You can always try the heat-treatment:

Get it hot with a hair dryer etc. This will reduce many stress marks.

 

Mine had t hat too.

 

Welcome to the butt crack club!

 

Peaugh,

I've seen your video review for each of the members. You do good work. I was curious how it stacked up with Project Uranos (Superion) It looks good they would be excellent in the classics collection  

 

Caved in and bought him yesterday. Nifty little fella with some good solid construct and nice colors. Transformation can be made simpler. Its a pleasure handling him once you get him to bot mode.

 

^^^ Saw this. HAD TO. I am unashamed.  

 

So I finally got around to transforming and combining all of these guys today. And I have to say I HATE this combiner. I HATE, HATE, HATE it.

Does it look amazing, yes, yes it does. The cars look great as well. But that is it.

The transformations on all the figures are fiddly. Not only that, but they take force to get together. You have to push them tight to get rid of the gaps.

However, you can not use force to take it apart. Today I for the first time in my transformer collecting broke a figure. I have over 700 figures and never had a transformer break on me. That changed today with Drag Strip.

Drag strip is the second worst figure I own. The figure is over, over, over engineered. The ankle tuck, is the worst thing I have ever seen on a transformer. It is so poorly executed that it makes it frustrating to transform. Well today, pulling out those ankles caused the canopy to break. The things is so finky and tight that it broke. Right now I am debating getting a new one. But I don't know why I would do that, when I hate this thing so much.

Then let's get to Diesel. He is the worst figure I own. By far the worst figure I own. He is a finky tabby mess. The tolerances are rediculous. It takes 30 minutes to transform him.

Then you have combined mode. The combination of the limbs should be easy, but it's not, I literally thought I was going to break the combiner ports attaching them. They are so tight it's rediculous. But the worst part is around the thigh. The transformation has the back and the front of the thigh tabbing in together. Which is great and dandy, but those joints are so tight that the leg panels untab. So moving the leg is an exercise in frustration. Move the leg, retab the thighs. Over and over again.

The thing is, he does look amazing in bot and alt mode. Which is great. But the reason I love Transformers is because of transformations. In the end, this combiner as a whole is not satisfying. It is frustrating. This figure is not a FUN toy. It is an over engineered, fiddly, tabby, frustrating transformer.

I really regret that I wanted this so bad to hold a place for Menasor. I hope another third party takes a stab at Menasor so I could have fun with the figure. That is not that figure.

I hate this thing so much, I question how the company who gave us brilliant and fun transformation like the ones seen in their function x series can give us this?

 

Different designers

Tough luck

 

2 quick questions:

1- How do you disengage the combiner ports?

2- Is there a trick to getting the thighs to stay clipped? Whenever I move the bottom leg, the thigh unclips. I almost feel like I did something wrong, but the back tabs are clipped and so are the two front ones.

 

1. Gentle wiggling and pulling...but DO NOT pull too hard, you'll break connectors...

2. I can't help here because I don't have this problem...though I have heard many that do...best I can offer is to push them on harder...

I will say this...at first, the set was a b!tch to transform and assemble...but I've gone thru ALL transformations numerous times, and it's almost second nature...it does get easier and less frustrating...

 

Another Problem I have is, I broke my Dragstrip Canopy and also the leg area.  

I was pulling the get the ankle out, but instead of it coming off the ball joint the canopy cracked, and I saw a crack on the leg. It's fine, but those cracks drive me nuts. I may need to get a second one. But I feel like I will break that too.

Does that leg transformation on Drag Strip ever fit just right?

 

It does fit right, but it is irritating as heck to get the feet stored...personally, I pop the feet out of the sockets and leave them loose under the canopy...saves the frustration AND saves me from potentially cracking the canopy...

 

To unplug the shoulders---ROTATE them as you pull. Much better than wiggling/jiggling/praying. Be smooth, and simply rotate them back and forth just a little bit as you pull them out---it'll come right off once you hit the spot. It's clearly designed to be done this way if you really look at how the moving parts inside the shoulder connectors work. They just don't mention or show it in the instructions AT ALL.  

There's a "sweet spot" where they'll just come right off with minimal effort. But it is "between ratchet detents"--so you really can only "catch it" while smoothly/slowly rotating it as you pull it.

Of course, the tab and hole must first be aligned but that is not the absolute exact angle to remove it---that is only "close" to the "comes right off" angle. Rotate from that position, back and forth across that alignment---and it should come right off as you pull outwards.

As for DF's feet---I sanded and smoothed the inside rear edge of the canopy to thin it a bit for more clearance. It's plenty thick enough to remove like .5mm, and that DOES make a difference. I haven't popped off the feet once since I sanded/polished the canopy. Also, very slightly loosening the screws, for both rotating and sliding it. Again--even 1 degree more "give" makes a noticeable difference, with how tiny the clearances are.

 

Thanks for the tip, that worked!

 

I find that both removal methods work great on the DF side...but my LC shoulder connected is ALWAYS a stubborn b!tch when trying to remove it no matter if I wiggle or rotate...i end up employing both methods to little affect until miraculously, it eventually pops free...

 

This figure is like a hot, spoiled chick though.

He is sitting here by my desk looking beautiful, but he is so high maintance. Getting him to do the stuff I want takes a lot of effort. LOL.

 

That's such a fabulous comparison!  

 

That...is beautiful. That's perfect.

 

Quick question

Are ALL the not-Stunticons super fragile and difficult to transform, or is it just Not-Motormaster?