Today, Mr. FORD will have his arm reattached. Only a single limb was included with him, his right arm. The left arm is missing. Sadly, I don’t have a spare replacement left arm to provide him but at the very least this one limb will be returned securely and be confident to hold a pose. First, though. We need to understand the torso parts that will support this limb.

Externally, these halves appear to be in relatively good condition. The front of the torso is one of them most robust pieces on the old toy, so no damage is visible. That’s a good thing. Only the rear torso half possesses any outside observable damage. Mr. FORD has lost his dorsal crest, leaving fractures around the rectangular slot where it would have been mounted on his back, displaying jagged edges. This damage is visible on the rear torso half in the upper right of the image below. This is a frequently occurring issue with these old toys and more than half of all Kenner ALIENS today display this problem.

Turning the halves over reveals other problems – and these issues will directly affect how successful we will be in re-attaching the right arm to the toy. Inside these Kenner toys eight small, rounded pins can be found inside the shoulder sockets. These pins are necessary to prevent the arms from collapsing inside the torso when the arms are attached and tensioned. Importantly, these pins are delicate and are easily broken, especially as these Kenner ALIENs age and are becoming more brittle. There are four such pins inside each torso half with four pins present on each of the left and right shoulders.

The bad news here is five of the eight pins are missing, leaving only three pins intact. The good news is all three pins are fortunately on the right side of the torso. As three is the minimum number required to attach the arm successfully – and it is the right arm we are in possession – then we won’t need to use any additional improvisations to fit the arm in place. Less work is a good thing. Now that we know there’s no need to worry about the internal connection of the right arm, this will be a simple procedure. Had the pins been missing, this task would need extra steps but we won’t have to worry about those. The shortcut is appreciated.

Here’s the right arm along with its severed anchor. The anchor was retrieved from within the torso when it was disassembled and cleaned. It’s broken and useless, so it will be discarded (actually, put aside into a small box as a kind of trophy. Kind of. lol).  We’ll need to return the arm to the torso by other means. The highly desirable end goal is to have three main objectives. I want the arm to be fully functional, restore its original “spring loaded” ability akin to when it was new and also be capable of holding a pose. To do so we will need to fabricate our own DIY anchor.

I’ve done this many, many times before and don’t feel the need to document the entire process here. I’ve already documented a complete guide to achieve this task elsewhere on HIDEOUS PLASTIC. In which case, check out this link below:

Full documentation for fabricating new arm anchors.

Anyway, the arm is now fixed and ready to be returned to the old toy. Had two or more pins been missing inside the toy’s torso, the process of having the arm attached and not collapse inside the torso would be more involved. Luckily, we don’t have to worry about that problem with Mr. FORD.

Nonetheless, one day in the future, I will acquire a left arm for Mr. FORD and I will want to attach it under these conditions where all four pins on the left side are missing. Below is the link explaining how I would do so and fabricate an improvised plastic plate needed to keep the arm from collapsing into the toy’s shoulder socket:

Full documentation for fabricating a mounting plate to support an arm.

Now that the right arm is finished, it is ready for a test assembly. Let’s get that arm installed and check out if it stays in place. Yeah. That works. I’m happy with that result. I haven’t even screwed the torso halves together and this is exactly what I wanted. Mission accomplished. Well, so far anyway. We still have a little ways to go. I’ll tackle getting a tail attached. I do have a spare tail. Let’s use that!

THE BONUS TRACK.

• How many times I have performed this task and re-attached arms to old Kenner ALIEN toys? That’s an interesting question and I don’t know the answer. Nonetheless, here’s a photo of severed arm anchors, broken tail stubs, jaw activation springs and other customised improvisations I have recovered from inside the torsos of these four decades old action figures. This collection of debris and detritus commenced as an afterthought, many years ago but long after I first started repairing old Kenner ALIEN toys. Previously, I’d just discard and toss this junk into the bin; but at some undefined and unknown point in the past, I decided to retain this junk as proof of my experience. I can honestly say I have repaired a lot of these old toys, literally dozens of them. Which means yes, I do know what I’m talking about and I do know what I’m doing.

Part 1: Recovery.
Part 2: Dismantle & Clean.
Part 3: Working on the Head.
Part 4: Attaching the Arm.
Part 5: Attaching the Tail.
Part 6: Replacing a Leg.
Part 7: Reattaching the Dorsal Quads.
Part 8: Final Assembly.