The Energon Pub

Disclaimer, if this topic has been posted elsewhere, or something like this has been discussed, please direct me to the appropriate topic, and I ask a Mod lock this one if such a case exists. Thank you, we now return you to the Transformers.

Ok, that obnoxious disclaimer aside, I have a little something on my mind. A long time ago when I was playing with my Transmetal Megatron toy, not the dragon mind you, the T-rex, it split in half at the waist from just transforming him normally. I figured, ok, rare defect, it happens. So I did my best to fix it, though it's now permanently in robot mode, it is at least fixed... But today, while working at my place of work, I came across, of all things, a Transmetal Megatron. Of course, as the case is with TFs donated to the thrift store I work at, he wasn't complete, and he was also broken. But what's interesting about this one, it was broken in the exact same way as mine. That's right, split in half at the waist. The break also looked alarmingly similar to the break on my own from what I recalled. The odds of finding such a now rare toy at my work place are pretty low anyways. And also very low on that toy having the same defect. This makes me think it may have been more common that I had previously thought. So what does this mean? I have no idea, so now, I'm going to put this up for anyone to say, do you still have a Transmetal Megatron, and has it split at the waist from either normal transformation, or just general playing with it? Also, has this happened yet to anyone who owns the Predacon Armada repaint? I did notice a difference between the two with Predacon having a longer screw that actually can be seen where the Beast Mode head is stored in robot mode. I would hope higher quality plastic was used, and that the longer screw makes the toy more resilient. Course, the longer screw made me suspect that the spontaneous waist split was more common than I had thought, with today only confirming that... Thoughts as well as answers to the previous questions?

It happened to mine as well. I remember getting him and having him break in half the next day right at the waist. Keep in mind that I was never a destructive kid. I've always taken my time with TF's. I returned him to the store only to find that they did'nt have anymore in stock. I never saw them in stores again.

I really wish I could get another.

You know what? My Beast Wars TM Megatron is in the exact same condition. o_o

Then again, when Beast Wars was around I was just entering elementary school. XP I had always figured its in that kind of shape cause I played with it in a not so careful way.

I own Predacon, the TM Megatron repaint, and so far it has yet to break in any places. Again, I just think its because I'm taking better care of my TFs.

I've never had a Transmetal Megs but I know what the problem is that you guys are having. It's Brown Plastic Syndrome.

The brown plastic that his waist is made of actually mimics the qualities of the infamous "Gold plastic" that is the bane of all Black Zarak owners. You can read up on the GPS (Gold Plastic Syndrome) condition here at the Transfomers Wiki.

http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/Gold ... c_Syndrome

The Beast Wars Metals Megatron and Armada Predacon figures used different plastic to avoid the issue.

Hope this answers your questions.

GPS?

*Looks at Animated Grimlock* Oh-oh...

Chaoslock wrote:GPS?

*Looks at Animated Grimlock* Oh-oh...

Don't worry, Grimlock is immune to GPS because of the type of plastic used.

What makes gold plastic so delicate for older figures? I've noticed that G2 Slingshot is worth a pretty penny if it's not broken and I've yet to see one out of package that is'nt broken.

robofreak wrote:
What makes gold plastic so delicate for older figures? I've noticed that G2 Slingshot is worth a pretty penny if it's not broken and I've yet to see one out of package that is'nt broken.

From what I've read it's because of the added gold glitter put into the plactic.

Basically, if you look at the plastic and can see swirls where the glitter and such is, it's vulnerable to GPS. Ani Grimlock doesn't have those swirls. As a side note, the breaks in GPS often happened along those swirls.

Valandar wrote:Basically, if you look at the plastic and can see swirls where the glitter and such is, it's vulnerable to GPS. Ani Grimlock doesn't have those swirls. As a side note, the breaks in GPS often happened along those swirls.

Actually, I believe it does have to do more with the sparkly 'inclusions' than with the swirling effect.

My fiance is a chemical engineer and we have tried to look into this as best possible.

The most likely scenarios we've come up with is for the inclusion sparkles to break down and basically create less dense plastic with pores in it. Or, the most likely scenario is that the coloring for the plastic (in this case gold) did not bond properly with the plastic polymer and you end up with two materials living mixed with each other (which makes for easier breaking).

It's...complicated. Without knowing the polymer mix and coloring dye, it's hard to be certain of anything.

I came up with a similar theory last night CP. I'm beginning to suspect that the plastic used had a bad reaction to the glitter used for the metallics which created micro bubbles that would result in brittle plastic.

GPS was always in the back of my mind once I lost G2 Slingshot's head. Why they chose the process that's been used, is beyond me. People are having problems with their Legends Scorponoks as well. (I think Walky (of Shortpacked fame) was one of it's victims.)

I just hope Animated Grimlock is a sign of things to come, that they've changed the process and won't rely on it anymore.

They haven't used the infamous Gold plastic since BW. The Legends Scorpanok issue is as far as I understand jsut crappy plastic quality and the fact that he's so small so you have small fragile crappy plastic.

Well I will be leaving my Hasbro transmetal megs sealed then, on the hunt for a Takara Metals Megs now