Tutorial - Maskless Ennard Mystery Mini

Funko released two Mystery Mini Ennards across Series 2 and 3. One was Ennard based off how we see it in the scooping room and hidden room in Sister Location. The other is based off Ennard in the fake ending of Sister Location. There was one we didn't get a figure of, and that was the 'maskless' version (referred to as 'Ballora' by Ennard itself while trying to trick you). Fortunately both figures have all the right parts to create our own! Below is a walk through tutorial of what I did to make my own:

(Please read all the steps before attempting because there were some issues I ran into) 
Step 1 - First have the two figures available. The one on the left is from Series 2, and the one on the right is from Series 3.
Step 2 - Place one figure at a time over boiling water. CAUTION: Please be careful during this step as you can burn yourself. I used an oven mitt (until the evaporation came inside the mitt). I also held the figure partially over the pan, but would take a break if I ever felt pain. Over time you'll notice the plastic becomes very soft. A good indication is usually when water starts to evaporate on top of the figure. Once it becomes soft enough to easily flex with your hands, with some force you'll be able to remove the plates from the Series 3 figure. With even less force you'll be able to remove the heads from the pegs on the body molds of both Series 2 and Series 3 figures. Patience and carefulness are key as you don't want to break any of the soft plastic while doing this step.
Step 3 - Ta-da! The figures heads and the plates are removed! They are now ready for assembly! ...or so I thought...

Step 4 - When removing the plates, I realized there was some plastic still left inside while pulling them off. Also the teeth on the head had special molding to keep the bottom plates in place. Some excess plastic is fine since you can paint over it, but the teeth molding was bothering me. If done again I will have to be more patient and not break the plastic at those seam points. Someone with more skill could probably remove it cleanly. It also may help to use a blow dryer to focus the heat into those exact spots.
Step 5 - I then held only the head over the boiling water, causing the plastic to become soft once more.
Step 6 - While it was still soft, I cut away the two teeth molded portions with an X-ACTO knife. CAUTION: Also be patient and careful with this step. It is very easy to cut yourself with the knife and you will have to apply a small amount of force to cut into the plastic.
I ended up leaving the excess plastic on the sides in place since it's not too distracting. With the teeth molding gone though I felt much better with how it looked!

Step 7 - I ran into two more issues during assembly. One was that Funko changed how the figures heads are assembled between the production of Series 2 and 3. This doesn't allow for the S3 Ennard head to fully seat onto the S2 Ennard body. Note that the S2 Ennard head fits very loosely onto the S3 Ennard body.
Step 8 - The other issue was that even if the head did fully seat, the eye on the head is molded slightly lower than how it was for S2. The eye will get stuck on the arm and prevent the head from rotating (if the head were fully seated).
Step 9 - The eye issue was bothering me, and the head wouldn't fully seat. Because of these two issues I ended up leaving the head off and just push it in whenever I want to. The plastic is hard, but with enough force you can compress it onto the peg fairly far down when needed.

So there you have it, a Maskless Ennard Mystery Mini! Kind of neat isn't it? Because the head isn't fully compressed in, you can slightly tilt the head around to add some expression. I am glad to have an (unofficial) Maskless Ennard head for my collection!

I hope you too can create your own Maskless Ennard Mystery Mini using these steps, or discover new ways to make your own! Best of luck, and look forward to more Tutorials in the future! Thanks again!