Hey, gang-
In my last blog, I posted how I did a repaint of “The Thing” spider-head statue for my buddy Eric Crimmins.
Over the years I’ve had to do repairs on some of mine and Nicki’s collectibles, the “Stargods” Ra action figure prototype, and other broken toys/model kits/statues for friends. I’m happy to give it a shot and help out if I can.
This time the collectible needing saving was The Lord Of Darkness himself..!
It was the seated (and variant) version 0f the Legend/The Lord Of Darkness statue. The statue is HUGE and around 18″ tall! It was produced by State of the Art Toys (SOTA Toys) and was part of the Now Playing line.
Darkness was the big bad in the Ridley Scott film “Legend“, which was released by Universal in 1985. It starred Tom Cruise as Jack O’ the Green, Mia Sara as Princess Lili, and the legendary Tim Curry as the Lord of Darkness.
Yes, THAT Tim Curry.
SOTA Toys also produced the spider-head statue that I mentioned earlier. Not sure if they are still in business or not (couldn’t find an official site), but they’ve done tons of horror and sci-fi toy and statue collectibles that are highly sought after by serious collectors like Eric. He’s refereed to them as some of his “Holy Grail” wish list items. I believe Sideshow Collectibles and Entertainment Earth have sold SOTA Toys – you can definitely find them on eBay! $$$
So, after receiving this particular grail item Eric found that the left leg had snapped off and the unicorn horn was broken (I had to cut it off to fix it). Luckily the guy he bought it from refunded a portion of the money. Again, this was the rare darker painted variant version, so finding another one would be extremely hard to find- and super expensive if he could! Plus he could run the risk of the same thing happening all over again.
What I found strange about this break was in the way the statue itself was cast. The leg from the knee down was solid resin, but the thigh was hollow cast. This made the bottom of the leg kind of heavy and above the knee a bit brittle. Eric said he’d heard other collectors experienced the same thing as well as horn damage, and honestly I’m not really surprised they often break during shipping. I actually saw another one for sale online that had breaks in the chair/throne leg and back..! Gorgeous statues, but I question some of the engineering behind their casting.
The bottom of the leg had a “key” shape to it, so after carefully drilling a small hole in the top I inserted and Super-glued a small nail in place. I prefer the gel over the liquid Super/Crazy glues because it’s less messy and I tend not to accidentally glue myself to myself as often using the gel glue.
I mixed up some Magic Sculpt and filled the upper part of the leg so I would have something to pin/glue the bottom part to. It was gonna need some added strength/support.
While the mixture was still soft enough I pushed the bottom of the leg into place and made an impression for positioning and a hole for pinning the leg once the Magic Sculpt had cured.
Oh, Magic Sculpt is a 2pt resin that feels a lot like clay, but will become rock hard after it sets. You mix equal parts resin and hardener until they are thoroughly blended. Then you can shape it by hand or with tools. I recommend keeping some water handy to help keep it from sticking to your fingers or tools. Once it has hardened you can sand, drill, carve, or paint it. I much prefer it over Sculpey/Super-Sculpey. There’s no baking involved, and you can use it to repair or customize all sort of things. (Click here to see my custom Rorshach POP! figure or here to see my hand-made Oracle mask.)
After the resin had set I took some Super-Glue gel and put a dab on the nail/pin and some around the upper leg were it had broken. I held it in place for a bit, used some tissue to brace the bottom of the foot (the leg/foot juts out slightly in the sculpt), and then wrapped the statue in some Scotch tape to keep the leg positioned properly while the glue dried.
The horn needed some TLC before gluing it into place. Was tricky getting the horn off and am surprised it broke, Looked like there was a wire running through it, but after it was off I drilled a couple small holes in the hand and horn for the pin which was a snipped piece of wire i glued in. Had to sand and fill some gaps with Magic Sculpt, and recreate a bit of the striations with some dental tools. Did a bit of tape on it to keep it in its place while the glue dried as well.
Once everything was dry/cured I lightly sanded the joints, and then did some painting- well, actually I used some markers. I had a couple furniture repair markers that were just the right color for his pants and the horn. It only needed light touch ups, was easy and really no mess!
I also took metallic gold and silver Sharpie markers to bring out some of the detail in his costume. Just lightly brushed over those areas.
When he was ready to be delivered I packed him up gently and seat-belted him in for his ride back home to Eric’s. It was during the early part of the pandemic/lockdown, so I called Eric when I got near, pulled up to his house, placed the statue in the driveway, got in my car, and waited for Eric to come out to get him. We stayed distanced and masked as he thanked me and we said our goodbyes. For The Thing statue we just dropped off at the comic shop for the other to pick up. We both make frequent trips by there.
To say thank you for helping him save his preciouses, this week he gave me a Tweeterhead Lynda Carter Wonder Woman statue for my fangirl wife! He really didn’t have to do that. I did this repair back when I was home from work and had plenty of time.
It did win me a lot of hubby points with Nicki, so I really appreciate that. You can never have too many positive hubby points in the bank. Nicki just finished her first year of online courses to get her Masters degree, so this was perfect timing! Plus, it looks awesome with her other collectibles in the Fangirl Room. I’ve been working on a custom figure for Eric that he hasn’t seen yet. I’ll post progress shots of it once it’s done and he’s seen it. It a combination of some of his favorite things…
SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT: If you like colleting toys, statues, or horror memorabilia be sure to check out Eric’s Secret Stash on Facebook.
Eric AKA “Skinny-Pimp” does weekly online Facebook auctions with his wife Sandra, and has been known to set up at most local Memphis toy/comic/sci-fi/fantasy cons and many toy and horror shows in places like Nashville, Texas, and Kentucky. He’s the skinny, bald, bearded guy with the Michael Myers and Bettie Page tattoos– not hard to spot! Tell him Lin sent ya!
Lin