Sweetums eyelids closeable?

[Farron]

Did not get into getting any of the Palisades figures at the time of release and only started looking into them more recently, and one that I found on ebay was of Sweetums. Got him all sealed and new in the box, but supposedly his eyelids are meant to be closable? At least accoring to a few reviews I've seen but try as I might I just can't seem to pull them down.

The right eyelid (his left) comes down a bit, but it can't come all the way down as it is attached to the other and that wont budge at all.

Anyone else had experience with this and was able to somehow fix it? Just a bummer when you pay around $70US on a brand new unopened figure and I'm finding that it isn't working the way it seems it should.

 

[j3h]

as silly as this sounds, put the figure in the freezer for like 20 minutes, the gently try to work the stuck point of articulation while it's still cold. This is a pretty standard trick for freeing up stuck joints.

 

[Farron]

Thanks, tried that after you said (even for longer). Was so hopeful it would be the solution, but something in the head is holding his eyelids down tight.

Makes me think there was an earlier or later release that didn't have movable eyelids and it isn't as though it was a selling point as I can't find any mention of it on the box but just on a few reviews around the Internet.

 

[Hubert]

Yeah, on my Sweetums the right eye only comes down a tiny bit, but can't go down more because the other eye is held in place. When you try to pull it down it seems like it isn't really a joint and that if you were able to pull the eyelids down, I think the eyelids would completely break off.

 

[Farron]

^ yeah, same. I have been pulling so hard, just hoping it would give a little. Have already scratched some of the paint off behind his eyelash. Am actually surprised a little I haven't ripped his eyelid off totally.

 

[Muppetboy09]

My sweetums figure actually DOES close his eyelids. They close a little more than half way, and I didn't have any trouble getting them closed.

 

[Hubert]

My sweetums figure actually DOES close his eyelids. They close a little more than half way, and I didn't have any trouble getting them closed.

Hmm, that's kind of odd that some Sweetums figures have eyes that can close easily, and others stay in place. I wonder if some of the original Sweetums had closable eyelids, but then for some reason they quit making his eyelids able to move?

 

[j3h]

I wonder if the figures were assembled with wet paint on the eylids which fused some of them? Or if it's the plastic breaking down over time and becoming very sticky at a point of articulation that's difficult to begin with?

just curious...Those of you who have stuck eyelids...did you get Sweetums when he was first released or as a collector decently afterwards?

 

[Reevz1977]

My Sweetums eyelids close pretty much all the way down but, if I really correctly, when I first got the figure at the time of his initial release, it did take some tugging the first few times.

 

[Dearth]

I think the wet paint theory is the correct one here. I can only recall one Muppet figure that has a sculpt variant (some of my regular Fozzies have their mouths open wider than others) but for the most part the molding process got nailed down and then stayed the same.

My Sweetums is fine, but I've had several Animal figures that I've disassembled/customized, and I've seen frozen Animal eyelids before. Unfortunately, even if you get it pulled free, the extra paint on one half and missing paint on the other will still make a friction point.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from freezing it, you might want to dip the head in warm water for a few minutes to make the plastic more pliable.

Alex