Invisible Fozzie, and a question for customisers/repairers

[Hartley]

Hi all,

I've just bought an Invisible Spray Fozzie on eBay for a bargain price, and I'm delighted with him, he's just beautiful. The only snag is one of his magnets has been installed the wrong way up, so his hat only stays on when it's upside down. To be honest I'm not that bothered (I'm certainly not going to ask for a refund or anything), for a couple of reasons - first, I like to think it's quite typical of Fozzie, to have a hat that can only be worn upside down. Second, it looks quite cool upside down, like a sailor's hat or something. Best of all though, there's hours of fun to be had holding it in place the right way up, then letting go, and watching it fly off like Stan or Ollie's hat when they get poked in the eye or smell something

It has got me wondering though, is it fixable? Would it be possible to get one of the magnets out, then glue it back in place the right way round? Has anyone ever tried anything like this? I imagine it would be harder than popping a head or an arm off as the magnets are glued in. Could it be done, or would I end up wrecking Fozzie or his hat?

Thanks all,

Phil

 

[Hubert]

I have that on a couple of my figures too. I think my Vacation Fozzie is like that, and also my Adenture Kermit. I've never tried to fix those issues, I was afraid that I'd mess up the head. I would imagine that it could be done, but I'd think that it would be hard to get it out in a way that doesn't destroy the head. Not that this helps or anything...

 

[Hartley]

Actually it does help - I think unless loads of people had replied saying "oh it's dead easy, they just pop right out" I'd be very unlikely to risk trying it!

I wonder if I could get a scientist to reverse the polarity of Fozzie's hat... I bet that's a sentence that's never been spoken before!

 

[Dearth]

I've performed magnet flops on a couple of my Palisades figures. You just have to cut the magnet out of one or the other. I usually cut it out of the hat. Then put it back in the other way, and sparingly glue the piece cut from the hat back into place. (You don't want to accidentally glue the hat onto the head.)

I've also inserted magnets into figures that did not already have them. For my custom Sgt. Link, I used the hat of a Patrol Bear Fozzie and added a small craft magnet inside Link's head. It's a matter of cutting out a cone and lopping off the point of the cone to leave room for the magnet.

If you forget which way the magnet is supposed to go, just use the other magnet to test the attraction before you glue it into place.

Alex

 

[Hartley]

Just a quick update - I managed to get another Invisible Fozzie on eBay for next to nothing, and would you believe it, he had an upside down hat too! This must have been a common problem. So as I now had two, I decided to try to fix one. It was actually easier than I expected, I used a sharp knife to prise out the plug holding the magnet in the hat, flipped the magnet over and pressed the plug back in.

Thanks for your advice Alex, sorry I didn't acknowledge it at the time, but it was a great help.

 

[Dearth]

Two of them with repelling magnets? That IS bad luck.

But once you had two of them, there might have been an even easier fix.

Did you try swapping their hats first? It's possible that one Fozzie was north-up with a north-down hat, and the other was south-up with a south-down hat. You had a 50/50 chance that simply giving one hat to the other Fozzie would have fixed it with no 'surgery' necessary.

If you didn't try it before, check now. If the unaltered hat will go on the other Fozzie, bingo, you've got at least one pristine factory-made figure. Then you can customize the other one. Flip his magnet back over so his hat works, too, and then maybe do something else with him. I used some mild solvent to take the brown fur paint off his hands and made a totally-invisible pre-little-bear's-room custom Fozzie.

Or, come to think of it, I've only got one hat to loan between my two Fozzies, so send me the other hat, LOL!

Anyway, glad to hear that you took the plunge into fixing your figures. It's a scary first step but can be very rewarding.

Alex

 

[Hartley]

Hi Alex,

Yes I did try swapping the hats over initially, but no luck sadly. But fortunately my hat repairs have done no damage; unless you look really closely you can't even tell that I've done anything.

I love the idea of making a fully invisible pre-bathroom Fozzie, that's brilliant! Thanks for the suggestion, I never even thought of it.

As for the other hat... well, I am missing Scooter's drinks holder - of all the figures I've got, it's the only accessory I'm missing. So if you happen to have a spare one I'd be happy to swap you a hat?

Phil