The Energon Pub

Thanks to the Super GT line, I decided this would be a great week to plow through the Alternity line that has been completely ignored in the Seibertron.com galleries up to this point. All 16 figures have been pulled out of storage and I'm gearing up to take photos of all of them throughout this week, along with the new Super GT figures (which are very comparable in size).

I am aware that there are some fragile pieces on some of these figures. What should I be aware of so that I don't break any of these figures? I seem to remember that there are issues with Bumblebee, the Seekers, Black Megatron, and possibly a couple others but not sure what to look for on each one of them.

Any warnings, tips and/or advice would be greatly appreciated!

• A-01 Nissan GT-R - Convoy - Vibrant Red
• A-01 Nissan GT-R - Convoy - Ultimate Metal Silver
• A-01 Nissan GT-R - Convoy - Super Black
• A-01U Nissan GT-R - Ultla Magnus[sic] - Brilliant White Pearl (e-HOBBY exclusive)
• A-01D Nissan GT-R - Dai Atras[sic] - Aurora Flare Blue Pearl
• A-02 Nissan Fairlady Z - Megatron - Blade Silver
• A-02 Nissan Fairlady Z - Megatron - Premium LeMans Blue
• A-02 Nissan Fairlady Z - Megatron - Diamond Black
• A-02G Nissan Fairlady Z - Galvatron - Galvanize Purple (Toy Hobby Market exclusive)
• A-03 Suzuki Swift - Bumble - Champion Yellow
• A-03 Suzuki Swift - Cliff - Supreme Red Pearl
• A-03G Suzuki Swift - Gold Bug - Throttle Gold
• A-04 Mitsuoka Orochi - Starscream - White Pearl
• A-04 Mitsuoka Orochi - Skywarp - Witch Purple Pearl
• A-04 Mitsuoka Orochi - Thundercracker - Sonic Blue
• A-04B Mitsuoka Orochi - Banzai-Tron - Crystalo Black (Toy Hobby Market exclusive)

I'll take the honor of giving the first warning, for the Convoy mold. The lower legs are a bit of a hassle to properly transform, thanks to some minor design flaws (mainly clearance). My piece of advice is not to force anything there, as otherwise you'll be likely to break the clear plastic peg and hole that go into the back of the feet.

I own only 3 Alternity figures.

Red Optimus Prime, White Starscream, and Yellow Bumblebee.

No problems at all with Optimus Prime. He's pretty solid and fun to transform. His robot mode is pretty Alternatorish. So, meh.

Starscream have die-cast doors that are really heavy and tend to pop off a lot. He's a little more touchy to transform, but he's so incredible looking in both modes, it's worth the trouble.
I'm looking forward to see him in the galleries.

I dont know why the hell did I buy Bumblebee. He's troublesome to transform because you have to pull/push REALLY HARD on his main body. I always fear to break something but so far, he's rock solid. Unfortunately, his robot mode suck.

Hope this tiny contribution will help.

Ryan, I would love to see some video footage of the unboxing and transformations of these on the youtube channel; the vast amount alone would be interesting to see.
Sorry no tips on the figs but I thought i would put this out there before you got too deep.

Optimus mold:
pegging the back of the foot part into the car part can cause stress marks and I find he's more stable if you DON'T peg them in.

Optimus and Megatron mold:
The part of the transformation involving flipping down the front of the car (which causes the stomach plate to unfold) can just stick and break an internal part. I had to disable this automorph on Megatron and frankly, I don't even understand how the parts worked in the first place. He lasted a a few transformations before breaking so you'll probably be fine.

Bumblebee and Cliffjumper mold:
the windshield sliding inside the body can get sticky so put pressure on as many moving parts as possible when doing this step.

wasps!

Man this is a lot of work.

I just came up with an alternate robot mode for Banzaitron to help set him apart from Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker. Looks pretty cool ... no rear wings! Pics will be in the galleries.

On Alternity (silver) Megs,

The chest does not want to snap in to the waist on mine. Seems like a one-off issue. Oh well, Not gonna force it. Got it on clearance for like $30 anyways.

I owned The red Convoy, silver Megatron, Starscream, Skywarp, Bumblebee, Cliffjumper and Black Convoy. Never had a problem with any of them but I only transformed them once each way. Once when I got them and then once more to box them to sell. I never found a place where they fit my collection so they had to go. Lovely little guys though. I was able to sell them all except Cliffjumper and I'm not sure why. He's really nice.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:I'll take the honor of giving the first warning, for the Convoy mold. The lower legs are a bit of a hassle to properly transform, thanks to some minor design flaws (mainly clearance). My piece of advice is not to force anything there, as otherwise you'll be likely to break the clear plastic peg and hole that go into the back of the feet.

Definitely look out for this. Happened on my Magnus.

mooncake623 wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:I'll take the honor of giving the first warning, for the Convoy mold. The lower legs are a bit of a hassle to properly transform, thanks to some minor design flaws (mainly clearance). My piece of advice is not to force anything there, as otherwise you'll be likely to break the clear plastic peg and hole that go into the back of the feet.

Definitely look out for this. Happened on my Magnus.

Thank you for the advice everyone. Fortunately, I'm long past the transformation stage of these 16 galleries. No one broke! I ended up with some paint chipping on Bumblebee and Cliffjumper, but nothing too major.

The only big issue I have is that the rooftop/wings on Skywarp are very loose where the hood spins around. By loose, I mean it'll spin around freely like helicopter blades on a Transformers toy. I can't figure out how to knock the pin out that holds the piece that's blocking the pin that connects the roof without causing damage to the figure so loose it remains unfortunately.

I'm just a couple of minutes away from taking photos of Banzaitron in robot mode, which is the last set of photos I need to finish in order to complete the entire run of Alternity figures. Galleries will be posted throughout this week.

Congrats! Can't wait for the galleries to be posted!

Seibertron wrote:The only big issue I have is that the rooftop/wings on Skywarp are very loose where the hood spins around. By loose, I mean it'll spin around freely like helicopter blades on a Transformers toy.

Skywarp is the only Seeker I have and while it's loose I don't think it's as bad as you describe yours to be! Try nail varnish. It's not as extreme as superglue so less danger of ruining the figure.