Does it kind of bother anyone else that someone ran off to TFWiki half-cocked just to throw up a warning out the breakages but not take two seconds to edit the inaccurate accessory loadout?

 

I have yet to extend the robot mode neck. Tried last night and it wouldn’t budge.

 

So, you've sealed the crack again? how does it look outwardly now you've used the accelerator?
If this really is the case, then using some Weight 80 lube should work nicely as a way to reduce stress and prevent crotch breakage then?

 

Mine came in

Looks good on the shelf, hoping to replace Black Arachnia soon.

I'll say it again though, I don't know why a 3rd party hasn't made an oversized Rhinox people would get it to fill the void till a MP came out.

 

Yeah I seal the crack only once... It did "gunk" up a little bit but I carefully sanded it down using 3000 to 12000 grit sanding / polishing pads. Most of the "gunk" is gone, although I can polish it a little bit more to get it back to close to original state.

But like I said, after I glued it back together, at the moment of rotating the thing again, it snapped the glue connection. CA, while strong, is brittle when stressed in certain direction. Probably the only safe way is to weld that crack back together... something I am definitely not skilled enough to do! LOL!

I couldn't tell you if lubricant reduce stress or whatnot.

The hope right now is some 3rd party creates upgrade parts to it or Takara providing enhanced parts. But I'm not holding my breath for the latter.

 

I got my Megatron, finally, yesterday. Thankfully, no cracks in the crotch. Now, my friend got one last week, and his was cracked. I got one of AJ's second "batch" as I was one of the ones affected by the undisclosed cancellations. My friend got his right way. I wonder if there's correlation there.

Anyway, I opened mine up, and wanted to share my thoughts/finding, but see that @Xeniid already did above. I'll echo his statements that the screws are ridiculously too tight, and I think that might actually be more the problem than the swirling. Why haven't we seen similar failings on any of the other parts of the exact same plastic? Or the similar metallic blue plastic on Dinobot? Furthermore, most of the swirling on the front plane seems to be more vertical, but the cracks are always more horizontal.

The cracks all seem to start in the exact same, or nearly the exact same place. Only on the right side, and near the front center of the hip joint. Why never on the left? Why never higher up? Also, it seems all these cracks are already there upon opening the box, without ever moving the hips joints. It's probably a little too early to tell, but it seems that if yours comes fine, it will stay that way, and the failures are all coming that way from the factory. Evidence that, to me, seems to indicate something other than GPS style swirly plastic failure.

To take the crotch apart, there are three screws on the right side (hmmm, coincidence?). You'll need to swing the leg forward and back to access all three, or unscrew the thigh, and remove the leg. To free the pelvis halves, tilt the ab crunch forward and the pelvis halves will come out.

And here's the inside (don't mind the copper pin in the rear, I added that for extra support). This screw is also super tight. I recommend giving it a 1/8 turn loosen up just slightly.


But more importantly, there looks to be stress marks around the screw holes



But also, here. Which is more interesting I think. Notice where that screw housing happens to be...nearly at the exact same point the cracks commonly appear! Now, that I think is more than a coincidence.



I wonder if over tightening of the screws is causing this wall to fail, which in combination with the other over tight screw, plus the tension from the spring is causing the cracking. Now it could be that, with all of that above, IF there happens to be a "swirl line" in that same spot, all of those together cause the crack to start. But I think the swirling in the plastic is NOT the main/only contributing factor. Which also leads me to believe it will hold under normal use, in theory.

Either way, at the very least, I strongly recommend everyone to just slightly loosen all three of the pelvis screws. Not by much, just 1/8- 1/4 turn, or just past that initial "crack" of loosening. Just to be safe. Loosening the inside hip joint screws probably also would not be a bad idea, and if you have any lube left over from Dinobot, putting some on the ratchets would probably be a great idea too.




Moving on though..while you have the pelvis and legs off, lets get that waist swivel tightened. Spin the waist around, tilt the ab crunch forward as far as it goes, and unlock the waist from the torso. Here's the offending rivet:



Fit a pair a pliers inside the gap, and give them a good squeeze. The waist rotation should be nice and tight after seating that rivet in further.

 

I’d bet my next mortgage payment Takara don’t give us a replacement part , BUT , I’m sure they will correct it on the next reissue of this guy. With a slightly inflated price to boot !

 

Slides in easily now right?  

 

Hence why I skipped the first issue of MP BW Megatron. Hehe

 

Obviously some of the non-MP toys are a dead giveaway, but at a glance that legitimately looks like a cap from the show thanks to the background.

 

Excellent posts. Thank you both. In combination, this does make me suspect, however (depending on how tight the screw is for some units or other factors) that the mere act of moving the leg forward and back to access the remaining codpiece screws could unfortunately cause damage even if none already exists. Sounds like it's a risk either way but may be worth attempting to some. It's definitely excellent to see that the loose waist swivel ought be easily fixable.

 

"To the crotch repair bay!".. 

 

So, if Megatron is pissed off, maybe it's because he's just being "crotchety".  

 

At this point I think it'd be wise to avoid the initial release of ALL TT's MP, as we're seeing a very disturbing pattern. With their ridiculous pricing and piss poor quality control and materials choice, the risk is just too great...

 

It's sad that that's the direction things seem to be going. I'm hoping a course correction will happen soon. Nevertheless, as beautiful as this figure is, there will always be those who say "Megatron must be bought. No matter the cost."

 

Mine was starting to crack as well, was able to glue it back together and put a little silicon glue at the lowest point to give it some stretch just in case. Then It took awhile but I managed to mix some paint that mostly matched the plastic and painted over the seam so it's very hard to see the break I think I managed to loosen the screw, but that screw is small and i need a longer screw driver, so until I get a new one, I won't transform it. But it looks good in the mean time. Thanks for the info I was able to catch it before it cracked in a noticeable place.

 

@Jarrod thanks for posting your pics and findings and instructions. I think I know what's going on now. It might be a chain reaction.

The screws being overtightened at the factory might weaken the screw housing. The ratchet in turn, is pushing up against the potentially weakened housing. Between each click/movement, the ratchet teeth temporarily push into the already potentially weakened screw housing. This in turn, may lead to any stress marks already there, eventually turning into cracks. So by way of making ratchet movement more fluid and decreasing tension, the rc shock oil would then help prevent the ratchet teeth from digging into the screw housing more.

I might test this out soon