ScottyP wrote:Emerje wrote:Just a word of warning, there's been a LOT of reports of the abs on Prime breaking and cracking, sometimes right in the box. Apparently the gray part that slides up and down the body has too much friction cracked on assembly. Some people have opened up the body and found the fins that cause the friction all bent out of shape.
Yeah they messed up the measurement on something by the tiniest degree, but when 90% of the assembly work is plastic on plastic, that can have nasty effects.
When the toy comes in,
partially transform the cab of OP to inspect it but don't use the torso slider. At all. Don't try it. It has the high ground.
Assuming it isn't cracked already:
Tools you will need- Small phillips-head screwdriver
- Sandpaper or sanding sticks, maybe something around 400 grit
- Optional - a second sandpaper or stick at a higher grit to do final cleanup. I used 1,000 grit
- Towel or cotton swab to cleanup any plastic dust
Steps for Omega Prime Preventive Maintenance- Remove the head + backpack assembly. This is three screws. There is a pin in there, but it doesn't matter because only one end of it is gnarled. It will split down the middle.
- Look at OP's back. Remove the two small screws from the back of the gray piece that connects to the arms. These two are smaller than the others, so set them aside in a different pile.
- While still looking at OP's back, remove the four screws holding the torso together and separate the front and back sides.
- Look at what's still assembled. The dark gray piece that was partially inside the torso is our target for this mission. This is where you should put the torso parts back on, but only one at a time just to get a feel for the fit. Notice how that dark gray piece feels way too tight? That's our problem. Those red inner teeth are going to be the minimum of what gets destroyed without doing this fix.
- Hopefully obvious but just in case - set both torso parts aside again.
- Optional but helpful - Remove the two screws from the middle joint that holds the pieces which slide in bot mode/fold over each other in cab mode, then separate the red middle piece and remove the gray part that is inside the torso when assembled.
- Sand down the sides of said dark gray part a little bit.
- Test fit it in the front and back of the torso to see if the dark gray piece can sit snugly without having to apply excessive force.
- Test sliding action as best you can to see if the dark gray piece can slide snugly but easily without a massive amount of friction.
- Repeat step 7 until satisfied with steps 8 and 9. This will take some iteration and you may have to judge it on vibes. You can do it.
- When satisfied you've sanded enough, grab a high grit and polish up the sides a but, then remove any extra plastic dust. Don't breathe this! Remember, you're only cleaning up edges here, not grinding down further.
- Put things back together, curse Hasbro, put it all down for a few hours, then come back and enjoy. Or skip some of those steps, up to you.
It's an easier fix than all that text makes it look. Annoying, but easy. Good luck out there y'all.
ScottyP's write-up is excellent, I just completed it myself. I figured I'd quote it to refresh it to the current page and add in a few tips
If you are doing the fix right out of the box, like I did, follow the instruction for Prime's cab up through completing step 21. Step 22 is where you collapse the torso and get to check your work.
On my copy, once I got the torso split in half, I saw grease on the inside of the torso where the part in question slides that I haven't seen mentioned, so maybe this was a running change they made during production to try and address the issue.
Pay attention to which side of the grey piece goes front and which side goes in back. The part with the raised edge goes front, the side without the edge goes back.
I would highly recommend doing the optional step and removing the grey piece from the parts connecting it to the legs. This will ensure no mishaps while sanding the grey piece. When you do, leave the half without the screw holes in the legs, that way you are certain to put it back on the right way.
For sanding, I only had 220 grit available but it worked just fine for me, but I wouldn't recommend going with a lower grit than that. I also found it easiest to sand by holding the paper down on a flat surface and moving each side of the grey piece across the paper. This helped me to get both sides evenly with a pattern of back and forth 6 items on each side, then a test fit. I was happy after my 3rd test fit.
Last but not least, try a full collapse of the chest after you re-assemble the torso, but before you put the head and backpack on. If it is too tight you at least won't have to re-remove them.
Overall it was an easy fix thanks to ScottyP's excellent write-up.
