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Is translucent plastic more susceptible to wear/breakage? If so, why?

AdamFett wrote:Is translucent plastic more susceptible to wear/breakage? If so, why?

Yes, because it's a property of the material. I'm not a chemist, so I couldn't tell you why, but I can tell you that translucent plastic has a notably lower tolerance to stress of any kind, but is particularly susceptible to shearing.

RAcast wrote:

AdamFett wrote:Is translucent plastic more susceptible to wear/breakage? If so, why?

Yes, because it's a property of the material. I'm not a chemist, so I couldn't tell you why, but I can tell you that translucent plastic has a notably lower tolerance to stress of any kind, but is particularly susceptible to shearing.

So Botcon cindersaur would be an unwise purchase when you consider the long run?

AdamFett wrote:

RAcast wrote:

AdamFett wrote:Is translucent plastic more susceptible to wear/breakage? If so, why?

Yes, because it's a property of the material. I'm not a chemist, so I couldn't tell you why, but I can tell you that translucent plastic has a notably lower tolerance to stress of any kind, but is particularly susceptible to shearing.

So Botcon cindersaur would be an unwise purchase when you consider the long run?

Actually, he doesn't have as many translucent bits as you'd think. Ideally, his blue parts would all be translucent, but the designers decided against it for tolerance reasons.

In short, he's safe. The makers are well-aware of the limits of translucent plastic, even with would be clear figures.

Is cindersaur pretty rare then?

AdamFett wrote:Is cindersaur pretty rare then?

Not really. he was one of the least desirable from that Botcon year, so he's around for decent prices.

So, crappy plastic, and him being not so rare, i wouldn't be missing out on much?

AdamFett wrote:So, crappy plastic, and him being not so rare, i wouldn't be missing out on much?

I wouldn't go out of your way to locate him. The Beast Wars Anniversary mold has only been repainted three times:

- Cybertron Deluxe (which I have)
- BotCon Cindersaur
- United Beast Megatron, which has a deeper purple

Cindersaur was only meant to complete the G2 Firecons set, as only Flamefeather and Sparkstalker were released back then.

Hasbro is capable of doing strong clear plastic items...



You can bash this on the floor alot and it's not gonna break.

I see Botcon Cindersaur on ebay all the time. I have the United version of the toy, and really do quite like it, so Botcon Cindersaur is always a possibility, since I had the G1 Cindersaur as well. Kinda want my first Botcon toy to be someone decent though. If only Pyro wasn't so damned rare and expensive. I'd settle for the Sharkticons at a decent price.

Anyway, yeah, translucent plastic is always more fragile than opaque stuff, basically. Unless you're getting into the realms of submarine windows and the like, probably. Can't think of many TFs I have that have an abundance of translucent plastic, but my Dark Energon guys are in transit as we speak, and you'd better believe I'm going to be more careful with them than the normal versions of those moulds.

Just realize that the peg system in bruticus maximus is made of clear plastic... anyone having issues with theirs yet? miens seems fine but I just leave it there and never mess with it with the FP upgrades.

mooncake623 wrote:Just realize that the peg system in bruticus maximus is made of clear plastic... anyone having issues with theirs yet? miens seems fine but I just leave it there and never mess with it with the FP upgrades.

The pegs have a metal core, they're perfectly safe.

I bought a Cindersaur at the end of the summer from a fellow board member, mainly because it had been a few years since I'd been able to pick up a Botcon figure. Now, I'm not a big fan of the mold, having had and sold the Cybertron Megatron version, but Cindersaur is kind of just nutty enough to be super cool. The colors are just ridiculous, and the robot mode is just dopey enough to make him a really nice piece. Personally, if you can get him for around or less than $50 I'd say he's totally worth it.

As for the translucent plastic, I'm considering a Dark Energon Knock Out.....anyone have him and can speak to the strength of his plastic? That's the one thing that's been holding my order back.

haven't yet noticed any issues with the plastic on any of the Dark Energon deluxes. WELL...I lie, I've noticed some issues, but none that seem a real problem. It's mostly just something I've noticed a lot recently on normal figures too: that the parts don't seem to be getting trimmed up as neatly from their sprues/frames/etc before being assembled. Both DE Knock Out and DE Bumblebee have a couple of places where the cut from the frame is a bit messy. It just shows up a lot more on the see-through guys.