it's possible the plates may be glued in better on other Spacetroopers. I've received figures in the past from these guys that had completely skipped the sonic welding and gluing phases - Great if you're disassembling for customs, but probably an issue for most buyers.
You can also see some of the torso yellowing below - It might not look too bad here, but this pic was taken a couple of weeks after a two-day soak in 12% hydrogen peroxide. The torsos were sparkling white when they came out, but were turning back already. Not to mention this was the second soaking in the last couple of years.
After popping the plates, I removed the plugs by sanding them on a sheet of 220 grit wet-or-dry paper lying on a flat surface (bathroom countertop). I intentionally left the sanded surfaces roughed up to help the epoxy adhere.
I then sanded the raised details from the backs of the Han Stormies in the same manner. As a precaution, I bent the arms forward and twisted the torsos 180 degrees so that the arms and detonator cannisters wouldn't get accidentally sanded. I used Loctite two-part epoxy to glue the plates to the bodies.
Here's a comparison between the Han Stormie on the right and my only non-yellowed LC Spacetrooper on the left. Re-using the Joe Johnson heads would have been more trouble than it was worth - Would have needed to drill the sockets deeper, then fill them with greenstuff for a tight fit. *Bleah* I used some Dutch Vander heads instead.
The final step was to drill small holes in the helmets for the air hoses. Unless there's something I'm overlooking, it seems impossible to fit the new blasters in the holsters. I'll probably try some of the earlier E-11 molds.
Thanks for looking!
