It was the worst transformation of my MP 'career' lol

 

Touché sir

 

"It's easy ...... because I watched someone else's video."

LOL.

 

I actually think it’s a pretty cool transformation. Just very involved and massive which makes it trickier. The hardest part was putting Gravestone in. That wasn’t fun.

 

I mean, I did my typical "no instructions" run, and it didn't give me much trouble.

 

Looking good, but that thigh closure piece is a bummer. Will a little heat straighten that out?

Got mine transformed last night. Wanted to spend an hour before bed, but spent closer to 2 hours once I got close to the end. It was long and complex, but also fun and I didn't want to put it down. And kind of floppy halfway through so I also didn't want to put it down.


One stress mark right out of the box.

Fortunately you cannot see it once the leg is closed up. Anyone have any luck getting replacement parts from XTB for broken tabs and missing bits on this trailer?

And finally, it was late and I was ready for bed. I didn't quite get the torso tabbed into the waist. One side flips up to push the rod (releasing the gear that allows the upper half to rotate up straight). The other side with those 4 slots can go up and down a bit, but doesn't activate anything. Once I'm ready to tab things in, how much (if any) do I need to rotate up those side pieces with the 4 slots? The 4 slots on each side of the torso didn't quite line up to fit and I didn't spend much time before calling it a night. How much do those side bits need to be tilted up before the four slotted bits fit in?

 

Just got mine and I used the stop motion transformation sequence video on slowest and didn't have too many issues, though I haven't put any other stunticons on it yet. I preferred that vid because they did the legs first, which allows you to stand him up when doing the torso.

Biggest issue which I got stuck on was the right kind of bend on the rear of the trailer so the top front of the chest wasn't aligned with the tabs that sandwich together. Had to unfold him and redo the bend.

Pretty creative, not as difficult as I thought it would be (though not easy) but way over-engineered. On the other hand, trailer mode looks so good, combined mode looks so good, and individual bot modes look so good, so I guess it was worth it? I'm also ignoring base mode so I think that was the misstep.

Pleased to be finished with the Stunticons and hopefully have no more combiners as fundamentally challenging as Menasaur regarding scale etc.

 

Roar!
This guy keeps on showing up in the Menasor thread.

 

I left Gravestone out, seems to stand pretty well without him. I've got him in anothet deltof and glad I did as his robot mode is fantastic.

 

I tried a little and got it a little better but it's still not great. Also, because that bit got jammed, it's apparently also warped at the pin and there's a stress mark there. I can't get any heat to that area without damaging the finish unless I disassemble and remove the pin. And with the stress mark, I'm worried about it just snapping off.

I emailed XTB so hopefully they'll send a replacement thigh.

Also, my sword has ED and won't stay straight.

 

He definitely does better with him out but I just couldn’t deal with only having Gravestone standing free without his compadres. On the other hand really pointless to have all those additional faces in accessories kit with no figure to put them on because he’s stuffed into the back of Menasor.

 

You do you and I'll do me

 

Which video is that? I think there might be a handful of transformation videos but which one is the definitive, easiest to follow video?

 

It's this video

 

I used this video as well. There were parts where I had to look at other videos. Mainly due to his lack of lighting. Used Bobbys and Ben's to check and make sure.

 

Well, I tried playing with him a bit more. I'm less enthused. He looks amazing... Like, I've done a complete 180 since the beginning. But...

There are too many loose joints and flimsy panels as previously noted by others. Those knee screws... Even though mine are "tight", it's such a tiny connection point that bending the knees is scary, even when doing my best to apply force in the safest ways.

I'm sure I could get him into some decent poses, but I don't trust the joints to hold and it's not worth the effort to tediously position each joint to only put him back into a more stable position for the shelf.

The A-stance seems stable enough at least, so that's how he'll live out his life. Handsome, stoic, and untouched except to dust (and to replace that thigh if XTB sends a replacement).

I'm keeping him so I guess I got my money's worth.

 

Got mine on Sunday, went through the trailer-to-Menasor transformation, and ended up with the same tab hanging off in the same way. I don't think it was like that out of the box, but I didn't do a thorough inspection. All I'm certain about is that I didn't break it through some direct action; I was just fiddling with something on the other side of the body, rotated him around, and suddenly noticed the broken tab. Maybe it was like that out of the box; maybe my moving some other part bent that panel against something. It's a little frustrating, since I don't even know how it happened, and since replacing this panel would involve removing multiple pins. I'll probably just leave it, since I don't think it's of structural importance.

Some disorganized overall thoughts:

• After seeing a lot of frustration in this thread with the transformation, I was equal parts nervous and excited to experience it first hand. Fortunately, I found it to be pretty reasonable, although it must be said that I watched Transforms Into A Guitar's essential videos a few times when they came out, so they were in the back of my mind. @Mykltron , that's you, right? Huge thank-you!
• I think on the macro level, the transformation is extremely straight-forward: split the back into two halves, pull out the arms and fold up the sides of the trailer to become the sides of the torso, push the trailer wheels through the bottom of the trailer to the other side, shape the torso, split the front of the trailer into two halves, fold the two halves inside out to make the lower legs, pull out and shape the legs. Unfortunately, at the micro level, the transformation is incredibly fiddly, unforgiving, and has a lot of "do this thing before doing that thing" where the order of operations isn't immediately obvious. The sheer size and weight of the thing makes everything 10x harder, too. Overall, to me this feels like a transformation that works well in CAD, and less well with a physical object that's subject to laws of physics.
• The lower leg-to-knee joint connection is absolutely unforgivable. The screws on mine seem to be well-seated, I didn't see any gaps, there's no shearing, etc, but the entire connection point is a plastic cylinder with a narrow diameter, the parts held together by a tiny screw. If I try to bend the knee and apply pressure anywhere on the lower leg, a gap between the knee and the lower leg starts to open up. I really need to manipulate the knee directly, which suuuuucks because the joint it so tight. This definitely should have been designed some other way (for starters, a wider and longer cylinder for the rotation joint to create a stiffer connection would have been nice).
  
• The final product looks absolutely magnificent. I haven't had the time to plug all the bots in yet, so going off of just the Menasor skeleton, but I'm really smitten with it. I think there's a lot to be said for DX9's efforts, there are a lot of positives (like a transformation that doesn't make you break out in cold sweat...), but in terms of looks, I absolutely prefer this XTB version.
• The Menasor head's limited up-and-down movement is a bummer.
• I wish the feet were designed such that the front and the back would slide apart together. As-is, you kinda have to slide one end apart a little, then the other, then the first one a little more, etc.
• I'm a little perplexed by the reports of the waist coming apart when people pick up the torso. Mine is rock-solid. I can only assume that something in the waist isn't getting plugged in fully (and no shame in that, it took a lot of force at an awkward angle to make the tabs click in for me).

For the most part, I'm really loving this guy. I'll see if I still feel the same after I have time to do the transformation back to trailer.

Right?! It's unbelievable!

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. One of the most thorough text review of XTB Menasor trailer I've ever read.

 

Also while we're accumulating links, this is the stop motion one I used which does legs first, and has going back to trailer as well (haven't tried that yet)

My only criticism of that vid is I could not see the step where you have to pull out the spring loaded peg to bend the waist.