ShowZ informed me that they received no word from TC themselves, but rather their vendor says the issue is fixed on the batch that they’ve got out in the mail to everyone right now.

The fact that SZS heavily qualified their response like that is concerning; the vendor is going to say whatever to ensure the batch sells and as long as TC keeps whistling and avoiding eye contact, they can claim ignorance. I’ve explained my outlook in detail, and while I’d love to be wrong, I’m going to remain Extremely Wary..

 

So I got the "new" batch, and see all the cracking issues that was already reported. So I'd say it was a lie. That, or their quality control is so bad they think they fixed it, and didn't. Very last option is there are still some old units left, and the new batch is a mix of fixed and defectives ones. The probably with that last idea is some people seem to have ones that didn't looked cracked from previous batches.

Either way, buy at your own risk still.

 

Goddammit I picked a bad time to impulse buy.

 

Hey @Fuze9, Three things:

(1) I figured it out! I was having the same difficulty getting the shoulders to fold in. For me, the issue was the black-pin joints on which the whole shoulder assembly can rotate (circled in the picture here). They were very stiff on mine, so I didn't know they even could rotate at first. You've got to rotate those into the correct position for the shoulder assembly to be able to fit into that cavity.
(2) The black-pin joint on the right hand side of your photo seems to be protruding. Is it supposed to be like that? (Mine's in alt-mode right now so I can't compare mine.)
(3) Mine also has those "cracks" in the cavity that the shoulder pieces go into. They look exactly the same. Is it really a crack, or some weird mold line? Very strange.

 

So, heads-up: on a lark, I ordered another copy from the latest batch— the one we were told was fixed. I’m sure it did not help that the box was smashed in on three sides when it arrived, but I don’t think that did this. Anybody have experience with ShowZStore’s customer service?

 

what’s wrong with it?

 

Going back to bot mode I took pictures of what looks like cracks, and matches up with what other people have shown. Most look like they are coming from pin locations, but not 100% of them. I also noticed it felt like a lot of these parts had some lubricant on them. Did people have that before? Maybe they are trying to fix it that way.



I'm curious, does anyone have parts that actually broke? I've noticed in these parts that have cracks there is a little coloration swirl. I wonder if it's just bad batches of plastic. I also took a masters class last year in fracture mechanics. I'd be interested to see and close up pictures of the breaks if anyone has them. Sometimes you can learn a lot by looking at the fracture, but I don't think a normal camera can take a close enough pictures to really tell.

 

it’s exactly the same as the previous batches, I guess it is hard to see but there are hairline cracks in all of those joints.

 

Most are bonded points, some are plastic mix swirls, others not sure. But this will be one of those weird ones where the figure was almost perfect but marred by plastic qc.

 

After 5 months waiting I finally got mine, same swirl patterns on joints and the chest doesn't like to stay in but besides that i think it's perfect.

 

Man this thread is depressing now  

 

Really is. Especially since their Mohawk is so good. I fully expected this to be no different.

 

i’m sorry, but how is that “perfect” with so many fractured joints? or am i missing the sarcasm?

 

I thought the same thing lmao, that thing is going to break in a few days or even hours, literal Devilsaviour-tier quality

 

perfect as in the most accurate version of 2018 bumblebee

 

I dunno... I’m getting soured on their upcoming Optimus.

 

Its really sad to see almost everyone's bumblebee crumbling to pieces  

I feel really lucky cuz my Bee is holding up like a champ. I've transformed him 10 times now (more or less) and posed him in various different poses. I'm just gonna mess with him as much as possible before it breaks and becomes a display only figure.

 

More pics of that custom MPM Optimus please!

Looks so much better than the official paint job. I was considering on getting him since there are no MPM Primes on the market, but I'm still holding out hope for Transcraft to deliver one before ROTB.

 

Maybe I'll post some pics at the MPM12 thread  

I didn't really do much though, I painted his thighs silver and added some paint here and there. And even with just those minor touchups, he looks a hundred times better!

 

So, this or Transform Element?