Another Public Service Announcement

Having acquired Studio Series Blitzwing this last weekend, it didn't take me long to notice something slightly adrift with the figure. No, not the lack of paintwork or the strange choices of accessory storage: a minor assembly error.

If you take a look at any of the cgi images of Blitzwing from the Bumblebee solo movie, you'll notice that the fins on his shoulders are angled backward. They're also larger and feature red paint, but let's ignore that for the moment. It appears as though the fins are angled forward on the toy so they can be folded a bit more flush with the body in vehicle mode... But they also feel a little floppy, and the sculpted detail on the shoulder doesn't seem to line up as well as it ought:

There's a distinct forward tilt at the joint, and the panel lining at the base of the fin isn't quite in line with the line on the grey shoulder mass. It's not far off, but just enough to look bad when coupled with the mismatched angling of the base of the fin with the joint socket it sits inside. The 'back' of the joint rises above the level of the socket, while the 'front' is sunk well below it.

Thankfully, the fins aren't pinned in place, so pop 'em off, swap 'em round, and you get this:

Suddenly, everything seems to line up properly - more than that, though, the fin almost clips into place in this position, and the joint is nowhere near as floppy as it was with the fins the other way round. They're still too small versus the CGI, and of course there's no red paint on either side, but it looks far better generally.

The only downside is that, in jet mode, the fins now butt up against the shoulder section's transformation hinges in jet mode, where they used to fold in behind them. It actually doesn't look too bad, though. In fact, considering how much robot junk is under the wings already, it almost looks intentional - like a part bridging between the jet's body and the supplementary engines hidden under the wings:

I'll obviously get into more detail about this figure once I have the opportunity to set up my light tent and take some better photos, but I'm genuinely more impressed with Studio Series Blitzwing than I'd expected to be, even having seen some video reviews.

CW Sky Lynx Addendum

Or

Several Subtle but Worthwhile Adjustments to a
Flawed but Fun Figure

Straight out of the box, there were several issues with Sky Lynx. First and foremost, not one of the white hip-caps had been properly attached in the factory, so I had to remove and reseat all of them. Next up, I couldn't understand why the two angled fins had been attached backward (ie. angling forward) compared to the main upright fin, so I switched both around. It has a negligible effect on the look of the Sky Reign torso, but nothing serious and, frankly, both vehicle mode and robot mode look far better with all the fins angling backward.

CW Silverbolt Addendum

Or

A Quick and Easy Modification to Silverbolt/Superion's Antennae,
being a Cheaper Alternative to a Third Party Head

I opened up Superion's head to look at how the antennae are attached, and found that they're both part of a single piece of painted rubber. This, no doubt, contributes to the difficulty in flipping them into place because there's not just the resistance from each individual antenna, but the drag caused by the piece linking them twisting rather than actually moving as well as rubbing against things inside the head. Having cut a chunk out of the rubber in the middle, I can report that the antennae - while still not perfectly willing to move into the proper place due to friction between the painted rubber and the plastic they're mounted in - are far more cooperative.

A Public Service Announcement

A few weeks back, I happened to be in a branch of Toys'R'Us (you'd be surprised how easily I find myself in toyshops... it's quite uncanny) and picked up TransFormers: Prime Robots In Disguise Voyager Skyquake. I'll do a review eventually, so I won't go into too much detail about the model here... Suffice it to say there was something a little odd about the feet - they didn't sit flush with the 'ankles', and so he looked a little less stable than he should. Believing initially that the feet had been transposed when the model was first put together, I opened up his lower legs and switched them around... yet they still looked wrong.

Looking more closely, I realised that only one foot was wrong... regardless of which way round they were.

Skyquake had been assembled with two right feet.

It doesn't actually affect his stability (not as much as having a completely fixed footprint, pretty dramatically limiting the posing options outside of 'standing up straight'), but it's one of those things that preys on my mind (no, really, I'm that anal about toy assembly faults sometimes).

This weekend, while out browsing the shops before a movie, I happened to be in a branch of The Entertainer (see, it really is easy!) which was stocking TF:Prime Voyagers at the knockdown (or should that be Knock Out?) price of £15 and saw that the selection included the second colouring of that mold, Dreadwing. I hadn't really intended to buy Dreadwing, despite the fact that he's the version who appears in the show in a non-Zombie state - and voiced by Tony Todd, no less - but an eight pound saving swung the balance... and surely I wouldn't pick up another misassembled version of this mold?

Well... Yes and no. Pretty much the first thing I did, having liberating Dreadwing from his packaging, was check the feet.

He had two left feet.

I couldn't believe how lucky I was, as this meant I could disassemble one leg of each, swap the feet, and have two perfect models.

The it hit me - maybe it wasn't luck, maybe it was a larger factory error: had Skyquake got all the right feet, and Dreadwing all the left? Stranger things have happened (remember e-Hobby's Cobalt Sentry Howlback, with two of the same missile launcher?).

So, here's the Public Service Announcement:

"Skyquake and Dreadwing... On their own, they'll never be dancers...
...but together, they're unstoppable!"

No, hang on, that's not it...
"If you pick up either Skyquake or Dreadwing, and one of their feet doesn't sit flush with the bottom of the lower leg, it would be worth checking out the other to see if it has two of the opposite foot, allowing you to make a trade."