I'd be curious to see pictures where he broke in his torso. I reinforced every crank I could see with glue. But I wouldn't be surprised if something had cracks that I didn't see.

 

TE Bee is rad! Haha, I’m gonna warn you now, though: there is ONE piece on him that you’ll need to do a fix on, but it’s nothing like TC Bee. There’s a section of his leg that is held on with a shallow mushroom rivet; it’s likely to come off, so make sure when it does that you don’t lose that rivet. You can secure it with glue once it falls off.

 

I gotten mine since the 1st release and no issue so far or doesn't notice any breakage. Has transformed this for 3 times back and forth

 

I'll keep a note of that! And I'll find out which part you're talking about once I get it, and once it falls off. Haha.

 

For some reason that makes me anxious.

 

Does the 3rd batch have as poor QC as the others so?

 

Apparently nothing changed in the 3rd batch and it was bullshit.

 

Wait what happened? I hadn't read this thread for a while and my 1st batch copy is still good

 

I guess most copies were prone to breakage due to the way they were molded and TC said they'd fix the issues in subsequent batches but actually did not. Sure some people got lucky with their copies, but this seems to be a widespread issue that hasn't been corrected even though they SAID they'd correct it. That's pretty much the deal.

 

Dang
That sucks

 

Mhmm! Not my problem doe. I've decided the somewhat less accurate TE Bee is less of a strain on my wallet and soul. Hopefully others realize upon reading through this thread that TC Beetle MIGHT not be worth the price of admission. Unless you're looking to keep him in robot mode.

 

Yeah, but it's really a pity. It's an awesome design, one of the best I've handled in all my TF years. It deserved much better QC.

 

Unfortunately too many good things can't be had.
TC Bee has amazing accuracy, a pretty neat transformation, good sculpting and great articulation. But something had to give, which was its QC. Most other Bee attempts had them look pretty ok but were solidly built.

 

For what it's worth, I prefer the Zeta Toys version to the Transform Element version. Neither are perfect, but I had the usual Black Mamba quality control issues with the Transform Elements. (One of the pins were too lose and the back of the leg / roof came off.)

 

I finally opened my received package. The good news: God the robot mode looks better and more beautiful than in pictures! The weathering fingerprint does not bother me at all. Can't really be seen unless putting my eyes very close to it. Now I see I would prefer weathering. Really I am blown away of the detail and quality! Also feels pretty heavy for such a size figure.

The bad news: I didn't even move any parts and it looks like after inspection, I notice 1 visible crack left leg back joint. Also the leg transformation piece isn't popped it right. I can't see any box damage or packaging damage. However 1 front chest piece got popped out and luckily I could find it inside the box. I suggest the box or package during shipping did got a strong hit or something.

The moving joints parts of the figure look so small. I had Trans-scanning Bumblebee and Optimus and both ended up with breakage parts. Perhaps Transcraft should have used a stronger plastic or change those joints into metal or make the figure bigger.

Looking at the box package I can't really understand why Transcraft put such a fragile figure in a paper box that is so weak and thin. They should have gone for the masterpiece boxes in my opinion and then foam inside.

 

Pain.

 

I'm buying the KO of this in a heartbeat. I haven't touched my copy for a few months now. Maybe someone can work on 3D printed parts to replace all of the pieces that are deteriorating? I have half a mind to disassemble mine and cast the problem parts in a stronger resin. I need to purchase a pin pusher.

 

I still haven't got my replacement part from Show Z after 3 months

 

+1 to the breakage club here, sadly. Just transformed mine back to robot mode (he's only been transformed twice each way) and the disc that part of his front bumper is attached to on one side just completely broke in half across the screw hole. Also his right leg is very loose on the side-to-side axis, and I can see a slight crack at the joint, though fortunately not all the way through. I can't imagine he'd survive another transformation.

It's a real shame, as the design of this toy is fantastic, and the transformation is clever and fun: if the materials were better, this would be almost a shoe-in for my favourite toy this year. Someone above mentioned a KO - if the materials are strong (and the KO doesn't have its own issues) I'll happily buy that.

[EDIT] Just out of interest, am I right in thinking that it's only the dark grey plastic pieces that have been breaking for people? I don't think I've seen any reports of the yellow or lighter silver painted pieces breaking.

 

Just the dark grey plastic Ash...who here is an engineering student or of like mind to take a crack at the "why" of this situation, is it as simple as a bad plastic formula couple with smaller than required holes many of us have pondered on or something not covered as yet? It's something, but I'm no plastic engineering expert. If BMB KO's this they'll likely crush TC...unless TC is just another wing in the BMB empire.