How to repair MOTU action figures broken legs?

[Louis649]

It's completely inevitable the deterioration of action figures, specially the ones that have 20+ years. Like us those plastic articulated chunks began to get their hairs gray, protuberant bellies, baldness, osteoporosis,..... ups wrong guys.

It's a shame we can't do much to conserve their original appearance but anything we can do to maintain them on feet like replacing their leg bands is worth the fight. Long live MOTU toys!

[Killian]

I don't want to think about all I've spent completing my MOTU collection being a waste of money.....

[kylefromdirtnapp]

I hate leg bands. I wish they would've made them with ball&sockets, like Warlord figs. I remember someone here posting a pic of the AFA graded and cased MISB figure (I forgot which figure) with the busted band. Priceless!

What's up with Spikor? I've had 2 with busted bands, and I've seen numerous feeBay auctions with busted-band Spikors. Coincidence?

[Killian]

So our classic 80's MOTU collections are basically gonna die horribly....


All the more reason to support the new MOTU classics line so we get EVERY character in a hopefully more lasting form

[Sir Reilly]

That wouldn't be a suitable replacement for the vintage figures, though. It would rather be like having a movie remake but being unable to watch the original.

[FAKER II]

What I think could have been a “suitable replacement” would be if Mattel had given the Classic reissues leg joints like Flying Fist He-Man. Shoulder joints would have been a nice touch too.

[Trev-Or]

Darkness, resistance is futile

Here's some more light reading on the subject for those who want to know;
http://www.conservationregister.com/...stics.asp?id=4

It has a paragraph on storing your collection.

So I'm assuming that MOTU figures are primarily made from PVC? The author suggested to just put them in cool, dark, environments.
Some people have mentioned that it is not good to store your figures in plastic bags in order to let them 'breath.' The author mentinoed not to do this with celllulose nitrate but did not mention anything about PVC regarding this matter:

" Cellulose nitrate is affected by light and moisture and releases potentially dangerous chemicals during degradation. Do not store items made from this material in plastic bags or other packaging with restricted ventilation."

Does anyone know if this is the same for PVC? I store some of my items in plastic bags and I would imagine the same concept applies to those hard plastic toy car cases many display their loose figures in.

And I tend to agree with Darkness. If there are ways to keep paper documents that are hundreds of years old looking good, MOTU items should be able to last just as long with the right techniques used.

[adora74]

hello these drawings bring me nice memories but what is more me facina transformation of the He-man and the chemistry between Teel and I also like the music and stories also

[Trev-Or]

hello these drawings bring me nice memories but what is more me facina transformation of the He-man and the chemistry between Teel and I also like the music and stories also

QUE

[Arkangel]

For your consideration



, a dark future will come to all

[motuxmen]

Ive seen about a dozen adora74 posts and I dont understand any of them.lol

Anyway...there are items made of plastic from around the civil war era (1861-1865 it was called guda purcha first then plastic)(I collect civil war artifacts as well despit being a whopping 27yrs old) and they are still in good shape. So I see no reason that if you take care of your toys that they wont out last you. I know things break down, but not in 20-30 years. I have stuff I collect that is 200 plus years old and it looks brand new, and then I have junk laying around the house made of the same stuff that is falling apart because I abuse it. I doubt these figures will turn into a pile off goo for a long long time.

LONG LIVE MOTU!!

[Killian]

, a dark future will come to all

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

[Darkness]

As you guys have been saying, what exactly are the perfect preservation conditions? Thats the question we must answer if this is going to have much of a future at all. I just decided to slowly recollect again and it would be totally useless if my figures are all going to just fall apart in time anyway. Gotta say though, that picture of a broken legged in package Skeletor is pretty depressing.

[Arkangel]

i think spanish will go first, the leg bands are too rigid, the rubber seems to be sort of silicon like and not elastic rubber like, waht seem to happen is that with ageing it gets "dry" and i dunno the word in english, but its when for example the tires of your car start getting cracks init due to weather conditions (heat and cold) know what i mean?

[Darkness]

Come to think of it, that is a spanish carded Skeletor isn't it? The thought had crossed my mind that foreign carded figures might be more apt to problems because of the materials used. (not that were top notch or anything.)

The word brittle isn't what your looking for is it Arkangel?

[Arkangel]

Come to think of it, that is a spanish carded Skeletor isn't it? The thought had crossed my mind that foreign carded figures might be more apt to problems because of the materials used. (not that were top notch or anything.)

The word brittle isn't what your looking for is it Arkangel?

That is a spanish carded figure, and the word brittle is somewhat suitable for what i meant to say

[He-Jutsu]

Ive seen about a dozen adora74 posts and I dont understand any of them.lol

I'm pretty sure that's because she's using a translation program, like Babel to translate her messages into English.

One pretty cool additive that many plastics have is put in as a UV degration inhibiter. It is substance of positive particals that just wait for an electron (which is negative) to become free. When an electron does take off due to breakdown one partical attachs to it, makes it neutral & it then does not start chain reaction. But eventually the particals are all used up, and with nothing to stop the chain reaction, degration accelerates.

This can't be right, for a couple of reasons.

First of all: Introducing large numbers of positive particles into plastics would make them positively charged, which you'd notice when your hair started to stand on end as you played with your toys. Further more, the electric field of your toys would attract negative particles from the environment, which is large enough that it can lose a lot of negative charges without significantly altering its total charge. Those positive charged wouldn't stay positive for long.

Second of all: Every time an atom is ionized from UV radiation, an electron is knocked away, leaving a positive ion behind. If the presence of positive ions were enough to stop degradation, the problem would be self correcting.

I looked it up, and it appears that the method that note was ACTUALLY referring to to prevent deterioration is the introduction of free radicals (very reactive compounds, due to their electron configurations, although neutral) which bond with damaged polymers to create stable compounds.

[Arkangel]

i jsut figured orko is going to survive the holocaust

[leo_skeletor]

ummm bruno, not only orko, flying fist he-man, laser he-man, snout spout... will survive to the holocaust hahah!!

[Dr Bo]

i jsut figured orko is going to survive the holocaust

Gwildor as well

Seriously, on the dozen and dozen of figure I collected and saw, never once I had one with his elastic that snapped. Sure it happen, but in all they're very sturdy and so far most have stayed in perfect shape except for play wear for 25 years. Sure they won't last forever, but I think they're no need to get worried about them being destroyed in the next few years at least.

[Darkness]

I'm pretty sure that's because she's using a translation program, like Babel to translate her messages into English.



This can't be right, for a couple of reasons.

First of all: Introducing large numbers of positive particles into plastics would make them positively charged, which you'd notice when your hair started to stand on end as you played with your toys. Further more, the electric field of your toys would attract negative particles from the environment, which is large enough that it can lose a lot of negative charges without significantly altering its total charge. Those positive charged wouldn't stay positive for long.

Second of all: Every time an atom is ionized from UV radiation, an electron is knocked away, leaving a positive ion behind. If the presence of positive ions were enough to stop degradation, the problem would be self correcting.

I looked it up, and it appears that the method that note was ACTUALLY referring to to prevent deterioration is the introduction of free radicals (very reactive compounds, due to their electron configurations, although neutral) which bond with damaged polymers to create stable compounds.

Dude, pretty interseting stuff here. Gotta ask you though, did you look all of this stuff up or are you just really geeky? Regardless, world needs more geeks I think.

Kinda makes you wonder what He-Man's real future holds.

[mrmovieprop]

Adora74 is not a native speaker of English. There is no way

"hello these drawings bring me nice memories but what is more me facina transformation of the He-man and the chemistry between Teel and I also like the music and stories also" is a computer generated translation.

What she is saying is the he man pictures here help her remember fond memories and she is most fascinated with either the changes in he mans character or the transformation scenes from Adam to He Man. The chemistry between Teela and he Man also interest her as do the stories and music of the series.

[plasmapulse]

I'm pretty sure that's because she's using a translation program, like Babel to translate her messages into English.



This can't be right, for a couple of reasons.

First of all: Introducing large numbers of positive particles into plastics would make them positively charged, which you'd notice when your hair started to stand on end as you played with your toys. Further more, the electric field of your toys would attract negative particles from the environment, which is large enough that it can lose a lot of negative charges without significantly altering its total charge. Those positive charged wouldn't stay positive for long.

Second of all: Every time an atom is ionized from UV radiation, an electron is knocked away, leaving a positive ion behind. If the presence of positive ions were enough to stop degradation, the problem would be self correcting.

I looked it up, and it appears that the method that note was ACTUALLY referring to to prevent deterioration is the introduction of free radicals (very reactive compounds, due to their electron configurations, although neutral) which bond with damaged polymers to create stable compounds.

I'm not the chemist here obviously and just found some interesting quotes I thought were of value. What does this all mean for our collections and the deterioration of it?

People who say they will outlast us are probably right, but in what form? I know some of my figures are sticky or oily. To me they are waste as it is.

[He-Jutsu]

Dude, pretty interseting stuff here. Gotta ask you though, did you look all of this stuff up or are you just really geeky? Regardless, world needs more geeks I think.

Check the "about me" in my profile.

Adora74 is not a native speaker of English. There is no way

Considering the fact that there are words in Spanish (or Portuguese?) in her messages, I'd say your right--which is the same reason that I'm sure a computer program is doing the translating--misspelled words don't get translated.

I'm not the chemist here obviously and just found some interesting quotes I thought were of value.

I just thought I'd correct those quotes, since it looks like whoever wrote them kind of misinterpreted the science.

[Arkangel]

i love pineapple!