After owning this figure for a mere hour, I was convinced that the designers meant to have these propellers fold up, ala the G1 figure. Perhaps the factory sealed/glued them by accident, I dunno; but the fix was kinda simple, with a few delicate, tedious steps. Procedure: First: Use the ole' "heat the pin up" trick to get the props out. Once out, run an exact-o blade through this sealed up (glued) crevice to unlock it. Second: Once you cut through that part enough, it'll begin to wiggle. Once again use the hot pin method to separate the part you just cut. (Seen in the next photo) Once apart, you need to cut a teeeeeeeeny piece of plastic away, to allow the props to fold up cleanly. (this piece) Just to give you an idea how small that piece is, see the photo below: Next: Push the blades back together, and heat it up again, and give a good push to fit them snuggly back together again. Last: Take the entire prop assembly and re-fit it back to it's original place. Heat it for a sec and press it firmly back in. I used my auto-pin punch to give a good snug push. Finished product: Alt mode: Enjoy! Also: I should add, that IF you do plan on trying this out, rather than just admiring it on the internet, lol, there was one last step that I left out. You will also need to round off the edge of the prop in order to get it to turn nice and cleanly; you'll see what I mean when you go to do it. They have an odd shape on top, and the corners get in the way when you try to turn them, so you just need to take off like a few milometers to give it the clearance it needs to turn. That's all.
Great job. I wish I could remove pins, or rather, I wish Hasbro and Takara would stop using them instead of plastic joints/screws, so obvious flaws or left out semi-official features like this could be easily fixed.
Truthfully, THESE pins (or in this case, rivets) are actually EASIER to remove than actual pins. All you need to do is hold the tip of a soldering iron to the flat end for like 30 seconds, and it pulls right out. It's the "knurled end" pins that can be difficult at times; without the right tools.
Huh... I thought they looked like they should fold up but was dismayed when I found out they couldn't. Good tutorial on how to correct that.
Highbrow My dream mod for this figure would be to have the "towers" that hold the copter blades fold down and away from the body so that the kinda lay down on his arms. That would allow them to not interfere with arm movement. However, that is very, very involved mod to add a hinge to each side. However, I do like what you've done here. Thanks for sharing.
hmmmm, I'm gonna go with no. It's the "heating" up of the pin that causes the ability to remove the pin in the first place. If it's any consolation, I picked up my soldering iron for like 20 bucks at Home Depot.
I just used this tonight on the Highbrow I opened last night with my old wood-burning kit since it is basically a soddering iron. Grabbed my old childrens' chisel set which had the perfect type of edge to pry the props apart. THANK YOU so very much for sharing this fix/mod. This will probably remain my collection for a while now! ^^
When the props ate folded down in this mod, do they actually interfere less with arm movement than before? Or does it just look a bit cleaner?
I tried this and the rotors are very tight and won't move all the way. Do I need to cut more plastic?
Didnt get the notification to your reply, sorry. ... Yes you need to get in there with your exacto knife to separate the two parts a bit more. Once they are separated they will be able to turn downwards, takes a little oomph, sounds like you might break it too. But after all, you are kinda breaking the plastic bond on the inside.
So I tried digging into my old Photobucket account, but it literally jammed my screen up with SO MANY ads and pop ups and other ridiculous cr*p that I couldn't even get to my own photos. That site is garbage. Anyway. I can tell you from memory, that you definitely need to get an exacto knife in between the two layers that are stack on top of each other.....almost like prying them apart. If you notice, there is a pin on the underside pointing upwards.....you basically want to cut the plastic bond away around that post, and allow the top part of the propeller to be able to pivot on that inner post. It got a little tricky, because you don't want that top propeller to pop off the post completely...you merely want it to loosen up enough so it can spin when you apply pressure to it, but will still stay on the post as well. I really wish I had access to those photos so I can help better illustrate this....to me it makes sense, but I'm imagining reading this post for the first time and going WTF?!? lol Worst case scenario, buy a second one for cheap and practice on that one first. Let me know how it goes. EDIT: Also, remember to heat the pin up to help with loosening everything up. A cheap soldering iron from Home Depot for $20 will due the trick. If you're not familiar with the technique; you're basically holding the end of the soldering iron to the metal pin head for 30-40 seconds at a time....this melts the plastic around the pin a bit and allows you to either remove the pin, or move the parts that the pin is holding in place. Either or. In this case, you want to allow the pin to loosen up it's grip so you can move those propellers a back and forth. ~ gbm
