KickHopper
Rajio Showa Rider
Here you will find several ways to modify your DX Henshin belts. Some are easy, some are difficult. It's up to you on how you wish to do it. Different types of modifications will be noted on invasiveness to the belt (how much of the belt you will be tampering with), difficulty, and effectiveness.
Modification v.1 (nylon straps and plastic buckle):
[hide]
Invasiveness - None
Difficulty - Medium; Minimal sewing knowledge required, a little more work than v.2
Effectiveness - 7/10; Versatile, but limited to only fit whatever size you cut to and smaller, and it has a small chance of falling apart and you'll have to reattach the straps to the Henshin Belt.
What you will need
Directions
Your waist measurement will determine the length of the nylon strap you will need. The DX Henshin Belts can all (as far as I know) fit around a waist of 68 centimeters, which is enough to fit around a size 26 waist in US Men's measurements (US Men's waist is measured in inches). I will be measuring everything in inches, feet, and yards, since I'm from the US and thus go by the inch in waist and fabric stores cut by the yard.
Step 1.) Cut your nylon strap to cover the difference between the belt's size and your waist size, with an additional two to four inches. I'm a size 36 waist, so I cut about a foot of nylon strap.
Step 2.) Cut the length of nylon strap you are going to use in half. If your Henshin Belt is silver, you may choose to paint the nylon straps with silver fabric paint and the buckle with silver spray paint. I did this for my Hopper Zecter belt.
Step 3.) Hem one end of each half. This will ensure that the buckle halves will not slip off the straps. To do this, make small folds on an end about four times minimum. It has to be fat enough for it not to slip through the buckle's slot. Then take your thread and needle and sew the fold together so it won't come apart. Make sure to knot the ends of thread that stick out so it won't come apart.
Step 4.) Slide the halves of the buckle onto the straps via the un-hemmed ends.
Step 6.) Take the un-hemmed ends and place them on the inside of the Henshin Belt, so that two rows of the holes on the ends of the Henshin Belt are covered by the straps.
Step 7.) Using the needle and thread, you are going to sew the nylon straps to the Henshin Belt, letting the thread go through the holes on the Belt and looping around to secure the straps as best you can. Use plenty of thread so that the straps can't come loose (This has happened to me before). Crisscross and go around several times with the thread, testing the strap with little tugs here and there to make sure it is secure.
You now have made an adjustable belt that can fit to your size or smaller.[/hide]
Modification v.2 (elastic strap):
[hide]
Invasiveness - None
Difficulty - Easy
Effectiveness - 6/10; Has a higher risk of coming undone than v.1, and you won't be able to paint the strap as that would risk the strap losing elasticity. Also won't be able to fit smaller waist sizes, but can fit somewhat larger waist sizes than what is originally cut.
What you will need
Directions
Step 1.) Cut your elastic strap to cover the difference between the belt's size and your waist size, with an additional two to four inches. I'm a size 36 waist, so I cut about a foot of elastic strap.
Step 2.) Place one end of the strap on the inside of one end of the Henshin Belt, the end with the two prongs that stick out and go through the slots of the other end. Make sure that the strap covers the holes on the other side and has about an inch more heading toward the Henshin buckle.
Step 3.) Use the electrical tape to attach this end of the strap to the Henshin belt, going around the belt and the strap, putting an ample amount of tape between the two prongs and to either side of the two prongs. Then, fold over the left over end from Step 2 and tape over that as well. This will make the elastic keep to the belt more securely.
Step 4.) Now to the other end of the strap and Henshin Belt that was untouched. Take your scissors and cut off a bit of the width of the elastic strap, enough to slide some of the strap through the slots of the Henshin Belt. You'll need enough to go through the inside of the belt through the second slot from the end, then loop it and go through the slot closest to the end, and then enough to reach to the second slot on the inside again.
Step 5.) Once you've looped the elastic strap through the slots of the Henshin Belt as described in Step 4, first tape the part of the strap you slid through the slots, leaving the uncut part of the strap loose. Then, tape the whole strap to the Belt. Looping the strap through the slots is to make this end a little more secure since you don't have the prongs like on the other end.
You have now modified your Henshin Belt to fit your waist and slightly larger.[/hide]
Modification v.3 (belt hiding):
[hide]
Invasiveness - Moderate
Difficulty - Medium to High; Requires good measurements
Effectiveness - 8/10; This method modifies the Henshin belt to fit any size to the limit of a normal belt's length and looks a lot better, plus it is completely seamless to anyone looking at the belt when worn when facing the sides and the front. The only issue is that the back is usually noticeable because of how vinyl folds over, it becomes quite wrinkly.
What you will need
Directions
Step 1.) Cut your vinyl fabric into a strip that is long enough to go all the way around your waist. Make it at least 3 or 4 inches wide so that it can be secured around the plastic belt securely. Then cut the strip in half.
Step 2.) Remove the plastic belt straps from the buckle where you only have the plastic belt straps and the little rod that holds them into the buckle.
Step 3.) Loosely wrap a vinyl strip around one of the plastic straps evenly so that the outside is seamless, and also leaving enough vinyl to cover the portion that goes back into the buckle.
Step 4.) With scissors, make four cuts in the vinyl so that you have little tabbies that will fold in from where the plastic strap shrinks to go into the buckle.
Step 5.) Fold the big, middle tab in between the vinyl and the outside of the belt, just to hide] the fuzzy side of the vinyl fabric.
Step 6.) Fold the smaller tabs next to the middle tab over the plastic strap and tape down with electrical tape.
Step 7.) Fold over the remaining outer tabs and then wrap the vinyl tightly and secure it with electrical tape along the inside of the belt. Take a peek at the outside of the belt to see how it looks so far, it should look pretty seamless so far.
Step 8.) Some of the Kamen Rider belts have a border going along the length of the belts. You can imitate this by putting electrical tape as shown in the images, folding it over the same way you did the vinyl to keep it seamless. I used the end that goes into the buckle as a reference to how wide to make the border.
Step 9.) Take your duct tape and go along the entire inside of the vinyl belt, from end to end, folding it over the end opposite of the side that goes into the buckle to secure it. I put several layers of duct tape over where the actual plastic strap is under the vinyl as a security measure to make sure the hot glue won't melt through to the plastic.
Step 10.) Slide the vinyl belt into the back plastic square piece that came with your belt that goes in the back opposite the buckle.
Step 11.) Hot glue the rough part of the velcro to the inside of the end of your vinyl belt (the part you looped into the square).
Step 12.) Hot glue the soft part of the velcro to the inside of the middle of your belt somewhere. I did a 4 inch strip of velcro that went half way from where the plastic strap ends, but this all depends on how big your waist is and how long your velcro strap is.
You have now modified your Henshin Belt perfectly for photoshoots and it now looks friggin awesome. Congratulations, you are now part of Shocker! *clap clap clap*[/hide]
Modification v.4 (belt replacement):
[hide]Invasiveness - High
Difficulty - Medium to High; This depends on the detail of the belt you are trying to modify. Also, this will not work on every belt. If the strap that stays attached to the buckle is not easily removable, do not try and force it as you may end up breaking the belt.
Effectiveness - 10/10; This method modifies the Henshin belt to fit any size looks a lot better, plus it is completely seamless to anyone looking at the belt when worn on all sides, especially if you are able to cover the back very well with the original DX Belt's back plate or strap.
What you will need
Directions (Seat Belt method)
Step 1.) DO THIS BEFORE PURCHASING ANYTHING. Unscrew the parts of the buckle and clip on the DX Belt where the strap goes in. You should be able to completely remove one side of the panel that holds in the strap. If you can't remove it with ease after unscrewing it, STOP RIGHT HERE. You will not be able to go further.
Step 2.) Take the seat belt and wrap it around your waist, buckle to the back. You want to measure how much of the belt you should keep, as well as how long you want the excess that you use to adjust. Make sure you have enough to get to the sides of the main buckle part, with an extra inch to insert into the parts where the DX Belt straps are screwed into the buckle and clip.
Step 3.) Cut the seat belt to size.
Step 4.) Remove the strap. It will either be held in by two thick plastic pins, or will have a thin metal rod going through. That's what you'll need to hold in the seat belt strap. Following instructions are for the pins. For the rod, proceed instead to step 9.
Step 5.) Place the end of the seat belt strap onto the pins where you will be putting it to hold onto the belt. Using a pen or Sharpie, mark where you will need holes to go into the pins. Do the same on the other end of the seat belt strap.
Step 6.) Cut out the pin holes on the seat belt strap with the knife. BE VERY CAREFUL. You don't want to cut yourself.
Step 7.) Using a match or lighter, burn the holes a little bit, keeping thing under control by blowing on the holes to make sure you don't set the whole belt on fire. You need to burn the holes, because otherwise the fabric will fray and begin to fall apart.
Step 8.) Place the straps onto the pins, and screw the belt back together. Test the belt out to see if it's the right size. If the buckle isn't dead center on your back, you may need to adjust the strap length, and possible cut off some of the ends to even it up and make new pin holes.
Step 9.) This is for belts that use the thin metal rod instead of the thick plastic pins. All you have to do is cut off a bit of the edges so that you can slide and fold over a piece of fabric into where the straps go. You want it to look like the ends of the plastic straps that go into the buckle, but about two or three times longer with the thinner part so you can fold it over and either sew or hot glue it down. Pull out the metal rod, fold the end of the fabric over it, and then sew or hot glue together so that it stays in place, then just put the metal rod back into the buckle of the belt with the fabric on it.
Step 10.) If your want real detail on the belt, like the sectioned off look on the Hopper Belt from Kabuto, you will have to make that yourself. If it's just sections, you can use Craft Foam to easily duplicate that. The way the Hopper Belt is, I would just cut the sections and staple them onto the strap, then cut more Craft Foam for the raised parts on the tops and bottoms of the sections, and glue that on with regular Elmer's Glue. Remove the strap and spray paint silver. If you have a more detailed belt, like the Blade belts or the Double Driver, it gets a little more complex. I would use Model Magic here. The first thing you need to do is to take the original toy straps, and using the sculpting clay, imprint the design onto it. Bake the clay to make it hard once you have a suitable sample. Then, take the Model Magic, and work it into the clay mold to get the design. If you're doing this to the Blade belts, you can either get an imprint from one section and then make several molds of Model Magic to make it sectioned, or imprint the whole belt and mold the Model Magic in which you would cut the sections out after it dries. When you're done molding, let the Model Magic air dry at least 24 hours. You should then be able to cut it as you need, and make it so it slides onto the strap or glue it to the strap in some way using hot glue.
Directions (Arctic Vinyl method)
Just follow the same directions as the seat belt, but you'll be using the back cover of the DX belt to string your straps through similar to the Belt Covering method. Use velcro and hot glue and combine with steps 10, 11, and 12 from the Belt Covering method
Directions (Guitar Strap method)
(Under Construction)[/hide]
Please note, some products used to replace belt straps are often too thin to really hold up anything with significant weight that you put on the straps, like Decade's Ride Booker. Often it will cause the strap to start folding over.
Modification v.1 (nylon straps and plastic buckle):
[hide]
Invasiveness - None
Difficulty - Medium; Minimal sewing knowledge required, a little more work than v.2
Effectiveness - 7/10; Versatile, but limited to only fit whatever size you cut to and smaller, and it has a small chance of falling apart and you'll have to reattach the straps to the Henshin Belt.
What you will need
- Your DX Henshin Belt
- A nylon belt strap (either bought at a craft or fabric store, or cut from something like a backpack)
- A plastic snap buckle (like what's on some backpacks, also can be found at some craft or fabric stores)
- Scissors
- Thread
- Small sewing needle
- Optional: Silver fabric paint and silver spray paint
Directions
Your waist measurement will determine the length of the nylon strap you will need. The DX Henshin Belts can all (as far as I know) fit around a waist of 68 centimeters, which is enough to fit around a size 26 waist in US Men's measurements (US Men's waist is measured in inches). I will be measuring everything in inches, feet, and yards, since I'm from the US and thus go by the inch in waist and fabric stores cut by the yard.
Step 1.) Cut your nylon strap to cover the difference between the belt's size and your waist size, with an additional two to four inches. I'm a size 36 waist, so I cut about a foot of nylon strap.
Step 2.) Cut the length of nylon strap you are going to use in half. If your Henshin Belt is silver, you may choose to paint the nylon straps with silver fabric paint and the buckle with silver spray paint. I did this for my Hopper Zecter belt.
Step 3.) Hem one end of each half. This will ensure that the buckle halves will not slip off the straps. To do this, make small folds on an end about four times minimum. It has to be fat enough for it not to slip through the buckle's slot. Then take your thread and needle and sew the fold together so it won't come apart. Make sure to knot the ends of thread that stick out so it won't come apart.
Step 4.) Slide the halves of the buckle onto the straps via the un-hemmed ends.
Step 6.) Take the un-hemmed ends and place them on the inside of the Henshin Belt, so that two rows of the holes on the ends of the Henshin Belt are covered by the straps.
Step 7.) Using the needle and thread, you are going to sew the nylon straps to the Henshin Belt, letting the thread go through the holes on the Belt and looping around to secure the straps as best you can. Use plenty of thread so that the straps can't come loose (This has happened to me before). Crisscross and go around several times with the thread, testing the strap with little tugs here and there to make sure it is secure.
You now have made an adjustable belt that can fit to your size or smaller.[/hide]
Modification v.2 (elastic strap):
[hide]
Invasiveness - None
Difficulty - Easy
Effectiveness - 6/10; Has a higher risk of coming undone than v.1, and you won't be able to paint the strap as that would risk the strap losing elasticity. Also won't be able to fit smaller waist sizes, but can fit somewhat larger waist sizes than what is originally cut.
What you will need
- Your DX Henshin Belt
- An elastic strap (can be bought at a fabric store)
- Scissors
- Electrical Tape
Directions
Step 1.) Cut your elastic strap to cover the difference between the belt's size and your waist size, with an additional two to four inches. I'm a size 36 waist, so I cut about a foot of elastic strap.
Step 2.) Place one end of the strap on the inside of one end of the Henshin Belt, the end with the two prongs that stick out and go through the slots of the other end. Make sure that the strap covers the holes on the other side and has about an inch more heading toward the Henshin buckle.
Step 3.) Use the electrical tape to attach this end of the strap to the Henshin belt, going around the belt and the strap, putting an ample amount of tape between the two prongs and to either side of the two prongs. Then, fold over the left over end from Step 2 and tape over that as well. This will make the elastic keep to the belt more securely.
Step 4.) Now to the other end of the strap and Henshin Belt that was untouched. Take your scissors and cut off a bit of the width of the elastic strap, enough to slide some of the strap through the slots of the Henshin Belt. You'll need enough to go through the inside of the belt through the second slot from the end, then loop it and go through the slot closest to the end, and then enough to reach to the second slot on the inside again.
Step 5.) Once you've looped the elastic strap through the slots of the Henshin Belt as described in Step 4, first tape the part of the strap you slid through the slots, leaving the uncut part of the strap loose. Then, tape the whole strap to the Belt. Looping the strap through the slots is to make this end a little more secure since you don't have the prongs like on the other end.
You have now modified your Henshin Belt to fit your waist and slightly larger.[/hide]
Modification v.3 (belt hiding):
[hide]
Invasiveness - Moderate
Difficulty - Medium to High; Requires good measurements
Effectiveness - 8/10; This method modifies the Henshin belt to fit any size to the limit of a normal belt's length and looks a lot better, plus it is completely seamless to anyone looking at the belt when worn when facing the sides and the front. The only issue is that the back is usually noticeable because of how vinyl folds over, it becomes quite wrinkly.
What you will need
- Your DX Henshin Belt
- Vinyl fabric in a color of your choice
- Scissors
- Thin screw driver
- Electrical Tape matching the color of the vinyl
- Duct tape (aka Ductape or Duck Tape)
- Velcro strips
- Hot glue gun
Directions
Step 1.) Cut your vinyl fabric into a strip that is long enough to go all the way around your waist. Make it at least 3 or 4 inches wide so that it can be secured around the plastic belt securely. Then cut the strip in half.
Step 2.) Remove the plastic belt straps from the buckle where you only have the plastic belt straps and the little rod that holds them into the buckle.
Step 3.) Loosely wrap a vinyl strip around one of the plastic straps evenly so that the outside is seamless, and also leaving enough vinyl to cover the portion that goes back into the buckle.
Step 4.) With scissors, make four cuts in the vinyl so that you have little tabbies that will fold in from where the plastic strap shrinks to go into the buckle.
Step 5.) Fold the big, middle tab in between the vinyl and the outside of the belt, just to hide] the fuzzy side of the vinyl fabric.
Step 6.) Fold the smaller tabs next to the middle tab over the plastic strap and tape down with electrical tape.
Step 7.) Fold over the remaining outer tabs and then wrap the vinyl tightly and secure it with electrical tape along the inside of the belt. Take a peek at the outside of the belt to see how it looks so far, it should look pretty seamless so far.
Step 8.) Some of the Kamen Rider belts have a border going along the length of the belts. You can imitate this by putting electrical tape as shown in the images, folding it over the same way you did the vinyl to keep it seamless. I used the end that goes into the buckle as a reference to how wide to make the border.
Step 9.) Take your duct tape and go along the entire inside of the vinyl belt, from end to end, folding it over the end opposite of the side that goes into the buckle to secure it. I put several layers of duct tape over where the actual plastic strap is under the vinyl as a security measure to make sure the hot glue won't melt through to the plastic.
Step 10.) Slide the vinyl belt into the back plastic square piece that came with your belt that goes in the back opposite the buckle.
Step 11.) Hot glue the rough part of the velcro to the inside of the end of your vinyl belt (the part you looped into the square).
Step 12.) Hot glue the soft part of the velcro to the inside of the middle of your belt somewhere. I did a 4 inch strip of velcro that went half way from where the plastic strap ends, but this all depends on how big your waist is and how long your velcro strap is.
- Step 13.) Repeat steps 2 - 12 for the other plastic strap of the belt.
You have now modified your Henshin Belt perfectly for photoshoots and it now looks friggin awesome. Congratulations, you are now part of Shocker! *clap clap clap*[/hide]
Modification v.4 (belt replacement):
[hide]Invasiveness - High
Difficulty - Medium to High; This depends on the detail of the belt you are trying to modify. Also, this will not work on every belt. If the strap that stays attached to the buckle is not easily removable, do not try and force it as you may end up breaking the belt.
Effectiveness - 10/10; This method modifies the Henshin belt to fit any size looks a lot better, plus it is completely seamless to anyone looking at the belt when worn on all sides, especially if you are able to cover the back very well with the original DX Belt's back plate or strap.
What you will need
- Your DX Henshin Belt
- Seat belt of your color choice for belts that do not clip on the buckle (ie, Kabuto belts). Otherwise, you can go with a guitar strap of your color choice. Ebay is a great place to look for these items. Another option for belts that have a clip and a larger back cover (two slots on the cover instead of it just being one big slot cover) is Arctic Vinyl or some similar Vinyl. The difference between Arctic Vinyl and standard upholstery Vinyl is that upholstery Vinyl has white fuzziness underneath. Arctic Vinyl is pretty solid, but more expensive. I used Grey from Joann's Fabric and Craft Store for my Ryuki belt and it works perfectly.
- Scissors
- Knife
- Hole Punch (for Vinyl version)
- Thin screw driver
- Craft Foam, or Crayola Model Magic and Sculpting Clay (depends on what needs to be added, will explain further)
- Match or lighter
Directions (Seat Belt method)
Step 1.) DO THIS BEFORE PURCHASING ANYTHING. Unscrew the parts of the buckle and clip on the DX Belt where the strap goes in. You should be able to completely remove one side of the panel that holds in the strap. If you can't remove it with ease after unscrewing it, STOP RIGHT HERE. You will not be able to go further.
Step 2.) Take the seat belt and wrap it around your waist, buckle to the back. You want to measure how much of the belt you should keep, as well as how long you want the excess that you use to adjust. Make sure you have enough to get to the sides of the main buckle part, with an extra inch to insert into the parts where the DX Belt straps are screwed into the buckle and clip.
Step 3.) Cut the seat belt to size.
Step 4.) Remove the strap. It will either be held in by two thick plastic pins, or will have a thin metal rod going through. That's what you'll need to hold in the seat belt strap. Following instructions are for the pins. For the rod, proceed instead to step 9.
Step 5.) Place the end of the seat belt strap onto the pins where you will be putting it to hold onto the belt. Using a pen or Sharpie, mark where you will need holes to go into the pins. Do the same on the other end of the seat belt strap.
Step 6.) Cut out the pin holes on the seat belt strap with the knife. BE VERY CAREFUL. You don't want to cut yourself.
Step 7.) Using a match or lighter, burn the holes a little bit, keeping thing under control by blowing on the holes to make sure you don't set the whole belt on fire. You need to burn the holes, because otherwise the fabric will fray and begin to fall apart.
Step 8.) Place the straps onto the pins, and screw the belt back together. Test the belt out to see if it's the right size. If the buckle isn't dead center on your back, you may need to adjust the strap length, and possible cut off some of the ends to even it up and make new pin holes.
Step 9.) This is for belts that use the thin metal rod instead of the thick plastic pins. All you have to do is cut off a bit of the edges so that you can slide and fold over a piece of fabric into where the straps go. You want it to look like the ends of the plastic straps that go into the buckle, but about two or three times longer with the thinner part so you can fold it over and either sew or hot glue it down. Pull out the metal rod, fold the end of the fabric over it, and then sew or hot glue together so that it stays in place, then just put the metal rod back into the buckle of the belt with the fabric on it.
Step 10.) If your want real detail on the belt, like the sectioned off look on the Hopper Belt from Kabuto, you will have to make that yourself. If it's just sections, you can use Craft Foam to easily duplicate that. The way the Hopper Belt is, I would just cut the sections and staple them onto the strap, then cut more Craft Foam for the raised parts on the tops and bottoms of the sections, and glue that on with regular Elmer's Glue. Remove the strap and spray paint silver. If you have a more detailed belt, like the Blade belts or the Double Driver, it gets a little more complex. I would use Model Magic here. The first thing you need to do is to take the original toy straps, and using the sculpting clay, imprint the design onto it. Bake the clay to make it hard once you have a suitable sample. Then, take the Model Magic, and work it into the clay mold to get the design. If you're doing this to the Blade belts, you can either get an imprint from one section and then make several molds of Model Magic to make it sectioned, or imprint the whole belt and mold the Model Magic in which you would cut the sections out after it dries. When you're done molding, let the Model Magic air dry at least 24 hours. You should then be able to cut it as you need, and make it so it slides onto the strap or glue it to the strap in some way using hot glue.
Directions (Arctic Vinyl method)
Just follow the same directions as the seat belt, but you'll be using the back cover of the DX belt to string your straps through similar to the Belt Covering method. Use velcro and hot glue and combine with steps 10, 11, and 12 from the Belt Covering method
Directions (Guitar Strap method)
(Under Construction)[/hide]
Please note, some products used to replace belt straps are often too thin to really hold up anything with significant weight that you put on the straps, like Decade's Ride Booker. Often it will cause the strap to start folding over.
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