Both of Mr. Tendril’s legs exhibit common conditions often found on the old 1979 Kenner Products ALIEN action figure. Of the two, looseness is extremely frequent and many of these old toys have this problem. As an issue, it can be so pronounced a figure with loosened hip joints will not be able to stand on its own. It will risk falling flat on its face without being propped up against a wall or using other means of supporting it. Fortunately, it’s an easy fix.

The other common problem these figures can suffer is the spindles where the leg attaches at the hip can be damaged, or completely broken. These fractures are not as frequently occurring but if a spindle is severely damaged it will afford absolutely zero support for the figure and the leg will detach and fall off. Fortunately, this issue doesn’t occur as frequently as loose legs – but it’s common enough to be a problem for many figures as the aging styrene has become brittle and easily snaps when force is applied to it.

I’ll be working on how to reconstruct the right leg’s broken spindle in the next installment but for now, let’s address the loosely swiveling left leg and fit it in place with confidence. This repair is as easy as it gets and delivers maximum success with almost no effort.

We’ll need additional material for this little fix, though, and it’s easy to come by. This stuff (below) is called plumber’s sealing tape. It’s also known as teflon tape and it’s brilliant! Plumbers use it to prevent pipes from leaking by winding a length of it around the thread before connecting pipes together. It’s soft, pliable, free of any adhesive, easy to use and costs around $2 per spool. It’s cheap, effective and also perfect for fixing loose ALIEN legs.  What’s more, it’s readily available from the plumbing section in any hardware store.

This stuff is too easy to use. Just wrap a single winding of it around the leg’s spindle and cut it free. Yep. Done. That’s it – that’s all you need to fix the looseness in the joint.

Next, it’s a good idea to test the binding. A single winding should be adequate but for extremely loose and worn limbs with a lot of play in them, you may need to add another turn of the tape.

To test is easy. Assemble the torso halves with the leg in place and swivel it around. If the leg sits confidently in place and no longer rotates freely, then the job is done. You don’t even need to screw the halves together to test, just hold the torso halves firmly in one hand and rotate the leg with the other.

That’s it. This leg will no longer be loose. If both legs on this figure had been in a loose condition like this, I’d simply repeat as necessary. Assembling the figure will now result in it standing without toppling (if both legs were fixed this way). It doesn’t get any easier! Such a rewarding result for nothing more complex than winding a piece of tape around the spindle. Too awesome. I love this fix so much.

There’s an added benefit to lining the spindle with the sealing tape, the smooth, soft material acts as a dry lubricant between the surfaces of the hip and spindle thus assisting in reducing further unwanted wear on the joint. So there’s that, as well.

Next up we’ll be looking at getting the right leg re-attached to the figure. This exercise will be a little more involved in order to overcome what appears to be fatally irreparable damage to the leg but it is still very straight forward and the results will be completely worth it. In order to repair the damage I’ll need a few additional materials and parts.

One of which will be an old DVD case. Old DVD cases are essential and versatile items in your 1979 Kenner ALIEN repair kit. Next up, we’ll explore how and why this is true.

-Windebieste.

Part 1: Introduction.
Part 2: Assessment and Evaluation(1 of 2).
Part 3: Assessment and Evaluation (2 of 2).
Part 4: Disassembly and Cleaning.
Part 5: Loose Hip Joint Repair.
Part 6: Broken/Destroyed Hip Joint Repair (1 of 2).
Part 7: Broken/Destroyed Hip Joint Repair (2 of 2).
Part 8: Severed Arm Repair.
Part 9: Damaged Shoulder Repair.
Part 10: Improvised Replacement Arm.
Part 11: Final Assembly.