Talk:Gold Plastic Syndrome

Untitled

About TM megs, I think the plastic used has some form of GPScombined with problems with stress. From what I've found, the Beast Wars Metals Metals Megatron does not have the problems Hasbro's TM megatron has, nor does Armada Predacon. That, and the post common breaking points on toys with GPS are stressed areas like joints, pegs, and fist holes. --FortMax 15:47, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

I've been talking with Kyde, and he says that ABS plastic is the kind that GPS affects. (Versus PVC or nylon). I'll bug 'im to research it a bit more. You know, find out what causes the "swirlies." --ItsWalky 16:24, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Might not be the right answer, but my hypothesis is that the fillers and paint added to the plastic don't mix entirely right, like oil and water, and over time either chemically seperate or oxidize, leaving behind a messy gold powder and broken childhood memories. 70.161.57.72 03:33, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Having talked with a few people who have snapped Megatrons, the breaks on that toy all sound very clean to me, and sound liek a "Gradual pressure" situation. As such, I can only conclude that the original TM Megatrons simply had the wrong kind of plastic for that joint, one that would not stand up to the constant pressure applied in transformation, not "bad" plastic. And as the article notes, GPS breaks are anything but clean... I've got a few toys that suffer from it... virtually all of them were like-new (being either purchased in sealed bubbles or were obvious display pieces), and they CRUMBLED near-instantly. There was no give, no pressure, just *turn * *CRUNCH* *flinders*. I'll be taking pictures of my GPS-affected Roadblock to illustrate. --M Sipher 19:49, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Will one of those pictures be used to illustrate this article? (I suppose for aesteric purposes, it should be a picture of Electro...)-Derik 06:26, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

No, I thought I'd just let it sit on my hard drive and I'd never show anyone. What the fuck do you THINK I even brought it UP for? --M Sipher 09:58, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

Hey, I take notes and snap all sorts of TF related stuff and just have it sit on my hard drive. Mostly out of laziness for actualyl doing anythign with it. The Wiki is funt hat way- it's so much less WORK to put it up someplace... -Derik 12:00, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

RE: Joes: I clearly remember seeing posts in the Joe fandom, I forget where, though, that Serpentor suffered from GPS, and that one guy had Serpentor's entire thigh assembly collapse into dust and shards. -hx 23:16, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Skyquake

Does anyone know if the Predator Skyquake (aside from the missile launcher) suffers from GPS? I've been wanting to get all of the Predators and Turbomasters, but since I like to play with my TFs, I don't want to spend a lot of money on one who will crumble apart when I pick it up. --FortMax 16:06, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Skyquake isn't actually gold. That deeper bronzey color plastic is not at all known for disintegrating, although Skyquake IS notable for breaking off Predator gun handles because of his giant deep fists and overall mass going up against the same tiny pegs his little friends have.

(It is HILARIOUS that Siph hasn't actually uploaded those pictures of Roadblock ten months later.) -LV 16:57, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Do you know if the Predator launchers get GPS? The launcher from my Stalker broke at the trigger, but I'm not sure if it was GPS or just because it was old hard plastic that really should have had a hinge to push the trigger. --FortMax 21:17, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

"That deeper bronzey color plastic is not at all known for disintegrating" - I appreciate it was said two years ago, but *what*? Skyquake's supersight contraption breaks ludicrously easily, without warning or stress marks.--PTX-015R 11:34, 13 May 2009 (EDT)

Couple'a questions...

With the new Movie figures coming out, I've noticed Starscream has the characteristic streaks of color that are evident in toys that suffer from GPS. So what I'm wondering is a) do the swirls only appear in the ABS grade plastics, or so they appear in PVC as well? and b) What is the general life-span of a toy that suffers this lamentable condition? Dracokanji 12:51, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

I forgot to mention in the above post that I noticed Energon Starscream's transparent green wings seem to suffer from GPS. I myself rarely used the hinge on the wings used for the missile launchers (considering I LOST one of the missiles... ) but one day I noticed a break in the plastic around where the pin that holds it in place was situated. It didn't look like a stress fracture, but more like plastic rot. If anyone else has noticed this, maybe it should be added to the main article.

There's already been one reported case of a Protoform Starscream suffering from a GPS-like disintegration, but that user added extra paint details using some kind of paint markers, which may have accelerated or enhanced the process. -hx 17:47, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Yeah. Enamel paints can have odd chemical effects on certain TF plastics. I painted an old Tracks black about a decade back, and the paint made the blue car-panel parts all gummy. I'm disinclined to think Protoscream will have issues unless you start adding chemicals into his mix. --M Sipher 01:42, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

I forgot to mention one last thing. Is there any way to prevent the plastic from deteriorating? I don't do custom painting, so that won't be a problem. What I am worried about is if oxidation has something to do with it, and how long older figures (g1, beast wars, etc.) lasted before turning to powder. Dracokanji 01:32, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Thunder Clash

Okay, I see Thunder Clash got pulled off the list, but I'm going to dispute that one. Mine in particular, which I keep in the box 95% of the time, cleanly (no whiteness) snapped off both ratchet tabs within the feet a couple years back. A year after the right fist split cleanly on the inside (also without whiteness). I'm terrified to touch the handgun. This sure as hell sounds like GPS to me, don't you think?--MCRG 07:06, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, TC is a textbook example of GPS. That's the whole reason why his gun is impossible to find. I don't remember anyone's lasting more than a few months "back in the day". The missile launcher bays are also known to just fall apart, as well as the tabs inside his feet.. --PTX-015R 11:34, 13 May 2009 (EDT)

Seibertron's Slingshot gallery

Seibertron's G2 Slingshot gallery has come pics of a very broken one. We might want to use one of those for the main pic. --FortMax 03:22, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Variants

Can a similar form of GPS happen to Alternators? My Rarley played with Hound Alternator is showing MAJOR signs of stress all over, especially on the shiny green areas. He is one of my favorite figures, I really don't want him to break :(AutobotFreak643 19:09, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

GPS breaks don't show stress marks.--FortMax 20:05, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

Worth noting though that it's only called "Gold Plastic Syndrome" because that's the most common plastic to show the classic symptoms. It's really a problem with any swirly/metallic plastic.--Rosicrucian^Talk 20:10, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

That's something else - other shiny/metallic plastic is more prone to *breaking* due to stress, yes. Looking at you, TM Megatron, but it's not the sort of "randomly crumble into flinders/dust out of nowhere" behavior that GPS specifically refers to. -hx 19:25, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Right. GPS is CRUMBLING like dried-out clay, not snapping. --M Sipher 21:35, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

UT Optimus Prime

You haven't really specified which UT Optimus Prime has GPS. You say "Leader Class," but there isn't a toy from that entire franchise family that has metallic plastic for its fists. Can you be more specific?--Rosicrucian^Talk 15:51, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Of course, the simple answer is that none of them have GPS, unless the K-Mart super base version's cab starts exploding.--MCRG 13:55, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Armada leader prime,his arms suffer from GPS. Who keeps removing the info about protoform starscream? Decepticon Rhinox 22:22, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Armada leader prime had no gold plastic on him, just gold paint applications.. Even the K-Mart super base version didn't have any on the arms. As for Starscream, the only confirmed cases of him showing symptoms are on custom figures who have been repainted.--Rosicrucian^Talk 22:33, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

His cab's arms crumbled on mine for no reason. :-(. Decepticon Rhinox 22:36, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Superbase Prime does indeed have gold plastic, most notably the cab elbow joints, supermode "ears" and minicon-activated blasters, but he does not suffer from GPS. GPS breaks are uneven and leave plastic dust and plastic shards. They also do not leave white marks on the plastic since GPS isn't a stress fracture. I don't have my Superbase Prime in front of me, but I'm pretty sure his gold plastic is unpaintable, meaning it isn't the type of plactic that can be affected. Also, there has been exactly ONE case of Protoform Starscream disintegrating, and it was a figure the owner had painted. --FortMax 22:59, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

My prime did not have stressmarks either,it just shattered for no reason. Decepticon Rhinox 08:00, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Yeaaaaaaah, i can add my Armada super base 'Prime to it, one of the arms turned to dust, without stressmarks with a bit of dust(ON the arm joint).--Sunjumper 15:03, 6 September 2009 (EDT)

Talked to two people about the figure on a Convention today. Both of them had their figures succumb to GPS as well. So he definitely, definitely suffers from it.--86.87.28.191 15:32, 13 June 2010 (EDT)

This needs investigation, since that'd be the first case of nylon-based gold(ish) plastic having GPS. I basically don't believe these were cases other than stress wearing out the joints in the elbows until I see otherwise. Considering this is five years later and there haven't been any widespread reports seems particularly against it being GPS.--MCRG (talk) 16:36, 3 February 2015 (EST)

The case of Armada Super Base Optimus is more likely a result of the susceptibility of metallic plastics being more easily broken, rather than deterioration. The most common point of failure is a stress fracture that appears to run through where the rivet if positioned in the elbow. The thing is, brittle plastic will most likely NOT show stress marks - it's not "plasticy" enough to deform in a way that would produce stress marks. The problem is, the elbow used an octagonal lower piece that required a significant amount of force to make it rotate against the flat section of the bicep that holds it in position. Slowly turning the arm shows that the whole elbow section would warp to allow the bicep to reposition, and in the process it would damage the forearm joint. It was basically causing the swivel to ratchet itself apart slowly. Having the corners of the octagonal section be rounder could have potentially solved the issue. This is a case of manufacturers relying too much on the physical properties of the material to compensate for a lack of mechanical parts. --King Starscream (talk) 15:26, 22 April 2016 (EDT)

Minor correction here. The LOWER elbow breaks more often than the upper joint, but it's still due to the upper joint being shaped the way it is as well as the force needed to move the piece. Because of the shape and position of the elbow, the easiest spot to hold while turning it is the forearm, which puts pressure on the hole that the pin is running through. That's why basically ever Armada Optimus breaks in the exact same way - a crack running straight through that same pinhole. --King Starscream (talk) 15:30, 29 April 2016 (EDT)

Torca & Killbison

Does he actually have GPS? All I've seen are ones with a snapped tail joint. Also, I've heard varying reports on whether Killbison actually has GPS or not. --FortMax 19:06, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Your toy is DOOMED! DOOOOOOOMED!!!

I was under the impression that GPS is not universal across the board, even in toys where it's common. Something about how some plastic batches weren't mixed well, but some were. Am I just confused and clinging to foolish hope? -- Repowers 10:59, 28 June 2009 (EDT)

I dunno. My Skyquake seems fine. My Electro hasn't disintegrated. I dunno about G2 Slingshot yet; I'll be getting to G2 after the Micromaster pictures, I think. --M Sipher 12:00, 28 June 2009 (EDT)

My Japanese Electro shows no sign of it, and so does my Skyquake--apart from the highly disturbing "birth" of a few little gold fragments the first time I folded his scope into his torso, but never again mind you. --Thylacine 2000 17:19, 1 September 2009 (EDT)

De-snarking?

While the new information here certainly is welcome, where did all this talk about 'snapping like your grandma's ankles' and, worse yet, 'like a tight virgin in prison' come from? Way too many jokes are getting in the way of the facts here, I think. 200.3.177.134 14:24, 15 July 2009 (EDT)

Hasbro's Q&A session about GPS

http://www.transformerland.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3481

It was noted here that hasbro is awere of the problem, and has done everything they could so that this might never happen again.(Hopefully this will save Protoform Starscream)--Sunjumper 15:16, 1 September 2009 (EDT)

Movie Legends Scorponok

I've seen many reports that the tip of Legends Scorponok's tail (originally made out of soft rubbery plastic) has a tendency to harden and then break. My Scorponok's tail appears to be very hard now, and I don't even DARE trying to apply force to it to see if it will break. Is this related to GPS? Should it be mentioned here? It seems to be a common problem, not a few isolated incidents.--Nevermore 11:38, 20 September 2009 (EDT)

Animated Arcee

Of course she isn't GPS, but she is so #$%& fragile. I believe she needs to be covered in this section. Specially her thumb (Arcee Thumbs Syndrome)_--ACIDSTORM92 21:44, 5 March 2010 (EST)

We're not going to include every toy that breaks into this article. —Interrobang 23:48, 5 March 2010 (EST)

Maybe, but her pink glittery plastic is kind of GPS to me, because of the nature of the plastic.--ACIDSTORM92 01:14, 6 March 2010 (EST)

With Arcee, the common complaint is the stress marks on the thumbs, with them actually breaking being a secondary issue. The article repeatedly states that GPS does not have stress marks. Stress marks are a warning and a luxury where this particular thing is concerned. Since Arcee shows stress, she's not a case of GPS... just bad engineering/weak plastic. She doesn't belong here. Luke 18:33, 2 April 2011 (EDT)

Universe 1.0/Cybertron (Europe) Micromaster Superion

[1] There's also talks about Movie Protoform Starscream, but reports on him seem to be 50/50 (mine was fine a week ago) suggesting that he came out in a transitional period when Hasbro fixed the problem.--Nevermore 18:03, 16 December 2010 (EST)

Youtube video for GPS

claywyatt1982 has uploaded a video demonstrating Gold Plastic Syndrome:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcjAUN5Ssj8

How about linking it on the page? I think it would be great to show people the fragility in action. C. V. Reynolds 05:35, 21 April 2011 (EDT)

I WILL CRUSH YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS indeed.

I don't think there would be a problem with putting it in the "External Links" session--we have several instances of linking to 'net fan reviews of, say, the release of Marvel #1, or MOSC rubber rot on the Pretender Monsters. --Thylacine 2000 08:16, 21 April 2011 (EDT)

Transmetal Megatron

So is Transmetal Megatron GPS or not? According to this page it is, according to his page it isn't clear what is the cause of his fragility. --Khajidha 08:48, 22 September 2011 (EDT)

In short, no. TM Megs has the problem of metallic plastic being more susceptible to stress, but doesn't just spontaneously disintegrate. --King Starscream 15:57, 10 November 2011 (EST)

Cybertron Repugnus

I think Cybertron Repugnus suffers from GPS, specifically at the lower jaws, which easily break when you try yo make him hold his tail/flail.

That sounds more like a stress fracture than GPS. Remember, just because it breaks doesn't mean it is GPS. GPS is crumbling for no reason, not snapping when things are forced into tight spaces. --Khajidha 14:02, 18 October 2011 (EDT)

It did not snap : it crumbled. First the peg, then the whole jaw. Looks like GPS to me, but I could be wrong. Just wanted to know if anybody else experimented this.82.238.12.114 08:48, 19 October 2011 (EDT)

10th Anniversary Dinobot

Dinobot's beast mode toes have crumbled on me for no reason. Has anyone else had this happen to them? Tom Servo the Great 14:16, 18 October 2011 (EDT)

I had the entire right shoulder assembly on mine just snap right off, apropos of nothing. I'd say that's GPS, all right. --AutoFire 17:40, 29 October 2013 (EDT)

Ultimate movieverse Optimus

A gentle toss to the floor tore the cab's arm off. i had bought it not even half a day ago, i think it might be GPS. the symptoms matched up, but either way, i returned it, so i cannot check again. (sorry for the wording.) CrowBuster 17:15, 3 January 2012 (EST)CrowBuster

No way, even if that figure did have GPS, it's way too soon for that to be the cause of yours breaking. Your "gentle toss" was probably not as gentle as you think.--76.226.102.10 17:27, 15 April 2012 (EDT)

Remove mention of TM Megatron?

Given that TM Megs's own writeup says he DOESN'T actually suffer from GPS, shouldn't that toy's mention on this page be removed? --AutoFire 23:41, 1 November 2013 (EDT)

TF only?

Is GPS something that only affects Transformers, or has it been noted in various toylines in general? Cuz for whatever reason the way I'm seeing the article written, it seems like it's a problem specific to the transformers brand. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by BlackStarscream (talk • contribs){{#if:| {{{2}}}|}}.

G.I. Joe has Serpentor, who's listed on the page as suffering from it. I did a quick Google or two and couldn't find any mention of other toylines having a big problem with gold plastic. I saw someone ask about it on a Lego site, but none of the people there reported any problems with Lego products containing gold plastic. --abates (talk) 00:51, 28 January 2014 (EST)

Supposedly some Visionaries figures also suffer from it, but I'm not sure which ones. --Monzo (talk) 01:39, 28 January 2014 (EST)

Definitely other lines have it. Snizzard Lips, a gold and green snake monster from the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Evil Space Aliens line (1993) has GPS. It's very hard to find one whose tail has not partially crumbled. Related is "Popy disease", sparkly blue plastic that tends to shatter just like GPS. Notable examples from Popy's Chogokin line are Gordion (released as Gardian in the Godaikin line in the US) whose knees notoriously shatter and Albegas Beta (the blue Voltron II robot in the Voltron line) whose legs and other blue plastic body parts like to shatter. In fact, even the Diaclone F-15 Robo predecessor to Thundercracker's sparkly blue plastic wings crumbled on me (that was pretty heartbreaking) and my friend's Microman Microchange Browning (the blue one) had a waist that just crumbled even though he was extremely careful with it. --Ginrai

Probably the strangest one: you know how Zelda games tend to come in gold cartridges or disks? Well, the Majora's Mask one is made of metallic gold plastic. Needless to say, the first image result for "Majora's Mask cartridge broken" is a picture of one with a massive piece sheared right off and no visible bends or stress marks, and there's a whole lot of other pictures that seem to show the same problem. Even found a video of a guy describing how his copy basically shattered after it fell off the shelf.MBG (talk) 16:31, 21 October 2018 (EDT)

A note on the Lego side of things which is up this alley is lime-green pieces released in sets around 2007 (from what I remember). It was mostly due to a design flaw as Lego employees discovered their lime-green plastic mixture was off. Closer inspection lead to the realization that microscopic air bubbles had made their way into the mixture and any amount of pressure on pieces of particular design resulted in them crumbling. I first discovered this when I was given my cousin's entire Lego collection when he grew out of it and I discovered half of the lime-green Bionicle ball-sockets from his sets were broken into multiple shards of plastic and the cracks ran through areas of parts that were normally too strong to break from standard play. In recent years I have fallen back in love with the Bionicle G1 story and sets and have watched a lot of reviews of sets and read up on many interesting things on forums to do with the sets and that's how I came across this information.

Unfortunately, Lego didn't discover this fault in the mixture until multiple sets from various themes had been released world-wide and if I'm not mistaken, this was also around the time the "Power Miners" theme was on shelves and just about every piece in those sets was made in lime-green. I'm not sure on whether this fault created issues on standard System bricks, but it definitely ruined a lot of Bionicle sets from around that time due to the ball-and-socket building style. While not relevant to this at all, but still pretty amusing, in 2008 the lime-green mixture issue was corrected, but Lego decided to redesign most of their Bionicle pieces, resulting in very fragile and easily broken ball-sockets. This new design made it's way through 2009 and 2010 Bionicle sets and even the first year of Hero Factory sets too. It's rather ironic, they correct an issue on a particular coloured plastic and yet the very next year all pieces suffered a similar fate. Fanofcoolstuff27 (talk) 03:48, 19 November 2020 (EST)

TM2 Megatron?

While, at this point, it is quite obvious that Transmetal Megatron is NOT in any way afflicted by plastic degradation, I've noticed that the lower leg pivots on my Transmetal 2 Megatron are starting to splinter and flake away from the joint rather distressingly. It leaves the same sort of ragged edges, dust, and splinters that GPS typically results in. I'm not really sure how many others have noticed a similar situation. Indeed, I only realized that the plastic fragments were coming from that particular figure on close examination, since they were falling off of an otherwise obscured part. Can anyone confirm whether or not this is actually the case? --King Starscream (talk) 16:11, 28 December 2015 (EST)

I came on here to find this exact issue since I couldn't find any mention of it anywhere else, mine was also suffering from the flaking issue on his lower leg, and then finally snapped this past week just sitting around. I don't know if it's a design flaw or an issue with the red plastic, but the other leg is disintegrating and flaking as well. Aphelion05 (talk) 01:28, 23 June 2019 (EDT)

Terradive's trident?

Should we add HFTD Terradive's trident right in where Movie Scorponok is placed? The trident is made out of metallic gold plastic but it doesn't crumble into pieces but rather snap right at the hinge. --Wildstreak (talk) 20:53, 5 December 2019 (EST)

If it's snapping at a stress point, that may be a design flaw but it's explicitly not GPS. -- Dark T Zeratul (talk) 18:58, 5 December 2019 (EST)

The SCP link

There's an article on the SCP Foundation wiki about Gold Plastic Syndrome and it's pretty well-written, so I added it to the external links. (For those who don't know, the SCP wiki is a weird collaborative amateur-horror site, spinning tales of mysterious objects with anomalous properties—in this case, a Randy that *doesn't* suffer from GPS, and be careful what you wish for.) The black boxes/[DATA EXPUNGED]/etc is an SCP joke; I figured the link needed a joke so that nobody would mistake it for a real-world article, but please feel free to edit the link text to improve the formatting and/or make it funnier. Tina Russell (talk) 23:34, 31 January 2020 (EST)

I like SCP a lot, and whoever did this certainly knows their TF history, but unfortunately, that's basically linking to fanfic, and, well, we don't. --M Sipher (talk) 00:33, 1 February 2020 (EST)

General Grievous

So I looked up GPS on YouTube to see if there were any interesting videos to watch (hello there, boredom!) and I came across this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiPjvT_694U&t=59s Should we add General Grievous and his wheel bike to the Star Wars list of GPS victims? The video is almost a year old and I haven't seen any other videos about Grievous having GPS. --Wildstreak (talk) 11:43, 27 March 2020 (EDT)

My idea for a Potential Treatment

I have an idea as a potential treatment (not cure as it may need to be repeated a couple times to keep being effective). I have no idea if this would work. I am just saying a potential solution. That solution is Armor-All Plasticizer. The idea is that using a plasticizer for cars on the Gold Plastic might give the toy a little more time. My idea for the process is 1) Make a tub of Armor-All Plasticizer 2) Holding any non Gold Plastic Parts, gently put the toy in 3) Allow the Armor-All to soak into the toy and 4) take it out. If anyone has a toy that is a common victim of GPS and it hasn't fallen victim to it, try this process out and tell me if it works. --806mtson (talk) 15:52, 11 April 2020 (EDT)

Beast Wars II

I was wondering if we can add BWII Bigmos to the Beast Era list of casualities?

I have a few friends that have had the turquoise plastic shatter on them multiple times and they keep needing to replace the figure and make their own repairs swapping out parts. I too have had this result, I bought one sealed and one of the turquoise pieces that hold on the mosquito legs was already broken off inside the box.

Notes of breakage are: mosquito leg connectors snapping right off, tight thigh swivels resulting in crumbling, and occassionally the robot feet break from being really thin.

Fanofcoolstuff27 (talk) 05:54, 7 June 2020 (EDT)

Inconsistencies

I've noticed that lots of information in this article doesn't reconcile with info on other articles. --ZacAttack (talk) 02:15, 19 November 2020 (EST)

I'm actually going through the "examples" section and doing some heavy rewriting. There's... considerable hyperbole going on here. I'm starting to think some of this was added with second- or third-hand stories rather than actual experience with the specific toys. --M Sipher (talk) 02:17, 19 November 2020 (EST)

Energon Scorponok

So I found this video [2] which claims that all uses of the mold suffer from this flaw, and that it's not down to the colour of the plastic/GPS. If anyone can prove otherwise, I'd suggest that the section be moved to design flaw rather than being here, as this looks like it may be just a misconception.

The only use of the mold I own is the Energon one (which broke), so I can't vouche for any other uses of the mold. Fanofcoolstuff27 (talk) 04:17, 12 June 2021 (EDT)

I believe it's both. I myself asked if the Cybertron remold suffers from GPS too because of his obvious homage to Black Zarak himself (who is a victim of said GPS) and if there were any reports of his gold plastic breaking. The toy itself has the shoulders fixed which saves him from breaking. I want it, but I am unsure if his gold plastic os regular gold plastic that don't shatter or if it is gold plastic that does shatter. Plus I've seen on forums such as reddit and tfw2005 where owners of Energon Scorponok has their figure broken in the shoulder pieces. --Wildstreak (talk) 07:13, 15 June 2021 (EDT)

I've removed it based on the lack of evidence at this point of time. If anybody can prove otherwise, we can always add it back. I did, however, discover that there had been a running change on the original toy. Based on the evidence in that aforementioned video and images I had searched up on Google and eBay, not to mention the orientation the cartoon and comic models used and the prototype images on the back of the box, the shoulders were originally misassembled, which caused more friction on those lower joints. So Hasbro appears to have caught onto that fairly early as the Takara release and every other subsequent use of the mold (except for Double Punch) has them in the second release's orientation. Unfortunately, this didn't stop the breakages, as I have the fixed-shoulder variant and mine still broke, but as the dude also stated in the video, mine broke the same way due to me trying to force the hinge when it locked up, so this seems to be just a poor design in general, especially if other uses of the mold suffered this issue reguardless of the gold-coloured plastic. Fanofcoolstuff27 (talk) 18:49, 15 June 2021 (EDT)

Recently bought the Energon Scorponok and luckily it was the second run the seller had up for sell. Gonna see if I can fix the problems (unless the previous owner has done it. Doubt it but who knows?) and I hope the gold panels aren't broken or cracked!--Wildstreak (talk) 12:11, 8 July 2021 (EDT)