Mine's been with me nearly two weeks and I got a paint chip already. (nope, not dissing the fig, love it and all) 1. Roadfire's headmaster. Not all headmasters are designed the same. There are two in fact. The "Astrotrain type" and the other type. The former, I have issues with the "knee parts" having no pins but connects via friction while the latter has the loose, woobly "neck joint". This one is the latter. Same issue with Scourge and Highbrow. Dang head flops not to mention the his neck connecting post is so extended out which also doubles as the connection junction when folding the front part of the tank. 2. Securing Sonicbomber's nose cone/cockpit in jet mod. There's no really securing it in jet mode/Bigpowered mode. 3. Dai Atlas' connecting joint/posts to Sonicbomber in Bigpowered mode. Its such a soft plastic that you'll need a finger to support it prior to connecting it to Sonicbomber's rear end/feet part. It could have been a little harder. 4. The connecting peg of on Dai Atlas' tank part (the panel that flips the tank turret in Overlord/Blackshadow). The freaking peg is painted not molded orange yellow. Mine chipped already. Not on the side mind you but the top part. It also does not connect well thus the tread parts keep in falling off. Given that the part is always under steady use, wished Takara'd just molded it yellow orange and made the black clamp thicker ( by appearance, that black clamp under the folding blue/white chest panel seems to be also painted black). 5. The waist connector for Dai Atlas. the folding peg similar to the Jetfire mold in a sense it's like made of flimsy soft plastic. Handle with care. And, connecting it flush in robot mode takes a little finessing to get it right. 6. Keeping Dai Atlas' ankles stable. He is transformed following the Legends Overlord way so he is kind of tiptoeing resulting to his leaning forward (ratchets would have sufficed to prevent this)
It's weird...but I haven't ran into any of this supposed "soft plastic" on any of my copy. The only issue I have with mine is the stupid waist joint and the peg on Roadfire's tank turret being a touch too small, fitting loosely in his fists -- which is not a big deal since you can just have him hold it on it's side just fine.
Yeahhhh...I still want to find another way than creating something it's not intended for. I think thickening the hinge joint so the friction is increased would help a lot. Not really. Granted, I haven't messed with them much. But they seem to be the same plastic as the rest of him, in my memory.
I understand nobody likes what I did. But you have to take into consideration that I didn't sacrifice or lose anything. All of the modes are still intact. I only gained a few things. The differences between mine & everybody else are all positive. 1. I have an optional 4th vehicle. The extra tank is an added bonus. But all other modes are still there. Nothing changed from the original toy. 2. The jet can separate for flight without huge tank treads permanently stuck to it. But it can still dock on top of the crawler as originally intended. In the original show it flew around with the treads but I just think that's really stupid. 3. In robot mode the waist is solid. No need to fiddle with the plastic chain. The picture I posted above just shows an extra option. But it doesn't take anything away from the original toy, only adds to it. But to each his own.
Do you know if the heads of the headmasters (the part that plugs into the neck sockets of the big robots to form the heads for their robot modes) are painted? I know the faces are painted, but am not sure about the whole heads themselves. One thing I am concerned about, if the heads are painted, is of course paint scraping if you plug the heads into the big robots' neck sockets. I know Grotusque has this issue with a headmaster that has a painted head susceptible to paint scraping. Not sure if any of the headmasters' heads on the Big Powered set have this issue or not.
For me, it was baffling that some Titan/Prime masters have painted heads (not just faces, but their entire head) when that part plugs into a robot's neck socket, which is asking for paint scraping to happen. As mentioned, Grotusque is a good example of this, the entire head of his Titan Master is painted. Got around that by unscrewing the Titan Master and removing the painted stock head and replacing it with a head taken from a junker Prime Master, so that junker head goes into the neck socket instead. Just wanted to check if any of the headmasters from the Big Powered set have that issue.
Thinking these three Legends big powered toys will get re-releseed, alongside Legends God Ginrai. As am guessing the Legacy will be too full of TM1 toys.
