DeathReviews wrote:Boo on soft plastic in general. The only time I can see the excuse of using it is on parts that might get a lot of stress, and need some flexibility to keep them from snapping. But that doesn't seem to be the case with Legacy Skullgrin. None of the parts where they used soft plastic would seem to 'benefit' from it having been used. Especially those weapon accessories. Like Blitzwing's sword, there was no reason to use the rubbery materials, they just went cheap and lazy.
Using another reviewer that interacts on the forums and pulling things back to Legacy...
No solid/specific opinion on Skullgrin yet, want to see him in hand first, but generally not in favor of soft unless it is for stress purposes as you mentioned
I actually think Blitzwing's sword might have been the result of a material change after the mold layouts were set. The same rubbery material appears to have been used on at least 6 other parts; the wing tips, the top of the torso (between the head and shoulders connecting the chest piece to the back) and sides of the torso (connecting armpit to waist). Those other 6 parts all use pin joints, with the torso pieces subjected to a bit of torque during transformation.
It wouldn't surprise me if they were all supposed to be the same hard/paintable purple plastic as the other parts, but ran into issue of splitting some of those joints and needing something with some give, especially the sides of the torso. I think the sword might have just been a casualty of mold layout.
Edit: Upon further inspection the soft material had to be in the works from the start, there are a few more soft purple pieces and a number of tan ones too for 2 separate sprues. I think the sword was just a victim of whatever their mold layout rules, so probably falls under cheap and lazy of a reason enough.
Edit 2: I will say the soft tan material saved me on one of his forearm panels which was a little warped, but I was able to work back to straight.