I just realized that the right hip joint on my ER Wheeljack is completely stuck. I can’t move it back or forth no matter what I do and any serious attempt feels like it will snap the mushroom peg at the thigh. I even tried twisting it with pliers but so far that’s only managed to damage the plastic. Any thoughts?
Mine was the same. I took the leg off at the mushroom on the thigh, wrapped it in a piece of cloth and then used a pair of pliers to break it loose. Maybe some glue in there or something? regardless, I didnt use a lot of pressure to make sure the pliers didn't mar the plastic. Only took two or three attempts and it broke free. Seems fine now.
Mine was like that, and the ER WJ review thread has more complaints of the same thing. There's paint in the joint somewhere. I just forced mine by hand until it moved, others used pliers and such. I think someone disassembled the joint somehow. You could check out that thread (in the Feedback & Reviews forum) for more info. Once it gets unstuck it's fine. Since you really have two options - you're gonna force it free and it will be fine, or you're gonna force it free and it will break instead - I would just say go for it, and if it breaks, return it and look for another one.
Oh good, I'm not the only person with this issue. So far I've tried to move it using a grip mat for opening jars and a heavy duty work glove with grip pads on it. This evening I might try pliers.
Wow, I see this is a common problem with ER WJ. For mine, I disassembled the pelvis and found excessive glue used for the pelvis pieces had spilled on to the mushroom peg for the hip. I freed the pieces, sanded down the glue and put it all back together. Pictures show the pelvis parts with the excessive glue. EDIT: I wasn't clear on how I actually freed the parts-- I pried open the pelvis with a mini putty spatula (hopefully you won't need to do this if the glue is just between the pelvis and the hip). After I spotted the glue, I used a hobby knife to break the glue apart between the pelvis and the hip, and around the head of the mushroom peg itself. I was afraid to simply force it free, I didn't want to break it. I had to glue the two pelvis halves back together when I was done (don't use too much!).
LOL I never saw this thread before, but yeah I also had the same problem. First i used an x-acto blade to see if maybe there was some plastic or glue or whatever stuck between the pelvis and the hip. When that didn't work I removed the leg, wrapped cloth around the hip and with minimal grip force using pliers I gently rocked the hip back and forth until I was able to loosen it up to where I can freely move the hip. It's still "tight" but nothing that will harm the mushroom peg.
Where did you use the knife? I'm always hesitant to use blades around my figures, unless it's mould flash
Pretty sure Flywheels' problem was actually glue, though. Wheeljack's problem sounds much easier to crack.
Since these WFC figures no longer use screws to put pieces together I'm guessing it has to be glue that's causing the issues. The blade didn't do anything, just went around gently seeing if would catch anything. My best guess the origin of the problem is from inside the crotch housing. Just a bit extra glue seeping into the area where the mushroom peg sits.
I had an issue as well. If you look at the mushroom peg there are little bumps on it. All I did was pop the leg off, then pushed it back on. And is fine now. Look like when assembling him they did not push his leg all the way in.
Tried the vice and cloth method. Didn't work and I don't want to break it. I'm just going to (hopefully) exchange it
I had the same problem with my Siege Red Alert the hip was completely frozen up too in the rotator inside the crotch
Gee, it's almost as if Hasbro used a screw pin to hold the hips together we wouldn't have this problem.