Tag Archives: faulty

Transformatorium

Titans Return Trypticon – the simple hip fix!

6 Comments

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

Transformer Toy Reviews

Toy Review – Rescue Bots Quickshadow

Leave a comment

Femmebots, the slang term for female Transformers, are becoming more commonplace but are still for the most part a rarity  – you can count how many get released each year without taking off your socks.  Rescue Bots has been the longest running single Transformers cartoon show in history and they have finally introduced a female Autobot into their admittedly rather small ensemble.  Quickshadow is a very cool character, coming across as a highly competent, British-sounding spy.  Being a sportscar that turns into a female robot makes Quickshadow sound like a James Bond wet dream come to life and for those of us that like to collect female Transformers sounded like a new toy to look forward to collecting.

Unfortunately what we got is perhaps one of the worst quality Transformer toys we’ve had in years.

 

Don’t open me up – I’ll just break your heart

However let’s start with a few positives.

Vehicle mode

 

A very sexy little sportscar.  There is some nice detailing in the grill with the little Autobot symbol and the blue highlights on the hood, doors and hubcaps certainly pep up what would otherwise be a bland colour scheme of white and grey.  Smaller than the other Rescuebots, even Blurr looks bigger.

 

Robot Mode

Not bad, but quite blocky.  Of course this is to be expected since it is a Rescue Bots toy.  However on the TV show all the other characters look quite blocky but Quickshadow is very lithe and agile looking so it is a shame they did not go to at least some effort to represent that here.  Also a little more detail in the face would have been nice as well, perhaps a more defined mouth or something to show she has optics behind the big eye mask.  Scale-wise she is comparable to Blurr however is smaller than all the older Rescuebots such as Energize Heatwave.

“Why is it on the show I look like you Arcee, but in real life I look like Margaret Thatcher’s even more butch cousin?”

 

Transformation.

Here is where it being a Rescue Bot is supposed to be the big seller for young TF fans but in Quickshadows case it’s the main reason not to buy this toy.  There is only one thing you need to do to transform her, that being pull the front wheels out sideways – then everything is supposed to pop into place.  But she jams.  In fact she jams nearly every single time!  And you can’t just push the wheels back in and try again.  At first I thought my son was using her wrong.  Then I thought we just must have gotten a dud.  But a subsequent look at various ratings of the toy on Amazon and eBay has shown that this seems to be an endemic fault with the figure.  There is a little spring at the top of the car’s hood which is supposed to facilitate this transformation but the spring constantly jams and to un-jam it you have to pull the hood down so hard you are certain it is going to snap.  In fact I’m afraid to transform her again in case it does!  This is a shameful flaw – only one moving part and they f*ck it up!? Poor form Playskool & Hasbro – poor form indeed.

Your Quickshadow toy is going to spend more time looking like this than a robot or car

 

Worth Getting?

No.  She costs the same as the older Rescue Bot figures despite being nearly half the size and the jamming spring means that the toy is almost unusable from the get-go.  I’m glad to have another Femmebot in my collection but I would say this is a contender for the worst quality Transformer I have ever come across.

 

Have you got this figure?  Will you still get this figure after reading this review?  Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.