This is the second time a BW NEO Randy is broken! After a lot of effort I got my first one 2 yeasr ago. One day while I was transforming him I noticed that the ball joint that hold his left rear leg in beast mode didn't turned as I moved the leg. What had happened? Well, obvious the leg moved, the ball doesn't so the peg broke in a half, make it impossible to repair. LAst year I got another one, thank to friend who was in USA and could ship it to his address so he could bring it to me in Peru... And the first time I tried to moved the same f*****g leg I noticed the plastic around the ball joint cracked the plastic around, but it seemed fine. Yesterday I took it out of his box for a display and when I tried to move the leg, I heard a loud "CRACK!"... What was this time? The plasti got broken like a fine line from the base of the joint to the rest of the piece. Fortunately, it leaves the leg free enough to move, but it's tight enough to display. The fact is that, this time the figure seems OK, you had to be really close to see the broken line, but I don't like my figures with scratches... so I will ahce to try to get a new Randy (If you have one let me know). Have something similar happened to you with this figure? Or his original counterpart Razorbeast? I ahve a friend who also got a Randy, he put the weapon on his hand and "Crack" the hand was broken. Argh! Sorry guys this really pissed me off.
Gold. Plastic. Syndrome. Learn it, research it, hate it. You will keep breaking every Randy you get, if it doesn't just spontaneously break for you. Razorbeast isn't going to have the same problem, certainly not to this extreme.
If you look at the remainder of your Randy, you'll see fine lines throughout the plastic. Those are weak spots caused by inconsistant mixing. The problem is pretty much exclusive to gold plastic, hence the name Gold Plastic Syndrome.
I know about the Gold plastic Syndrome, waht made me felt angry was that it was the same part this second time. Hmmm, my G2 Electro is also gold but untill today it looks fine. I don't usually transform him and I think it will be like that for a loooong time!
I saw this pic in the TF-Yusha Image board; The shop (in Japan) he bought his MISB Randy from stocked hundreds of deadstock maybe last year, and because the figure stayed in the beast mode for so long almost everyone's Randy is breaking as soon as opened. Mine's not that bad (got 2 from the same place), but half of his right hand is gone I have a MISB one, but not going to risk opening it. That one has to live in the box with a illusion of completeness. It's so sad, he's a beautiful toy. I love his gold plastic
Loved the Razorbeast mold, Hasbro seemed to put more effort into keeping it together in beast mode than many of the other flipchangers, so it is sad that its only repaint has to suffer like that, and a nice repaint at that.
I don't believe anyone can state for certain why, but the most likely explanation is that the plastic's metal flakes naturally separate over time. ALL plastic will degrade, and eventually all Transformers will be as fragile, but the gold plastic used in the past will degrade much faster. Modern gold plastic seems more resilient, but only time will tell.
It's because of the way the gold effect was produced. Two different plastics were mixed, a goldish tint and a darker one. They did not mix properly so the resulting plastic was very unstable right at the beginning. All those little swirls are the weak points. I got the Ultra Pretenders back when they were new in the shops. Roadblock's inner robot fists crumbled as soon as we put the gun in his hands. Skyhammer's feet went very quickly too, it's a miracle right now they fit on there at all, but they won't survive another fifteen years that's for sure. My Pyro and Transmetal Megatron, both known sufferers, are both fine, but I took some preventative measures on them and removed almost anything that could cause friction. Megatron's pretty loose on his shoulders thanks to that, but it is better than the alternative. That dinosaur means a lot to me, yeeessss.
