20831… no issues.

(Southeast Queensland, Australia)

 

So! Motormaster's hitting the U.K.! Excellent stuff! It took a bit but I finally managed to get a batch code from a U.K. Motormaster; Discord user Syndication's Motormaster had the batch code 20831, not only making this the first U.K. batch code, but also the first shared batch code between regions!

Now comes the main portion of this post; a week ago I saw this post from @Impulse Drive in a Discord server I'm in, he's got some insider cred, and, having gotten the go-ahead to post it I feel like this will shed some light on why these copies are coming pre-yellowed out of box!



So yeah! They've been cleaning the PA plastics with bleach! If we take into account what Hasbro designers have said about their plastics undergoing a UV treatment standard... that might actually paint a full picture of what's going on.

 

Question: If it’s bleach, and they’re presumably cleaning all plastic this way, why aren’t all parts yellowing? I’m not asking this sarcastically or disparagingly, I’m totally serious and good faith here.

 

I don't think he means they're cleaning the plastic with bleach. I think he means that they're using bleach to clean things that the plastic comes into contact with. Surely. Because actually slopping bleach on painted plastics would be crazy...

 

Ahhh, I see. The “them” being the factories and not the plastics. That makes more sense than the way I originally read it. Thank you!

Edit - I would note though that it’s not necessarily painted plastic that’s yellowing. The grey/silver stuff on Cyclonus, Soundwave, MM, etc, isn’t painted.

 

Just received mine from comicsandcocktails.co.uk where I pre-ordered it around the announcement
batch no

20881

no yellowing out the box, nothing like in some of the pictures posted.
I would say the white has a more lilac tinge to it, but could be just reflection of the purple parts, though using a bright light on it the “white” plastic parts on the gun still have a very very very faint tinge of pink.
The ratchets on the combiner hips are bone white. Ankle rockers are bone white.

The rest of the white appears to be pained on all the other parts I can see (forearms of Motormaster are cast black then painted)
Forearm of the exoskeleton for the combiner is grey plastic again painted white. And then combiner knees are the same colour as the painted white - ie have a very very faint pink tint to them suggesting the knee joints are cast in a different colour and painted for some reason
Anyway hope that helps someone

 

It's mostly a shot in the dark here, because I'm just as unknowledgeable as you guys are in this field, but I safely assume they paint the plastics after they do the UV treatments.

Possible snide aside, all the recent yellowing is centralized on PA plastics, PA for reference being a shorthand for "polyamide", a.k.a. "unpaintable" plastics. "Unpaintable", in HasTak's case being the paint won't bond properly with the plastic like it does with ABS plastic. All the PA plastic parts that have been yellowing look to have pins running through them too, so taking yet another shot in the dark, don't take this as a definitive answer as well, but maybe the bleach helped with inserting the pins by acting as a sort of lubricant in the pin channels? Again, this is just rampant speculation based on what I've been seeing.

 

Mine’s fine. No yellowing. Forgot to look at the batch number before I binned the box.

 

What do you mean with “it's been around since practically the beginning of the franchise ”? Since G1?

Actually this is the first time we see an issue like this, yellowing after several years is very different a yellowing after opening the box of your new toy.

Could you elaborate what is the relationship with the COVID? Affecting manufacturing? Many of us work at companies and have to offer a minimum and acceptable QC in our products, it’s the same thing with Hasbro but QC issues of Hasbro are very notorious, not a COVID situation but more a company management.

 

Thank you for the thread! Trying to get as much info as I can on which ones are suffering from the worst from this here in the Uk.

 

Got mine from Star Action Figures here in the UK. 20831 printed on the box. Bent wheels like others. Discoloration on the Combiner arm pieces but it isn't too bad. No yellowing on the white hip ratchets that I can see

Mototmaster himself is fanstastic. No real issues with him except one of his arms was really hard to unpeg from the back wheel section when transforming him to robot mode for the first time. Don't know if that's something that's been mentioned.

 

so, the numbers at the 1st post are the batches that are good/bad...?

 

Yes, listing both known good and known bad batches. The batches you want to avoid are the ones marked "pre-yellowed".

 

20831

 

Ditto.

UK purchased from Star Action Figures batch number 20831

 

My sister-in-law got my son Motormaster online from Big W. Batch 21011 with no discoloration so far.

 

So far 20831 seems to be the worst batch

 

I have two 20911s, from Big W, and one has no yellowing at all, while the other has very slight (almost not noticeable if not looking specifically) yellowing of his right leg retracting shin panel (the outer one or leftmost in the photo). Here's two pictures at slightly different angles - more noticeable if looking at the surface from an angle rather than dead on.

 

just got mine in new zealand. saw two batches in the store I was in (rhe warehouse). 21011 and 20951. no yellowing on mine but some slight swirl patterns on top and sides as mentioned before.

 

been keeping an eye on this thread for whenever he starts appearing stateside. for anyone who's gotten one without yellowing, has it stayed that way so far? just wanna know so i can prepare for disappointment lmao.

i'm still gonna get this guy, he looks great- worst case scenario i'll pretend the weathering on Menasor is spilt oil or something

i'm just glad Motormaster's arms are cast in black and painted over white, dodged a fucking bullet. will take minor paint chipping over major yellowing any day.