Zeta Toys ZV-02 Core Star / 1Studio Cell (G1 Unicron)

idkwdya · Jul 23, 2020

mikeszekely said: ↑

So the instructions for this guy are pretty shit, and doesn't tell you at all what to do with the screw covers and spikes. There's a video a few pages back that I used, but it doesn't have sound and it kind of glossed over a few things that you should probably pay attention to. I found myself rewinding to double check some things, and in my case that meant running to my computer, watching for a few minutes, running back to my work bench, putting a few things in, then running back to the computer. Kind of a hassle. To save the rest of you, here's a step-by-step written guide (with pictures). NOTE: a lot of the parts on this guy are mirrored, so the inside of his right arm and right leg is the outside of the left.

We'll start off easy. You'll have eight of these blue-gray screw hole covers. They go in the lower legs, and there's enough for both legs. If you look at the molded detail on the other side you'll see that the line across them is basically horizontal. You'll also note that those details are slightly recessed so you'll want to push them in pretty far.

Before we continue let's take a closer look at the orange screw covers. There will be six loose ones; two with lines, two flat circles, and two that are kind of like rectangles with bulges on the short sides. Then there's two T-shaped sprues with two covers each and two Y-shaped sprues with two more covers each.

The loose covers all go on his biceps. The rectangle goes in the top front so that the flat sides line up with the molding around the top of his bicep. The flat circle one goes toward the back. The one with the line goes at the bottom, and it'll protrude a bit. Again, if you look at the molded detail on the other side you'll see it protrudes there, too, and the line on it angles up toward the front.

Look carefully at the T-shaped sprues. You'll see that one of the covers is thinner than the other. Clip the thin one off, and it'll go into the side of his thigh, nice and flush.

Now lift up his hip skirts. One hip will be flat, the other has a screw. Take one of the fatter covers from the T-shaped sprue and stick fit it over the exposed screw. Then spin him around. With the hip pieces mirrored you'll see the same thing, one flat and one exposed screw. That's where the other one goes. However, like a few other people have mentioned one hip on my copy seems pretty good and the other seems a bit tight. If you think you might want to open up one (or both) hips to lube up the ratchets, maybe shorten a spring a little, then you should probably leave these covers off. His hip skirts cover them anyway.

Lastly we've got the Y-shaped sprues. These covers go on the planet horns (although you don't have to transform him all the way if you don't want to right now; just open his chest and back, pull the flaps with the horns out, and then fold the horns out from behind the flaps. Note the molding on each cover. The one that's got a little molding near the edge goes near the base of the horn, an the one with the molding right down the middle goes near the middle of the horn. The molding on the covers lines up with the molding on the horns.

Now onto the spikes.

First, you'll have two sprues with six spikes each. These are the easy ones. Each sprue has enough spikes for one arm (inside and outside); you'll need to decide if you're going to use the yellow parts or the blue, because you only have enough spikes for one color. Now pay attention; while all six look the same at a glance the middle pair have slightly longer tips, and they all have a c-clip at the base. Push the c-clips onto the arm, with the longer spike in between the shorter ones, on both sides of his arm. Once they're clipped on they can fold flat against his arm. If you're going for movie accuracy the spikes on the inside of his arm should be flat, the ones on the outside should stick up.

Now, you should still have two identical sprues of spikes left. Before we continue let's take a closer look at one. On one side you'll have spikes that are at an angle to the base with their c-clip. You'll have four others that look very almost the same, but take a closer look at the bottom near their c-clips. Notice how two of them have thicker clips that are basically flush with the spike, but two have thinner clips that leave a little ledge (circled).

Take the ones with the thinner clips. They'll go on top of his shoulders. They fold like his arm spikes, and for robot mode you'll want them flat.

Now, take the sides of his forearm (where you put the spikes earlier), unpeg them, and fold them back. Take the back of his arm and pull it away from the rest of his arm a bit, then bend it back toward the elbow. Be careful; if you just go straight to folding the arm back you'll stress the tab near his elbow (that's the one Bobby broke in his review). Once the the back of his arm is free spin it so the inside is facing you and you'll see a trench. The spikes with the thinner clips fit into little bars inside the trench. They'll stick out for planet mode, but for now you can fold them back in and close his arm back up.

Last but not least are the angled spikes. You might want to pop Unicron's wings off if you already put them on; the spikes are going around the hole where the wings plug in on his shoulder. I'm not sure what Zeta/Studio 1's intention is or what the consensus is on this, but I clipped them on that the spikes angle away from each other. When you're done you can pop the wings back on. When you're all done you should have something that looks like this:

Click to expand...

You are amazing!!!! That is so much work to give a complete and incredibly detailed look at the instal of the spikes and screw covers. If this was Reddit and I could give you gold I absolutely would!

4249david · Jul 23, 2020

idkwdya said: ↑

You are amazing!!!! That is so much work to give a complete and incredibly detailed look at the instal of the spikes and screw covers. If this was Reddit and I could give you gold I absolutely would!
Click to expand...

I'm sure if you DM him you could arrange to send him some actual gold

Starman · Jul 23, 2020

Not to scale obviously but it’s the closest I’ve got.

Evirdrevo · Jul 23, 2020

I just got mine in and on initial glance, everything seemed ok. However, while transforming, I noticed my copy's left outer knee flap is oriented incorrectly. As far as I can tell, this completely prevents full transformation. I remember seeing some posts about these flaps possibly being assembled wrong and simply need to be unscrewed, flipped, and re-assembled to fix, but I don't think that would help me in my case (I actually tried to unscrew and reassemble with no success). Am I missing something?

4249david · Jul 23, 2020

Evirdrevo said: ↑

I just got mine in and on initial glance, everything seemed ok. However, while transforming, I noticed my copy's left outer knee flap is oriented incorrectly. As far as I can tell, this completely prevents full transformation. I remember seeing some posts about these flaps possibly being assembled wrong and simply need to be unscrewed, flipped, and re-assembled to fix, but I don't think that would help me in my case (I actually tried to unscrew and reassemble with no success). Am I missing something?
View attachment 28710902
View attachment 28710903
Click to expand...

This was reported with first receivers too. You'll need to dig back through yo release date unless one of them replies to this. But you aren't alone

mrspingly · Jul 23, 2020

MysticFortune said: ↑

Informal survey time! Who else from the June 17th "slow boat" crew still hasn't received their Unicron yet? I'm curious to see just how unlucky I am...
Click to expand...

I paid extra for ShowZ shipping on Unicron and got him a while ago. However, another ShowZ shipment is coming the slow way. Order 15th June, tracking started 18th June, last update was a week ago showing it's still in China.

DINOBOTT · Jul 23, 2020

Got mine today via slow boat from showz; just the body, no head or wing accessories. Has anyone else received the body and head set separately?

Mykltron · Jul 23, 2020

Evirdrevo said: ↑

I just got mine in and on initial glance, everything seemed ok. However, while transforming, I noticed my copy's left outer knee flap is oriented incorrectly. As far as I can tell, this completely prevents full transformation. I remember seeing some posts about these flaps possibly being assembled wrong and simply need to be unscrewed, flipped, and re-assembled to fix, but I don't think that would help me in my case (I actually tried to unscrew and reassemble with no success). Am I missing something?
Click to expand...

You DO need to undo those screws and put the plate in the other way. The tab should be on top in robot mode.

mikeszekely · Jul 23, 2020

DINOBOTT said: ↑

Got mine today via slow boat from showz; just the body, no head or wing accessories. Has anyone else received the body and head set separately?
Click to expand...

No. The way it came for me was a big Show Z box. Inside should be two boxes. One is purple and has cute monsters on it, the other is small, black, and says something like "Armor MB-08" with no pictures or anything. That black box has the head and wings.

4249david said: ↑

I'm sure if you DM him you could arrange to send him some actual gold
Click to expand...

Ah, I'm just trying to help. I don't do it for the money.

... But if people want to give me money I won't say no.

Snaku · Jul 23, 2020

Mykltron said: ↑

You DO need to undo those screws and put the plate in the other way. The tab should be on top in robot mode.
Click to expand...

That doesn't make sense. It'd be backwards. He needs a replacement part - the one he got is for the other side of the knee.

DINOBOTT · Jul 23, 2020

mikeszekely said: ↑

No. The way it came for me was a big Show Z box. Inside should be two boxes. One is purple and has cute monsters on it, the other is small, black, and says something like "Armor MB-08" with no pictures or anything. That black box has the head and wings.
Click to expand...

I feel like an idiot, the other box was still inside the big showz box lol. False alarm.

Mykltron · Jul 23, 2020

Snaku said: ↑

That doesn't make sense. It'd be backwards. He needs a replacement part - the one he got is for the other side of the knee.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah - they're mirrored, not copied exactly. Sorry, I was just repeating the solution from someone else without thinking.

boomerdave · Jul 23, 2020

mikeszekely said: ↑

So the instructions for this guy are pretty shit, and doesn't tell you at all what to do with the screw covers and spikes. There's a video a few pages back that I used, but it doesn't have sound and it kind of glossed over a few things that you should probably pay attention to. I found myself rewinding to double check some things, and in my case that meant running to my computer, watching for a few minutes, running back to my work bench, putting a few things in, then running back to the computer. Kind of a hassle. To save the rest of you, here's a step-by-step written guide (with pictures). NOTE: a lot of the parts on this guy are mirrored, so the inside of his right arm and right leg is the outside of the left.

We'll start off easy. You'll have eight of these blue-gray screw hole covers. They go in the lower legs, and there's enough for both legs. If you look at the molded detail on the other side you'll see that the line across them is basically horizontal. You'll also note that those details are slightly recessed so you'll want to push them in pretty far.

Before we continue let's take a closer look at the orange screw covers. There will be six loose ones; two with lines, two flat circles, and two that are kind of like rectangles with bulges on the short sides. Then there's two T-shaped sprues with two covers each and two Y-shaped sprues with two more covers each.

The loose covers all go on his biceps. The rectangle goes in the top front so that the flat sides line up with the molding around the top of his bicep. The flat circle one goes toward the back. The one with the line goes at the bottom, and it'll protrude a bit. Again, if you look at the molded detail on the other side you'll see it protrudes there, too, and the line on it angles up toward the front.

Look carefully at the T-shaped sprues. You'll see that one of the covers is thinner than the other. Clip the thin one off, and it'll go into the side of his thigh, nice and flush.

Now lift up his hip skirts. One hip will be flat, the other has a screw. Take one of the fatter covers from the T-shaped sprue and stick fit it over the exposed screw. Then spin him around. With the hip pieces mirrored you'll see the same thing, one flat and one exposed screw. That's where the other one goes. However, like a few other people have mentioned one hip on my copy seems pretty good and the other seems a bit tight. If you think you might want to open up one (or both) hips to lube up the ratchets, maybe shorten a spring a little, then you should probably leave these covers off. His hip skirts cover them anyway.

Lastly we've got the Y-shaped sprues. These covers go on the planet horns (although you don't have to transform him all the way if you don't want to right now; just open his chest and back, pull the flaps with the horns out, and then fold the horns out from behind the flaps. Note the molding on each cover. The one that's got a little molding near the edge goes near the base of the horn, an the one with the molding right down the middle goes near the middle of the horn. The molding on the covers lines up with the molding on the horns.

Now onto the spikes.

First, you'll have two sprues with six spikes each. These are the easy ones. Each sprue has enough spikes for one arm (inside and outside); you'll need to decide if you're going to use the yellow parts or the blue, because you only have enough spikes for one color. Now pay attention; while all six look the same at a glance the middle pair have slightly longer tips, and they all have a c-clip at the base. Push the c-clips onto the arm, with the longer spike in between the shorter ones, on both sides of his arm. Once they're clipped on they can fold flat against his arm. If you're going for movie accuracy the spikes on the inside of his arm should be flat, the ones on the outside should stick up.

Now, you should still have two identical sprues of spikes left. Before we continue let's take a closer look at one. On one side you'll have spikes that are at an angle to the base with their c-clip. You'll have four others that look very almost the same, but take a closer look at the bottom near their c-clips. Notice how two of them have thicker clips that are basically flush with the spike, but two have thinner clips that leave a little ledge (circled).

Take the ones with the thinner clips. They'll go on top of his shoulders. They fold like his arm spikes, and for robot mode you'll want them flat.

Now, take the sides of his forearm (where you put the spikes earlier), unpeg them, and fold them back. Take the back of his arm and pull it away from the rest of his arm a bit, then bend it back toward the elbow. Be careful; if you just go straight to folding the arm back you'll stress the tab near his elbow (that's the one Bobby broke in his review). Once the the back of his arm is free spin it so the inside is facing you and you'll see a trench. The spikes with the thinner clips fit into little bars inside the trench. They'll stick out for planet mode, but for now you can fold them back in and close his arm back up.

Last but not least are the angled spikes. You might want to pop Unicron's wings off if you already put them on; the spikes are going around the hole where the wings plug in on his shoulder. I'm not sure what Zeta/Studio 1's intention is or what the consensus is on this, but I clipped them on that the spikes angle away from each other. When you're done you can pop the wings back on. When you're all done you should have something that looks like this:

Click to expand...

Mike, thanks for taking the time to do that for all of us. I've had mine for about a month now and other than the arm ones, I haven't messed with any of the plugs or spikes because of the reasons you said, the instructions are crap and I just didn't want to fight with it. Your post should have been in the instructions to start.

I'm going to get your post stickied in this thread on the front page.

Evirdrevo said: ↑

I just got mine in and on initial glance, everything seemed ok. However, while transforming, I noticed my copy's left outer knee flap is oriented incorrectly. As far as I can tell, this completely prevents full transformation. I remember seeing some posts about these flaps possibly being assembled wrong and simply need to be unscrewed, flipped, and re-assembled to fix, but I don't think that would help me in my case (I actually tried to unscrew and reassemble with no success). Am I missing something?
View attachment 28710902
View attachment 28710903
Click to expand...

Yeah sorry, it doesn't happen a lot but we've seen that a few times. You need a new piece to get him full transformed. Someone put the wrong piece on that side.

flamingunicron · Jul 23, 2020

urg mine has still received 0 movement since being received in LA and I live in OC...

CryptiniteDemon · Jul 23, 2020

porkchop123 said: ↑

Still haven't received mine. It left NJ on the 20th then disappeared. Estimated delivery date changed from the 22nd to unknown
Click to expand...

Mine has reached my city, but hasn't been handed over to the post office yet. I expect it between tomorrow and next Thursday based on previous experience with newgistics.

idkwdya · Jul 23, 2020

My retailer still has no ETA on his shipment from China. It was supposed to be here before August but I’m definitely thinking it’ll be August now.

Snaku · Jul 23, 2020

Mykltron said: ↑

Oh yeah - they're mirrored, not copied exactly. Sorry, I was just repeating the solution from someone else without thinking.
Click to expand...

IIRC, that guy had two that were wrong and, as luck would have it, they were opposite sides, so he was able to just switch them.

Evirdrevo · Jul 23, 2020

Snaku said: ↑

That doesn't make sense. It'd be backwards. He needs a replacement part - the one he got is for the other side of the knee.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I tried flipping it already and it was exactly as you said, backwards. Thanks for confirming my suspicion.

ph4zed · Jul 23, 2020

4249david said: ↑

Do you have a link? I've searched and found nothing
Click to expand...

Hmm, looks like he is down to Alpha Trion (it was a 3pk with A3, Kranix, and Arblus for 25$)
loosed 3rd party impossible toy Alpha Trion figure only (discontinued) | eBay

Looks like someone in the US is selling theirs Transformers G1 Impossible Toys Arbilus / Arblus Loose New | eBay

Maybe just set up a saved search from this and keep an eye out! impossible toys in Transformer and Robot Action Figures | eBay

pdxs2000 · Jul 23, 2020

Evirdrevo said: ↑

I just got mine in and on initial glance, everything seemed ok. However, while transforming, I noticed my copy's left outer knee flap is oriented incorrectly. As far as I can tell, this completely prevents full transformation. I remember seeing some posts about these flaps possibly being assembled wrong and simply need to be unscrewed, flipped, and re-assembled to fix, but I don't think that would help me in my case (I actually tried to unscrew and reassemble with no success). Am I missing something?
View attachment 28710902
View attachment 28710903
Click to expand...

I just got mine and I also have that issue. I've contacted Show Z and ask them to send me the right part. Currently waiting for their reply.

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Zeta Toys ZV-02 Core Star / 1Studio Cell (G1 Unicron)

idkwdya Nicks_Plastic_Shelf

4249david Click my avatar, you won't regret it...

Starman Beyond your wildest imagination

Evirdrevo Well-Known Member

4249david Click my avatar, you won't regret it...

mrspingly Well-Known Member

DINOBOTT Well-Known Member

Mykltron Well-Known Member

mikeszekely Not Pessimus Prime

Snaku Primes Don't Party

DINOBOTT Well-Known Member

Mykltron Well-Known Member

boomerdave Owns three Ditka figures. O_o Veteran

flamingunicron Well-Known Member

CryptiniteDemon Well-Known Member

idkwdya Nicks_Plastic_Shelf

Snaku Primes Don't Party

Evirdrevo Well-Known Member

ph4zed Sarcasticon

pdxs2000 Member

Attached Files:

Wrong Part 1.JPG

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Zeta Toys ZV-02 Core Star / 1Studio Cell (G1 Unicron)

idkwdya Nicks_Plastic_Shelf

4249david Click my avatar, you won't regret it...

Starman Beyond your wildest imagination

Evirdrevo Well-Known Member

4249david Click my avatar, you won't regret it...

mrspingly Well-Known Member

DINOBOTT Well-Known Member

Mykltron Well-Known Member

mikeszekely Not Pessimus Prime

Snaku Primes Don't Party

DINOBOTT Well-Known Member

Mykltron Well-Known Member

boomerdave Owns three Ditka figures. O_o Veteran

flamingunicron Well-Known Member

CryptiniteDemon Well-Known Member

idkwdya Nicks_Plastic_Shelf

Snaku Primes Don't Party

Evirdrevo Well-Known Member

ph4zed Sarcasticon

pdxs2000 Member

Attached Files:

Wrong Part 1.JPG

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