Misassembly

Doomed to walk backwards, but oddly has become a much better dancer as a result.

Misassembly is what happens when something goes wrong in the production process and parts of a toy are assembled in a way other than their design intended. It can happen for a variety of reasons, but the result is that many or even all units of a given production run on a toy will contain some form of incorrect assembly.

The most common form of misassembly is the swapping of two similar parts from left to right, such as feet, forearms, door kibble etc., and/or having parts attached backwards.

Misassembled toys will often appear normal at first glance, having made it through the manufacture and packaging process including quality control, either without anyone noticing or, if they did, without thinking it was a significant enough problem to warrant the trouble of making a mid-run correction. Mistaken assemblies can create problems with articulation or transformation, such as toys which can essentially transform but have parts that are difficult or impossible to click fully into place.

Examples of widespread cases

Swapped parts

Universe Blackarachnia's forearms
Universe Battle in a Box two-pack Ultra Magnus's forearms (error carried over onto the Optimus Prime redeco released as a mass-retail Deluxe Class toy for the Cybertron line, then fixed with a running change version)
Universe Repugnus's beast mode mandibles (the same error is repeated on the BotCon 2005 reuses of the sculpt)
Animated Blitzwing's upper arms
Energon Storm Jet has his inside legs swapped so that the knee joint faces the wrong way. Furthermore, his shoulders are also misassembled, since there is a molded chevron...in his armpit. The same error is repeated on every subsequent reuse of the sculpt, such as Universe Silverbolt and the rebranded Revenge of the Fallen Silverbolt.
Energon Steamhammer and his redeco, Classics Scavenger, have the treads in vehicle mode swapped. As a result, the small tabs on the sides of the treads that are supposed to peg into the holes in the gray flaps on the hips, thereby stabilizing the robot torso, are located on the sides of the head instead. Fortunately, the treads can be easily swapped using a screwdriver.<ref name="ooebi">Ooebi's Hobby Factory gallery of Superlink Buildron (via Internet Wayback Machine)</ref> Hasbro's official stock photos depict the treads correctly assembled, and the instructions show the tabs in the correct place in robot mode (oddly enough, the instructions imply that the tabs peg in less well than they do in reality).
Cybertron Ransack's rear wheel struts (the same error is repeated on every subsequent reuse of the sculpt except for BotCon 2006's Rattrap.)
Classics Mini-Con Grindor is odd: His official stock photos depict the wheels with the pegs as the rear wheels and the wheels with the corresponding holes as the front wheels. The toy itself has the wheels swapped, which is backed up by his instructions. His redeco, Universe Bodyblock, features the wheel assembly from Grindor's stock photos, which contradicts his own instructions (which are recycled from Grindor). Since neither wheel assembly affects his functionality or transformation in any way whatsoever, it's unclear which one is supposed to be the "correct" assembly and which one is the "misassembly".
Classics Ultimate Battle Megatron's feet are swapped and put on backwards, resulting in them not folding up properly in his tank mode.
Universe 2.0 Mini-Con Makeshift's legs are swapped on the hips both on the actual toy and in official stock photos compared to his own instructions and the original iteration of the sculpt, Classics Oil Slick. This results in the crotch section facing the wrong way in robot mode, with his sole Powerlinx socket facing forward and the sculpted crotch details facing backwards. Not only does this location of the Powerlinx port in robot mode result in unfortunate implications, it also makes the socket inaccessible in vehicle mode. Thankfully, his legs are attached to the torso via ball joints, thus allowing for a quick and easy fix. This applies to the Kmart exclusive Mini-Con 12-pack release of the toy; at least some samples of the individually packaged version available at discount store chains like Big Lots! were assembled correctly.
Universe 2.0's Prowl/Silverstreak/Smokescreen mold has most sliding feet assemblies swapped. The balance is far better when the feet are swapped, allowing for a more leveled hood-chest and reducing the depressed look they commonly sport.
Revenge of the Fallen Human Alliance Bumblebee's legs were supposedly swapped because the extra transformation step (rotating the legs and waist) would have been too difficult for kids to do. Although prototype photos seen via TakaraTomy show the legs with the wheels in a more movie-accurate setup, the official Hasbro stock photos and the instructions show the "misassembly" as the "correct" assembly, thus making this (arguably) an intentional design change rather than a genuine misassembly.
Prime: Beast Hunters Voyager Class Ultra Magnus has swapped leg panels, meaning that the pegs used to secure them in robot mode are on the wrong sides.
The initial release of Go! Jinbu toy suffers from swapped thighs, preventing him from bending his knees past 90 degrees, and from allowing his legs to be tabbed and secured properly in the "GoKenzan" combined mode.
Initial shipments of Generations Autobot Skids's upper thighs are swapped, compromising the hip articulation. The issue was fixed in the Crosscut retool and later releases of Skids himself.
Some of the Timelines Mini-Cons such as Stylor, Frenzy, and Gatoraider. Since they're redecoed from the Arms Micron kits, their parts can be swapped back with ease.
Many (if not all) samples of Combiner Wars Pyra Magna, "G2" Onslaught, and Bludgeon come with misassembled knee struts. They are reversed on both legs, preventing their knee assemblies from locking in properly for robot mode.
Many Titans Return Titan Master figures (such as Loudmouth, Terri-Bull, and Titan Force Infinitus) have flipped upper legs.
Titans Return Sergeant Kup has the outside panels covering the rear wheels placed on the wrong side of the vehicle. This mistake was repeated throughout all of his redecos and retools as well.
Power of the Primes Punch/Counterpunch has his shoulders installed upside-down.
Early specimens of Kingdom Galvatron had their inner shoulder assemblies installed upside-down, causing the arms to hang lower than intended; this was fixed through a running change.
The Target exclusive Kingdom T-Wrecks figure was intended to feature a "pretooled" alternate head sculpt with exposed teeth, which is depicted in stock CG renders and has even been accidentally used for a single specimen of Megatron (Beast) found at regular retail,<ref name="althead">"Kingdom Megatron head variant?" at TFW2005, 23 January 2021</ref> but the figure was instead released featuring the regular Megatron head. Compounding this error further is the fact that the paint operations for his face were clearly intended for the alternate head sculpt. Instead, T-Wrecks has a weird paint operation running across his lips exactly where the exposed teeth would have been.
War for Cybertron Trilogy Covert Agent Ravage is packaged with his beast mode forelegs swapped, causing them to bend the wrong way. This can be easily fixed by popping them out of their ball joints and swapping them to their correct placement.

Nonfunctioning/compromised gimmick

The blue lever at the base of Beast Wars Transmetal 2 Megatron's dragon mode neck, which allows his neck to be moved around like a puppet, features a flip-down tab which is supposed to fit into a groove in the neck and lock it in its fully-extended position. The lever is attached backwards, however, and tab cannot meet groove, though this can be easily remedied by unscrewing the lever and reattaching in the proper orientation. This persisted with Cryotek.
Cybertron Runamuck's punching gimmick.
Movie Megatron features a spring in the forearm that was supposed to fire his chain-fist, but was instead installed in his fusion cannon arm, causing it to snap shut. Switching the spring from one arm to the other corrects the function of both gimmicks.

Transformation-inhibiting errors

Voyager Class Revenge of the Fallen Mixmaster appears to have the joint that attaches the cab to the robot inverted, with the released toy having the cab joint upside-down as compared with what is in the instructions and box pictures, meaning that the toy cannot exactly mimic the battle mode that is depicted on the instructions or stock photos. This only applies to the Hasbro version of the instructions, however, as the Japanese Takara release had instructions depicting a completely different battle mode,<ref>Thread about Mixmaster's faulty instructions.</ref> which utilized the joint in the direction it is assembled, as well as pegs and holes present on the rear wheel segments and the inside of the cab respectively. Unfortunately, the transformation instructions have since been removed from the Takara website. The 'impossible' battle mode was reprinted in the instructions for the Hasbro G1-styled redeco.
Timelines Electrons and Hoist suffer from an internal panel in the central chest assembly being inserted the wrong way around, preventing it from fully rotating up into place. Luckily, this can be easily fixed by unscrewing the chest and flipping the panel back around. Many copies of the later Transformers: Platinum Edition "Autobot Heroes" Sergeant Kup have the same error.
Timelines Nacelle has two instances of misassembly: his tailfins are swapped, and the connectors for his wings are attached backwards. The latter defect puts a tremendous amount of stress on the tiny peg and can cause his wings to snap off at said peg if care is not taken during transformation.

Isolated incidents

Just give me a call and we can swap parts...

Aside from these widespread misassemblies, there are also countless instances of isolated incidents where a single specimen of a toy, or at least very very low quantities, feature assembly errors. Chances are that every toy collector has encountered at least one of these over the years, and trying to compile a list is pretty much pointless considering their sheer variety, as well as their (usually) low quantities.

A toy with an unusually large amount of reported errors, many of them of the really odd variety, was Alternators/Binaltech Prowl: One specimen of the Binaltech version sported the "Type S" rims of his Alternators counterpart on both his front wheels (but the correct "Type R" rims on his rear wheels); one specimen of the blue Binaltech version had the wrong set of fingers on one hand, resulting in an articulated pinky finger instead of the index finger. The most commonly reported error, however, was of the toy sporting two of the same hand. This error was apparently so common that it even showed up in two different sets of stock photos (which also featured two of the same forearms, and one of them even two of the same shoulders)!

Reportedly, some specimens of Revenge of the Fallen Superion also came with a very unusual problem, where one of Silverbolt's legs was assembled the wrong way (a widespread error, as noted above), but the other one was assembled correctly.

Solutions

Many cases of misassembly can easily be fixed with the aid of a screwdriver and a modicum of judiciously applied pressure. Most Transformers include many parts that are held together with Phillips-head screws, which can generally be removed quite easily, allowing the misassembled pieces to be reversed, swapped out or otherwise re-aligned. Also, many toys from Beast Wars onwards feature ball joints or similar that can usually be popped free and easily reconfigured. Examples include Animated Blitzwing, whose left-right swapped upper arms can be easily popped out of his shoulders and unscrewed from his forearms and then reassembled.

However, sometimes the assembly process involves adhesives or metal rods, which makes certain parts virtually impossible to separate without serious risk of damaging the toy permanently. Also, toys involving electronic gimmicks can be particularly tricky to tinker with. All but those confident in their customizing skills should be wary of attempting such fixes.

Arguably, such fixes mean the toy is no longer in its "original" state, so extreme semanticists might argue that this counts as a form of customizing. But really, do we care?

In cases where individual specimens erroneously come with the wrong parts assembled (such as two of the same hand), there's the additional problem of finding someone who either has the same problem in reverse (i.e. two of the other hand) or a broken toy with the missing part intact (or at least someone selling a toy for parts). More often than not, however, you're better off returning the faulty toy to the store and getting a new one.

Unusual cases

Look fast before the picture gets taken back too.

In some cases, there is an evident problem where something doesn't quite work properly, but the stock photography and even elements of the deco would suggest that everything is in order. Although it is difficult to prove without official confirmation, cases like this may be due to a misassembly happening quite early in the design process, after the prototype phase but before finalising the deco, and thereafter being assumed to be correct at each subsequent stage of production.

An example of this is Titanium Series Ultra Magnus, whose shoulder-mounted rocket launchers appear to have been been flipped horizontally, as their pegs cause them to attach top-down in robot mode. Although it is possible that some kind of mirror-flip occurred in the moulding of the launchers, an arguably more likely explanation notes that if the shoulders are simply swapped out they can attach correctly, suggesting instead a case of misassembly. However, the fact that the shoulders feature Autobot-sigil tampographs that would then be rendered visible only from the back would seem to argue against this, as does the packaging photography of the prototype. Conversely, the instructions depict the "correct" shoulder assembly as distinguished by showing frontwards the moulding detail that is backwards-facing on the toy as released.

Such a case could be an example of misassembly occurring very early in the process. The decision to "correct" the toy by swapping out the parts may make the accessories attach correctly, but at the cost of hiding some of the deco.

As a rule, toys afflicted by misassembly are the buyer's problem. However, in the spring of 2018, the Encore reissue of God Fire Convoy featured so many assembly errors (impeding transformation, interfering with play features, and leading to packaging errors since the box callouts were making claims that were no longer correct on the actual toy) that TakaraTomy took the unprecedented step of issuing an apology and refunded recall of the set.

Misassembly is not...

I am not an animal! I AM A MECHY BEING!!

Misassembly is not the same thing as toys which are incorrectly transformed in their packaging and/or promotion photography, such as "Ultimate" Movie Bumblebee and his non-collapsed chest.
Misassembly is not the same thing as a design change, where the way parts were clearly intended to move, align or otherwise function has been altered in a manner which partly or fully compromises its optimal function, such as Lockdown's wrists, Animated Bumblebee's stingers, or Movie Ratchet's thumbs. These changes can sometimes appear to be oversights or mistakes, but are in fact often done for safety reasons. Occasionally these issues are corrected in later re-uses of the mould, such as with Animated Bumblebee.
Misassembly is not the same thing as a design flaw, where a toy has been produced with parts that do not function as they were clearly intended, but are not the result of a deliberate design change. Manufacturing errors can result from pieces being manufactured fractionally too small or large, or subtly not quite the right shape, resulting in parts that don't move as intended, such as Universe Ironhide. Sometimes large numbers of units from a production run will have these problems while others from the same run will not, such as with Animated Grimlock's partially-retracting leg/forearms.

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