So, I picked up my original 1986 Serpentor figure from his display place today, probably for the first time in years, and -- his O-Ring had worn out.

Okay, I have spare O-Rings. I didn't expect this to be a big deal. Take the figure's cape off, remove the piece on the back that's inserted into the screw hole that forms the cobra-like "hood" behind Serpentor's head, remove back screw, change out the O-Ring, reassemble.

Took the cape off, tried to pull off the "back-hood", let's call it, and -- *SNAP* -- It broke.

Worse, it left the peg in the screw hole. I have been trying to get hold of it with a pair of very narrow pliers, to little effect.

Question -- was this thing GLUED in!? I don't recall that it was. Of course, it's just as possible that I might've glued it in myself at some point in the past, and simply don't recall.

I do recall that someone told me one time that the gold plastic used to make Serpentor was rather decidedly brittle, and the way the "back-hood" nearly shattered, I'd say THAT'S accurate.

I am open to suggestions on (a) how to access the screw hole, i.e. remove the "back-hood" peg, and as carefully as possible (I don't think this is a job for Dremel); (b) get a replacement "back-hood", and (c) just how carefully I need to be handling this figure when I finally manage to change out the O-Ring.

Thank you.

I had similar situation with a broken backpeg.



Snap Ring Pliers.

I went out to the garage and found this tool, I carefully inserted the end into the clearance of the broken backpeg. Then I carefully began to try and turn the peg. I managed to turn the peg, loosening it up enough to get it to move around so I could grab it with another set of pliers.

EDIT: Similar to these
http://www.pelicanparts.com/catalog/sho ... 57_pg5.htm

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I have done this with figures' backpacks... the backpack itself became brittle and broke off, leaving the peg in the screwhole.

I did in fact use a dremel. I used a very narrow drill bit - much smaller than the backpack peg itself - and drilled a small hole into it. I stopped the dremel with the drill bit still in there, and then pulled. At least two of the times I did this, the peg came out with the bit, but at least one other time the drill bit left the peg behind. I then switched to the next size up bit, repeated the process, and it worked the second time.

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Drill it out....Expect that Serpentor's chest will shatter when you screw him back together after swapping the o ring.

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I had a serpentor in my parts bin whose arm snapped off the shoulder joint. Gold plastic syndrome at it's worst.

If that doesn't work, screw a screw into the hole and use it to pull out the peg.

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Whoa -- THAT bad!?

Sounds like my priority needs to be trying to get the back peg out -- doing my darndest to replace the O-Ring and reassemble the figure safely if at all possible, and then worry about replacing the back-hood (and if anybody's got one that they don't need, let me know.)

Step 1: Sell the broken figure as parts on ebay.

Step 2: Buy the modern version to replace it. No gold plastic syndrome and no bittle orings to replace.

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Alternatively, the 2002 or Comic Pack versions if you wanna keep the character O-ringed.
(also the modern version isn't that great)

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2002 version? The man only has so much money.
And it takes a combination of the three ME versions to make one good one.

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...just checked the prices on the black 2002 version. Yikes, when did that happen? I like mine, but it's starting to turn into a bag with a dollar sign on it whenever I look at it.

The green comic pack version is cheaper, but has a different head. And yeah, the v1 suffers from gold plastic syndrome like nothing else. I still have my childhood v1 Serpy, but he's all glued together and almost completely stationary because it crumbled in my hands the first time I tried to pose it after retrieving it from storage.

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Already doing that right now with a bunch of other parts -- unbroken ones, that is, of course...

I have the black 2002 Serpentor -- got him when he first came out, although Darko's and Suburbanator's comments have me curious. (Edit -- yeah, some impressive prices -- no bids offhand) And if I can't fix the gold one, I'd like to have A Serpentor still in my collection.

Sold the comic pack one months ago.

Tend to agree with Jay's assessment of the modern one.

I MIGHT have a lead on some parts -- someone I sold quite a batch of parts to a while back. I'll say this -- after some various and repeated attempts, I'm pretty sure I rather stupidly glued the back-hood in years ago. That peg is NOT coming out.

I have a GOOD update to this situation to report this evening.

I tried a new tool I had on hand to try to pry the broken peg from the "head shroud" out of the back, and as it turned out, it WASN'T glued in. I was actually able to remove it successfully without damaging the main body of the figure.

Of course, I now had to replace the O-Ring.

Being about ten times more careful than I usually feel I have to be, I was able to successfully change out Serpentor's O-Ring AND reassemble the figure without anything breaking on him -- somewhat to my astonishment, definitely to my delight.

Of course, this still left the matter of the very broken head shroud, which I really couldn't do anything about. The area around the peg had literally crumbled.

Off to eBay! And -- I found someone who was selling JUST the head shroud piece, and at what I regarded as a very agreeable price (certainly less than trying to replace the entire figure). So I bought it as quickly as I could.

Assuming the piece arrives intact, I think we're looking at a happy conclusion to this situation, and Serpentor is back on his feet, and will soon be fully uniformed once again!

Sweet! How do you pose him with his accessories? I've always found his snake and dagger to be a little hard to display.

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The head shroud arrived today -- wrapped up in no less than THREE FEET of bubble wrap. Clearly, the eBay seller is well aware of the fragility of these pieces.

I made it a point not to install the piece quite as tight as its predecessor, too. Just in case I ever need to do future repair work. I don't need to go through this fiasco again. It'll stay put, but it should also remove more easily should the need arise.

As you can see from the picture, Serpentor is back in business -- THIS I COMMAND!

Kilcarr, to answer your question, I don't really try to pose my figures with their accessories, and at this point, I certainly wouldn't try it with Serpentor. His thumbs would probably fall off with my luck...