Dan Efran
Active Member
Last year I bought the cheap Rubies TOS phaser, intending to upgrade and repaint it eventually. Today I felt like breaking something, so I decided to begin this project by prying open the toy.
Here's how it looked before I began:
Not bad for the price, aside from the bizarre color scheme.
I'm not the first to try upgrading this toy, of course; I found this old thread by Vincent V pretty helpful:
https://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=257177
In particular, he said "The fins and emitter proved a bit difficult as they were glued VERY firmly into place."
Sure enough. I got the emitter off with some vigorous twisting.
But the fins were glued on really super tight. I tried prying them off but couldn't get any leverage.
Finally I opened up the phaser body (held together with a few screws, luckily not glued along the seams) and just pried it open, breaking the fins part.
Not the ideal technique, but it's a pretty clean break and I'm sure I can work around it, one way or another. Once I had it in two pieces I could pry each one off the body separately. It was still really hard to get them off - I'm honestly glad I gave up on getting it off in one piece. Here are the glued surfaces - check out those ridges:
Yeah, that wasn't going to come off without a fight.
Next I tried to get the side "knob" off. It's held on with two tabs inside...plus apparently plenty of glue. I mangled the tabs, then tried to pop the part out by pressing on them.
Didn't work! My tool slipped and I cut myself on...something. A corner of the body shell, I think.
Yay! It's not a prop project without a minor injury, right? :cool
I guess I'm done for tonight. I'll try again tomorrow.
Meanwhile here's a view of the interior:
[EDIT: I originally used Roman numerals for the phaser types in the title. Silly me.]
Here's how it looked before I began:
Not bad for the price, aside from the bizarre color scheme.
I'm not the first to try upgrading this toy, of course; I found this old thread by Vincent V pretty helpful:
https://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=257177
In particular, he said "The fins and emitter proved a bit difficult as they were glued VERY firmly into place."
Sure enough. I got the emitter off with some vigorous twisting.
But the fins were glued on really super tight. I tried prying them off but couldn't get any leverage.
Finally I opened up the phaser body (held together with a few screws, luckily not glued along the seams) and just pried it open, breaking the fins part.
Not the ideal technique, but it's a pretty clean break and I'm sure I can work around it, one way or another. Once I had it in two pieces I could pry each one off the body separately. It was still really hard to get them off - I'm honestly glad I gave up on getting it off in one piece. Here are the glued surfaces - check out those ridges:
Yeah, that wasn't going to come off without a fight.
Next I tried to get the side "knob" off. It's held on with two tabs inside...plus apparently plenty of glue. I mangled the tabs, then tried to pop the part out by pressing on them.
Didn't work! My tool slipped and I cut myself on...something. A corner of the body shell, I think.
Yay! It's not a prop project without a minor injury, right? :cool
I guess I'm done for tonight. I'll try again tomorrow.
Meanwhile here's a view of the interior:
[EDIT: I originally used Roman numerals for the phaser types in the title. Silly me.]
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