Hasbro finally hit on the perfect articulation scheme for females with their new body that debuted on the SDCC Moonstone and Satana figures. Despite the thunder thighs, those are probably the most poseable and playable female toys I’ve ever seen. I think MOTUC females are the only thing that have come close, and their only drawback is the crotch pieces that tend to get in the way of leg poses.
After having Moonstone and Satana in hand, every other female feels deficient in their posing. Their previous new female — red She-Hulk — was so close. Sooo close. But those damn hips that pegged straight up meant you had to twist and turn to get her leg to pose the way you wanted it. People complain about 45-degree hips, but those straight-up pegging ones are even worse.
I wanted to make Red She-Hulk as playable as Hasbro’s brand new body. Red is almost there, so close, but is just missing that ball-hip goodness without the upward-pegging nonsense.
So I decided to apply a few things I’ve been working on in other projects to her.
What you need!
- Some type of crotch-cracking implement. I use an X-Acto and a small hammer.
- Dremel
- A Hobby Base double-ball joint, found here.
- Gorilla Glue. Not Superglue, not Krazy Glue, not any glue but Gorilla Glue. You’ll find out why later.
For this part, you can use Apoxie, or hot glue, or what I used, which is a two-part urethane resin. I use Smooth-Cast 305 which I buy from smooth-on.com. Personally, that’s what I recommend, but you can get good enough results from the others.
First, I cracked her crotch, which is actually the entirety of her lower torso, so I could remove the legs. She’s welded by pure evil so it took a bit of doing to break that plastic love grip, but I finally got that nice solid crack and she popped right open. Best sound in the world when you’ve struggling with crotches, amiritefellas? Yeah, ignore me.
I pulled out her pegs — guh, straight up. Wrong wrong wrong.
I then put her hips back together. There’s no perfect science to this; you’re just going to have to eyeball where to do it: drill a hole straight across where you believe a bar should be.
Once you have your hole, next take an X-Acto and slice the disks out of Shulkie’s hips. You should be able to slide in between the disk and the hip and cut through the restraining bar and then pull the hip apart and pull the disk out. This will be a lot simpler if you heat up the hip before attempting.
Do that for both hips.
Now dremel out the inside of both hips.
OK, now your figure and her hips are prepped. Take the Hobby Base joint and seat it in the hole. Carve a little away until the crotch seats together properly.
Take some sandpaper and scuff up the bar on the dumbbell joint to give the Gorilla Glue something to grab hold of, and then put a light coat of glue on the joint. Position it dead center in the crotch, and then use something to clamp it all tightly together.
Let it sit overnight. Not a few hours, but overnight.
**Gorilla glue must be used because regular super glue will eat away at the ABS plastic of these Hobby Base joints. I’ve had the glue eat right through two of them before I started using Gorilla Glue.**
The next day depends on your method. if you use Apoxie or hot glue, then simulate this step with those products. Mine was resin, so mix the two-parts, and then drip a little bit into the hollowed-out hip joint. Not too much, it expands when it’s not being pressure-cast. Swipe some ChapStick (or other slippery substance of your choosing) on the dumbbell joint and then put the joint into the hip, and then lean her on her side. After a few hours, the ball should be welded solidly inside the cure resin. Hold your breath and twist it. It should crack loose. You now have a perfect 90-degree ball-and-socket joint that simulates the one on the brand new Moonstone/Satana body. If you didn’t use enough the first time (as I didn’t here so I was able to pull the legs off with a pop), then repeat until the connection is solid. Always remember to reapply the ChapStick, oil, lotion, mold release or whatever strange thing you use to keep the resin from sticking.
This method is perfect for simulating a factory connection between two parts when one has been hollowed out by a dremel: legs, arms, heads, anything.
Repeat this step for the other leg. Once you’ve cracked, now you can play with your completely revamped and revitalized Red She-Hulk figure.
