With every new invention like this, Keith might be Commander in Chief of all Chinese Forces soon.

 

I think that you can overcome the weakness in the hips by use of some fishing line and eyehole bolts in the wall.

You just need to loop one line around the waist, one line around the chest, a backup line just under the neck, and a couple backups around the arms. Secure these to the wall.

You might want to loop a couple extra lines around each leg and put up a small fence around the whole thing just in case.

Simple solution.

 

How do I get ahold of X-Transbots? My shoulders on Overheat just broke.

 

is that a friction joint in the knees to? lol oh boy

 

Fuck me I think they might just do a v2 of the trailer after seeing the review. Without ratchets those legs will be hilarious. Shit I think I need to cancel a pre order.

 

yup, I love the look of this Menasor but why no ratchets for his lower body? I wouldn’t mind a delay just to adjust those possible weak points IMO.

 

I like it. It's a shame that the trailer is so panelly. Those motormaster faces should've been with the trailer.

 

there will need to be a lot of friction for the thighs, otherwise this thing will collapse into a heap

 

Yes - this concerns me.

 

The joints don't have to remain strong forever, they just have to be strong enough long enough for Keith supporters to deny that they were a problem in the first place!!!

 

The only v2 would be a repaint of some sort like the G2 version.

 

XTB will address this issue in the new ratchet add-on kit in 2030 for and extra $300 USD.

They will also include Gravestone’s new Oh... oh... oh... face too.

 

Lol

 

I just have the 1st 3 toy versions...this thing is taking so long...and is going through so many revisions...I may just sell them and wait for something better...

 

If I may provide a bit of a counterpoint on the hip ratchet "issue", I would like to note that around 35 minutes into Ben's review, you can see him holding the figure off the ground, and the dangling right leg is unsupported and does not sway or droop. So from that alone, it seems the joint is sufficiently tight enough. There's also the transformation at around 18 minutes, where the legs are propped up in the air unsupported at oblique angles and show no signs of dropping under their own weight (they don't have the cars attached here, though, so they're lighter than they'd normally be). Otherwise, while he complains about the lack of forward/back ratchet, he doesn't show the joint engaged very well to fully judge by. No signs of how well the hips support the upper torso. XTB's social media photos that show more dynamic poses suggest that the joints work just fine, but of course, they're no unbiased source.

There is actual strong engineering logic behind omitting the hip (and seemingly knee) ratchets, however. A strong ratchet mechanism needs an equally strong housing, to be able to withstand the backlash forces of the springs. And when you get figures this large and heavy, you start needing some really heavy duty joints and parts to provide much effect at all. Weak ratchets may as well not exist. With how much of the surrounding assemblies seem to be comprised of thinner panels sandwiched together, it's possible that such a strong ratchet assembly could have done more harm than good, with the toy potentially tearing itself apart under the mechanical strain. Alternately, a ratchet joint strong enough to provide any meaningful resistance could simply have made the leg far too troublesome to manipulate. A sufficiently strong friction joint largely sidesteps those issues. It just remains to be seen that they've done that correctly, making sure the joint is tensioned well enough to begin with, and remains tensioned without deteriorating.

 

fair enough

 

I should note that my defense doesn't necessarily mean I fully condone that design decision. The toy seems a bit over-designed just for the sake of the base mode that is probably going to be seen very rarely, and even then, I feel like there should have been a way to simplify that design to make it more sturdy. But without knowing or following the full design history/process, I'm just spitballing here.

 

So the best way to look at this would be to compare to similar size combiners, as they would need the reinforced housings and strongly constructed joints needed to balance the ratchets.

Do Zeta Superion, Zeta Bruticus or Toyworld Constructor use friction or ratchets? If they use ratchets, how were they able to accomplish that engineering?

 

None of those Combiners have transforming waist sections, so they can assuredly house the really beefy ratchet assemblies that I'm referring to.

I don't own any of those figures, so I have no clue how they actually work, mind you.

You can look to Terminus Giganticus, though, for example of what happens to such a heavy-duty joint when all its associated parts aren't appropriately reinforced.

 

Ratchets and the necessary supports are expensive. If Zeta or Toyworld spent the money to put them in (especially Zeta, as they are budget) then they must have had good reason.