The Lair on Storm Isle


Never Settle for being a passive collector of Galoob's Golden Girl™ and the Guardians of the Gemstones™ !



Fix-Up & Customizing (For the Advanced Collector)

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Most collectors crave perfection. And then, there is the class of collectors that's willing to get their hands dirty to achieve it! This section is NOT intended for the beginner. Any type of customizing involves risk, and an advanced collector should use caution and experience in deciding when a method should or should not be attempted.

Head & Leg Swapping | Re-Attaching Legs | Touch-Up Painting | Re-Rooting Hair | Miscellaneous Fix-Up

Head & Leg Swapping

It's possible to upgrade a figure by removing the head and/or legs from one figure and putting them on the torso of another. This is especially useful for upgrading never-opened figures that have green knees but an excellent-condition torso. Most never-played-with figures will have firm hip joints (usually a pale green, black, gray, or beige color), allowing the leg to be pulled off at a straight 45-degree angle from the hip. Grip firmly about the upper thigh, with your other hand firmly on the torso. You'll hear a snap, but the leg will come right off, leaving the hip-joint firmly in place. Any new leg can then be used to replace the removed one.

On the other hand, when dealing with a loose figure, you can't tell by looking how brittle the hip joint inside may be--it very well may be fractured already. Also, there are actually two "versions" of the hip joint, which you can't tell until you see inside a figure. One version is held in place with two small spokes on the back half of the torso, and the other version doesn't have these spokes. Most broken figures that I've seen, were the "spokes" version of hip joint. It was as though fixing the joint in place made the hip less resistant to impact instead of more resistant.

In the end, regardless of the joint version, you'll be taking the risk of breaking the hip entirely if you tug on it. It'll be on your conscience; I'm just letting you know the risk ahead of time. I certainly don't recommend this procedure for the male figures, as their hip joints are longer than the females' and therefore, more easy to break. As for swapping heads, you obviously won't want to try removing any figure's head that has grown soft with age.

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Broken legs are par for the course with this toyline, and sooner or later, you'll encounter the familiar sight of them. The hip joint is so tiny that there's simply not enough surface area for superglue to do any good in repairing it. And trying to glue the leg permanently in place would cost you its poseability. Glue can drip along the insides of the hollow torso and leave the arms and head permanently stuck in place. I got fed up with that "remedy" and decided to resort to a little elastic, plastic-coated twist-ties, and a tweezer.
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I have to thank Dava's Customizing 101 Tutorial from the My Little Pony collector hobby, for introducing me to acrylic enamel (paints used for model cars, etc.). Enamel is the ideal paint to use for touch-up painting the hard plastic of a figure's torso (the chest-only--not the somewhat softer plastic of the arms) and the diecast shields. Most of the colors for the Guardians can be found in a basic set of enamel paints--emerald green, deep blue, scarlet red, and gold. Color matches may not be 100% precise due to each manufacturer's unique paint formulas. Test a color before you apply it. Enamel does not leave brushstrokes if applied in small amounts and you work quickly. Allow it to dry and then seal it with satin-finish varnish (if desired). Again, use small amounts of varnish and work quickly to avoid leaving brushstrokes.

For the soft vinyl of the head, legs, and arms, however, avoid acrylic enamel, as it cannot dry on such a soft surface. You can either use regular acrylic paint, or paint that's specially intended for plastics and vinyls. When using acrylic paint, I always seal it with satin-finish varnish. Regular acrylic paint offers a much more flexible range of colors than acrylic enamel, like lighter colors--and colors mix much easier and can dry on just about any surface.

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I'd love to include a section on how to reroot hair for the horses, since the hair on the steeds is far more brittle to start with than the hair on the action figures. Once I get more information on that, I will include it. As for the figures, finding a color match may be a challenge, since toy manufacturers produce unique dye shades for their toys. If you're planning to customize a full head of hair and you already have your supply of hair ready, you can replicate the factory's weaving style of hair-rooting, instead of tying a knot at the base of each plug of hair that you need to root.
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As you probably realize, figures aren't the only things that wear out over time with a play-intense toyline like Golden Girl™. The "miscellaneous fix-up" section is here to address those odds-and-ends that also break down, but which still hold hope of repair for the seasoned collector.

My first entry in the miscellaneous fix-up category is near and dear to my heart, from my own experience with my Palace of Gems, which I received (like all the rest of my collection) second-hand. The torch for the palace, the signature piece, is supposed to light up with one AA battery. However, with mine, there was an old battery still stuck inside the tube, having leaked years ago. The terminals were badly corroded, so the torch would not work. At first I thought the situation useless until I remembered something from basic electronics. To complete a circuit, all you have to do is touch the tips of metal wire from the negative terminal to the positive terminal of a battery.

I examined my torch closely and realized two important things--first, that the filament of the tiny #123 bulb was still in-tact, which meant that the bulb itself still worked. The only part which had hopelessly corroded was the negative terminal (the spring on the inside of the bottom cap). So with the help of an old key ring, pliers, and a twist-tie to hold it in place, (hey--some people believe that duct tape is the most versatile tool on earth. For me, it's needle-nose pliers and twist-ties!), I created a new negative terminal that can connect to the circuit when the cap is twisted shut. And my palace torch lights up once again!

I believe that the same logic can apply to the horses, which are susceptible to the same corrosion issue. The added challenge with the horses, however, is that the terminals are partially embedded inside the horse--unlike the hollow palace torch. I've heard about treatment with coca-cola as a remedy for such corrosion, but have never been able to experiment to see if it really works. With the horses, you'll have a heck of a time splitting apart the seams to get at the insides in the event that the light bulb has blown. In the torch's case, if the bulb has blown, it can be replaced with another #123 or equivalent tiny light bulb. As they say, knowledge truly is power!

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My Custom Collection

Find A Way, Or Make A Way!


When customizing a collectible and/or vintage toyline, the ideal is to use only items that are in poor condition (broken legs, major playwear beyond repair, etc.) and items that are not rare (prototype figures, etc.). With Golden Girl, that's all a learning process. . . .

As for my style of customs, I'm African American. Growing up in the 80's, I was tired of being the token Black in every toyline--they never do this to blonde people. Note that all the blondes and redheads of the toyline are referred to as "beautiful" in their backstories, but none of the ethnic ones are referred to as "beautiful." Such was the mentality of the year 1984. Note that Wild One's outfit is culturally Native American except for the Viking helmet. Were they afraid of offending people by making her American Indian? If it were me, I would've enjoyed the chance to "hack apart" a few ethnic stereotypes.

Black Girl and the Guardians of Color

Black Girl
Cobalt
Citrine
Feldspar
Medusa
Shrike


Citrine is Asian. Shrike takes advantage of Rubee's almond / Pacific Islander eyes. Too bad I couldn't do anything to make Black Girl's facial features more ethnically Black, but her complexion is a rich ebony. Medusa is Latina with an hypnotic stare capable of paralysing a victim upon eye-contact. Her hair was chain-rooted by hand with a dark fantasy color to match her ethnic complexion.

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Golden Girl and the Guardians of the Gemstones™ is the property of Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. & Leisure Concepts, Inc. © 1984.
Artwork excerpted from Golden Girl and the Guardians of the Gemstones by Billie Randall, illustrated by Aristides Ruiz © 1985.
This website is the result of my hard work and therefore its content and all original images are the property of Tchakani © 2004, 2005.