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Topic: How do I fix loose joints?

This topic is to discuss about fixing loose joints in minifigures, big figs, action figures etc.
It has been discussed before but I'll restart the topic because the previous one was only about lego joints.

http://www.bricksinmotion.com/forums/to … nifigures/

So here's the story... Recently I got a Meccano (another lego rip-off) action figure from a garage sale so I can do a few tests on it. It has 13 articulation points and most of them are really loose. I cannot find a way of stiffening up the joints (I've used tac but they don't do much at all and puts on a bit of colour). How would you fix loose joints?


Something off topic: I thought the Meccano feet were compatible with lego studs but I was wrong. They're really hard to stand, even with blue tac, mostly because the ankles, knees and waist keep flopping. Any way to hold them without using helping hands?

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Re: How do I fix loose joints?

With Lego, sometimes replacing certain parts with fresh ones (waist/arms/legs/Ect) can help, but as has been said, once it's gone, it's just gone. Sometimes you just have to buy a new one, which is where the aforementioned Bricklink comes in handy.

As for Meccano, it looks similar to the MegaBloks dolls, (Is that the right word?) and tac in the ball joints at the hip and shoulder should do wonders. You said you tried that, so I don't know. The lower quality plastic probably just wore away too far with use.

One really complicated way to solve it would be to suspend the figure with a rig, although you're ruled that out. Perhaps using long clear pieces sticky-tacked to the back of the figure? They would erase easier in post. I know Bionicle animators tend to do that, or use strings, to get a full range of motion without having to worry about balancing everything. Sorry I can't offer more help.

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Re: How do I fix loose joints?

Kd2000 wrote:

So here's the story... Recently I got a Meccano (another lego rip-off) action figure from a garage sale so I can do a few tests on it. It has 13 articulation points and most of them are really loose. I cannot find a way of stiffening up the joints (I've used tac but they don't do much at all and puts on a bit of colour). How would you fix loose joints?

When it comes to extremely loose articulation joints on minifigs, sometimes a layer of glue on the ball joint can fix this. 
Elmer's glue usually works. Plus it's easy to remove when you're done animating.
I highly recommend that you use/find a type of glue that will not alter the plastic too drastically.
That way if mistakes happen, nothing is permanently ruined.


Kd2000 wrote:

Something off topic: I thought the Meccano feet were compatible with lego studs but I was wrong. They're really hard to stand, even with blue tac, mostly because the ankles, knees and waist keep flopping. Any way to hold them without using helping hands?

Quite a while back, I had this problem when I was doing some test animation with a couple of stickfas.
The holes on the bottom of the stickfas feet are slightly smaller than the size of a Lego stud.
I enlarged the hole ever so slightly with an x-acto knife.
Then, I glued one of these 1x2 plates to the bottom of each stickfas foot.
It actually worked pretty well. The figures were a heck of a lot easier to animate after that.

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  • Noah
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Re: How do I fix loose joints?

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Last edited by Noah (May 27, 2017 (01:41pm))

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