"Damaged" ROTF Armorhide

[Firestorm]

Hi everyone today i was at big W in sunubry and i bought a ROTF Armorhide from there and when i opened it i noticed it had nubers etched into it that dont seem to be a detail on the firgure they seem to be more like someone attacked the figure with a soldering iron, then while transforming it i saw that the head was also scratched up and damaged, to make things stranger inside the box was a nest mail away sticker, but arent those supposed to only be in America, I've bought nest figures before and they didnt come with stickers, i cant post any pics of it right now since i dont have a camera but i'll post some later
a friend of mine said it might be a prototype that got out by accident so i thought i should ask about it here before returning it

[kurdt_the_goat]

I can't speak for Armorhide, but i noticed my Mindwipe has a number etched (on his leg, i think). I was a bit curious but then i noticed in some pictures online somewhere, someone else's also had a number in the same position...and it was bought from retail like mine, so i guess it's ok.

[Firestorm]

how can it be ok if his face looks like someone attacked him with a flaming chainsaw?
upon further inspection his gun is also slightly damaged

[Sky Shadow]

Do you have a digital camera? If so, photos would help us to help you.

[kurdt_the_goat]

how can it be ok if his face looks like someone attacked him with a flaming chainsaw?
upon further inspection his gun is also slightly damaged

My post was only addressing the number etching if you read it again.

[BigPenney]

While I can't tell you if its a prototype or not, your description of the head reminds me of when test shots of when, I think, Animated Cybertron Ratchet were leaked.
His face looked like someone had taken a soldering iron to it.

*update*
found pic of ratchet.
Does it look anything like this?
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/1110/50333140.jpg

[Sky Shadow]

While I can't tell you if its a prototype or not, your description of the head reminds me of when test shots of when, I think, Animated Cybertron Ratchet were leaked.
His face looked like someone had taken a soldering iron to it.

*update*
found pic of ratchet.
Does it look anything like this?
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/1110/50333140.jpg

Sure it looks bad on an Animated toy, but all movie toys have faces that look like they've been hit by a soldering iron anyway. :p

[Firestorm]

Ok, I've got a digital camera now (and another Armorhide) so here are some pictures

http://i48.tinypic.com/eijr8.jpg
Notice the numbers on the "damaged" Armorhide on the left I think it says H-3064

http://i45.tinypic.com/2vwbtx2.jpg
Here we have the robot modes, Notice the scratched up eyeless head-ish thing on the Armorhide on the right (they swapped places when I transformed them)

I didnt take any pictures of their guns but the "damaged" Armorhide's gun is permanently warped outwards at the hinge the connects the grey part with the green part, they are still connected and they don’t fall apart but it doesn’t move as well as the other Armorhide

Also another thing I noticed when i was opening the second "Non Damaged" Armorhide is that they were packaged slightly differently, the "Damaged" Armorhide was held in the plastic by those new paper twist ties and didn’t have the stretchy rubber things around the front end of the vehicle mode or on the back end of the vehicle mode but the little piece of plastic that was placed on the back of the vehicle mode (that should normally be held there by the rubber things) was still there also as I said in my first post it came with a nest mail away sticker
the "non damaged" Armorhide was held in by the wire ties and did have the rubber things around it, and it did not come with a nest mail away sticker

sorry this post was so long just wanted to give as much info as possible
oh and sorry the pictures aren’t the best, I’m not very good at taking pictures

[FFN]

Looks like you bought a TEMPORALLY AND SPATIALLY DISPLACED Armorhide, with the added bonus that he's a test shot.



It's like the time I found Red Armada Thrust (who was only released in Japan, Isreal and Italy, IIRC) at Uncle Pete's/Toyworld years after the line had ended.

[griffin]

Yeah, what FFN said - it looks to be a test-shot (pre-production figure) that someone at the factory musta just thrown back in with the rest of the toys later, and it just got packaged with the rest.

On the bright side, you could list it on ebay as a 'pre-production test shot armorhide' without mentioning how you got it, and you might get lucky as there are people who go for those sort of things, apparently.