The Energon Pub

so here it goes:

i recently received a lot of loose BW figs from eBay, and with it came one of my personal favorites - TM2 Cheetor. the figure's great; ugly-looking, but great. love the plastic and the joints.

but the problem is that since it came loose, i noticed there was severe chrome wear on it, especially on the shoulder area. the chrome looks cracked and since receiving it, a few more flakes have fallen off.

my question is: how many of you guys who own this have similar experiences like mine, and is there anything i can do to remedy this?

also, does the TM line suffer extensively from this defect? i have a TM2 Iguanus but the toy seems perfectly fine, no sign of chrome wear.

i guess i need to know this since some of the next wants i have are TM Optimus Primal, Optimal Optimus, TM Ramulus, and TM Megatron, all of whom have the same violet-colored chrome as TM2 Cheetor.

btw, this Cheetor is from the european release, his card says Bio Combat along with other languages i can't speak.

I've had a few of my TM line figures in the toybox for at least 5 years being bashed by other toys with only minimal scratching/flaking. It does happen from what I've heard, but the frequency I am not so sure of.

Most of my TM's have quite a bit of paint wear on the metallics, but if you can mix up exactly the right color of paint, then hit it with some gloss clear coat, it makes it barely noticeable.

Cheetors violet paint may be a little difficult to match though, but not impossible.

It's bound to happen. With my TM2 Cheetor, surprisingly there's not much chrome-wear even though i've played with it for years. Just be lucky you didn't get a Cheetor that didn't have any chrome left at all!

Looks like paint lost from rough play more than anything else.

I only recently bought an Optimal Optimus MISB that had been in a store window for nearly 10 years, and he has had no flaking or anything. So I think you can rule Sun damage out of it.

I have not had any other problems with TM/TM2 figures, but most of mine have come from collectors homes, rather than the toybox.

I say, get some clear coat, preferably Tamiya, since your in PI, it should be easily found, and use the gloss on the glossy transmetal metallic plastics paint, and the regular non gloss on the regular painted parts, it's guaranteed to bond to the toy's Plastic and make it all better...Warning, once you put tamiya Clear coats on your toy, it will forevver be shielded from anything!! well almost!! even if you want to paint over it in the future, it will be difficult.. that's why i love Tamiya clear coats sooo much!!!

skywarp-2 wrote:I say, get some clear coat, preferably Tamiya, since your in PI, it should be easily found, and use the gloss on the glossy transmetal metallic plastics paint, and the regular non gloss on the regular painted parts, it's guaranteed to bond to the toy's Plastic and make it all better...Warning, once you put tamiya Clear coats on your toy, it will forevver be shielded from anything!! well almost!! even if you want to paint over it in the future, it will be difficult.. that's why i love Tamiya clear coats sooo much!!!

Hmmm..
Could that possibly shield them from the Sunlight issue?

i_amtrunks wrote:Looks like paint lost from rough play more than anything else.

I only recently bought an Optimal Optimus MISB that had been in a store window for nearly 10 years, and he has had no flaking or anything. So I think you can rule Sun damage out of it.

I have not had any other problems with TM/TM2 figures, but most of mine have come from collectors homes, rather than the toybox.

whew, i'm glad to hear that some of the TM toys don't quite suffer from this defect. i really don't know if it's playwear or not, since after closer inspection, i cannot find any signs of rough play, and the joints are still freakin' tight. in fact, if not for the chrome wear, this toy'd be purr-fect (meow!)

skywarp-2 wrote:I say, get some clear coat, preferably Tamiya, since your in PI, it should be easily found, and use the gloss on the glossy transmetal metallic plastics paint, and the regular non gloss on the regular painted parts, it's guaranteed to bond to the toy's Plastic and make it all better...Warning, once you put tamiya Clear coats on your toy, it will forevver be shielded from anything!! well almost!! even if you want to paint over it in the future, it will be difficult.. that's why i love Tamiya clear coats sooo much!!!

thanks for the suggestion chief! how do you apply your clearcoats, hair brush or airbrush (LOL)? if it's airbrush, i might have a hard time doing it properly due to this figure's irregular contours.