I bought 09 Bumblebee the other day. I fuggin' love him. BUT. His head kept falling off of the balljoint. So I tried super gluing it to the balljoint. I left it to dry for a while and when I returned the head was turned the wrong way. So I tried turning the head back, hoping the glue hadn't dried too much. It turned! But it wasn't turning on the balljoint. It was turning on the plastic that supports the balljoint. In the end the head+balljoint came off. I tried super gluing the head back on, but that screwed up the plate on his chest by gluing it to the thing that held the head's balljoint AND didn't reattach the head.

 

So I have two questions:

 

1. Is there any chemical that will take away super glue without destroying the transformer? I assume alcohol would take it away but I know that would eat through the plastic.

 

2. What would the best way be to punch a small rivet into the plastic thing that held the head's balljoint and into the head via the glued balljoint? Where might I get said rivet?

 

 

 

EDIT: Nevermind. I managed to glue the head back on. It can't turn now, but it's better than nothing. I still love the figure, though.

I might try taking a really small drill bit, and putting the remainder of the ball peg in it, and drill a hole straight through, then using some glue and a nail stick it to the head in place, either drill another hole or try and hammer it on (vice will probably damage the head if you use a hammer, drill first then hammer or use plyers to press it on) It's risky somewhat, one wrong slip and either the piece can be ruined or your finger...

 

I did something similar with some customs I made a long time ago. G1 style Sideburns, had to extend the neck to fit over the hood/chest. Fortunately with the project the way I did it, I had 2 sets of the longer pegs so it worked out with room for error needing just 1.

 

They make this putty used to hold things like car speakers or emblems in place that might work well in the socket, making it flexable but sturdy. I've used that on a few projects and to repair joints instead of tape or glue.

 

This would simply be a good opportunity to replace the head with a better one. I an not a huge fan of the movie heads and that'd be enough for me to put something else in it's place and make a custom.

I never use Glue for joints - always use Nail Polish!

I have tons of super glue lying around and this is the first time that it's screwed up on me. If I find some nail polish I'll use that instead, though.

 

 

Well, the glue broke down, so I had to jury rig it some other way.

 

So here's what I did: I took some straight pins and super heated them with my soldering iron. I forced them into the base of BumbleBee's skull. They could freely come in and out, but that was fine: I just used super glue on the pins in the head and then cut them down to the right size. I tried putting the head+pins onto the figure through the space between the chest piece that rises and the main chassis, but it wouldn't fit. So I took my soldering iron and poked two holes in the plastic in the chassis adjacent to the gap. The head fits nice and snug now. Though I don't think it really needs it, I added some more super glue to it just in case at the base of the skull to help keep the pins on and to brace the head to the chassis.

 

Everything works just as it used to with the exception of two things:

 

1.The head can't turn anymore, but that's expected.

 

2. The chest piece that rises doesn't return via the spring anymore. The straight pins are held in snug by the back of the hinge and the spring's not strong enough to counteract that. So I just push it in manually.

Wow!

Thats an innovative solution - i dont have the skills or the tools for that kind of KB work.

Congrats!

Thanks. I'm still a bit dissapointed that the thing broke in the first place, but oh well.

 

When I get home I'll take some pictures of what I did.

Good work on the fix and yeah it sucks when parts fo bad like that. Never put the item back together when you do the superglue-tightening-trick, that's what everyone seems to forget. It's more durable than nail polish but you have to let it cure as a hard shell while the pieces are seperate, then snap them back together.

 

BB's neck can be fixed because I had to install a ball-joint on mine to fit other heads. The pain-in-the-rear part is that his collar is made of that unglueable/unpaintable plastic. You have to drill a smaller hole in the collar and sink a larger screw down into it so the threads do most of the gripping. A little screw like a GI Joe leg screw works in cases like these.

 

Removing superglue takes Acetone unfortunatly, alcohol won't do much to it. Acetone of course eats through plastics except the kind BB's collar is made of. So if you're really careful you may be able to free up that piece.

So just tiny dabs of acetone near the collar? That would eat away a tiny layer and the glue, I assume.

 

 

And I guess it serves me right, though. The way I've been using super glue to tighten joints for the past year doesn't involve any dissassembling. I just apply the glue directly to it and move the part around a lot so the glue never gets a chance to grip.

 

 

And I'd post the pictures I took, but my camera sucks, so it all looks like one big yellow and black blob.

So just tiny dabs of acetone near the collar? That would eat away a tiny layer and the glue, I assume.

 

 

And I guess it serves me right, though. The way I've been using super glue to tighten joints for the past year doesn't involve any dissassembling. I just apply the glue directly to it and move the part around a lot so the glue never gets a chance to grip.

 

 

And I'd post the pictures I took, but my camera sucks, so it all looks like one big yellow and black blob.

 

That is how I fix mine too and I have yet to super glue a joint together using this procedure. It sounds to me like you just put it down and forgot about it and that is your problem here.

No, the glue just dried too fast too hard. I think the difference in this case as opposed to other times I've done it this way is that the plastic that holds the balljoint on the collar is so much thinner. If I were to do it on the arms it'd probably be fine, though with a stress mark or two showing.