Got a Question? Quick Customizing Tips Here!

The Super Battle Collection figures tend to go for a pretty penny though, especially if you're just going to buy it for the head. If you've already got the spare Figuarts heads, might as well just modify them, especially if you don't mind it being permanent, like you said. When you say that you want the articulation to remain the same, I assume you mean the same as the Dragon Stars, because... Well, if you're not using the neck joint from the Figuarts, you can't have the Figuarts' level of articulation. It'll just be the ball joint articulation of the Dragon Stars.

Also, this is going to sound like a really extreme endeavor, but trust me, it's worth it. Learning this skill will serve you very well in creating essentially any heads you want for your figures.

With that in mind, my recommendation:

What you'll need is a power drill, a hobby knife, and a strong putty like Milliput (this is just the brand I use).

First, remove all face and extra hair pieces from the head piece (like the bangs and such-- you just want the bulk of the hair, that actually has the socket that attaches to the figure normally), just to make sure you don't damage anything important, ie the stuff that will actually be seen. Use a power drill and carefully drill out a hole in the spot where the (significantly larger) Dragon Stars ball joint best fits, probably the middle of a fairly flat area of the bottom of the head. In order to keep control of the drill and the size of the hole, start with a drill bit smaller than what you'll need, and then work your way up to a drill bit about the size of the Dragon Stars neck ball joint, maybe a bit larger just to ensure it'll fit. Drill ONLY deep enough that you can fit the ball joint, and however much of the neck you want hidden, into it. Make sure that you can move it around comfortably. If you can't, use a hobby knife to cut away a bit of the hole, only near the opening (don't widen the entire drilled out hole), in sort of a "crater" shape, eventually resulting in a shape like this drilled into your head:



With the hole looking something like this from the outside:



From here, you'll need something like Milliput. Mix a little bit of it, put a ball of it into the hole you've drilled, and push it to the back/bottom of the hole. (NOTE: Be VERY careful not to touch the figure OR the head when your hands are covered in the putty that you've mixed, because it stains the figure, so unless you're planning to repaint, after you mix the putty and put the ball into the hole, go wash your hands and wipe them off thoroughly with a rag. The putty won't start curing for at least 20 minutes.) You might need more putty than you think at first, because what you're going to do is basically create your own socket for your ball joint. Put the ball joint of your Dragon Stars into the socket you've drilled, with the putty in it, firmly but without twisting or disturbing the putty too much. Just make sure that it fits pretty tightly, but without burying your neck's ball joint. Let the putty dry somewhere where it can sit without being disturbed, or without the figure falling over. I recommend laying it down in such a way that the neck/head is propped up in the correct position, so that it's still tightly in the putty and the head isn't hanging. Put something underneath the figure to give the head and the body proper support, because leaving it standing up will probably result in the head flopping over and wrecking your would-be socket. After about a day (it can be less time than that to dry, but we want it to be as strong as possible, so give it a full day), try moving the head around on the neck. It'll show some resistance at first, because the putty will have bonded to the neck joint, but put a little bit of force into it and it'll move out of place and be able to rotate. See if it feels tight enough. If it isn't, mix a tiny bit more putty and put it in, making sure to envelope a bit of the sides of the ball joint this time, and try again, let it dry again, repeat for necessary trial and error.

This is how I do all my 'unnatural' head swaps, when I use a WCF head on a Figuarts, or swap heads between lines like SHF, Dragon Stars, Irwin, etc. You need to create your own joint. Using a little bit of milliput can also tighten loose Figuarts joints, or make a head whose socket is too large to fit on a ball peg tighter, enough to fit on a body it isn't meant to (ie mixing 1.0 and 2.0 parts for the same character, sometimes there's looseness-- you can fix that pretty easily).

It sounds like a lot of effort, but the drilling is the hardest part. The putty is just a bit time consuming. Once you have this skill in your belt, a lot of new stuff becomes possible, even when you're not the kind of person to do sculpting or painting on your figures. It's just a very useful thing to be able to do. Your ability to customize heads is essentially limitless if you know what you're doing.

It's not actually as hard as it sounds. The drill is the only really difficult part. What you're working on now is about the same level of skill imo, it's just something you havent done so it sounds intimidating. I went really in depth with the description just so that it would be easy to follow instead of having to wing it on any part of it, but it's actually simpler than it seems. All it is is: Drill, trim around the drilled hole, stuff with putty, put the head on.


Great idea btw, that Majin Vegeta head will look awesome on that body. Great recipe!

P.S. the hot water/Hair dryer technique is good for removing/connecting tight joints. Just in case you were worrying about damaging the parts

The only problem with swapping pieces of a Dragon Stars body is that the scale is slightly different, so his upper body might look huge.

Good tips Bran! The only problems I've ever run into with something like vaseline is that with some putties and plastics (granted, this was back when I was working more with miniature hobby kits, which is a very different kind of plastic, and also a different putty, Kneadite, much weaker) it can maintain an oiliness that can be annoying, especially if you have plans for paint. Washing it off can help but because of the oils involved it's somewhat resistant to water, so it's just a bit stubborn. In any case, Milliput's bond to plastic is actually not very strong unless there's a lot of it, so I don't think it sticking too badly or permanently should be much of a problem!

I've heard of the hot glue method but never tried it myself! I've always been worried about it melting or deforming plastic, but it doesn't sound like it's been a problem for you before. That's good to know! I should mention, I know that when I said that my method was permanent, ie the new body being the 'permanent home' for the head, I just meant that with the modifications to the head, it will no longer fit onto the Figuarts body because the socket has been drastically altered. With the milliput, you can actually still pop it off and back onto the body without too much concern, it's not stuck on there permanently!