or, they knew it was flawed from the get go and were betting on the unbox and display crowd to be the main buyers and hoped only a small percentage were going to actually look at them beyond tabbing the back and the neck in and an even smaller group to actually transform it.

 

I think the issue is that if you know how to do it, it's not super complicated. But it's really hard to communicate through instructions, so unless you spend the time figuring it out, it's really difficult to impossible to do.

 

Except that small group is always reviewers and they always have a big megaphone.

It's a nice conspiracy theory and all, but seriously man, you need to move on.

 

Are most people breaking them when going from alt mode to robot? I only broke mine because of how damn tight the big tabs in the front of vehicle mode to the arms are. It's still a dumb design but if it weren't for that I'd be able to work around it.

 

so are you trying to say that people aren't smart enough to transform this without breaking it? wow

 

Ummm...no, not at all. I didn't even imply that whatsoever.

 

The issue isn’t that it isn’t doable, but a design with such a minuscule margin of error to breakage is a terrible design.

Going back to bot for me.

Possibly. Between the breakage part, the fact that one side of the vehicle can’t get tabbed in and the neck tab (both of which seem common) the figure just doesn’t work. And it’s a shame because the transformation, until you get to those parts which are the very end, is actually very good, despite it looking floppy when watching it on videos, and it would actually be fun to transform back and forth otherwise.

 

I really think most of the issues come down to design, not really qc.
Even if you look at the cracks at the pin joint in the blue covers straight out the box as being qc fails, the real issue here is design - it just isnt designed to do what it is meant to do, or survive the pinning process reliably. E.g.2 the arm joints are just not sufficient for the weight.
Sure, there are a few pure qc issues like flash in the neck joint hole, and a few odd isolated cases like 1 copy not having the legs attached, but i dont see more real qc issues here than any figure (and probably less than a lot of others). Most of the numerous issues here are due to poor design (including molds i believe).

 

I kinda did. But OK.

 

The video showing the smoothest transformation process is below, but no one's reported any results from following it:

 

It makes it seem easier than it can be. You really need to deal with those blue panels and the arm situation all squishing into place together, and have a bit of luck. Like, you need to have the arm bar on the blue piece flipped forward - but then that doesn't leave clearance to bring the arm down... if you bring the arm down, there's no clearance to flip that bar into place. Frustrating.

My biggest issue is with those arms and the metal tabs by the hands. One always doesn't want to tab in all the way. If I get them put in perfect, then the crotch piece underneath doesn't line up with the posts - if I squish to make them fit, the metal bits untab up top. I either have to have it looking perfect on top and unpegged under, or pegged in and having an arm popped out a bit.

Ultimately, I've fairly happily owned I think 23 other FT figures. Willis was a bit of a miss for me with his legs/feet. Forager's arm claps and that whole situation. Probably a couple other with some pain points that just prevent me from wanting to move to alt modes - Rogue, Hoodlum - but this one really is taking the cake right about now. It's been about 2 3/4 hrs since I started messing with him trying to figure it out without breaking. The metal tabs and the crotch underneath was the sticking point, since I reversed a couple times just to make sure I didn't miss anything. I think it's just another FT design that needs perfect motions to make it work, which is a shame.

 

Check whether it is the tabs on the light blue nose section that plug into the arms - 1 tab either side on the light blue nose section which are near where this section tabs into the body. These tabs can be much too large to tab into slots in the arms and can force the arms out making it appear that the metal clips near the hands are the problem. I needed to shave them down/off on my copy, and i have seen the same problem in numerous review videos / posted photos.

 

I don't feel like it's that. Something further down the line isn't quite right. The one side doesn't sit as flush - I just can't figure out the source. One side is perfect, the other not so much.

 

So I wonder if FT will address this breaking hinge issue in any official capacity? They obviously know about it at this point.

 

Well, they knew the blurple on the final product was never shown on any of the previous stuff.........

 

FansToys FT-39 Jabber (Masterpiece Blurr) and FansToys FT-39 Jabber (Masterpiece Blurr)

 

Right, but they did chime in on the color situation when people started questioning it, and basically claimed artistic license. They’ve been silent on the hinge issue.

 

And there was no mea culpa, simply like it or leave it. With post in this thread and post of Willdrider, Goose, or whatever project they posted they had plenty of opportunities to address the color change, before people got in hand they chose not too.