The Energon Pub

Since I remember the last thread being stickied, I thought it should be resurrected. If it is decided that this isn't necessary then the Mods can delete this thread.

GPS= Gold Plastic Syndrome. A condition that afflicts figures made with a certain type of gold plastic. Apparently as the plastic ages it becomes brittle and will disintegrate. I don't know if it is due to environmental conditions, improper mixing of ingredients, poor quality ingredients used to make the plastic, or improper technique in forming the parts. This is more common in G1 and G2 figures but some newer figures are now breaking down as they age.

Some figures known to suffer from GPS:

G1
Skyhammer
Roadblock
Monstructor

G2


Beast Wars
Grimlock
Transmetal Megatron

Beast Machines

RID

IF anybody has anything else to add feel free...

Add Grimlock and Transmetal Megatron to the BW section.

Stick Torca and Randy in the BW section too (or Randy into a BW Neo section if you're gonna make one)

For the time being I'd like to keep the single sitcky up top to notify everyone of what's happening. In a week I'll sticky everything that needs to be.

I no longer need this to be stickied. I should be finally getting the article posted about it soon.

I am looking at movie protoform Starscream under a magafying glass and I am pretty sure this one is gonna suffer breakages at some of these "lines" Some of these lines look questionable already.

I haven't opened mine yet but I recently purchased a Clear Leo Convoy does he suffer from this a affliction?

Hotrod wrote:I no longer need this to be stickied. I should be finally getting the article posted about it soon.

YAY! I like the articls on Seibs. Keep em coming.

vulgar_wraith wrote:I haven't opened mine yet but I recently purchased a Clear Leo Convoy does he suffer from this a affliction?

Not that I know of. I had one for a while and eventually sold it off, I wasn't a huge fan of the color scheme. He seemed pretty sturdy to me, although in time? Who knows man.

G1 Black Zarak! Expensive as F#ck and breaks for almost everyone.

Flux Convoy wrote:

vulgar_wraith wrote:I haven't opened mine yet but I recently purchased a Clear Leo Convoy does he suffer from this a affliction?

Not that I know of. I had one for a while and eventually sold it off, I wasn't a huge fan of the color scheme. He seemed pretty sturdy to me, although in time? Who knows man.

I have one too and I don't like the colors either. Pretty cool figure though....

DJDrew&ScoobyDoo wrote:G1 Black Zarak! Expensive as F#ck and breaks for almost everyone.

You took the words right out of my mouth dear fellow! I cant see the point in buying an Scoponok for 500$+ with broken legs!

How about that Transmetal Megatron where does he commonly break? I just picked up one up MISB that came from Japan.Should I just keep him boxed for display?

vulgar_wraith wrote:How about that Transmetal Megatron where does he commonly break? I just picked up one up MISB that came from Japan.Should I just keep him boxed for display?

The Takara version uses a different plastic than the brittle brown used on the U.S. version. You should be perfectly safe.

I just discovered that KB Toys exclusive RID "MEGABOLT" (a BM Megabolt Megatron repaint) suffers from GPS. I wasn't even expecting this when I opened him from his package prison after all of these years earlier this afternoon. I thought this problem was behind us pre-RID. I didn't even transform him and a piece had snapped off from removing him from the package. It's a small piece that I'm hoping to glue back on tomorrow.

I hate this problem. Urgh.

Here's a great idea for a 3rd party company ... make replacement pieces for figures that suffer from this problem. That would be awesome.

Seibertron wrote:I just discovered that KB Toys exclusive RID "MEGABOLT" (a BM Megabolt Megatron repaint) suffers from GPS. I wasn't even expecting this when I opened him from his package prison after all of these years earlier this afternoon. I thought this problem was behind us pre-RID. I didn't even transform him and a piece had snapped off from removing him from the package. It's a small piece that I'm hoping to glue back on tomorrow.

I hate this problem. Urgh.

Here's a great idea for a 3rd party company ... make replacement pieces for figures that suffer from this problem. That would be awesome.

Mine also had a small piece broken off, a peg hole in the cannon. That's why I'm looking for either a regular Megatron Megabolt, or the Japanese BWR Megahead Megatron. I thought I mentioned that earlier in this thread.

And I'm all for reproed parts, were it not for the fact that you'd need to have some experience in constructing figures, and that some figures are made entirely out of Gold Plastic. I'm looking at you, BW Randy and G2 Electro. On the bright side, most GPS figures have (p)repaints, so you can just take parts of the other figure and paint them gold.

Killbison should also be on this list.

El Duque wrote:Killbison should also be on this list.

Do you have one that is broken? I've never seen a broken one before.

Seibertron wrote:

El Duque wrote:Killbison should also be on this list.

Do you have one that is broken? I've never seen a broken one before.

I have one, but he's not broken. When I was doing my research before setting out to get Liokaiser I had read he suffered from it and to watch out for it. Is this not the case? I've been handling mine with kid gloves.

G2 Electro. He was made to die!!

My Machine Wars Thundercracker had a GPS like break on one of his legs. Not sure if he counts, but the brown plastic used has similar characteristics of GPS.

I remember hearing the G1 Pyro had GPS syndrome as well.

Yes, I can confirm Pyro.

I have Electro as well. One of my favourite G2 molds. Once saw a pink KO of him. Anyone else see that? I'd love to get one, if only to see if the KO is sturdier.

Given his failure at the drop test, they may as well have built Fortress Maximus from the stuff.

Good thing G2 Bumblebee wasn't made from it or we'd have to call him Crumblebee.

On a more serious note, if anyone ever buys the Korean oversized Bruticus, be very careful. He's not made from gold plastic but Blast Off and Vortex' 'shoulders' are as brittle as any GPS TF. I have one and Blast Off broke on the first transformation.