Ze Baron Ransack vill make you pay for your lack of wision.

QFT.^^^^^

I had promised myself not to bother with Scouts, thinking they were too GoBot-ish, just above Minicons or Legends, but after seeing Ransack and then checking out Knock-Out that i bought my niece, i like 'em.

i like Scalpel, just haven't seen him locally and haven't found enough stuff to buy at HTS to throw him in with to order him yet.

as The Dude would say, "Well, that's like your opinion, man." i can respect that. i question it, if only because of the amount of time i sit with Ransack and can't get over his intricacy, but i can respect it, man.

 

*grabs Scapel, configures legs to match Scantron's pics*

Okay, my opinion of the figure just improved! I now give him a 9/10! He's have a perfect 10/10 if it wasn't for how annoying his arms are to get out of the hole when stored for microscope mode

 

I found a trick to that, he has these little hand things that stick out barely. if you take your nail and pull them down top to bottom, then pull the arms out and turn them, its actually quite easy.


mines left arm is uber weak, and his antennas come out very very easy.

 

Same, this is the only scout figure beside's the soon to come toaster that I would even consider buying...

 

oh, and i have to add his pegs and holes don't plug together well

 

I found a Scalpel for the first time, and quickly bought it. I was a little disturbed that 4 out of the 6 legs had cracked ball-sockets to the point that the legs would fall off. I quickly exchanged it for the last one they had, and the 2nd one had the same problem but worse. My excitement for this guy is pretty low as of this point.

 

After having had to return two Scapels a short while back because of cracked and broken leg sockets I stood in TRU today staring at another one deciding if I wanted to see if third time really was a charm. Decided it wasn't worth the hassle so I passed.
What fool decided that hard brittle plastic was best to make those joints out of And then pack the figure so those sockets are under pressure if something is put on top of the packs?  

 

Glad to see it wasn't just me then. I mean, they were cracked OUT OF THE FACTORY it seems. I was just surprised because I haven't heard of the problem before.

 

The second one I returned not only had the cracked sockets (one was actually broken right off and rattling around in the bubble) but there was also a small piece of masking tape holding the chest together where they'd driven the pin in wrong and broken the hinge there. I mean, friggin' hell...

I so want this figure but these problems have put me off wanting to keep buying one only to see I have to return it the moment I open the bubble.

 

I guess I feel a lot better hearing that the crack ball socket isn't just a problem I had, and that mine is relatively minor compared to a lot of people (I only have one that is like that).

 

I have Scapel, and while first impressions were not good (trying to configure him into one of his two forms where I could figure out what to do with him was harder than trying to get Ani. Blitzwing out of his box!), I love the little guy.

Microsope mode is nothing big to write home about, although the elevator-system for the viewing lens is a plus.

Transformation is pretty involved both ways, but it's quite clever (the grey bar does a 180 degree turn and hides under the body). Getting the little translucent arms out of the cavity where they store can be a pain, though. Also, the microscope base halves that flip up to allow the legs to unfold also can move backwards and let the front flap fold back more. It took me a while to figure that out, but it DRASTICALY improves how the robot mode looks.

For "robot" mode, he's pretty neat. Sure, the legs can be a pain to balance on if not TF'd right, but other than that he's an almost dead-ringer for "The Doctor" in ROTF. Size wise, he's overscaled drasticaly, but it's the smallest size class they could probably fit him in, and then there's Wheelie (who is around Animated Lockdown height!)

 

4 of mine are cracked. I think the balls are too big for the sockets. I am going to try super gluing the sockets back together and sanding down the balls and hope that it works, otherwise he stays in microscope mode.

 

Personally, I wish they'd have given him a DLX or VGR mold, so he'd be in-scale with real people (also wish he had an accurate alt-mode & more accurate bot, but we can't always get what we want, can we...)

 

Possibly. Although the sockets which weren't broken on the ones I opened were so loose that the legs fell right out of them. I blame firstly the type of plastic used for the sockets, and secondly for how the figure is packed in the bubble so that any great weight on the front of it would push the legs down and stress/crack the sockets.

 

I agree with this. It is also pretty sad that even though the legs have two ball joints in each one, he still has no poseability in them.

 

Aren't there 2 variations of Scalpel? Does anyone know if the second version is prone to the leg issue?

 

I finally found and bought Scalpel today (along with Ejector which I was pleasantly surprised to find as well). Very cool little scout class figure, but straight out of the box 4 of the 6 sockets holding the legs were cracked. I was thinking of returning it, but from reading others experiences in this thread I might as well not bother in case I would get an even worse one.

 

If Hasbro is unlikely to then what we probably need is someone doing a repro part of the socket section in a better plastic.

 

Fun fact: apparently the designer had no reference for Scalpel's alt mode from the get-go & therefore was rendered unable to create an accurate sculpt for the microscope...

 

I am also having a problem with the sockets cracking. I noticed after a couple of weeks and probably had the problem from the beginning. I only noticed when two of his legs fell out and he tumbled off my shelf.

I tried super-glue, but the socket generally cracks when the ball is re-inserted. Sanding down the ball doesn't seem to help, as it makes the joint too loose.

I think the problem is definitely that the plastic is too brittle. I might suggest coating the outside of the socket part with super-glue to thicken it, but it just looks like this is a hopeless figure.

I'm pretty disappointed with mine. It's sitting in pieces at the moment while I try to think of new ways to repair it.