The Energon Pub

[Stormrider]

Do molds become damaged or worn out from over use? I have read speculations about this, but I am curious if it's true. I was flipping through the latest edition of Hyper Hobby (Japanese Magazine) and saw two new images of BT-19 Blue Streak & BT-20 Silver Jazz. Both figures looked terrible.

There were lots of gaps between all of the seams making both of their alt modes look unsightly. Corners, window panes, and side panels were no longer plumb or square. Imagine Binaltech Asterick Red Alert but sloppier.



Now it could be possible that each figure were poorly transformed; but seeing the inaccuracies with Red Alert and Autotrooper made me wonder if the molds are getting worn out. This will be the 5th time that the Mazda and Suburu molds have been used by Takara.

[Mykltron]

It could be mistransformation. I recently got Beast Machines Rattrap and the photos of him in robot mode are wrong on the box. On the other hand, QC often leaves a lot to be desired with TFs.

[Counterpunch]

Yes.

Mold degredation is a reality.

For instance the Mini-Cons released during the Cybertron 2-packs supposedly won't be seen again. Takara has said that the molds would not be used again.

It does all seem sketchy though, I mean I think we're into double digit releases of the Bruticus mold...

[Stormrider]

CP you bring up a good point, which is why do some molds seem to degrade faster than others? I am sure that there must be factors such as the quality and materials of the mold, the temperatures that they are used at, and the number of figures that are produced.

[fenrir72]

Or how skin flinted Takara/Hasbro is over mold maintenance. As Stormrider presented, the Binaltechs are like a last gasp at recouping their financial loses plus riding on the TF nostalgia bandwagon.

On a slightly unrelated topic, all this scrap about some G1 molds no longer available is a lot of hogwash! Heck even the KO pirates get a better job done so what gives?

Case examples:

KISS player cassettes
Encore Ironhide and Ratchet (some parts)
Convoy/Ultra Magnus G1 re-issues (circa 2000)

I've seen how in this age of super mega terraflop capable computers that "real" cars can be designed and fabricated straight from a PC(slightly exaggeratted of course). So simple scanning and the watchamacalit scanner will fabricate the mold on go and voila........instant product.

So what's stopping them? The bottom line (which we fans are a bit at fault) 'cause we'll be purchasing the product no matter happy crappy it turns out.

If I were them, I'd release the entire G1 as re-issues, now that is a sure sound recipe for success. Enough of this Binaltech repaint cr@p!

[Auto Bot]

All toys degrades.

Metal degrades slower. Plastics degrades faster.

[Cascadia]

True but that figure in the picture is made out of die-cast metal but I would not know how long that toy has been out of its box. How long does plastic degrade vs. die-cast metal??

[Stormrider]

BTA Red Alert and KISS Autotrooper were the worst of the molds. Right out of the box their parts were not properly aligned. The parts are all screwed on properly and are tight. No loose hinges.

[Rushie]

It might have to do with the plastic the toys are cast in, but the only two repaints I got from the Movie line, Thundercracker and Camshaft, are looser and more annoying to transform. The joints seem softer and the plastic feels eerily 'tacky' for lack of a better term.

Is this a result of mold detoriation?

[Auto Bot]

Ive noticed something suspicious in my Classics toys.

Bumblebee came out ok. A bit of imperfection in the paintings, but the plastic is good quality.

When Cliffjumper arrived, it's so easy to see from the color of the plastic, that it's of low quality. Something at the level of KO. I took it out of the bubble and transform it. True enough, parts just simply broke off even without applying gentle force. It's made of far cheaper plastics than Bumblebee.

This is weird.