Bullmark Ultraseven Hawaii restoration

This was a labour of love for me. I was trying to rescue this figure from a bad transaction, which is a long story but one I had no choice in. Anyways, in my efforts to make the best of a bad situation, I spent the better part of a day working solid to try and get this guy in as decent shape as I could. I thought I would share it here, as a bit of story to give hope to folks out there with "junk" figures, that sometimes with a bit of hard work you can still salvage a very nice toy. I wasn't thinking I would have as much success as I did, so I didn't take very good or comprehensive before shots, unfortunately. It was actually much worse than it looks in these pics, but I think you can get a general idea.

condition before restoration


You'll probably have to make the pics bigger to see some of the issues, and even then it isn't very clear. But basically someone had at one point decided to paint him with silver colour in some of his 'armour' sections. It is strange, because it wasn't uniform all over the grey areas (as you can see) and went outside of the molded designs too, but obviously wasn't just the work of a child either.

I was really torn on how to approach this. You never know how a project like this will turn out, and given my great love for the character and appreciation for this figure, I didn't want to fuck him up. Plus, this is paint we are talking about, it is not going to be just a simple cleaning/fix. You don't know what it might do to the vinyl, and certainly not the actual production paint - which was my main concern. [I definitely don't want a stripped figure] You can't tell what is underneath, if anything, or how that will survive the process. I didn't want a figure worse off then when I started, but it also irked me incredibly. If it was uniform on the figure I might have just had to accept it, but as it was I had to gamble on something.

Anyways, sparing all the details that involved toothpicks, pins, sponges, soap, a toothbrush, and various other improvised cleaning tools, here he is in his restored glory! He is far from new or perfect, but I think it is a general improvement, and in that I am satisfied. He looks nice, and I accomplished what I set out to do, which was not making him any worse by removing original paint (all the wear areas were there already, and probably why he was originally 'touched up'). I could still probably do some fine restorative work, especially on the detail inside the armour, but at some point you have to leave well enough alone too (and I was utterly exhausted by the end of this marathon session).

after removal of paint and cleaning

 

Yes, I tried one of the magic eraser sponges. I was very tentative with using it. I didn't have any success removing scuffs and discolouration on another figure, but it did seem to work on this one. I used for the unpainted sections, and it removed some marks you can't see in the pics, and very gently on his armour and it didn't seem to harm it, but I am still way of 'rubbing' it on painted sections. As the silver paint was obviously applied very lightly originally I wanted to avoid possibly removing it altogether. The chest area where it is thicker seems to be okay.