ROTF Bludgeon's Incredible Breaking Hand warning (and help?)

Just a heads up:

As every ROTF Bludgeon owner may have noticed, his hands have a very, very tight grip, and are made of a hard, inflexible orange plastic. Evidently somebody at Haskara didn't bother to double check if the grip was TOO tight on production samples.

Anyway, Walky of Shortpacked! transformed his Bludgeon today and the right hand broke. Because of the way the hand holds his sword, simply gluing it back on would still mean the hand would be useless.

http://shortpacked.com/blog/oh-no-my-me-time-hand/

So yeah, we may want to sand down the handle of the sword/cannon, or the hands, or just avoiding having Bludgeon hold the sword whilst on display.

Well that sucks for those that have him. What were they thinking making the hand hard plastic :confused:

Fingers crossed this will be corrected with Banzai-Tron.

Eep! :o

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Originally Posted by 5FDP

What were they thinking making the hand hard plastic

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It also sucks how the swords are made from soft plastic too, getting easily dented by the hard plastic fingers. They should've just used a traditional "hole" fist and slot the sword into it (e.g. G1 Dinobots, Weirdwolf etc.).

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Originally Posted by FFN

or just avoiding having Bludgeon hold the sword whilst on display.

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This sounds like the safest option... which sucks cos I think for a lot of people who grew up with G1, the sword is a major appeal factor for this toy. <sigh> Better safe than sorry though I guess.

That's a shame.
I might try rolling up some sandpaper and sanding out the fist holes to make the swords fit in a little easier and less likely to see the 'modification'.
If it works, it'll also mean the fingers won't leave dents in the sword handle.

That's not a sword.. This is a sword! :D

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/1230/photo7xr.jpg

I think the best solution would be to gradually sand down the grip area rather than the hand, since the soft plastic and the round, unobstructed cannon is easier to work with.

Also, damage to this accessory may be easier to replace years from now, like with G1 toys, compared to trying to find an undamaged hand.

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

Eep! :o

It also sucks how the swords are made from soft plastic too, getting easily dented by the hard plastic fingers. They should've just used a traditional "hole" fist and slot the sword into it (e.g. G1 Dinobots, Weirdwolf etc.).

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Then the cannon sword wouldn't look right - needed the specific grip area to emulate a tank cannon AND the sword, which means it needed an open hand. Problem was, they sculpted the hand a little too tightly, and decided to put the hand on the same sprue as the other orange plastic.

Thanks for the heads up, fortunately for me it hasnt broken and Ive been playing with t for like months now since december when I got it. Gotta be careful with it then...

When I finally got a ROTF Bludgeon and transformed him I discovered the same thing about his hands.
I was thinking as I was arming him, "I have to push hard to get his sword in his hand but if I push too hard it may snap off". I was more worried about his thumb than the rest of his fingers, though.
So I guess he'll be stuck in robot-mode for a while.

I think this sounds like the best course of action. It leaves the barrel intact and it's not as if Bludgeon needs to hold accessories other than his sword.

Let us know how it goes Griffin.

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Originally Posted by griffin

That's a shame.
I might try rolling up some sandpaper and sanding out the fist holes to make the swords fit in a little easier and less likely to see the 'modification'.
If it works, it'll also mean the fingers won't leave dents in the sword handle.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by FFN

Then the cannon sword wouldn't look right - needed the specific grip area to emulate a tank cannon AND the sword, which means it needed an open hand.

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There is a variant of the Mitsubishi Type 90 tank that doesn't have the additional parts on the muzzle (recoil compensating muzzle brakes???) near the tip of the barrel, which would work better when converted into a sword handle for a fist hole.

Reference images:
Type-90 tank with muzzle attachments
Type-90 without muzzle attachments

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Originally Posted by FFN

Problem was, they sculpted the hand a little too tightly, and decided to put the hand on the same sprue as the other orange plastic.

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The problem is that if the hand isn't sculpted tightly enough, the sword would easily fall off during toy play when you're smacking the sword up against other weapons and bots. Couldn't they make the sword out of harder plastic? (i.e. some plastic quality as the fists themselves) -- that would solve the problem of denting on the handles.

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

Couldn't they make the sword out of harder plastic? (i.e. some plastic quality as the fists themselves) -- that would solve the problem of denting on the handles.

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if you made the sword in the same hard rigid plastic... I think it would break more easily. I had the sword in his hip sheath, and after I accidentally banged my shelf, he fell down with quite a bang, I figured, luckily his sword is soft plastic otherwise that fall would have snapped his sword... I'd rather a bent sword (and one that has dents) than a broken sword, since the blade part is pretty thin and long, perfect for snapping

on another note, does anyone think holding the small dagger would be dangerous as well? Because although handle is smaller/thinner, he does hold it pretty tight as well

A harder plastic on a pointy accessory would be a safety hazard. Especially if swallowed.

This is my idea of how to fix such a problem... hehe :D

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/f...n/bludgeon.jpg

Spent a couple of minutes filing down the fingers. Seems to have helped.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

The problem is that if the hand isn't sculpted tightly enough, the sword would easily fall off during toy play when you're smacking the sword up against other weapons and bots. Couldn't they make the sword out of harder plastic? (i.e. some plastic quality as the fists themselves) -- that would solve the problem of denting on the handles.

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But then the sword could break during play (being kinda thin) or snap if it's forced into the main gun the wrong way.

Plus, it's on the same sprue and the other flexible parts, like the decoration bits and the gears for his mech alive splitting turret (which I love).

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Originally Posted by griffin

A harder plastic on a pointy accessory would be a safety hazard. Especially if swallowed.

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Can't they make the end of the sword blunt? e.g.: G1 swords (compare Blitzwing's sword with Overcharge's), RiD Megatron (compare w/ CR Gigatron's swords), X-Brawn's missile (blunter than Wild Ride's) et al. Energon Starscream's sword tip is kinda pointy.

Speaking of which, Energon Starscream's sword is made of a stronger plastic. Although it is heaps chunky and Hasbro were trying to achieve a thin blade for Bludgeon to make it look more like a katana* (whereas EN Starscream's sword is more like a daiklave)

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*Technically Bludgeon's sword is too long to be a katana and is more like an Ōdachi.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by griffin

That's a shame.
I might try rolling up some sandpaper and sanding out the fist holes to make the swords fit in a little easier and less likely to see the 'modification'.
If it works, it'll also mean the fingers won't leave dents in the sword handle.

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Tried it tonight, and I'm now a lot less worried about breaking the hands. When I first had a look at the space between the fingers and the thickness of the sword, I'm amazed that it actually got in there to begin with. I remember now that I had to use a fair bit of force to get the sword in when I last/first transformed it, but it never occured to me that this would be enough force to break the hand. Also looking at the thickness of the hand itself, it now amazes me that more hands aren't broken.

So, as mentioned above, I got some very fine sandpaper and slowly worked on the thumb and fingers, a little bit at a time - testing the sword often, to make sure I don't go too far and it can't stay in. After a few minutes on the first hand, the sword still needs a little bit of pressure, but no more than plugging in a hand-weapon.

Comparing it to the hand that hadn't yet been done, I found that quite a bit of extra gap was needed (and the sword still needed to be pushed into the gap), so maybe Hasbro had it that way intentionally, so that as the mould degrades over time, the hands can still hold the sword. (like how the Classics Seeker mould now has problems holding the arm guns thanks to mould degradation)
Even though the thumb looks half gone, and the fingers are 'filed' back a bit, you wouldn't even notice it without comparing it to a mint one. The fingers and thumb are still prominant, and the sandpaper was fine enough to not really notice any scuffing (which is mostly inside the hand anyway).

I then did the other hand.

I also tested the dagger to make sure it wasn't affected by the modification, and since it slides straight into the hand, and not past the fingers/thumb, it still holds it fine and firm.

I'd take photos if my camera was any good with focussing close-up, but my descriptions above should hopefully be enough.