HOW TO GET RID OF CREASE LINES ON G1 BOXES

KylerWilmoth · Feb 11, 2019

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lord ginrai · Feb 11, 2019

KylerWilmoth said: ↑

Hi all! I wan't to focus on something that's rather niche, and I know to some potentially sacrilege. First off, let me say I do not do this to all of my boxes, only the ones that are bad enough to be considered non-displayable. I was unfortunate enough to have a G1 Wheeljack box damaged in shipping, but rather than return it, I decided to use it in this experiment which proved to be more than successful. Anyway, here's how to make a box go from this

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to this

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Alright, so the first thing you are going to need is two sets of sharpies. I got mine from walmart for $4.00 each. And yes, I know some of you are already cringing, but don't worry, it's not nearly as bad as you think. These are the exact sets you need to buy.

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While I'm sure most of you have figured out what we're doing by now, there is some nuance on how you should apply the marker. To demonstrate, I'll use a G1 Ratchet box that has been damaged in shipping. We'll start with the crease on the top of the box, just above the window.

The first marker we are going to use is the far right one that comes in the Cosmic Color pack. They don't have names or are marked as specific colors, but I'll call it Magenta.

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Take the marker, and as lightly as you can, make a thin line covering any white you see on the TOP CREASE of the box. Try to keep your lines thin, and not don't keep your pen pressed too long. You don't want the ink to spread. The thicker the line, the more noticeable the marker will be, so keep them thin.

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Now if you look at the box you might be thinking that looks horrible, and you're right. It does. But, we're not done yet. If you look closely at the texture of a G1 box you will notice that it is not a solid color. It is a deep deep red mixed with lighter specks of red. If we just have magenta, it's too light. If we were to just use black, its too dark. To get around this we are going to add specks of black in with the magenta. This will make it so the colors appear to be the same as that of a normal G1 box. I promise it looks unbelievably close to the actual thing which you will see shortly. Now when adding the black, DO NOT just go over the magenta with the black. That will look still too dark. Take the black marker and lightly, lightly tap on the magenta line at random points. Make it so you mark on the line very frequently, but not enough to completely cover the magenta line. You're not coloring it in, you're tapping tiny dots of ink. This helps to match the color. When you're done, the top crease should look like this.

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Note: Sometimes if your crease line is thin enough, the Magenta marker will be enough and the black wont be needed. It does an okay job of matching the light red on a G1 box and can look more than presentable. Hell sometimes even unnoticeable. This will be left for you to decide

Much better. As for the creases on the sides of the box, this is where it gets trickier. The box has a gradient and therefore we cannot treat all of the crease, at least not until we find a few more markers that color match better. You can again use the magenta and black marker technique along the side of the box down for about half an inch, but after that the color becomes too light and the marker will stand out as not belonging. The brighter red that starts at the bottom of the box I have not found a way to color match as well as the top crease. The second color pack I'd say is optional. If you decide to buy it, the bright red sharpie does an okay job of color matching, but when the ink touches the red on the box, it creates a small line of dark red that up close is noticeable. From even a foot away, it looks fine and is up to you to decide if you wan't to go that far. Personally, after experimenting with it on Wheeljack, I choose not to. If you want to see an example of the red marker being used on a box, look at the pictures of the Wheeljack box above.

Here's our results.

Before

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After

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Again, it's not perfect, but the top line in particular becomes almost indistinguishable. I will say though that if your crease line is super thick, it probably won't come out as clean. If they are thin but still visible, I say go for it! It looks fantastic!

If any of you have your own box restoration tips, please explain them in the thread! I know many people would like to hear them. If any of you know how to clear up foggy windows let me know! I'd love to hear. Cheers!
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Awesome! Thanks for the well-written instructions. Will definitely give this a try if I can secure some cheap markers.

ClunkerSlim · Feb 11, 2019

I'm kind of horrified because I hate the idea of trying to alter irreplaceable G1 boxes. Because somebody is going to do this, it's going to look fine in pics, the thing is going to end up on ebay, and some poor sap is going to open up a box that's a half assed marker mess. But... if I owned a box like this and knew I was never going to sell it then I'd probably try it anyway.

KylerWilmoth · Feb 11, 2019

ClunkerSlim said: ↑

I'm kind of horrified because I hate the idea of trying to alter irreplaceable G1 boxes. Because somebody is going to do this, it's going to look fine in pics, the thing is going to end up on ebay, and some poor sap is going to open up a box that's a half assed marker mess. But... if I owned a box like this and knew I was never going to sell it then I'd probably try it anyway.
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See that’s the thing, I don’t want to alter any form of G1 box unless I know that it’s staying in my collection. And even then I don’t really like changing what I see as so special. I think the reason I did it with these two (and only these two) was because they were damaged in transport which hurt my heart a bit. They survived beautifully for 30+ years just to be damaged in shipping . I was also afraid that if I sent them back the seller was going to throw them away which I could not let happen. I should update the thread on how to spot it if a box looks manipulated. To the naked eye, it looks great. But a good ol’ flashlight will show ink in no time.

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HOW TO GET RID OF CREASE LINES ON G1 BOXES

KylerWilmoth Well-Known Member

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HOW TO GET RID OF CREASE LINES ON G1 BOXES

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