Fixes for TF Animated figures Wow, I just saw 14 pages of problems with the Animated figures! Now I agree that they should come without problems right out of the box but sometimes there's things that need to be worked out with a new series. First, if you have a complaint, contact Hasbro with this form: http://hasbro.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/hasbro....25sJnBfcGFnZT0x I get a response from them every time and have talked to them about subjects from loose joints to unpaintable plastic on their figures. This is how they get feedback from us, we have to do out part in telling them what's wrong. The form is easy to fill out and will only take you a few minutes. But since you've already bought your figures it's time to fix the ones you have. Some pictures are supplied below the fixes for you as well. These are the fixes that worked with my figures. Loose Ball Joints In the case of Grimlock, Prime, megatron, prowl, etc they all have balljointed sections. These are easy to fix. First pop the offending limb off. Take your superglue and drip just a little but on the ball-post, not inside the cup. Spread it around a bit and do NOT put it back in. Let the superglue cure by sitting there or hit it with a hairdryer until it forms a nice, shiny, hard shell. Reattach it. This fixed my Grimlock, 2-pack Prime and Megatron's hips, and Prowl's shoulders. Depending on how loose the ball-joint is it may take a few coats. This fix should work for almost any figure unless the ball post is made of the dreaded unpaintable/unglueable plastic. Then you option is to drip the superglue on the ball post and snap it back into place while it's still wet! Since the ball post is made of the special plastic the superglue will only adhere to the ball-cup making for a tighter fit. Just gently move the limb loose after it cures. But make sure the ball-post is made of the unpaintable plastic, not clear plastic like 2-pack's Megatron's hip. Black Arachnia's mandibles are a good example of what unpaintable plastic is. It's also the kind that's used for the inner disc of a Marvel Legends shoulder or hip joint. Kinda waxy and tough plastic. Loose swivel/cut-joints These can be a little more difficult. Starscream has them in his thighs, so does Voyager megatron. They like to pop out because the ratchet system on the hip (not the character, the clicking noise, heh) is stronger than the cut joint-plug below it. The fix can be done two ways, sometimes one works and other times the next works. Fix 1 is to do the superglue trick as described in the tightening ball-joints. Take the cut joint apart and apply a thin layer of superglue to the end of the peg where the ridge is. Usually this is towards the top of the peg or around it. Let the superglue cure then pop it back into place. This usually tightens the joint up enough so it doesn’t pop out. If this doesn’t work or the sections are made of Unpaintable plastic, then you’ll have to do the Burning-Blade technique. Sounds dangerous eh? It can be, just be careful. What you want to do is heat up the end of your x-acto knife with a lighter or use a soldering Iron and touch the end of the peg, melting it slightly and making it wider. Some people cut an ‘X’ into the top with the heated blade, thus flaring it out some that way. I had to do this with Starscream’s right leg because it kept falling off. The last-ditch effort is to drill a hole in both ends then drive a screw into one end. Clip the head of the screw off and then ‘screw on’ the opposite part until they become one piece. Unless you turn the part more than 360 deg, it will stay together that way. Crappy Paint Ah, you’ll have to touch up your figures by hand to combat this problem. I recommend Testors Model Master Acrylics. I use the Fantasy line and their regular Acrylic line. Head to their site and click on the Model Masters banner to be taken to this page: http://testors.com/brand_category.asp?brandNbr=4 There you can view the Color Charts and see what shades you need to match. Depending on your monitor colors you may need to adjust the shade of paint when you get it so I buy some white, black, gray, and a few other colors to mix with my paints to obtain different shades. Like for Grimlock’s gray I had to use Gunship Gray mixed with some Bear Brown to get that shade. His red needed Dragon Red lightened slightly with some white, or Rust mixed with some Bloode Red. Loose hinge Joints This requires a bit more finesse. Most of the voyager figures have clicky hinge joints in their knees, elbows, shoulders, etc. But then there’s the case of just a regular hinge without the clicky. Sometimes those are loose and you’ll need a superglue trick to fix them. Drip a very small amount of superglue in the hinge and wait 5 seconds, then move it. Wait a little longer, move it slightly again. Keep messing with it so it doesn’t completely set up but slowly starts getting tighter. After about 2-3 minutes the joint will be much tighter. Repeat as needed. Works great on Marvel legends figs! Grimlock’s slide-in arm fix Welcome to the advanced class as this fix takes a few more steps. First pop off Grimmys leg and unscrew all three screws. You’ll have to pop the thigh apart with a tad bit of effort because there’s still a peg or two holding it together. Once you have the leg apart, look at the end of the black arm section. There’s two spinny sections. Those sections slide in the thigh groove. Take your hobby knife and carefully shave the back of the spinny black things into a slant leaving the front to remain flat so it will stop the arm from coming out. Next take your Dremel tool or something you can scrape plastic out with and shave inside the groove that’s in the thigh. Remember how his thigh bulged out when you pressed the leg in? We’re shaving the inner sides to give that black piece of plastic more room. I suspect you could skip this step and just shave the black spinner sections thinner overall but I didn’t want to risk the arm being pulled out because there was too much clearance. Now test fit it together. Grimlock’s arm now moves all the way in! Ok, hope that helped with a lot of the fixes. Remember this is just a guide and your results may vary depending on your tools and skill level. These worked for my figures and now everything stays tight and together on my figures. More fixes to come as I figure them out. Know of a problem that wasn’t listed? Email me at [email protected], I’ll pick up the figure and post a fix when I have time. Thanks for reading!
Thanks for the Tips But do you have any advise on fixing bumble bee's stingers, so they fit into his arms better? Back to the Shadows CH@OS!
we already have a thread devoted to this sort of thing http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showthread.php?t=178915
I know we already have a thread for this but, this thread is better and needs to be a sticky thread. Isn't the original poster the one who makes all of those cool customs and sells them on ebay?
How do you fix BA's retracter? I tried fixing it, and the spiral wire jumped out. I tried fitting it back in, but the string wont retract..what do I do?
Awesome. I did the same thing to mine a couple months ago, but at the end I glued the shoulder halves together to keep me from the temptation to go back in and do more work and ruin the whole thing, so I couldn't take the proper pics to do a tutorial. Thanks!
Yeah, if you want two grabby hands, you need two Bulkheads. You CAN just unscrew the right hand and take the sawblade out.
Agggh! If I must, I must. How does the non-grabby one look with the sawblade removed? I don't have Leader Bulky yet, so I don't have one just to look at. Anyone take the blade out who has pics they wanna post?
if you need a new one my 1st BA was all messed up, busted leg, 2 right hands ect. so i kept the weapon when i exchanged it.....meaning i have a spareif ya need it
JinSaotome, thanks, dude! Great mini-tutorial. On the whole, these are great figures, but it's too bad some of these fixes need to be made so often; this is one of my favorite TF lines ever Still won't stop me from buying them, but hopefully Hasbro gets the message and ups the QA on these soon. I think I'd cry if I ever got a Wreck-Gar who was actually wrecked :\
