At this point, if you’re not swayed by the multitudes of evidence, then it’s just your decision now. I don’t know what Takara has done in your eyes to somehow make them infallible, but unless their stock photography was taken very recently, I don’t see why it’d be properly assembled.

 

Just got Galvatron but from BBTS. Shoulders are correct. Nevermind, seems like wrong one afterall after getting out of package.

 

OMG, LOL. Are you really making this into a Hasbro vs Takara thing? So… I’m beyond confident that we can come up with a multitude of examples where Takara screwed up ALL BY THEMSELVES. Right off the top of my head there’s the Big Powered set that came out in 2019.

Being a fanboy is fine but being a blindly loyal and antagonistic fanboy is just not a good look.

 

So I checked when I got home yesterday, and I did get the correct shoulder version.
Top of the joint sculpting matches the shape of the shoulder. Smooth and rounded.

 

That is actually a really good idea. They should also do one for exclusives, as well…

 

Found a low shoulder one today.  

Passed on it in hopes of finding the other one.

 

The official renders show the figure with the higher shoulders, and the molded detail matches when it's assembled that way.

Not to mention, Takara's stock photos are always of early samples, and frequently have non-final colors or even non-final molded parts. I'm not sure why you're using their photos as some universal indicator of how a figure is supposed to look.

 

I was going to wait to find a copy with high shoulders but ended up buying a low shoulder one. In robot mode I just have the shoulders rotated to be higher and have the pinned side facing forward. You gain the ability to mount the cannon onto the shoulder itself so that’s a plus.

In addition I didn’t like how if the pinned side was on the back, the treads could plug in but killed the bicep swivel.

Main thing I was worried about was the arms not being able to be parallel with the body if the pinned side of the shoulders faced forward. I thought the outer edge of the shoulder might get in the way. I was relieved to find out it didn’t, there’s enough space.

It’ll boil down to user preference but I don’t mind the pinned side facing forward to so that the shoulders can be higher. The fix seems easy to do, but for now I’m alright with the pinned side facing forward. I would be more annoyed if they were installed facing different directions on each side.

 

I have officially checked every Target within 30-45 minutes of my house, nothing lol. I mean not that I was expecting anything but man! I want to find this guy in person cause I’m not paying shipping on top of a scalped one.

 

Oh wow! I didn't even realize how those parts weren't flush! Daaaamn!

 

Shoulders or not he is now my favorite con figure. I hope I can find a used one cheap for an Energon Megatron custom.

 

From what I’ve seen in pics, I don’t think I’d mind finding “Low Shoulders” version.
Pins don’t bug me, from what I’ve seen.
(Maybe a dab of purple paint on them would fix it anyway? Lol)

Still… trying not to obsess over finding a “correct shoulders” version. It’s not like it’s all THAT much different…. Is it?

 

Need this galvatron.

 

Personally the misplaced shoulders isn’t a total bother to me nor are the pins when you reverse them. The figure is fine enough. I don’t feel like doing surgery on him just to correct the shoulder issue. Preferably if you can spot the correct shoulder version get it but if not no biggie.

 

Mine shipped from BBTS and ought to arrive between Friday or next Monday.

Also forgot I PO'd one from Pulse and that's due in September. What're the odds that copy will have the correct shoulder assembly if it turns out the BBTS one is misassembled?

 

You would need to undo 4 flathead pins via soldering iron, not one. Each shoulder pad also forms half of a mushroom peg. It's not reasonably doable without causing damage.

The figure looks much better in-hand with the shoulders in the right spot.

Edit: The wrong fix of breaking one of the pads off actually gives the best results without noticeable damage from the outside and avoids the use of a soldering iron altogether, however, long-term stability of the mushroom is questionable with this.

 

Functionally there’s no difference. You do end up gaining the ability to plug the cannon into the shoulder if you have the pinned side facing forward. The functionally aspect is what I was worried about most, the issue is cosmetic unless you get a factory screw up where each side was facing the wrong direction when put together at the factory.

 

Wow. I had not seen it from above like that and I didn't realize it was that obvious. Everyone was so focused on the shoulders being too low, but to me the broken sculpt is much worse. That would make me want to change mine. I knew the sculpt didn't match, but I didn't realize it was that bad. It's pretty shocking that it made it out of the factory like that. I'm not trying to start a TT is better than Hasbro thing, but with the MPMs I typically buy the TT versions because they always seem to be made after the Hasbro run so they get the bugs worked out by then. Not always, but often. Anyway I hope my Amazon order is a later batch because I'm not going to bother mailing it back for this.

 

Use a hairdryer to fix stress marks. It doesn't always work, but it usually does for me. Just be careful not to melt the plastic. That would be worse than stress marks.  

 

Super impressive! The ultimate team-up!