Batteries in MISB Toys

[High_Q]

I have an MISB 20th Anniversary Prime and am worried about battery acid leakage.

Can anyone give any information on whether battery leakages are common or preventable?

Because of this concern, I have been hesitant to purchase battery-operated toys since i intend to leave most of my toys MISB.

[GoktimusPrime]

The only way to be sure is to remove the battery. If you never plan on opening these toys then does it matter to you if the batteries leak and damage the electronic gimmicks if you never intend on opening them?

[iceburn]

I think this thread has most of what has been discussed about MISB toys, MISB collectors and batteries in toys

http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=575

[griffin]

The only way to be sure is to remove the battery. If you never plan on opening these toys then does it matter to you if the batteries leak and damage the electronic gimmicks if you never intend on opening them?

It'd probably matter if he wants to allow for the option of selling them if he ever needed to, or openning them one day. Not sure about how the batteries affect the plastic of the toy, but it'd most likely damage the electronic gimmick (as it did with my BotCon 2001 Arcee :( ). But then again, if you have people buying the sealed toys in 10, 20+ years time, they can't complain about something that they should accept as being a standard issue with SEALED toys. If they want a guaranteed undamaged toy, they need to buy one that isn't sealed.

[GoktimusPrime]

I've had quite a few toys' gimmicks damaged by battery leakage because I'm far too lazy to take batteries out. :p It doesn't create any visible damage at all... most batteries "dry leak" now so it's not like the old days when you'd have battery acid leaking out of your Walkman. ;)

I really should take the batteries out of my toys (my wife tells me I should too). Hrmmm...

[Lint]

Most MISB'd battery toys have a plastic sliver that disconnects the battery from the circuit so it doesn't get depleted while it's still in the box. If the battery doesn't get depleted it wont start leaking. As Gok said, most modern batteries dry leak so it wont drench your toys in acid.

The best thing you can do to stop batteries from leaking prematurely is to make sure your toys arent exposed to high temperatures or temperature changes (the perfect conditions would be to be mildly refridgerated :p)
All batteries do have an ultimate use by date though and will deplete themselves naturally. (probably in 10+ years?)

[High_Q]

It'd probably matter if he wants to allow for the option of selling them if he ever needed to, or openning them one day. Not sure about how the batteries affect the plastic of the toy, but it'd most likely damage the electronic gimmick (as it did with my BotCon 2001 Arcee :( ). But then again, if you have people buying the sealed toys in 10, 20+ years time, they can't complain about something that they should accept as being a standard issue with SEALED toys. If they want a guaranteed undamaged toy, they need to buy one that isn't sealed.

Nah, I don't buy TFs to invest. Just prefer some of my toys minty, especially those intended to be displayed within their diorama boxes.

If there's a high likelihood that battery acid would ooze out of my OP's chest, i'd rather open up the box.

Does the 20th Anniversary OP battery compartment have plastic slivers in them to prevent battery depletion?

Thanks for the link, iceburn.:)

[liegeprime]

Not sure about 20th Anniv Op, but if its the same as the Masterpiece Prime, nope it doesnt have them plastic slivers.


Nah, I don't buy TFs to invest. Just prefer some of my toys minty, especially those intended to be displayed within their diorama boxes.

If there's a high likelihood that battery acid would ooze out of my OP's chest, i'd rather open up the box.

Does the 20th Anniversary OP battery compartment have plastic slivers in them to prevent battery depletion?

Thanks for the link, iceburn.:)

[Autocon]

always wanted to know how mint collectors solved this problem:p

also u get new batteries for the remote etc:D

i have like 12 laying around lol

[High_Q]

always wanted to know how mint collectors solved this problem:p

also u get new batteries for the remote etc:D

i have like 12 laying around lol


Easy - by avoiding battery-operated toys with batteries already included in the battery compartment. :)

Unfortunately, these days, most Supreme and Voyager classed TF's fall into this category.

[roller]

batteries taste funny

[GoktimusPrime]

They sure do! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k35U5bzuppE&feature=related) :)

[GoktimusPrime]

*blows dust off thread*

Last night I finally stopped procrastinating and went about removing batteries from my battery-operated TFs. Last night I spent about an hour checking for and removing batteries from all my G1, G2, BW, BM and CR/RiD Transformers. This morning I spent about 3.5 hours checking for and removing batteries from all my other Transformers except for my planetformers, movie and Animated TFs. I think that goes to show how much Hasbro's really gone nuts with making battery-operated TFs... the fact that it only took me an hour to remove batteries from 18 years' worth of toys (1984-2002), yet 3.5 hours to check for and remove batteries from four years' worth of toys (2003-2007). (-_-)

Anyway, here's 4.5 hours' worth of battery removal...
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/batteries.jpg

And the worse case of physically visible corrosion was on the batteries inside my Fire Convoy:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/batteries_corroded.jpg
...fortunately the electronics in that toy still works.

So what were the casualties of my years of neglecting to bother removing batteries?
+ The Beast Wars Volcano base's electronics are possibly damaged. I actually removed the battery from that ages ago but I don't have a C-size battery on me to test it. I suspect that it is broken though.
+ The base for Energon Bulkhead's electronics are damaged.
+ Energon Scorponok's electronics are damaged
...otherwise the electronics in all my other toys still work fine. Some of them I'd previously thought were broken because they had stopped working, but when I changed batteries they would work - so I discovered that some batteries had just run flat (or in the case of Fire Convoy, corroded) - possibly dry leaked... but fortunately without damaging the electronics.

I left the batteries inside Armada Thundercracker on purpose. The three Armada Seekers all have the exact same electronic gimmick so I left Thundercracker with his batteries so whenever I feel like demonstrating the gimmick to someone I'll just use him. If the batteries do end up leaking and damaging the gimmick, it's not a huge deal as Starscream and Skywarp have the same thing anyway.

The good batteries are now all in storage and the bad batteries have been thrown away.

[kup]

I can fix corrosion from leaking batteries - That's easy. I think that I fixed either yours or Dirge's Omega Supreme which had a similar problem.

It's very random when these batteries decide to leak. When I bought my G1 Shockwave, the 9v battery in him was clearly as old as the figure itself and aside from having gone pretty flat it never leaked.

[i_amtrunks]

Fun School Holidays for you Gok?

I remove the batteries from all my toys once I hear the sounds a couple of times.

It is my extreme reaction to an Energon Scorponok who decided that 2am was the perfect time to constantly repeat his noises.

I now never have to worry about running out of watch batteries!

[1AZRAEL1]

Fun School Holidays for you Gok?

I remove the batteries from all my toys once I hear the sounds a couple of times.

It is my extreme reaction to an Energon Scorponok who decided that 2am was the perfect time to constantly repeat his noises.

I now never have to worry about running out of watch batteries!

Haha I had the similar situation with my G2 Megatron Tank.
Every so often he decided to "fire" his lasers and even once or twice we wanted to go on the "attack" :p
One early morning I decided to rip those batteries out.

My figures are all in storage now, which probably isn't good for he batteries, but hopefully soon I shall move and they will be able to breathe fresh air.
And remove the batteries of course :p

[bruticus]

hahaha, i aways rip out all my batteries, tape them up and then label where they came from... early signs of OCD perhaps?

I also disconnect all missiles from the spring loaded launchers as the springs loose their stiffness whilst under constant compression over long periods of time...

I would suggest only keeping MISB toys that dont come with any batteries or at least come with those plastic pull tabs to prevent discharge under storage....
Otherwise, open them up and put them back in box (BIB??) to ensure they wont leak and still maintain MINTY freshness.

Unless you are investing, then theres no real difference to the toy between a perfect MIB thats been put back in box and a MISB if you handle things correctly.

[MV75]

So how about spending 10 hours writing up a list of the toys that do have batteries and what type of battery Gok? :D

Could be a useful resource to those that may overlook a figure with batteries in it. The button batteries should be fine to leave, it's the "regular" AAA, AA, C, etc batteries to worry about.

[bruticus]

The button batteries should be fine to leave, it's the "regular" AAA, AA, C, etc batteries to worry about.

No, Im afraid the button batteries can still cause damage over time... Or at least this has been true for some secondhand TFs that i have bought with button batteries...

[GoktimusPrime]

It is my extreme reaction to an Energon Scorponok who decided that 2am was the perfect time to constantly repeat his noises.
Heh, that gimmick is pretty darn annoying. Ditto G2 Megatron (although after a while you get used to handling him without setting off his sound gimmick). When I discovered that EN Scorponok's gimmick was no longer working properly, I just thought to myself, "No great loss there." For some odd reason, my internal monologue voice sounded like Jack Black at that exact moment. Weird.


Otherwise, open them up and put them back in box (BIB??)
It would be MIB (Mint In Box): i.e.: a toy that's in mint condition in an unsealed box. :)



The button batteries should be fine to leave, it's the "regular" AAA, AA, C, etc batteries to worry about.
No, Im afraid the button batteries can still cause damage over time... Or at least this has been true for some secondhand TFs that i have bought with button batteries...
Me too. I wasn't sure about this, so I looked it up on the web and apparently watch batteries can leak if they're left in a watch that's not on. i.e.: watch batteries in watches usually don't leak because they're in constant use. Watch batteries left in an inactive toy over an extended period of time may leak. They probably have a less chance of leakage, but I'm not willing to risk it.

Having said that, 100% of toys I opened with watch batteries still have fully functioning electronic gimmicks, including my oldest TF with watch batteries - Laser Optimus Prime. I've never taken the batteries out of that toy and the gimmick still works fine. Those batteries would've been sitting in that toy for over 13 years now. But yeah... better safe than sorry.

[primatives]

Just wondering does the Encore Omega Supreme and Sky lynx comes with batteries? If so I'll have to remove them.

[GoktimusPrime]

Batteries are not included with those toys.

[1orion2many]

:eek:Now I'm going to have to go through all my toys to check the batteries after Skyshadow posted a link:eek:

[yoshi594]

Went through the old posts to find this nifty thread. Anyway, I have in my possession a MISB Armada Supreme Class unicron from a current non otca member. I know the amazon version already had the batteries inside with the little plastic things to stop the batteries from depleting, but does the armada version have the little plastic things as well?

A better question would be, Are the batteries already installed in this unicron? I might keep this one MISB as I already have one on the way from BURN :)

[griffin]

Went through the old posts to find this nifty thread. Anyway, I have in my possession a MISB Armada Supreme Class unicron from a current non otca member. I know the amazon version already had the batteries inside with the little plastic things to stop the batteries from depleting, but does the armada version have the little plastic things as well?

A better question would be, Are the batteries already installed in this unicron? I might keep this one MISB as I already have one on the way from BURN :)

How'd you find this topic, but miss the recent topic alerting people (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=12178) to the problem (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=12178), or the battery list itself (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=12126) which was included in several weekly news emails in the last couple months. The answers you seek are in those two topics.
I can't remember if all versions of Unicron had the plastic slip in them, but they all had their batteries included with the toy. They were all button cell type, which were always included.
(and as noted in the first link above, the plastic slip doesn't prevent the batteries from leaking or even depleting, as it only separates two surfaces out of the 3 or 4 joining contacts - any battery touching another will still corrode/leak/deplete, but the plastic slip just prevents a complete circuit from accelerating it)


So how about spending 10 hours writing up a list of the toys that do have batteries and what type of battery Gok? :D

Could be a useful resource to those that may overlook a figure with batteries in it. The button batteries should be fine to leave, it's the "regular" AAA, AA, C, etc batteries to worry about.

Yep, I wanted it to be a useful resource, but since the list took me a lot more than 10 hours to compile and post up, I can understand why he didn't. It's there now though, for all fans to use.

[yoshi594]

How'd you find this topic, but miss the recent topic alerting people (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=12178) to the problem (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=12178), or the battery list itself (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=12126) which was included in several weekly news emails in the last couple months. The answers you seek are in those two topics.
I can't remember if all versions of Unicron had the plastic slip in them, but they all had their batteries included with the toy. They were all button cell type, which were always included.
(and as noted in the first link above, the plastic slip doesn't prevent the batteries from leaking or even depleting, as it only separates two surfaces out of the 3 or 4 joining contacts - any battery touching another will still corrode/leak/deplete, but the plastic slip just prevents a complete circuit from accelerating it)


Found it through the trusty forum search :)
Thanks for the links Griff and your battery list is awesome.
Ugh...My G2 starscream and ramjets battery box...need to find them and take out them batteries ><...probably leaked by now, over 10 years now i think lol.

[VERT]

G2 Screamer and Ramjet! Man I never thought of them! Bet they have leaked dont think I have ever removed them! :eek: