IMPORTANT

I am 99% positive that the blue pieces which connect the shoulders to the body are missassembled.

Things just weren't fitting right and I couldn't accept that the toy was designed this way. Started to wonder if something was put together wrong. Noticing that the connector pieces were different on the top vs the bottom, I decided to investigate.

I took the arm/shoulders off of the ball joints, then I pried apart the blue body piece from the yellow body piece until I could remove the blue connector arms. I flipped them over and reinstalled them (on the same side) so that the flat side is now on the top and the rounded side on the bottom.

The arms fit SO much better in alt mode now because the shoulders lock into the upper position.

And if you look veeeeeeeery closely at the renders on the back of the box, you'll see that this connector bar is round on the bottom, not flat.

This fix requires no tools at all, just a little force to carefully pull the body sections apart.

ALSO

Although the instructions say to have the Decepticon Insignia flipped up, covering the 5mm hole, for me, the roof of the car fits on much better if I leave it flipped down. It creates clearance for the material on the underside to sit well and not be stressed.

 

I can confirm that the shoulders are missassembled.

 

Here you can see how his right arm would look transformed for alt mode and his left arm in robot mode (with the shoulder armor moved out of the way for visibility).

 

Exactly. The connector piece will be on a peg that goes all the way through it, so you'll need to open it up further than you think, but if you're careful it won't break or anything.

Get the flat end on top and you'll see how it locks into place when in the up position (alt mode) and has motion for articulation when in the down position (robot mode).

Couldn't have been intended any other way.

P.S. I suppose you don't neeeed to pop the arm off, but it helps to give your fingers access to do what they need to do. And it's easy to do, so why not.

 

Ok I did the shoulder fix and boy was that scary. No breakage but the fix was very much worth it, it makes getting into vehicle mode so much easier. I took some pictures with combiner wars counterpunch (who’s going to be counterpunch on my shelf because I didn’t feel like getting two of the new figure when I already had a fine counterpunch, so the new one is going to be punch for me) and they look good together. They do have the same exact wheels down to the molding and exact color. So I can confirm yes the only reused parts on this new figure is the combiner wars breakdown mold wheels.

 

*Will Farrell as James Lipton* You are magic, sir.

Yeah... This is pretty bad. Easy to fix, but bad. As-is, it'll break the figure in time. The fix needs to be done.

Indeed.

It's ridiculously tight. I'd recommend popping it off of the mushroom and perhaps sanding it. I don't know if I'd force it.

 

Got mine in and immediately swapped those shoulder joints. Wasn't too hard, but was a bit worried about stressing the blue torso half. So if you're good at popping pins, may want to just completely take it off instead of pulling apart. Oh, also have the tight hip swivels, but it would add so little extra range of movement beyond the ball joints that I don't really care. Honestly get this often enough on figures anyway I've gotten used to it.

Anyway, working great now. I love this gimmick. Makes for a pretty fun figure.

 

Just did it, his shoulders lock just like they should have. I opened the Counterpunch chest and folded out the middle of the hood and the blue part was much more flexible if still not a bit scary to bend. Great find/fix.

 

Well the in hand shot’s have them round side up if you look at the box render and the instruction render they are flat side up. I’ll also point out when you have him in robot mode the rounded part when on top when you move the shoulder joint it slightly prys apart the torso I don’t know why it does but when the flat side is up it doesn’t have this problem and the clearance issues are fixed. So personally I would believe the flat side is supposed to be up. I mean this isn’t the first shoulder and arm misassembly in the line despite the inhand photos blastoffs upper arms are on backwards which makes limb mode a little funky. Repugnus’s hips are on backwards compared to his mold mates. Also recently wreckgar’s biceps are on backwards compared to grooves who’s are correct. Yes you can get into vehicle mode with ether round side or flat side up, but the flat side makes most of the clearance issues go away so I think that’s the way it’s goes

 

Sure.

I agree with the response post. There are no gaps or difficulty transforming with the shoulder fix. It shouldn't be difficult to transform a figure, by design. I see where the OP is coming from, but the second poster tells the truth.

I would like to apologize. It was a one time fluke and I have not been able to replicate it again. (Included pic for reference.) Sorry, big mistake on my part. That's my screw up.

 

The purported misassembly has absolutely nothing to do with pushing the blue tab past the yellow tab on the front wheels. At least that's what I believe is trying to be highlighted in that photo.

It's about the whole arm itself lining up and being able to tab in to the side of the torso for vehicle mode. If you keep the squared off side of the peg down, then when you push the shoulders up for vehicle mode, that squared portion now sticks out from the torso just enough to prevent the arm from easily sitting flush and tabbing in. No, it is not impossible, so, yes, you can still transform it. But at least for my anecdotal experience, it did pop back out easily and made lining things up more annoying.

Flipping it around, I have no such problem. Everything fits perfectly. So whether it truly is misassembled or not doesn't matter to me, because it is not only an easy change to make but only has positive benefits as far as I've seen. Therefore it's still pretty helpful to point out for anyone else that wants to make such a simple modification.

 

Unless I'm misunderstanding you.... that's kind of the whole point. It makes the shoulder lock up in the up position. That pressure keeps the arm tight by the side of the torso. Without that, it's relying on the pressure of the door panels to keep everything together and that generates much more strain on those weaker joints.

Also I don't think this is something you can count on anymore now that the Hasbro and Takara lines have been homogenized.

 

It does force the torso apart, that's where the gap starts. Too much pressure from being assembled incorrectly. The transformation is smoother and everything locks together better after the fix. It doesn't make sense to keep the figure the other way and have issues remain. Even Hasbro isn't that stupid. They're not going to actively sell you an item in this day and age with the intent of frustrating their customers who've been incredibly vocal.

It's a simple misassembly, people can fix it and carry on. Or, if one doesn't wish to, that's fine, but I don't see the point. *shrugs*

Oh, and the shoulder stops, on the flat side, when you're collapsing the arms for vehicle mode. Again... *shrugs*

I always get a kick out of people parading around someone who's the voice of dissent when facts point in the other direction. One person says it's so, so it must be so. Guess they're career-long toy designers, too. My goodness, a lot of us just make money hand over fist working for Hasbro.

(If it's not clear that sarcasm is dripping off of my post here, like the slime in the library at the beginning of Ghostbusters, please let me be clear. Making it all blue text just feels too much.)

 

IronMagnus is right, Hasbro took over and forced Takara's square peg into a round hole, essentially. This is pretty much all Hasbro running the show at this point and a lot of the renders this year have come from Hasbro and the toys from Hasbro factories. This seems to keep getting repeated a lot, lately, and I think people tend to ignore such an important fact. I don't understand why people ignore such things simply because it doesn't fit their narrative at a given moment.

Exastiken, I can confirm that IronMagnus has been right all along. When I transformed him out of the box the first time, nothing lined up right and I had to force pieces to fit. The arms refused to tab in, and yes I pushed with a lot of pressure. I even flipped down the faction panels, I flipped them up, one and not the other, and it wouldn't sit with all 4 wheels on the surface and the windshield wouldn't tab in. I flipped the pieces upside down, per his repair, and everything tabs in nice and secure with no force and all the wheels finally rest on a flat surface.

Just because you don't like it, or perhaps tolerances are different on your figure, doesn't make IronMagnus wrong. I'm not the only one who's done the fix and had positive feedback on the fix. Even the guy responding on Reddit wasn't on board with your theory. Maybe you got lucky if so, that's great. I needed the fix. I'm sure others will as well.

It doesn't help when people make unnecessary comments like @gbm did, where it became a mockery and a jab, needlessly. All he had to say was he agreed with you and he was going to leave it stock, but for whatever reason felt some need to make a dig. That's part of the problem with social media like this message board. We don't stop and take a moment to think before we push the button or click. I meant it when I said I'm turning over a new leaf. I do my level best not to attack people these days, because of this I notice more and more how salty we all can get, over the most unimportant things. It's what makes us bitter towards each other. There's no need to do it. (Though, admittedly, I did respond in kind to his comment because he needed to hear it as he said it.)

I think Hasbro and Takara have gotten off track. Really, I do. You can add articulation, as they have, without making a figure with issues. Ball joints are simple, universal joints should be. Though, to be fair to them, they have no control over the production staff and the factories, for the most part. And we have to remember, these people are exhausted at the end of the day and probably have some serious burnout. It's human error, we're all capable of it. It's something we can fix, we should be glad.

That said, I do find it annoying to institute fixes on their behalf. Man, if that was the only worry the world had... We're pretty blessed and fortunate.

That's simply not true. The arm does indeed lock, fully, with the fix. Everything tabs in just fine. I've included pics.

 

Ok making the argument that stock photos have the round part up is the correct way is usless when like I said most recently potp wreckgar and blast off are both misassembled in there stock photos and in hand but are simple fixes but their renders have them correct. The way I say we should confirm things is that we should look at the figures computer rendering which are 90% of the time correct because they are designed way before a actual inhand products hasbro uses those cad files of the renderings and colors them to put the product shots on the box and instructions. If we look at punch’s, counter punches rendering on the box and instructions you can clearly see the flat piece is on top and the round piece on bottom so I’m pretty sure that’s how it’s supposed to be. With people having so much success with the fix also supports my reasoning.

 

Use this thread to discuss this fix.

 

Just got my figure in the mail. I had some trouble getting everything tabbed in correctly in alt mode, so I decided to give it a go. Fixed it nice and easy, and man, what a difference! Everything tabbed in perfectly. I'm sure that this is the way it's meant to be. Thanks for the heads up about it!

 

Has anyone contacted Hasbro about this? We need an official statement. I'd like to think that someone here had the forethought to send a respectfull email to Hasbro inquiring about this shoulder issue in attempt's to clear up all this he said she saI'd etc

 

great fix! just did it and everything fits perfect!

 

Seems like 100% of reported cases have the shoulder round side up, the sample size suggests they all may be this way