Thankyou for that! I think i will have to try to buy this one.

 

Got mine from BBTS today and I’m not okay with the backpack issues. Clearly there’s a mass assembly or engineering problem. That backpack is clearly designed to fold completely into his pack and EASILY lock in while not having to extend the waist slide.

I started a return with BBTS. Hopefully Hasbro will figure this out before the repaint/s.

 

The instructions for this figure fucking suck. Like almost Iron Factory bad. Thank god for youtube because I probably would have broken it otherwise trying to get the cockpit into the nosecone (wtaf hasbro??)
He's solid in both modes at least. Looks good and is fun to handle. I also find the backpack to be wtf worthy. But I found not pushing the torso down completely makes it possible to tab everything in easier

 

The issue is more design than anything. As has been mentioned the instructions really suck. There is a way to get it somewhat lined up and securely tabbed, but it’s pretty much impossible the way the instructions show it. I recommend checking PVP’s review as that helped me get it locked.

There seems to be some instruction issues, because as it stands it is physically impossible to get everything lined up. I wonder if one of his many repaints will have a different mold for that assembly so that it does line up the way the instructions show. But I was in a similar boat. Almost felt like I was breaking the damn thing getting it lined up.

 

Go his bicep swivels are so fucking stiff. I'm trying to repeatedly move them to loosen them up and its really doing a number on my hands.

 

SXS A-06 Set. Put a review here:
General Upgrade Kits Thread

As is, the SXS gatling gun works great out the box. Looks and poses better than stock. The pegs of the stars and side storage peg are tapered (too loose at the ends) and too long; it's optional but these pegs work a lot better when shortened. The gatling gun main handles do not require adjustments.

The waist panel is supposed to slide up. The instructions are terrible.

The bicep swivels on ours are fine. Snug but not super tight. Yeah, a hundred rotations or so should wear them in regardless.

 

You mean this panel, right? This is the farthest it will go before the back comes apart.

 

It'll go up partially but not where you can see the hole in the middle.

 

I’m been fucking around with this guy for over an hour trying to get the backpack to collapse, and now I find out that it can’t. I’ve been trying to squish it in but it just bends the plastic and I don’t want to break it. Your above view pic is the first time I’ve seen it and it’s the same as mine. I feel it wouldn’t have taken that much to make it collapse properly.

And yes, the instructions suck. I spent way too much time fiddling with the damn cockpit trying to make it look like the instructions…

 

Thanks bro. Helped me solidify my choice to skip this figure. Saved me money.

 

Don’t get me wrong… I love him. I just thought he was supposed to transform different than he actually does. Now that I know that, my only beef is getting the wing brackets to stay pegged into the backpack. Maybe some future polish will help..

 

So I identified the design defect that's getting in the way of the spine/waist/wing transformation. Let me get some pics of what I did, and I'll update.

 

So the issue is with this little grey piece. It connects the fuselage to the "spine" armature, and it's basically a bearing sleeve with a mushroom peg receptacle on it. The bearing sleeve has a relief cut into it to make space for the wheel of the front landing gear when the landing gear and the nose cone fold over for transformation into robot mode. However, this relief cut does not extend far enough to accommodate where the wheel actually needs to end up.

I didn't take pictures of the disassembly process, but I can do that with the other copy I have on preorder. What I did do was remove the two screws from the fuselage and separate those two halves. SQ also has a press fit peg at the back of the fuselage (where it tabs in over his head for jet mode) that on my copy was also glued in place. I ended up breaking that peg, but it hasn't been an issue with everything else put back together.

Once disassembled, I cut back the relief further to let the landing gear wheel get to where it needs to go for robot mode. The outline of the ejector pin landing pad is a good landmark for how far to cut. That's the circle of a little bit of mold flash in the picture:

With that relief extended, the whole fuselage/spine assembly can collapse and clip in properly. Now the wing armatures line up and peg into place rock solid as well. As the picture shows, everything now appears to be compressed and aligned as intended - the wing armatures rotate out to a full horizontal position, the wings sit upright and parallel with the front of his chest, and the waist is fully collapsed:

Maybe in future releases or redecos Hasbro will catch this issue and fix the tooling.

 

Just did the fix and it totally works! Huzzah!

Now I just wish I hadn't lost one of his shoulder spikes and can't find it...

 

You magnificent bastid. Magnificent!

 

Would it work to just snip off the wheel?

 

Awesome, glad the fix is working!

Someone with Instagram let Marclonus know so they can fix it for the Dreadwing and G1 redecos lol

 

Thank you, my Skyquake is in transit still, and I guess I will need to do this on my copy.

Question- can it be disassembled and reassembled without breaking a peg/or anything?