The legs and forearms are butting against each other like they should but:




Those areas aren't slid into place. It should look like this:






Ignore those clear bands, I'm trying to see if there is warpage.

 

There is a fast trick I use to get his ship together seamlessly like this


That is ,once all is done, push down on the central grey piece with the 2 holes, and pull up on on the rear of the ship.
You’ll feel a click.

 

I'll give it a try. I've spent at least 2 hours on it, but can't get it together.

 

Anytime I feel/hear a click at the back, it's either the rear popping apart at the ramps (this is loud because of the echo effect) or a forearm popping out of the tab on the bottom of the ship (typically the left side from a bird's eye view). The painted sections that slid under the legs can also pop but it's substantially softer and those are in place long before the hinged dark grey piece is. Unfortunately, some copies are never going to keep everything together at the same time:

e.g. My copy is never going to keep the rear half of the ship together (from a back view and the section that houses the ramp triggers) and, that hinged dark grey piece is never going to stay tabbed in.

Were you at least able to to get the chest to lay flush with the shoulders in alt mode?

 

Tried all the tricks - that damn gray panel will not clip down. Shaving it made it WORSE. They way it sits naturally is not in line with the back of the ship, I have to force it downwards for the tabs to line up, makes me think there's warping going on. Back of ship wants to split apart as well, needs parts that snap together.

I did find one trick that made a slight difference I haven't seen anyone try - spin the hip joints around 180, so he has the hip screws facing forward in robot mode when you go to ship mode. Seems to make a small difference. If this thing had a couple manual clamps in a couple key spots none of this would be an issue. I'm thinking it might have something to do with the hip ratchets, maybe they are installed/made wrong and are a half click off.

And those goddamned yellow parts that fly off no matter how careful I am, damn you Hasbro and your cheap "no pins" policies. Going to try pinning them.

 

Is warping of the plastic a verifiable thing with this toy? Because honestly I can't get the entire chest to go as far forward as it seemingly should. It gets hung up on the shoulders and some other part inside.

 

Fun fact, it won't even stay pegged in if you remove it from the chest assembly and swing the hips down so that nothing can possibly come in contact with it.

Part of the problem is that on my copy the clip piece in the perineum slides up and down because, it's mounting surface isn't large enough. The clips are also too large so, they won't lock the pegs on the legs into place. It doesn't look/feel like a lot of play but, it's enough to prevent the proper amount of tension that needs to be there in order to make sure that the legs are always being pulled forward by something other than the rest of the alt mode.

This didn't help my copy. It resulted in the left (from a bird's eye view with the engines facing you) side's dark grey painted section on the forearm constantly popping out from under the leg. That continued to take place after I rotated the hips back around to the correct position. Not even taking that side's leg entire apart, rotating the the ratchet inside the hip around (so that the sprue mark would face the sky in robot mode like the other side), and then putting it back together would fix the issue. This is my breaking point, I was willing to live with the hinged dark grey piece refusing to stay tabbed in but, I'm not going back to dealing with the rest of the alt mode having problems. It's time for an exchange.

If the bottom section of those was pinned, I would have snapped them off by accident along with several other people. I would much rather have them soaring through the air when I forget to slightly flare them out than breaking.

The chest assembly "pops" down onto the shoulders and the cavity that Teletran goes into to form the alt mode. You'll feel some tension but, nothing outrageous. It's not like a door nor the pages of reading material, it's not going to just close or lay down. You have to push it into place.

The picture you posted earlier of your shoulders looks like they were in the correct position. I've blown out that image and cropped it down so that it's easier to see:


The front/rear lateral joints for the shoulders (the sections with the Autobot insignias) won't be 100% level to the the hinge assembly that they are attached to. The sides of the other parts of the shoulder as well as the forearms will be level and parallel to the cavity that Teletran goes into as well as the knees and other 90° angles on the sides of the alt mode. If the sections with the Autobot insignias are rotated one click too far to the outside, the chest won't pop down properly because it the misalignment is too great. If the sections with the Autobot insignias are rotated one click too far to the inside, the chest will pop down but the excess tension will cause it to pop back up on one or both sides.

All of the plastic is thin and a lot of it has some level of flex (especially that hinged dark grey piece). There is no way that the section of plastic around the ramps isn't warped on my copy due to how much that area is bowed and flexes in when held. For clarity, I'm talking about the plastic on the bottom of the alt mode. I'm fairly certain that the legs refuse to stay together between the engines and the rear of the tower/spire because, the pegs are far too small to counteract the force trying to separate them (e.g. the ratchet joints, the perineum clips not working, how the arms tab in to the legs, etc.).

That having been said, I don't think that the chest on your copy would be warped. It's most likely an alignment issue and/or insufficient force being used to "pop" it into place. When I first received my copy, I was hesitant to push the chest down to form the alt mode. I eventually took the plunge once I knew that I had everything else aligned because user error was the most plausible solution.

 

All it is (I think) is the big grey square clipping in, but that’s the final sweet spot on mine. Also feels like it warps the ship a bit when locked , unless I’m crazy.

 

Omg, I had both arms pivoted one ratchet too far inward!!!! Thanks guys!

 

Mine wasn't pegging in at all at the midsection in Ark mode no matter what I tried. Transformed him for storage today and boom, straight in on the top and underside. Weird. So may well be warping that's took its time to rectify.

 

Sigh. The front is staying together, but the center section still pops apart, but at least is staying closer together.

 

This is as close as everything will stay together in the middle. I'm ordering another one.

 

That's similar to how mine is. You're now at the point to where the poor engineering of the connections vs the tension is on full display since you wound up with a copy that wasn't perfect. They're really going to have to ditch the philosophy of designing toys around precision machined parts without using precision machined parts on the actual product. A backup fail safe (like properly designed connection points) is required for products like this because, they make the prefect products better and they bring the non perfect ones up to their basic functionality.

I still don't know how they thought that the flexible hinged dark grey panel and the perineum clips were enough to counteract everything else trying to pull them apart. That goes for the small round pegs at the back of the alt mode as well. Even something as basic as the painted dark grey pieces of forearms that slide under the legs having a 90° bend at the end that "hooked/caught" onto the area just past the notch in the leg where they slide into would have helped immensely.

Something else was needed to stop the legs from wanting to droop down towards the back and the rest of the alt mode wanting to droop down in the opposite direction (towards the front). Roughly 1/3 (or less) of the alt mode simply can't support the other 2/3 (or more) of the alt mode on every copy with the current design. It's just flabbergasting given that the alt mode is literally the entire selling point of this toy. It's honestly like no one stopped to ask "what if" or were shushed if they did . . .

 

This figure is SCREAMING for a DNA kit. I'm gonna open the new one and keep the better of the two, and then wait.

 

I can't say I would look forward to a $40+ kit for The Ark, much less two of them (one to replace the outer half of both legs that forms the section of the alt mode with the Autobot insignias and, one to replace the outer half of the forearms that forms the top of the alt mode between the legs and shoulders). Honestly bottom halves of the lower legs would need to be replaced since the legs staying together tends to be an issue on the lowest areas in the middle of the alt mode.

If it/they had the adequate connection points to actually lock everything together in alt mode while improving something else (like moving cannons) though . . .

The Ark is a super easy toy to work with since almost all of it just screws together and, all the ratchets and internals are a really simple design. The most complex part are the hinged sections that the shoulders (the part with the Autobot insignias are on) are attached to. I can't recall the last time a Transformers could be stripped down this easily (other than Earthrise Socrponok which was also an outlier).

May the odds be forever in our favor on our exchanges . . .

 

This wound up being longer than I expected it to but, I wanted to be as thorough as possible (the issues are complex even though the toy isn't):

Good copies are indeed out there. The replacement purchase won't stay tabbed together at the very back and very back bottom of the alt mode (as I expected) and I thought it was going to be another trashy copy but, it was boxed/packed with an incorrect transformation:

The left (when viewed from a bird's eye with the engines toward you in alt mode) shoulder (the dark section where the Autobot insignia is) was one click too far to the outside.

The left (when viewed from a bird's eye with the engines toward you in alt mode) hip front/back lateral raise was one click to far to the front.

The left (when viewed from a bird's eye with the engines toward you in alt mode) hip front/back lateral raise was two clicks to far to the rear.

The left (when viewed from a bird's eye with the engines toward you in alt mode) foot wasn't tabbed all the way in (the other foot was). I'm still not sure how much this affects the shape of the plastic but the replacement copy had less problems at the back than the original copy that both feet not properly tabbed in prior to boxing/packing. 2 copies is not a sufficient sample size to determine anything though, I'm simply hoping to add to a potential data set.


In the process of fixing the alignment/transformation, I realized that:

The legs tab properly/firmly to the clips in the perineum. I don't know if the pegs will come out of the clips LOL but, this made all the difference in the world. The tension keeps the leg sections of the alt mode in place and pulled to the front. When combined with everything being in alignment (and no other issues) the rest of the alt mode doesn't need an insane amount of pressure trying to pull it to the rear of the alt mode. I could literally see the dark grey hinged section was in the correct location and waiting to be pushed down. Full disclosure, I didn't think I was ever going to get the dark grey piece to actually tab in (it's like hella hella tight) but once it went in the alt mode held together flawlessly (other than the aforementioned very back and very back bottom of the alt mode). I even clipped the knee pad sections on while The Ark was in alt mode and it stayed together. Then I lifted the chest assembly to put Teletran into the chest cavity, "popped" the chest back down, and then tabbed the dark grey hinged piece back in and it stayed together.


What wasn't/was better on the replacement copy:

Almost everything was better.

The Golden Disks were terrible looking so, I kept the originals.

The very back and very back bottom of the alt mode doesn't want to stay tabbed together but, that's not any worse in appearance. However, the ramp area no longer wants to split apart due to the forearms being tabbed on and slid into the legs in alt mode so that is a massive improvement. A clip and/or reducing the size of the round peg holes and/or increasing the size of the round pegs should fix the aesthetics.

Teletran was all around better. I now have a copy that doesn't allow the mushroom peg at the top of the bicep to just slide out. Everything about Teletran on the replacement copy just feels slightly tighter/better.

The probe's left (your right if face to face) solar panel was hella floppy. I was going to keep the original one (since it didn't have a loose solar panel) but, the silver paint app was different on the probes and on Teletran. The original copy's silver was super super matte, applied lightly and looked like a different shade as a result. The replacement copy's had a heavier metallic sheen as it was applied slightly thicker which made it look richer (better contrast) in the areas that had a shadow cast which resulted in it looking like a darker shade but super bright metallic if there was a light bounce. This was a difficult decision because I love super super thin matte paint apps but, I wanted the probe to match Teletran so I kept the replacement probe and swapped out the solar panels (they are still noticeably tighter on the original but it fixed the flop, KiKi will fix the rest, and the colour looks better due to the dark robot face on The Ark). I didn't take pictures as I wanted the original copy boxed up and for it to GTFO of my life lol. The original was more of a matte silver and the replacement was more of a matte chrome (I want to be very clear that there are no reflections in the paint at all, I just can't think of a better way to describe the difference).

The Ark's robot parts also had some areas that were better. The dark grey hinged sections (the hones that the Autobot insignia sections of the shoulders are attached to) were a lot tighter in their front/back lateral raise movement (the movement where you pull the shoulders/forearms up after you "unpop" the chest and untab/slide the forearms from the legs to transform to the robot mode). That movement was a loose and floppy mess on the original copy (I can't believe I ever thought it was supposed to be as an assistance mechanism). The shoulder/hip ratchets are still very much "crunch pop snap crackle pop" but I expected them to be that way as that's how the floating piece that strikes the ratchet gears are designed (the tooth on those is made to go deep between the gear teeth).


What I didn't have to do on the replacement copy:

I didn't have to take anything apart to look for problems nor did I have to start trying to flip gear assemblies or parts around because "maybe they're facing the wrong direction" nor did I have to worry about any joint causing too much tension for the alt mode nor anything else. It just simply worked once everything was properly aligned.


Is the original copy still terribad?:

Yes. It's just the worst. This will result in FOMO and that is not my intent but, if you are sleeping on The Ark and waiting for a steeply discounted purchase you will be at the mercy of RNG and won't have an avenue to for an easy exchange if you wind up with a bad copy.


How I feel about The Ark now:

This was a completely different experience than the first copy was. I was honestly expecting the second copy to be terrible as well and to not be able to get past the unpleasant experience with the first copy if the replacement was fine. There was absolutely "well here we go again" once I unboxed the second copy but, that melted away once I realized how good this copy was and I was shocked that the initial copy hadn't completely soured me on the The Ark. Other than the very back and very back bottom of the alt mode not wanting to stay tabbed together (I keep mentioning this because I want to be clear that I'm not hand-waving it away because everything else is fine), the replacement copy does exactly what it needs to do when it comes to the transformation. It holds together and, I can breathe without worrying about it coming apart. I can also touch The Ark, swoosh The Ark, move The Ark, and so on and it stays together.


That all having been said, most of my original review's closing thoughts on the purchase still stand:

Such thin plastic is completely unacceptable on something like this. The overall quality and complexity just isn't there to justify this price point. For clarity, I knew the complexity wasn't there prior to purchase but the thin plastic was nine kinds of "really?".

It's The Ark though so, it will ultimately hold its value or matriculate. The Ark combined with smaller size classes (e.g. the smaller Siege/Earthrise/Kingdom deluxes like Bumblebee) being able to fit in the cockpit as well as knowing I won't have to sell it (should I choose to later) at a loss are really the only reasons that I am so torn. Hopefully a 3rd party or the aftermarket will offer up a softer ratchet joint solution as well as something that fixes the connection issue at the very back of the alt mode.

However, the Monk gif is now far more "no head shakes" than "yes head shakes" and almost all of the "yes head shakes" as well as the "confused head shakes" pertain to the thin plastic.

 

So there really are "good ones" and "bad ones"? This makes me so hopeful, my replacement arrives tomorrow!

If I may ask, where did you get yours from, and what is the batch code?

 

Sorry for the delay, I just saw your reply. I'm glad I didn't get the original's return shipped out today.

I ordered the replacement copy from Amazon because, it was going to be substantially easier/faster to play the QA/QC lottery.

Original copy (Entertainment Earth):

11521

Replacement copy (Amazon):

11671


Grabbing the LOT/batch codes also gave me a chance to perform an additional final inspection pass on both copies:

It turns out that the top sides of the nosecone on the replacement copy were warped and, they didn't tab in securely for the alt mode as a result. I popped the entire section off and swapped it out with the original copy's to fix the situation. I want to stress that nothing is boxed out on the nosecone (other than the tip) and and it's far more flexible by design to avoid breakage. Heat might have fixed it but, it was just easier to swap it out. I also swapped out the door above the rear tower/spire's storage area as it was tighter and didn't have an odd spot of tension when it started getting near the range of being fully open.

Another area to watch out for is the dark grey toes (I've been calling them feet and I want to avoid confusion) not wanting to fully tab in for the alt mode (this was an issue I didn't catch on the original copy; the replacement copy didn't have this issue initially). Speaking of the dark grey toes, I think that the top sections (the largest ones that but up against each other in alt mode) need to be slightly milled down in order to resolve the very rear and bottom of the ship not wanting to stay closed. The small pegs are definitely part of the problem (since those areas still want to pull apart even with one of the feet completely popped out of the mushroom peg holder) but, there is absolutely no space between the dark grey toes if you hold the rear fully closed and that exacerbates the peg issue (as does having the forearms tabbed/slid in). The dark grey toes also have an odd flex point where the bottom of them is the thinnest (the notched section that allows them to flip out and fit around the shins). The bottom of the dark grey toes being solid would have probably eliminated that flex but, there probably would have been stress marks and/or breakage instead. The easiest thing to check is to make sure that the mushroom pegs on the feet are fully seated and then if they sit completely flush in alt mode. The Ark isn't complex but, it's difficult say this is definitely the issue when so much stuff flexes and there is opposing tension in a lot of different areas

I'm not sure how thick the plastic is on the dark grey toes and I don't want to lose any surface detail on them nor potentially alter functionality in robot mode so, I'm not committed to a permanent fix (e.g. milling) at this point in time.


I should also point out that the "Shockwave Lab SL-110 Transport Vehicle" did an amazing job at holding my original copy of The Ark's rear alt mode together (it was completely flush). It's neat to have and use for the intended purpose but, it's also fantastic for "is the back warped" and not needing to mess around with trying to position bands and getting the proper tension from them. I wasn't able to fully tear it down in order to just have the clip on because the piece the clip is attached to slides into the main body but, there are two notches/pegs involved and I don't see how it was forced into place much less how to slide it out.

 

I did the same thing, bought from EE (got those pins!) and am doing the exchange with Amazon.

I'll post my codes tomorrow when I open up my exchange.

 

I think I have a problem with alcohol.