ebay member: avengers1969
Q. hi my question is,your flock repair kits might be great, but you do not mention you need a electric static machine to get the hairs standing up,i have a commander head that has a bald spot the size of a pencile eraser,on the top of his head ,the head would be mint if it did not have that bald spot, before i buy any flock kits can i send the head to you for spot repair and this way i can decide by the repair job if this is for me,i will pay you, thanks nelson
ZWMC_SALES:
A. Hello. Great question!
Let me give you a quick run down of how this works. I take four mint heads to our restoration friend with the amounts of natural un-dyed, un-treated (for electro-static process), un-mixed in the vintage fiber size of nylon and rayon. He then matches the flock to my four vintage heads.
On our previous sales runs on ebay I added mix packets (small packets of solid yellow, solid white, and solid brown) These were used to lighten or darken the base vintage color mixes.
Right now everything is on hold because of backorders and our restoration guy is away on his own projects, but many have emailed our site asking for just the flock in the base vintage colors without the glue or mix packets, so I posted a few here (ebay) and the rest are though our website for our repeat buyers until the restorer gets back.
He restores vintage figures to original spec. for many private collectors and re-sellers. He doesn’t just slap some cheap fuzz on for 10 bucks and move on to the next. He’ll restore your head to it’s original state and you’ll be able to send it off to be graded. For this he normally charges by the hour and those that need his service already know where to find him. As per our deal I cannot mention his name etc. because this would hurt his business. You could go to our website (which was removed from our listing per ebay) give me your email and I will pass it along to him and then it’ll be up to him whether he restores your figure.
On our site I clearly post “what” you will need to do to repair GI JOE correctly.
It is also well known by collectors what “needs” to be done. This is not for everyone and I have spent hour’s online helping buyers in their repair efforts. Most are extremely excited once they do an electro-static repair for the first time. Yes, I would recommend, electro-static method, but I have to say, I have seen small manual repairs painstakingly done that are perfect. This is why I add the disclaimer in our listing about artistic ability. The heads you see in the listing have been done by me, but I just slap on what I buy from the Restoration person. He uses the dye recipe passed along to him from a sample maker at H*****(Pawtucket based toy company name removed for legal) and note that recipe changed many times through the 70’s. so did the types of fiber. The colors I chose were from 1969/70 first run hair color. The blonde was very light sandy, the brown was dark and rich, the red was a deep coral orange (like the red head in the vintage View Master reels) Later it was more orange, the blonde was darker and ashen, the brown became lighter with more neon yellow in it.
Hey if you want I can fill in your figs bald spot. Email me from the site, but what I’m doing is giving collectors the fishing pole so they can catch their own fish. The pros that reflock for a living (and do a fine job-I’ve used them many times in the past and well worth the money they charge) They give you the fish and you have to keep going back for more. Make no mistake there is a learning curve to this.
I figure 80% don’t want to try this. 19% would like to, but are on the fence, 1% have been searching and waiting for the chance to do this and that’s what we after in this market.
Once you’ve done this successfully you’ll be hooked on it. This also means that most will never buy again after a few times (they'll set out to find their own supply- I would), but I live in the real world and this is not the way to make a killing on ebay. It’s just a way to give options, and for collectors to use their talents. We can make a little change ($) in the process. I do mean change. You can lose you shirt buying flock.
Any information given is either through experience or public knowledge posted on the web. The only trick is the dye/treatment/mix recipes which I don’t even know, so far... and I’ve watched him pinch and dab dye into vats and chemicals of who knows what.
From what I’ve seen so far many of our buyers have had great results once they put the time in to understand this whole concepts.
My question to you is are you the type to put the time in and learn all this?
Electro-static flocking is the easy part. Anyone can go to a supplier and guess-timate some colors and flock a head. We’ve all tried it and it’s a long road with lots of road blocks and cost.
Hundreds for flock (which will be wrong) thousands for devices (which will be wrong)!
With this instead of thousands of dollars of mistakes until you learn it- you pay a small amount and learn it. I know there will be those that say, "Oh you can buy that for this and this for that", but in the long run it’ll be wrong and they are wrong.
I know! I’ve done it all until I met this quiet guy at a show in Pawtucket, RI and watched a figure that he reflocked for a client sell for $$$$ as a vintage perfect MIB piece and it was combed through by experts and appraisers and no one knew. Do I condone this practice. No, but who am I to say what others should do on that?
Am I saying you’ll do as good Your first try? No, but what’s better? Being unhappy with a balding Joe or sending him out only to be kind of happy, but he doesn’t look like the rest of your collection (as good as those reflocks are)??? I’m not knocking any reflockers hard earned talented work. Collectors should have options is all I say.
In the end I see this as sort of a rhetorical question you have for me- Like put your money where your mouth is- So I’ll take you up on that offer to patch your balding Joe. I will do this for free (just pay shipping to and from) email me from this site and add a good quality picture of the head. I'll send you a disclaimer to sign (have to protect the legal) NOTE: this offer is not valid to everyone so please no request. It’s a one time deal offered to ebay member: avengers1969 (nelson)
Thank you for your awesome question. I hope, I’m cocky and talented enough to pull it off! I know I have faith in our flock fiber everytime I look at my collection of heads and finally after years of searching for the perfect style and shape that I've always wanted- finally, I can do it myself and no GI JOE will ever be a lost cause to me again.
Thanks