The second of three projects I have been working on lately, (the first one can be found here ) this one involves a vintage 1978 Darth Vader TIE Fighter that I found at my local comic book & collectibles store several weeks ago. (it also got a mention in my last Toy Room Tour Blog. )

As you can see from this picture, the thing was in pretty bad shape, missing most of its stickers and the few that remained were torn, peeling and damaged.

But it was solid, intact, no pieces missing and for five bucks I figured I could possibly restore it and give it a new home in my Toy Room.

So, first things first, I took it apart and cleaned it up as best I could. Using a tip from my buddy Megatrends I scrubbed it down with a toothbrush and some rubbing alcohol to get off the old dust and grime, and also peeled off all the old stickers.

Next I scanned all the old surviving stickers and used Photoshop to clean up most of the damage and make them look less damaged, then printed them out on to some Peel & Stick paper.

Here is where I hit my first roadblock: My prints came out somewhat larger than the original stickers.

I tried in vain to solve this dilemma several times, then decided to simply make due with what I had and trimmed the prints down to proper size myself with some scissors.

Before I cut them out though I decided to laminate them to not only make them more solid but also to give them more of a glossy shine.

After that it was a simple matter of cutting them out, peeling the backings and start to apply them.

I won't bore you with TOO many before and after pics, but just a few to give you an idea.

The next part was to restore the cockpit which I wasn't sure how I could since it had no sticker on it at all to restore.

Once again my buddy Megatrends came to the rescue, sending me some scans of HIS vintage TIE Fighter cockpit that, with some Photoshop work I managed to make a workable version to print out and then apply to the cockpit.

Lastly I had to apply a little super glue to the laser light piece on the ship because it kept popping loose, but the glue held well and with some batteries in it, the light still works!

Then it was just a matter of reassembling it (here are one and two more views ) and then lastly, finding a new home for it on a shelf in the room.


Is it a PERFECT restoration? No, I think my sticker scans are a bit off colored in some spots, but I was happy enough with them to not bother redoing the whole thing again and besides, I'm not interested in trying to passing the thing off as "Original Condition" anyway.

But it was a a FUN project to do and a great way to restore and preserve an old toy and add yet another unique item to my ever growing collection.




(PS: I know my Blog Picture is the Model Vader TIE and not this same toy but hey it's the closest I could find, so )