May 26, 2012

Restoring a 1991 Bandai Mighty Morpher, Part 1

While organizing my closet I stumbled upon my old might morphin power rangers morpher. It looks old and beat up, and I remember someone in college telling me that they go for a hefty sum on ebay. I checked, and they average $164 USD. I am debating on whether to post it up there or not for that price, but let’s get to the point of this article.
The battery still has a charge after… 21 years? It’s on its last breath though, and we will need to replace the batteries. This guide will serve as a walkthrough on how to restore a Bandai 1991 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Morpher. You cannot sue me (but you can certainly bitch, and I will laugh) if you break yours, so follow along at your own risk.
The toy is fairly clever in design: upon removing screws (I had to break a screw hole because of a rusted out screw) you will notice the simple electronics and the clever cross bar mechanism plus a spring which allows the thing to slide open.

Cleaning parts
The first step will be to clean off any gunk, residue, sweat, I don’t know what it is- from the toy. This means getting in nooks and crannies with a toothbrush, q-tips and isopropyl alcohol. Before doing this, bag up all of your part so that you don’t lose them.



Paint
You will have to decide if you want to paint this thing or not. On the front you will notice a few stickers: two that have “Mighty Morphin” and “Power Rangers” on them, and then black lightning bolt stickers. The latter stickers are peeling off on mine, and fixing them is a matter of masking off and painting them, since I build plastic models (ironically, a brand I buy my model kits from is the manufacturer of this toy, Bandai, go figure).
Make sure to sand areas properly and to clean them before painting. I am masking off the mighty morphin stickers. If they appear too worn out, your best bet is to remove them (with isopropyl alcohol) and paint the plastic red. I can’t offer any advice on making decals, stickers, etc.

I’ll post more as I move along with the restoration. 



The morpher in its parts.
shelf pic. The light up square I got from thinkgeek.com. The upper right LED is out of sync, however.
ALWAYS bag small parts, screws, and springs.

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