Rescuing Hot Toys True Type knee joint

Some small problems with Hot Toys True Type body are some joints are easily breakable. Most common are the wrist joints and knee joints. The problem is caused where the screw is tightly fixed to the joints, since it is tightly screwed whenever you move the joint it causes tension on the plastic and tear.

When my HT muscular body's knee joint broke I was devastated, since HT muscular body are hard to come by and expensive! I tried to see if Hot Toys was able to replace just the knee joint, as it is a small piece, but they weren't able to do it without proper receipt. Since the muscular body was purchased individually off eBay, Hot Toys weren't obliged to replace anything for me.

I did temporarily solve this by using glue, but after a few movements the joint broke again.

Trying to figure how to fix this problem I remember Barrack Sergeant bodies were similar to Hot Toys ones. I originally purchased a few BS bodies since I thought they were very similar to Hot Toys. As you can see from the picture below, the one on the left is Barrack Sergeant and the one on right is Hot Toys.




First thing to do was to remove the Hot Toys knee joint. The best method I found s to use two small screwdrivers and simultaneously push out the joint plug. Make sure to clamp onto the leg first. See the picture below to see where to push the joint plug.



Having done that is time to remove the Barrack Sergeant knee joint, this is more tricky and must take care in doing so. The only way to remove it is to saw on the thigh where the plastic is sealed together and then pry it out. It's quite easy to do but you need to take time and care. This applies to the calf area for the lower knee joint plug.

Now that you have the Barrack Sergeant and Hot Toys joints all you have to do is use the BS joint and replace it with the HT joint plugs. Be aware that the top and bottom plugs are different size but with fit on the BS joint accordly.

You may find it difficult to remove the screw on the HT joint plug, since the screw is fasten onto the plastic. What I did was cut the plastic out as shown in the picture below on the left and push the screw out.




The end result is very good, having fixed two True Type bodies and it seems the Barrack Sergeant joints are more robust than the HT ones. Though it's a shame I had to waste two good BS bodies. Hopefully Hot Toys can rectify this small problem.

(Barrack Sergeant knee joint on the left and HT on the right)

(Combo of HT and BS)

(End result)