Doomseeker
Jedi Master
Hi All,
Over the past year I've helped a few members of the forum out who have wanted to remove tape, stickers etc from their Vintage Star Wars boxes. Well I thought I'd post a picture guide as to how I do it and what I recommend......I'm so confident in it that I'm using it on one of my Grail items....A boxed A-Wing Fighter.
WARNING * There are so many innuendos in this article it's untrue...please control yourselves*
Ok so here we go
1) Here is the boxed A-Wing with a couple of close up shots of the offending item.
2) The kit you will need:
Cotton bud
Fine Paint Brush
Lighter Fluid (so many practical uses for this stuff)
Tweezers (nicked from the wife) (not essential - in fact I ended up not using them this time, but always nifty to have around)
Small bowl for the Lighter Fluid
Kitchen Roll
Star Wars music in the background
Patience....and lots of it
3) Find a loose corner to the sticker - if there isn't one gently use the paint brush with some lighter fluid on it to slowly work under a corner edge
Slowly start to lift to enable you to see what's going on. Sometimes the sticker is so dried out that it comes away very easy. In this instance it was still surprisingly sticky so using the brush work more lighter fluid under it whilst very, very slowly (and gently) pulling the sticker
4) Keep working more lighter fluid under the sticker whilst pulling away from the box
You'll notice a pool of fluid on the box, this is OK. It's a mixture of the lighter fluid and sticker stuff - use a cotton bud soaked in lighter fluid to mop it up
5) More patience and more working the fluid under the sticker whilst gently pulling away from the box
Slowly getting there.....you're almost at the finishing line.....SLOW DOWN This is when you are most likely to balls the whole thing up as the end is in sight, keep going slowly
6) The offending bugger is off....do with as you please with it but make sure you keep it away from the box as the back will be sticky
7) You'll notice that there's quite a bit of a mess now that the sticker is gone...not to worry, we can soon sort that out
8) The clean up process. Using Cotton buds soaked in lighter fluid for the areas around the edge of where the sticker was
Use a piece of kitchen roll and dip it into the Lighter Fluid, then gentle work it over the area where the sticker was. Do this slowly allowing the lighter fluid to evaporate before attacking it again. Keep repeating this process until you can't feel any stickiness on the surface of the box with your fingers ( :lol:
OK I'll allow someone to comment on that....bloody filthy)
9) You're about there now, sit back and admire your work.
You'll notice ever so slight marking left by the sticker, in this instance it's not going away. I can only assume it's an element of damage caused by the sticker over time (it's been there for about 28 years!!) but it doesn't offend me and looks a damn sight better than the sticker that was there enabling me to admire the awesome box art for the first time!
I hope that this has been useful, insightful, informative and entertaining......damn sticky innuendos!!
If anyone has any questions either post or PM me. If the mods feel like "stickying" this......see what I did there! then please feel free as this does seem to be something that comes up quite a bit.
Cheers
Gary
Over the past year I've helped a few members of the forum out who have wanted to remove tape, stickers etc from their Vintage Star Wars boxes. Well I thought I'd post a picture guide as to how I do it and what I recommend......I'm so confident in it that I'm using it on one of my Grail items....A boxed A-Wing Fighter.
WARNING * There are so many innuendos in this article it's untrue...please control yourselves*
Ok so here we go
1) Here is the boxed A-Wing with a couple of close up shots of the offending item.
2) The kit you will need:
Cotton bud
Fine Paint Brush
Lighter Fluid (so many practical uses for this stuff)
Tweezers (nicked from the wife) (not essential - in fact I ended up not using them this time, but always nifty to have around)
Small bowl for the Lighter Fluid
Kitchen Roll
Star Wars music in the background
Patience....and lots of it
3) Find a loose corner to the sticker - if there isn't one gently use the paint brush with some lighter fluid on it to slowly work under a corner edge
Slowly start to lift to enable you to see what's going on. Sometimes the sticker is so dried out that it comes away very easy. In this instance it was still surprisingly sticky so using the brush work more lighter fluid under it whilst very, very slowly (and gently) pulling the sticker
4) Keep working more lighter fluid under the sticker whilst pulling away from the box
You'll notice a pool of fluid on the box, this is OK. It's a mixture of the lighter fluid and sticker stuff - use a cotton bud soaked in lighter fluid to mop it up
5) More patience and more working the fluid under the sticker whilst gently pulling away from the box
Slowly getting there.....you're almost at the finishing line.....SLOW DOWN This is when you are most likely to balls the whole thing up as the end is in sight, keep going slowly
6) The offending bugger is off....do with as you please with it but make sure you keep it away from the box as the back will be sticky
7) You'll notice that there's quite a bit of a mess now that the sticker is gone...not to worry, we can soon sort that out
8) The clean up process. Using Cotton buds soaked in lighter fluid for the areas around the edge of where the sticker was
Use a piece of kitchen roll and dip it into the Lighter Fluid, then gentle work it over the area where the sticker was. Do this slowly allowing the lighter fluid to evaporate before attacking it again. Keep repeating this process until you can't feel any stickiness on the surface of the box with your fingers ( :lol:
OK I'll allow someone to comment on that....bloody filthy)9) You're about there now, sit back and admire your work.
You'll notice ever so slight marking left by the sticker, in this instance it's not going away. I can only assume it's an element of damage caused by the sticker over time (it's been there for about 28 years!!) but it doesn't offend me and looks a damn sight better than the sticker that was there enabling me to admire the awesome box art for the first time!
I hope that this has been useful, insightful, informative and entertaining......damn sticky innuendos!!
If anyone has any questions either post or PM me. If the mods feel like "stickying" this......see what I did there! then please feel free as this does seem to be something that comes up quite a bit.
Cheers
Gary
