The Energon Pub

News Credits: 3 · Thu Oct 22, 2009 3:05 pm

I just opened my Perceptor and when I tried to insert a missile into the launcher, it slid right out. The problem was the red trigger on top was stuck in the open position. After taking it apart, the trigger was glued so it wouldn't hold a missile in place. It was easy to fix, but has anyone else had this problem or was I just lucky.

News Credits: 241 · Thu Oct 22, 2009 3:09 pm

muswp1 wrote:I just opened my Perceptor and when I tried to insert a missile into the launcher, it slid right out. The problem was the red trigger on top was stuck in the open position. After taking it apart, the trigger was glued so it wouldn't hold a missile in place. It was easy to fix, but has anyone else had this problem or was I just lucky.

I bet it was glued in the wrong position. Remember, most of the time Hasbro disables the launchers for their reissues, Toy Safety Laws.

News Credits: 3 · Thu Oct 22, 2009 4:00 pm

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:
muswp1 wrote:I just opened my Perceptor and when I tried to insert a missile into the launcher, it slid right out. The problem was the red trigger on top was stuck in the open position. After taking it apart, the trigger was glued so it wouldn't hold a missile in place. It was easy to fix, but has anyone else had this problem or was I just lucky.

I bet it was glued in the wrong position. Remember, most of the time Hasbro disables the launchers for their reissues, Toy Safety Laws.

There was no spring inside, which I expected, so it was disabled. But any glue on that trigger would make it impossible to insert or remove a missle since it's the trigger that holds it in place.

News Credits: 12 · Thu Oct 22, 2009 6:00 pm

Why would they need to remove the springs from reissues, when they're making NEW toys that have working missile launchers?

News Credits: 3 · Thu Oct 22, 2009 7:52 pm

GuyIncognito wrote:Why would they need to remove the springs from reissues, when they're making NEW toys that have working missile launchers?

The missile safety laws insist that any firing missile would have to be at least two inches long (or wide) to prevent children from choking if they fire a missile into their mouths, where the G1 figures had much smaller missiles (Tracks for instance, really tiny).
As a result the law requires that either the missiles are made musch longer (like the early commemorative reissues, Starscream, Prime, Magnus, Jazz etc.) or that the firing mechanism is removed altogether. All current generation missiles conform to these standards.

- Sam

Fri Oct 23, 2009 6:06 pm

This may sound a little bit insensitive, but if you're making a habbit of shooting toy missles into your mouth, perhaps you should go back to playing with Duplo blocks.

News Credits: 1 · Fri Oct 23, 2009 6:26 pm

Grahf wrote:This may sound a little bit insensitive, but if you're making a habbit of shooting toy missles into your mouth, perhaps you should go back to playing with Duplo blocks.

HAHAHA. I don't have a problem with the new missiles, I pretty much leave them in the turret all the time. And why would a kid be shooting missiles into their mouth with a decently expensive toy?

Fri Oct 23, 2009 7:40 pm

I think I must have had the same issue, but until your finding, I hought the plastic had just stuck. I just pushed the trigger down to hold it manually, heard a small cracking sound that I associate with two stuck bits of plastic moving after long time in that position, and thought no more about it.

News Credits: 3 · Fri Oct 23, 2009 7:43 pm

Don't get me wrong, I don't mean all kids, just the stupid ones... in my day we'd call that Darwin at work. These days it's all about companies needing to cover their asses if some stupid kid gets injured or dies playing with their toys. As the children get dumber the restrictions get worse.
Also not saying all kids are stupid, some people do a damn fine job of raising their kids... but working in retail, I run across the dumb ones quite often.

- Sam

Fri Oct 23, 2009 7:47 pm

I'm calling it now, the next reissue will be coated in nothing but lead paint minus the springs.

News Credits: 1 · Fri Oct 23, 2009 8:17 pm

Samsonator wrote:but working in retail, I run across the dumb ones quite often.

- Sam

If this was facebook, I would "LIKE" what you just said, lol.

News Credits: 1 · Fri Oct 23, 2009 10:24 pm

Samsonator wrote:Don't get me wrong, I don't mean all kids, just the stupid ones... in my day we'd call that Darwin at work. These days it's all about companies needing to cover their asses if some stupid kid gets injured or dies playing with their toys. As the children get dumber the restrictions get worse.
Also not saying all kids are stupid, some people do a damn fine job of raising their kids... but working in retail, I run across the dumb ones quite often.

- Sam

Wow, I don't know where to start. I was a pretty good kid, and I would venture to say fairly intelligent for my age, but I did some stupid stuff. Didn't we all? Everyone makes mistakes, especially when you're a kid, even more so when you're curious.

Additionally, stuff happens. How many adult collectors have been randomly shot in the face with a missile while transforming a figure? I know I have.

Are you saying that there should be no safety standards? That if a kid is injured, regardless of his/her level of intelligence, nothing should be done to prevent that same thing from happening to other kids?

Are toddlers who don't know any better in your category of "the stupid ones"?

/Rant

Sat Oct 24, 2009 2:53 am

It's not that bad, at least this does make some kind of sense, and was implemented after a kid sucking on a Mark 2.0 Viper from Battlestar Galactica shot a missile down his throat and died.

It's not like the other day, when I went to a place called Charlesworth Nuts, bought a bage of Salted Nut Mix, with the ingredients of Peanuts, Cashews, Almonds, Brazil Nuts, Pecan Nuts, and a few other types of Nuts, with a big warning underneath saying it may contain traces of peanuts and other nuts, followed by a second, smaller warning that it was produced in a factory where nuts are processed.

News Credits: 241 · Sat Oct 24, 2009 2:13 pm

Arucard wrote:It's not that bad, at least this does make some kind of sense, and was implemented after a kid sucking on a Mark 2.0 Viper from Battlestar Galactica shot a missile down his throat and died.

It's not like the other day, when I went to a place called Charlesworth Nuts, bought a bage of Salted Nut Mix, with the ingredients of Peanuts, Cashews, Almonds, Brazil Nuts, Pecan Nuts, and a few other types of Nuts, with a big warning underneath saying it may contain traces of peanuts and other nuts, followed by a second, smaller warning that it was produced in a factory where nuts are processed.

OK, that tops the "Contents may be hot" on a container of fresh coffee from McDonald's.

Let's leave the kids alone and focus on the parents for once. Seriously, who does the raising more nowadays? They, or the government?

...

On second thought, let's get back on topic.

News Credits: 32 · Sat Oct 24, 2009 3:17 pm

Mine has the same problem. Very disappointing when I first opened him up. I almost returned him immediately.

News Credits: 767 · Sat Oct 24, 2009 4:44 pm

Grahf wrote:This may sound a little bit insensitive, but if you're making a habbit of shooting toy missles into your mouth, perhaps you should go back to playing with Duplo blocks.

A few kids in the 70's actually did that with a Battle Star Galactica ship and died which caused the launching mechanism to be disabled for all future releases.
It was argued that it was the companies fault as they made the missiles very phallic and thus very inviting for children to suck on them, I am not making this up.

I read it on wired the top ten deadliest oys or something.

News Credits: 11 · Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:20 pm

lol, I just posted in another thread about this. Same deal here, they must be all like that.

How do you get the launcher apart without breaking it?

News Credits: 3 · Fri Oct 30, 2009 2:51 am

kirbenvost wrote:How do you get the launcher apart without breaking it?

Pull the circular red tip off the end then take out the screw and it'll split down the middle. However, unless you're doing something else in there (like adding a spring or something,) just breaking the glue from the trigger didn't seem to help all that much for me. The missile still falls out almost as easily as when it was glued as it doesn't really keep latched on the groove of the missle...the trigger is now just loose and floppy.

News Credits: 11 · Fri Oct 30, 2009 12:30 pm

Hmm, I couldn't seem to get the circular part off, but I managed to do it anyway. Caused a couple minor stress marks, but nothing noticable...

Stays in a little better for display anyway.

News Credits: 3 · Fri Oct 30, 2009 1:13 pm

I got a bit of stressing on the trigger trying to break the glue seal without taking it apart... The tip didn't come off easy for me, but it didn't stress any either.

I do like the figure quite a bit, though...despite the chest flaw. Thanks for the response in the other thread, too.

News Credits: 11 · Fri Oct 30, 2009 1:26 pm

No worries!

Fri Oct 30, 2009 3:34 pm

Take the spring from a clicking pen, clip it enough to fill the wider cavity in front of the trigger stop (inside the barrel) and you'll have enough force on the trigger to hold the missile. It'll take a narrower and longer spring than the typical pen spring. There's a little spot where the barrel gets narrower (in order to hold the missile) where you can stick the tip of the spring in order to secure it.

News Credits: 3 · Fri Oct 30, 2009 3:53 pm

heltskelt wrote:Take the spring from a clicking pen, clip it enough to fill the wider cavity in front of the trigger stop (inside the barrel) and you'll have enough force on the trigger to hold the missile. It'll take a narrower and longer spring than the typical pen spring. There's a little spot where the barrel gets narrower (in order to hold the missile) where you can stick the tip of the spring in order to secure it.

Just did the mod... You, sir, just earned yourself an atta boy! :APPLAUSE:

*edit:
FWIW, I used the spring from a disposable mechanical pencil. Cutting the spring in about half seemed to work nicely.

News Credits: 11 · Fri Oct 30, 2009 3:56 pm

Cool tip! I considered doing it myself, but since I have problems finding pen springs small enough to beef up the suspensions on my micro RC dune buggies, I decided not to bother. :lol:

Fri Oct 30, 2009 9:13 pm

I don't have the original perceptor, so i can only assume that the original trigger stop must have the typical nub where a narrow spring is attached to shoot the missile. I don't really care to make it shoot the missile, just hold it in place. When you take the gun apart, be careful not to break the trigger when detaching the glue. Thank you for the "atta boy".