Action figure care and repair

Here you can learn the basic care and repair of the action figures available here. To borrow a quote from Star Trek: First Contact, “You are an imperfect being, created by an imperfect being.” This is very true of my action figures. Though I do my best to prevent any possible problems, I’m quite imperfect and I’m not ashamed to admit it. That’s the whole reason for this page: I make mistakes and I’m going to do my best to walk you through fixing them.

Quite truthfully, it is very possible for seams to break, so I’m going to discuss basic repairs. If you need help beyond that, this is the place to open the discussion – politely, please. I know it can be frustrating when something goes wrong or you don’t understand something, but rude language won’t help solve the problem even if it does make you feel a little better after. All it really does is hurt feelings and solve nothing.

Now, let’s say you’ve had a seam break open. First off, your average grocery store usually has a small sewing kit available for basic repairs such as this. Often, they come with pre-threaded needles, so all you have to do is pick the one that has the closest color to the broken seam. If you have trouble finding a small sewing kit, contact me so an arrangement may be made for me to either help you find one through online sources or send you one myself.

To use an old analogy I came up with in third grade, think of the opening as being like a river you’ll be helping the needle to cross the river and bridge the gap.

Here’s a bit of a visual aid:

|……|

|……|

|……|

Think of this as being the river. (Ignore the periods in between the edges!) What you do is tie a firm knot in the end of the thread – if there isn’t one already – and from the inside of the beginning of the hole, pull the needle through to the outside, so the knot rests against the inside of the fabric where it won’t be seen. From there, cross the river putting the tip of the needle through to the inside of the fabric on the opposite side from where you started. Here’s the trick, though: don’t put it all the way through like you did for the knot. Instead, use the point of the needle to go a small distance down stream toward the other end of the opening and put the tip through the fabric to the outside again.

Here’s a visual aid:

*——-|

Here’s a key: * is the knot, —- is your thread, and | is the other side of the fabric. Now, what you’ve got is a tiny stitch on the other side of the hole from your knot. To continue the stitch until you reach the other end of the hole, you get a stitch that looks a lot like this:

*——-|
|——-
——–|

Simply pull the thread gently until the hole is forced closed by the stitching, and tie another firm knot in the other end close to the fabric. If you have any questions, problems or concerns, this is the page to discuss them.

Leave a Reply