I got out my Beast Wars 10th Anniversary Dinobot this morning and transformed him...or at least tried to. First to break was his feet when flipping them out to robot mode...next to go was his left arm. The 15-year old brown and gray plastic literally started falling apart in my hands! I tried to fix him...found a screw to replace the one that broke and carefully took apart the figure. I was able to fix his arm, but when putting it back, the screw holes on the backplate disintegrated because it was made out of the same plastic that the arms were made of. So...I am trying to repair him literally now with glue and tape. I put a new screw into his arm and machined out the small washer to match the size of the new screw. I have glued the new screw in place, putting it ever so slightly deeper into the plastic that holds up the arm assembly vs. the original screw. Once the glue dries, I will be boning it up with tape and then literally, gluing the screws in on the chest piece to the back. The feet will need to be disassembled and glued completely, as the holes that attach the robot feet to the post have disintegrated. This guy has been stored in my closet, out of the sunlight and in his original box. This is FRUSTRATING to lose a 15-year old toy that has been taken care of. None of my other Beast Wars toys have had this issue (yet...knock on wood). Anyone else have this problem with this guy? Could be just a bad batch of plastic, but I'm not sure... I'll reply to this thread with updates if he's repairable. Pics below!
That sucks! I'm sorry to hear that it just broke on you like that. It's actually a known issue called Gold Plastic Syndrome. Unfortunately, Beast Wars 10th Anniversary Dinobot is one documented example of a TF that has this issue. It's a production wide issue and not just yours sadly. Gold Plastic Syndrome - Transformers Wiki For some reason, either the material used or the way it's mixed up, the plastic that makes up BW10th Dinobot and certain other TFs (usually gold) becomes so brittle, it will break under very little pressure and sometimes just crumble on its own. Since all of the plastic has been compromised, I'm not sure if there is even a way to fix it without eventually breaking elsewhere. Trying to drill or insert any screws could actually cause it to crumble further. My Hasbro Transmetal 1.0 Megatron, perhaps the most well known example of GPS, crumbled just picking it up after a while and it had been stored in a tub in my closest.
That really sucks to hear about your Transmetal Megatron. I had heard about Gold Plastic Syndrome; never thought I would experience it myself, since the only Transmetal figure I have is the 10th anniversary Rattrap, who hasn't been prone to this type of degradation. The only other figure I have that has become really bad and brittle has been the Choro-Q Megatron...he turned yellow and got bad just being stored in his box. Not even going to touch him, because it looks like he's going to die any second now. Not sure if that can be considered GPS, but it's a similar phenomena. I was hoping, with Dinobot not being made out of shiny plastic that he wouldn't be prone to this. *sighs* Update on the repair: I'm having some success in saving Dinobot from becoming one with the well of sparks...the screw seems to be holding and the glue seems to be hardening nicely. The feet are badly damaged, but I may be able to save them. The glue is holding so far on the right foot and looks like it will hold on the left foot...going to have to resort to additional sealants if it may break off again. I will be machining the piece of plastic that used to hold his left side in place to shave it down a tiny bit (it broke in half) to see if I can get some additional leverage for the part. It's not going to be easy and may take days, but I'm going to give it my best effort to save him and make him functional again. Probably won't mess with him much if he survives. Now I know how Ratchet feels...
On the bright side, at least there are other versions of this mold without gold plastic syndrome. One of my most beloved childhood BW molds...Magnaboss...is completely lost due to GPS, since there are no versions of the figure without GPS. Feels bad, man.
I'm not sure if you're talking about Dinobot or Magnaboss, but neither figure was re-released during Armada.
No it does not. Nor does the Japanese Beast Wars Metals figure. Completely different plastic without the sparkly metallic stuff that causes the plastic to disintegrate.
What Fretburn said. Instead of the sparkly brown/gold plastic that Hasbro used, Takara used just regular black plastic on their release of Metals Megatron. I actually tried to track down a Takara version but the prices were just a bit too expensive. Fast forward to now, I saw there are some rumors circulating of possible BW Transmetal reissues. If true, I think it would be a good idea for Hasbro to show some goodwill and the very first reissue announced should be TM 1.0 Megatron to make it up for every whose original Megatron suffered GPS. If you are looking for an original mold Dinobot, while it might be a bit pricey, I would recommend the Telemocha reissue. It's Takara's version of a Beast Wars 10th anniversary. It has a ton of paint apps and this version of Dinobot actually has a mouth. Pic courtesy of TFWiki. Just one other version of this mold I would stay away from is Beast Wars Grimlock. He also suffered from GPS because the legs, ball joints, and mutant mask all had that gold plastic. I still have my BW Grimlock intact, but I hardly ever touch him. When I do, its to dust only and I use kid gloves.
(sigh) Well, you cannot play with the 10th Anniversary Dinobot anymore, but at least you have this piece -- And the original Dinobot from 1996...
Mine also crumbled in storage. It’s a shame, but I’m hoping for a modern reissue now they fully understand the inherent flaws in Golden or swirly plastic. It’s a doofy toy but undeniably fun to mess with.
That stinks. I have my Dinobot 10th Anniversary still unopened in the box, and will probably never open it -- not only because of this GPS issue but also because I got it signed by Scott McNeil at BotCon 2010. (Don't know why I didn't have him sign Rattrap too...)
Two steps forward, one step back. I have been successful in gluing the arm back together and also sanded down the original arm peg to fit in the hole. The replacement screw I used was a little bigger, so it caused the original peg to expand a little. I also sanded down the foot peg, because it was extremely tight with the repaired feet. All had been going well at this point. *deep breath* When I was measuring the arm peg out for fit, Dinobot's front torso (seen intact above) SNAPPED...literally in two pieces. Gluing it back together now. If he survives, he will be a display only piece, stuck in robot mode for the rest of his existence. Good thing Hasbro is releasing a new one of this guy for Kingdom. I'll update with more soon. Unfortunately, I don't have an original Dinobot from 1996, but I do still have the Trans Mutate parts which makes a nice figure.
Dinobot lives! It's been a nail biting couple of days with moments of issues where further breakage occurred, but I was able to finally get him back together. Ironically, the glue is holding really well on the parts affected by GPS (probably because of the micro fractures in the polymers and the molecules having gaps in them). Had to remove his transformation cog. He's going to be stuck in robot mode for the rest of his existence and is going to be handled really gently. Here he is in all his glory:
