Transformers: Age of the Primes toyline discussion || update: stock renders of upcoming Alpha Trion, Micronus, Flatline, Fireflight, Skydive, ++

ZacWilliam1

Well-known member
Citizen
Not to mention Botanica's crew.

-ZacWilliam, what happened to the rest of them? Did she leave them on Plant World?
 

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
Ask and ye shall receive:

9) Since Botanica was an explorer like Optimus Primal, she should have had a crew like Optimus. What happened to the rest of Botanica's crew?

We didn't say, but in my mind they all remained behind while Botanica returned to see what was happening on Cybertron.
 

Dekafox

Fabulously Foxy Dragon
Citizen
Got my Star Convoy Optimus Prime yesterday. Turrets, tread platform, and the head antennae were all separated and needed to be attached. Very chonky and felt like all the major joints were ratchets. Only couple nits to pick were:
  • It was kind of hard to get the shoulder panels to disconnect for the shoulder flip-up in the transformation to truck
  • One of the side panels on the leg for trailer mode was already showing stress marks on the grey grommet(or whatever you call it) that holds the hinge, but even if that does break eventually, with the way it connects I don't think it'd be an issue. You'd just have to plug it into whatever position instead.
  • It rolls well, but the front cab wheels aren't touching the ground for me. It looks like the mid-wheels just go down a little too far and it lifts the front up a hair.
 

Undead Scottsman

Well-known member
Citizen
Heads up, sound like Star Convoy has a misassembly issue, but looks like it's an easy fix.

 

Dekafox

Fabulously Foxy Dragon
Citizen
Confirmed, mine had that - didn't even notice. To summarize from that article:

1750440064512.jpeg


Behind those two circled spots are two little red nubs on the outer plate. You need to remove the three screws there, then fit those two blue cylinders over the red nubs - it should snap into place. Then just put the screws back, and it's all good. Of note, that single screw in the center also holds the star on, so that'll fall off while you're doing this.
 

CoffeeHorse

Exhausted, but still standing.
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
I'm scared. At they using screws made out of real metal again? I have not successfully removed Transformers screws on anything built since 2007. The teeth just instantly smush flat like they're made of wet gum.
 

CoffeeHorse

Exhausted, but still standing.
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
I wish, but I don't know what I'd suggest they do. It probably is difficult to control these things when they don't own their own factory.
 

Rhinox

too old for this
Citizen
I got to open and play with my Star Convoy (I'm sorry, I just can't call him 'Star Optimus')
I don't see anything wrong with his chest window on mine. Overall he's really good. I very much like him and he fits in well with the Prime display.
 

Exatron

Kaiser Dragon
Citizen
My Star Convoy's window was installed correctly on one side, but not on the other. I hadn't even noticed when I first put him through his paces. Quick and easy fix though.

Okay, this isn't as bad as HasLab Omega Prime, but seriously, couldn't this be prevented?
Mass production just doesn't work that way. It really doesn't matter how high or low the volume is, how automated or not the process is, or how many quality checks you implement. Stuff is going to slip through. You just do your best to make sure defects are as rare and minor as possible.

Basically, the whole idea with mass production is you spend a ton of time and effort on your initial design and early prototypes, do your best to work out any issues, and then begin full-scale production. You also implement certain checks to ensure your production is of good quality. However, while the cost for all that initial design and validation work gets spread over the full production run as general overhead costs, every check you do during production is additional cost added directly to the cost of each item produced. It gets expensive incredibly quickly.

Add in that a lot of these issues that drive us crazy aren't always easy to spot. I already mentioned that I didn't even notice Star Convoy's window on mine, and I tend to be ultra nitpicky on little details. HasLab RiD Optimus's cracking torso is extremely infuriating to anyone who's experienced it, but it's the sort of thing that isn't apparent upon initial assembly and varies from unit to unit how likely it is to occur.

The point is, no matter how much we hate these issues as consumers, and as much as the manufacturers hate having these issues slip through and tarnish their reputation, it really is MUCH more difficult to prevent than most people believe.
 

Exatron

Kaiser Dragon
Citizen
Damn it. Evan and Nate all but confirmed that a new Monstructor will be coming, but he's just going to be a non-dinosaur retool of Dinoking. So he's going to again be a dinky little guy who can't really interact with the other big bots like he does in all his fictional appearances.

Now I'm just that much more disappointed I wasn't able to get the FansProject version back before the price exploded.
 


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