Okay, got a silly question, if it's been answered then do point me to it, if not...

I tried taking the arms off a 25A Storm Shadow (single pack) earlier; boiled it, tried to pop, but the arms wouldn't come out of the torso, and I was worried I'd damage the shoulder pin so I gave up. Or are these meant to only come off at the shoulder pin? I need to swap his arms for those of the Cobra Trooper for a custom and I really don't want to mangle them in the process so...what am I doing wrong?

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Boil n Pop won't work (the arms are pretty similar to regular Joe arms)

Cracking open the torso is the only way to do it. Be careful, though -I've ruined a couple of torsos trying to pry them open. There are 4 pins that connect the halves together -- it's best just to take your exacto and slowly carve around the seam, stopping at the 4 corners to cut the pins (should be easy to figure out.)

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The construction is similar to the newer Star Wars stuff, especially the Clone Troopers.

To get those guys apart, I start by taking a new razor blade and CAREFULLY going along the seams of the torso pieces. Try and work the blade in there to slice through the glue and whatnot. If you remove the head of the figure, you'll notice a seam running down either side. Get your razor and start splitting the neck in two, using the seam as your guide.

After about 10 or 15 minutes of working the seams with the razor, you'll notice the torso starting to split. When the split is big enough, get a flathead screwdriver (the smaller the better) and CAREFULLY pry the figure open, starting under the arms, then working around. If there's a little bit of damage, you can always fix it with contour putty.

When splitting the torso, be very careful when you get to the neck-- the thin plastic could tear.

If you take your time, it should work.

If not, there's always Hasbro's "Smack-It-Repeatedly-With-A-Mallet" Technique (patent pending).

Is it the SS arms that you need? Lmk if that is the case.

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Will boiling or heating the torso help at all to soften the glue holding the two halves together?

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Haven't tried boiling - but it works on SW figs -- might be worth a try.

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Thanks for the tips, guys. Sounds like more of a headache than it's worth. Yet another nail in the 25A coffin.

I don't have a good history of cracking open torsos (ruined way too many of the Star Wars ones that way) so I'm not even going to try. I think I still have a Ninja Trooper somewhere I didn't burn in effigy, I'll use that instead; it's close enough to do the job. Shame of it is, except for the arms, the rest of the figure is ideal for what I had in mind.




Chad, thanks, but I needed to swap out the SS arms for the Cobra Trooper ones.

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