MP Rodimus repair tips

[kup]

As we all painfully know, MP Rodimus was released with a lot of painful flaws but thankfully there is a way to remedy a couple of them.

1 - Repairing the hands

Background: It appears that most of us have received figures with mis-assembled hands, specifically the fingers.

Note: Not everyone has miss-assembled fingers, I know of at least one figure which had a correct assembly out of the box but this seems to be the exception. Basically if your figure is able to close his hands without having the gun pop out then it's ok.

Unfortunately the above is not the case for most people so out of the box, chances are your Rodimus is only able to hold his guns as such:



This is caused by the fingers having been assembled the other way around. To correct this, do as follows:

- Slide the hand off it's socket as shown in the picture.



- Once you slide the hand out, be sure to pop off the thumb to keep it out of the way to prevent damaging it during the procedure.



- On the pin pointed bellow, identify softer looking end as this will be the point in which the pin will be pushed out.



- Using a nail or other solid metal tip, push the pin from the 'softer' end until it pops out from the other side then pull it out completely as shown.



- Once the pin pops out you should be able to remove the figingers and turn them around. Re-insert the pin and you are done.

Your MP Rodimus Convoy should now be able to close his fingers without popping out the gun - It isn't perfect as it's a very sloppy design to begin with an the gun not very secure since part of the socket is a movable joint but it is a big improvement from before as you can see:



2 - Repairing a damaged leg plate

Background: When you first transform your MP Rodimus, you will notice that the swivel joint of one of the leg plates will inevitably become very loose after a few movements. This is because the pin securing it is actually a screw and since the plate requires a lot of movement during the transformation, it eventually 'unscrews' itself out of the joint while damaging it's plastic socket by warping it. The plate eventually becomes very loose and drops off as shown bellow.



To repair this, follow these steps:

- Coat a little bit if super glue or nail polish around the screw hole in order to narrow it. Remember that you are not covering the whole, just reinforcing it so you only need to coat the inner walls of the socket hole.



- Allow the glue/polish to dry fully and then in a turning 'screwing in' motion, place it back into the swivel joint and then push the plate with reasonable force until the screw is securely in place as shown.



Note: Remember that the flaw of this piece is fundamental so the piece will eventually pop off again in the future. When it happens simply repeat the steps above.

For a permanent solution to the more fundamental design flaws, the best we can hope for is a 3rd party 'Repair kit' that replaces several joints and pegs. I doubt Hasbro would redesign the figure for their release.