Hey guys, I recently came across a G1 sandstorm that I got in a TF lot that I bought. Did not think much of it until I took a closer look at him. I do have to say he is pretty neat! He is banged up band in very used condition though. I think its kind of neat to think of this toy's life since 1986. I would like to fix him and restore him to working condition. Problems: Everything is loose! Legs dont keep him standing up and just slide back up. His chest area also slides back down and does not stay. Arms are very loose and fall down in helicopter mode. Feet are very loose and do not stay in place in car mode. Decals are trashed Rear tail part missing and blade broke off. Hey nothing that cant be fixed or bought right ? Why don't I just pick up a nicer condition one? Hey whats the fun in that?!? So I am looking to you guys for tips on fixing the loose limbs. When I did a search most people seem to suggest clear nail polish???? I opened up his legs and found out why they dont stay very well. if the plastic gets worn they will never hold right again. Anyway on to the pics!
The hardest thing to fix will be that tail fin portion. Reprolabels will help with your decal situation. The rest is simply using things to tighten the joints.
This is an area that I am great at! I don’t do it anymore on the basis that I can’t get to my stuff (I had come down with cancer & everything that I own is in storage), but I used to do repair work for YEARS! If a body part is broken… it’s pretty much broken. You can’t do much about that. I haven’t done it in a long time, but finding junkers for spare parts wasn’t that hard or that expensive a few years back on eBay. It might take you a while to get every exact piece that you need… but with the fact that these figures were massed produced… you can find the parts that you need eventually. As to loose legs… usually with Sandstorm… the problem is 2 fold. What I have done in the past was disassembled the entire leg, wiped & cleaned it down, & reassembled everything back together. Each toy will have it’s own “personality” due to all the playwear that it received over it’s life. So certain figures will act differently than the 1 next 2 it. With the 1’s that I have come across in the past, there is a lot of dirt & grime from being played with outside, & sometimes parts will start to pull apart. Once you clean the tracks down & rescrew things back together snuggly… the legs should stay together pretty well. The feet are a little more picky… but they should fall in line as well. Usually what makes the feet limp is the fact that there isn’t enough friction for the feet to stay in a certain position. But once you rescrew everything, that should tighten everything up. Restoration is more of an art form than a skill… so it might take a few tries to get it right! As to loose arms… you’re talking about the elbow right? Again… it’s usually a loose screw. I use a standard Phillips with the bigger screws, & it works pretty well when you tighten them. If you want extra grip with the screw, 1 trick that I have used that works pretty well is taking either a bar of soap or some wax off a candle, & rub some of it on the treads of the screw, & screw it back in. If you get it in there pretty snuggly… the arm should be stiff enough to stay in place. I am not sure what to do about the chest… I’ve never had that problem, but if the stickers are pretty much worn out… I would just get reproductions over at Reprolabels. And the final word of advice that I can give is that sometimes a junker is exactly that. Where it’s beaten down to the point that it’s reached a point of it’s life where it becomes an organ donor rather than a restoration project. Maybe a experimentation project. But on the flipside, I’ve gotten guys in the past that were really a mess (because I used to mostly hunt after the junk lots rather than the completed 1’s), where I would get 1 in that was in so-so shape, & was able to restore them to a much better condition from taking the nuts & bolts off another 1 that was in much rougher shape. Just as an example… the last guy that I worked on was 1 of the Monsterbots. I had a couple of them, & 1 looked better… but his spark box was screwed up. I had a junker that was literally junked, but he had a good sparker. So I gutted 1, & switched it over to the other. So if you can’t fully repair the guy that you got… you can always take this option! So I am just throwing a bone out there & seeing if this helps ya!
I remembered this thread when I was transforming and examining my own G1 Sandstorm last weekend. The legs are a point of wear on this figure, generally speaking, and the cause is the tab on the inside that holds the legs up is worn down very easily due to transformation. I coated mine with Future, and that helped some. I'll eventually be doing some parts-swapping to fix the problem in the future I imagine.
Hey guys, I have an update. Thanks for the comments and suggestions! thebigdb, I hope you get better man. Hey I think you should have some one get you a box or 2 out of storage. I think it would be fun to work on some TF's again! So I pulled Sandstrom apart. He was worn worn worn. Like bigdb said the inside parts were dirty or had that white dust from plastic on plastic wear. Cleaned that all up and then started to apply the polish. It turned into a balance when applying the polish, too little and it would not make a difference. Just the right amount ended up being perfect. Too much and the parts did not move. Ill be putting him back together tonight.
I'd totally forgotten about Sandstorm until I came across this thread. I think he was a contender for my absolute favourite Transformer when I was a kid! He just looks so awesome in all his modes. How's he holding up now you've put him back together?
Getting close. Put him back together and the joints are holding quite nicely! I started removing the old worn decals tonight. I tested out one on the top and it worked out well. I used goo gone to get the rest of the residue off. Then I cleaned the area because the goo gone leaves everything kind of greasy. Hopefully I will have all the decals on tomorrow and he will be complete!
I'm really glad you were successful! The tab for the right leg on mine was too worn down. I ended up putting a piece of masking tape on the inside after my coats of Future didn't do much of anything.
This is why I LOVE finding cheap G1's on ebay so you can bring them to life again! Thanks for the post and the advise all
