These things in many cases are very easy to weed out if they're scams. Some simple tips:

1) if the product is half the going rate (or less) and coming from China, it's either a KO or a straight up scam. If no KO of the product exists, it's a scam.
2) if buying from a seller from China and they have less than a couple hundred items sold, avoid them.
3) if the seller from China has several hundred or 1000s of feedback, make sure their rating is around 99% or better.
4) if the seller from China passes 2 and 3, look through their feedback and see what they've recently sold. If it's a ton of very cheap items and/or completely unrelated product to what you're looking at, odds are overwhelmingly high you're not going to get it.
5) it's pretty common for sellers from China to do legitimate business for a while and then suddenly offer a ton of product for too good to be true prices, then take the money and run. This is referred to as a seller 'going rogue'. Basically, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. If it looks too good to be true and the seller is from China, it definitely is...
6) similar to the above. Looks at what else the seller is selling. If it's all (or mostly) at ridiculous prices, they've gone rogue. The seller should also have a good amount of related product at realistic prices if they're a legit seller.

 

It's proof it can be done but I said the same thing when I was test transforming him off camera, "There's no fucking way this flap can fold outward!" lol. I was glad I figured it out.

 

works. thanks

 

Only had time to mess with Deathwish last night.
Cool, intuitive, a bit scary, but fun transformation.
Overall, I love him. His paint in immaculate.
The only real trouble I had was getting his heel (left?) to pop out from his toes.
I was desperate (and stupid), and used a small flathead to un-lodge it… resulting in a mild scratch to the paint.  
But hey… It's on the bottom of his heel. I ain't gonna sweat THAT!!!

Hopefully I'll have time to transform Overheat tonight.
NOTE TO SELF:
No getting desperate, and ABSOLUTELY NO being stupid!!!

 

Someone thought I was unfair for pointing out that he might have this opinion in another thread. I like a lot his intentions and opinions but if you say anything other than agree with him on this forum it’s how dare you.

I have no problems with my figures and would encourage everyone to always be careful and never assume something regardless of the manufacturer. I have had to file on or make changes to many figures from all companies. Having said that hold XTB to the fire, like I did, and make sure they make things right. We all should be here to help each other out.

 

That's a first. There must've been something lost in communication.

 

I got my spudger off of Amazon, got a kit with several spudgers and tweezers, they called it a phone repair kit, but it works great for what I needed

 

Fanstoys typically charge unless it's a common break.

I asked for a couple extra faces etc and got charged shipping, my soars shoulder broke and didn't. Same for foragers wing, no charge but when i asked for a broken Apache foot connector i had to pay.

Either luck of the draw or they cover postage for known problems

 

The only times FT has ever charged me is if I ask for spare parts/accessories that are not for replacing anything broken. Any other time if I really do need a replacement part for something actually broken, I never get charged. I make sure I include pics of the broken part and the replacement piece for.

XTB/KFC on the other hand will charge shipping for replacement parts no matter what if I go directly to them for the part.

 

I think FT always want you to go through your retailer first where possible. That's part of what charging you double the product's cost is about...

 

They've never had an issue with me going directly through them. Besides, its faster. Also in the instances where I just need spare parts not due to qc issue, the retailer cannot help.

 

I don't think I've ever been charged for parts, FT, XTB, MMC etc. aside from shipping. All three of those companies have been superb though with after market support!

 

Not saying they won't help, but I would bet (and I'm about 99% sure I've seen d say it himself) they want you to go through your retailer first. Obviously if you want a random spare part, that's not really your retailer's obligation, nor can they easily accommodate that in most cases. And you buying most of your stuff from Toaboa or eBay, I can see why you'd just go to the source, but if you're buying from the typical retailers, you 'should' be hitting them up first for issues.

 

Don't need to tell us anything but I'll tell you that xtb fucked up on this one. Bad. You should not be able to break it by pushing it in exactly the direction that the instructions tell you to. You can get around it by being careful exactly where you put the pressure (though there might be some variance from one copy to the next) but bottom line is that, if you can break it without deviating from the instructions, then they did something wrong.

I think I've seen reports of two people having their replacement parts shipped to them but I still haven't heard back from them on mine so I might need to follow up. If they're gonna pull that crap where they send the one piece and expect me to remove pins, though, I'm going to insist on exchanging my while figure for a replacement. You should never have too deal with that crap because of a defective figure.

 

They charged me $8 for a replacement chest for Quietus. However, I'm not complaining. The new one better paint quality. This is the only time I contacted FT for customer support, so I don't know how it looked previously.

 

I guess people can go whichever route works for them. I know and do what works best for me.

 

All good as far as I'm concerned...I don't work for them or deal with the requests. I guess my point was just, if we're offering advice on how one 'should' handle their issues, I'm sure these guys would prefer the first line of defense be the retailers as that's sort of their job. But by all means, the end goal is to have a working product and no skin off my back how that gets accomplished. Far as I'm concerned, go knock on your neighbor's door and make them get it sorted for you if that works...just as long as I'm not your neighbor.  

 

I received Dragstrip today. No problems transforming him. Yeah that back hood piece is stiff as a mofo but it ended up being just fine. Pictures don’t do Dragstrip justice as I really really like him in hand. Very freaking cool!

 

In this case don't offer advice on how one 'should' handle their issues. I simply explain what I did, and have been doing which works for me the fastest and best. In the end it is up to the individual on how they would like to proceed. In cases where I discover a way to cut the turnaround time shorter, I gladly share it.

 

Overheat has been my favourite of the group so far, and is the one I find least frustrating to transform. Which may be a large part of it. I still need to pick up Deathwish at some point when I have some spare cash.

Here are some pics from a review I've just finished.