Springs in figures.

[Stompy]

Being relatively new, I thought I'd ask the more veteran and long-time collectors their thoughts on the subject of springs on transformers figures.

What is the ideal way to store spring loaded devices on the figures? Relaxed or coiled? What state is best to ensure long life on the springs? Eg. Missile in, or off. Animated Activators in robot mode (relaxed springs) or alt mode (coiled)?

I've read various other forums but would probably trust you lot more.

[1orion2many]

I havent tested the theory but I'm of the belief that if you display you TF's with their weapons loaded that over a period of time the springs are going to compress somewhat and lose their ability to shoot the missiles.

[STL]

I've still owned a few G1 and G1.5 toys prior to recollecting about 3 years ago and I've actually had few problems with the G1.5 toys. The G1 toys though are more likely to be affected. My G1 toys have lost their ability to shoot missiles though I can't really remember how far they were able to push them back in the day.

What concerned me more were toys that required the springs for transformation. I honestly cannot think of 1 at the moment but I do know that there are several G1 Transformers whose head emerges with the use of a spring and if that's busted then its very frustrating to transform them into either alt mode or robot mode. G1 Hotspot is one example I can think of where if the head doesn't go down you'll find it immensely frustrating to transform.

I'm not sure if you've played with Cybertron Override/Galaxy Force Nitro Convoy but the springs on that I discovered to be very susceptible to wear. My cousin who plays excessively with his toys and does not exercise the caution that collectors would has had that spring mechanism on the transformation lost.

So yes, springs can very much be affected but the degree to which they are will be largely dependent on how frequently you play with the toys. I'm not fussed about the missiles usually b/c I barely even shoot them but I'm far more concerned where the toys have the spring mechanism as a necessary part of the transformation.

[JuzMel]

I would say leave them relaxed as well because for some funny reason my Sky Shadow keeps shooting out his missile itself all of a sudden one day and I'm guessing because the spring has been coiled too long and it's just "dying" to uncoil. So I can't put the missile back anymore because a minute later, the missile will just shoot out by itself. The first few times it happened I thought my TFs had come alive and were fighting each other.

P.S: The Activators look better in robot mode anyway.

[liegeprime]

As much as possible leave them uncoiled. G1 wise - the cassetticons - Rumble Frenzy are a good example of springs losing their "springiness" ( for a lack of word at the moment) easily. You will mostly end up with a head leaning to one side or the other. But with 20+ yrs old toys you cant really expect it to last forever, however for newer versions, Id say leave the missles off and store em separately (and prevent loss) as it doesn't lose much anyway in aesthetics while displaying/playing them. Some toys though are just freakin hard to get the spring to ease up - Unicron chest spring comes to mind - of which I completely disabled the feature in my toy otherwise I end up with "burst open unicron" due to the strength of the clip not equal to the strength of the spring recoil on this particular toy... hope this helps

[gamblor916]

I remember the springs in the early toys were pretty weak to begin with. In fact I used ball point pen springs in some launchers to increase 'springiness', enough to take an eye out.

[Pulse]

After 20+ years, I really don't think G1s will become any less-springy than they already have...
(Who knows how much they were played with before they found their way to us?)

[GoktimusPrime]

As gamblor said, G1 springs have often been very weak from the beginning. Springs in things like missile launchers were intentionally weakened by Hasbro to comply with US toy safety laws. G1 instructions actually state that missile launchers are only designed to hold the missiles in place and not actually intended to launch them. So yeah... with my G1 toys they've always been weak... my Frenzy and Rumble's heads have always been on a tilt, even when they were new when I was a kid (and they were notoriously difficult to keep in cassette mode because the spring would keep pushing the head/arms out - the clear cassette tape cases that come with reissues are a godsend for situations like this).

I personally don't think about this sort of thing. When it comes to later toys like G2, BW etc. with fully strengthened springs and working launchers, I haven't noticed any problems of deterioration or anything with the spring launchers.

[Omega Supreme]

I would say leave them relaxed as well because for some funny reason my Sky Shadow keeps shooting out his missile itself all of a sudden one day and I'm guessing because the spring has been coiled too long and it's just "dying" to uncoil.

My Sky Shadow does that as well, I have actually lost one of the misslies from it because of this very thing, think I may have vacum'd it up.

I recommend leaving the missiles out, for the loss factor and the long life of your springs

[Stompy]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm not fussed on the missile launchers but mainly the conversion springs like STL pointed out on Cybertron Override and of course activators and plenty of the spring loaded mechanisms in a lot of the Cybertron figures with the Cyberkey functions. I guess it's not so much an issue unless they eventually rust and break.

As for the missile loss, it's amazing where they end up even if you saw the vicinity it landed. I guess the pinball effect makes them go where no toy missile has gone before.