One of the survivors from my childhood collection is my large-size Stormtrooper. I have some great memories of playing with him out at my mother's family's farm, especially building a parachute for him out of a handkerchief and throwing him as high up in the air as I could...
So imagine my shock and dismay when I noticed this crazy problem with his hand. I'd never broken the figure, so this wasn't the remnants of an ancient repair... it apparently just happened spontaneously over the 30+ years I've had the toy. I got some sage advice from "Sharp", a senior member on Rebelscum.com, who wrote:
"That's almost certainly a plastic reaction going on there. I'm 99% sure.
While I don't know the specific chemistry involved, some of the Kenner
softer plastic (hands, bandoliers, etc.) reacted over much time with the
harder plastics of the types often seen on the 12" figures. I've seen
this on a hundred Stormtroopers and my share of Jawas and Chewies with
their bandoliers fused or melted to the body in places where they've
been touching for years. This isn't hard to imagine as a great many of
the loose examples out there have been sitting absolutely immobile in
boxes in attics and such. I've seen MISB 12" Stormtroopers with this
type of reaction as well as many whose hands simply fall off the arms.
As far as I know, this is no way to keep this from occurring. Needless
to say, the folks at Kenner developing these toys were not thinking
about the condition of these toys in 30+ years time.
Just another idiosyncrasy that makes these toys so charming!"
Bizarre, eh? Welcome to the world of plastic chemistry ;-) Anyway, I wanted to post this story as a resource to others who might be searching the Internet for an explanation for this very mysterious issue.
Keywords: plastic reaction, plastic melding, plastic melting, 12" Jawa, 12" Chewbacca
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