Wow, that Yoda is off the charts great. Wow, so much better. Thanks for detailing the process. I look forward to seeing what you do with that AT-ST too. And the Vader looks great as well. All kinds of good stuff.
off to share that Yoda.
Thank you very much.
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I'm back after a bit of hiatus and loads of work, I haven't been doing much modifications lately but I have been snatching up a few Star Wars bargains on eBay (photos to come).
Come to think of it, I did do an update on a recent upgraded mod.
My 1/6 scale Hasbro Anakin to Darth Vader figure toy of which I hacked at, sawed, cut, trimmed, subtracted from and added too using 1/6 Sideshow Collectibles Darth Vader spare parts.
I love the Hasbro figure because of the electronics built into it, being able to play audio dialog from the movies of either Anakin or Darth Vader's famous quotes was it's biggest draw card for me.
In saying that, I decided to keep the figure in Vader mode only reason being that I already have two Anakin figures.
Here's the figure in all it's original plastic looking glory...
My plan was to mask, hide or remove as many of the pieces that made the figure look toyish and give him a completely new facelift, so the first thing I did was remove all of the clothing (which consisted of just the cape), shoulder armour and anything that wasn't glued or screwed down.
I knew what I wanted to achieve so I continued to measure and mark above and below his belt then used my hobby saw to make slots for his new tunic to slide into on both left and right sides of the moulded front piece.
Now using a philips head screw driver I removed all the screws that held the body together, there's a total of ten screws to remove which are located on the back of the figure, this had to be done to completely remove the head sculpt from the body and gain access to the activation switch that controlled both the Anakin and Vader modes.
After peeling off his sculpted hair which seemed to have a qazillion layers of glue holding it on, removing a further two more screws dismantled the remaining Anakin head sculpt.
Note: Removing the sculpted hair was tedious, plus you need to be careful that you don't accidentally tear the wires out from the switch that is secured on the inside by the two screws holding the head together.
Once completed, I wrapped a thin strip of tape around the box and over the switch to hold it into Vader mode then tucked it safely away into the body cavity.
Next I had to conjure up a makeshift neck and head connector for I had no spares long enough that would secure the new head onto the body, so... I used two shorter neck connectors, a double-ball end male neck connection and mounted a spring between them for added tension to avoid ending up with a floppy head.
I also mounted a spacer ring over one of the connectors to secure to the inside lip of the head sculpt and helmet.
I prepared the head, mask and helmet and did a dry fit to test.
After a few tweaks here and there with the helmet once I was satisfied all the connectors were in place and working as should, I refitted the armour, his new Sideshow Collectibles tunic and cape and I also dumped that awful looking broom handle of a Lightsaber and replaced it with a more streamlined tapered blade.
The new head popped on without issues and was a perfect fit for the connectors, the modified helmet (done recently) slid on with no troubles, electronics test, a bit of futsing around with the cape and tunic and he was complete.
I'm satisfied with his new appearance now that I rid of his toyish plasticy look, there's one part I'll need to revisit later on when I acquire the replacement piece (shoulder armour), the tunic wouldn't comfortably slip over the armour because the original part is too bulky... so he'll have to wear his tunic in ESB mode for now.
Thanks for reading.
