The Energon Pub

well today i was lucky enough to come across an MP Soundwave, i even had a coupon so here im thinking finally some good luck but that was shortly lived. Not only are there multiple paint defects but ravage is missing his tail. Ive heard of missing paint apps and swapped parts before but never missing parts. This is a $120 set you would think they'd put a bit more effort into making sure everything is 100%. Of course i cant just go and exchange it cause you all know how hard these are to find so now im stuck having a ravage with no tail or no MP set at all. Only other option is to make a tail but im drawing a blank on that one.

Mine has exactly the same issue. I about had a coronary after paying that much. Add to the fact that Soundwave has a nice flaw on the left side of his mouthplate that I'm going to have to trim and touch up and just like magic, the nostalgic thrill of getting a large, modern update of my first Transformer is gone. Poof!

sorry to hear that, but mine is perfect.

I did have a movie figure, a repaint of an autobot jet forget which now. that came missing one of the rear tail fins, and an arcee that was missing a mirror.

Whether its Vietnam or China, those jokers still can't get it right

fenrir72 wrote:Whether its Vietnam or China, those jokers still can't get it right

That's what you get when you outsource cheap labor. QC would be better if they were made in the U.S., but they'd cost twice the price.

But for a $120 figure, they really should be stepping up the QC. I can excuse paint flaws and the occasional missing or broken piece on $10 toys, but not a $120 collectible.

GuyIncognito wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:Whether its Vietnam or China, those jokers still can't get it right

That's what you get when you outsource cheap labor. QC would be better if they were made in the U.S., but they'd cost twice the price.

But for a $120 figure, they really should be stepping up the QC. I can excuse paint flaws and the occasional missing or broken piece on $10 toys, but not a $120 collectible.

Or made in Japan. (Though back in the late 80s, there were TFs made in Hong Kong/Macau that were high quality (or is it that today in this wired world of ours complaints are easily broadcast)

His tail is extremely small and easy to miss, any photos of this to get more of a word out to others?

If the store you got your defective figure from hasn't got any more then they should be able to bring one in for you. Failing that contact Hasbro direct.

Eh, even without having had these "missing pieces" issues myself, I find that Soundwave is horribly overpriced, considering that he and his cassettes suffer from many problematic-looking stress points and badly-trimmed sprues, which in the cases of Frenzy and Rumble prevent them from storing in SW's chest properly, and scare me with the stress marks on their oversized ball-joints.

What else would I expect from Hasbro?

Well, here's to hoping that the store, or Hasbro itself in the worst-case scenario, will be able to get you a replacement.

Even the vastly more expensive Takara stuff had QC problems. Had to get my Rumble/Frenzy/BlueTapeGuy replaced by BBTS. Wait it out for more stock and get an exchange

There are some recommendations here to contact Hasbro. I can't advise you enough to absolutely not do that. You'll send in Ravage and get a Cyberverse figure in return (or something like that).

Ravage HK wrote:Failing that contact Hasbro direct.

DO NOT do this. It WILL NOT end up in your favour.

ScottyP wrote:Even the vastly more expensive Takara stuff had QC problems. Had to get my Rumble/Frenzy/BlueTapeGuy replaced by BBTS. Wait it out for more stock and get an exchange

There are some recommendations here to contact Hasbro. I can't advise you enough to absolutely not do that. You'll send in Ravage and get a Cyberverse figure in return (or something like that).

This x 1000

I have only ever contacted Hasbro myself once and they were brilliant. I had an interactive Yoda ( bit like a Furby ) and the rubber on his head tore and cracked from the movement of his eyes. I sent them photos and they sent me a brand new one and a letter of apology.

Of course, this was Hasbro UK. The US branch may be a different story.

I got a RotF voyager Ratchet that was missing a part out of the box (a bumper or something), and Hasbro was very pleasant and replaced it right away. I do know it's possible that they reserve the right to replace defective products with something "comparable", which I take to mean the same price (like they might have replace voyager Ratchet with voyager Ironhide). But, since there's nothing else in Soundwave's price range, you'd think think they'd have to send you another. Unless they send you Metroplex.

im both glad & saddened that im not alone here, missing part, paint defects & untrimmed plastic all around. Throw in cheap plastic & numerous stress points & we have a very disappointing figure set. Looks great on the shelf but thats about it. But i contacted bot TRU & hasbro via email & TRU said that since the figure is in such high demand they cant do anything at this time & hasro remains silent.

Megatron Wolf wrote:im both glad & saddened that im not alone here, missing part, paint defects & untrimmed plastic all around. Throw in cheap plastic & numerous stress points & we have a very disappointing figure set. Looks great on the shelf but thats about it. But i contacted bot TRU & hasbro via email & TRU said that since the figure is in such high demand they cant do anything at this time & hasro remains silent.

As long as it continues to sell out, there's no reason for Hasbro (or TRU) to address it. Customers vote with the wallets, and so far they're saying "We don't care if it has defects. We'll buy one (or two or three) anyway, even at inflated prices."

If something is shoddy with missing parts then it should be replaced or fixed, no arguments.

This is also a problem for online stores. They get stocks as is. They take a hit if one or all their stocks are defective (Jin Buh as an example) The most the stores will do is

a. refund you (they take a hit with turd of an item)
b. receive your defective item and wait for a replacement (a very null possibility)
c. the stores really take a hit because shipping it back to the supplier costs them big(unless said supplier also gives your a discount or something)

How this applies to Hasbro.........

GuyIncognito wrote:

Megatron Wolf wrote:im both glad & saddened that im not alone here, missing part, paint defects & untrimmed plastic all around. Throw in cheap plastic & numerous stress points & we have a very disappointing figure set. Looks great on the shelf but thats about it. But i contacted bot TRU & hasbro via email & TRU said that since the figure is in such high demand they cant do anything at this time & hasro remains silent.

As long as it continues to sell out, there's no reason for Hasbro (or TRU) to address it. Customers vote with the wallets, and so far they're saying "We don't care if it has defects. We'll buy one (or two or three) anyway, even at inflated prices."

This is one of the problems with having a fragmented fandom like we do, no matter how many of us stop buying or reduce buying theres at least one asshole for everyone who "boycotts" who will buy 2 of everything cause they are TF junkies who think their collection is going to suffer if they dont have everything or are so addicted they dont realize they have a problem. Hasbro is also to blame for having crappy customer service & what seems like absolutely no quality assurance. But all this means is that im going to start buying an even less amount of hasbro products. There were about 10 figures that i planed on getting through out the rest of they year, i just reduced it down to 4, None of which exceed $20.

But random thought, i remember back in the day when 2 of my McFarlane predator figures fell & each one broke a weapon. I couldnt fix them so i contacted mcfarlane toys cause none of my local stores had any more & they sent me replacement weapons free of charge. After that i noticed a little disclaimer on the site saying that they will replace parts for most current figures. More companies need to do this.