My Head Re -Flocks By Dreadnought

Hi all ,
            I have had these heads rolling around in my collection for years now , they have even survived be in sold at A.M days , both on and off bodies . So I thought it time to get them refurbed , put a post out on here about Re Flockers , and Kev ( Dreadnought ) replied and took the job on . He is top class , the photos here will show you that , and he has posted threads of his own work . Well lets continue ....

Here is my box of bodies , in need of heads and other fixer uppers .....



Here are two different types of neck posts , I read some place that the shorter necks were from later issue figures , it makes sense , and that any Hybrid figure should have this neck post . i.e. an Eagle Eye head on the old style body .



So here are the bulk of the heads I had done , I am very pleased with them . I had a few Eagle Eye Bearded heads done , I don`t think they are particularly common , especially the Blonde ones . I also Had a Grey Bearded  , Ginger , Black and some variations on Brown hair colours . I am quite confident that at least two of these were my originals . There is quite a size difference in some of the heads too , interesting , likely to do with year of release , as old painted heads were used for flocking in the first releases I believe .



This is Paul , he was given to me by my friend who very sadly died from Corvid Christmas before last . He was wearing the remains of a British Infantry set , so I hope to restore him to that . Looks like he liked a puff as there is a pin hole just visible in his lips .



Here comes Qui Con Jinn , I had the idea of getting his beard flocked , I am really impressed ! It`s given him a whole new more realistic look .



This a Painted Head figure that I managed to get the dreaded felt pen removed from , he also looks superb now .

Flock-tastic flocks Chip. Very much looking forward to seeing them flocked heads put on actual bodies and then clothes put on them.

They al look superb Chip! Kev did an amazing job of restoring the boys! Really looking forward too seeing them back to active duty!

By golly. Some excellent flocking they old chap!!
You have half a platoon to get back in action
Look forward to seeing them returned to active duty

They look great Chip. Until I looked at the photo of all of the heads, I didn't realize that the
Eagle Eyes heads were slightly larger. I only have one Joe Eagle Eye head, and here they were
only put on the later muscle bodies, which are hard to find and then a bit expensive.

But Hasbro didn't run Joe as long as Palitoy's Action Man. The 1/6 scale Joe ended in 1976.

Great looking blokes that I'm interested in seeing on bodies and uniformed.

A very nice lot of re- flocks there, he's been a busy fella by the looks of it.. Interesting to see a ginger flock too

Hey Mark,

I hope you are happy with those. Yes Porky, It was busy week!

Not without a mishap either. As I explained to Mark, one of the EEs lost his eye decals in the stripping process.



First time it's happened, I've used this method a lot of times, was working to remove the extremely heavy over-glue flock line on this head.



Had it upside down in alcohol with eyes out, but the vapors may have got them.

Rather than I give that to Mark, I replaced it with an exact match brown bearded which he had requested for this head.

That left me minus a head for my eagle eye sailor, so did some work on this head - eye repaint and full reflock including a beard which it, and most of Mark's indeed, didn't start with.





Puts the old boy back in action.

Qui Gonn Jinn turned out well Mark. I'd like to see this figure in its entirety. All the others too, be interesting to see what you set them up as.

Brilliant work on repainting his eye and giving him a full reflock including a beard. Your eagle eye sailor looks ready to sale the seven seas.

Thanks for all the interest , obviously the only credit I can take is owning them , all the hard work was down to Kev . I feel a bit guilty now taking his Sailors noggin , I thought it was a spare he had , sorry Kev . His turn around time was very quick , I kind of pressured him a little I think .  I have a couple more Ginger haired figures but those have beards , I like the look of the Ginger flock too , A.M was never released with that colour in the U.K . It`s really good to be talking vintage again . I will attempt to keep you posted on their journeys . Kev asked me to get some opinions on the brown variation flock . On the right is the original look , and the left is one of Kev`s variations , I wasn`t sure at first but they are growing on me . What do you guys think ?

The variegated colour one is good, it's kind of a more natural look.

Kev, you repainted those eyes? Great Job!!

And as far as the variant brown hair flock, I like it!

So to continue their journey ...

Here we have a group shot . You can now see more of the Brown Flock variations . The Ginger flocked guy is rapidly becoming a favourite .    Paul said he was to busy for photos and remained napping on my desk ...actually because I put him back on his body soon after he returned I forgot I had left him there .  



All sorted with replacement gripping hands except one who has fixed hands . I was clever enough to keep all the original wrist pegs , just as well as the 40th pegs don`t fit well on vintage figures . So I still have some work to do swapping the wrist pegs over .



I learnt some time ago , that if you study a Vintage A.Ms forearm , there is a difference between the hole for the Gripping Hands and the Fixed Hands .



On the left is a fixed hand figures forearm , the recess is less deep , you have likely noticed the ball part of a fixed hand joint is considerably smaller than that of a gripping hand , a gripping hand forearm is shown on the right , the recess looks bigger and deeper .

I also noticed in setting up the group photo , that there are some considerable differences in height for some of them , oddly my two originals , and quite by chance ended up on the shortest figures .



If anyone knows the best way to tap out the pins on the wrist joints please advise , till now I have tapped them out with a punch and a pin hammer . I normally tap them out over the slightly opened jaws of my small vice , or a pair of pliers . Also what is the best way to tighten up the loose knees , again I normally use a pin hammer , bend at the figures knee and tap the foot . I have not found this to be very effective and the last thing I want to do is damage to them . Hope your enjoying the update .

Great photos there Mark. They look really well. May have to pilfer those for advertising purposes !! Hope those mid brown variations are growing upon you. They look as good as I hoped on a full figure.
Keep the updates coming my friend. I want to see the journey these chaps make in full. It's been a privilege to have contributed to it in some way.
Very interesting points about gripping and pincer hands and recesses. I didn't know that.
Like you said earlier too, great to see some vintage content on the forum. There is far too little of it of late. It's very refreshing to see.

Your new troops look great Chip. I also find your observations on the size differences very
interesting.

I, too, would like to know the best way to tighten knees.

Great group shot, those flocks look fab
Interesting and useful bit of detail re forearm sockets too

With them all standing like that they would make a great vam chippendales group .

Dreadnought wrote:

There is far too little of it of late. It's very refreshing to see.

I agree Kev! it's always great to see the vintage boys! Maybe we can have a resurgence of vintage posting? I will have to take new shots of Jake and the boys now he is back on his vintage body. Don't now when, but soon!

Outstanding work Chip! really looking forward to seeing them progress further!

TNshooter wrote:

I, too, would like to know the best way to tighten knees.

Daryl, I usually wrap a bit of heavy cloth around the knee to protect it and then squeeze it with a pair of sliding grips or pliers to tighten up the rivet. You could try it with a vice also.

Blondeactionman wrote:

Dreadnought wrote:

There is far too little of it of late. It's very refreshing to see.

I agree Kev! it's always great to see the vintage boys! Maybe we can have a resurgence of vintage posting? I will have to take new shots of Jake and the boys now he is back on his vintage body. Don't now when, but soon!
:

I really hope so Dal
Can't remember the last time I've seen Jake. All the modern stuff is OK, everybody has their own preferences.
For a forum with a fair percentage of vintage GI Joe/ Action Man collectors though, we have next to zero activity going on.
That's why this thread was such a good one for Mark to start. I hope he goes the distance to show us his completed restorations.
No pressure there Mark !!!!

Dreadnought wrote:

TNshooter wrote:

I, too, would like to know the best way to tighten knees.

Daryl, I usually wrap a bit of heavy cloth around the knee to protect it and then squeeze it with a pair of sliding grips or pliers to tighten up the rivet. You could try it with a vice also.

Thanks Kev, I'm thinking another member here once mentioned doing it that way. The only Joe from my childhood
can't stand on his own anymore, once I can get his knees tightened I plan on a restring.

How he ended up not being able to stand I once told here, I have a sister and cousin to thank for the excessive
wear.

Another observation , old Ginge has yellow lips , not sure how common this is in static eye figures , but believe it is relatively common in Eagle Eye figs . I not touched them anymore yet , I really don`t know where the time goes , seems it`s cooling down though hopefully that will help with the enthusiasm .

Chip wrote:

I not touched them anymore yet , I really don`t know where the time goes , seems it`s cooling down though hopefully that will help with the enthusiasm .

I hear you on that Chip, this year has been extremely hot.

Chip wrote:

Another observation , old Ginge has yellow lips , not sure how common this is in static eye figures , but believe it is relatively common in Eagle Eye figs . I not touched them anymore yet , I really don`t know where the time goes , seems it`s cooling down though hopefully that will help with the enthusiasm .

I'm sure once you start and get stuck in Chip, you'll be on a roll