WARNING:  The following instruction involves the use of open flame and toxic substances.  Please contact your parent or guardian for supervision and assistance before attempting to fix Pokemon TFG figures.

While the new Pokemon TFG figures are excellent sculptures of the Pokemon creatures, some of them are not really designed for the rough handling during a gaming session.

Two of the most common types of defect are,

1. The figure falling off the figure base.
2. The spinner pin breaks inside figure base.

First problem can usually be solved by using a little super glue to reattached the figure.  However, here are some common mistakes made by many people.

• Applied too much glue:  You only need less than a drop of super glue to attach the figure back on the base.  Any excessive glue is very difficult to clean off the figure, and they will leave ugly streaks even if wiped off.
• Figured reattached in the wrong direction:  Prior to reattaching the figure, figure out which direction is the figure suppose to be facing in relation to the figure base.  While this might seem cosmetic, there is actually some game play impact.  The figures are designed to have a center of gravity (CoG) over the spinner pin, if the figure is reattached in the wrong direction, the less-than-ideal fit between the figure and the base will cause the figure to have a misalignment between the CoG and the pin.  A figure with misaligned center of gravity will wobble during spinning, causing additional stress to the reattached point and that will eventually cause the figure to break off again.
• What about Skarmory and Ho-Oh:  I haven't come across any simple and clean way of fixing the broken mounting stick for the flying Pokemon figures.  I had to resort to inserting a metal pin into the plastic rod to reinforce the reattachment point, but this method has a very high failure rate.  Please drop me a line if you have any suggestions (and I will credit you with the method).

Second problem require a little skill and a steady hand to fix.  I can help you extract the broke-off pin from the figure base, but reattaching the broken pin back to the spinner base is beyond the scope of this tutorial.

The pins are lubricated with grease at the factory to improve the spinning capability and to reduce wear and tear on the pins.  However, the crappy retail packaging offers practically no protection to the figures, and I found the pin can break off the spinner base and get stuck inside the figure base.  At this point, the lubricant provides a nice suction force to keep the pin permanently stuck inside the figure base.

To extract the pin from the base, you will need the following items.

• An open flame - From candle or a lighter
• A metal paper clip - The best kind are the ones with the anti-slip ridges
• A large piece of aluminum foil - Serve as flame retardant drop cloth
• A thick glove - Optional, you will be holding some potentially hot stuff

Here is the instruction,

1. First put out the foil on a flat surface, ideally on a clean table.  Make sure the following steps are performed on top of the foil.
2. Separate the figure base from the spinner base.
3. Straighten the paper clip, make sure the wire diameter is smaller than the pin inside the figure base.
   
   
   
4. Wear the glove at this point, as you will be heating the paper clip.
5. Heat one end of the paper clip in the open flame for 5 to 7 seconds, then quickly insert the heated-end into the pin that's stuck in the figure, no deeper than 1/4 of an inch.  For a brief few seconds, the paper clip should be hot enough to insert into the pin as if inserting into butter.
   
   
     
• Make sure the heated paper clip never  touch the black plastic of the figure base at any time.  If you are not careful, the paper clip will melt the figure base too, and the melted pin and the melted figure base will permanently fuse together.
6. Hold the paper clip in place for 30 seconds, this should allow the pin to cool and attach itself to the paper clip.
7. Slowly extract the pin using the stuck paper clip as leverage.
   
   

If you are not sure you can insert the paper clip into the pin without touching the figure base, do a couple dry runs without heating the paper clip.

Please email me with any questions and/or suggestion.

Also, please check out the Pokemon TFG figures I have to offer this week.  If you don't see what you are looking for, please send me an e-mail and I will be happy to post it on eBay for you!