I hope this is an alright thread for this area - the Radicons area just didn't seem right. If it's in the wrong place, feel free to move it. I just got all five G1 Dinobots and, unfortunately, they weren't in the condition that the pics and description stated. Nonetheless, they aren't completely unsalvagable and I'd like to restore them. The problem is, I've never done a restoration before. I've already planned on removing all the stickers and cleaning the figures with some rubbing alcohol, a soft toothbrush, and some q-tips. I have some plastic dental tools that will help get the sticker gunk off and I'm placing an order on Reprolabels. I'm particularly curious about chrome. For their age, the toys are in pretty decent shape chrome-wise. I'd say each toy has about 10-15% wear. These are only going to be for display and I keep them in robot mode, so any chrome fixes don't need to be 100% permanent (although that would be nice). I've thought of using silver paint (if it exists) or perhaps silver leaf - I'm sure I could find both at a hobby store. Any suggestions, even those not related to chrome, about restoring would be appreciated. If you know of a good product a link to it would also help. Thanks for any help.
Seriously man, with that price you paid, you could at least get all 5 complete and near mint.(A overall C8.0 can mean alot of things) As for chrome repair, i doubt there're anything you can use to make them look like the orignal(yes, there're silver paints, but they look different) Sticker removal should be pretty straight forward and you shouldn't have any problem on that(I only have problem removing stickers from 3rd season characters, the wreck-gar stickers = pain). Make sure you don't accidentally rub off the chrome As for the pictures, never trust your eyes, most the time, the pictures looks nicer than the actual toys. Even if you take a picture of your toys and look at it, it will look better than the toys
All five are close enough to complete and not completely trashed. Truthfully, they aren't as bad as I make them out to be, it's just that my collection is mint and I want these to look as close to that as I can get it. I realize chrome paint won't look the same, but it's only small spots that need it (well, except for Grimlocks arms, but those are small enough that I can just paint the whole thing). I'm also considerring buying the KO dinobots and replacing all the chrome parts. With that and the stickers they'd look new.
My user name on ebay is the same as it is here - not too difficult to look up what I've recently won. I didn't mind paying the price since the pics didn't look so bad and they are 95% complete.
You sure they are complete? From what I saw in the picture, it's missing 1 missile each for Snarl/Swoop, Gun/Sword for slag. Some of the chrome wear just hard to avoid, people usually grab grimlock's arms when doing the transformation, that's why this part and the tail will almost always have chromewear.( I have 5 grimlocks range from c6-c9, and all of them have the same wear on tail) Same case with Slag's head(however if they used white plastic on this part then the chromewear is much less noticeable) I don't suggest buying KO though(I heard the quality is really not good), plus some parts were colored differently. You could just buy a dinobots junk lot and replace the parts, just need to ask the seller about the chrome condition on those parts.
No, they aren't complete - but close enough. It's not about what I paid for them anyway, I just want to restore them. I had all of these when I was a kid and I know there are some pieces where wear is unavoidable. But if I can at least get something to make them look better, I will. I've already found a junker lot on ebay - we'll see what happens.
Hahaha, same here, although I didn't remember it until I saw it just now. As for the label adhesive, try Goo-gone. It's petroleum based like thinners, but it's a tad milder, so as long as you're careful, and use it with a cotton swab or such, you shouldn't have any problems. It's generally not harmful to plastics, and won't affect chrome or paint unless you REALLY scrub at it...unlike Alcohol, which will strip it right off faster than you can say "Grimlock should have eaten Wheelie." I don't have any REAL suggestions for chrome, none that won't be noticeable anyways. You can always try leafing pens or silver sharpies for chips or small exposed areas of wear...as they won't be blatantly obvious.
I like Goo Gone for sticker removal. Rubbing alcohol's best for paint, like the MONGO bit on Onslaught I'm going to take off. I know, me too! He taught me lots of maths.
I already have a bottle of Goo Gone at home, I just never use it enough to think of it. Thanks. The chrome, well I guess I can buy junkers over the next few weeks/months until I get all the chrome looking minty.
Yup, that avatar definately confirms your age group. The young 'uns on these boards won't even know what that is.
Started on Grimlock last night and Goo Gone does a great job. It's going to take some time (I only got his chest piece done last night - took about an hour) but he's starting to look a LOT better. Luckily he's the only one with all of his stickers, the others won't be as bad.
Grimlock's kicking my ass on just removing the stickers. I've been working 2-3 hours the past two nights and still can't get all the sticker residue off of him. Goo Gone works nicely, and I let it soak in, but if there's any other ideas I'll be happy to take them.
