[QUOTE="Spicytron, post: 16570974, member: 121808]PE's gotten beffer about their fits since then, but it never hurts to be a little careful./QUOTE]

Can't say the same since my PE Dinobot feet cracked the ports of my Slug and Sludge.

 

I had seen that happen with a few users, that's why when I got my PE sets that I was very careful about how snug the pegs were with those guys. Fortunately for me, my postal service is slow, so many of my fellow boardmates had gotten the set a week or so before me, long enough to point out some of the trouble spots. Not meaning to use you guys as guinea pigs, but that's just how it worked out  

 

Gonna post a full rundown of my experiences and fixes after work

 

Yea, Rippersnapper's legs doesn't stay pegged together in limb mode. He is the only limb to be habitually fly apart in combiner mode. Contemplating replacing him with another Blot, instead.


His hand/foot port runs the risk of being cracked after several transformations, which is also not a thick, reinforced peg port. I am currently on my second figure. Both have suffered the stress cracks even after sanding down the combiner hands.

 

Yeah I'm on my second one too, but its legs actually hold together unlike my first one

 

Interesting. It didn't seem like it was possible from my (admittedly brief) examination. Well, that's one of my complaints down... MANY more to go.

 

That is so weird. I’ve never had a problem, as much as I handled him, and this is the first I’m hearing of it:/

 

Like I said, I think mileage varied with that particular figure.

 

Still hoping for someone on Shapeways to make a neck for stock head Abominus.

 

That wouldn't be able to store since the stock head lacks an inner sliding rail

 

I'd prefer someone on shapeways make new heads for the individual Terrorcons. I don't like their stock heads, they're too normal-looking. I'd prefer they looked more bestial demonic, or monstrous.

 

I don’t want it to store. It’s only in combined mode.

 

Well, if you wanna buy a transformer and then never transform it, I guess that's your prerogative...

 

Alright, here we go.



The head - admittingly the head gave me some problems. One antennai couldn't fully unfold out, and the other couldn't fully fold inward for storage. The former was resolved by using an xacto knife to cut away a tiny but at the point of obstruction (which is out of view), and the latter was resolved by using a metal file to gently shave away at the point of contact on the antennai itself, so now both work the way they're supposed to. The face has a bit of trouble staying in place since it's not secured on all four sides of the peg. You could just glue it in place if you don't have the screaming face, but I'm hesitant since I do. Lastly, although the head CAN store where the old head did, the panel doesn't entirely close flush, just barely close enough, unless I'm doing something wrong anyway.

The chest shield/new shoulder connections - I guess I got lucky, everything in this setup holds together securely and tightly. Didn't really have to do much here besides trim down some bad tags left from where the plastic was casted

The shoulders/hip covers - This is the one thing I haven't really found the best solution for yet. Since these don't lock on, the most I could figure to do was apply a layer of scotch tape on each inner wall of the covers, which helps increase the holding tension just a little. Honestly I could glue these on and I'd be happy with how they look on Hun-Grrr in robot mode, they beef him up nicely, though they do rob him of the Decepticon shoulder sigils, which can't be cleanly applied to the covers.

The thigh covers/dragon heads - one of these hold together fine for me, the other is a struggle to stay attached. As far as the panels go, I keep the front panel superglued to the one that attaches to the 5mm peg, while the other is basically another case of Menasor's PE Girdle outside of combined mode; just reattach when it falls off. As far as the dragon heads go, they basically won't let Rippersnapper be used as a leg unless you keep the dragon head off, but Rippersnapper's shark head will cover that up to hide the unsightly gap.

Cutthroat however, to take his usual place as Abominus' left leg, needed a bit of work. By itself, it CAN work, but Cutthroat's neck panel will slightly push the leg out of place and prevent it from standing straight. This can be fixed however. Firstly, I shaved down the inner 5mm peg in one of the dragon heads to half its original length, so it can still be used as a weapon or whatever make-believe TDW had in mind. Then I used a dremel to shave down the points of obstruction on Cutthroat's neck panel, making sure to cut around the head. It still needs a bit of cleaning up, but as it is now, it fits just fine.




The hands - Fine right out of the box, and I love how they're articulated (KFC should take a cue from them). The right one is a bit loose when plugged into Blot, but not enough to cause trouble. Thankfully the left one didn't break Rippersnapper's combiner port.

The feet - Like most people, the pegholes on the feet are just too big to actually use with the figures right out of the box, necessitating a tiny bit of shaving using a strip of sandpaper. Also, it's strange, for having such good ratchets in the ankles, they don't really manage to hold up Abominus' combined weight very well. It's another case of finding a good balanced pose similar to UniqueToys' Warlord and the early PE feet. In this case however, I'm just opting to keep using my PEKO feet, which have VERY tight balljoints and hold him up much better. I MAY invest in a set of official PE Abominus feet since they would do a much better job using the sideways-moving ratchets as opposed to balljoints, but as is, the PEKOs work just fine.

The Rifle - This works just find as is, though of course its weight causes a bit of balance issues with Abominus.

Overall, I'm satisfied with the purchase. It could be better, but I've never bought a Combiner upgrade set I didn't end up saying that about.

 

Now if they still made action masters for Abominus, right?
That being said...
This is not a kit to buy to constantly transform. None of the parts of the tcw is going to stand the tolerances of repeated transformations. The antenna parts are already stressing due to playing around with it. The thighs also limited functionality. Also, I’ve have 2 Abominus sets if I feel the itch. Those who want to transform this would be better off with the PE kit or going stock.
This is not a transform friendly kit. I know what you mean by buyers remorse. Ehh, I like mine, but gonna customize it when I find some useful parts.

 

Just got my shipping notice from TCP for this kit so it’s now in stock!

 

Mines been in rollers stash for about 2 weeks now, so TCP has had it for a bit now

 

I got my Starscream kit from TCP today. Other than the feet (I'm really not a fan of any of TDW's combiner feet) its a nice kit. The cape even feels like it's not going to shred in a couple months. The hands are similar to Volcanicus and Abominus's hands, with the exception of two rocket-like blasters on the backs of them. I don't have the Abominus kit but I have the Volcanicus kit and SS's hands and feet pegged in much smoother than Volcanicus's and hold nice and snug. Very happy about that. No stability issues so far either.
There's only ONE downside to this kit.
The cape is designed to peg into the back of Starscream's thrusters. The little metal pegs the kit comes with are very nice, and they peg in nice and tight. But, I prefer to have my Starscream turned around backwards so I can use Skywarp as a chest minion. The solution I came up with was taking this little chain off the upgraded gun kit from Warbotron's Bruticus.
Split the chain in half, and open the links on the ends to fit over SS's guns. It's not perfect, but it works until I find another option. I will probably buy a cheap necklace so I can have a chain long enough to simply wrap around his chest behind Skywarp.
All in all I'm very happy with this kit!

 

Another YouTube video is up (not mine I just noticed it).