MP-57 Masterpiece Skyfire Soars Supreme

[danny-boy]

Is there any sunlight that gets in at all? Because in my experience, even the tiniest sliver of sunlight can photodegrade toys. In 2016 I moved my toys to a new TF room where 99% of incoming sunlight is blocked out. But just recently I looked at my Jetwing Optimus Prime toy, which was standing near where a tiny sliver of light comes in and doesn't even directly hit any toys... and his smokestacks were yellowed. If you look at my Bayformers Optimus Prime vs Megatron TFTM re-enactment, you can see his yellowed smokestacks. Since then not only have I painted the smokestacks silver, but I've also added an extra layer of brown paper over that small gap where that sliver of light gets in. Note that this sliver was still obstructed by a closed blind and drape, but there was light bleeding from the very top near the ceiling that would bounce off the ceiling and onto the toy. I've blu-tacked the top of the brown paper onto the ceiling so that it now covers that offending top gap. In short, your toy room should be like a dark room... and then even darker. Dark enough to develop film.

I have learnt the hard way that any amount of sunlight that creeps into a toy room, no matter how small, can discolour toys. Now I got MP Ratchet after I moved, and that toy has never yellowed at all. Only DOTM Optimus Prime had some yellowing, but only because that toy sits on a ceiling high top shelf near where the light was leaking in from. And even then, only the rubber smoke stacks yellowed; no other part, and no other toys. Not even my CHUG Sixshot and Horrorcons who have white and light-grey coloured parts and are also near that ceiling corner. I'm going to add another layer of paper over that existing layer just to make it even darker.

If you can, consider UV tinting your room windows, but yeah, definitely block out all incoming sunlight from any windows. Aside from DOTM OP's smokestacks, I have experienced zero photodegradation since 2016.

Do you mean natural day light entering the room? Because directly opposite the display there’s a window about 6 metres away. Direct sunlight only gets as far as 1 metre in.

[GoktimusPrime]

Do you mean natural day light entering the room? Because directly opposite the display there’s a window about 6 metres away. Direct sunlight only gets as far as 1 metre in.

Believe me, that's more than enough to photodegrade your toys, even if they're not in the direct path of the sunlight. The sunlight was only getting a few cm and it was enough to yellow the smokestacks on my Jetwing OP.

Here is what the window looks like...

Left: Window's location in my TF room with the semi-exposed part circled. It's really small and tucked into that corner, and yet it was still enough to do some damage, but only to the toy sitting right next to it. None of my other toys have been affected.
Centre: Close-up of the semi-exposed area. As you can see, I've covered it up with a cloth-wall hanging poster and even stuck some pieces of cardboard on the top to shield light from coming through the top gap. You can also see the brown paper sheet that I've recently added; that's attached to the ceiling's skirting. I'm going to attach a second sheet of brown paper to cover that remaining gap and produce complete darkness.
Right: This is a window in a different room, but it's the exact same style and size as the one in my TF room. It comes with a solid roller-blind which works well in blocking out sunlight, but as you can see, without any additional obstructions, the sunlight still shines through around the edges, creating a rectangular halo. It's the upper halo (highlighted in yellow) that I hadn't adequately blocked off before and caused yellowing.

So in my experience, you need to block out ALL sunlight, because even indirect ambient natural sunlight that gets into the room can still yellow plastic. It should be blocked out so well that if you walk into the room in the middle of a sunny day with the lights off, it should be pitch dark as if it's midnight. This is what I had achieved except for that tiny top corner, but that little corner with just a limited amount of soft ambient sunlight was still enough to cause damage! You've gotta treat your toys as if they're even more heliophobic than vampires!

[danny-boy]

So in my experience, you need to block out ALL sunlight, because even indirect ambient natural sunlight that gets into the room can still yellow plastic. It should be blocked out so well that if you walk into the room in the middle of a sunny day with the lights off, it should be pitch dark as if it's midnight. This is what I had achieved except for that tiny top corner, but that little corner with just a limited amount of soft ambient sunlight was still enough to cause damage! You've gotta treat your toys as if they're even more heliophobic than vampires!

Thanks for the detailed info. I had no idea. This makes me even more nervous for MP-57 Skyfire but I know now I’ll need to take the necessary precautions to avoid yellowing.

[Skyfire]

I transformed him to robot and it's quite straightforward but there are some (particularly one) troublesome areas.

1. If you find the heels aren't going straight (flat), then the heel edge is hitting the lower edge of a circular part. To get beyond it, you have to angle the forefoot (toes) up, while keeping the heel steady, which will angle the circular part upwards and out of the way. Then you can complete rotating the heel.




2. There is zero clearance when rotating the forward fuselage toward the chest. You lower the part surrounding the head as much as possible then the cockpit/nose part seems obstructed. If you push down on the nose towards the chest, it will rotate at exactly the area where parts are touching - like a hinge joint.




3. When folding back the flap between the backpack halves, it seems impossible due to the tabs obstructing. Push each half apart with a thumb simultaneously to get the tabs out of the way, then guide the flap down with your index fingers.




4a. Compressing the two halves of the backpack together was frustrating and worrying. For ages, I couldn't get the two to join. Firstly, follow the Takara Tomy video, as some youtubers e.g. EmGo have mistransformed this section - the bottom of the backpack (the exhausts part) must be pushed up first before the halves are joined. Otherwise a gap is left at the bottom as the "sliding door" (see below) prevents further upwards movement. In the picture, the left half side is how it should be - the halves should be touching the white stem i.e. fully in the midline.




4b. A word of warning - as I was fiddling with this area a lot, I pushed down the bottom backpack section on a seam, which broke the glue. I suggest pulling on the corners of the rectangular areas (not sure I would pull forcefully and repeatedly on the exhausts).




4c. The problem I had with joining the backpack halves was I felt something obstructing the bottom of the backpack, stopping the halves from reaching the midline. It was a squishy but definite blocking sensation. So I opened one wing side to see what the obstruction was, which you might want to do. I noticed that when the bottom section was not pushed up, the halves came together easily. So something about the bottom part was obstructing - the "sliding door".




4d. When the backpack halves are pushed together, there is a piece at the exhaust assembly that becomes exposed like a "sliding door". This strikes the edge of a rectangular hole in the swinging wing assembly, giving that squishy block when the halves move to the midline. To get past this, you have to push the two halves together where that obstruction occurs EXTREMELY hard. I felt I was going to break something. I suggest opening one wing assembly and looking at how the parts move - At first, join the halves with the bottom section down (mistransformed like EmGo) to see how they come together. Then try transforming correctly but just pushing one half in forcefully while seeing what this sliding door is doing. Basically, it's poor clearance. But thankfully, separating the backpack halves (transforming back) requires not much force. I think with repeated transforming, the clearance will improve (or something breaks). This sliding door is also the reason why you can't join the halves then push the bottom up - the sliding door obstructs full movement.




4e. If you feel a rock hard obstruction when joining the halves, check that the edges of the top of the backpack halves aren't hitting the white stem.

[Jetfire in the sky]

Do you mean natural day light entering the room? Because directly opposite the display there�s a window about 6 metres away. Direct sunlight only gets as far as 1 metre in.

I can tell you hand to heart, ANY natural light direct or indirect will F-up the colour of your toys eventually, grey around 1986 onwards and almost any white will degrade. There is a temperature/humidity factor in a darkened room as well.

[KELPIE]

I transformed him to robot and it's quite straightforward but there are some (particularly one) troublesome areas.

This is an awesome post. Thanks for the details....


.... I might leave mine in box :P

[danny-boy]

Received mine. The jet mode is absolutely gorgeous. I want to buy another copy but these MP’s are so damn expensive.

[GoktimusPrime]

Just FYI there is an MP-57 Skyfire review thread here.