Actually, while it is called Gold plastic syndrome, other colored plastics can exhibit the same symptoms and condition, such as BW TM Megatron and Crossovers Chewbaca's brown plastic. The primary reason for it being called GPS is because that was the first well known color to exhibit the condition in the transformer community, specifically G2 Electro. lol

Ask around the Chogokin community and you will hear stories about "Popy Blue" plastic and its notoriety for crumbling for seemingly unknown reasons.

Basically, if the plastic has glittery or sparkly crap swirled in it, there is a high chance that crap is gonna get brittle over time.

 

Whoops!   You're completely right!   I forgot about those other cases...

Oh well, would have been beautifully simple if my rant made more sense!   Nonetheless, Hasbro has gone on record that they no longer do that swirly crap because of this issue (and being a child choking hazard, they actually have legal considerations above our own complaints!).

I'm more concerned with STICKY plastic.   That happens way more often, and is really kind of WORSE.

 

My cat became extremely ill, which resulted in a pretty hefty emergency visit to the vet. I was all set to buy the set but something about a living creature being more important than plastic crack said I should wait a bit. By the time I get back from the vet the set is pre-sold out. Sheesh.

Then today I see TFSource has the God Ginrai set AND the PE cab for an affordable chunk of my payday. So I won't get GG till the end of the year, and I've already got FP assaulter, the others are meh, so I guess I'm ok with how it turned out.

-Kronatron

 

I know this is off topic, but I have to know, is your cat okay?

 

Ginrai has new tooling. Whether or not that tooling is an improvement is subjective.

 

Not sure where you saw this quote but the blue in Titans Return Blurr has that "swirly crap" all through it.

 

Semi-related to Ginrai -- my LG Godbomber has swirly-ass metallic plastic. TT does it too.

 

So does UW Motormaster. There have been a few people with crumbling waists. Metallic flake not playing nice with plastic is what I assume the problem has always been. They haven't stopped GPS because they haven't paid enough attention to it. It's not gone anywhere yet.

 

Unless I'm wrong, the pretty little flecks in the plastic are part of the issue because the mixing process for metallic-looking plastic is different from the regular stuff. And they never really corrected the flaws with the materials mixing, so some modern toys can still suffer if the plastic is mixed poorly.

The other options are metal paint apps (which doesn't have the same visual effect) and chroming (which has a nasty habit of flaking off).

You'd think the people who make toy robots for a living would figure out a way to make them look like, well, robots without them crumbling or chipping.

 

Here's the disappointing part. They don't have to. Toys are veiwed as disposable product. Good enough for now is good enough. The only people it affects is collectors, long after the product has been through the retail cycle. Once the money is made/product is sold, that's all that matters. They don't see any profit from after market sales so it doesn't matter. As long as those pieces don't break into harmful, jagged edges, they're on to the next thing. Well, long before that.

 

Right, the toys made to last for years are usually those geared at adult collectors (currently the Masterpiece line and, to a lesser extent, Alternators from the mid-2000s). Such is the plight of old dudes who buy children's toys, thankfully there aren't a lot of cases like the G2 GPS victims these days.

One thing is that Metalhawk appears vac-metallized, so at least he shouldn't (theoretically) suffer from poor plastic integrity.

 

Thanks, yes he's ok. Athsma as it turns out, which is preferable over the FIP that is usually fatal in about 2 months. Poor kitty is not allowed to go outside anymore and he'll be on meds for a while but it's manageable.

In the meantime it means I have to curb my spending habbits to pay back the vet visit and set aside some more for all the followups. I'm glad that we have preorder options, and I've been very successful at finding gems through transformerland.com. It's just plastic. There are more important things in life.

-Kronatron.

 

I'm sorry: I was generalizing. I meant that at some Botcon they got asked about GPS, and they expressed how they figured out the problem and have since avoided it (for the most part - clearly, some toys still fall apart). The gold flecks in the plastic that caused the problem. Maybe adding any flecks at all (i.e. swirl) also makes plastic brittle and disintegrate?

But the bigger question is about STICKY PLASTIC. I have a bunch of Gundam action figures that are super sticky now.   Has anyone noticed this with TFs? And if not, why not? Does Hasbro use better quality plastic or are we just waiting to wake up one morning with a super-sticky MP-10?  

As someone else pointed out, these things are not meant to last. I guess it's far worse if you keep your stuff MISB, as I can only imagine the horror of seeing your investment crack apart (although, I have a gold BW Randy MISB and still in good shape - I keep meaning to pop him open and crumble him in my hand, like in that YouTube video!  ).

One last thing - why didn't they make Metalhawk yellow (or white) and then chrome him in gold? Wouldn't that avoid the entire problem of GPS?

 

...dude, what you do with your toys is YOUR business.

 

It's arguable that it's never going away 100%. It's something that maybe can't be fixed.

I don't know if that has to do with the plastic used exactly or has other factors. It can have something to do with where and how you stored them, or how much you handled them in the past with bare hands that could also be a factor.

Plus if these are like the Gundam figures from the early 00s that Bandai put out, some of those were made with softer sometimes almost rubbery plastic, and those do have the tendency to get like that but can be cleaned with soap and water to help get rid of the stickiness.

TFs with that problem also have a softer plastic, especially among Pretender shells like from the Monster Pretenders. I know my Pretender Jazz from when I was a kid had that issue, his entire body was sticky at one point, and most of my Pretender helmets and belts from that time also came out of storage needing a bath.

 

Winner of the thread

 

I've not had this problem with my own (non-Monster) Pretenders, but the phenomenon re: Pretender Monsters is documented on the TF Wiki, for what it's worth:

 

Damn, that sucks, best wishes to you both.

 

I like all the bots in the Chaos set, and I just got a slightly less than minty but oh so fresh TR Ultra Magnus from TFL. I'm glad I waited to pay less than full retail or scalper pricing on UM, he's great but not a full utility bill great.

I think the only one I might wanna get from the Siege set is Tidal Wave, otherwise christmas looks good for the God Ginrai combo set. If anyone is willing to part with their Tidal Wave PM me!

Update on kitty: He's back to eating and sleeping whenever and wherever he wants. Lucky bastard.

-Kronatron.

 

I lost mine to FIP and yeah it's a shitty way to go. Glad that your buddy's OK.