A third party accessory maker Renderform has taken on the task of giving Crasher a head inspired by her Gobots look.
Looks pretty good; not perfect since it needs to fit into the transformation (Crasher had a very large head in Gobots) and I feel like it should have included the cat/reptillian pupils she had sometime in the show, but she's got the look so I'm getting it. Painted lips and lightpiping so it's doesn't look like any corners were cut.
Problem is that it's really pricey (Well over half of the cost of the original figure, plus even more for shipping) but I decided to splurge since my own Crasher still has a messed up face.
I'm really tempted by the Dino Megazord being on sale like that. I've wanted a Dino Megazord since I was a kid, and the ZAP version looks really awesome - but I've heard some complaints about design, QC issues, etc, so I don't know if it's worth it. On the other hand, it's like $60 off or whatever, which maybe makes up for the flaws?
Can someone sell me on the ZAP Dino Megazord? Or the reverse, demonstrate that I totally shouldn't get it?
+2
AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
I'm really tempted by the Dino Megazord being on sale like that. I've wanted a Dino Megazord since I was a kid, and the ZAP version looks really awesome - but I've heard some complaints about design, QC issues, etc, so I don't know if it's worth it. On the other hand, it's like $60 off or whatever, which maybe makes up for the flaws?
Can someone sell me on the ZAP Dino Megazord? Or the reverse, demonstrate that I totally shouldn't get it?
The reason I didn't buy it is because of two reasons:
1: I already own this:
2. I have this on pre-order:
If these two factors weren't true, I would've DEFINITELY jumped on the ZAP Dino Megazord after watching the reviews.
Edit: Shit. Watching these videos is reminding me that the ZAP Dragonzord is so cool and I don't currently have the battle mode displayed in any way...
AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
Whelp. My impulses got the best of me yet again.
But I can explain! Kinda.
So last year, or maybe the year before, Play Monster came out with this toy line called "Snap ships." Think Legos, but for spaceships. The idea being that you can plug together a bunch of core modules to customize things. It's the same basic idea as the Zords Fuzors stuff they did around 2005.
I thought it looked cool, but I wasn't sure the quality for the price. I also didn't need to get into another toy line.
However, somewhere along the line I heard they were doing a minis game.
I've seen Amazon have ridiculous sales on Snap Ships from time to time, I'm talking like a $20 set going down to $5.
I bought two of one of the smaller sets to check out, and my verdict is: this rules, it's a really excellent idea AND execution, but I am not nearly creative enough to enjoy the line's full potential. And also, they're bigger than I thought from the photos.
So, I just got this huge box that landed today and remembered I bought MP Skyfire a while ago. When I say this box is huge, it is the largest Masterpiece box I now have seen (even bigger than my Optimus Prime with trailer). I was so excited to get this guy back when I ordered him since I've always wanted a MP Skyfire (Jetfire) from the show and not my Macross Valkyries. Here he is with a Bandai High Metal-R Macross VF-1S toy box for reference (that toy is much smaller).
Contents of the box.
There is a lot of empty space in the box and I'm guessing because they chose to ship him in jet mode. Probably could have saved box space if they shipped him in robot mode, but guess maybe then they'd have to support him more so that would make sense.
The real neat additional pieces are these "scale" tiny Optimus Prime, Wheeljack, and Jazz figures that come with him.
I absolutely love these little figures since they have a lot of joints and you can store them inside of Skyfire in both modes. Actually that is the most impressive part of this toy, you can store all of his extra emblems that you are not using (Decpticon and Blank for the episode where he is introduced in the cartoon being a non-affiliated Transformer) and his extra faces in his backpack. This makes me happier than you can imagine since I'm always storing extra pieces in these art bins for all of my MPs. The only thing that isn't stored inside of him is the bracket adapter for the stand and the blast/engine effects.
I transformed him to look like the "Macross" mode where his booster on his back is more like a Macross Strike Package.
Here he is in robot mode.
My only gripe is that the backpack transformation was a bit annoying since it can slide up and down while transforming (and was tight trying to compress it for robot mode. The arms have these nice gap fillers for the back of the chest, but tend to pop off when I'm posing him since I can't get the tabs to fit quite right yet. Then his legs are a bit odd trying to get him to balance standing in a straight position and I'm worrying about him falling over, but he does seem to stand quite stable even though I'm worrying a bit. The things I love about him is that he has fingers that you can move independently from each other and the thumb isn't that bad either (no complete rotation at the base of the thumb, but it is good enough). Overall though he feels solid standing there and I absolutely love him! Now I need to find a place in my display since area is getting quite scarce, but I finally have a really nice looking Skyfire/Jetfire! Here I thought I would be able to pass on him after getting the Siege one, but glad I didn't.
I've seen Amazon have ridiculous sales on Snap Ships from time to time, I'm talking like a $20 set going down to $5.
I bought two of one of the smaller sets to check out, and my verdict is: this rules, it's a really excellent idea AND execution, but I am not nearly creative enough to enjoy the line's full potential. And also, they're bigger than I thought from the photos.
You aren't kidding about the size!
Okay, first thing: They keep putting "Patent pending" all over the place. I suspect this is because they are fighting or at least questioning what Tomy/Hasbro did with the Zoids Fuzors line. The Snap ship cores are the same basic concept as the Fuzors core block. The difference is that the Snap Ships design has one side as a permanent connector, and has a star-shaped socket so that you can theoretically only set things at 45 or 90 degrees. Some pieces are meant to rotate, but the majority plug "Securely" in place (they can be floppy if you aren't careful). Otherwise, the Fuzors model kits have a bunch of connectors with ball joints, solid joints, curved joints, etc.
Here's an example of one of my half-assembled Fuzors bits, along with a Snap Ships core block for size. I took this picture last.
So onto the box! I opened the 2-pack to begin with. The internal packaging is designed to show off the most impressive painted pieces, the cockpits, the pilots, and the "Special weapons" that are supposed to be the surprise item but they are in the manual.
The manuals are very large and "clear" in how to assemble the ships. There are a few points where they obviously used an early prototype piece, and then the actual toy is simplified. It is somewhat hard to tell which piece is which. But there aren't too many options, so it isn't too big a deal. There's also a nice "here's what else we have" ship list. The Kickstarter says there have been 22 skus since 2020, so that's actually pretty impressive.
I focused on the Wasp to get a feel for assembling things. So here's all the parts you get with it.
And here's what the first model looks like.
Again: Chunky! It's not a bad design. And it used all the core parts except 1 orange connector, which might have been an extra. There's also 3 missile launching pieces (the special weapon and two smaller twin shooters). To attach the ship to the stand (the lid of the box), you need to pop off one piece... again, not a huge deal, but nice that they more or less decorated all the sides.
It was at this point that I surprised myself by splitting open my fingertip. A bit of flashing or something slipped as I was using the prying tool to get things apart, and I didn't notice anything. Then a moment later I noticed blood on the ship's pieces. I washed my hands and cleaned off the blood, and still didn't notice the cut until I really looked hard. It's not my first wound from plastic pieces coming apart with force.
In any case.
This design is a deep recon variant, and doesn't really like the stand.
And this one is the bomber mode.. which, IMO, is the most impressive combination.
As for the companion ship, the Falx? Well.. I admittedly figured out that I only really liked the standard "Escort" version, versus the Ground Assault or Experimental Fighter version. So.. it gets to live its chunky life like this.
So.. yeah! The concept's pretty much as good as I was hoping. The pre-attached connectors will make it much more rigid, though there are definitely pieces that can help lock things together. And even in these sets, there is enough uniqueness to make things.. interesting. I'd love to see what people can build.
Thinking about getting Blueberry up there so I'm cruising ShowZ to see if there's anything else I want.
...I'm seeing a few warhammer figures. Did third party finally branch out into something other than Transformers? Also could they have picked a more litigious company to try and do IP theft on?
Thinking about getting Blueberry up there so I'm cruising ShowZ to see if there's anything else I want.
...I'm seeing a few warhammer figures. Did third party finally branch out into something other than Transformers? Also could they have picked a more litigious company to try and do IP theft on?
JoyToy's figures are officially licensed! Which shocked me! They're also extremely good (...while also having some persistent issues that are gonna be familiar to collectors, stuff like "better heat up the hands before you try to pop them off the joints to swap in other ones", and "this joint might break in half if you pull too hard", etc).
I did a mini-review of one of their Ultramarines in the second half of this post:
I was actually strongly contemplating buying a couple of Sisters of Battle yesterday. Some reviews I've seen are of the opinion that they are their best figures yet. I'm pretty sure I'll end up with at least one of them sooner or later.
It's my birthday and my dad always goes all out and sends me a care package of stuff he knows I'll like and this year was no exception haha
Personally really excited about the Simpsons stuff I have a small Simpsons collection forming now
Oh I should add, I have this cool setup for under my stairs and tried to do some themed cubes but I'm starting to get crowded in some spots
Long story short there was an episodeeof the original cartoon called War Dawn where the Aerielbots got sent back in time, met a plucky young autobot named Orion Pax, his girlfriend Ariel and his buddy Dion. Pax though Megatron was the bee's knees and was super excited to meet him, until Megatron blew him and his friends the hell up and it was up to Alpha Trion to rebuild them; Orion Pax became Optimus Prime, Ariel became Elita-1 and Dion.. was never heard from again.
Dion has gotten at least two figures, one a japanese e-hobby exclusive redeco of G1 Wheelie (a terrible figure) and one of a redeco of Universe Hot Shot (never owned one) released as bonus for the Transformers Collector's Club I think., Ariel (Now Erial, I guess), on the other hand, has never received a figure before, like, ever.
Dion is another retool of '86 Kup, which is a mold I'm not fond of, and Erial is a retool of Legacy Arcee, a mold I don't dislike but already own twice so it's dampened my enthusiasm for this set. I'll still get it, of course, since I already have a Orion Pax I'm not using for anything; guess I can put them with Origins Bee and Jazz.
AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
edited March 23
Oh nooo.. after assembling the "base" ships (the ones that will be part of the minis game) and one of the sets of drones, I'm feeling myself fall way down the snap ships rabbit hole. The bigger ships, especially the drop ships and troop transports, are just incredible looking. Yes, the pieces are simple.. but there's a ton of variety. I wouldn't know how they could turn a profit on these, though I guess there is no assembly other than the core blocks.
Edit: The reviews are mainly right that the 0S is primarily plastic. I'm not sure what they were expecting other than a DX quality piece for the price of a smaller toy. There is an issue with the head of the 0S not extended all the way making it feel that it is misassembled. I pulled it out a bit and it is fine now.
So my BBTS POL shipment came in, first item I cracked was Needlenose.
I had gotten this guy because I had fond memories of this guy and Spinister as a kid.
Opening him up I was confused, because the two targetmasters came…unassembled? Not hard to put together but why?
The transformation isn’t difficult, the worst part is near the end where you have to slot the top of the plane into the nibs on the feet and back.
Very posable, definite nostalgia hit.
Ok, I was confused with the unassembled Targetmasters as well when I opened him up yesterday. I thought my copy was broken or something, so I feel better about that not being the case. I did find it odd that one is completely painted while the other one wasn't. Sadly I only bought him because of his jet alt mode and no idea who he is other than that.
Oh yeah, I have (the most recent) Hardhead in my display case right now.
I almost considered Quake, but outside of Seekers and gestalt team members I'm generally not interested in recolors/redecos.
+2
Forever Zefirocloaked in the midnight glory of an event horizonRegistered Userregular
The new Figma Guyver I figure is up for preorder
It sucks they’ll probably never again get to any characters past Guyver I and III
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
+1
AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
(crossposted from D&D chat)
Gah! Third attempt at fixing this ratchet piece and I may be finally getting somewhere.
So, backstory.
I got a pretty cool toy last year. However, its legs felt and seemed weird. So I took it apart and found that the ratcheting pieces for the hips/thighs were broken and bent. This meant that it couldn't exactly stand properly, especially with all the weight of the model in place.
I tried contacting the manufacturer to see about replacement parts, but as they are in Japan and toy companies are kind of notorious for not providing fixes, I didn't get a reply.
So instead I began investigating repairing toys. My first attempt was to use alligator clips and ABS plastic cement, as well as heat to straighten out the bent parts.
It snapped pretty much the instant I put any pressure on it. I sighed, moved on.
Last week, I decided to take another crack at it because my game store got in some new plastic cement I wanted to try.
Context: The ratchet piece looks roughly like this: {- It's a C shaped bracket with a bump on one side and a peg on the other. The idea is that the encasement keeps the ratchet from moving any direction but up and down, and applies force to the connection so that it needs a certain amount of pressure to move. But once it moves, it slides into the next ratchet.
The split happened along the middle seam for both pieces. In essence, half of it snapped off, so now it was free to slide around in the ratchet enclosure. So my efforts have been on trying to mend things in such a way that they'll still not shift around, but work as intended.
For the second attempt, I cut off the (bent) pin completely, deciding that I can use some other material to help supplant the spring and keep it aligned right. I then tried gluing things together... and nothing happened. This was, of course, ABS. And typical plastic cement doesn't work on it. I quickly realized I didn't have the right tools, and my friends at the meetup didn't either.
So today, I picked up some super glue to try and get things to stay in place while I apply stronger glue. The plan is to use the super glue with a plastic bracing piece, and then use ABS plastic cement to fuse the two halves together. Finally, some foam will replace the peg.
Even after limited success I don't think I'm gonna succeed.
Honestly, this piece should be properly injection molded, due to the strains that would be placed on it. Though I am starting to wonder if it would be easier to 3d print something... or possibly 3d print something, use that to make a mold, and then use that mold to make replacement pieces.
It's all super frustrating. There's an argument that it may be worth my time just to get a new figure.
Have you tried contacting any on Etsy that offers replacement 3d printed parts for similar toys?
Not yet, but something similar was brought up in chat. There may be options of either 3d printing a piece, or designing something structurally similar. Heck, I might even get away with using some of my injection molded runners and leftover bits from other builds.
Posts
Looks pretty good; not perfect since it needs to fit into the transformation (Crasher had a very large head in Gobots) and I feel like it should have included the cat/reptillian pupils she had sometime in the show, but she's got the look so I'm getting it. Painted lips and lightpiping so it's doesn't look like any corners were cut.
Problem is that it's really pricey (Well over half of the cost of the original figure, plus even more for shipping) but I decided to splurge since my own Crasher still has a messed up face.
I'm really tempted by the Dino Megazord being on sale like that. I've wanted a Dino Megazord since I was a kid, and the ZAP version looks really awesome - but I've heard some complaints about design, QC issues, etc, so I don't know if it's worth it. On the other hand, it's like $60 off or whatever, which maybe makes up for the flaws?
Can someone sell me on the ZAP Dino Megazord? Or the reverse, demonstrate that I totally shouldn't get it?
The reason I didn't buy it is because of two reasons:
1: I already own this:
2. I have this on pre-order:
If these two factors weren't true, I would've DEFINITELY jumped on the ZAP Dino Megazord after watching the reviews.
Edit: Shit. Watching these videos is reminding me that the ZAP Dragonzord is so cool and I don't currently have the battle mode displayed in any way...
https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/234217
It's so adorable, and it actually transforms (It hides most of the kibble in the oversized head)
It's $50 for a Core class sized toy though, which is a bummer.
https://showzstore.com/magic-square-ms-g03-blueberry-girl-chromia_p4851.html
But I can explain! Kinda.
So last year, or maybe the year before, Play Monster came out with this toy line called "Snap ships." Think Legos, but for spaceships. The idea being that you can plug together a bunch of core modules to customize things. It's the same basic idea as the Zords Fuzors stuff they did around 2005.
I thought it looked cool, but I wasn't sure the quality for the price. I also didn't need to get into another toy line.
However, somewhere along the line I heard they were doing a minis game.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/snapships/snap-ships-tactics
And as evidenced by my collection, the idea of space combat minis games is REALLY appealing. So I'm like.. might be worth checking out.
Well, Bed Bath & Beyond tempted me...
I bought two of one of the smaller sets to check out, and my verdict is: this rules, it's a really excellent idea AND execution, but I am not nearly creative enough to enjoy the line's full potential. And also, they're bigger than I thought from the photos.
Contents of the box.
There is a lot of empty space in the box and I'm guessing because they chose to ship him in jet mode. Probably could have saved box space if they shipped him in robot mode, but guess maybe then they'd have to support him more so that would make sense.
The real neat additional pieces are these "scale" tiny Optimus Prime, Wheeljack, and Jazz figures that come with him.
I absolutely love these little figures since they have a lot of joints and you can store them inside of Skyfire in both modes. Actually that is the most impressive part of this toy, you can store all of his extra emblems that you are not using (Decpticon and Blank for the episode where he is introduced in the cartoon being a non-affiliated Transformer) and his extra faces in his backpack. This makes me happier than you can imagine since I'm always storing extra pieces in these art bins for all of my MPs. The only thing that isn't stored inside of him is the bracket adapter for the stand and the blast/engine effects.
I transformed him to look like the "Macross" mode where his booster on his back is more like a Macross Strike Package.
Here he is in robot mode.
My only gripe is that the backpack transformation was a bit annoying since it can slide up and down while transforming (and was tight trying to compress it for robot mode. The arms have these nice gap fillers for the back of the chest, but tend to pop off when I'm posing him since I can't get the tabs to fit quite right yet. Then his legs are a bit odd trying to get him to balance standing in a straight position and I'm worrying about him falling over, but he does seem to stand quite stable even though I'm worrying a bit. The things I love about him is that he has fingers that you can move independently from each other and the thumb isn't that bad either (no complete rotation at the base of the thumb, but it is good enough). Overall though he feels solid standing there and I absolutely love him! Now I need to find a place in my display since area is getting quite scarce, but I finally have a really nice looking Skyfire/Jetfire! Here I thought I would be able to pass on him after getting the Siege one, but glad I didn't.
Steam: betsuni7
You aren't kidding about the size!
Okay, first thing: They keep putting "Patent pending" all over the place. I suspect this is because they are fighting or at least questioning what Tomy/Hasbro did with the Zoids Fuzors line. The Snap ship cores are the same basic concept as the Fuzors core block. The difference is that the Snap Ships design has one side as a permanent connector, and has a star-shaped socket so that you can theoretically only set things at 45 or 90 degrees. Some pieces are meant to rotate, but the majority plug "Securely" in place (they can be floppy if you aren't careful). Otherwise, the Fuzors model kits have a bunch of connectors with ball joints, solid joints, curved joints, etc.
Here's an example of one of my half-assembled Fuzors bits, along with a Snap Ships core block for size. I took this picture last.
So onto the box! I opened the 2-pack to begin with. The internal packaging is designed to show off the most impressive painted pieces, the cockpits, the pilots, and the "Special weapons" that are supposed to be the surprise item but they are in the manual.
The manuals are very large and "clear" in how to assemble the ships. There are a few points where they obviously used an early prototype piece, and then the actual toy is simplified. It is somewhat hard to tell which piece is which. But there aren't too many options, so it isn't too big a deal. There's also a nice "here's what else we have" ship list. The Kickstarter says there have been 22 skus since 2020, so that's actually pretty impressive.
I focused on the Wasp to get a feel for assembling things. So here's all the parts you get with it.
And here's what the first model looks like.
Again: Chunky! It's not a bad design. And it used all the core parts except 1 orange connector, which might have been an extra. There's also 3 missile launching pieces (the special weapon and two smaller twin shooters). To attach the ship to the stand (the lid of the box), you need to pop off one piece... again, not a huge deal, but nice that they more or less decorated all the sides.
It was at this point that I surprised myself by splitting open my fingertip.
In any case.
This design is a deep recon variant, and doesn't really like the stand.
And this one is the bomber mode.. which, IMO, is the most impressive combination.
As for the companion ship, the Falx? Well.. I admittedly figured out that I only really liked the standard "Escort" version, versus the Ground Assault or Experimental Fighter version. So.. it gets to live its chunky life like this.
So.. yeah! The concept's pretty much as good as I was hoping. The pre-attached connectors will make it much more rigid, though there are definitely pieces that can help lock things together. And even in these sets, there is enough uniqueness to make things.. interesting. I'd love to see what people can build.
...I'm seeing a few warhammer figures. Did third party finally branch out into something other than Transformers? Also could they have picked a more litigious company to try and do IP theft on?
I did a mini-review of one of their Ultramarines in the second half of this post:
I was actually strongly contemplating buying a couple of Sisters of Battle yesterday. Some reviews I've seen are of the opinion that they are their best figures yet. I'm pretty sure I'll end up with at least one of them sooner or later.
Personally really excited about the Simpsons stuff I have a small Simpsons collection forming now
Oh I should add, I have this cool setup for under my stairs and tried to do some themed cubes but I'm starting to get crowded in some spots
PS - Local_H_Jay
Sub me on Youtube
And Twitch
Steam: betsuni7
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0BX2L8X9G
Edit: Cheapest I've seen it from a US site.
Steam: betsuni7
D3: HexDex#1281, PSN: DireOtter, Live: DireOtter
Long story short there was an episodeeof the original cartoon called War Dawn where the Aerielbots got sent back in time, met a plucky young autobot named Orion Pax, his girlfriend Ariel and his buddy Dion. Pax though Megatron was the bee's knees and was super excited to meet him, until Megatron blew him and his friends the hell up and it was up to Alpha Trion to rebuild them; Orion Pax became Optimus Prime, Ariel became Elita-1 and Dion.. was never heard from again.
Dion has gotten at least two figures, one a japanese e-hobby exclusive redeco of G1 Wheelie (a terrible figure) and one of a redeco of Universe Hot Shot (never owned one) released as bonus for the Transformers Collector's Club I think., Ariel (Now Erial, I guess), on the other hand, has never received a figure before, like, ever.
Dion is another retool of '86 Kup, which is a mold I'm not fond of, and Erial is a retool of Legacy Arcee, a mold I don't dislike but already own twice so it's dampened my enthusiasm for this set. I'll still get it, of course, since I already have a Orion Pax I'm not using for anything; guess I can put them with Origins Bee and Jazz.
Steam: betsuni7
Ordered, I don't own a Hi-Metal Valkyrie and want to branch out from my VF-1 collection.
You can get the 0S right now to prepare for the 0D.
https://www.amazon.com/Tamashi-Nations-Macross-Phoenix-HI-Metal/dp/B0B23ZMHYZ/
Edit: The reviews are mainly right that the 0S is primarily plastic. I'm not sure what they were expecting other than a DX quality piece for the price of a smaller toy. There is an issue with the head of the 0S not extended all the way making it feel that it is misassembled. I pulled it out a bit and it is fine now.
Steam: betsuni7
I had gotten this guy because I had fond memories of this guy and Spinister as a kid.
Opening him up I was confused, because the two targetmasters came…unassembled? Not hard to put together but why?
The transformation isn’t difficult, the worst part is near the end where you have to slot the top of the plane into the nibs on the feet and back.
Very posable, definite nostalgia hit.
Ok, I was confused with the unassembled Targetmasters as well when I opened him up yesterday. I thought my copy was broken or something, so I feel better about that not being the case. I did find it odd that one is completely painted while the other one wasn't. Sadly I only bought him because of his jet alt mode and no idea who he is other than that.
So do you have the new Spinster too?
Steam: betsuni7
I missed out on Quake, but if memory serves he was just a recolor of the autobot headmaster tank, and not a double targetmaster like the other two
EDIT: He's a redeco of Hardhead.
I had Quake for a while since I loved the Hardhead mold so much. Didn't know him past the IDW comics so sold him off a while ago.
Steam: betsuni7
I almost considered Quake, but outside of Seekers and gestalt team members I'm generally not interested in recolors/redecos.
It sucks they’ll probably never again get to any characters past Guyver I and III
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
Gah! Third attempt at fixing this ratchet piece and I may be finally getting somewhere.
So, backstory.
I got a pretty cool toy last year. However, its legs felt and seemed weird. So I took it apart and found that the ratcheting pieces for the hips/thighs were broken and bent. This meant that it couldn't exactly stand properly, especially with all the weight of the model in place.
I tried contacting the manufacturer to see about replacement parts, but as they are in Japan and toy companies are kind of notorious for not providing fixes, I didn't get a reply.
So instead I began investigating repairing toys. My first attempt was to use alligator clips and ABS plastic cement, as well as heat to straighten out the bent parts.
It snapped pretty much the instant I put any pressure on it. I sighed, moved on.
Last week, I decided to take another crack at it because my game store got in some new plastic cement I wanted to try.
Context: The ratchet piece looks roughly like this: {- It's a C shaped bracket with a bump on one side and a peg on the other. The idea is that the encasement keeps the ratchet from moving any direction but up and down, and applies force to the connection so that it needs a certain amount of pressure to move. But once it moves, it slides into the next ratchet.
The split happened along the middle seam for both pieces. In essence, half of it snapped off, so now it was free to slide around in the ratchet enclosure. So my efforts have been on trying to mend things in such a way that they'll still not shift around, but work as intended.
For the second attempt, I cut off the (bent) pin completely, deciding that I can use some other material to help supplant the spring and keep it aligned right. I then tried gluing things together... and nothing happened. This was, of course, ABS. And typical plastic cement doesn't work on it. I quickly realized I didn't have the right tools, and my friends at the meetup didn't either.
So today, I picked up some super glue to try and get things to stay in place while I apply stronger glue. The plan is to use the super glue with a plastic bracing piece, and then use ABS plastic cement to fuse the two halves together. Finally, some foam will replace the peg.
Even after limited success I don't think I'm gonna succeed.
Honestly, this piece should be properly injection molded, due to the strains that would be placed on it. Though I am starting to wonder if it would be easier to 3d print something... or possibly 3d print something, use that to make a mold, and then use that mold to make replacement pieces.
It's all super frustrating. There's an argument that it may be worth my time just to get a new figure.
Not yet, but something similar was brought up in chat. There may be options of either 3d printing a piece, or designing something structurally similar. Heck, I might even get away with using some of my injection molded runners and leftover bits from other builds.
https://hasbropulse.com/products/transformers-generations-shattered-glass-grimlock
I put in an order for myself since I love the deco. Hopefully it lasts for those who don't have Premium.
Steam: betsuni7
Baby Trypticon!
Steam: betsuni7
https://hasbropulse.com/collections/dungeons-dragons/products/dungeons-dragons-honor-among-thieves-d-d-dicelings-mimic
Also this Xanathar beholder looks amazing.
https://hasbropulse.com/collections/dungeons-dragons/products/dungeons-dragons-golden-archive-xanathar
Aw bummer. Would have been a cool triple changer.
Steam: betsuni7