How to safely remove vinyl capes?

Hi! I have recently acquired a vintage tusken raider with the hollow cheek tubes that came with a bunch of other figures, really happy about the find but I want to swop a cape from another figure. What's the best way of removing a vinyl cape?

Cheers

James

beware , i recently tried to remove a tusken cape and ripped the armholes pretty bad

dunno if its just mine but the tusken cape appears more brittle than the others

arms up at an angle carefully take off.

if it doesnt have any frail around the armhole or nicks it should come off quite easily.

you could boil the kettle put the figure near the steam for few seconds this would make the cape soft and easier to come off too. ive done this a few times.

I would swing the arms backwards so that the hands are pointing away from his back, then roll the cape backwards off the shoulders and slide it along the arms.

The best way I have found is to soak the figure in warm water for a couple of minutes, this makes the cape softer, more pliable and then as said previously angle the arms backwards and it should come off a treat

Lom said:

I would swing the arms backwards so that the hands are pointing away from his back, then roll the cape backwards off the shoulders and slide it along the arms.

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this , ive done it many times , never had a problem

Tarkin's nosehair said:

The best way I have found is to soak the figure in warm water for a couple of minutes, this makes the cape softer, more pliable and then as said previously angle the arms backwards and it should come off a treat

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Yep, or you can use a hair dryer very quickly to soften it up.

Thanks for the replies. I will try warming it up. I will let you know how it goes.

hellhippie said:

Lom said:

I would swing the arms backwards so that the hands are pointing away from his back, then roll the cape backwards off the shoulders and slide it along the arms.

Click to expand...

this , ive done it many times , never had a problem

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My method too

Lom's got it right, easy. No need for any warming or softening malarky.

Agreed, and if the arms splay outwards slightly when bent backwards, as they can on some figures, simply (gently!) pinch the figure by its hands between your thumb and forefinger and squeeze the arms a little closer together to ease the cape off. It's always worked for me and I've never had to heat anything!

I move both arms to the back of the figure and then I take the cape off very slowly. If there is damage on the holes for the arms in the cape then I am extra careful. I have never had problems with that and I have done it more than 100 times :wink:

Changed the cape today using the easy method described of moving Arms straight out from the figures back, didn't heat up anything and it came off nicely when done gently.




Unfortunately my puppy didn't want Ben to have his replacement cape that came through the post today so ate it. I gave Ben, anakin skywalkers cloth cape for now. The left figure is a grey hair but looks white in the picture.

and that's why we have cats