With the recent release of the Malephar figure from the Arethyr wave, one question we are seeing come up again and again is “how do you insert his tail?”
In this article we will show not only how to add Malephar’s tail, but we will also provide some tips on the other tails in the line and how you can add them to your figures!
The History of the Boom-Boom Cover
For many people who have opened a Malephar figure and tried to figure out where the tail goes, the challenge has been that they do not see an insertion point in the hip/pelvis area where they expect it to be. This is because of the “boom-boom cover.”
Ok, some background first – when we were getting the Advent of Decay wave tooled, we knew we had plans for some figures to have tails in the future. We had already struggled with this with a few of the “1.0 sized” figures that were in the Advent wave which included tails, namely Boarrior and B’alam. Those figures both used the pelvis part found on all the other 1.0 sized figures, a part which did NOT include an insertion point for the tail. For those figures, we actually had to have a new tool made which would include a hole for a tail to be used.
Since we were creating the 2.0 pelvis piece at this time, we decided to think ahead and include the insertion point in the piece from the start. Of course, when we got the first samples of the figures in hand, we realized that what we had essentially done was add a “boom-boom hole” to every 2.0 figure. That was obviously not what we intended, so the factory designed a little flap (or boom-boom cover) for all the figures who actually did not need to have it exposed to use with a tail. The piece itself was so well hidden that most fans never had any idea it was even there! If you look at any 2.0 figure, you will find this little flap of plastic on the pelvis, which can be easily removed to expose the hole.
So where does the name “boom-boom cover” come from? Well, our good friend Alberto Arribas first used the “boom-boom” phrase in his powerful review for the Purrrplor figure. We thought it pretty funny, and Jeremy later referred to this flap as the “boom-boom cover” on his Mythic Conversations YouTube show, and the name just kind of stuck!
Inserting Malephar’s Tail
Part of the confusion with Malephar is that, even though he does include a tail, the factory also add the boom-boom cover. Since so many fans were unaware of this part, they looked for the insertion point, did not see it, and began to ask “how do I add this tail?”
Simply remove the cover from Malephar’s pelvis part. You may be able to do this simply with your hands, prying it out and off, but sometimes it is in there pretty good! Using a butter knife (you do NOT need anything sharp!) to pry it out could help – or better yet, try some heat! Hitting the area with some hot air from a hair dryer with soften the plastic and make it much easier to remove. This will also soften the pelvis area itself, which will be helpful when adding the tail.
Once the cover is out, simply pop the tail in. This is a tight fit, and it may pop out from time to time. This is where that softened plastic approach is helpful! If the hole area is softened with heat, and the tail itself remains normal, you should be able to push it in nice and firmly. Pop the figure in the refrigerator for a few minutes to cool the plastic back down and you should now have a very firm connection that is still easy to remove if you pull it out.
Remember, you do not need much heat! A little goes a long way, and 20 seconds or so with a hairdryer should do the trick. NEVER use an actual heat gun! Those are WAY too hot and they WILL melt the plastic of the figure!
Using Other Tails
If you’ve used any of the other tails in the line (Boarrior, B’alam, Purrrplor), and you compare them to the Malephar tail, you will notice a difference. Those early tails all had “balls” on the end, while the Malephar tail is just a straight ending. The ball allows the tails to be a bit more posable than the Malephar tail, and in the future we may use either one of these options for tails depending on the figure itself. You can insert these original style tails the same way as the Malephar one – and in fact, the use of heat is actually a very good idea when using the original tails!
The ball-area on those older tails can sometimes break of if you try to force it into the hole. Softening that hole first (but not the tail itself) will make it so much easier to pop that tail piece in place without having to worry about forcing it to its breaking point!
Published on 06.01.21