First of all, let me start with this: AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Okay. I feel some better. With that out of the way.... Back when TF07 toy protos were being leaked, I didn't care for the Leader Class. It looked...not movie accurate. The Voyager seemed to be much more accurate, except for the shins. ...then I saw the stupid backpack and absolutely HATED Voyager Prime. Hated him constantly, for two years. ROTF Leader Prime came out and had no guns. I had to correct this problem. Had to. Solution? Buy Voyager Prime and make his guns fit. The plus? I'd get a cool new 'bot to tinker with for the hell of it. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.... How wrong I was. The guns required a bit of beefing up in terms of the gun handles. (Two thin pieces of styrene from some sheets I have lying around did the trick. Nicely, I might add.) They look good on LC Prime, too. (Though they'll need to be detailed and painted up a bit.) Might try and replicate the one promo pic where he has a chain coming off of the gun. (usually seen on the bedding packaging at Wal-Mart, also the cards and gift bags as well.) Anywho...onto the abomination that is Voyager Class Optimus. Guh. He has the following problems: 1.) He doesn't lock into place very well in vehicle mode. (His arms, shoulder panels, and driver's door keep flopping around, even when "locked".) 2.) His legs do NOT want to snap together when forming robot mode. (When I try to snap them together, the hinge (which doesn't have a PIN!) keeps popping the lower leg off. So I just leave him stand awkwardly.) 3.) His arms are not fastened with a screw. They plug in with a peg at the shoulders, and they constantly pop off. (At one point, he was missing all of his limbs during transformation. It was ridiculous.) All in all, he's floppy, falls apart, doesn't hold together and he's just a mess. I understand why some people bought him due to scale and price issues, but he's seriously one of the worst figures I've ever owned. I'm half tempted to remove the styene I added to the guns, put him all back together (he's partially in pieces as I type this...) and take him back to Wal-Mart and call the whole fiasco over and done with. People, if you have the dough, and you're on the fence as to which figure you should buy, buy the Leader Class. Hell, even the inaccurate TF07 LC is leaps and bounds better than this mess of a figure. I don't know if it was just a lemon I bought, or a bad production run covering many figures, or just a terrible design, but he's just...unbelievable. And rushed. So very, very rushed. You can see where they slapped him together, threw him in a box, and got him on shelves asap. I fear that waves 1-3 could suffer greatly from the rush jobs they've put on these figures. Prime here is a ...(pardon the pun) prime example of shoddy work. Yikes.
Strange, my original version of that toy is perfect. It has pins and all and locks perfectly together. I think you got a really bad one, a shame as it is a really nice toy. If you like the overall toy try and get the original version cheap of ebay or something and do the same mod to the guns and bring the junk you have back.
he wasnt that bad originally. I have the robo-vision release of the mold, and it's solid as hell. you have to remember that with the same-mold returning cast toys, there's gonna be degradation. HEAVY degradation due to the toys having much larger runs than any other transformer toys in history. so they've degraded much more, and much faster than other TFs. notice that the problem is being rather selective. ironhide is pretty much okay. ratchet has some softer edges from what I can tell, but he's okay too, since neither of his re-releases from the first movie line were done on a huge scale (1 was a best buy exclusive, and the other was a shelfwarming white repaint). then we turn our attention to the workhorses from the first movie. voyager prime - six releases in the first movie line. robo vision, normal voyager, battle damage, the pack with bumblebee, first strike, recent target exclusive 2-pack. he's back again this time, so make it seven. concept camaro bumblebee - I'm probably forgetting a few. normal deluxe. evolution of a hero two pack. the two pack with prime. screen battles version. cliffjumper. target repaint with allspark blue. premium. now the preview figure. and then they're re-using his legs for the cannon bumblebee. it's no wonder these figures are in such awful shape. grindor and barricade are probably going to be messes too. the blackout mold had problems from the start. if evac and whirl were made from the same mold as blackout, with just another head added to the part tree (like cybertron scrapmetal's coby head), then we're really in for some problems.
Wait. The original had pins? Wow. Talk about cutting corners. Geez...I doubt a few metal pins cost millions of dollars... I've thought better of it. Cooler heads have prevailed. I'll keep the guns and just throw the figure in a trade or give it to my girlfriend's nephew or little "brother". He's young, he'll tear it apart, and doesn't give a shit if it's all there. I know that sounds cold, but at least the figure won't go to waste. There's going to be some really unhappy campers then. A lot of pissed off parents too...
I've never had any of the problem you describe and I have 3 versions of the mold. I dont think I have ever had the arm fall off. He snaps together all nice and neat. If i was to complain about this toy the only thing i could say is the missles have a hair trigger but thats about it.
For some reason, my Robo VIsion version's door won't stay closed, making the left shoulder pop out and not lock into position. Otherwise, it's a pretty solid figure with great articulation. Not the best of the line, but still a good Prime figure. I'll be passing on the RotF version unless it goes on clearance.
I also have the Robo Vision version and I love it. Tight joints, fun transformation. The backpack doesn't bother me. I like kibble. To each, their own.
I have the Target RV version and the Allspark First Strike repaint, and both of those are fine. Only problems I have are that some of the missiles don't want to stay in the guns unless they're put in at a certain orientation. I'm still not sure why they decided to release this mold in the first ROTF wave with such a lackluster paint job, though. It looks awful compared to the 2007 versions.
I have him and the regular version from the first movie, and while hes not as tight as the first movie version, I have didn't problems anywhere near what you've described. However, I'm annoyed that his gray areas look look brown in the wrong lighting (maybe he rusted between movies?)
You got a lemon. My First Strike Optimus Prime is perfectly tight, the only loose part is a door on the cab. I'd recommend returning it and getting a 2007 movie version.
My First Strike OP from the first movie has a lower leg that keeps falling out of the square socket..making the peg thicker didn't help either. Doesn't really bother me, he looks kinda of okay on the shelf.
i have almost no beef with this prime. HOWEVER, i do hate the fucker. every so often when im walking through my room he shoots me in the face. he lost all gun right now. damn missle never stays in for more than a week
The triggerhappy missles thing was an issue with that mold from the start. Other than odd color choice, the only real issue I have with my ROTF version is that the cylinder thing (air filter? fuel tank?) that swivels (the guns are part of this section) on the right side pops off the the swivel joint waaaay too easily.
Take the gun apart, remove the spring and glue the missile in. Instant improvement. As for the OP's problems... haven't got them with the three I own. Only problem I have is the first one I bought has a right leg that doesn't like pegging in at that square connector point. Other two were fine, so it doesn't seem like a problem that all of them had. Overall, one of my favorite Movie molds, and easily my favorite onscreen mold.
I don't own the mold, but I have had experience playing with it. IMO, it's a great mold. The truck mode is solid, and the robot mode has some really nice sculpting and detail. I'm definitely going to get the rotf version. For those who have the door that never stays shut in bot mode- flip it open 180 degrees. It hides the driver, and the painted flames are protected from being scratched.
I have three versions of the mold from the first movie (original, Robovision, First Strike) and all of them are pretty flawless aside from a missile problem on the original. I'm a bit concerned about mold degradation and probably won't pick up the ROTF one because of this.
