How to “Restring” a Garbiel/Marx Lone Ranger figure

 

6/2/2005

By Albert Penello

 

I recently purchased some Lone Ranger and Tonto parts, and while the clothes and accessories were in good shape, the bodies were floppy and wouldn’t stand on their own. After talking with people I understood this to be a common occurrence, but nobody had a fix. After assembling some nice figures, I had an extra body left over so I figured I would crack it open. Well, I ruined the first one, but I was able to get an understanding of what needed to be done. Since I had a complete Tonto that was really loose, and got the experience with an extra body, I had a pretty good process down. This was only my second body fix, but I got it done in about 15 min even taking pictures.

 

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at albert@albertpenello.com

 

STEP 1 – GET THE TOOLS

Here’s what you’re going to need to do the job. I had everything lying around my house, but I do a lot of work on cars. The first time I did this I used a lot more tools, but I have the process down to these at a minimum.

  1. Sharpie (not shown)
  2. Scissors
  3. 2 Needle nose pliers
  4. Medium Flow (filler) SuperGlue. Don’t get the thick stuff, and don’t get it too thin. You want it to congeal and not spread too fast. You’ll see below why.
  5. SuperGlue Activator. Any hobby store will have a spray that will immediately activate the superglue. You *will* need this – you’re not going to be able to hold those body parts long enough for the medium flow glue to dry.
  6. Box Cutter. Don’t even think about using an X-Acto knife unless you want a broken one. The blade not only has to cut the plastic but you will be twisting to split the torso. Use a good, solid box-cutter with a fresh blade.
  7. Wire Stripper/Crimper
  8. 2 Ring terminals for 12 – 14 Guage wire (these are typically the yellow ones)

 

 

STEP 2 – SPLIT THE TORSO

Generally, the bands from the lower legs are so overstretched that the pelvis is hanging below the torso. That’s perfect, because the best place to split the body is right at the hip in the area shown. Force the blade down the seam, and slightly twist back and forth to separate…

 

Follow up the underarm, twisting the knife to separate the halves. You should be able to split both sides this way.

 

This is what will come shooting out from the torso J

 

 

STEP 3 – REMOVE THE RINGS

 

As you can see, there are 2 metal rings that hold the legs to a center pin. These are pretty flimsy, and if you fold the metal tab over you can remove the bands from the tab by pulling them off from the bottom. Don’t try pulling the bands off the ring from the top or you’ll tear them up.

 

After removing both tabs, and pulling the legs out of the pelvis, this is what you’ll have:

 

STEP 4 – REPLACE THE RINGS

 

Take your automotive ring terminals, and carefully twist the vinyl insulation off. Hold the Ring part of the terminal as close to the base as possible, or you’ll twist the top portion.

 

Then use the pliers to open up the metal where the bands will be crimped. Don’t open them very far, just far enough to get the bands inserted.

 

Here’s the finesse part. String one leg back up through the pelvis, and wrap the string around the peg until the leg is tight. As you can see, the ring terminal is just the right length from the hole to the top of the pelvis pivot. Therefore…

 

… If you mark the bands with a sharpie right about the pivot on the pelvis, you’ll know where to crimp the terminal. Be sure to get both bands with the sharpie mark!

 

Remove the band, and slightly crimp the ring terminal using the pliers. Just tight enough to hold the bands. Be sure the sharpie mark is about in the center of the crimp. It will make it just a tad tighter. 

 

Now use the wire crimper to make the crimp as flat as possible, and cut off the excess band.

 

Volia! One leg down! Remove this post, and repeat for the other leg.

 

STEP 5 – REASSEMBLE THE TORSO

 

After you’ve finished both legs, this is what your finished assembly should look like. BE SURE YOU PLACE THE RING TERMINALS BACK-TO-BACK. The flat sides should be together, which the bunched-up crimps opposing each other. If you don’t do this, the body will not go back together right!

 

Another view:

 

Replacing the arms is the trickiest part – you’re going to wish you had three hands. They are under a lot of tension and will want to spring back out if you don’t hold them. This is the best way I’ve found to hold them when you’re gluing the torso back together. If your legs are tight, they will hold the pelvis in place. You will be holding the arms back.

 

 

STEP 6 – GLUE! I NEED GLUE!

 

Ok, first off, do a test assembly before glue on anything. Practice setting the front of the torso on top, with the neck plug as shown, to make sure everything seats back together properly.

 

When you’re ready to glue, place glue in the areas I’ve highlighted in BLUE. Don’t put very much – and STAY AWAY from the Arm and Neck pocket unless you want those glued down. This is why you used thicker glue – it won’t run into the smaller crevices.

 

 

 

Once you’ve replaced the two halves, run a bead of glue down the underarm seam. Let it fill in and small cracks, then hit it with the activator. It will dry IMMEDIATELY.

 

Do this to both sides of the underarm (stay away from the armpit!) and a small portion on the upper shoulder seam (stay away from the neck plug!). Using the activator will dry the glue instantly, so move the arms and neck around to make sure you didn’t get any in there.

 

 

ALL FINISHED!

 

Wipe off the excess activator with a rag, and you’re all done. The glue is cured, so you’re ready to re-assemble!