The Energon Pub

Sabrblade! Was it you who mentioned that Wreck-Gar's elbows are swapped from the factory?

Mine were. A minor repair, but not necessarily an easy one. Just took some slightly scary pushing and twisting to get those mushroom pegs to slide out. Not to mention correcting the position of the front fork was a bit freaky. It's turned 180 so it fits in the blister. The plastic is soft and should be handled delicately.

I bought 2 more Wreck-Gars for my brother and another friend, and their elbows are on the wrong side too. I'm guessing this is a widespread mis-assembly.

What's with all the factory errors/mis-assemblies lately?

Cobotron wrote:What's with all the factory errors/mis-assemblies lately?

Initially I would blame it on the switch of operation form Hong Kong to Vietnam (cheaper labor, less QC), but I'm sure there;s more to it than that. Also I heard a rumor a while back that operations could change again to India in the next couple years. Not sure if that was just an unfounded rumor though.

Cobotron wrote:Sabrblade! Was it you who mentioned that Wreck-Gar's elbows are swapped from the factory?

Not I, no. Didn't know that.

How do we know if the elbows are missassembled and what is the downside to it?

william-james88 wrote:How do we know if the elbows are missassembled and what is the downside to it?

When compared to Groove. They face the wrong way when forming the engine parts in motorcycle mode.

Purely esthetic, really.
Although his elbow joints were dislocating very easily, and I after I swapped them, his forearms stayed in place better and the soft ratchet was tighter.

EDIT: Also, I don't have it in front of me, but I think the picture on the back of the card show these pieces assembled correctly.

carytheone wrote:Hey everybotty, show us your Wreck-Gar cards! It's nice to have the card, I didn't realize how much that I missed them with the other exclusives.

I got Alpha Trion, says something about -Binges every moment of Earth TV ever... (I would think that would be more of a Vector Prime thing...but hey I didn't write these)

Damn, Sabrblade! If not for the articulation, I'd say that looks like something Bandai would come up with!

o.supreme wrote:

carytheone wrote:Hey everybotty, show us your Wreck-Gar cards! It's nice to have the card, I didn't realize how much that I missed them with the other exclusives.

I got Alpha Trion, says something about -Binges every moment of Earth TV ever... (I would think that would be more of a Vector Prime thing...but hey I didn't write these)

It's Alpha Trion because the Alpha Trion cards are mostly based on his role as a historian (There are a couple exceptions; Elita's for example draws instead on his rebuilding her and Optimus' former selves into mighty warriors). And binging through the entirety of any sort of archive plays into that. The Vector Prime cards generally have more to do with Veccy's time powers.

carytheone wrote:Hey everybotty, show us your Wreck-Gar cards!

Amalgamous Wreck-Gar: A constantly evolving mass of parts and scrap.

Cobotron wrote:Sabrblade! Was it you who mentioned that Wreck-Gar's elbows are swapped from the factory?

I put a long thing showing that my Wreck-Gar has two right shoulders and two left elbows, but I don't know if you're incorrectly remembering that or talking about a different incident.

carytheone wrote:Hey everybotty, show us your Wreck-Gar cards!

All of the Wreck-Gar card powers can be found at the bottom of this list.

So, speaking of combinations, has anyone figured out a fourth limb for the all-Starscream combiner? If only Fun Pub had been able to stick around long enough to use the Starscream mold again or even came up with a CW Waspinator in place of (or along side) Terrorsaur. I suppose we'll never truly be able to finish him without some expensive customizing.

Common, Hasbro, just use the damn Deluxe Starscream mold already!

Emerje

Emerje wrote:So, speaking of combinations, has anyone figured out a fourth limb for the all-Starscream combiner? If only Fun Pub had been able to stick around long enough to use the Starscream mold again or even came up with a CW Waspinator in place of (or along side) Terrorsaur. I suppose we'll never truly be able to finish him without some expensive customizing.

Common, Hasbro, just use the damn Deluxe Starscream mold already!

Emerje

Not my pic, but:

Sabrblade wrote:

Emerje wrote:So, speaking of combinations, has anyone figured out a fourth limb for the all-Starscream combiner? If only Fun Pub had been able to stick around long enough to use the Starscream mold again or even came up with a CW Waspinator in place of (or along side) Terrorsaur. I suppose we'll never truly be able to finish him without some expensive customizing.

Common, Hasbro, just use the damn Deluxe Starscream mold already!

Emerje

Not my pic, but:

Nice!, Bur yeah, my King Starscream will consist of Blackwing, Dreadwind, BC16 Terrorsaur and "Sunstorm" (aka Golden Lagoon Starscream).

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Damn, Sabrblade! If not for the articulation, I'd say that looks like something Bandai would come up with!

o.supreme wrote:

carytheone wrote:Hey everybotty, show us your Wreck-Gar cards! It's nice to have the card, I didn't realize how much that I missed them with the other exclusives.

I got Alpha Trion, says something about -Binges every moment of Earth TV ever... (I would think that would be more of a Vector Prime thing...but hey I didn't write these)

It's Alpha Trion because the Alpha Trion cards are mostly based on his role as a historian (There are a couple exceptions; Elita's for example draws instead on his rebuilding her and Optimus' former selves into mighty warriors). And binging through the entirety of any sort of archive plays into that. The Vector Prime cards generally have more to do with Veccy's time powers.

That's exactly my point. One would think, in order to Binge all of TV, there would have to be some sort of time travel element involved...because obviously much of past TV was lost to time, since many things were recorded over on a daily basis in order to conserve use of magnetic tape in a pre digital age. Dr. Who fans know this pain all too well .

Actually, what about the TV signals we've been broadcasting through space?

ZeroWolf wrote:Actually, what about the TV signals we've been broadcasting through space?

I know that science fiction has played with the idea several times that *alien civilizations* living (for example), in a star system 20 LY away could be picking up TV signals from 20 years ago etc..., but I'm pretty sure TV signals have a limit, and it's all based more on fiction, than science, such as in the case of Junkions watching Earth TV in the first place.

Sabrblade wrote:

Emerje wrote:So, speaking of combinations, has anyone figured out a fourth limb for the all-Starscream combiner? If only Fun Pub had been able to stick around long enough to use the Starscream mold again or even came up with a CW Waspinator in place of (or along side) Terrorsaur. I suppose we'll never truly be able to finish him without some expensive customizing.

Common, Hasbro, just use the damn Deluxe Starscream mold already!

Emerje

Not my pic, but:

This picture just makes me think about how much I want a Terrorsaur and Fractyl. And by extent Impactor and Roller.

Cobotron wrote:

william-james88 wrote:How do we know if the elbows are missassembled and what is the downside to it?

When compared to Groove. They face the wrong way when forming the engine parts in motorcycle mode.

Purely esthetic, really.
Although his elbow joints were dislocating very easily, and I after I swapped them, his forearms stayed in place better and the soft ratchet was tighter.

EDIT: Also, I don't have it in front of me, but I think the picture on the back of the card show these pieces assembled correctly.

Card Back



Actual toy - from the TFWiki, but a quick google search will show that all PotP Wreck-Gars have the elbow bits reversed


Groove, for good measure


I fixed mine today and found that pulling the whole arm off the ball joint makes it much easier, but still that grey plastic they used is worryingly soft. After the swap, it just seems to work a little bit better, but that's probably just in my head, looks better in alt-mode at least.

EDIT, because why the hell not?




He has some pretty nice light piping and maybe pupils?

I was going to take some pics too. However, I don't think I'll be doing the fix. This distinguishes Wreck Gar ever so slightly from Groove. Besides, it looks kind of "junky"...

I've been playing around with various storage options for Wreck-Gar's axe that he can't hold well. I did get most of my inspiration from other threads in other galaxies though.

Kickstand clip on





Handlebar clip on




The better option

What needs to happen, is the wheelaxe needs to be attached to the small meat cleaver! Great shots carytheone!

itscramtastic wrote:What needs to happen, is the wheelaxe needs to be attached to the small meat cleaver! Great shots carytheone!

Have you every really looked at the official render on the back of the card, like really really closely?



I've considered getting some sandpaper after it, but I don't really want to modify and exclusive.

Went out toy hunting today and, among the many POTP figures I got, I scored both a Rodimus Unicronus and a Novastar at brick-and-mortar stores!

RU was at a Target and Novastar at a Walmart, for those curious.

Sabrblade wrote:Went out toy hunting today and, among the many POTP figures I got, I scored both a Rodimus Unicronus and a Novastar at brick-and-mortar stores!

RU was at a Target and Novastar at a Walmart, for those curious.

Nice finds! I see Rodimus Unicronus every once in a while, but I've yet to see Firestar at a brick and mortar store. I got mine from Amazon several weeks ago. Still no signs of regular retail Optimal Optimus, though. Every time I spot a new Rodimus Prime on the shelf, I get hopeful, but then find it was just another Wave 1 packaged with Optimus Prime.

I've seen RU several times at Target, since Walmart stopped carrying leader class anything. Also, while I too initially got Novastar form Amazon, I have seen her a few times since at walmart stores. I've seen every standard release item from PotP at B&M except for Optimal Optimus, because it simply isn't out yet, in the U.S. market that is...

I've seen Rodicorn quite a bit here and there at both Targets and Walmart (got mine on clearance at WM) and I've been seeing a lot of Novastar lately at WMs all over the place and a few Targets (even though I got mine from Amazon as well). I'm guessing she is about to or have already hit full saturation.

I've also seen a few rando Walmarts still with Studio Series leaders and a spot for them. But that's very rare.