Guess what?
Doing the intro scene again.


Guess who has nice wings, not Starscream, hahaha.

 

I know that screw covers exist, but i was talking about something that extended past that and raised the shoulder up just a smidge so it's not flat the whole way across his shoulders and chest

 

Got mine skywarp today, this time everything was intact. Lol. I'm gonna let him sit out and cure for a while, but at first glances I see a big ole scratch on his chest.  The paint is only mariginally better then what thundercracker was, just less scuffing. Still plenty of sprue marks and even some loose joints. It's really disappointing how the QC turned out on the last 2. Like they definitely played a reverse uno card against TT.

 

Got my Skywarp in today. Handled him very carefully out of the box and inspected the figure all around before messing with it. Washed my hands carefully and trimmed my nails so that any imperfections I saw I know weren't caused by my clumsy self. The gods have smiled upon me and delivered a really nice copy of this figure.

The Good:
-No paint scuffing or imperfections as far as I can tell, aside from one part that I'll address later
-No sprue marks. Like, 99% sprue mark free. Even the ones on the shoulder intakes that are present in TC are barely visible on SW.
-Nice, tight joints all around, but toleranced better.
-The right shade of purple. It appears lighter than it does in photos and vids, but in person it's purple. It's a half a shade lighter than the MP-11SW figure.
-The turquoise knees. I thought I was going to have to repaint this blue, but I really, really like this color.
-The wing fillers are nice and tight and much more flush than the one that came with TC.

The Bad:
- The back cover from the add on kit is looser than I'd like, so it's more of a gap, but it just needs adjusting after posing and it closes it up.
- I don't know if this thing has a clear coat on it, and something tells me it doesn't.

The Ugly:
- One small paint blemish on the front of the right wing by the white stripe. It's not bothering me now, but I may have to touch it up with some paint later on.

I hope everyone got great copies of their SW. He's definitely my favorite of the bunch. Put him in with the rest of the gang in the display. One more thing I have to say - The waist swivel and wing articulation made it possible to put him at that spot without being encumbered by the surrounding figures. Also, to get the trio this tightly posed together. Even if it breaks the sculpt, it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

 

MP-52, the faces fit.

It would be nice if we could buy MP-52 face kits the way there is the MP-36/KO head/face kit. There is only a hair difference (smaller) in size and we could have a ton of expressions. I wonder if a store like ShowZ could put in a word with the 52 KO manufacturers and tell them to just produce the faces (and maybe some accessories) and package them in a cheap kit and the DS guys (us) will buy them up.

This made me laugh but not in a ha ha funny way, like yeah, so true! My nails weren't even long and I chipped Starscream when flipping one of his tight ass hip skirts when it suddenly snapped closed jolting my finger and cracking my nail down on the paint, so dumb ! I can't believe I did that!

Oh ok, I didn't get that. To be honest I'm still unsure what you mean.

 

LOL I have no idea if my nails were doing any of the paint marring but I wanted to be extra sure and careful. The way I move joints around I might accidentally clip a part of it with a nail.

That sucks though with the Starscream. It's one of the reasons why I hate hip skirts or any flaps that are that tight. Y

 

Bummer about the scratch. Opened mine today too and there's a big gouge right smack in the front... anywhere else and I'm ok with it. Reached out to ShowZ. Think they'll do anything about it???

 

Yeah, they should be able to get a replacement. The factories are on break until mid February from what they told me, so it'll take a while. Unfortunately giving a thorough once over mine also has a bunch of grey overspray, and chipping, I'm pondering if I want to try and fix it.

 

Got my Skywarp in today, and well QC is better then Thundercracker, but still worse then Starscream.
Paint and joints are good on my copy, but similar issues with everyone else, the cockpit has a gap, and SW is sprue city, but not as bad as TC. If TC is 100% Sprue City, then SW is about 55% sprue city. A lot happier with SW compared to the mess TC is. Would have been happy if all 3 seekers had QC comparable to SW. Really sad to see how bad QC went down from SC though. In terms of QC Starscream was the best then Skywarp and holding the last spot is Thundercracker. At around $135 shipped for each Seeker though I can't complain. Hopefully this completes my Seeker set 1 and done. I won't be buying any other repaints that DS puts out, the only one I would cave on would be a shattered glass Starscream, but I haven't seen any company put one out, so won't be holding my breath.

 

Black sharpie will prob hide that pretty good

 

Looks like SW comes with black head already. I just disassembled and painted TC's helmet black. Used SEM Satin Black aerosol paint. I use it on PS5 controllers and it's extremely durable once cured. I'll post pics when it's cured, and I reassemble. Probably in a week or so, just to be sure.

MEH. I let my Starscream sit out for 2 weeks before transforming it. I've now transformed it a few times, and I was not gentle at all. No scratches or blemishes at all. So either I got a unicorn of a paint job, or letting him cure works.

FYI, there's a HUGE difference between dry and cured.

It only took about 36 hours for mine to get from Vegas to Grand Prairie TX. Now my other package left Kansas City about 26 hours ago and no updates since. I'm in Springfield MO, which is only 3 hours from KC. Post Office SUCKS now.

Month won't hurt, but mine was good after two weeks. I've only had TC for a week and already his paint feels better.

Yup! Just ordered mine today! Wasn't interested in it until I saw the kit on TC in person.

 

Also, another option on painting TC's helmet. The plastic underneath the grey paint is black. You could just use something like 90% isopropyl alcohol to remove the grey paint. Some of the crevices and indents might be difficult tho.

Also, that grey paint is thicker and stronger than you think. I wanted to give it a rougher surface for my paint to adhere to, so I sanded it. With all the complaints of how thin and cheap the paint was, I expected to sand it right off. It was tough enough that I started to think the helmet was bare grey plastic.

 

Hopefully Skywarp will be here today, I grabbed a Sharpie and coloured in Thunder crackers ab-vents easy to do and looks much better.

 

I used the Takara smiley face, fits right into the DS head. The face itself is a smidge smaller but it's secure and not noticeable that it's smaller tbh

 

Just recieved an email back from showz about the TC I got. Obviously they said they'll try to get as much replacement parts as possible, so that's nice. Probably won't get any further info until the end of next month after the factories reopen. In the meantime, I might take it upon myself too clean up this figure, since there's a ton of overspray everwhere.

 

Just got an email today that the add on wing filler kit for Crimson Wings shipped. Anyone else get the same?

 

Oooooooooooo. Not yet, but I'll be on the lookout now!
Thanks for the Head's Up!

 

From who?

 

ShowZ