Wanted to make a thread about this. To catalogue all of the information about the fix as I went, in case others had the same issue, and at the end share how I made a Nisan cross pendant for Elly 
Of course, this is all my own experience and your Bart might not have exactly similar circumstances as mine. There could be things besides the major issue here that also might not apply to anyone elseâs Bart, so this is just a thread of possible issues to keep an eye out for as well as a fix in case you do end up ripping your Bartâs arm off as well.
So first off, I ended up ripping Bartâs arm off. I thought I was twisting his shoulder ball joint slowly in its socket, but it turns out that armâs joint was so incredibly stiff that what was turning was not the joint, the joint was staying completely still. I was ripping his arm off and had no idea.
Given how his sleeves are in the way of seeing the joint clearly, I thoughtthe slow movement was the ball moving, a bit tightly, but moving. Then I went to move the arm back down and realized it was getting looser and looser⌠and then it fell off because the middle of the joint, ball on one end, hinge on the other, was what was actually twisting.
So I essentially ripped his arm off without even knowing until it was too late.
Worth noting: Bartâs shoulders have ball/hinge joints and in the hinge end it has âclicksâ, which makes that aspect hard to move as well. So if your ball joint is stiff like mine keep in mind that the hinge, *by design,*is also stiff. Stiff in between each click, that is.
Here are the measurements for this ball joint, ball and hinge (hinge, after removal from shoulder):
cough i edited that image before i wrote this, weâre talking about the replacement joint right now.
This is our replacement joint:
G.I. Joe Classified Baroness #19 neck joint
This is how it compares with Bartâs joint, visually. Worth noting, Bartâs deltoid here is kind of covering the bottom of the hinge end of his joint. Use the above images for measurements.
The hinge is wider in this direction here and the ball joint is a bit big, but its so close that it just needs a bit of cutting/sanding down.
If you canât find this specific joint, just look for one with similar dimensions. Search online, especially places like ebay, for âfodderâ parts. If they donât have a good image of the exact dimensions of one that looks promising, ask them. Its worth a shot.
For this one specifically, a hinge on one end and a ball on the other, I noticed theyâre hard to find in general. Try searching for neck joint fodder specifically.
[HR][/HR]
Cut the new joint out of the neck piece. Thereâs a âpegâ that the hinge is on inside of the neck piece, cut through it on either end.
Let it sit in very hot water for a bit beforehand so that the plastic is more giving. DONâT actively boil your pieces, but you can put them in just off the boil water.
This one was super easy to cut out, the plastic was very smooth to cut through.
Do the same with the broken joint in Bartâs deltoid. Soak the top of the arm in hot water, this is especially crucial to do for his parts because his plastic is much stiffer. Now pull back the plastic of his deltoid on either side of the hinge so that you can get your knife in there. If you canât pull it back enough and its still pretty stiff then let it soak in the hot water longer. You should be able to bend back his âmusclesâ essentially.
Cut it the same way as the neck piece, except focus your blade as best you can toward the center when you cut on either side. We want as much of that middle âpegâ left on either side inside as we can get, but we need to cut a chunk of it out so that we can get the old broken piece out and the new replacement piece in.
Donât worry about severely bending Bartâs plastic on either side of the hinge. Keep it warm/hot while youâre working, resoak if you need, and when youâre done bend his muscles back into place and hold it there, allowing the deltoid to cool. The piece should retain its original shape and become hard and stiff again.
In my experience, this was much, MUCH harder than cutting out the replacement joint. The Bring Arts are made of a much stiffer plastic than the G.I. Joe figures.
Take your time and BE SAFE. Always make sure youâre holding the pieces and the knife in a way that feels comfortable and secure. If anything feels iffy about your hold then change it, do not continue to cut in a way thatâll put your hands (or otherwise) in danger.
(^ to be clear, the 2nd image there is the cut out broken hinge and the cut out replacement hinge.)
Here is the two pieces on top of one another so you can see the difference in the hingeâs hole. Donât worry about this, it practically makes no difference in the end that the replacement partâs hole is bigger.
Hereâs what my Bartâs arm looked like after cutting it out:
We tried. lmao
Now shape up the new joint. Its ball is too big and the width of the hinge end is too thick. I used the hobby knife to sheer off plastic on the hinge end, little at a time, and for the ball end I used both sandpaper and a crappy dremel. The dremel was the most help here, just make sure youâre sanding it evenly. Take off a little at a time and constantly check that youâre not taking off too much on the âequatorâ, so to speak. Only just enough to get it in the socket without much force.
(^ old broken hinge on the left, new shaped up hinge on the right. sorry, i dont have a comparison of the sanded down ball, but you can imagine. its similar in size now.)
As for the broken ball joint still stuck in Bartâs socket, drill a thin hole in the dead center and, especially if itâs as hard to get out as mine was, screw one of these picture hooks into the hole youâve made, stick an ice pick or screwdriver perpendicular through its loop, grab it like youâre pulling a cork out of a wine bottle, and yank.
This old ball can be left on the picture hook and used in the future if you need a ball joint. Its essentially been âpinnedâ now. You could cut off the hook/loop end and, for example, if you have another hinge ring you can drill a hole in the ring if its thick enough and superglue the cut end of the picture hook into it, making a makeshift joint thatâs incredibly sturdy.
Or just find a way to use it for something as it is now, with the loop being your ring end lol
!! worth noting !!
When I went to pull out his ball joint I soaked his upper half in hot water to make it easier, but I recommend not doing this unless you cant get it out with that method listed above. I say this because after I did this I found I couldnât get his good arm back in its socket. Then later found out I couldnât get his head peg back in his neck. Iâm convinced it was the hot water in this case that caused the sockets of his neck and shoulders to close up some after cooling. So I had to wear down the ball joint(s!!) further and file open the neck a bit.
DONâT SOAK HIS UPPER HALF. (that being said- and this is related to the lower half of this post- when I soaked Ellyâs upper half the same way I did not have this happen; that is, her arms didnt get stiffer {they were still in their sockets} nor did it become impossible to get her head back on her neck.)
so yeah, just a warning and fyi there.
Now you can resoak Bartâs arm to get it flexible again and stick the new joint inside the deltoid. Then once again squeeze either side of the deltoidâs bent plastic back together and hold til it cools down and rehardens. Thatâs it, the joint should be solidly held in there by friction and the slight center âpegâ left on either side alone. It wonât have the clicks, of course, but itâll be a working joint again.
If worse comes to worse you can give him a literal peg through the deltoid, through the open center of the hingeâs ring, and out the other end. Much like the peg in Bartâs foot. Itâll be largely masked by his sleeve, so donât worry about it. Same goes for the new joint not matching his skin tone here. Like if you find a joint thatâs black, if it fits size-wise, go for it, itâll be hidden by his sleeve.
If you ended up sanding off too much from the ball end, or if the replacement joint you got for it was slightly too small, dont fret- there are ways of tightening joints. I know some people use clear acrylic, others use nailpolish top/basecoat, and others recommend simply dipping the ball in floor polish. Itâll create a layer around the ball making it slightly thicker with each coat.
And voila! Arm back in business.
[HR][/HR]
And now- surprise! Hereâs how to make a Nisan pendant :3
Using one of these:
WWE Elite 96 Hulk Hogan necklace
(^ sorry, I donât have an image of it fully unmodded; I got too excited and forgot that part. This is an image of it both cut in the back, shortened, and shaped to Ellyâs torso- more on that later)
And either a small red bead or a rhinestone. I recommend a rhinestone. Even though mine here is a little big for the cross, its juuuston the verge of being too big, so it still works. We are working at such a small scale anyway.
Here I salvaged a red rhinestone from an old Hello Kitty necklace pendant Iâve had since I was little; Iâd wear it if it wasnât already missing other pink rhinestonesâŚso I might as well make use of it. I can always replace those some other time.
I cut the long end of the cross at its base, cut that piece shorter, and glued it back on, creating our even cross shape.
Now before I altered it at all it was both too long and stuck out at an odd angle on the body, hovering above Ellyâs torso, which I donât have a pic of.
So I measured, cut the back, and temporarily glued it before cutting off the excess to make sure it was the right length. When I was sure of the right length I cut off the excess and glued it more securely.
Then- and this is the last thing I didnât get pics of- I used that same hot water soak method I used with Bart to shape the necklace to Ellyâs torso so it wouldnât be sticking off at an odd angle away from her body.
I pushed the necklace to her torso and at the back of her neck/collar and then took a wire tie (as in one of those with a wire in it) and wound it around her torso, holding that necklace in place where I wanted it. Then I soaked her upper half for only a few seconds. We only need to do it just enough to get that thin, flexible plastic of the necklace hot. Then take Elly out, leaving the wire tie on, and let her cool. Take the tie off and it should be now shaped exactly how you want it!
I dug out the center of the front of the cross by just a little so that the cone end of the rhinestone had somewhere to sit. Its so tiny that its really not much and idk how much it helped, so whatever. Then I glued the rhinestone on and clamped it.
In this picture you can see how itâs shaped to Ellyâs torso, even now while I hold it.
(the bandage was for me stabbing myself trying to get Bartâs ball joint outta his torso. again, **be careful.**work smarter, not harder)
And voila!! Beautiful~
Okay, thatâs that for now. If I have anything more figure related to share, either fixing or modding, thatâs more extensive than what I share over on Bluesky, Iâll make a new thread for that.