Monthly Archives: July 2017

Transformatorium

Titans Return Trypticon – the simple hip fix!

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Trypticon – the big bad!  The latest Titan Figure for the Titans Return line and the biggest Decepticon toy ever created!

However this titan has a titanic problem – his hips!

 

Though they are cropping up far less (still occasionally however) in later waves, the first batch of this toy came with some major issues that were in turn causing major damage to a pretty expensive toy.  These problems were:

1: The springs in the hips were far too strong and causing damage to the workings inside.

2: The teeth on the ratchet system for the hips were too big and would more often than not lock together instead of sliding over one another.

 

There have been quite a few fixes to these problems crop up on various Transformer sites and youtube.  These have ranged from cutting the springs in half to address the strength issue to filing down the teeth of the ratchet.  Some people have even removed the spring and half the ratchet altogether and replaced them with cardboard disks in order to turn the hips into a swivel system.

Well I am here to give you what I believe is the easiest answer to the spring and ratchet problems and guess what?  No cutting, filing or permanent removal of parts is necessary!  Follow the below instructions and your Trypticon will be ready to start smashing bots instead of his own hips in no time!

 

Before I start I would like to thank Grant in Blacktown and Michael in Melbourne for this.  Grant was the one who came across the method of fixing the spring and Michael created the solution to the ratchet teeth issue.  Well done guys – you both rock!

 

Tools:

1 Screwdriver

1 Pair of Scissors

1 Marker Packet

1 Black Marker

 

Method:

Step 1: Remove Trypticon from his box.  Note that his legs come unattached.  Do not attach them yet.  Even if you believe your Trypticon may be one of the ones sans the spring/ratchet issues I recommend being safe rather than sorry. Use scissors to cut the ties and take out the legs.

 

Step 2: Take your screwdriver and remove the two screws from the teal bracket.  Loosen the 3rd screw on top and remove the bracket completely.

 

Step 3: Remove the two screws from the black ratchet cover.  Be ready because the ratchet is underneath and the pressure from the overpowered spring will launch it sky high if you let it.  Have a finger ready to suppress its firing.

 

Step 4: Remove the two parts of the ratchet and the spring.  Now do the same for the second leg.  You should end up with a bunch of parts looking like this:

 

Step 5: Now to solving the problem.  First the spring.  No need to cut it, all you need to do is squeeze it.  10 minutes of compressing and relaxing the spring in your hand will take a bunch of the tension out of it.  Do one spring for 10 minutes and then see if it feels weaker than the spring you haven’t touched yet.  If so then you have done it right.  Personally I find watching an episode of Rick & Morty to be a good timer.  Half way through the episode change to the second spring.  Yes your fingers will get a tad tired (if you are a hardcore Transfan you have probably spent a hefty period of your life doing repetitive hand movements anyway) but persevere.  Once done replace the springs.

 

Step 6: Take your marker and draw an outline of the smaller ratchet piece on the plastic.  Then cut it out with your scissors.  Repeat.  This should leave you with two thin, malleable plastic dics.

 

Step 7: Take one plastic disk and put it on the smaller ratchet piece.  Then place the larger one on top.  The teeth of the ratchet will mush it into place where it will provide that bit less friction for the ratchets future operation.  Repeat with the second ratchet.

 

Step 8: Place the ratchet back on top of the spring and push down into place.  Put the ratchet cover over the ratchet and tighten the screws.  Reassemble the teal piece over the top making sure that the side with the 3rd screw hole is facing towards the back of Trypticon’s legs – it does make a difference when attaching to the main body.

 

Step 9: Attach the legs to the side of the body.  Rotate head and arms and stand up.

 

Step 10:

Go play with your awesome new toy without fear of it breaking itself!

 

And that’s it!  As stated – no cutting, filing or permanent removal of parts necessary.  Once again, many thanks to Grant and Michael.  I got my Trypticon the day he came out in Australia which almost garunteed he was one of the faulty batch and thusly I had been afraid to open him.  Now I can have some worry-free, titan-sized fun, as can you!

Got any other tips on how to fix a faulty Trypticon?  Write them in the comments section below!

 

Related Articles:

Toy Review – LG43 Trypticon vs Titans Return Trypticon

Video: Comparison of LG43 Trypticon and Titans Return Trypticon

Hobby Farming, Tales of the Trev

A letter of thanks to my former farm

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My dear former farm,

Though I have left you, I want to thank you for all you did for me over the past 6 years.

You taught me many things about caring for the land.  How to put back more than I took out.  The art of growing a tree in the right kind of dirt, the ways of composting and mulching to improve and protect the soil.  The planting of windbreaks, of nut trees, of fruit and vegetables for my family.

 

The necessity of you made me do something that my family had tried in vain to get me to do when I was a younger man – learn to properly use tools.  When you need to constantly build fences and animal enclosures, pirate ships and cubby houses, scarecrows and fire pits it forces you to finally learn how to use drills and circular saws and everything in between.  As for farm equipment, everything from the use of a humble shovel to mastering the subtleties of tractor usage became a daily activity.

 

You provided me the true experience of food.  Just how incredible so many things taste when they are straight out of your garden and grown by your own hand, rather  than having been grown on another continent and then shipped thousands of miles, put in cold storage, handled by dozens of people etc etc.  I never knew just how intense simple things like watermelon or mandarins could taste when it’s so fresh and been grown right!

 

You brought back to me the pride of properly caring for livestock.  To see the ducks growing, the chooks laying and the goats frolicking in their field in their thick winter coats – all given plenty of food, water, space and shelter to keep them at the peak of happiness and health!

 

You reminded me of simple pleasures that I had forgotten from living in the big city for so long.  Things like there is a night sky absolutely full of stars, the joy of swimming in a dam on a hot day or climbing a tall gum tree, the relaxed freedom of rambling around a paddock in a clapped-out ute.

 

You were the first farm that was truly mine.  When standing upon your ground everything felt right, I felt truly at home.  I felt a connection to the land that fellow farmers and country folk can relate to but rarely speak of, something almost spiritual.  Something sadly that your average gardener of city-dweller can never truly understand.  Just like someone cannot truly grasp the feeling of parenthood until they become one, nobody cannot truly grasp what it feels like to stand on the ground of your own farm, feeling the earth beneath your boots and surveying how you have shaped and changed and molded the land around you for the better.

Thank you for everything you taught me and gave me.  And most importantly thank you for giving my two children a safe place to spend their first few years of life – no matter how far away we may go there will always be some Mallee dust in their veins.

 

It broke my heart to leave you, but I know we leave each other better than we found one another and I never forget the life lessons you taught me.  You will always have my thanks and my love.