The Energon Pub

Sat Mar 10, 2007 1:48 pm

OK, so my gf is smarter than me. I was about to pop them open and shes like, oh did you try some new batteries....they both work. :oops:

Yes, well, lets forget this incident.

News Credits: 1 · Sat Mar 10, 2007 2:02 pm

Wait lets not forget about this. My G1 Galvatron's electronics only partially work. They work in canon mode but not in gun mode. From what I can see, the little peg isn't long enough to push the metal plate to make the contact to make the sounds go off.

Sat Mar 10, 2007 3:31 pm

NightBreaker wrote:
Bluebullet wrote:
NightBreaker wrote:Is there any way to fix ball joints that have become loose?

Take the socket off of the ball and put silicone or super glue on the ball. After it dries, reattach the socket and it will be as good as new.
Will that work on hinges too(Such as Cybertron Ransack's chest plate)?

I haven't tried it, but it probably won't look very good.

Bonger wrote:OK then. I picked up a G1 Galvatron and Sky Lynx recently at a great price. Obviously, the electronis are not working.

Has anyone made an attempt at fixing this issue or know the primary reasons that the electonics get knocked off.

I am going to pop em open this weekend, but my first soddering iron and see what happens. However, would love some version of a guidline as to what I am going to see inside.

If this works, I can save a ton on a non working Omega Supreme by fixing him myself!

My dad recently got a junker Galvatron in an Ebay lot. The electronics made weird buzzing noises so we took it apart to look at it. Everything looks fine, but we think there is dirt in the sound switch. I'm not 100% sure if that is the cause, so I need a little help too. It sometimes makes the right noises, but not often.

To anyone who has fixed a G1 Galvatron: What's wrong with my dad's? Details are in the paragraph above.

News Credits: 3647 · Sat Mar 10, 2007 6:14 pm

I fixed my Scorponok. :grin:

I took some pictures of the process but I'm not sure if they'll really help because I stopped taking pictures while I was working on the black box where the Headmaster had fits into. This was a really neat experience to get to open up a Headmaster finally to see how the tech spec thing works.

News Credits: 3647 · Sat Mar 10, 2007 6:31 pm

Here are some pictures to help you guys out. For those of you just starting to following this thread, here's a picture of what the problem was. For whatever reason, the Lord Zarak head would not stay in on the Scorponok body. The device that displays the Headmaster's tech spec just kept popping the head right back out. It seemed to be a spring issue.

The Lord Zarak head would stay in place on the other Headmaster transectors such as Weirdwolf, Mindwipe or Skullcruncher (as well as the Autobot Headmaster transectors). All of the Headmaster heads worked fine on the Scorponok transector for some reason. This was the first clue that something was wrong with how Zarak and Scorponok were interacting.

News Credits: 3647 · Sat Mar 10, 2007 6:38 pm

I came up with the idea to "swap" the tech spec device on the Scorponok body with one of the tech spec devices on one of the other Decepticon transectors since Lord Zarak worked on the other transectors.

The first order of business was to take the Scorponok body apart. This proved more difficult than I had first imagined because the screws didn't want to come out of his back once I removed the back panel.

This is a picture with the back panel still attached:

This is a picture with the back panel removed. The four screws that would not come undone were now revealed once the back panel was removed.

I went to the hardware store a couple of blocks from my apartment and bought some new drillbits that would fit inside of the holes for these more recessed screws since I was unable to remove them by hand. I found just the right size drillbits that were long enough to reach the screws (the drillbits with my Black & Decker power drillset were too thick to reach the screws.

The next pictures show the process of removing Scorponok's back.

News Credits: 3647 · Sat Mar 10, 2007 6:44 pm

At last! I finally got inside of the Scorponok body!

You can see the "tech spec device" in the following two pictures.

News Credits: 3647 · Sat Mar 10, 2007 6:47 pm

Weirdwolf's body was the first lucky candidate to go under the screwdriver since he was the first one that I grabbed to see if the Lord Zarak head worked on that body.

After confirming once more that Lord Zarak worked on Weirdwolf's body, I had begun taking apart Weirdwolf.

News Credits: 3647 · Sat Mar 10, 2007 6:48 pm

I didn't realize it yet at this point that Scorponok's tech spec device was a slightly different shape than Weirdwolf's.

I confirmed once again that Zarak worked on Weirdwolf's tech spec device.

News Credits: 3647 · Sat Mar 10, 2007 7:02 pm

This was the last picture I took until I was finished putting Scorponok back together. It is a picture of Skullcruncher's TSD taken apart.

Once I realized that the TSD (tech spec device) as a slightly different shape and couldn't just be swapped between Weirdwolf and Scorponok's bodies, I decided to take apart Skullcruncher to see what shape his TSD was. I put Weirdwolf back together and had begun taking apart Skullcruncher. Once inside, I discovered that Skullcruncher's TSD was the same shape and size as Weirdwolf's.

After finding this out, I decided that I would need to take apart Skullcruncher and Scorponk's TSDs to see if I could figure out what the problem was with Scorponok's. Once I had taken apart Scorponok's TSD, I decided that I would swap the springs from Scorponok's TSD to Skullcruncher's. This is when I stopped taking pictures because I was having trouble keeping track of the screws as they kept rolling off the table and I kept loosing the springs as they would pop off and fly away from me. Fortunately, I was able to find everything.

It is important to note that the pieces that get pushed down when you connect the Headmaster to the Transector are shaped slightly differently on Scorponok's TSD and Skullcruncher's (I believe they are the same in the smaller Headmasters). There's little points that stick out which move the purple or red tech specs into place. The positioning of these points are different than Skullcruncher's. I literally had to remove the springs from those pieces and swap them with the springs on the other TSD. Once I put Scorponok's TSD back together, I tested that it worked with Zarak and then I put Skullcruncher's back together and tested it with Grax. Both worked! As you can see from the following pictures, swapping the springs worked and Lord Zarak will finally stay attached to Scorponok.

Just to demonstrate that Weirdwolf and Skullcruncher both work, I took a group shot photo of Scorponok, Mindwipe, Skullcruncher and Weirdwolf ...

My mom bought me Scorponok for Christmas 1987. I don't remember at what point the head stopped working properly. I swear it worked when I first got him. I seem to remember that it stopped working a few years after I received Scorponok, but logic says that this problem always existed with this figure and I just don't remember it not working properly. Maybe it wasn't such a big deal that it did this because of the helmet that would theoretically keep Zarak in place regardless of this problem.

I feel like it was a great sense of accomplishment to have fixed this finally and I did it without having to buy another Scorponok. I bought an extra Lord Zarak last week on eBay so I'll have to decide which head is in better shape then I'll sell the extra head.

Mission accomplished. I hope this helps some of you guys who are having the same problem.

Next step: replace some of the stickers on Scorponok and Fortress Maximus with new stickers or repro-stickers and then I'll be able to finally take pictures of these two incredible figures for the galleries on this website at last. I'm really excited about this!

Sat Mar 10, 2007 7:13 pm

Congradulations captain, and thanks for the detailed information on the process. From the looks of this thread it will help out a bunch of us!

News Credits: 3647 · Sat Mar 10, 2007 7:23 pm

FYI ... this whole process took me over an hour. I usually just buy new figures to replace my old ones so I don't have a lot of experience with doing this. I'm sure some of you who are pros at taking apart Transformers could do this much faster than I was able to. I just wanted to give some of you an idea of how long this process took in case you want to do it yourself.

News Credits: 3 · Sat Mar 10, 2007 9:18 pm

The wires connected to the speaker may be bad, or need to be reconnected . Or you may have a problem with the ground wire.

News Credits: 7 · Sat Mar 10, 2007 11:10 pm

Anyone know a good way to restore chrome on G1 Megatron? It's not too bad, but the edges have rubbed off. I know that most paint doesn't work, and I can't think of anything short of taking him completely apart and having him rechromed.

Sun Mar 11, 2007 6:45 am

Geekee1 wrote:Anyone know a good way to restore chrome on G1 Megatron? It's not too bad, but the edges have rubbed off. I know that most paint doesn't work, and I can't think of anything short of taking him completely apart and having him rechromed.

I've looked into this before. Basically theres nothing to do besides pick up another. Apparently chroming is prohibitively expensive unless you know someone who can do it for you for free.

For the guy asking about clear nail polich to tighten up hinges, yes you can. I've used it on a LOT of my G1s and it works great. Just do it in light coats and make sure to move the part every couple of minutes.

News Credits: 7 · Sun Mar 11, 2007 10:45 am

Considering that it's next to impossible to rechrome Megs, would anyone think it blasphemy to repaint him?

Don't worry, I have plenty of experience in the painting area.

News Credits: 1 · Sun Mar 11, 2007 1:13 pm

I found the problem. The red trigger was broken. I tried to crazy glue it but it only works around three times before it breaks again. So I guess I just need to replace it. It looks like this(sorry for the blurry pics):

I also noticed the other trigger is loose and takes around three times to work.

If anyone has these spare parts I would really appreciate it if you could sell them to me or trade or something. I just need the red peices for both triggers.

News Credits: 3647 · Sun Mar 11, 2007 6:10 pm

I updated this thread to include the posts I made about Scorponok.

News Credits: 1 · Sun Mar 11, 2007 6:43 pm

i like the step by step for Scorponok. Unfortunately, i don't have any Headmasters of my own, so i wouldn't have any experience with this

News Credits: 1 · Tue Mar 13, 2007 11:26 am

Geekee1 wrote:Anyone know a good way to restore chrome on G1 Megatron? It's not too bad, but the edges have rubbed off. I know that most paint doesn't work, and I can't think of anything short of taking him completely apart and having him rechromed.

If you want to take a chance Testors 1/2 oz. custom enamel brush-on paints FS17178 chrome silver would do the trick.

Thu Mar 15, 2007 7:38 pm

Fanatical_Magnus wrote:If you want to take a chance Testors 1/2 oz. custom enamel brush-on paints FS17178 chrome silver would do the trick.

Have you tried this yourself? Could you get us a b4 and after pic please? All my cassettes weapons tips are pretty much black from chrome wear. This would be a much cheaper solution to rebuying all the parts.

Thanks!

News Credits: 1 · Fri Mar 16, 2007 10:12 pm

Could somebody take a pic of the metal part that makes the connection for the lights and sounds on a working galvatron (under his waist). I want to see how the red and black pieces are suppose to align.

Tue Mar 20, 2007 9:24 pm

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y40/Gr ... hlight.gif

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y40/Gr ... light2.gif

That part right there(the one in the circle)cracked and broke on my Grimlock. Is there any way to fix it?

Thu Mar 22, 2007 4:59 am

NightBreaker wrote:http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y40/GreatHyperion/grimhighlight.gif

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y40/Gr ... light2.gif

That part right there(the one in the circle)cracked and broke on my Grimlock. Is there any way to fix it?

It's hard to see the damage in the pics. But if its a crack, there is no way that I have found to fix that. I think I saw a Grimlock for 7 bucks on the for sale forum though.

News Credits: 1 · Thu Mar 22, 2007 9:18 am

Can anyone advise me as to how to tighten Blitzwing's feet/vertical fins? Normally I'd varnish up the pins but I'm not 100% sure as to how to remove these specific parts of him.

Or is it a lost cause?