New supplier , gets the goods from HK

 

Seems your copy is far from good though...

 

Ah ok. I assumed it was a return since the double taping was not the same as the first factory tape. I see they must have needed to fix something about the figures.

 

Ah...yeah, I see it now. Are you good out knocking out pins? Otherwise, wow, that and a missing thigh half? Ouch.

Did the same on my copies. On one, I was able to just push the pin right out, no hammering or anything (in fact, I've have to remove a few pins to swap parts out, and all the pins seemed far easier than usual). On the other hood, I just positioned the hinge very carefully on the very edge of my desk and tapped it out.

 

Great, thanks! I’m going to try that in the morning.

 

I bought a pin punch after someone on these boards mentioned it. Works great for getting pins out because it’s small and I find using a hammer is very risky with these delicate figures.

 

So, I’ve seen your sig pic 1000 times, and never really realized that Starscream is shooting Bluestreak in the nuts & bolt. I just thought it was an unfortunately-placed lens flare effect. Starscream is real a-hole (and the original ad men had an 8th grade sense of humor).

 

Yep. A thousand times better. The feet are an abysmal mess. This helps a lot. All that's needed now is for a 3P company to make some foot covers that clip into place for bot mode to hide the wheel and give him solid feet.
A++ for you for removing that part though!!

Yep., looking at the closeup pics people are posting, an atrocious paint finish is pretty much default on this figure. Loads of people posting pics saying "paint finish was perfect on mine" and I'm looking at hairs and dust in the paint, chips and overspray and just rough and terrible surfaces and thinking "nope. That paint finish is a long way from perfect!"

As for the engineering issues, of the three things you list that they set out to do, two of them inevitably caused major compromises to the figure and actually provide minimal benefit in doing so. as you say "the backpack and feet, are both compromises necessitated by design choices" - which would be fine except they're pretty silly and unnecessary design choices.
Opening door's are a cool gimmick but not one that should take priority over making the figure actually look good. It's like designing a model jet plane and deciding "we were able to give this articulated ailerons and flaps but to do so we couldn't put any tail fins on it." Why would you prioritise a gimmick over a visual design element?
And the second is so much worse. "You can put Spike inside him!! But to do so you have to untab and pull the figure apart, wedge him in there and fold it all back up. Yeah, we put opening doors on him but you can't actually use those doors to insert the figure."
The justification for the visual flaws is for gimmicks that add very little to the figure. Without those gimmicks, the bot mode could have potentially been so much cleaner. At least with Sunstreakers huge backpack we knew the compromise was necessitated by Lamborghini insisting on a non-canon additional alt mode. Itsucked but it was necessary for the licence. BUmblebee's compromises suck and for what? Half-arsed gimmicks.

And just to be clear, I actually really like Bumblebee from the ankles up, and the trick of removing the doors makes him a lot more tempting. I just hate when Takara makes such dumb decisions.

 

I’m pretty alright with knocking pins , but this is way too risky . With it directly connected to the translucent plastic . Most likely getting a one to one swap for this .

 

I see talk of pin punches. Does anyone have a recommended set?

 

This is what I’m using. I find it a lot easier than using a hammer and pin. You can adjust the force with this. I have it set very light and just repeatedly punch the end of the pin until the other end pops out enough to pull out with pliers.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B000HTAH70/ref=ppx_yo_mob_b_inactive_ship_o2_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Anyone return items to AZJP? I'm curious about the process and the shipping payment/reimbursement. Usps vs DHL? Also what if you purchased on a AZJP gift card? Anyway to get that cashed out or put on a card they have on file?

TIA

 

You have to pay for the return shipping. Once they receive the item back, they will refund up to a certain amount to the form of payment you used to pay for the order. The rest they will refund to an Amazon gift card. If you paid for the order with gift cards, then the entire amount will be refunded via gift card. They will not put it on a credit/debit card you have on file.

 

Oooooo. That’s a nice looking punch. I just have one of the basic fat gold ones from eBay. Not adjustable and it’s a little heavy at times. I might look at getting one of those.
Special tip I picked up a few years ago when punching pins - buy some Sculpey polymer clay. It’s like a dense play dough material that never dries out. You can put it under the figure you are punching. It’s soft enough not to scratch or break the plastic but firm enough to support the piece. And because you can mould it like play dough, you can mound it up under almost any odd shaped limb or shape.

 

He's talking about the loop that the sliding post is attached to. The "scoop/notch" should be facing down, but his is facing up. It won't tab into his back properly like that.


Was able to fix the wobbly hips on mine with just a pair of pliers. Just disassembled as much as possible until I had just the hip joint (and the skirt armour that's attached to it), wrapped the assembly in tissue paper, and just squeezed the rivet in tighter with the pliers. No more slack on the rivet, and the hips are suitably tight now.


I still think I like MP-21 better. Just a more robust feeling toy, and I'm not hugely into 45's Penny Racer alt-mode. Still, I'm glad I've got this one too. It's still pretty fun.

 

Thanks both! Thanks to you guys I now have near-perfect copies.   I actually have a pin punch that I bought ages ago but have never used and when I tried it out the other day it needed way too much pressure. Then after Paco Grande's post I checked it again and realised it was adjustable, d'oh. So that worked a treat to swap the bonnet over. My other copy had a deep scratch in the rear part of the roof which I thought I'd have no chance of swapping, but following what Jarrod said, I found that the pins holding the roof on to the armatures can just be pushed out without any force. So between that and the pin punch I was able to swap the bonnet from the bad copy to one figure and the roof from the bad copy to another figure, resulting in two figures with few flaws and one to go back to Amazon with *lots* of flaws (exploding pelvis, scratched roof, blotchy bonnet, divot in door, mismatching yellows, big blob of orange paint on the wheel rear rim and a leg that is only half-pinned in at the thigh).

Ha, yeah, I never noticed the crotch shot myself until recreating the image. Poor Bluestreak.

 

Seeing if this would increases resale value , while waiting for the exchange stock to arrive .

 

Be careful - your seller might charge you if a performance artist comes along and eats him.

 

Well i guess I'm not getting this guy. 2 seperate orders with amazon japan to get this guy and both times issues with shipping to me.

 

I understood that reference.