I also saw someone here comment about the pins being ever so slightly bigger than they should be.

 

Man this thread is depressing. Such a good looking bee, yet such a far miss in qc  

 

I was actually quite amused at an earlier post where somebody was claiming that they had “luckily had no breakages so far” except for some yellow parts that broke...

 

I guess I should have listened to you when I still had the chance to send the item back without opening the box. It is just that I am aware there is a chance worldwide about chain supply shortages and it is happening right now. That is why I was afraid I might not get one at all. I didn't expected a cracked joint right out of the box and yes I was hoping the new batch would fix the issue as I like to have proof of cracked joints from the new batch. Without more proof and pictures, we still can't assume the new batch hasn't improved I think.

I must be still one of the luckiest as the figure still holds up but then again I don't move parts at all.  

By the way I did realize something. We should be really careful when posing the figure as one wrong direction in opposite or side to side of the joints could create a big force to breakage in another joint I think. Because my chest piece was popped out, I could see the shoulder joints and arm joints and they are not lining up straight. I could see the force on the shoulder when I move the arm just side to side a bit. I forgot the name of the rule of force. It is like creating much more force with just the same amount of muscle strength like the arm and shoulder part.

 

Can anyone explain how to get the head/chest/arm assembly up into the back of the car? I must be doing something wrong as I can't get the two chest panels to the correct angle to tab in. The tab for the rear bumper also won't align correctly. It feels like the head is preventing the whole assembly from going up further but no matter how I adjust it doesn't work.

 

I don't remember the exact step, but I had the same issue when I transformed mine recently, and Emgo's JTI video sorted it for me:

 

Man @OggytheAug @Ashpolt my video I think shows steps quite clearly   You can skip ahead to 12:40.

 

Second time through I got stuck here and took a while to figure out why. Ended up being his head wasn't tucked in all the way and didn't let the chest collapse completely.

 

I'm no plastics expert, but I am an engineer and have been 3d printing ball joints/sockets & parts designed to use paperclips as pin joints for a project I'm working on. In general, I can print a design in grey PLA and have no issues with assembly, but if I use a silk silver or metallic silver color, it breaks instantly during assembly or the continued stress causes the joint to break a few days or weeks later. Parts are identical aside from material composition. May be a tolerancing issue, or may be an issue of the material not being appropriate for the application.

Materials usually have elastic deformation zones where they can bend back to their initial shape after the stress is removed, and plastic zones where deformation permanently affects the material and can even let it break. However, extended application of stress in the elastic deformation zone over time can also cause the material to permanently deform or break.

TL;DR: My napkin theory is that the additives used to make the plastic appear more metallic also interfere with the ability for the plastic polymers to join into longer chains that give them more strength. Shorter chains of polymers make the composite plastic weaker than one that had no metallic additives at all. Pretty sure that's what's happening here... Transcraft may have done their initial test shots in a non-metallic plastic where the breakage wasn't an issue and jumped right into production, or they did test with metallic plastic but it was strong enough initially that they didn't notice the issues with long-term stresses before the final products shipped out. THat would explain why people had no issues for a few weeks before breakages became more common. This is probably why Hasbro/Takara use basically light grey plastic instead of silver plastic.

 

Thanks for the help, I managed get it all lined up. Was able to get thru 99% of the transformation only to realize that my copy is misassembled. The panel on the back of the left thigh is the same piece as that on the right thigh rather than being a mirror image. So now when I try to fold down that panel that little block (red circle in pic) bumps into the yellow piece (blue arrow in pic) and it can't fold down flush against the side of the car. I'm just unlucky I guess.

 

Thank you so much for the insight! My materials knowledge kind of sucks, but that one made perfect sense. Irritatingly, that means that they could have removed the additives from the plastic composition, and cut their losses on later batches by just making those parts dark gray and gaining more elasticity, but chose to alter nothing and lie. I imagine they must bulk-purchase the materials, so the mix is set and they would have had to order different material..? Ugh.. whatever the reason, they did us dirty three times. I don’t think they are going to do anything different with Cliffjumper.

 

I'll take the plunge on Cliffjumper for you guys, lol...I'll make sure I transform him from bot to alt 20x times before I do a final review.

 

I haven’t touched my copy in months and I’m deathly afraid to now.

I applied some sealant on a few joints that had the hairline cracks and after that it felt ok. But this thing is just a time bomb. Which makes me real sad as this thing would be perfect if the plastic was better. It’s the most screen accurate figure I’ve ever handled…

 

I wonder why they bothered to do Cliffjumper knowing all the problems with their Bumblebee?

 

To get extra cash for either the next bot, or to get as much cash as they can before they dip.

 

Y'all don't think they'll actually improve and the cliff jumper will have better plastic quality?

 

...so I should pass on buying one of these, then?

BULLET: DODGED.

 

with the mold basically done, I hope it gets shipping soon...so that we may see how many if any at all Transcraft checks the Seven Principles of Business Integrity. (...is where I clip out the fluff)

1. Trust. Customers and clients want to do business with a company that is trustworthy...
2. Quality. A dedication to high quality standards across the board shows that the company is committed to standing behind what it does and delivering the value it promises. Companies that regularly put out shoddy work or provide inconsistent service are telling customers and would-be customers that they really don’t care about them.
3. Follow-through. Trust is built on follow-through, on meeting your obligations and commitments as promised...
4. Corporate Citizenship. blah blah  
5. Value Creation. ...They also feel obligated to create value for customers and “do right” by them. As such, it becomes a mutual exchange of value, one that builds strong bonds of loyalty.
6. Willingness to Change. Companies only change if there is a willingness to change and, specifically, a willingness to keep getting better...
7. Respect. Last but not least is respect.... everyone should be treated with respect.

 

You are just too optimistic to even thing about these ...

 

Because we showed them that most of us will justify buying this stuff to ourselves, even if we rationally know it’s a swindle. Even when the exact same defects happen with Cliffjumper, if TC were to follow up with some kind of black or shattered glass version, it would also sell out and people would just act shocked that theirs broke.

Look at it like this: as you are reading these words, there is somebody else going through the thread; they have bought two (1 MIB, 1 display) copies from all three batches, all six are defective, and they’re gearing up to go straight to ShowZ right now and drop full-price preorders for 2 copies of Cliff. Why the hell would Transcraft do anything different, if changing materials or tooling meant spending money? They are more likely to just stop producing anything than they are to invest in fixing a problem that isn’t impacting sales.