The Energon Pub

Animated: Probably one of the most loved and most hated Transformers continuities. Their action figures seem to get high praise in general, though. However, after having a few in my possession with mimimal play, they are developing some problems.

Ultra Magnus: You probably know what this is already. That stupid oversensitive sound chip! If you are not familiar, some Magnuses ended up repeating their transforming noises over and over just by the slightest budge of the shoulder. No seriously, on mine, it will repeat the noises at least twice just from touching the shoulder. Sometimes I have to remove the batteries because I get so annoyed. Also, the the halves of the front end of the vehicle mode are slightly split and don't fit together all the way.

Voyager Class Optimus Prime: I haven't heard of this from anyone else, but I was surprised this happened. I bought him in August of 2009, and played with him for a little while before putting him in storage and bringing him back out a year later. Recently, while transforming him, I noticed his torso wan't locking into the waist like it should. I noticed the small indent in the "waist ring" where the tab on the torso locks in was "worn out" and doesn't hold the torso in place well. Now his torso flops around freely. Also, one of his wheels doesn't lock into place on the back of his leg.

I immediately take the batteries out of all my figures as soon as I open them. I've found most of the recent figures that have the transforming sound gimmick are too sensitive. As for Optimus, I've hated that gravity driven transforming gimmick from the get go. I've got three versions of that mold, the original, wingblade, and black so far all are still working fine. I can see the potential for failure though.

El Duque wrote:I immediately take the batteries out of all my figures as soon as I open them. I've found most of the recent figures that have the transforming sound gimmick are too sensitive. As for Optimus, I've hated that gravity driven transforming gimmick from the get go. I've got three versions of that mold, the original, wingblade, and black so far all are still working fine. I can see the potential for failure though.

Yeah I think I'll get Wingblade and maybe I'll sell off the Hasbro Optimus for the regular Takara version.

The line had some pretty bad QC problems. Arcee's swords don't fit anywhere. They're too big for her hands and there are little nubs on the blades that prevent them from fitting in her shoulder holsters.
Starscream's hands wouldn't fit in his arms, they kept falling out. I ended up having to drill a hole through the whole thing and inserting a pin in it to keep it in place. Leader class Megatron's shoulder got loose after about an hour and it wouldn't line up with the other one. Which made his alt mode look wrong. I couldn't fix that, but I got another one for xmas that year and it's problem free.
The whole line was really hit or miss for me. For every good figure there was one that was equally bad.

Evil_the_Nub wrote:The line had some pretty bad QC problems. Arcee's swords don't fit anywhere. They're too big for her hands and there are little nubs on the blades that prevent them from fitting in her shoulder holsters.
Starscream's hands wouldn't fit in his arms, they kept falling out. I ended up having to drill a hole through the whole thing and inserting a pin in it to keep it in place. Leader class Megatron's shoulder got loose after about an hour and it wouldn't line up with the other one. Which made his alt mode look wrong. I couldn't fix that, but I got another one for xmas that year and it's problem free.
The whole line was really hit or miss for me. For every good figure there was one that was equally bad.

Wow man those are pretty big problems there. I hope the Screamer and Megs I get won't be crapola.

The problems I've had were mostly paint-app related. I am a stickler for paint jobs, especially when it comes to faces, and will return a figure multiple times if necessary until it's right. For the prices I pay for these figures I expect, no-DEMAND a product that at least TRIES to look like there is some modicum of QC.

Ani-Ratchet had a badly scratched chin right out of the package, a problem that seems to be on all of them to some extent. Ani-Ironhide also had a nasty scratch across his face as well as a goobered Autobot insignia. The yellow paint on Ani-Rodimus' collar was somewhat lumpy, and Sentinel Prime's insignia and some of his other details were splashy and misaligned. Shadow Blade Megs had a lot of bad scratches and messed up paint apps too.

I think the only real non-paint related problems I had were with Electrostatic Soundwave and Activator Grimlock. I went through about three Ratbats with over-tightened, twisted neck joints (resulting in decapitation) until I got one that was right. I also discovered that you don't want to rotate activator Grimlock's wrist joints AT ALL. The plastic socket WILL crack all the way through.

Whenever I get a figure with batteries, I take them out. I don't care much about the lights, however cool they may look, the sounds can get to be annoying even if they aren't at first, and I've heard that they can explode if left in there too long (it probably takes a very long time, though). I had heard that there were quite a few QC issues with Animated figures. I didn't get all that many, but there weren't any severe problems on the ones I did get, aside from Starscream having horribly loose hands.

my annoying problem is no Constructicons figures and where the heck is T-Cracker already? oh and need more seeker activators tooooooo

I've bought the entire with the exception of some of the more pointless repaints, and I've experienced very few QC issues. I had to return my first Lockdown, because his leg constantly popped off and refused to stay. Outside of that and few sloppy paint apps (which I don't really even consider QC issues)I feel it's a very solid line. I know I expressed some concern in my earlier post concerning the gravity driven automorph on OP, but to date all three are still working. I don't think anyone should shy away for fear of poor QC.

Atomatron wrote:my annoying problem is no Constructicons figures and where the heck is T-Cracker already? oh and need more seeker activators tooooooo

Hasbro: What Constructicons? Were there supposed to be Constructicons? What seekers? That word doesn't ring a bell. And you want and Optimus Prime with a jetpack and stuff? That's a little much don't you think? Oh my god you want more stocks of those TRU deluxes and you want those other guys we were supposed to release but didn't? C'mon guys you're killing us here! Who wants to manufacture stuff that people want to buy? Hey how about Tuner Mudflap? We've got plenty of those!

Evil_the_Nub wrote:The line had some pretty bad QC problems. Arcee's swords don't fit anywhere. They're too big for her hands and there are little nubs on the blades that prevent them from fitting in her shoulder holsters.

There's a trick to the shoulder holsters, you have to insert the sword so the blade is diagonal to the hole. It took me awhile to figure that out. Still doesn't help the hands though, I ended up shaving down the handles a bit so I didn't bust off her thumbs.

kirbenvost wrote:

Evil_the_Nub wrote:The line had some pretty bad QC problems. Arcee's swords don't fit anywhere. They're too big for her hands and there are little nubs on the blades that prevent them from fitting in her shoulder holsters.

There's a trick to the shoulder holsters, you have to insert the sword so the blade is diagonal to the hole. It took me awhile to figure that out. Still doesn't help the hands though, I ended up shaving down the handles a bit so I didn't bust off her thumbs.

I shaved the nubs off when I shaved the handles.

I suppose that works too.