Calico Critter - How to Change out the Eyes Tutorial

 Ever wanted to customize your Critter with new eyes? Here's how I changed out mine! I am NOT the creator of this concept - I discovered it and figured out my own system of doing it, with the tools that I had one hand. There is another customizer's video that you can watch on Youtube - just type in custom Calico Critter and you will see her complete customization of a Critter, with painting, sculpting, etc. It's quite cool. Since I am only interested with this project of changing eyes, I will explain how I did it. First things first - 

Tools 

*Aleene's Tacky Glue - other glues might work, but I can't say for sure.

*Pins with 4mm heads. If in doubt, take a Critter with you to compare. These are just a smidge smaller than the Critter eyes, but the best I found for both Adult and Child size. Babies need a smaller size.

*Wire Cutters

*Pliers - or I'll show you how I just used my wire cutters

*3mm Half round chisel - here's a link where you can buy just a single chisel

*Small phillips screwdriver or something comparable 

Step 1:

First step is to remove the eyes from your Critter. Take your chisel and wedge it carefully under the eye. Be careful not to come on too heavy handed - your don't want the tool to slip and mar your Critter's flocking. I did that. Once you get it under the edge of the eye, wiggle it a bit and the eye will pop off. It will soar and you will likely not find the cut off piece for awhile. 

Step 2:

That was easy enough! Now you are left with the posts still stuck in the eye socket. It'll look  like this:

It's a little unnerving at this point. :P What you need to do now, is to take your small phillips screwdriver or something comparable to push the post into the head. Do not use something that is wider than the eye socket or you will run the risk of causing it some damage. I don't know what else you can use, but this tool is what I used. It's a screw driver set for miniatures that had different heads on it. I used the star tip, but any round head will work. 

This is how it looks once the posts are pushed into the head. Note: I didn't care enough to take the head off to remove the posts as the rattling doesn't bother me. If it will you, now is the time to take the Critter's head off after softening the plastic with a blow dryer (be careful not to overheat and melt the glue holding the flocking on) and then pop it back on in the same manner. 

Step 3:

Before we continue, let me show you the size comparison between the pin head and the original Critter eyes. You can see the pin is probably a mm smaller. It doesn't matter. 

Now that the eyes are cleanly removed, we will prep the pins! First, take your pin. You want to bend the post down. So do this with either pliers, or if you only have wire cutters, you can still do this. There is usually a tiny little spot at the bottom of your blades where they won't cut. 

Next, you need to cut the post down. Here's a tip: You need to hold onto the post that you are going to cut off, otherwise it will fly into No Man's Land to become a potential hazard. I had a hard time trying to take a picture of exactly how I held it, but I held both the part I was cutting and also the pin head to also keep that from flying off. You just need to be super careful with the sharp end. 

 You want to cut off about half the post. If you cut off more, that okay too, you just want to leave enough of the bent part to help it stay in the head better. Test it in your Critter head to make sure it is short enough not to push the eye back out. Next step, gluing in the eye!

Step 4:

Take your glue and carefully fill in the eye socket. This is where you need to be careful to not overfill the eye. If you do (and I did it) the glue will seep out around the new eye and possibly get on the flocking. You don't wan this, but if it does happen, take your finger nail and carefully scrape off the extra glue. If you catch your over filling mistake before you push in the new eye, simply take a paper towel, roll it very thin and carefully dip it into the overfilled hole until its down to a better level. 

Step 5:

Now it's time to put in the new eye! Carefully and gently push the eye into place. You want to make sure it's in solid and doesn't slide out but don't push it too hard where it sinks back into the head. 

Now repeat that step until you are done! Here's my whole redone Marshmellow Mouse Family.