MP Rodimus Convoy issues

[Adzma]

so for those who have recieved him is it worth $200????? Does he have any diecast? I want him but kind of pricey for me atm.

Nope, not by my standards anyway. I don't seem to have the problems others are, I haven't tried holding the guns yet, might look into that.

My issues with him are that he looks and feels cheap. He does have diecast feet, but that's all. Grimlock was certainly worth his price tag, IMO anyway, because of the detailing on the figure. Hot Rod has next to no detailing. TakTom would probably say the trailer is a factor, which it certainly would be, but even so.

He's still good and I'm happy I bought him, but he's far too expensive for what you get.

[Eazy D]

I've had a play around with my MP9

Transformation is very fiddly but if you go slowly step by step throuigh the instructions he will end up in alt mode. At least on mine the panels line up quite well but the feet need to tucked up in exactly the right position to prevent the crotch plate from scraping the ground in car mode.

My biggest complaint is the paint scraping on the spoiler. I did all the right things when preparing the hot rod car mode for insertion into the trailer. I pushed the spoiler and back shell of the car as far forward as possible BEFORE insertion and angled the spoiler correctly but no matter what I did the paint still scrapes off. The hot rod car is also a very tight fit in the trailer. Admittedly the combined rodimus prime alt mode looks really good and is very solid but the paint scraping virtually precludes putting him in that mode too often.

I wonder if any modders have tried coating the spoiler with some clear nail varnish to protect the paint?

Overally I love the aesthetics of the toy and the engineering is fabulous but the execution is too fiddly and tolerances too tight. A lovely display piece but like MP Megs he is too fiddly to enjoy transforming him too often.

[1AZRAEL1]

I wonder if any modders have tried coating the spoiler with some clear nail varnish to protect the paint?

As I saw on TFW, I don't think that would work. As the space is already really tight, putting an extra coat would just make it worse.

What I have seen one guy do, he used a small fine metal file to edge away some of the plastic where the spoiler goes into. Do it at your own discrection, but I will be doing it on mine if I ever get one.

[kup]

Please note that out of the package the fingers are indeed mis assembled as shown in that diagram. I corrected mine and although it is still a poor design, my figure is now able to hold his rifles with his hands closed.

[kurdt_the_goat]

Translation on that pic says to cut it though... did you do any of that? Would appreciate some pics/your own guide if you get a chance.

[kup]

No, I didn't cut anything, it was just turning a piece around so there is no modification whatsoever to any part. I will write up a guide when I get a chance, in the mean time I am just exploring the figure's engineering.

[kup]

Note: It is possible to have all 4 wheels rolling in vehicle mode but every single piece needs to be aligned properly and there is only like 1mm clearance from the waist piece. Only roll him in a flat surface.

[kurdt_the_goat]

No, I didn't cut anything, it was just turning a piece around so there is no modification whatsoever to any part. I will write up a guide when I get a chance, in the mean time I am just exploring the figure's engineering.

Looking forward to it!

I find the wheel alignment mostly hinges on the central rotating joint (torso rotation in robot mode). If you have the car half-transformed you can fine tune this part to get it rolling nicely. It's surprising they didn't change the design of the crotch plate though - just a bit less bend at the bottom half and it would have had more clearance.

I also think the hands could have been done better. If you transform as per the instructions, the hands push against the ankle hinge in car mode, making it difficult to push the forearms into the tabs underneath the windscreen.

If they'd have removed the long connection point for the solder/blade attachments, and just incorporated that into a detachable piece (which they already are), you could just rotate the hands into the cavity and have no clearance issues at all.

The hands though *are* detachable (probably on purpose, for this exact reason) - if you want an easier transform you can just pop them off and you will have no problem clipping the forearms into place.

[kup]

I have just transformed it in all modes.

This figure has very, very clumsy engineering with a lot of unnecessary complexity that is frankly not needed. It's as if someone was pushing for added complexity in the design without any thought to practicality.

A lot of the problems are due to this very poor engineering, even if you align everything perfectly there are still issues like clips refusing to stay in place and parts becoming disjointed too easily due to pressure which the plastic is unable to sustain.

Why they didn't pick up all this in the prototype stage is beyond me - This figure should not have come out like this, most of the flaws are in it's design and could have been rectified by studying the prototype.

[kaiden]

i couldnt get the trailer mode to work. even though i got the spoiler to fit in snugly, the damn rest of the car wouldnt line up correctly.

i've basically just put away the trailer and left him posing in hot rod mode with the blue binoculars down