Hmm, I pre-ordered the Legends version - I really hope it doesn't have the same issues. Not sure I like the idea of surgery, not because I can't do it but... because no one should have to do surgery on a new toy that costs that much money. That whole hip assembly just looks so poorly designed to begin with though. I don't know what the designers were thinking.
I guess if some third party company choses to make new legs to give him a little more height, they could attempt some new ratchets for the hips?
I'll be fine with only replacement ratchets. Given that hand and feet upgrades for fortress maximus cost 40 and 50 dollars (of course there are other things bundled, but are smaller parts) I don't even want to think how pricey would be bigger legs for Trypticon.
Opened mine just now. While the hip joints are definitely tight, they don't feel like they would collapse. Felt comfortable enough for me to try rotating them quite a few times to try it all 3 modes. Having said that, may be I will open it up to inspect whether there is any sign of self damages, and then decide whether a "surgery" is necessary.
Got mine and took about 1/4 off each spring, I couldn't even rotate them before doing that. Now they are good, solid enough to hold but easy to turn. Just to go against the grain, I like the stickers he comes with - even though there are around 150 of them. The reprolabels upgrade for full-tilt is a must, though.
Getting mine later today, maybe I should just leave him in the box for now. When I get around to fixing mine I'd probably just compress the spring and put some heat on it to make it smaller as long as I can get the tension down with the smaller spring I should be okay. A future project for me to do, down the road.
More than the mechanism itself being poorly designed I think the problem is the springs are waaay more strong than they needed to be, maybe as overcompensation for some Metroplexes having weakish ratchets.
If there's a weak ratchet on this guy, its his neck. The head on mine keeps dropping down. I'm sure it's an easy fix with stretching a spring or adding a washer, but getting it apart looks involved. Another problem area is his tail. I didn't realize it could bend until I looked at the instructions, but it takes a lot of force to move it past whatever is holding it in city mode. When it finally moves it makes a loud scary snapping sound like I'm ignoring a release button (pretty sure there isn't one). When in dino mode, it flops around loose, I might go in there and tighten it up.
I did the same. Though I haven't used the stickers and probably won't simply because I despise the movie Decepticon symbol on Generations toys.
Followed the "Hip Fixing" guide and opened up my Trypticon's rachet joints. No whitening etc and nothing broken yet after a few transformations. I wrote in an earlier post that I felt the tightness was "reasonable", but since I took the legs off and rotated the joint directly instead of holding on to Trypticon's heel, the apparent lack of leverage made me realize that the joints are actually much tighter than I thought. So just to be safe I will trim the springs. I only have a cutter for plastic models and it is not strong enough to cut the spring, so I need to purchase/borrow one later. One other issue that is really bothering me is that my Trypticon's green translucent chest piece, as shown in the pic below, is naturally bent and pops out all the time. Any tips for how to fix/improve this? Would a hair dryer work? Last but not least, aside from the aforementioned annoying issues, Trypticon is a great figure. Really like the base mode with the translucent drive way formed by its tail. Was a surprise that the tail compartment can actually open and a deluxe car can be stored inside. If you are somewhat handy and don't mind spending 30 min to modify the ratchets, I'd recommend this toy.
Been really watching this closely to see what kind of QC we're getting here. Thanks every one for taking the plunge and posting. I really almost just want Trypticon for Full-Tilt alone! Haha But he looks like I way cool figure. I'm just nervous. But so far, it looks like the hip fixes are working....??? Is it best to cut the spring in half, or by a quarter? How much/ how thick does the cardboard need to be?
Just fixed it (I hope). Blew it under a hair dryer for 2 min to soften the plastic, then I use my hands to bend it and flattened it, and finally ran it under cold water to let it set. Hope this lasts. Relatively minor, but annoying for sure.
So are his hips (namely the teal + shaped piece that breaks) the kind of thing that 3P can releast a die-cast or harder plastic retrofit for? Kind of like how the original Masterpiece's Rodimus Prime's terrible knees got metal replacements?
could it help to just lubricate the cog and teeth interface?? My takara godginrai reissue has hellishly tight ratchets due to a very thick spring, the cog assembly was pressed very tightly together when moved creating a small amount of wear powder (though not too much, I don't think the mechanism would have actally broke, though it felt like it) however a bit of oil applied to the teeth makes the hips work significantly easier. This could be a different situation though as the non moving pat of the ratchet was sat and held in place by the hip 'shell' with no chance it was ever going to damage it by twisting. Related in super ginrai knee from the same toy the plastic that was holding the non moving ratchet section did also break analagous to what we see in trypticon, no doubt some lubrication would have worked there also.
From what I've read, no. The problem is the teal colored part being a major piece of his leg, it's not something that can easily be swapped out/replaced.
My Trypticon doesn't seem to need undue force to move the hip ratchets. If part of the problem is soft plastic, is it possible cooler climates (I'm in Scotland) help? I also don't seem to have a problem with the chest piece either. The only problem I've encountered so far is that Necro has lots of flashing on his head so I had to file him down to fit in to any of the Titan Master slots (including on Full Tilt).
How much to cut is likely case-to-case. I cut both of my springs by a quarter each. and interestingly one is significantly tighter than the other. Having said that, the tightness is acceptable to me for both so I stopped there. Cutting by half would be too loose for my taste. In short I suggest to go with a quarter first, test and cut more if necessary. Not too much work involved. As for the padding, instead of cardboard, I used cleaning cloth instead. Unless you add a lot of them, I don't think they really change the tension of your renewed springs.
