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Forget all of the micron ports on him (they actually don't look bad at all in person): the big bruiser is pretty fragile! This guy does not survive the drop test! I got him in the mail today and put him on my shelf in Truck mode. He fell off about 2 feet and his driver side mirror snapped off. cleanly. I was able to completely fix it with super glue (I noticed that the glue actually absorbed a bit of the blue paint pigment too), but I began noticing all of his frailties.

His shoulders rotate on decently sized ball joints...which are connected to his torso with 3mm wide rods. His transformation calls for bending his arms backwards at the elbows, and I swear to Primus, I thought his elbows were going to shatter from the stress. And before someone accuses me of being a clumsy oaf: I have only ever broken two Transformers figures in my 20+ years (There's a blue Grimlock and green Slag somewhere in my closet) of collecting them! The first was Power Core Combiner Huffer (that little peg that joins his legs together snapped off) and my first Arms Micron Bulo (one of his knee joints shattered during the assembly process)

Maybe it's the plastic Takara cast him in? It feels pretty thin and light. Plus, I'm afraid of transforming Zamu, after what happened to my first Bulo (Buro? Burro? Bullo?). I'm just going to wait for the Dr. Wu hammer before any combat poses are made...

i had heard of its fragility on a couple podcasts

that is pretty tough luck about your drop regardless
good to hear you were able to mend

Hope Hasbro makes a better mold of him in the future. That sounds horrifying.

orangeitis wrote:Hope Hasbro makes a better mold of him in the future. That sounds horrifying.

I would never have even suspected the mirrors being so fragile. They look almost exactly the same as the mirrors on Powerizer Voyager (or AM-01) Optimus Prime! The thing is, the mirrors on Prime are part of a single piece that make up his entire pectoral. Breakdown's mirrors are small pieces molded separately and glued to the side of his door. It broke so cleanly, that there was actually no damage, and I could simply trace the original glue line and fasten it back on.

It doesn't feel like the figure was designed with children in mind.

Gearslide wrote:It doesn't feel like the figure was designed with children in mind.

Not western children, no. More children in this country seem to lack decent parenting. That coupled with certain groups focusing more on censoring and building rules around the things hurting the children, rather than encouraging their parents to discipline them better causes us to get the short end of the stick when it comes to... well anything, really. And by "us", I'm not talking about only adults. The smart, disciplined kids are suffering from it too.

TakaraTomy's products are mainly geared toward Japanese kids, after all. And if they had many problems with those toys, I doubt the toys would be made like that. It's not the product that's the problem, it's the target audience.

Though admittedly, TakaraTomy still could've made the toy better. Accidents happen, after all.

I still remember playing lawn darts as a kid. An "accidental" headshot was seen as a 10 points because you a) hit a very small target and b) it was a moving target at that.

Oh how times have changed...

orangeitis wrote:Hope Hasbro makes a better mold of him in the future. That sounds horrifying.

.....Have you not seen what Hasbro does to molds already made? Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Starscream, and (opinion may differ here) Cliffjumper all suffer from being worse than their original molds. Hasbro is more than likely to screw it up than fix it.

It is frightening to see how thin Breakdown's plastic is. I worry that newer PRID molds will become thinner and thinner. F.E. and early PRID have more weight and solidity than this guy. And I LOVE my Breakdown. I do. But I recognize it's frailties and flaws.

I never expected TakaraTomy to get so cheap.

PrimeStriker wrote:

orangeitis wrote:Hope Hasbro makes a better mold of him in the future. That sounds horrifying.

.....Have you not seen what Hasbro does to molds already made? Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Starscream, and (opinion may differ here) Cliffjumper all suffer from being worse than their original molds. Hasbro is more than likely to screw it up than fix it.

First of all, opinion may differ on all of them, not just ol' CJ there. Second, the FEs are originally Hasbro's too. And what else is Hasbro's? CHUGs, the figures from the movie trilogy, the Animated line... their track record is just as good as it is bad IMO. I don't see how there's more of a chance of Hasbro making a crappier figure.

orangeitis wrote:

PrimeStriker wrote:

orangeitis wrote:Hope Hasbro makes a better mold of him in the future. That sounds horrifying.

.....Have you not seen what Hasbro does to molds already made? Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Starscream, and (opinion may differ here) Cliffjumper all suffer from being worse than their original molds. Hasbro is more than likely to screw it up than fix it.

First of all, opinion may differ on all of them, not just ol' CJ there. Second, the FEs are originally Hasbro's too. And what else is Hasbro's? CHUGs, the figures from the movie trilogy, the Animated line... their track record is just as good as it is bad IMO. I don't see how there's more of a chance of Hasbro making a crappier figure.

Hasbro isn't releasing Breakdown here, so it's a moot point, really. And Hasbro's toys are getting thinner and cheaper in terms of quality. No reason to be tooting Hasbro's horn. I bought FOC Jazz today and it feels like junk.