1/6 SSC ESB/ROTJ Darth Vader Modification Thread

[Matt S]

I have one of those TT's here already. Dunno, I think I love him too much as he is (for now)..

Honestly have mine in a pose that I am 'good' with.......and I really prefer the point on the ANH saber...matches the HT DX luke one

 

[FullMetalHippie]

this is the body i used fellas

heres how the neck ended up looking, and a shot to see how the body fills in the suit

as far as the feet, the way I extended the leg length was by taking the inner joint of a truetype foot (where the ball joint usually fits) cracking the foot open and removing that joint, then glueing it to the bottom of the truetype leg, lengthening it by around 1/2 inch or so. Then i used the longer HT ankle adaptors, the ones that come stock with this body. Without it, I found vader to look a little bit stumpy.

Hey chilipepp. I have a TTM20 on it's way so I can do the body swap. I'm still not clear on the foot joint you're referring to. If it's not too much trouble, could you snap a pic of what it is? Thanks.

I did a body swap on Malgus last night using a TTM21 but I didn't have to mod anything besides trimming down the wrist pegs that go into the arm. I was surprised I was able to use the long foot pegs from the TrueType as well. I thought the Prometheus and TrueTypes had different sized sockets.

 

[Pixelpiper]

Inside the foot there is a ball socket, that needs to be removed so it can be re-used by gluing it (upside down from how it's normally oriented) to the bottom of Vader's new legs. It's a way of extending the socket into which you'll plug the ankle barbells.

 

[FullMetalHippie]

Inside the foot there is a ball socket, that needs to be removed so it can be re-used by gluing it (upside down from how it's normally oriented) to the bottom of Vader's new legs. It's a way of extending the socket into which you'll plug the ankle barbells.

Got it. Thanks pixel.

 

[chilipep66]

yep.. what he said haha

the only other thing youll have to do is heat up the Vader boots to take out the prometheus joint, it pops right out with a hair dryer on it for 10 seconds, then the HT pegs fit in no problem.

the more elaborate change is definitley on the neck. Its all dressed up and glued so I cant post pics but Ill try to be super detailed with what I did

1. to avoid possible accidental breaks, its best to take the rubber upper torso off. I cut along one side, then slid it off.

2. unscrew the upper torso pieces to remove the neck ball joint

3. Cut or dremel down the joint from the bottom (which renders the joint useless, hence why you need to glue it back on top) I dremeled about half of it down before reassembling the chest, then using crazy glue to glue the joint back in place

4. Cut with an xacto the rubber neck on the TT body, use your own judgement but I took off about 3/4 of an inch or so

voila, Vaders ready to be dressed again.


that may seem like a complicated process but its really not, took me about 15 minutes at most!

 

[shocktrooper_au]

The only thing really bugging me was the width of the shoulders on mine so I finally got myself prepared to dismantle and reglue some stuff, pulled the armour off to discover they are just velcro anyway. Moved them in 5mm aside and done.

 

[cking]

Great work on the mods here guys.
I'm still trying to figure out what the best body would be.

The KP03 is definitely too small. I've got one here and was surprised when I put it next to the Hot Toys Reeve Superman that it wasn't quite as tall. Previously, I'd thought about using the Hot Toys Reeve body for Vader but when I measured it, it's only 31cm tall (which in full size works out to be a 6ft 1.25 inches tall. Reeve was 6ft 4inches tall so they missed the mark on their Superman figure).

Here's a pic showing Reeve's height at 31cm (measured to where his bald head would be, not to the top of his hair).



Here's the KP03a standing next to the HT Reeve Superman:



KP02 is 32cm tall (which works out to be 6ft 3 1/2 inches tall in full size measurements). With longer ankle extenders, KP02 would be pretty close to Prowse's 6ft 4 or 6ft 5 inches height) so that's why a lot of us felt that the KP02 was the best body to use.

Can anyone confirm how tall the TTM20 muscle body is (standing barefoot)? Is it slightly taller than the KP02? I don't want to buy it if it's no different to the height of the KP02.

Finally, has anyone got the new HT Man of Steel Superman and the SS ROTJ Vader? I'm interested to hear how tall the Man of Steel is and how does it's bulk compare to the KP02 and SS ROTJ stock body?

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[Pixelpiper]

Forget how tall Prowse is or was, just aim for 13.25 up to just under 13.5" completed figure height for an accurate Vader. TTM20 looks great for filling out the suit.

 

[cking]

Yes, the liquorice suit fits well onto the TTM20 but I want to use the ANH suit with my figure. I thought that someone had tried to put the ANH suit on a TTM20 but it didn't fit?

So, how tall does the ROTJ Vader stand if the TTM20 is used?

Forget how tall Prowse is or was, just aim for 13.25 up to just under 13.5" completed figure height for an accurate Vader. TTM20 looks great for filling out the suit.

 

[Commtech]

Even though I'm happy with the stock body, I'm curious... Do the hand pegs fit nicely in the ttm20? And what is the mod needed so that the boots fit the ttm20 at the ankle? I also see that the neck rubber fleshon the ttm20 has to be cut a bit too, right?

 

[Pixelpiper]

Has anyone tried replacing the neck post (and peg) on this guy with something a tiny bit shorter? As it stands, the whole head sits too high off the armor on mine - there's an unwanted gap under the chin armor. I'd really hate to hack the bottom of the sculpt to try and get it lower, but I'd have no problem hacking a spare neck post, regardless of its color.

 

[pixletwin]

Really the worst thing I can say about my Vader is that it's a pain swapping the heads. Anyone else have the same experience or have a tip they want to share to get it off safely?

 

[FLOSI]

Really the worst thing I can say about my Vader is that it's a pain swapping the heads. Anyone else have the same experience or have a tip they want to share to get it off safely?

Mine has been pretty easy to get on and off. :

 

[steveo]

How many heads/helmets come with this? Is there just one that comes apart or are there two - one helmeted and one reveal?

 

[EVILFACE]

Don't girly grip it.

 

[zeiss]

Has anyone tried replacing the neck post (and peg) on this guy with something a tiny bit shorter? As it stands, the whole head sits too high off the armor on mine - there's an unwanted gap under the chin armor. I'd really hate to hack the bottom of the sculpt to try and get it lower, but I'd have no problem hacking a spare neck post, regardless of its color.

Good question. The look of the figure would be significantly enhanced if the head sat lower.

 

[Pixelpiper]

I'll have to take a better look with some time, but I don't think I can get the head sitting as low as in some of the photos I've seen posted. My figure is currently 13 7/8" tall and that's already after some vertical compression to see if all the joints were seated properly. It used to be 14" when I first took it out of the box. It's only supposed to be 13 3/4" tall by SSC's specs.

 

[Invictus Sol]

Those sneaky... He was listed previously @ 13.5", which would've been perfect. I'd like to get him around that height, and would even be fine buying a TTM20, if it was a simple body swap, but gluing and cutting and whatnot... Nah! I'll keep him stock unless someone finds the perfect body. One thing I'm obviously missing, but if the KP02 was great for ANH Vader, why not this one?

 

[Pixelpiper]

I'm not sure, but wasn't it mentioned the main reason is KP02 is difficult to find? And expensive.

 

[Invictus Sol]

It's cheaper than the TTM20 and available at Monkey Depot, last I checked. Kaustik Plastik also indicated more were on the way in their thread in the General section, IIRC!