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I wanted to create a thread where we can share stories about those times you've bought a figure only to find out it had a quality control issue?

Here are some of mine
1- Power of the Primes Landmine: This one was one the most annoying cases i've had since i like him as a character. Bought him at a Toys'R'us and bought him and me and my friend went to a hamburger joint nearby. While i was eating and was unpackaging him. (i often open before getting home), i found out that i got one with bad shoulder joint because of plastic deficiency on the yellow plastic. So i went back and got him exchanged for a Submarauder figure the same day (which is a decent figure). Took me a week to buy a new Landmine and found one without bad joints.

2- War For Cybertron Siege Stakeout & Red Heat: Had a few annoying joint problems with Red Heat's hip balljoints although my friend warned me about them but i had hoped i didn't have the same bad luck but a bit of paperwad inside the joints made Red Heat more stable.

3- 2007 Movie Deluxe 1974 Camaro Bumblebee: The locking mechanism for keeping the car hood locked tight in vehicle mode never worked properly for me even if i did everything corectly. I never had one from any second production runs that got this fixed. So mine had "hair trigger" sensitivity and even if i left it untouched it would've untransformed at some point ranging from a few hours days or even looking at him causing him to unfold, fall off a shelf or knock something over.

Whats your stories of breakage or other problems?

Rogue-Primal wrote:I wanted to create a thread where we can share stories about those times you've bought a figure only to find out it had a quality control issue?

Here are some of mine
1- Power of the Primes Landmine: This one was one the most annoying cases i've had since i like him as a character. Bought him at a Toys'R'us and bought him and me and my friend went to a hamburger joint nearby. While i was eating and was unpackaging him. (i often open before getting home), i found out that i got one with bad shoulder joint because of plastic deficiency on the yellow plastic. So i went back and got him exchanged for a Submarauder figure the same day (which is a decent figure). Took me a week to buy a new Landmine and found one without bad joints.

2- War For Cybertron Siege Stakeout & Red Heat: Had a few annoying joint problems with Red Heat's hip balljoints although my friend warned me about them but i had hoped i didn't have the same bad luck but a bit of paperwad inside the joints made Red Heat more stable.

3- 2007 Movie Deluxe 1974 Camaro Bumblebee: The locking mechanism for keeping the car hood locked tight in vehicle mode never worked properly for me even if i did everything corectly. I never had one from any second production runs that got this fixed. So mine had "hair trigger" sensitivity and even if i left it untouched it would've untransformed at some point ranging from a few hours days or even looking at him causing him to unfold, fall off a shelf or knock something over.

Whats your stories of breakage or other problems?

Weird ball joints, i'm not sure i'd really file under QC, especially for something as small as micro/prime/head masters.


The SS Camero Bee, and Siege Starscream chest were known issues, but I've never seen them as "deal breakers".


Probably the worst QC issues I've had is with paint/sticker wear on various figures. A lot of the Prime Wars Trilogies had dodgy ball joints, but that still seems like part/parcle of the balljoint technology.

Here's one people might not think about as much, but can a thorn in my particularly OCD eye for detail: mismoldings. Basically when parts come out warped, have excess plastic (flash), or even worse, parts have molded "dents" in them, possibly because of air pockets trapped between the two halves of any given set of molds.

I have... quite a few of those actually. I must have the same luck as that one reviewer who keeps complaining about loose hip joints.

But my personal worst QC, one that made me exchange a figure only to have it break some time later? PCC Skyburst. My first copy had two of the same lower legs. Fine, exchanged it, it was good. Some time later, the ball joint sockets started cracking and bam, broken. Weak plastic? Limbs moving in directions they shouldn't for the sake of the modes? Who knows, all I know is Power Core Combiners is a personal QC nightmare. His redeco Darkstream, Searchlight and his redeco Windburn, Steelshot's partner Beacon and Leadfoot all suffered breakage.

I've had a few toys with frozen joints.

I had a Sky Lynx with one of his rear knee joints reversed, preventing it from going into combined-mode shoulder position, and a Siege Shockwave with a thigh that wouldn't rotate. Both of these got returned for replacements.

One of the HFGs that came with my UW Computron had part of its thumb reversed, which stopped the thumb from folding flat in either direction. It still works as a hand though so I didn't bother returning it.

I'm sure I have others, but the one that bugs me the most is CW Bonecrusher. One of the pins that hold his toes one is inserted at an angle and is sticking out. It doesn't cause much of an issue, but just annoys the hell out of me. The worst part is that it's not like I could have just gone swapped that one figure. I've had a few nasty paint flaws that's caused me to return figures as well.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:I have... quite a few of those actually. I must have the same luck as that one reviewer who keeps complaining about loose hip joints.

Baltmatrix? I think hip joints really have it out for him. I remember when he reviewed BW Generations Rhinox (the tan anniversary one) had really bad knees too.

Studio Series Rampage. I bought one and the joint on the right shoulder was completely floppy. SO I returned it and got another one. Thatone had a completely floppy hinge where the left arm folds into the torso for transformation. So I took THAT one back, got a third one, which had the same problem as the first one. The fourth one ALSO had the same problem as the first one. Finally, I'm on my fifth, maybe sixth, Rampage (I lost track), and it has some looseness in the left side hinge, but not as much as Rampage number two did... SO I decide screw it, this is probably as good as I'm going to get.


My first thought when the Skipjack listing was revealed was "Oh no, not again." Seriously, if I have to go through this again with the yellow one, my Devastator's just gonna have a red leg, because I don't want to do that again.

EDIT: Also, my SS Long Haul doesn't fit together properly in vehicle mode, and I just got CW Devastator today and my Hook has two left hands. I have bad luck with Constructicons in general, apparently.

A few more minicon flaws. Minicon Draconis energon headpiece is too tight when your want to remove it. Tricerashot's horn cannons also get really stuck. One of regular red Slipstream arm bucklers just loves falling off.
Lastly black Bludgeon's tiny hands can be really loose sometimes.

Rogue-Primal wrote:A few more minicon flaws. Minicon Draconis energon headpiece is too tight when your want to remove it. Tricerashot's horn cannons also get really stuck. One of regular red Slipstream arm bucklers just loves falling off.
Lastly black Bludgeon's tiny hands can be really loose sometimes.

I got one in that department: Beastbox's armor. One of the upper arm pieces broke in half (possibly after a fall) and one of the "knuckle dusters" has a stress mark down the middle, and looks ready to break too.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Rogue-Primal wrote:A few more minicon flaws. Minicon Draconis energon headpiece is too tight when your want to remove it. Tricerashot's horn cannons also get really stuck. One of regular red Slipstream arm bucklers just loves falling off.
Lastly black Bludgeon's tiny hands can be really loose sometimes.

I got one in that department: Beastbox's armor. One of the upper arm pieces broke in half (possibly after a fall) and one of the "knuckle dusters" has a stress mark down the middle, and looks ready to break too.

Just googled him. It's a really good design for a minicon Tough luck with his arm design prone to being fragile.

Rogue-Primal wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Rogue-Primal wrote:A few more minicon flaws. Minicon Draconis energon headpiece is too tight when your want to remove it. Tricerashot's horn cannons also get really stuck. One of regular red Slipstream arm bucklers just loves falling off.
Lastly black Bludgeon's tiny hands can be really loose sometimes.

I got one in that department: Beastbox's armor. One of the upper arm pieces broke in half (possibly after a fall) and one of the "knuckle dusters" has a stress mark down the middle, and looks ready to break too.

Just googled him. It's a really good design for a minicon Tough luck with his arm design prone to being fragile.

Not the arms themselves, rather the armor pieces that attach to them.

luckily, I didn't have too many QC issues over the year.

PCC Searchlight:
my copy came with a leg broken right out of the box.

MP-09B Rodimus Prime (Black Version)
As all the copies of this MP, my as well suffered for the knee issue.

MP-44 Sparkplug minifigure
Not a main QC issue, but the Sparkplug minifigure on my MP-44 copy has one leg stuck in the balljoint (probably the paints fsed together in assembling) and any attempt to unstuck it is stressing the small balljoint, so to avoid breaking it I'm not moving it anyway.

Zeedust wrote:Studio Series Rampage. I bought one and the joint on the right shoulder was completely floppy. SO I returned it and got another one. Thatone had a completely floppy hinge where the left arm folds into the torso for transformation. So I took THAT one back, got a third one, which had the same problem as the first one. The fourth one ALSO had the same problem as the first one. Finally, I'm on my fifth, maybe sixth, Rampage (I lost track), and it has some looseness in the left side hinge, but not as much as Rampage number two did... SO I decide screw it, this is probably as good as I'm going to get.


My first thought when the Skipjack listing was revealed was "Oh no, not again." Seriously, if I have to go through this again with the yellow one, my Devastator's just gonna have a red leg, because I don't want to do that again.

EDIT: Also, my SS Long Haul doesn't fit together properly in vehicle mode, and I just got CW Devastator today and my Hook has two left hands. I have bad luck with Constructicons in general, apparently.

Floppy hinges can be tightened. My Studio Series Rampage, on the other hand, has two identical small tread sections instead of a mirrored set like he should.

...Does the guy in my avatar count?

Henkei Classics Voyager Optimus. Paid 80$ for him new, opened him up, and the loosest joints, and the door panels kept falling off

Overall, really soured me on the Classics mold.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Floppy hinges can be tightened. My Studio Series Rampage, on the other hand, has two identical small tread sections instead of a mirrored set like he should.

Even pinned ones?

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:...Does the guy in my avatar count?

I think we should count Gold Plastic Syndrome as its own thing, if only because this could otherwise turn into the GPS thread.

Zeedust wrote:

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Floppy hinges can be tightened. My Studio Series Rampage, on the other hand, has two identical small tread sections instead of a mirrored set like he should.

Even pinned ones?

Yup. Just make sure to wiggle them a bit while it's happening so that they don't fully freeze up. Or you can let them get stuck in place and then carefully wiggle them into motion again. Done it lots of times myself.

Zeedust wrote:

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:...Does the guy in my avatar count?

I think we should count Gold Plastic Syndrome as its own thing, if only because this could otherwise turn into the GPS thread.

Fair enough.

Nathaniel Prime wrote:Henkei Classics Voyager Optimus. Paid 80$ for him new, opened him up, and the loosest joints, and the door panels kept falling off

Overall, really soured me on the Classics mold.

Mine was as tight as be. Either you got a lemon, or one of the many KO's of that mold.

Ah yes, a shining example of Takara's occasionally lackadaisical attitude towards plastic durability in the Masterpiece line.

As a kid the helicopter half of my Flywheels figure exploded out of nowhere. I hadn't had it for very long, but one day I was connecting the two halves, pushed down, let go as you're supposed to do and the ends of the helicopter flew off into different directions. There must have been a weak part in the plastic that couldn't take the force of the springs and the pressure of being pushed together.

Later my G2 Snarl had a leg just randomly fall off without any sign of it coming. He has a T shaped pelvis/hips that the thigh slides on to transform, but the "hip" sheered clean off the "pelvis". The hips aren't articulated, they just slide in and out without much friction so there was no reason for it to come off other than a plastic issue.

then there's the ones that could maybe have been avoided if they planned better like PM Optimus Prime's trailer hitch peg breaking off in Prime's feet or the ends of the Seeker Jet's gun tips snapping off like twigs.

More modern, Titan Trypticon, but not the legs or doors like most people have, but one of his shoulder canons just slides off freely. There's enough friction to hold it on and it'll hold positions, but it can be pulled off with ease.

Then there's Throne of the Primes Optimus Primal who has all the rigidity of a rag doll. All of his joints are loose, he can't even stand on his own and if I do get him to somehow balance it doesn't take much for his knees and hips to let go. No wonder why the tired old man comes with a chair.

Of course there's also MP Beast Megatron. Haven't had a chance to fix his hips yet so I'm just waiting for those to blow up on their own before I find the time.

Emerje

For me, the worst is when something break on the very first transformation. Enter Earthrise Grapple. Thankfully, I have one coming from Hasbro Pulse in a couple week at 20% off from the Black Friday deal. This one I bought out of impulse/impatience and was going to return the one from Pulse at full price to Target. No need now, as he went back to Target today and I'll just wait on and keep my one from Hasbro Pulse.

Oh dear... What exactly was it that broke? I can't tell for sure.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Oh dear... What exactly was it that broke? I can't tell for sure.

One of the pegs on the base of the crane.