I am only buying Skywarp.
If the quality remains the same on Thundercracker, I will simply cancel my order.
So much more valuable and cool stuff to collect out there anyway!

 

One of my Starscreams has a crack on the tail fin hinge, but as my display copy it's not really going to have much chance of getting worse. Still, I have some apoxy to apply to it and will get around to it at some point. Each has a stress mark on the ankle part others are having trouble with, but I've man-handled (ish) them for a bit and it's gotten no worse than what is thankfully not that bad to begin with. LOVE this mould though and am looking forward to my 2x each of the other two seekers coming in (hopefully with these issues sortid out) because they're going to look great on my shelf not taking up as much space as the MP-11s...

 

Man there is nothing cooler than the Masterpiece line  

 

I think primer paint has to be applied 1st, not entirely sure

 

So paint. I thought like some treatment on the plastic itself (chemicals etc). Thanks!

 

Lover's quarrel

 

Oof, gotta say, I don't like that this particular issue is popping up more often. This type of break looks suspiciously like Hound's breakages to me. But without seeing it in hand, it's hard to say.

If you're comfortable, I'd say try gluing it first. But, ultimately, for that kind of break, I'd probably return it. If AJ is completely out of stock for a return, occasionally they have given out gift cards to make up the difference when buying from another seller, as long as it's shipped my them.

Additionally, if they agree to that, you could even order the new one first, and swap parts between the two, should the second one have any issues.

 

Cheers buddy. Any particular thoughts on type of glue?

 

I'd go with some super glue. It seems to work the best on Hound's cracks.

 

I'll give it a go and report back. Need to move quickly on it so that I've got time to organise returning it, especially if I want to try to swap it out for parts

 

This arms panels get a ton of stress put on them if you are not careful while transformation. They bend and flex due to how thin they are and how they open.

 

My Starscream's right leg has soft detent ratchets kicking forward and back. But his left leg has very loud audible clicking ratchets. Besides that, the right leg isn't loose and holds poses very well. Im trying to figure out how to open and fix it as the ratchet joint is located in the inside of his right crotch. Or should I just leave it alone?

 

Man that's a bummer!

Really surprised to see a few cracks here! Just dont understand it - should be pretty strong here and difficult to break it.

I notice what looks like your thumb showing on the top there. Haven't looked at the instructions, but I'm sure mine came thumbs down at the inside/back of the cavity, such that you had to rotate the hands 180 degrees after flipping them out, so I took a mental note to do that when going back to jet.

I haven't tried too hard, but if I dont rotate the hands it seems really hard to close the lid without putting a lot of stress pushing the hand forward because the thumb stops you closing the index finger down enough. Could it be people (maybe even the factory workers!) are storing the hands not as intended causing undue stress on that wrist pivot?

 

It's possible. I'll be honest, I don't recall how they were when I unboxed and transformed, and I haven't had chance to go back to alt yet, so it's literally been once from MISB. I think I had to spin them round, but I could be totally wrong.

I do think it's a pressure thing, though. My first thought once it came away was that the hand post seemed awfully tight for the fitting. Like I needed to roll sandpaper over it a few times just to free it up a touch. Obviously thus is by eye, not scientific or anything, but you know when something just looks off?

 

Hmmm mine isn't super tight when I flip my hand in and out. But I do notice part of the posts on the wrist piece are squared slightly and that's what gives the detented positions every 90 degrees that wrist flip has. So that'll be putting stress exactly where yours has broken every time you flip the wrists in and out. I'm not a fan of that method of creating discrete positions on a rotating joint as you can generate some tremendous force if the tolerances are on the tight side. A number of figures have had issues due to this - Soundwave, Sunstreaker, Megs V2, to name a few. In this case it doesn't even seem to be needed, as when you close the forearm lid, there's a tab on it that locks the wrist from swiveling. Hmmm might pop mine out and round those posts a bit more to reduce that stress and preserve the forearms! Could go all the way to round so it's just a simple swivel and I dont think it'd negatively affect posing the wrist.

 

was your left arm the one that cracked apart?

 

Got my copy today and from all I had been reading I was expecting the worst, especially after my Hound broke. But I am happy to say after going over this thing with a fine-tooth comb and magnifying glass, he has no cracks and no visible stress marks, the transformation was smooth and I took my time watching Emgo. So there are good copies out there. Stands up good too!

 

Made in Vietnam or china ? 

 

China

 

Auch  

You should consider using some cement type of glue. It's the same used to bond two pieces of plastic together in scale modeling. If done right, you can hardly see where it was broken.
The only issue is that there are several types of it, depending on what kind of plastic you a working with.

You can check this video about some of those:

As comparison I'll leave you here a job I've done on my MP44 KO.

Those tiny bits broke after my first attempt transforming the guy.



I've used the Thin Cement to try to fix it, and here's the result: