The Energon Pub

Here's a somewhat easy fix for your Breakaway to get his head moving and the neck joint able to lift up I found the landing gear kept his upper body/nosecone from moving all the way down and the front windshield needs to be carved underneath, the back of his head too so he can tilt forward. Also, acetone the top and front of his lightpipe eyes and they'll shine clear blue again.







And here's one to keep Sideswipe's chest from unlatching constantly. You just need to create some pressure by sticking something about the thickness of a playing card or two in the gap where the windshield folds down against his back, thus jutting the chest forward a bit and the latch works.

Loads better. His non-moving head killed the figure for me but you worked your magic, again.

Sideswipe chest fix to follow!

Jin, I fully expected Breakaway to be completely repainted by now. The fix actually makes me want to buy him now-I'm sure seeing what paint magic you work on him will push me over the edge.

And here's one to keep Sideswipe's chest from unlatching constantly. You just need to create some pressure by sticking something about the thickness of a playing card or two in the gap where the windshield folds down against his back, thus jutting the chest forward a bit and the latch works.

Sweet! That chest part was starting to annoy me while trying to pose the fig.

Interestingly enough, My sideswipe's chest snaps in tight, with no problems what so ever. In fact I was amazed at how tight all of his joints are. You'd think the quality control would be more consistant.

Neat, thanks.

I will try this on my Sideswipe tonight. If you ignore the feet that dont work, Sideswipe is a pretty decent deluxe figure.

Edit: The feet arnt such a problem after all, you just need to fiddle to get them to the correct angle.

i just tried the sideswipe one (since i only own him and soundwave right now. only picking up movie only characters right now.) and i don't have glue but it works. however, if you move the chest area back. the latch. it will come undone again. oh well. still. great fix to the figure. thanks jin. even though the chest is still loose, don't think i've done it right yet though.

I dont have a problem with my Sideswipe'd chest coming unlatched.

NuclearConvoy wrote:I dont have a problem with my Sideswipe'd chest coming unlatched.

Yeah neither do I. He's actually pretty tight all around.

the chest on mine is tight. the problem with my sideswipe is that his left ankle fender has difficulty turning during transformation, because the fender bumps into his ankle henge. (hard to explain). his right ankle fender is just fine. i'll cut away a little from the fender eventually

On Sideswipe, I just loosened the 2 screws under the chest and put a little pressure on the front while I retightened the screws. now it works perfectly!

wow i must be pretty lucky..!! i bought all the movie tfs that r out right now doubles of each so i could open one and keep one in box, well every figure i opened has really tight joints nothing poping out nothing not staying latched so i must of got lucky this time around..swipe stands fairly easy for me to when i pose him, usually stands on the first try...i can live without breakaways head not moving.. i dont like to modify them, to worried it wont look right or ill screw it up, so i live with the minor imperfections. way i look at it is they r toys they are not gonna be perfect

Any suggestions on how to fix Rampage's legs?

In 'bot mode, the springy hip joint won't allow his thighs to stay bent forwards.

Thanks for the tips Jin. My sideswipe is great, but I see how it can be an issue. I'll keep in mind to mod it if the latch becomes loose.

I modded my breakaway by dremeling out the front half of the canopy as specified, but instead of cutting away at the rubber nosecone I cut/carved out a notch in the blue swing bar and achieved the same result.

I also noticed that the front landing gear bar didn't sit flush with it's green housing frame when in robot mode, so I cleaned up the part by removing the remnants of the injection stem (near the pivot axle, on its underside).

I didn't remove the two halves for the landing gear bay from the underside of the fuselage as you did because by cleaning up the landing gear already the part sits more flush and I noticed that the fuselage wouldn't be able to go past the body swing bar in robot mode anyways.

***EDIT***
Breakaway is pretty nice now with the mod thanks to Jin. Too bad they didn't make him a voyager size since he is a jet. They could've done so much more with the character/mold/idea. Hell, I just wished all of the deluxes were voyager sized, lol.

Oh, yea... I also filed out the small 'U' shape on the back half of the head to give it a backwards tilt using a needle file and cleaned up the eye piping with nail polish remover (since I didn't have pure acetone laying around).

[JRX] wrote:Any suggestions on how to fix Rampage's legs?

In 'bot mode, the springy hip joint won't allow his thighs to stay bent forwards.

Ah, that's an easy one. If you spin his hips around forward the spring disengages so you can pose the legs without them springing back down. Then spin the legs back around to activate the spring for jackhammer mode when you need it

Jin Saotome wrote:

[JRX] wrote:Any suggestions on how to fix Rampage's legs?

In 'bot mode, the springy hip joint won't allow his thighs to stay bent forwards.

Ah, that's an easy one. If you spin his hips around forward the spring disengages so you can pose the legs without them springing back down. Then spin the legs back around to activate the spring for jackhammer mode when you need it...

Thanks! I was tempted to try something like that before asking, but I was afraid of ending up with floppy-legged Rampage instead of a springy-legged one!

A HUGE thank you! My breakaway can now look around. His head not popping up was makin' me crazy!

Just as a side note, my Sideswipe had no issues with pegging the chest at all - his biggest issues were with getting the arms back in place going back to car mode, but I eventually got it going. Well, other than his difficulties standing up, that is.

Valandar wrote:Just as a side note, my Sideswipe had no issues with pegging the chest at all - his biggest issues were with getting the arms back in place going back to car mode, but I eventually got it going. Well, other than his difficulties standing up, that is.

I noticed some people had problems with that while others didn't. And sometimes all it takes is tightening the screws, other times nothing but the pressure fix works. RoTF quality control seems to be iffy.

Those of you that have found a Fallen figure were probably all "WOOHOO!" at his unique design, just itching to get him out of the package. And if you're like me, once out you were suddenly all "AAAARGGGGGHHH!" as his lower legs popped off every time you tried to bend his knees. Sometimes his arms popping off if you had a weak connector. Here's a fix for that! Basically involves taking the leg apart and inserting a particular kind of screw into the lower leg to keep them in place. You'll need a dremel or other rotary tool for this one.

Another nice fix, well done.

HASBRO, are you taking notes!! I know you welcome fan involvement with the franchise but don't you think leaving it up to your customers to fix your failures is a bit much?

Honestly, I'M frightened to buy anything else in case it crumbles in my hand.

Cheers to Jin once again!!! I am a big fan of his customizations. I can't wait to see what u do to fix that horrible Evergreen Pine-sol Paint job on the Fallen!!!