Combiner Wars combiners are known for having a lot of qc problems, but most of them can be fixed pretty easily. This post is a compilation of the most common problems with CW combiners and how to fix them Broken 5mm hand / foot ports - READ IMMEDIATELY IF USING 3P UPGRADES!!!: Minor/Repaint: - Combiner Wars Combiner fixes Floppy elbows / ankles / wrists Minor/Repaint: - Combiner Wars Combiner fixes Floppy knees Minor/Repaint: - Combiner Wars Combiner fixes Abominus floppy hips: Minor/Repaint: - POTP Abominus Hip Fix Piranacon / King Poseidon loose thigh swivel Minor/Repaint: - Combiner Wars Combiner fixes Legs sliding out from underneath Minor/Repaint: - Combiner Wars Combiner fixes Combiner legs detaching on their own Minor/Repaint: - Combiner Wars Combiner fixes Leans forward / backward / topples when standing straight up Minor/Repaint: - Combiner Wars Combiner fixes No stands needed - he has the floppy elbow and loose thigh swivel fixes.
Combiner Wars broken hand / foot 5mm ports Third party hand and foot upgrades come with pegs that are too big. I don't know why, it's just a fact of life. The posts are ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS too big. Whenever you get a 3p hand or foot, if it doesn't slide into the hole with very little force, sand it down until it does. If you don't, the port will eventually break. If you have a spare limb or one that you don't intend to combine, it might be good to test all new upgrades there first. Here's a shot of my test Drag Strip that's showing stress, and is on its way to a full crack. Rippersnapper and the Dinobots are notorious for this, but it's an issue for all molds. Unfortunately I don't know of any good fix if it does crack. Epoxy can help, especially for an arm, but I wouldn't trust it for a leg. There's too much weight on it, and it will probably break sooner or later. There are some reports of the same issue happening to the Seacons with the stock hands and feet. It's definitely not as widespread as the 3p issue, but it's worth paying attention to, and sand if you have doubt. If you sand too much you can always build it back up with a coat or two of clear nail polish, but there's no fixing a crack.
Floppy elbows / ankles / wrists Floppy elbows are probably the most common problem with Combiner wars combiners. Third party hand and foot upgrades can also be a problem. As these are just ball or pin joints, they can be fixed with the normal loose ball joint fix of clear nail polish. Some people use future floor polish, but in my experience that doesn't provide enough friction to support a combiner, but clear nail polish works great. Also I haven't tried this fix on the ratcheted joints in the POTP or TCW feet, but it works great on the PE and KO PE feet, and any third party hands. For the combiner elbows, I used to pop the legs of the joint and the coat the ball, but I've found that's unnecessary. Just rotate the deluxe limb's leg as shown to expose the front, bottom, and back of the ball joint, and put a drop of clear nail polish on each side of the ball. Then put a drop of nail polish in the front and back of the joints of the deluxe's knees. You want it to drip into the spaces between the yellow and maroon as shown on Drag Strip. Let it dry for a few hours, and move the joint slightly to keep it flexible. It should be completely dry in a day or so. For the combiner feet, I did pop the ball out of the socket, and coated the ball. Let it dry for a day, and reassemeble. For the hands, open the hand and coat the exposed side of the 5mm pin with clear nail polish. Let it dry for a day. After that, they should be pretty stable, but still flexible enough to transform / pose. No stand needed:
Combiner Wars floppy knees Some deluxes have weak combiner ports, that make for very floppy knees. This tends to vary by mold, but was really bad on CW Wildrider and Breakdown. The problem is the spring that creates the tension isn't strong enough, and the joint moves too easily. The easiest fix is to add something under the spring to reduce the distance it has to travel. I used a ring cut out of a cereal box. Sorry, I don't have any pictures but here's how I fixed it: Use a pin punch or precision screwdriver to remove the pin holding their hoods in place. If it doesn't move, try pushing from the other side. One end of the pin should be smooth, the other rough. You want to push the smooth side so the rough side comes out - the other way is much harder. Remove the screws in their chest and take them apart. HOLD THE SIDES OF THE COMBINER PORT and lift it out. There's a spring in the port that will make it fly apart once you remove it if you don't hold the sides. Gently release the combiner port sides so the port comes apart but doesn't go flying. Cut a ring of thin cardboard - you could use a cereal box, or maybe a business card. Put it under spring so it goes over the post that sits inside the spring. Reassemble the chest and test the port. If it's still too weak, you need more tension - add another ring, or get thicker material. While I've only done this on Breakdown and Wildrider, all combiner ports are built the same way, and this fix should work on any mold as long as you can open the chest.
Piranacon / King Poseidon loose thigh swivel My Piranacon's thigh swivel is really loose. This is the first time I've seen this problem in a Silverbolt based mold but it's an easy fix. Just put a couple of drops of clear nail polish on the mushroom peg, rotate it 90 degrees, and repeat until you've gotten to every side. I let mine dry overnight, and it was much better the next day.
This works for most molds but isn't a slam-dunk. On a few molds (I remember UW Lightspeed having this issue, and at least one of the Seacons) there is a tab and slot between the piece with the peg on it, and the piece that it slides into (these are the two parts that come together to hold the spring). The problem is that the tab and slot are not snug because the slot is too big and it will cause the peg to wobble back and forth when it is locked into one of the ratchet clicks. Even if you make the ratchet stronger you'll still have wobble because of this. I fixed this by putting a thin layer of Bondic liquid plastic lining the slot so the peg fit snug and didn't wobble. That coupled with the fix above made the knee joint solid.
Legs sliding out from underneath Most combiners hip joints are too weak to hold the legs together in an A stance by themselves - they depend on friction between their feet and the ground to help. They can usually get away with it standing straight up or in a narrow A stance, but as it gets wider or the combiner is heavier, they're more likely to do a split. This isn't a big deal when they're on a rough surface like carpet but can make posing on a shelf or in a display case a nightmare. Rubber pads on the bottom of the feet help out a lot. Anywhere from one to three pads on each foot is usually good enough to keep them standing up. Just about any brand will do, but I bought these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B072K4DV32?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title because there are a bunch of different sizes - I can choose for the surface where I put them And these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07CGRHT31?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title because they're sticky on both sides and can be cut to any size.
Combiner Legs detaching on their own On some Silverbolt based torsos, the springs that keep the leg bot combiner ports in place are really weak. If knee is bent and the combiner puts too much weight on it, the weight will force the port out of the socket and he'll fall over. A very easy fix is a coat of clear nail polish on the part of the torso bot's arm that slides into the groove on the limb bot's combiner port. Here's a picture of the part to coat - do the part highlighted, and the opposite side too. My copy of Snaptrap was really bad, and Skalor kept coming loose without this fix.
I've sanded every 3rd party hand and foot kits pegs and hopefully it works because I don't have a dummy combiner to use it with. fingers crossed
As long as you don't force anything you should be fine. Just sand until it goes in with a little pressure but not too much.
Leans foward / backwards / topples when standing straight up All the combiner wars type combiners are relatively unstable when standing straight up. The joints in in the ankles are a little loose (if you have feet with ankle joints), the knee joints are a little loose, and the hips are a little loose. When you combine all three, there's a lot of wiggle room, and the whole can topple pretty easily. Third party feet with ball joints can be tightened with clear nail polish, but I don't know of any way to remove the play in ratcheted ankles. If you have POTP style feet, be sure to plug the extra hands into the back - that helps keep from falling backwards. While there aren't any easy structural fixes, posing can help out a lot. Turning the legs slightly outward - ideally at the thigh swivel (Snaptrap's arm swivel) so the legs aren't quite parallel makes the ankle and knee looseness a lot less of a problem. Also posing with one leg forward a click and the other back a click helps out tremendously, especially with guys like Menasor that don't have thigh swivels. Angling the legs outward a click or so helps too. Once you move the legs, be sure to adjust the ankles so the feet stay as close to flat on the ground as possible.
Any idea how to remove the combiner ports for those using the Air Raid, Rook and Offroad molds? since I don't have them in hand yet (they're in storage) to make my own assessment.
