1/6 SSC C-3PO Modification Thread

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Great info. You guys must have nerves of steel. I couldn't even pop the hands out, so I left as is. I'll take the high road, leave it and continue being disappointed in SSC as a company.

This thing cost me a lot of $ and to accidentally break it trying to fix it would drive me crazier than having wacky thumbs.

Again great thread. Thanks for sharing.
 
Great info. You guys must have nerves of steel. I couldn't even pop the hands out, so I left as is. I'll take the high road, leave it and continue being disappointed in SSC as a company.

This thing cost me a lot of $ and to accidentally break it trying to fix it would drive me crazier than having wacky thumbs.

Again great thread. Thanks for sharing.

:exactly: I'm too much of a wimp to try it!! :(
 
Great info. You guys must have nerves of steel. I couldn't even pop the hands out, so I left as is. I'll take the high road, leave it and continue being disappointed in SSC as a company.

This thing cost me a lot of $ and to accidentally break it trying to fix it would drive me crazier than having wacky thumbs.

Again great thread. Thanks for sharing.

:lol Great post. I'd rep you if I could.
 
SUPERB JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:clap
Here's a thread with some tips and tricks to get the most out of your Sideshow Collectibles C-3PO.

If you have some additional suggestions please post them here and I can add them to the first post for ease of access.

Thumb Modification
As many collectors have noted the thumbs on the Stock figure are at an odd angle and look either like a 5th finger or a claw. Sadly it's not really possible to rotate the thumb due to the design of the hand, but with a bit of work you can modify the thumb into a ball joint and correct this issue.

Step 1: Remove the Hand
Grip the hand by holding onto the palms (avoiding any pressure on the fingers) and pull straight out. You will get some resistance, but the wrist peg will come out.
*Do not try to pull the wrist peg out of the hand, it is not removable at this step!

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Step 2: Open the Hand
Take a thin and rigid knife (or similar tool) and work it into the sides of the palm where the gold and black pieces are joined. Work the tool in carefully and when you are able to get enough leverage use the tool to pop the halves apart. This is the scary part, but if you are careful you should be able to break the hand apart w/o marring the gold paint or damaging the plastic.

Once the hand is open you'll discover the problem with the thumb, it's a T-joint that prevents any rotation. And since the T-joint is oriented in a way that keeps the ridges of thumb in line with the rest of the fingers it looks off.

1ce2e18d-217d-4684-bbbd-1abaa306fa4c_zpswygdt49c.jpg

Step 3: Dremmel the T-Joint
Take a dremmel with a pointed sanding tool and carefully round out the T-joint until it is ball shaped and able to fit in the original housing and rotate freely. If you place the hand back together and the thumb doesn't rotate; remove a bit more. If it's too loose put a tiny bit of electrical tape on the ball to get a tighter fit.

Stock regular finger T-joint next to a dremmeled thumb T-joint
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Step 4: Reassemble 7 Enjoy!
Use a bit of glue on the male and female parts of the inside of the palm and reassemble. It's a bit of a trick to hold the wrist joint and thumb in place while reassembling, but just be patient and take your time.

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Then reinsert the hand into C-3PO and you're done. Now the finger can rotate and move up and down allowing for a better articulation and appearance.​

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"Chocolate Milk" Removal
The weathering on C-3PO is okay... but a bit heavy handed. Probably the biggest issue is that it looks like he's been covered in chocolate milk (credit to Wor-Gar for that one). Removal is easy, but time consuming :monkey4

Step 1: Select an area you would like to work on (in this case a smudge of brown on C-3PO's stomach).

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Step 2:
Take some rubbing alcohol (I use 90%), load up a Q-Tip and work the Q-tip back and forth until the brown is removed. Wipe the area off afterward with a damp cloth to on the off chance the rubbing alcohol could damage the finish, but so far it seems like the underlying metallic paint job is very resilient.

40322436-5df4-4307-8c12-f3c76a9bbda5_zpswzcvtdjs.jpg

That's it for now... I'll eventually reapply some new weathering; but first I have to remove more of what's there :lol
 
Well, I attempted to open the right hand and it wouldn't budge; I put as much stress on the plastic as I was comfortable with, but even as a model builder with tools, had no luck. I next attempted the grab-and-twist method and achieved what I was looking for. The thumb was a little loose so I packed the area with a small amount of white glue (something that can be reversed) and it worked beautifully by moving the thumb every minute or so until the glue dried. When I did the left hand I went right to the grab-and-twist method and as I twisted the thumb the hand pretty much popped in half. So, for the left hand I was able to round the base of the thumb to create the ball as described above. Anyway, below is the finished product...

Before:

View attachment 239713


After:

View attachment 239714

Great work... it would figure some hands are glued more solid than others. And in the end I can't tell a difference between the two, but a huge difference between the before and after :lecture
 
Thanks GB, I certainly didn't think I'd ever have to do something like this to a $230 figure but I couldn't live with it looking like that. Shame on Sideshow!
 
Excellent tutorial GB. Ssc should send us all new hands so we can try this mod. It's their glaring error, so cough up some hands.
What you have done here is very ballsy, i would'nt want to start cracking open a figure this delicate without good reason, but they gave us one, did'nt they:mad:
So well done, glad we have freaks like yourself that don't accept 'good enough' for frick'n 230 dollars to show us the way:clap
 
Repped. After reading the OP, i feel a little more confident I could do the thumb mod. Hopefully someone does this and films it. I really would like to see it done first. Thanks again GB!!
 
I can do a fake filming... both of my hands have been fixed, but the first attempt was just a test since I had a broken hand and was getting a replacement.
 
Thanks a million for sharing this. I was hoping to hear from the SSC rep before I attempted this. The last email stated they would replace it, but Im pretty sure they are all like this.
 
Oh, so they're going to replace the hand for having the weird thumbs? That's surprising... it's a good chance they misunderstood and thought it was broken.

Keep us updated :duff
 
That would be great, but I think they only replaced his hand because of a broken finger. Not that they screwed up the design.

I tried to do the mod today, but got gun shy. I first tried to pry open the hands but couldn't and didn't want to force it. I then tried the blow dryer, but don't know if I did it wrong. I isolated the thumb and tried to heat it up, but it wouldn't budge. Once again I didn't want to force it.

So for now, I guess I'm stuck with them.
 
I think either method requires force and a bit of "well, hope this doesn't make it worse" :lol

But it seems that once you get over the point of required force the hand either pops open or the thumb twists.
 
Waiting for somebody who is brave enough to open the head to modify those dots on his eye.
And yes, I'm not brave enough. :)
 
Waiting for somebody who is brave enough to open the head to modify those dots on his eye.
And yes, I'm not brave enough. :)

Yeah his eyes have a bit of a "lenticular" look about them. On the Tama, they actually built a miniature version of 3PO's eye, but SSC took a picture and printed it on a piece of translucent plastic. The black dot didn't really come through very well.
 
I was thinking someone cracked open his head and modded the eyes... but I'm not positive about that.

I know at least one person had to destroy the head, so maybe from that we can figure out a good way to take it apart safely.
 
I have a replacement head coming...someday; I'll see if I can tear it down before taking a hammer to it.
 
Sweet, I'd love to see pics of that... I imagine you can try cracking it open before you take a hammer or whatever to it :lol
 
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