I was asked to provide pictures of my intact ROTF Bludgeon's rubber contact bits as he is an example of no melting whatsoever over the past 12 years.









I don't know why he's proven to not have this problem (yet *knocks on wood*) but he certainly has every other problem all Bludgeons have, which is his hand broke after one too many times shoving the thick sword into his hand (repaired but he'll never hold the sword again), the main sword itself is that crappy weak rubber that bends under gravity so I keep it shoved into the tank barrel to keep it straight, and he has the widespread issue where the paint application for black on the thighs is on the inside instead of the outside. He's usually kept in robot mode, haven't transformed him in years, but I had to partially transform him to get these pics of the rubber mount points and everything is the same, right down to his annoyingly difficult 'spine slider' step.

 

The third picture where the tread is touching the round green part, you can see a small amount of the melting where the tread touches.

 

The only thing I can imagine causing a problem for most and not the others is perhaps the mix in the rubber. Perhaps the plasticizer was mixed differently at times and some just didn't get the full-on "bad' mix. (I'm 99% sure I'm wrong on that, and someone will come in and say that's not how it works, which I'll own if that comes to pass.) I do think environment can sometimes affect it. I think more northern locales are the biggest problem area. We get hot and damp close to half of the year, then we get super cold and dry (and sometimes damp) for the other half, and I'm sure that wreaks havoc on something like this.

 

Huh, I always thought that was glue, but after checking I now realize there's a screw along that axis.

Though really, it's hidden and hasn't negatively impacted the toy so all in all I'm okay with it.

 

That area is usually one of the first areas to show damage, mines not awful but I can def see it on those areas too.

 

@Nemesis Baser A small amount of melting still strikes me as miraculous with that particular figure.  

 

The potential for entrepreneurship with 3D printing custom upgrade parts is absolutely off the charts. I paid some guy 15 bucks for a windmill blade and a rocket for Ironworks.

Also, cross-post of mine from another thread after someone linked this thread to me:

> Okay, yeah. Thank you. I was a little suspicious of these things but a quick read-over of the thread suggests the effect parts should be kept "away" when not being used in photos. It seems that most parts will not damage most figures in most conditions, but who wants to have to keep checking them?

Edit: I can confirm. The effect parts took a tiny bit of paint off of the attachment pegs on Cog's red-painted parts after only 2 or 3 days in cold weather and little sunlight. They were also very hard to remove, as they had begun to weld on.

Edit 2: I just finished removing all the effect parts from my shelf figures. 99% were fine after a few weeks attached, because they were attached to unpainted parts. But watch out for the following figures:

WfC Siege Cog: Red painted parts. The orange blast parts stick super fast and super easily to these parts and will transfer a fair amount of paint when you remove them.

SS-86 Hot Rod: Silver painted guns and pipes. It was super hard to remove the blue fires from them, even though no paint appears to have transferred.

 

Not sure if it's been reported yet, but I had my Takara T30 Rhinox out the other night and the soft plastic areas on him (tail section, ears) seem to feel tacky and we're getting that white dusty-looking coloration on them

 

Ug. Great. I was just thinking about that figure today in relation to this topic.
there goes another poor soul. Kingdom Megatron is doomed.

 

Pics?

 

Ugh, but I already out him awaaaayyyyy

 

RIP. Did it seem like it melted away the plastic surrounding him, or is it just discoloration? Softer plastic doesn't age as gracefully... and sometimes, different versions may also have different issues with the plastic type used (see: CW Motormaster being fine, yet UW Motormaster having his broken waist... or in an opposite scenario, Transmetal Megatron), so we may have to see the Hasbro release and see how that's currently holding up. If it makes you feel any better, Rhinox is going to come out in Kingdom, so at least if it does end up breaking apart, you can at least keep a new Rhinox in your collection.

I wouldn't say that, QC issues as the figure has (the right arm and the waist breaking), none of them are the result of the soft plastic, which itself seems sturdier than... say, the ones found on Netflix Bee's car front or TR Skullcruncher's cockpit. Rather, it's the fault of some questionable design decisions (some connections not holding sturdily on the arm, and the waist being much more of a complicated mess to take apart than it needs to be.) So I guess just wait until T-Wrecks and Rexy come out, and we'll see if that's a recurring issue.

 

So far, I didn't detect any melting, just discoloration and tackiness. This is also the Takara version, so perhaps the Hasbro one is holding up fine?

 

Messed with mine yesterday, which is the Hasbro version and it seemed fine.

Edit: Wanted to add I live in the Caribbean, Puerto Rico to be exact, so its really hot and humid over here.

 

I have the Hasbro version and it's fine. I'm wondering if the color of the plastic has something to do with it? Either way, it's unfortunate. I'm sorry that's happening.  

 

I’m from PR and I can attest that Puerto Rico’s weather is the worst enemy for toys in storage.

 

I think the actual problem here has to do with consistent temperature changes... I'm in the midwest US and my home isn't exactly well insulated; the area I display toys in can swing 8-10 degrees over a typical day. We've got a softener that's basically filling gaps in harder plastic, the constant minute contraction and expansion of temperature change could serve to more or less squeeze it out. Anything and everything in my collection with an unstable plasticizer element has at least some issue, whether it's just the sticky surface of older (mostly Japanese) figures or the outright melt like we've seen with a handful of transformers.

 

Recently checked the Beast Wars Rampage in my collection. After being in storage for more than five years, he doesn't have the issue. Any reported instances of Rampage's rubber treads melting into plastic?

 

I think he’s a bit too old. I’d be more concerned about the rubber rotting before worrying about it melting anything. The newer plastic is what’s having issues, with most examples coming from ROTF and beyond.