I’ll try to explain and if I have time I’ll make a video as that might be better.

First I’ll say that while it’s been recommended to bend the knee joints in a specific order to avoid damaging the second joint, I suspect that the design was intended to have the joints operate in sequence regardless of how leg is operated. By that I mean that if the joint parts were flawless it wouldn’t matter if one held the leg by the shin or the knee, and that bending the leg should first engage the top joint until it reaches its full rotation, then the lower joint will be engaged. On a “healthy” knee this operation works smoothly.

On my copy of MP-44, Prime’s left knee operates as described above. His right knee, however, has begun to engage the lower joint first unless I very specifically hold the leg in place and ensure that the top joint is bent first.

It’s not a matter of the blue tab at the back of the knee not slotting in properly, it’s that the lower joint begins to bend before the upper joint does. Whatever part of the mechanism is supposed to be keeping the lower joint locked until it’s engsged isn’t holding up as strongly as it needs to.

Hopefully this explanation makes sense. If you or anyone else has questions that would help clarify what I’m observing, feel free to ask.  

 

The knees on my figure seem fine for now, but it's impacted how much I play with and handle it. I might just stick it into a detolf until a more proper fix comes around. Would there be enough interest for a third party in creating die-cast replacement parts for the knees do you think?

 

actually, the blue tab sliding into the channel is exactly the reason why the lower knee joint does or does not engage first.

Due to the two piece ratchet design, if there is the slightest resistance from the blue tab sliding into the channel, it causes the lower knee joint ratchets to slip, allowing the lower joint to engage before the upper joint.

 

I just broke down and got Terminus today. The Source is one of the last in the states to have it, so I figured I better jump before it all dries up and I'm left paying secondary prices. I only spent roughly $10-15 more for OS then I did 44, I'm feeling zero regret now seeing all those together like that.

Thanks @Verboten for the transformation tips, my gas tanks are finally lining up. Never knew the foot flap placement was critical to tabbing them in and I also missed
tabbing the feet into the back of the calf.

 

Die-cast parts won’t really fix it. You would need to take it apart to understand.

 

Diecast would rip through that soft plastic. Hell, even plastic ripped through that soft plastic lol

 

I think I’m describing something different happening with the knee. What’s happening on mine happens before any ratchet clicks and without any movement of the blue tab. I believe what I’m seeing is early signs of the lower joint mechanism weakening.

 

Correct. This is the behavior exhibited after it has already failed, due to the aforementioned cause. It will only worsen over time from here, and every time it is bent, the more the plastic ratchet pieces will wear out.

 

Sounds like knee surgery is in order. I’ll notify Ratchet to prepare the medbay.

 

indeed! When my left knee initially failed, moderate wear occurred even with minimal bending after the failure occurred. On mine, I had the shave down the blue tab a bit in order for it to slide into the channel (mine was a severe QC issue where the blue tab would not slide into the channel under any circumstances). Otherwise, once the fix has been performed, it’d have not been able to bend at all, as you could imagine.

I’ve decided to leave my right knee unmodified, as it seems to be working flawlessly and functioning as designed. I’ll only perform the repair if or when it fails.

 

Not really. If it functions, it functions. If it fails, then it fails, and requires a repair. You can perform the repair as a preventive measure.

Basically what it comes down to is, if that blue tab doesn’t slide into that channel freely and without resistance (a QC issue), then the lower knee joint is going to fail eventually no matter what (due to the design)

 

Why are the ears of every season 1 head curved like he is Batman or something? Was that on purpose? I’m not bashing, I’m just asking because I don’t remember the prototype being that way?

 

It’s honestly difficult to say. Considering the number of reviewers that exhibited this issue is a bit disconcerting. Secondly, these reviewers had no clue that their copies had a blown knee(s), since the joint still held a pose and was essentially reduced to a friction joint.

With that being said, even if 2,000 copies suffered from blown knees, this would likely be a very small percentage of the total units produced. Still, the fact that so many of the first round of reviewers (i haven’t watched any recent reviews) had units with this issue is pretty crazy.

Ultimately, all copies suffer from the design flaw, so the potential is always there for a blown knee should there ever be the slightest resistance to the joint itself. So that in itself is a problem.

 

I think it’s not limited to issues related to that blue tab, as my copy has had no issue with that tab sliding into its channel. I won’t know for sure until I open up the knee, but I suspect part of the lower knee joint has weakend simply from repetitive use.

I’m any case, this is what Prime is doing right now:

 

I really hope that’s not true lol. @BrutiKing is probably right, in that preventative measure should be taken regardless if it’s functioning flawlessly or not.

 

You can't send it back direclty to TT for warranty-repair/replacement?