Big Chief Captain Scarlet - an Xmas labor of love
Hi and season's greetings.
I wanted to show you the end result of the painstakingly laborious process I was forced to go through with my Big Chief Captain Scarlet figure. (I haven't found any other conversation devoted to this figure but, if I've missed one, please feel free to attach this to any appropriate existing thread.)
I bought my figure direct from Big Chief Studio and, like everyone else, had to wait over two years after making full payment.
When I finally received the figure, the packaging was superb and I could immediately see that it had such wonderful potential - but oh my lord, the quality issues!!!
I have had to do so much hard work to get it looking as you see it here. First, I had to reset and reglue all the magnets in the head, hairpieces and cap (the tiny magnet for the cap mike being particularly troublesome). I also re-sprayed his hair jet black (as the Chinese factory had given him very strange auburn streaks) and a much heavier 5 o'clock shadow.
Then came the jacket! After a broken popper (one of four which were crudely sewn and totally misaligned) plus a rubber pocket zipper panel which fell off upon first handling, I thought bugger it, I may as well completely redo the entire thing.
I unpicked the stitching at the front of the collar roll and removed all the poppers, then carefully pulled away the poorly glued strip of cheap, black leatherette before painstakingly removing the two sections (why two!?) of faux, silver zipper.
I bonded said silver zipper into one, continuous piece and then I also completely remade the grey pocket zipper using both cloth and metal. I also recut the tunic opening for this pocket as it was noticeably wider on the original puppet. The poppers (with the broken one luckily being able to be replaced by one in my stash) were then correctly realigned and carefully sewn back on.
Afterwards, I completely remade the front false zip, belt and gun holster from a thin, black leatherette as the originals were all poorly made, inaccurate and badly sized. This endeavour also gave me the opportunity to fashion a working prong for the belt buckle - as was always seen on the puppet uniforms.
Lastly, I also carefully applied black leatherette to the underside of the shoulder light units as this both protected the delicate wiring and obscured them as they were overly visible.
Turning my attention to the first of two other poorly executed details, I ran a red marker pen over all the exposed white seams of the boots, rendering them invisible. Then came the last major challenge; I had to reproduce and print off new spectrum symbols for each sleeve as those provided were not only poorly printed and unevenly cut out, but (badly) glued onto the sleeves with the Spectrum 'S' positioned horizontally instead of vertically!!
Finally, after days of laborious work - which, frankly, should never be necessary on a figure of this price - I now have a Captain Scarlet I can be proud of. However, I will almost certainly never purchase another Big Chief figure.
View attachment 403250 View attachment 403252
![Bag Luggage and bags Sleeve Creative arts Magenta]()
![White Sleeve Musical instrument accessory Bumper Red]()
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![Automotive design Wood Red Tints and shades Bumper]()
![Bumper Automotive exterior Wood Automotive design Carbon]()
![Hood Bumper Grey Automotive design Rectangle]()
![Leg Human body Textile Sleeve Glove]()
![Arm Sleeve Gesture Glove Finger]()
![Product Textile Sleeve Waist Red]()
![Sleeve Comfort Collar Rectangle Denim]()
![Joint Outerwear Human body Sleeve Comfort]()
(I'm sorry that some of these photos seem to have posted on their sides! I hope you can bear with me.)
I wanted to show you the end result of the painstakingly laborious process I was forced to go through with my Big Chief Captain Scarlet figure. (I haven't found any other conversation devoted to this figure but, if I've missed one, please feel free to attach this to any appropriate existing thread.)
I bought my figure direct from Big Chief Studio and, like everyone else, had to wait over two years after making full payment.
When I finally received the figure, the packaging was superb and I could immediately see that it had such wonderful potential - but oh my lord, the quality issues!!!
I have had to do so much hard work to get it looking as you see it here. First, I had to reset and reglue all the magnets in the head, hairpieces and cap (the tiny magnet for the cap mike being particularly troublesome). I also re-sprayed his hair jet black (as the Chinese factory had given him very strange auburn streaks) and a much heavier 5 o'clock shadow.
Then came the jacket! After a broken popper (one of four which were crudely sewn and totally misaligned) plus a rubber pocket zipper panel which fell off upon first handling, I thought bugger it, I may as well completely redo the entire thing.
I unpicked the stitching at the front of the collar roll and removed all the poppers, then carefully pulled away the poorly glued strip of cheap, black leatherette before painstakingly removing the two sections (why two!?) of faux, silver zipper.
I bonded said silver zipper into one, continuous piece and then I also completely remade the grey pocket zipper using both cloth and metal. I also recut the tunic opening for this pocket as it was noticeably wider on the original puppet. The poppers (with the broken one luckily being able to be replaced by one in my stash) were then correctly realigned and carefully sewn back on.
Afterwards, I completely remade the front false zip, belt and gun holster from a thin, black leatherette as the originals were all poorly made, inaccurate and badly sized. This endeavour also gave me the opportunity to fashion a working prong for the belt buckle - as was always seen on the puppet uniforms.
Lastly, I also carefully applied black leatherette to the underside of the shoulder light units as this both protected the delicate wiring and obscured them as they were overly visible.
Turning my attention to the first of two other poorly executed details, I ran a red marker pen over all the exposed white seams of the boots, rendering them invisible. Then came the last major challenge; I had to reproduce and print off new spectrum symbols for each sleeve as those provided were not only poorly printed and unevenly cut out, but (badly) glued onto the sleeves with the Spectrum 'S' positioned horizontally instead of vertically!!
Finally, after days of laborious work - which, frankly, should never be necessary on a figure of this price - I now have a Captain Scarlet I can be proud of. However, I will almost certainly never purchase another Big Chief figure.
View attachment 403250 View attachment 403252
(I'm sorry that some of these photos seem to have posted on their sides! I hope you can bear with me.)
