Damaged Body Pics Hide

Here's our broken arm...victim of the DTJ STD







Upon closer inspection he also has a crack in his foot, just above the little swivel joint!! Poor dear...





Here's our broken arm...victim of the DTJ STDUpon closer inspection he also has a crack in his foot, just above the little swivel joint!! Poor dear...

sometimes

Peg Sanding Hide Me



I actually tried a few ways with regular sandpaper, trying to make a thin strip that I could twist around the peg to slowly sand it down, but that didn't work so well...the sandpaper when cut into strips thin enough to fit around the peg, would tear too easily. I ended up using a metal file, and it worked GREAT!!! You just have to make sure to rotate your sanding around the peg, so you're sanding as evenly as possible, keeping it round in shape.







In addition to needing to reduce the diameter of the inner peg on the arms, the newer peg's tip also had to be sanded down a bit, as Ginko's arm has a plastic piece that runs across the top, meaning if the peg is too long or thick on the end, you have to force it in and it doesn't move/rotate smoothly...so we just will want to sand that piece down ever so slightly, so it sits in smoothly and rotates without too much effort.









I ended up sanding the hole the peg goes into just a "hair" as well....just to help get that smooth perfect fit:







And a fit test for the lower arm peg...it fits and the parts close back together nicely!!





I actually tried a few ways with regular sandpaper, trying to make a thin strip that I could twist around the peg to slowly sand it down, but that didn't work so well...the sandpaper when cut into strips thin enough to fit around the peg, would tear too easily. I ended up using a metal file, and it worked GREAT!!! You just have to make sure to rotate your sanding around the peg, so you're sanding as evenly as possible, keeping it round in shape.In addition to needing to reduce the diameter of the inner peg on the arms, the newer peg's tip also had to be sanded down a bit, as Ginko's arm has a plastic piece that runs across the top, meaning if the peg is too long or thick on the end, you have to force it in and it doesn't move/rotate smoothly...so we just will want to sand that piece down ever so slightly, so it sits in smoothly and rotates without too much effort.I ended up sanding the hole the peg goes into just a "hair" as well....just to help get that smooth perfect fit:And a fit test for the lower arm peg...it fits and the parts close back together nicely!!

More Assembly Pics Hide Me









...and don't forget to put your little screw hole covers back in!!



...and don't forget to put your little screw hole covers back in!!

Also just in case someone is in need of other information on RAH repairs/fixes, below are links to all the articles I've put together regarding RAH's:

Hello all!!!Today I am back with more RAH chatter...like a broken record, I know, sorry!! So if you've read any of my last few articles, you know that I have been on the hunt and experimenting around with repairs and replacement parts/bodies for the older RAH figures. Medicom decided to use the most delicate and dry-rot prone plastic known to man to make a few of the pre-2012 figures, and well it results in arms and legs literally just falling off these guys. :DBUT...worry not, if you're willing to roll your sleeves up and throw in a little elbow grease, there is hope for these guys on the horizon!!! :D Yay!!!So, just a little clarification first...if you have issues with some of the newer figures, contacting Medicom may prove fruitful. You may get parts they'll sell you (or you pay to have shipped..not sure) or they may even offer to have you mail your figure in to fix it. NOT the case for me, as I think all my figures of issue they've washed their hands of at this point as these guys are like 8+ years old (i.e. Light Yagami from Death Note and Ginko from Mushi-shi).So shortly after I got Light, both arms fell off due to the crumbling joint disease that was running rampant in Medicom's RAH's at the time (seriously...like some horrid STD just waiting to infect and annihilate all your pre-2012 figures' joints as if they'd all shared the same contaminated ho-biscuit!!).Later I did surgery to fix him, which only proved a temporary and certainly not ideal repair. So even later I did a body swap with an Obitsu...it works, but I like perfection (or near to it) so it's not really my ideal fix longer term. Well, during this repair, his damn hip fell off his old body (so now he's up to 3 severed limbs from the DTJ STD (that will now be my new name for the deteriorating joint issue that the older RAH's suffer from aka the Deteriorating Joint STD or DTJ STD). So remember it!! As that's what it shall now be called from henceforth!!! :DThen I got Ginko...day I got him I'm enveloped in sheer happiness at his glory, so am out posing him, snapping some lovely pics so I can show him off and BAM....he too had contracted DTJ STD and his arm friggin fell off. NOT MY BELOVED GINKO!!!!!!So....here I am looking for the more perfectest-est repair solution than my prior surgery and Obitsu body swap options proved to be...which led me to deciding to use another RAH to replace RAH parts. Sounds straightforward enough, right?? EASY PEASY!!! You'd think..... :DOk, so first let's start with the victim. The poor soul who I will hack up to use his parts on more beloved characters. Meet Aoshima Something-or-Other ( ITEM #295301 ), or his body rather:I'm not sure who the hell this guy is, but his face kind of scares me. Anyhoo....on a side note, the plus is not only his body (that sounds bad), but he has some pretty cool duds that I now can use for other things...and I'm already thinking that maybe I can use them to make ANOTHER Hei from Darker than Black!!! A Casual Hei!!!!I mean what-his-face came with a white shirt, a nice green jacket, and my current RAH Hei comes with TWO heads....so what's better than having TWO Hei's on display??? THREE!!!!! ....seriously though, all I need is some pants for this guy, some nice jeans and I can make it happen now!!Now meet the sweetheart we are murdering other figures to fix...this is Ginko from Mushi-shi, and he's great ( ITEM #7197 ). 'Nuff said, as his awesomeness totally warrants murder!!So..the first glaring thing you may say is "Wow, Stacy...this looks easy as their skin tone matches PERFECTLY!!!!" ...and you'd be right, I mean basically the same color right?? :-OHoly shit....Ginko is f'ing white!!! But worry not....we'll work it out!! I would also like to note, that it looks like Ginko is a bit more "fit" than this other guy too...just saying. :DOk, so first let's dig into what we'll be dealing with. Here is a closer look at Ginko's body (hid more pics in the spoiler so this isn't picture overload - these show the damage):HOLY SHIT....GINKO!! ....those abs!!!! (he must work out a lot during his travels...) Whew!! I mean I could wash clothes on those beauties!!So, let's take him apart!!! To do that, you have to remove some little soft plastic plugs so you can get to the screws that hold his torso together. The plugs serve no purpose other than to cover the screw holes. They are just stuck in though, so you can use a tiny flat head screwdriver, needle, or something small like that to just pluck them out.The screws you need to remove are here:Will be something like this:Once you remove those screws, the back and front torso can just be pulled apart and you'll be left with something like this:...and that's basically the same for most RAH bodies...even the new ones as you can see under the spoiler here (whats-his-faces' disassembled body):One thing to note however, is thatMedicom likes to get tricky, just to annoy you...and throws in some weird-ass screw for no reason whatsoever, forcing you to get inventive in how you remove it (as I sure as hell don't have a triangle-head screw driver)!!!That was in the new RAH's back, ONLY the middle screw was like that (WHY??). I was able to use a tiny flat-head to remove it, but worst-case-scenario, they do make these screwdrivers, so if nothing else works for you, you could order one, but I have no clue what they're called to help you in your search for one (sorry!).Taking apart the legs, arms and / or other parts are very similar. You just need to remove the plugs (if there are any) and then remove the screw. You should then be able to just pull the front/back plastic pieces apart (see under spoiler).Now comes the part where this went from being SUPER easy, to well...just a slight pain-in-the-ass (could've been a lot worse though). As you'll notice the pegs for the arms (where his shoulders slide into his torso and where his biceps connect to his lower arms) are NOT the same size between my older RAH (Ginko) and the newer/updated body (What's-his-face):GRR...WHY??!!! So....that means some sanding will be needed!! As our goal in this is to replace ONLY the defective parts. This will allow us to keep Ginko's original body (or at least as much of it as we can). So, in this case that means a shoulder-only swap!!!Click the spoiler below to see more pics of the sanding process, and what ended up working best for me to get that peg down to size!So, now that we have the pegs sanded to the right size...it's time for re-assembly using Ginko's original parts for everything but the shoulders!!And, as you can see...with his shirt on, you can't even tell that ONLY his shoulders have a nice suntan!!!Now...let's not forget about that delicate foot fracture!! The foot was still attached and moved, but as you'd bend the foot you can see the crack widen, etc.. So, I decided to just try a repair on the existing foot using superglue (since where I was gluing was NOT in a joint so would not affect mobility) rather than replacing the whole foot.So, I dabbed a small amount of glue on, then forced it into the crack with a needle, then held it together for a bit until it set:...and with that, Ginko's current injuries and DTJ STD should be on the mend and CURED!!!! Take that you dirty ho-biscuit!!! :D So, let's see what Ginko's got and how he feels!!OOOH, he's got the MOVES!!! Look at him go!! JUST look at that arm movement!!! It brings tears to my eyes!!!...but what about his body? If we peek at his tummy and such can we tell he has those unsightly What's-his-face parts????Well....Not unless you take his shirt off entirely you can't!!!Ginko: "Hmm...I look pretty normal!"Me: "HOLY SHIT THOSE ABS!!!!"View below at YOUR OWN RISK!! Highly provocative images!!Ginko: "And that's just how it is folks. I'm amazing in every way."And that concludes our RAH how-to repair job!!! This method, which is a bit of a frankenstein job, is the best option I believe (unless you frequently undress your figures...and if you also have a Ginko...I get it, no judgement here). The Obitsu option leaves a bit of a wobbly head and is a little thinner than the RAH bodies, and no other bodies I've bought really worked out yet (most of the others are too big or are really hard to find).I have another spare RAH figure I ordered for parts, as the next repair will be to fix Light!!! I'm hoping for him I can just swap out the whole body, but we'll see... :DThanks for reading folks and hope you saw something you enjoyed or something useful!! :DG'night!! How to Repair RAH Shoulder Joints Using Parts from Newer RAH Figures - (this article) Replacing a RAH Body with an Obitsu Body - (works in a pinch, but not my preferred fix)