Encore God Fire Convoy recall.

[DELTAprime]

^ Personally if it's really bad I'd send it back. I had to do that with one of my Unite Warriors sets and they promptly refunded my purchase and return shipping.

If it's not bad enough to return but still has issues which it sounds like most do then I'd take the 25% refund.

Let's hope the next $300 Transformers product from TT doesn't have issues. (that would be MP Dinobot)

[griffin]

I'm still confused as to what the official problems and the actual problems are.

It sounds like, officially (from TakaraTomy) is that some of the sound clips are mixed up and the packaging has some errors... but the actual reasons, which TT may not want to publicly admit to, include physical QC issues and sound clips used without permission.
Is that just fan rumours or is any of that true... because I can't believe that some mixed up sound clips and minor packaging errors would warrant an expensive recall and refund of these big expensive boxsets. If that was all that was wrong, most fans would still want the toys, and after a little bitching about the minor errors, the toys would still be worth owning and playing with. Because what if they decide against doing another production run, as those who don't return their toys won't be buying from a new production run, reducing the demand enough to be too risky to make more.

[CHILENO20]

Japanese right? Someone's honor could be at stake. Though from a purely business sense, yep, makes no sense at all.

[Firestorm]

My God Fire Convoy arrived today. About to open it. Here’s hoping I got a decent one.

[griffin]

The email didn't really say much. and not really anything too sensitive or anything. just wanted to be sure.

here's what they said

Particularly of interest was what they said about me having had mine shipped out before the recall. and what my options are. especially their offer of a 25% refund if I decide not to return it.

HLJ have pretty much publicly said the same thing now, for anyone who didn't get the email I guess.

I hope that this expense to HLJ is something they will be getting back from TakaraTomy, as they will basically be paying for two lots of shipping, and I'd hate to see them limit their purchasing of the Transformers Brand if they think it is too much of a financial risk now.

[Deonasis]

If it gets recalled I don't think we will see any more reissues of really old toys.

Reissuing this mold had me thinking an update of it may be in the works.

[GoktimusPrime]

I've posted a review of Encore God Fire Convoy here, and yeah, there are a number of quality control issues on this toy. Even without any QC issues I still cannot see how it's worth such a ridiculously high RRP.

[Firestorm]

Well. I opened it...

Looks like I wasn't spared from this QC nightmare.
some of my figures issues aren't the end of the world. but still disappointing.

admittedly I'm not normally THIS on the lookout for minor issues (or major ones.) but I wanted to make sure I got my money's worth and catalogued every issue.

here's a breakdown of what I found

as mentioned in Takara's official statement the box claims Fire Convoy merges with the Sword to make his super mode (which would be a cool gimmick honestly)



now let's get into the box and take a look.

Fire Convoy

We'll start with the minor paint issues I noticed

first up.
I noticed that 1 pin on Fire Convoy's chest is unpainted while the other is covered over in blue



there's also some flecks of blue or black paint on one of the super mode feet/ missile pods



well, that's the paint stuff out of the way, let's move on to the bigger issues.

right out of the box I noticed this HUGE stress mark on one of the panels of Fire Convoy's super mode hand.


that can't be good for the long run

some panels were also WAY harder to move than they should have been and sounded like they were snapping when I tried to move them.

while trying to transform him into vehicle mode I noticed what is probably the biggest issue on mine.



the plastic around one of the pins that wraps the panel around his leg/ along the side of the cab is cracked! the broken plastic in there also prevents it from moving too easily or fully swinging into place.



Next up, one of my Fire Convoy's ankle pieces is slightly warped or bent or something. since the feet are on ball joints it doesn't affect him standing in robot mode. but as a result, once everything is into position for vehicle mode the panels on the roof don't sit flat and the cab also splits open towards the top. it looks worse at first, then after you lock the legs into the back the split looks like it does in my picture, not ideal, but bot the worst thing in the world

those were all the issues I found on Fire Convoy himself as a standalone figure, now let's look at God Magnus

God Magnus

there's.... really no QC issues to report here. paint looks good, no missing applications, no broken or stressed parts. no missing/ swapped parts. even the roof panel sits flush with the cab



haven't tried the electronics yet. but all in all, Magnus is a winner.

then we go to combining them...

GOD FIRE CONVOY



thankfully there's only really 1 issue with GFC, Magnus' Thumbs don't fit in Fire Convoy's hands. so I can't get the combined mode hands to fit on right. the best I could do was put them on at a slight angle and rely on just the pegs on FC's forearms to hold the arm panels in place. Fire Convoy also can't seem to hold his gun in his smaller robot mode. so I'm guessing the issue lies in the size of the fist holes. not Magnus' Thumb



as with Magnus, the panel for the combined head doesn't seem to have any issues.


so there you have it. My God Magnus appears to have no issues at all. not even any floppiness.
but Fire Convoy has several stress marks and a broken piece. and some parts are shaped slightly wrong and affect things like holding weapons or sitting flush in cab mode....

all in all. I'm kinda disappointed. and am now tossing up whether or not I can live with it's issues or if I want to send it back. Omega Prime was a toy I'd wanted since I was a kid, so it's kinda hard to think I may have to give him up. but there's some pretty obvious issues with my figure. that said, there's nothing that (right now) outright breaks the figure completely. he still transforms and can go to his super mode and combined mode. and there's no missing/broken ratchets or really any floppiness. but those stressed and broken pegs are a worry. the hand issue I can probably try to sort out myself by either drilling slightly larger fist holes, or sanding down the handle on the gun and Magnus' thumbnails. not sure what I can do about the ankle though...
This really shouldn't have happened on such an expensive set, Takara really dropped the ball.

[Other]

For the Combined mode you can turns Primes hands upside down and the peg on Magnus' fist will fit into them on that side. That said yes this is a disappointing release, My set does not have as many problems as yours or others but there's still so many universal issues shared between all of them that it's hard to say it was worth it for the cost even if you get the best possible version. I'll likely keep it, it might not be perfect but I wanted it to display in Combined mode and problems aside it does that well enough, still a rip though

[Firestorm]

For the Combined mode you can turns Primes hands upside down and the peg on Magnus' fist will fit into them on that side.

I gave that a try and it still wouldn't really fit in. that may have been more due to the fist being a little loose so it kept rotating when I tried to cram the thumb in there