Fisher-Price Adventure People: Removing and Swapping Heads




Beginning their run in the mid 1970s, the Fisher-Price Adventure People were some of the earliest 3.75" action figures on the market.  In fact, they were used as the base figure for many of the prototypes for the Star Wars action figure line.  Adventure People were extremely well constructed compared to other 3.75" action figures that hit the scene shortly after.  In fact, it was much less likely that their heads would snap off (or that they would lose a limb) when compared to many of their counterparts.  As a result, there are a lot of adventure people still around today.

There were around 80 different figures in the line, but the exact number depends on what you count as a "different figure."  Quite a few of the figures used the same pieces and many had only slight variations from one figure to the next.  As a result, many collectors have customized figures to expand the number of characters available.  One of the easiest ways to begin your custom is simply to swap heads from one Adventure People figure to another!


Today, I removed the head from a damaged diver figure and put it on a daredevil skydiver body.  The process for swapping heads is relatively simple.  Once you have two Adventure People with heads that are connected to the torso with a ball at the bottom of the neck (which is how most of them are connected), all you have to do is heat them up and pull the heads out.  I started by microwaving a cup of water for about two minutes.  Then I soaked the daredevil skydiver in the water for about a minute before pulling the head out of the torso.  *It's important that you don't stretch the neck out at this stage as the plastic will be hot and it's pretty easy to stretch the necks.*  I repeated this process with the diver.  Once I had the heads separated from the bodies, I heated up the water for a third time and soaked the head and body that I wanted to use for my custom figure for about another minute so that all of the plastic would be malleable for the final attachment.  It takes a bit of force to get the head into the neck, but these figures are sturdy and it didn't feel like it was at all likely to break the body or the neck ball.


The end result is a new character in my Adventure People community with almost no work on my part!  It's really cool to have a new Adventure People figure so many years after Fisher-Price stopped making them.  I'm looking forward to swapping out more heads and doing some painting on the figures as well to bring several more characters from my imagination into reality.



Have you customized any action figures?  If so, how did they turn out?  Tell me below in the comments!

Also, if you collect toys, you should know about Toylanta, the best toy show in the Southeastern United States held annually in Georgia.  Visit Toylanta.com for more information.


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