Hot Toys MMS 375 The Force Awakens Ep VII Chewbacca - Custom Modifications

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Lets see if we can get this thread going...

Apologies for the length of the intro before you get to what you came for, but I think there are a few bases that need to be covered first.

As you all know by now, the Hot Toys' effort with TFA Chewie has left all but the most indifferent collectors of these high end figures almost singularly underwhelmed if not openly angry at what we received, particularly since ANH Chewie set the bar quite high. But bar set high or not, this time around, the HT product came nowhere near the quality of product we have come to expect from the company.

So, enter our members with their own personal brand of remedies.

With the cooperation of our community, and if we can generate the interest, what we hope to do with this thread is to compile the steps and techniques - along with some of the finer points - that members have come up with to take this figure from major disappointment to as close to the figure we believe we were promised as possible.

Please feel free to add to the discussion with ideas and examples of your own, as well as ask questions of the masters whose work we will attempt to feature if/when we need to try to drill down into the details a bit more.

Clearly, this thread will a valuable resource only to the degree to which we can get the members who developed these mods to share and participate with some enthusiasm in order to try to help the rest of us... so we thank them all in advance.

As we begin this endeavor, please keep in mind a few things that are probably obvious, but are important nonetheless...

We are attempting some in depth mods on Chewie. We have all seen various mods that members have attempted in the past. They have ranged from minor, to moderate, to extreme. I think we will all agree that many of the mods described here will likely favor the upper end of this scale. So, for this reason, anyone who is considering taking on one or more of the mods we hope to describe below needs to perform their own Cost/Benefit analysis regarding what you're willing to try, what you are willing to risk, and what you hope to achieve.

No one here wants you to "wreck" your Chewie. So as you read through all of the mod steps before you begin, if you're feeling that anything is out of your depth, you might want to stop before you start and dig out Chewie's comb and some pomade instead and see what you can live with with those tools instead.

Everyone who paid for this piece deserves a better figure than we got. Let see if we can make that happen...
 
So here we go!

Let begin with the incredible job Matrix did

Still a WIP but getting there... IMG_2923.JPGIMG_2924.JPGIMG_2925.JPG

You really need to have this in hand, but here's what i did..
1.Remove neck plug and hinged jaw...both are held in place with glue but with a wee drop of boiling water pop out easy
2.Remove the upper mouth plate...again it's glued but can be removed easily enough
3.Sand down the top of the mouth plate so it sits further up
4.Cut in around the inside of fur/suit on the mouth plate so it doesn't bunch up when gluing it back in place
5.Sand down the plug on the lower jaw and realign it into place
6.Sand down the inside of the neck plug so that the mouth has more movement
Finally when it's all back together break out the hair gel and get styling:)

:duff..before and after..IMG_2926.JPG

In a PM, Matrix later added this comment:

The only advise i can give is that when you're going ahead with the mouth/jaw mod, open and dismantle the head and work from the inside so that if you make a mistake it can be easily hidden..
 
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Also since the copy and pasted pics only show as attachments, I'll try to re-save and re-attach so that we can see the examples with the text when possible.
 
I followed Matrix's tutorial after I wasn't satisfied with just simple futzing.

Here was mine right out of the box as we have all seen him.



And after a fair amount of futzing. That distance between the upper lip and nose just can't be overlooked.





So I took it to the next step and removed the neck plug and hinged jaw to get at the upper mouth plate to remove a lot of the hair above the lip.
After removing the neck plug the jaw can open really wide. Its important to take this into consideration when placing the neck plug back in at the end because a fair amount of it needs to be cut away for the hinged jaw to work better in my opinion. Right out of the box, I think the hinged jaw is lackluster.





The top plate of the mouth can be removed rather easily. Mine did have some of the hair caught in the glue but cutting the hair loose with some scissors frees it up. Then its just a matter of trimming the hair to your liking and getting rid of the parts that are tucked up underneath the top plate.



Once I got it to where I liked it I glued the top plate back in place with superglue. I also shaved a little off the back part of the top plate to help with clearance of the hinged jaw.

Then with the neck joint I cut a big section out of it so the arm of the articulated jaw can move more freely.



Then all back together before futzing and color adjustment.
And after the first round of futzing and coloring.







And the jaw works much better.

 
Like others, I had no idea the figure was so bad looking. I didn't feel the need to buy a 2nd Chewie so I hadn't really followed this one.

That head is just a huge fail... awesome you guys broke out the elbow grease and got it sorted out.
 
I used those little scissors from a small Swiss Army knife. I did not heat anything up. It seems the plastic they used on this Chewie is really soft. That could be part of what is warping the look in the upper lip area. The the fur is easy to cut of course, but it's also a bit of a mine field with black thread and chunks of glue and netting that the fur is attached too.



This one might have a bit more potential than the ANH figure. I'm no customizer but was able to do a mod, though it's obviously do so at your own risk--it's not like the head can even be purchased parted out. Half the time I was thinking, this isn't so bad, and the other half it was, is this gonna be ****ed?

When the upper lip is adjusted I think he does have a bit more resemblance to Chewie and less Harry from Harry and the Henderson's than the ANH Chewie.

3fbcf4f064e31f906d56c504da5cadea.jpg

Do you cut more than the fur? The way mattman made it sound is that there was just access fur he kinda took off, but if Im understanding you right you also need to cut the fabric and etc? It looks great though, did you paint the muzzle area with the black, or is that underneath the fur?

Transferred from the main thread....
 
From these and other mods i have seen. It seems to me that its not the distance between the nose and the lip that is the problem. It's the amount of hair Int hat small area. Just my opinion.
 
Isn't that the same issue?

Do you cut more than the fur? The way mattman made it sound is that there was just access fur he kinda took off, but if Im understanding you right you also need to cut the fabric and etc? It looks great though, did you paint the muzzle area with the black, or is that underneath the fur?

I was trying to add some mustache and added some black with a sharpie but then overdid it and removed most of it with some isopropyl alcohol. So you're seeing what's left there.

I believe the fur is attached with a mesh netting and curled into itself so to me it seemed like I was cutting the fur plus the mesh that holds it. I may try another Chewie and will post pics of the process if I do. I think I could do a better job based on what I learned the first time.

One thing to be really careful of for any one modding, and I didn't realize it until afterward is that the incisors are really thin and fragile and clamping the mouth together I basically smushed them flat. So don't clamp the mouth together.

I really wish Hot Toys just provided mouth pieces as a closed mouth Chewie would be awesome. At this point my goal is to darken a TFA head a bit to use as an alternate head or main head for the ANH body--only have space for one Chewie I think.
 
Just finished modding my Chewie!! Have to futz it a bit more, but im so happy with the result!

Thank you guys for the tutorial! And sorry for the cappy pictures

48d437716484b4692ce54a8a5d1fb32b.jpg
7d60dc0844dbe24ff8ef299dd0cdf55e.jpg
146363a1226b63e3c215aa2e1b02e29b.jpg



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Thank you so much guys! Really happy that u liked it and couldnt do it without your help! Matrix saved our figure lol.


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Hi Qui Gon! Ive stolen it from my wife and used it. But the truth is that i used a little scissor more than this. I cut the parts and then used it just to make a better finishing. :)
5bd07a9fd2258b034a420854dcdbfcbc.jpg



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