The Energon Pub

Banjo-Tron wrote:

Wolfman Jake wrote:Well, I have my set in hand now, bought from eBay once it was announced the set sold out at the show. I hope I didn't buy from that scalper who bought up all the product. Anyway, I'm impressed. The joints on my figures are VERY tight. A little too tight in some cases, but it's better than the floppy limbs some production runs have seen of this mold in the past 7 years.

So it's not just me with a floppy Universe Starscream?

Do we really need to answer that?

If yes, most if not all Universe 2008 Starscreams are floppy at best, thanks to one too many mold alterations. The original still functioning mold was reinstated with Ghost Starscream and Generations Thrust.

Yeah, Universe Starscream being floppy was a standard for that toy's release. Afterward, they fixed the mold for all subsequent Seeker releases (unless I'm forgetting any more floppy ones that came after).

Sabrblade wrote:Yeah, Universe Starscream being floppy was a standard for that toy's release. Afterward, they fixed the mold for all subsequent Seeker releases (unless I'm forgetting any more floppy ones that came after).

So is Universe Acid Storm also affected by this floppiness? I own two of them, and the only floppiness I've had issues with is a teeny bit on one of their wings.

Mindmaster wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Yeah, Universe Starscream being floppy was a standard for that toy's release. Afterward, they fixed the mold for all subsequent Seeker releases (unless I'm forgetting any more floppy ones that came after).

So is Universe Acid Storm also affected by this floppiness? I own two of them, and the only floppiness I've had issues with is a teeny bit on one of their wings.

Yeah, my Universe Acid Storm is a little more loose than average, but still holds a pose well. My Universe Starscream is, actually, not too bad either. It's definately looser than a lot of other Hasbro releases of the mold, but I don't have problems with his legs trying to spontaneously do a split on the shelf like I've had with some Seeker figures (BotCon '07 Thundercracker).

I've never had a problem with my Universe Starscream being floppy. He holds together well and holds any pose I give him, even with the ginormous-ness that is Dr. Wu's Magnum/gun mode Henkei megs.

Actually, never had any problems other than one of my CHMS KOs of the mold.

dedcat wrote:Give it a year and this set will be going for $60 to $80 on ebay.

The prices on these are dropping already. I scored a set for $150 shipping included on eBay yesterday.

Wolfman Jake wrote:Well, I have my set in hand now, bought from eBay once it was announced the set sold out at the show. I hope I didn't buy from that scalper who bought up all the product. Anyway, I'm impressed. The joints on my figures are VERY tight. A little too tight in some cases, but it's better than the floppy limbs some production runs have seen of this mold in the past 7 years.

Sad to say, but if you bought from a seller with the user name "ALMAR_ENT" - you DID buy from the scalper. As of right now, he still has several sets up for grabs, and he's even broken down a few sets to make more from selling them individually than he can get for the set.

I'm trying to spread the word about this guy, cos this appears to be a tactic he uses in ALL his sales which are very heavily TF based. Economy is tight for most folks, but it isn't right that one person is sitting pretty at the expense of so many others. In the long run, this kind of behaviour hurts the whole fandom.

Wolfman Jake wrote:Well, I have my set in hand now, bought from eBay once it was announced the set sold out at the show. I hope I didn't buy from that scalper who bought up all the product. Anyway, I'm impressed. The joints on my figures are VERY tight. A little too tight in some cases, but it's better than the floppy limbs some production runs have seen of this mold in the past 7 years.

Sad to say, but if you bought from a seller with the user name "ALMAR_ENT" - you DID buy from the scalper. As of right now, he still has several sets up for grabs, and he's even broken down a few sets to make more from selling them individually than he can get for the set.

I'm trying to spread the word about this guy, cos this appears to be a tactic he uses in ALL his sales which are very heavily TF based. Economy is tight for most folks, but it isn't right that one person is sitting pretty at the expense of so many others. In the long run, this kind of behaviour hurts the whole fandom.

Mine came from ALMAR_ENT as well
Glad I now know why he has so many sets. I'll be avoiding him in future because of his tactics.

On a plus my Rainmakers arrived today, and I'm very happy with them. Nice joints and feel to everything. My aces seekers set feels horrible compared to this set. Cuts in plastic from mold tree are a lot better. No floppy wings, everything fits together very nicely as if it was the first ever use of this mold what is it up to now? 29 uses...

The BotCon 2013 Rainmaker is back in stock at BBTS.com
I ordered mine this morning after I thought I had missed out.

MyBumbee wrote:

Wolfman Jake wrote:Well, I have my set in hand now, bought from eBay once it was announced the set sold out at the show. I hope I didn't buy from that scalper who bought up all the product. Anyway, I'm impressed. The joints on my figures are VERY tight. A little too tight in some cases, but it's better than the floppy limbs some production runs have seen of this mold in the past 7 years.

Sad to say, but if you bought from a seller with the user name "ALMAR_ENT" - you DID buy from the scalper. As of right now, he still has several sets up for grabs, and he's even broken down a few sets to make more from selling them individually than he can get for the set.

I'm trying to spread the word about this guy, cos this appears to be a tactic he uses in ALL his sales which are very heavily TF based. Economy is tight for most folks, but it isn't right that one person is sitting pretty at the expense of so many others. In the long run, this kind of behaviour hurts the whole fandom.

Does this guy own some sort of store? Is that why he did that?

I got my set in hand and I noticed a few things about the mould compared to my older seekers.

Nosecone - if you look carefully at the earliest seeker moulds (Skywarp and Starscream) the nose of the 'plane bends ever-so-slightly to the right. This problem is a lot worse on the Rainmakers.

Wings - align the seekers next to each other and their wingtips touch, right? Wrong. One wingtip sits higher than the other and this has always been the case with the seeker mould, but again seems to be worse on the rainmakers.

So I guess my point is that mould degradation has taken its toll on these guys, just not manifested as loose joints in this case. Also, my Sunstorm is missing the 'cap' that sits on the rear of one of the missile launchers. Anyone else notice this?