Hopefully someone will post a video showing the motions each piece of the joint makes in stock form, what the goal of gluing some part of it is -- like what problematic movement the glue is intended to prevent, and the process for disassembly, modification, and reassembly.

 

Weird. Glue has been working for me and @BenLeong. maybe I can DM and help you guys out?

 

I'm not sure if I can explain it well enough, but the glue is supposed to hold the ratchet piece that grinds around the housing and shaves off the ratchet.

 

I'll be disassembling mine again tomorrow evening. I can't say I'll make any videos, but I'll take more in depth pics to illustrate.

However, see @tonewheelz post here to see the offending piece in action.

Takara Tomy Masterpiece MP-44 Convoy/Optimus Prime Ver. 3

 

PLease do!

 

I used Gorilla glue and it worked very well. Is that available in your country?

 

Okay, here's what I've found upon further investigation. I took apart the thigh and knee sections. Previously I only looked at the knee, but the reason I went into the thigh was to look at the channel that is located in the white knee portion where the ratcheted blue piece is supposed to go into. So what I found was that there is plenty of clearance and that it rides through the channel just fine without any modifications to the channel or blue part (either the ridge that goes through the channel, nor the inner ring).

To further try and isolate the issue, I reassembled the leg with two parts taken out, the OTHER half of the ratchet (not the one that goes into the channel, it looks like a stopwatch), and I took out the spring that is what applies pressure to the backside of this ratchet piece. So here are the findings:

1. If you try to articulate the lower knee without first maximizing the range of the upper joint, even without the opposing ratchet or spring, the plastic will force its way out of the socket, as we're all experiencing.
2. The problem is really just exacerbated by the tension placed on it with the spring and other ratchet. My other leg wouldn't even fully enter the channel unless I was applying pressure with a tool and pushing it in VERY hard.

I think the best course of action is to cut/replace the spring with a lower tension one and apply lube.

I'm going to see if I can find one locally that will work.

~Paik

 

I'm not following what this part of your test shows?

I feel if you wanted to determine if removing the spring/creating less tension would help, you'd STILL want to make sure the upper joint is fully bent, right? Because you want to see if that helps the tabs go into the channel?

If you bent the lower joint first, regardless of any ratchet involved, you'll definitely force that part out of the housing, since the housing is in the outer part.

Very interesting that the blue tab fits into the channel freely when all taken apart however, and I think that's very telling.

Perhaps that part of my mod was completely unnecessary, and the real success was lubing the shaft and ratchet after all.

 

Posting this here:

How’s everyone’s experience with the hip joint? I noticed on my copy’s right hip is loose. He can hold poses but I need to compensate for the five of it’s own weight.
Any suggestions/fixes out there?

Thanks!

 

Hip joint? The legs or the ab joint?

 

Only through internet. Tried epoxy this afternoon. Still doesn’t work on the broken knee side. Works perfectly on the good side of course...

 

So the epoxy you've tried doesn't stick the plastic pieces together? Or do they stick but doesn't fix the problem? If it's the latter that really sucks.

 

I'm beginning to think:

• Maybe the white paint + coating is thick enough to hinder movement on the blue piece, preventing it from entering the channel
• The blue pieces meant to enter the white upper thigh channel have the "L" and "R" depressions sticking out just enough to hinder the locking piece from entering the channel(I might be wrong and may be each letter doesn't have a depression that sticks out?)

 

Leg joint

I’ll post pic/vid a bit later

Edit:
So I couldn’t post a 5 second vid so here are two screen shots
First is flexed inward

Second is flexed outward.

 

my right hip has a lot of movement between the teeth in those ratchets. I demonstrated in my review. It's not a big deal but it is a thing

 

I saw your review last night which prompted me to further investigate my own fig

 

I find the hip joints to have a fair bit of slack between the ratchets. However, I think this actually help with some poses because the amount of slack allow it to travel between detents a little and settle into poses better. The ratchet detents themselves are nice and strong.

 

If I could get my hands on one that failed immediately out of the box, or one that the tabs didn't slide into the channel, I might be able to find a little more reason why it's happening.

I'm starting to wonder if the damage is done at the factory. What if the blue tab part is inserted a bit wrong in the housing from the beginning? That could lead to some slight misalignment, and damage to the housing, which could prevent it from fitting properly. But again, just another guess.

I plan to examine this issue tomorrow evening when I take everything apart again.

 

Mine had a bum left knee. The “stop watch” tab was slotting into the channel. I tried the glue, but for some reason it won’t hold. However, I did also file the tab ever so slightly for better clearance and apply a small amount of silicone lubricant. The knee works fine now, although the ratchet has a little less bite than the other knee that didn’t need attention. Alls well, and Prime is ready to roll.