I tried pulling it very slowly as well. I got 3/4 of the way through before it started tearing.

 

I peeled diagonally, I don't know if that made a difference.

 

Yup. Same here. I was convinced it would be a clean peel considering how far I got before the tear.

 

After some head canon finagling, I decided on the following cassette configuration to help bridge the gap in minions between my MP Soundwave and Soundblaster. I think it works since I grouped the more obscure cassettes with the more obscure Soundblaster.

Soundwave: Frenzy/Rumble, Laserbeak/Buzzsaw, Ravage, Ratbat, and KFC Autoscout

Soundblaster: Enemy, Wingthing, KFC Overkill, KFC Slugfest, KFC Beastbox, and KFC Squawktalk.

 

Well, I just received my set from TF Source today. Peeled the Chinese sticker off the back, opened it and proceeded to check out the cassettes.

Stripes first, pretty fun variation of the ravage mold. Hips are a little loose but not a huge deal.

Enemy was next, I really like the color scheme. Transformed him and he had a little flash around his eye that I needed to scrape out with an X-acto knife. A little paint flaw on his eyes too, nothing I can’t touch up. Took his weapons out of the bag, snapped one into his back, picked up the other one and—

Bogus.



No handle piece anywhere to be found.

Will TF Source replace this part? Has anyone had a similar experience with a good outcome?


Edit: I continued opening Wingthing and Nightstalker after making the post above. Both are new molds to me since I never got Soundblaster/Ratbat. Wingthing is fun and now I really do want one in Ratbat colors since I had the original G1 as a kid. Nightstalker is also fun, a nice addition to the cassettes that fits in well with the others. Cool to see the first cassette not designed by Hasui and I think it turned out well. I'm looking forward to Steeljaw and seeing how they handle his weapons.

 

here is what i posted about the hasbro asia sticker back in 2013 about the mp-12 sideswipe that people were also experiencing with MP-14 red alert

MP-14 with white sticker on the back of box???

 

My ideas for Masterpiece Blaster and his cassettes.

WAVE 1
Blaster & Rewind
Eject & Steeljaw

WAVE 2
Twincast & Ramhorn
Blackcat & Sundor with Toaster accessory

WAVE 3
SG Ratbat & SG Slugfest vs. SG Rewind & SG Ramhorn with SG Blaster accessory

I've intentionally avoided pairing Rewind and Eject together since they share the same mold; also I intentionally gave Twincast a new mold partner to act as an incentive like Ratbat was. Blackcat may come from an obscure source - the German Transformers comic, but he was given a toy recently making him a valid character to use given that we've just gotten the likes of Nightstalker, Stripes, Wingthing and Enemy as Masterpiece toys. All the cartoon Autobot cassettes would be done by this point, making a set of characters not in the cartoon perfectly acceptable - although obviously, Blackcat is a new character and color scheme to Japan. Toaster is a repaint of the tiny Blaster accessory that came with Masterpiece Tracks, in the colors below.

The second set of four cassettes would have a Shattered Glass theme to it. Five of the characters are from the Shattered Glass Blaster vs. Soundwave set, although Blaster is the tiny accessory again. Once again, there would be one new cassette mold.

 

Really enjoying these guys! I did a bit of a review on them - link is in my sig below.

 

Drawing a blank... what's that 3rd Ratbat mold cassette on the far right from? I've seen it before. Just can't remember the context.

 

The Timelines (FunPub) GI Joe set, I think

 

Yeah it's from the GI Joe crossover set.

 

That is correct:

Transformers Club Store

 

Man, I'd like to have that Ratbat, but $130 is more than I'm willing to part with to get it. Wonder if we'll see a KO with that color variant.

 

They show up on ebay from time to time. I got mine for $45.

 

I think all the U.K. sellers got the Hasbro Asia release although these had the Chinese 3C stickers on the back.

I noticed people having some issues with stripes back end which suffered from loose joints. Also kool kollectables dude video showed Nightstalkers paw was assembled upside down so the claw was on the underside. Some people had issue with the head joint not connecting together leaving a gap straight down the middle.

Has anyone got one from Japan AE or others sellers and are there any QC issues?

 

Good figures. I bought Ratbat GiJoe and now need to buy the YOTG Soundwave.

 

Splurged on these with some leftover Christmas money, and I'm happy with the investment, overall.  

Getting an Enemy figure of any kind was a nice bit of completionism; I had a KFC not!Wingthing, but the Takara one is light-years better.

Stripes is a decent-enough replacement for the TR one, but Nightstalker - while a great figure - is almost ridiculously tiny. He's very good for what he is, but when such a classic character can double as CW Optimus' housecat in size, it's a little odd.  

 

The two GI Joe figures in that set (biggles jones and scarlett) sell for $40-$50 each, and you still have the rest of the set to sell too, if you want to part it out you can get a ratbat for cheap (I did!)

 

Taking off the white label on the back is easy with a hairdryer. I used goo-gone to remove the sticky residue on the box. It was safe and did not harm the boxart.

I would rather skip the constant repaints and go with new molds:
Slamdance
Squakbox
Dino Cassettes

 

Yeah, but I'm just going by what Takara has done already at the rate of new cassette molds they have been producing.