The Energon Pub

Hi,

I have one of the first wave of the Henkei seekers, Skywarp, I have done a lot of renovation to try to fix some of the problems with him. There is one thing I cannot work out and am hoping one of you has found the solution.

How do you make the torso fit together properly? It will not close up.

I have tried shaving plastic from areas where I think it is rubbing, but as yet have had no luck. The torso closes fine without the cockpit in, and the cockpit fits fine without the torso closed.

I really hope Hasbro comes out with a Generations Skywarp to match Universe 2.0 Starscream and Generations Thundercracker, then I may be able to splice the pieces together, using the torso from the Hasbro one, and the KO limbs and wings to simulate a Henkei Skywarp. (When the original Takara one came out I could only afford one, and got Thundercracker)

I'm assuming you have the Type 1 Skywarp, not the brand new, and far superior, CHMS Skywarp. If you're going to play with it or transform it very much (rather than leaving it on display) I highly recommend you upgrade. The CHMS has far superior plastic quality to the type 1; I will be ordering one in a few days (along with the purple clone and e-hobby Sunstorm CHMS seekers).

You can tell by checking to see what, if any, IP info is on the inside of one of its legs; the CHMS version is labeled as such (unless you just got it in the last week or so I doubt you have a CHMS Skywarp).

(I currently have one each of Takara Henkei Skywarp and Thundercracker, a Type 1 KO Kenkei Skywarp and a CHMS KP Thundercracker since I like to display one Transformer in each of its modes); the CHMS Thundercracker is the best quality of the lot by far.)

I haven't even transformed the Type 1 Skywarp out of plane mode yet. Not sure what's going on with your body's gap.

No, I do not have the CHMS version, it came out a couple of days after I ordered the Skywarp. I was gutted. I have shaved, built up with superglue and fixed all the problems with the earlier mould now. Save the torso closing issue. The floppy arm rivets I can live with.

If only I knew what was wrong with the torso, I could try to fix that as well.

Mine had a similar problem when I opened it. The problem ended up being that they missed one screw that attached the cockpit to the body and the seconded screw was very loose so it would not latch together right, after screwing in the one and adding another one it works fine now. Too bad I can’t take a look at yours I’m very good at repairing TF and have a pile of seeker parts including a SW or two.

Protoform-Goblin wrote:Mine had a similar problem when I opened it. The problem ended up being that they missed one screw that attached the cockpit to the body and the seconded screw was very loose so it would not latch together right, after screwing in the one and adding another one it works fine now. Too bad I can’t take a look at yours I’m very good at repairing TF and have a pile of seeker parts including a SW or two.

I am normally pretty good at fixing them as well, this one is jut baffling me. I checked those two screws as you suggested. They did require a bit of tightening, which allows the cockpit to fasten much more securely to the fuselage in jet mode, but has had little effect on the robot mode torso not closing sadly.

It has to be something to do with the cockpit/chest, as the fuselage fits together perfectly in jet mode, and I substituted my Generations Thrust cockpit and the torso fits perfectly.

I think I found the heart of the problem. The small black plastic block in the back of the cockpit that allows it to pivot and rotate was installed backwards, and is too large. I reversed it and shaved some of the plastic off the side that is causing problems. Now the torso almost completely closes. I may shave more off to get a tight fit, but for now I am a little concerned about the strength of the plastic.

Dread_Wing wrote:I think I found the heart of the problem. The small black plastic block in the back of the cockpit that allows it to pivot and rotate was installed backwards, and is too large. I reversed it and shaved some of the plastic off the side that is causing problems. Now the torso almost completely closes. I may shave more off to get a tight fit, but for now I am a little concerned about the strength of the plastic.

I would be careful doing that as the first version was a better plastic then the older KO but not as good as the real deal, what you should do is just strip the part from another seeker like dirge or thrust since they are still out and relatively cheep and just paint or dye the part black to fit SW, *shrugs* or at least that’s what I would do. That’s my 2 cents.

If Hasbro won't give me Thundercracker in his Action Master colours maybe a KO will? I mean, it looked like a KO designed by someone on an acid trip in the first place anyway...

Protoform-Goblin wrote:I would be careful doing that as the first version was a better plastic then the older KO but not as good as the real deal, what you should do is just strip the part from another seeker like dirge or thrust since they are still out and relatively cheep and just paint or dye the part black to fit SW, *shrugs* or at least that’s what I would do. That’s my 2 cents.

Good idea! I cannibalised the part from a spare Dirge I have (it already has had it's cockpit glass swapped with my Thrust) and Skywarp's torso closes completely now. Poor Dirge has a partly closing torso now, to go with his yellow cockpit glass, poor guy, lol.

Thank you!

Lol well seeing how dirge always got thrashed in the comics I guess that makes him comic accurate