Need help switching my Clone's shoulders

[Hasbro'sBountyHunter]

I posted some pictures about this in the Error/Variant section:

http://www.sirstevesguide.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21722

Now my question- how would I go about switching the shoulders to correct this error?

[Boba Fetish]

How annoying. Your going to be at the stove for a while. I have used boiling water to soften the plastic of joints to enable the ease of seperating them tons of times. Just boil the figure until you feel it is pliable enough and just do like the Wookies do- rip those arms outta their sockets, but with some finess so you dont damage the figure. Then I would take the forearm out of each shoulder one at a time using the same procedure. Use tongs to retrieve the figure or pieces out of the boiling water and a towel when holding the figure because I have had trapped water come pouring out of the figure when removing appendages, and that burns.

Next swap the joints. This is a little trickier. Due to the difficulty of reassembling the figure you may need to trim the joints with an exacto-knife to get the arms back into the torso. I would imagine the forearms should reattach to the shoulders easier and I would do it in that order-- Shoulders first then the forearms.

I don't know if it is your first time popping joints, but it takes patience until you start to feel the personality of the plastic. I've done it often enough that I could do that job in about ten minutes. Fortunately these newer plastics are much more forgiving and do what you want them to do much more than the POTF2 figures would.

Hope I helped. :)

[Hasbro'sBountyHunter]

Thanks for the tips Boba. One more question- would boiling water ruin the figure's paint job?

[Boba Fetish]

Thanks for the tips Boba. One more question- would boiling water ruin the figure's paint job?

Not unless the paint job is a "lemon". I've popped dozens of joints and only once did I have a paint issue and that was with an old deluxe POTF 2 Han. Fortunately, the part that got ruined I was discarding. Hasbro's paint is pretty tough; just keep an eye out for potential wear and be careful. Ive done head swaps with Padme and Leia without a problem and there is paint all over their heads and face. I've left figures in for as long as thirty seconds after the water was really bubbling and even lightly applied paint like their pupils and lipstick have stayed intact. The only danger comes in the kind of tongs you use when handling the figure. Stay away from anything with teeth and ridges. I use plain metal tongs that you use for serving hotdogs or whatnot.

Also when pulling the joints apart, if you notice it stretching real far and it still hasn't let go just reheat it for another ten seconds or so until it's pliable enough to free itself. I have customized so many figures using this method and when you start thinking of possibilities with all those figures that are now out there you can make some really cool characters.

When I was first practcing I used figures that I wasn't going to miss until I felt comfortable using this technique. :)