resharing again just in case anyone missed it - i made a simple little bracket that plugs into the top of the trailer to keep the trailer closed. shared the file on thingiverse. i've tried the rubberband/hot garage but those didnt work for me.

WFC Rodimus Prime Trailer Bracket by bear0234

 

Has anyone grabbed that replacement nylon-printed back piece for attaching the spoiler canopy to the windshield?

I opened my Rodimus Prime to mess with him over the weekend and I've gotten those same stress marks on the small of his back as pictured earlier in the news thread. Not sure how I feel about paying $22 USD to fix a structural concern on a figure that's already cost me ~$113 CAD.

Other than the calves not closing, the back door of the trailer not locking shut, and the aforementioned stressing my Rodimus set is fine. Spiffier than I was expecting. Cold(er) weather right now in Canada means that my trailer fully closes properly outside of the (also aforementioned) rear door/hatch.

 

Someone should make a molded version of that piece, it’s one piece, nothing moving, no paint required

 

Ugh, I didn't even know this was a thing. I was worried about the translucent blue plastic.

Fan fact, those tiny stress marks are nothing compared to the ones on the other side of that section. Major when is this going to snap off energy. I don't know if it was like that fresh out of the box though. I think it's happening the first time people transform it from pressure as a result of not being entirely sure how all the hinges are supposed to sit nor how flush the backpack should collapse. There's not really any tension nor difficulty if it's all lined up right prior to tabbing the backpack into the translucent blue glass.

It would be far less of an issue if there hadn't been a lot of molds lately where you have to force something into to place to the point that you're not sure if it's going to break (looking at you panel which flips and that holds Earthrise/Kingdom Wheeljack's head).

 

I got him at a slight discount and I have some THOUGHTS.

I really loved Sky Lynx, but was kind of neutral on Jetfire. In every way Sky Lynx felt tactile and fun and playable, Jetfire felt kind of stiff and well, just a large man that wasn't all that fun to pose. I'm happy to say Rodimus falls into the Sky Lynx side of Commanders for me, while also not acting as just a larger retread of the SS Hot Rod.

The price clicked into gear for me when I realized that I paid more than this in 09 money for the US release of MP09. Rodimus is a much better figure than MP09, and while obviously its been over 10 years it should be better, its just a cateogically much more interesting package.

The trailer feels solid and has a lot of fun moving parts, I quite like the weird hydraulic flap, and that it can fit a modern car in there. The turret is a great turret, especially since its detachable. I couldn't get it to quite store all of its accessories cleanly while shut but you can't have it all.

At first I straight up didnt like the face sculpt, but I have him and Hot Rod side by side and its been growing on me. I gave the sword Rodimus comes with to Hot Rod, and gave Rodimus one of the silver Matrix Swords from DR Wu and it rules. Rodimus' transformation is definitely slightly more complex than Hot Rod but you really feel every inch of that budget. Some of my favorite experiments with Transformers of the past few years have been placing higher parts count and budget into less space on a toy, and Rodimus continues the trend that Hot Rod, Shockwave, and others have set out.

I like him way more than I ever expected to. Fantastic coda to our current line, and I'm thrilled to see what a Motormaster in this variety looks like.

 

What's this stress mark you speak of? I couldn't find any pics. That thread is 100 pages long.

Edit: never mind. It's present on my copy as well. And I've only transformed him once!

 

Yeah, I've transformed him once so far. Tried using a hair dryer after I noticed the trouble but that didn't seem to do a whole lot to make the stress marks go away. Kinda tempted to get the nylon replacement piece for the spoiler to windshield attachment point but I kinda also don't want to dump all my eBay bucks into one tiny piece.

My matrix is also incredibly sloppy on the paintjob, but I don't consider that a significant issue since everyone's swimming in matrices after a certain point of collecting WFC stuff.

https://i.imgur.com/hPw8Lx4.jpg

Look just under the orange part of the spoiler and between those two vents. There's whitening on either side near that black hinge.

 

Welcome to Intro to Fingerpainting 101 . . .

This is an area where they really should be injecting different colours into the same mold piece (as well as using commingled sprues/molds) but, I don't even want to think about what that would do to the MSRP even though the part count wouldn't change (but the mold and injection process would obviously be far more complex). It wouldn't eliminate the need for paint apps entirely (especially not for intricate tampos) but, it would reduce the amount needed drastically:

e.g. The spoiler wouldn't have to be painted nor the base colour of the chest/hood nor the thighs if they commingled the sprues/molds.

e.g. The Matrix and the collar wouldn't have to be painted if they injected different colours into the same mold.

The flip side to that (beyond the budget increase) would be trying to match paint to the plastic (which we know is a struggle for production) as well as the shade/hue not being what it could.

e.g. The Matrix handles would probably be the same colour as that grey/silver connector on the inside of the chest/hood at the bottom.

They really need to work on reducing the excessive amount of marbling when they use a metallic plastic before they do anything else though. Almost the entire top section of my leader Kingdom Optimus Prime trailer looks like a feather (with the seam serving as the rachis) and each side of the trailer top being a mirrored version of the barbs and barbules. The marbling has just been over the top in Siege/Earthrise/Kingdom.

 

We’ve come a long way

I still fucking love Protector, as limited as it was by that hot rod mold

 

I finally broke down and got this guy. There is a lot of play value and the core robot is very well designed. I would have preferred a yellow plastic spoiler as opposed to painted, same with the orange thighs. Trailer on mine doesn’t shut either but it gets close enough for the most part.

Regarding the flame/smoke effects, instead of trying to remove the black paint I just dry brushed them a few progressive shades of blue.

 

I wish I had just painted over the paint on mine instead of watching one crumble and having to order a clear pair (as well as a translucent orange pair) off of eBay.

 

I find it a little disturbing that POTP Rodimus has the best overall proportions in truck mode.  

 

It’s only at the expense of literally everything else!  

 

Mirror posting this from the General Upgrade Kits thread as well, but these are how the inner stress marks on the spoiler assembly of my Rodimus look after getting dunked in freshly boiled water to alleviate the plastic stress.

I've opted to separate the black hinges at the mushroom peg connection and just leave the entire assembly as a partsforming piece attached solely by the upper windshield tab.

 

Not sure how the tolerances of the black hinge part on your copy was like and upon inspection, I also found some small stress marks on a similar place on my copy.

However, I do manage to do a quick fix on my copy, which somewhat prevents the plastic stress to spread further (Note: Depending on your copy's tolerance, the effectiveness of the fix I suggest is a YMMV thing; If you're willing to try out this fix, do it at your own risk!)

Rodimus's backpack is collected to the figure itself with a mushroom peg connection on a black hinge, first, remove the whole backpack from the figure carefully.

As I removed mine and inspect the possible culprit of the stress marks on my copy, I discover that the black hinge part was meant to swivel and rest flat on a specifically designed flat nub (Highlighted in green circle) in Robot mode. On my copy, however, the tolerance of the black hinge is slightly off and didn't fold flat on the nub as the intended design, which might cause plastic stress on the inner parts.

To solve this problem on my copy, what I do is try to slowly trim or sand down the surface on the black hinge part that was supposed to sit flat on the nub part (Just the surface highlighted in the yellow circle); Depending on your copy, it might also be helpful to also sand down some of the other surfaces of the black hinge, but the main surface the fix focuses on is the surface specifically highlighted in the yellow circle)



Trim the surface down with either a sharp hobby knife or sanding file of a suitable size until the hinge can be smoothly folded inward and sit flat on the intended nub (Without feeling like you're stressing the hinge) like this:



After a smooth tolerance was achieved, you could carefully reassemble the backpack piece back.

 

Thanks for that. I have a raised part too, but that side in your second pic doesn't rest against anything either robot or car mode. So I don't know if it'll help but filed it down anyway.

 

Did you erase the outer stress marks?

 

I didn't explain it as clearly as I could have, but when you had the black hinge in a position like this straight upward, there are 2 faces of the part; One side that faces outward (Pointed with a green arrow) and one faces inward (pointed with orange arrow). Just file down the inner surface of the hinge pointed by the orange arrow until the hinge can fold down and rest 90 degrees flat inward.



With the fix, you want to make sure that the hinge can able to fold inward 90 degrees straight smoothly (Like this), without feeling like you need to stress the plastic to do so.



With the fix, there's no need to touch the raised surface highlighted in the green circle below:

 

Ah I see what you're saying now. Makes more sense. I'll try that. Thanks bro.