Man…. I’d swap my OG for that one.

 

Hey everyone. I’m getting ready to pull the trigger on this guy. Anyone have a TLDR on the possible QC issues for this guy? Anything I should be worried about? I don’t plan on transforming it

 

All I want for my cell is a changeout piece for the chest -- Unicron shouldn't have symmetrical pecs!!

 

No? Sheesh…

 

Watch the collar pieces during transformation to and from each mode as they are pegged on and can come slightly unpegged which will get in the way of extending or compressing the top torso and can cause damage if not fully pegged on and allowing for full clearance. Other than that, the wing rings pegging and unpegging is hell and can cause the pegging points to snap, so just be careful despite using a ton of force, or shave down the areas around the pieces that aren't clearing. That or get the larger ring upgrade kit if you fancy that look. Finally, parts that look fragile can be, which are mainly the spikes and their attachment points. Its great quality plastic but just be careful as they are finer pieces. I think that basically covers it.

 

there's a forearm panel that can break if you don't separate it correctly. Other than that, he's pretty solid. Don't put the spikes on if you intend to transform it in/out a bit. They're a pain in the ass.

 

Haha that is an epic digibash. Now I want more "out there" bashes of this guy, in colours Unicron would never ever have. Where's a black & teal Nemesis Unicron, and stars & stripes Captain Amuricron, and a rainbow-coloured My Little Unicron: Friendship is Chaos?  

 

Not only did he have symmetrical pecs in the movie (sans animation flaws) he also has a symmetrical chest as his back too! I thought this was weird and lazy on Zetas behalf until I actually looked into it and it IS as he was in the movie, like it or lump it, the work Zeta did to produce this item was amazing.

 

Paid my invoice with Chosen Prime. Can't wait for this to arrive.

 

I’d be interested in a battle damaged unicron from this mold.

 

Mailman dropped this fella off a while ago, wasnt expecting the delivery til tomorrow! This will be a fun night.

 

They must have used softer plastics on pumpkin because edges on mine are chewed up. Especially the kneecaps.

 

If you don't plan on transforming him, there's very little QC to worry about. He's easily one of the best manufactured figures I've ever seen. The only thing that I think is relevant is that one of my two copies (both 2nd batch/christmas box) didn't come with grease in his ratchet joints. If the ratchets feel way too stiff, you likely have this problem. It's probably not a huge issue if he's display only but if you plan on posing him a lot it could chew the ratchets up over time, though most of them are made of either steel or nearly indestructible plastic. Regardless of anything, having the ratchets be lubed makes him more pleasant to handle.

The small clip spikes on the sprue and the planet mode horns are some sort of memory plastic. If any of them are bent for whatever reason (usually they are out of the package) briefly heating them with a hair dryer or a quick dunk in hot water should cause them to return to their original cast shapes.

The chest is usually mistransformed to some extent in the box, causing it to not sit flush. If the chestplates aren't lining up you want to open them up and make sure the planetary horns aren't pushing on the other side. If you straighten them with the heat trick above, lining them up base-to-tip (so the tip of one horn nestles in the ball socket groove at the base of the other) is the best way to achieve clearance.

Not a QC issue, but when you first tab the kneepad together (they're split in the box to allow the legs to slide shut) BE CAREFUL WITH THE PIN JOINT where they connect to the rest of the leg. Try to avoid putting too much leverage on the pin, it's very easy to crack it if you fold the knee together wrong. After extending the leg, tabbing the back of his calf in first will lock the knee extender so you aren't trying to line up the kneepad halves and the internal knee at the same time.

On some copies of the figure the clear plastic inlays on his chest and crotch are loose and pop out. This is easy to fix with a tiny dab of superglue.

 

I don't want this to ever exist cause I don't want to be tempted to buy it lol.

 

Pretty much my ideal centerpiece!

 

The tooling is already paid for, so you never know.

 

Zeta/01 Studio really hit a home run with this mold. I think they could coast for some time on various repaints to bankroll other projects, just a shame it got so mixed up in legal trouble.
Sadly on that Armada digibash the color blocking doesn't work for the planet mode. If the shoulders are going to be orange that will pull a solid block of orange too close to the center maw. I think the orange equator band could be black as an homage to to the gloss black mini con turntables on the original toy, as the only place that band is visible in robot mode is the tops of the shoulders.

 

I don't know how much of a hot take this is, but I find him easier to transform with the rings installed. They force me to handle the figure in certain ways and kind of create a 'force field' around accidentally bumping the small spikes. The only thing to be careful of is knocking off the spikes around the ring port when rotating it.

As for the spikes that end up inside the arms, one is mounted higher than the other (the one near the elbow.) If you lay that one down first and then the low one on top of it, you can use your fingernail to pop them both out by scratching at the base of the high one so you don't need to use a tool to get them out.

 

Just got this guy and the wing extensions in, love it! Though I’m not sure if I’ll ever transform him haha.