80's LEGO minifigures renovation

What is the first thing you do as AFOL (Adult Fan Of Lego) after leaving the Dark Age aka returning to a fascination with LEGO bricks? Of course you run into your parents' house and dig for your old sets. If you didn't get rid of them earlier...

I was lucky and I kept all the sets, together with boxes, instructions and even original bricks' foils with small holes. Everything was in perfect condition! I always cared much about LEGO. They were my favorite toys.

Unfortunately there was a small exception to the caring - my first three sets. I got them probably a year too early. I was on plasticine phase. I had to "improve" everything with it. And there was also water phase. Every toy had to deal with water. That's why minifigs from 6502 set (Turbo Racer) and 6017 (King's Oarsmen) become very neglected. Prints worn out. Plasticine and dirt everywhere. Any attempt to rescue them only make it worse. Just look at the picture below - marker attempts to draw lost patterns :)

Unfortunately I lost in kindergarden minifigs from set 6940 (Alien Moon Stalker). I was crying for like 1 month. It was huge lost ;) From this time I started to care much about LEGO. I never get them out of house. I got left only arm and hand from blue archetype of Benny (from The LEGO Movie). You can see it on photo below. From the red spaceman I got nothing.

I decided to make refreshment of these fellows. I know, I know. I could simply buy them on the internet. The same look, perfect condition...

But here it was about sentiment, my first minifigs. So much positive memories attached to them. I wanted to bring them back to life! :)

It started with a simple cleaning. Two days in water with dish washing liquid. Then gentle washing with toothbrush and gouging out remains of plasticine with wooden toothpick.

It is worth mentioning that the white race car driver survived the fire, literally. I guess I forgot to write about it earlier. I had that phase, another phase. Phase of setting fire on everything. Helmet, legs and torso shows signs of heat. They were distorted. I repair them a bit with sand paper and nail file.

Later white bricks went to hydrogen peroxide. It helps get rid off yellow color. I'll write more about that technique in one of the next articles. Ah, and I glued up broken leg mount.

The next step was design new prints in Photoshop. I printed it on stick-on paper. I made few minor changes. Yellow crusader shield instead of blue. I've always preferred this version. I made torsos of both knights with the lion. I also preferred that version over the "armor" torso. Oh, and the faces. I decided that I would add mustache to all three. Don't ask why, I have no idea! xD

I am really happy with final effect! Especially when I look at 2 first photos. The difference between "before" and "after" is huge!

I have great sentiment for those minifigs. They will appear often in my MOCs :)

Do you like the final effect? Maybe you got your own story of your old LEGO sets renovation? Fell free to share it in the comments!

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