The Energon Pub

Well I got a 4 pack from TFsource today and my thunderwing has a piece in his chest inverted, so He doesn't transform properly into vehicle mode. Is there any way to fix this?
http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg829/scaled.php?server=829&filename=foto0424vn.jpg&res=landing

I'd say exchange it. The fix would be too much of a hassle to be worth it, anything with metal pins usually is.

It was imported, exchanging it would be too much of a hassle

mtma wrote:It was imported, exchanging it would be too much of a hassle

then you'll just have to think of it as the Rob Liefeld variant version of the figure. At least if I'm seeing the misconstructed part correctly and estimating what it will look like when transformed.

Wow, I've just had a mess about with my Thunderwing and can see the difficulties that would cause. It looks like the chest piece won't be able to tab down properly on yours in robot mode either although that may not be as noticeable as on the alt mode. I think your only option is going to be knocking out that pin. You will find that most of the length of the pin is smooth and one end is rough or barbed. You want to be knocking out from the smooth end and reinstalling with the barbed end at the opposite side to where it started so that it has fresh plastic to bite on. If there is any sign of the plastic being scarred immediately around the pin then that is probably the biting end, although this isn't always obvious and it's sometimes a matter of pure luck. Any time I need to remove one of these I use a 0.3mm flat headed dowel and a small hammer, but it's always an effort to get the bloody things out and rarely as tight of a fit when they go back together.

Wow…I had to grab mine to see what the problem was…that sux. By mail order, a good retailer will exchange it and send the shipping label…I would exchange it

I must be missing something here, either that, or mine has the same issue. My Thunderwing looks just like that when I flip down the chest piece but everything seems to snap into place etc. like it's supposed to in both modes.

Can someone post a pic of what their supposedly non-borked version looks like so I may compare the two?

edit: Nevermind, I see what you mean. The small black piece is backwards (mine was too). I just took it out (the black piece is not pinned to the main body, thank goodness), then used a hammer and one of my very small files along with a hammer to knock the pin out which was far easier than I thought it would be, reversed the black piece, put the pin back in, tapped it a few times with the hammer until it was flush, then replaced it back on his chest.

It now snaps into the front of his vehicle mode like it's supposed to (never realized until now that I was transforming it wrong by leaving it near his chest).

xyl360 wrote:I must be missing something here, either that, or mine has the same issue. My Thunderwing looks just like that when I flip down the chest piece but everything seems to snap into place etc. like it's supposed to in both modes.

Can someone post a pic of what their supposedly non-borked version looks like so I may compare the two?

it is the "bracket" that attaches the chest piece to the chest, not the actual chest piece

SkyWarpt wrote:

xyl360 wrote:I must be missing something here, either that, or mine has the same issue. My Thunderwing looks just like that when I flip down the chest piece but everything seems to snap into place etc. like it's supposed to in both modes.

Can someone post a pic of what their supposedly non-borked version looks like so I may compare the two?

it is the "bracket" that attaches the chest piece to the chest, not the actual chest piece

Yep, the little black piece (see my edit above). Mine was indeed borked as well but fixing it was a snap. I checked my Sky Shadow and on him, the piece is a brownish tan color but it was assembled correctly thankfully.

I tried fixing it but I'm afraid to break the piece...

It's really not that bad as long as you have tools capable of it. A decent tutorial on how to remove a pin can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od0hO9MBEMI

For the record, this was my first time ever removing a pin myself and it wasn't bad at all. I just held the piece with most of my fingers on my left hand and used two of my fingers to keep the needle file aligned and on top of the pin and tapped away at it with a bit of force with a regular hammer. I had it sitting on a piece of cardboard (which now has a pin sized hole in it ).

Putting it back in was easier, I just tapped it in with a hammer gently, making sure I could feel when it slid through the hole in the black piece and it's now back together good as new.

I know there are a couple of Brazilian customizers that might be able to help you out if you can't fix it yourself. It may be worth it to send Joey_Santana over on TFW2005 a message and see what he says. I can't promise anything will come of it. I'd offer to send you one of my spares (well, the torso anyway) but I know from experience what shipping to Brazil can be like!