Advice: Restoring a vintage Obi Wan Figure

I am in need of some restoration tips for an Obi Wan Figure

Long story short, I have found an old Obi Wan from my childhood toys, that while in poor shape is mine from when I was a kid & I fancy trying to restore it, but I am not sure how possible it will be...

The first ( Major issue ) is it's missing the right hand, which holds the saber- how do I go about swapping an arm over from another of my "beater" figures.

The second issue...the very white hair is faded with the flesh tones showing through...what paint do I use to best match the original white ?

3) the black paint is rubbed..as with white hair what's the best black to use to repair ?

Finally...what's the best way to bring some life back to the brown body ? Is it best to just clean up as best as possible.

Thanks in advance for your help

Lee

Personally I'd keep him as he is. His war wounds are medals of honour earned in your childhood

leave him be fella

Many collectors here are lucky to still have many of their childhood star wars items. Others would 'kill' to still just have one, that figure you played with, the one your cousin chewed the arm off, you painted red blood stains with mum's nail polish...... Be happy you have yours and leave it alone :wink:

Just keep him as he is , if you want a mint obi wan , just buy a new one and keep yours as he is

I complete custom work, trying to keep them in the original style (rather than realistic styles some attempt) and use acrylic paints from the Games Workshop stores as their paints have a remarkably good colour match to a lot of original SW paint apps (Elf Flesh is a pretty good SW skin tone straight out of the tub)... having said that though, I never overpaint my loose collection or for that matter any figures that are not wholly modified and obvious that they are a repaint, I would recommend you to keep to that same rule set.

If you want to try a paint job, grab an old beater and modify it; LXW is an easy one to repaint and do a head swop on...

Childhood toys to me are a no no to repaint, they are the things that you can't buy again, they hold your own history and as someone above says, battle scars that they got with you!

You're so lucky, having a childhood figure.
Swapped mine for some complete tat, back in the day. Regretted it ever since.

Leave him be, mate.
You could restore him, but on reflection I think you would regret it.
Display him with pride.

He's a part of your childhood memories and wouldn't be quite the same, if you altered him.

Thanks for the views / advice. When my Daughter was born in 08 we found ourselves struggling with finances with only 1 income and i sold all my original Star Wars figures, I had a fair few last 17 inc mint original R2D2 pop up. It really was a hard thing to do. They ended up purchased for £400 odd quid by someone in Spain.

Last year I decided to restore balance to the force by recollecting ( finances easier at the moment )

Since 08 I've found a Zukuss, a Luke Poncho Black Blaster, this battered up Obi Wan & a Rebel Commander with 1 arm. Zukuss is display quality thank god, but Obi Wan & RC are in poor shape & as I said I'd like to bring them back up to standard if at all possible.

We will see

I have ONE figure from my childhood, my Squidhead. Luckily he is mint!.. but I do need to get a blaster for him. He is in my loose collection and stands out amongst all the rest, prob my favourite one because I took him off a card in 83' or 84' and he's mine. I personally also wouldn't alter or restore a childhood figure and if Squidface was playworn I'd leave him be. As the other guys said some would kill for their own original figures and I wish I had more of mine At the end of the day it's your's and it's up to you what you do with it. Just make sure you don't regret it :!:

I've got one figure left from my childhood - weirdly, also a Ben. He's got no sabre, no cape and not a lot of paint left and he's definitely staying that way. IMO if you start trying to cyborg him into something perfect then you're losing the point of what he really is. I'd just buy a mint one if you want a mint one and keep your own as he is. If funds are tight then why waste money buying beaters and cannibalising them? You'll probably waste the same money as you'd have spent on a mint one anyway.

This is going to sounds all Monty Python but......Ooooh, luxury! I DREAM of having a one armed Ben Kenobi! All I have in the loft is the head from my Luke X-Wing and I consider meself lucky with that!

Seriously though, I do have Luke's head somewhere. Every time I've stumbled across it I could just never throw it away. Must go head hunting sometime and dig it out.

Leave Ben as he is. Even splash out on a nice acrylic case for him and stick him on your desk. He'll be a conversation piece and might lead you to a loft find. Any he'll remind you that remnants of our childhood should not be forgotten; whether beat up figures of memories of happy carefree times.

Just keep in mind, once you've restored it, theres no going back!

jedisearcher said:

I've got one figure left from my childhood - weirdly, also a Ben. He's got no sabre, no cape and not a lot of paint left and he's definitely staying that way. IMO if you start trying to cyborg him into something perfect then you're losing the point of what he really is. I'd just buy a mint one if you want a mint one and keep your own as he is. If funds are tight then why waste money buying beaters and cannibalising them? You'll probably waste the same money as you'd have spent on a mint one anyway.

Click to expand...

^ This. No need to restore it, it's got far more charm as is and the story of how he ended up that way is your story, not some other kids. Stick him in a nice acrylic case (something he wouldn't get anywhere else due to his "beater" condition) and enjoy him as a memory of your childhood

Personally I would leave him be but if you are determined to carry out a restoration - the man you want is Toy Polloi, he's dead clever when it comes to action figure 'plastic surgery' :mrgreen:

I am convinced. Ben is being left alone. I will source a cape & a saber from here or eBay & he will go on display. Even with no hands he is still mine

As for Rebel Comander. Well, I do want to fix his missing arm...how does one go about taking an arm from a beater & fixing it to another figure ( equally a beater but my beating beater ) advice please

I spent tonight at my folks going through the rest of my box of 80's figures. Some great fun was had finding old weapons and parts. Got a good selection of SW vehicle bits which should help someone, sometime

Ive just "RESTORED" a hollow tubes tuskan raider. Bought the original vintage figure that came complete with repo cloak and repo weapon, on a repo card back. Ripped him off, gave him an original cloak and original weapon from another figure, and he is restored to his former glory, another variant ticked off the list and I got to bin the rubbish he came with. Now thats restoration.

Well done on the Tuskan

Now..how do I fix this missing arm ?????

For anyone interested. I fixed the Rebel Commander Figure. Easy to do. To remove an arm from a beater figure pop it in hot ( near boiling ) water. Leave for a minute or two till it softens, then simply grip with soft pliers & pull out of body.

Then pop the loose are back into the hot water for a minute or two and then remove and with a fair amount of pressure push into the open arm hole of the figure you are repairing.

Easy