I finally found my bin of Beast Wars toys again yesterday. I briefly opened the bin and quickly got distracted by Transmetal Cheetor. I was surprised to see that he was still intact! A little bit of dust, but otherwise not bad. I was under the impression that a lot of the Transmetal toys chip, peel, or otherwise disintegrate. My question is this: Which toys from Beast Wars are the most likely to start falling apart? I think I need to prepare myself for some potential heartbreak.
Gold Plastic Syndrome - Transformers Wiki Don't know if this covers all, but it definitely lists the most prominent cases.
Grimlock (Dinobot mold) mainly and Torca. If you have and BW II or BW Neo from Japan, then Randy has serious gold plastic. I put mine back in the box to never be reopened. All transmetals are suspect to flaking, but I believe Rattrap is the worst. I may be wrong on that though and someone will most likely correct me. EDIT - Oh, and I forgot about Transmetal Megs brown (sorta gold) plastic, but that one is hit or miss.
GPS and chrome peeling/flaking are unrelated phenomena. Chrome coming off is because the vac metal isn't bonded properly to the plastic substrate. GPS happens when the small metal flakes mixed into some kinds of sparkly plastic cause the plastic itself to degrade and eventually crumble. Two of the Transmetals most affected by chrome flaking are Tm2 Scourge and whatever that basics scarab beetle was named. (Slipping my mind.) GPS affects Silverbolt (Magnaboss component), BW Neo Randy, Torca, Grimlock, and the waist joint in TM Megatron. (Probably. It's prone to snapping on the original but his redecos don't have the problem.)
If you have Transmetal Megatron and he isn't already dust, carefully remove him from your bin, put him in an airtight vacuum, and lock him away. Other offenders include Torca, and Beast Wars Neo Randy, who is the gold version of Razorbeast. Just search Youtube to see how bad Randy is.
GPS is not related to the chrome flaking Transmetal toys suffer from. Transmetals and their chrome (really vac-metal plastic) don't break or disintegrate, they simply chip off as the vac-metal paint loses it's grip. It's sporadic and depends on conditions, though. All my TMs have very little or no chipping at all. GPS is entirely different, and actually breaks figures. It's not shiny gold plastic that does it, but the metallic sparkly gold plastic. However it isn't limited to just gold plastic, but is most common due to the added reflective flakes needed to make gold plastic look metallic. And no, Transmetal Megatron does not suffer from GPS, he just has defective weak brown plastic. Anywhere there's brown, he can break. I own three of him and each has broken. Metals Megatron, the Japanese version, uses different plastic and is fine, as is Armada Predacon.
Cheetor was not the worst offender for Chrome Cancer. That would primarily fall to Rattrap and Rhinox. Also, the later Fox Kids releases don't seem to have the problems that the first releases had. Mind you, Chrome Cancer can be found in Beast Machines toys as well...notably ultra-class Jetstorm. Incidentally, I also recently discovered Brave Series Thunder Baron may also have issues with his chromed chest piece as I'm seeing some stress marks indicating the paint is trying to separate.
BW Grimlock, Silverbolt (the eagle from Magnaboss), Torca, and TM Megatron are the most notorious BW figures to succum to Gold Plastic Syndrome that I can think of. None of the other Transmetals were prone to GPS but some were prone to having the chrome finish flake off. I think Rattrap was the worst. Most of my Transmetals have held up pretty well over the years, but I still handle them pretty gingerly. I have never heard of any major QC issues with TM Cheetor.
I've heard Mutants Soundwave is prone to breaking but reports seem mixed if it's GPS or just brittle plastic.
my TM Megatron is in 2 pieces because of GPS. Magnaboss, while I was transforming him, a gold peg broke off in a hole making him useless. and of course, the most infamous GPS...... G2 Slingshot. he is in like 14 pieces because of GPS
No, he's in two pieces because of weak plastic combined with a lack of structural integrity. Not every toy that breaks has GPS.
Yeah, may Torca broke. It was around the gun piece, IIRC. Thankfully, enough, I have the BWN Elephunta figure as well. Now, why can't GPS hit the bad figures instead, I don't know. I don't think anyone would cry if Injector had crumbled into millions of pieces.
Both my TM Megatrons have broken. My TM2 Scourge was flaking right out of the package. The rest of my TMs only have the usual scuffing from playing with them when I was a kid. Torca is still in one piece.
As far as chrome flaking goes, my two worst offenders are TM2 Scourge and the Fox Kids version of TM Airrazor.
