Hey ... maybe next time before you start speculating on things I've already talked about ... you could try searching the thread first and reading what I already said?

Summarizing what I said before (and I'm not reposting the pics, because you have a search function): the front wheel breakage was a combination of bad redesign and bad assembly. On MPM-4, the tab slots into a groove, making it incredibly unlikely to break on transformation. Here, they replaced the groove with a hole that you have to either stress the rotational pin or the surrounding plastic to get at. If it's assembled correctly, it shouldn't be much stress -- but on mine, the rotational pin was pinned too tightly, which buried the tab in the hole, and simply trying to untab it caused a fatal breakage.

It's not really clear to me why they felt the need to change the original design like that. Like ... why would you change a thing to make it breakable?

Anyway, I don't think it's appropriate to blame customers when things have clearly gone bad on the design and manufacturing side. And it's extra disappointing, because none of the WJ figures I've gotten before this have been this poor (though there was once they misassembled a leg that they actually sent an entire replacement for, which is why I was hoping for a similar experience here).

-XCN-

 

BA tried to change a lot of small things, resulting in Prime being little more accurate but the transformation being a real nightmare. I think a good term describing this figure would be "overdesigned"
I personally was completely fine with BMB Prime if only he wasn't this big...

 

I was just about to order Iron Warriors kit and try modding it on my prime. Now im hesitating wether to buy it or wait until someone clarifies if BA is making one or this is just some cool art....

 

Took some spare time to glue this piece back into place and oh boy, since the (two-timing) glue is probably too thick it's a nightmare to rotate the red fender piece into place for both truck and bot transformation now.

Now I'm legit terrified of transforming this figure again. Heck I'm scared of transforming the guns too since one has to force the barrels apart.

 

Because comparing things is fun.

 

Is there anyone here that has this guy and the 4ever tribarrel blaster? How does he look with it? How big is it compared to the blasters that he comes with?

 

I would say he is a lot more accurate. The lower arms, chest, back, shoulders make a huge difference. The arms look stupid on the MP and black mamba.

The truck mode is day and night better

 

Yeah, I'd say that due to a couple of details, Optimus tends to be more under stricter inspection than the other bots.

Take his arms for example: the shoulder armor, red shoulder, the uniquely painted flame detail on the arms down to the orange fade, the blue part that specifically protrude out of the arm, clearly defined 5 digit hands, you name it.

Most of us (ok maybe just me) doesn't look at Megatron's arms with such scrutiny.

 

I second that lol. I've probably spent more than half my of life inspecting Movie Optimus model. Since it's my favorite character and my favorite version of him (first 3 movies anyway) I wanna get him right

 

Nah, it's bad customer service, and here's why.

So: let's assume that, for whatever reason, we all believe that customers needing to punch pins is a cool and normal thing to ask. Well, remember what I said about the figure having bad tolerances? Apparently that extends to the pins.



This is what happened when I tried to knock out the pin I needed for the part replacement. It got stuck. I'm pretty sure I knocked it out from the correct side (since the bottom side was beveled), but no amount of pulling would get it out.

So I thought, well, what if I popped the pin on a different joint? I did this first on the replacement part, and the pin came out easily. Then I tried it on the original, and this happened:



That's right: the amount of friction generated by the pin itself was sufficient to cause part of the joint to break off when attempting removal. You can clearly see the beveled bit in the picture above, which means that the damage had to come from friction alone.

So I tried to remove the first pin again, and got stuck in the same place (again). I suspect forcing the issue will cause that joint to break too.

The one bright spot is that Show.Z now seems to be open to sending an entire leg (which is what I asked for in the first place). Downside is obviously that it'll take another month or so to find out if that's true.

In the meantime, I don't think I have a better option than using the non-broken upper part of the broken pin joint, and hoping that the friction of the (badly toleranced) pin will keep it together until (if?) I get a full replacement leg.

--

Anyway, all of this is to say: you shouldn't buy this figure unless you're fully prepared to lose time and money on a full replacement figure. Bad QC, bad tolerances, and fragile plastic = a super bad time.

-XCN-

 

Dang...i feel as if most of the QC issues seems to be coming from the more recent batch. I've had this figure since August and transformed him multiple times, so far no issues for me.

 

I hope that’s not the case because I ordered mine on Thursday.

 

Mine, which is still stuck in customs (Beijing) has been there since Nov 26th. Hopefully mine isn't from the batch you suspect to have those issues!

I've been told by SZS that I'm not the only one with a shipment stuck in customs from November. That's both comforting and concerning. Lol.

 

Hopefully I'm wrong!  Good luck guys!

 

Mine from the first batch has no issues... but I'm very afraid of transform it because of your comments. But I usually change the poses for taking pictures and seems to be sturdy.

 

I'm so sorry to hear you continue to have QC issues @Xcandescent ... On a more positive note, mine just arrived in my country! It'll probably stay in customs for a week or two but at least it's here, I'll most likely transform him on day one, since I'm pretty sure my Optimus is from a very recent batch I'll let you know how the QC and everything is.

 

This is on my must have list alongside Peru Kill and Unique Toys Challenger!!

 

Can anyone tell me what this means?

 

It's in customs, just like mine.

 

If you have a soldering iron, you could use that to heat the pin just enough to pull it out. But you need to be careful not to melt the plastic so that it starts pulling off with the pin.