As far as I know, there currently is not one source dedicated to documenting the known weak points of transformer toys. Is that correct? If so, do you guys think that something like this would be useful? I'm confident that everyone here is well aware of common breakage points on TF toys from G1 through the latest lines. Some of the earliest ones surfaced in 1984 with Mirage (who is easily "Darth Mauled" with rough handling) and Prowl/Bluestreak and Jazz who were inadvertently converted into roofless roadsters by many kids. When you put enough of these toys into enough hands, trends emerge regarding common weak points...so far, this is maintained as tribal knowledge but not indexed in any way. I'm imagining an open-source wiki type format where folks can submit a breakage point that they have encountered (or are aware of) along with a picture, how/when the breakage occurred and comments as to what the suspected cause of the break might be. These breakage points could provide some data that can be sorted in all kinds of neat ways and we might even be able to create a list of statistically most fragile, etc. figures. Additionally, this would be a great resource for people who want to take good care of their vintage figures or who are considering spending money and want to know if they'll be able to enjoy transforming it...or if it will potentially wreck their investment. There could also be sub-categories for GPS, yellowing, rubber tire rot, chrome fading, paint issues, etc. Any thoughts, opinions, suggestions would be welcome.
G1 Metroplex's waist, the folding assembly on Hook, and Powermaster Prime's trailer hitch are all prone to breakage
The chest flaps that swing open to reveal the stats on some of the G1 Headmasters. They get stuck and if you try to force them, snap off. Hardhead is prone to this, and I think Brainstorm is, too.
E Mirage's boat-wing ball joints tend to crack. ROTF Lockdown's left arm ball joint has a tendency to crack. MP-6 Skywarp's nosecone fell off during its first transformation. Galaxy Force (JP, not the repaint) Vector Prime's sword handle had a tendency to get stuck in his hand. Anything with soft rubber plastic, like on Cybertron Megatron, is likely to degrade over time. Anything with Chrome, especially in the TM2 line, is almost destined to flake off of the figure.
