You got yours from show z before me?! Those bastards

 

See here:

 

It's B. If you keep them perfectly straight it slides no problem. That's why it just needed to be a long screw with shorter threads. Filing down most of the threads would solve the problem.

 

Got mine yesterday and he's got a bad knee ratchet.

I don't suppose someone could point me to the earlier post that details the problem? Has anyone with the same problem gotten any response from their retailer or from fanstoys about a replacement retchet?

 

But an option for me.   I Pre-Ordered it now. It's a lot cheaper than the prices I saw on ebay in europe. I hope Thomas is worth it.

 

Funny thing about it is I got it the same day they put up the shipped notice on my account.

 

Sorry but what companies dont understand is that people who buy alternatives to your stuff or get it illegally were never going to buy it anyway so cracking down on it wont do anything....

Its gonna be a long 2 weeks waiting for this guy

 

Myself and @OverBleed have posted a lot about this. I think my 1st post about it is way back on page 202 but you should be able to look up from our usernames. @OverBleed had 2 copies so was able to compare both - i just have the 1 copy.

 

That's what I'd figured. I'm hoping when I finally receive mine I can find a reasonable option to sleeve the screw - top to bottom - to stop it catching without introducing too much friction. But it all hinges on the size of both screw and hole.

An off-the-shelf alternative would be to find a longer screw of the same head and thread geometry with a sufficiently long body/shank (ie The non-threaded part), then cut the threads off so the whole thing isn't too long. Being mindful, of course, that it seems the threads don't go in too deep at the other end, so you'll want to err on the side of too little body rather than too much or else you risk not being able to secure it.

 

Obviously I am 276 pages late to this game, and what I am about to say may be blasphemy to some , but I think I would definitely want this guy if they had taken the train mode and made it black with purple highlights instead of purple like the original toy.
That was the problem I had with the toy back int the 80s, so I guess I'm still just carrying that. Yes I could always repaint it myself but I imagine at the price it would cost to get him, I'd be scared of ruining it.

 

Just speculation since it don't have the figure yet but why not just surround the threads with a hardening compound, sand it and polish?

 

That would probably work too. Anything that eliminates ridges that the edges of the hole can catch on would solve the problem.

 

Good instinct.

 

I've seen some ppl that can paint figures that are true masterpieces. I've also seen some ppl whose talents are less than abysmal. There are MANY more of the latter. Not trying to be mean but some will show their work and it may please them and I'll say great job but in the back of my mind...

 

It's going to be about what's easy and what's possible. Naturally that's possible but it's definitely not going to be easy since it runs the risk of gumming up all the threads, making it impossible to screw it back in without spending far too long trying to pick out whatever you filled it with (I'm going to go out on a limb and guess most people don't have dies, and especially not of the right size if it's smaller than an M3).

I mean it'd be great if, in a few weeks, I could just poke my head back in and say something like "find an old, empty biro and cut <pending dimension> long pieces from the rubber ink tube and put that around the screws" or similar. Simple, easy, and pretty much everyone is going to have access to the materials and tools required. But, while that might actually work I have a suspicion that the ink tube might be too narrow so I'd rather be sure before saying something like that definitively.

 

How about just sanding down the edges of the threads?

 

I may have said this before on this thread but whilst i havent had to mod this area of thomas i had the same issue as this on a figure a while back - just as you say i sanded down the thread a bit on the part being used as a slider, using a piece of metal type sandpaper. Then because the screw hole had threaded i did the usual fix - i popped in a little superglue with a pin, and screwed in slowly until i just started to feel the glue slow me down, then left to dry.

 

I have normal sandpaper and files and an emery board stolen from the ol lady. I'll try it when I get mine

 

You are correct. The issue I had with mine is on the left side, the screw threads were longer in the middle of the screw (I confirmed by touch, it was quite noticeable).


after my breakage, I filed down the screw and tested on the right side, not broken chest piece, works great with no catching. YMMV.

 

This screw-pin thing is such a dumbass oversight that it's almost unbelievable.