It's likely either mold-release agent or they either didn't apply a clearcoat or the clearcoat didn't fully cure.

 

With that logic most of us would never buy an official figure ever again. Not one single company's manufacturing is 100% flawless, its the nature of mass produced items.

 

Up for pre-order at Baba, too.
Pre-order Deformation Space DS Thundercracker Transform Robot Toy Action Figure
Pre-order Deformation Space DS Skywarp Transform Robot Toy Action Figure
Just ordered mine.

 

Yup. While I can understand being turned off by a bad experience, I've received flawed products from literally every company I've purchased from.

 

What's more important to me is seeing the same of other people's figures. If the specific issue isn't a recurring thing, I have no issue giving it another go.

 

Sorry, I would not buy the same figure again if it is known to have bad QC*

Funny how we can admit how bad officials are at that.

 

I think it comes down to a difference between a fundamental design flaw/issue with the product versus a flaw in an individual copy. If your figure has a massive scratch on it, that's an issue with your figure, and buying a new one you probably won't have the same issue. In contrast, if every copy of a product (or the majority) has the same issue, then yeah you don't buy it again.
If I had bought Takara Hound and my copy crumbled to powder, I wouldn't go back and buy another one, but if my Deformation Space was missing a hand, I wouldn't then assume that every copy was missing a hand. And sure, in that case, you'd hope to get a refund or a replacement figure or a replacement hand, but you can't just turn around and say that the entire run of the figure is a disaster because yours was misassembled. If your retailer doesn't help you out that sucks, but it's not really a strike against DS as a whole because of one person's unfortunate issue.
I think thats what the previous poster was meaning by talking about buying another.

 

Don't really care for the red paint, but all the other paint is really nice. Pretty good figure. More face plates would have been nice. Hope we get the welcoming committee out of this mold.

Only crappy QC thing on mine is that there's either some gunk or paint scratches on this one part on the right shoulder. I'll see if I can remove it, otherwise I might need some recommendations for a color match...

If I remember right, she's optional like Vincent, and you can recruit her during random encounters not long after leaving Midgar. Cid's quite a ways later, I think.

 

Curious to see how complicated the assembly/parts count is on this. It's available for pretty cheap from Chinese sellers, so custom repaints might be a big thing with this, if it can be disassembled and repainted easily.

 

I predict endless repaints of this mold, plus coneheads.

 

As a Seeker fiend, I welcome it! I wouldn’t mind some improvements either though.

 

The curing thing was speculation and was pretty much debunked once more than a few people got him in their hands. I kinda' think if it actually were a problem, we'd be seeing the paint transferred to his clamshell. If it had been a thing, though, the reason why shipping time wouldn't have helped (or at least wouldn't have helped as much) is because it's in a small enclosed space and can't outgas as easily. But yeah, pretty sure it's not a real issue and he's good to go as soon as you get him.

 

Starting to seem that way, he had a layer of something chalky when I opened him but afterwards stopped feeling that way and nothing has gone onto my hands since.

 

RIGHT, because she's the reason you go to Wutah and she steals your equipment.

 

Try running a Qtip over the gunk. If it's lubricant then you can probably remove it that way.

 

I decided to pull out the O.G. MP03 to see how it compares with the latest and greatest. Well, you can see how far we've come. Say what you will about MP03, but you can't deny that the jet mode is so clean, still one of the best jet mode. For those that are interested, MP03's null ray fits perfectly onto DS01, although the colours are obviously off.

 

Mold release isn't likely a thing, on any figure, so much happens after that part of the process that its cleaned off for assembly. Even if not on an unpainted figure, definitely for a painted one. There would be no way to get paint to stick with left over cooking spray.

This!

I think your fine and the feel is just off due to the type of paint used. It's the same as when a lot of products started coming in a matte rubbery feeling finish (tons of motorcycle helmets in my experience) and it felt weird making you think it was rubbing off on your hands, but never did. Even after continuously handling that sensation was there until just getting used to it. Same goes for primer or flat finish paints. I was thrown off with numerous Fanstoys products especially Thomas being matte finish and with that lovely oil they coat everything in! Still not sure what that's about. I know machinery/cars/bikes get a spray in oil to prevent anything corrosive from effecting them for transport, but toys! Still curious.

Anyway, mine felt as weird to me as anyone and I was considering the possibility of the paint cure thing based on how it felt after lightly handling it and I saw right away that it was only just the weird to the feel thing and it was full go on playing around with it. The more I handled it the weird feeling faded and not once did I get any paint transfer to other parts or my fingers. I was expecting some from the underside of parts but it didn't happen. When it came to my null rays the paint was simply too thick to get away with silicone and twisting, they would not go. Having to scrape and sand some paint further showed me how durable the paint is, provided its applied correctly and apparently it is at least on the nulls. For a peg it didnt sand down or scrape off as easy as expected, this is good! There also must be a good coat in their ports because after getting them down to plastic they are still tight. Another thing that could be giving off the initial chalkier feeling out of the box is if these parts are not wiped and cleaned after being sprayed and cured to handle there is the dusty layer of paint that clings to the surface which is more apparent on things not painted in a perfect paint booth environment. Seeing some of the paint blemishes that have been posted I suspect the conditions they paint in are sub standard.

 

I never cared much for MP-03 because of the super side skirts, couldn't look past them. However, that is one sexy alt mode and every time I see another pic its pushing me closer to just wanting to get one. Aside from that, 03's null rays look pretty good on DS-01 not including the paint difference. I think I like them over 11's.

 

Did yours smell like 1 day old rattle can spray paint? Because mine does. Mine smells like obvious off gassing. I didn't test the durability because I know that smell means "don't push it" .

 

In terms of the debate regarding paint, I was also in the camp of "Let it cure" but I think overall the paint is just a mix of good and bad and could be a consequence of being released too soon.

It's amazing and the mix of matt and gloss finishes really is perfect.

But like BSF mentioned and some other folks, the actual quality of the paint in terms of durability is very debateable. But the effect they're going for is already spot on.
It's just unfortunate because the paint clearly isn't meant for the transformation this thing has, which has a lot of tight areas and maneuvering to go around which will grind on those specific areas. Not to mention it made some parts too thick like the null ray pegs. If most of this thing is unpainted there might be less issues.

Overall it reminds me of paint on a model kit. Looks amazing but some extra tender love and care might be needed in handling it.

I've had mine already get minor chips but they're mostly on said tight and small areas like the edges and corners, and they're not really too visible on either mode anyway so I don't have a major problem with it in the end. I still loved this thing a lot. And this is coming from a guy who usually stays away from fully painted Transformer figures.