Design flaw

A design flaw is a physical problem with a toy that is either directly rooted in its design itself or the transition from a two-dimensional design to a three-dimensional object.

Generally, Transformers toys are marvels of modern toy engineering. They can be changed from one form into another, and yet they still manage to be both great vehicle or animal toys and great action figures.

Despite that, sometimes there are problems. Because of the complexities in design, there are some common ways that toys don't work the way they were intended. Sometimes a toy's features aren't quite finished, or don't really work how they're supposed to. Some toys also have common breakage points or parts that wear down in predictably consistent ways. Sometimes the way a toy transforms can cause it to break. Sometimes toys just plain aren't what they're supposed to be. That's what design flaws are all about.

This phenomenon should not be confused with misassembly or one-off molding errors, in which toys leave the factory in a condition not in accordance with the design. Those issues should be caught in quality control.

Clearance issues

Some toys have joints that don't work the way they are intended to. Sometimes the parts just can't go all the way, ending up with misaligned parts. Sometimes joints are even entirely useless, allowing for minimal articulation at best... because adjacent parts get in the way of the articulated part. For some reason, heads are particularly prone to this kind of problem.

• Energon Steamhammer, in theory, has an articulated head, but there is absolutely no configuration where it could possibly move, because the vehicle mode treads are in the way.
• Cybertron Downshift has a similar problem. The ridges on his chest (the air vents on the vehicle mode hood) hinder any rotation of the head.
• Likewise, Movie Fast Action Battlers Ironhide has a head that sits on a ball joint, but the only purpose it serves is allowing for the head to pop off, because the plastic parts behind the head hinder any movement.
• Movie Swindle is only minimally better, with the ridges on his chest limiting the possible head articulation to a few degrees in each direction.
• Movie Deluxe Class Payload is about as bad as Swindle.
• Movie Deluxe Class Wreckage has the same problem with his waist. Articulation is limited to a few degrees in each direction thanks to an immovable piece of plastic on his back getting in the way.
• Movie Voyager Class Autobot Ratchet has articulated thumbs that can't move because plastic parts of the wrists get in the way.

All the way, baby.

• Movie Voyager Class Blackout and any other use of the mold has issues residing in the shoulders; there is not enough clearance for them to move past the cockpit assembly due to the tabs catching on the inner molded details. This means that the pieces have to be flexed past eachother, which can often results in the mushroom-pins/hinges to be stripped from their sockets, leading to incredibly loose shoulder joints or in the worst case, they'll be torn off completely.
• 2008 Universe Deluxe Class Ironhide's head rests on a piece of plastic that can't be aligned properly with the torso because of plastic parts getting in the way of the hinge, making him incapable of looking straight forward.
• ROTF Leader Class Optimus Prime's arm panels that form the front nose of the truck are hindered by the tanks on his arm panels when converting into vehicle mode, the tanks have to be rotated up and squeezed between the doors in order to gain clearance. This seems to be fixed with the Takara DOTM Jetwing and Striker Optimus Prime molds, as the swords are removed and allow the blade-like shoulder parts to flip the opposite way, allowing the arm panels to move farther and gain more clearance.
• 2010 Transformers Sea Spray's hands can rotate about 45 degrees sideways at maximum at the wrists, because plastic parts of the forearms get in the way.
• On a more broad note, a characteristic of the Titanium Series transformable figures involved joints that bent in oddly or arbitrarily limited ways, such as 45 degrees backward at the knee, but 90 degrees forward.
• Initial shipments of Prime: Beast Hunters Cyberverse Legion Class Hun-Gurrr were unable to fold the claws over all the way in both directions due to problems with the plastic tolerances. This was amended by a running change, which also affected international releases of the figure. (All subsequent releases of the sculpt came with the corrected claws.)
• 2012's Generations Sideswipe was retooled from Generations Jazz, though the changes made to reshell the figure into Sideswipe don't extend far enough to latch into place, leaving his upper torso perpetually unstable.

Square peg, round hole

Some toys that are designed to have parts connect to other parts by plugging a peg into a corresponding peg hole have problems due to the length, size or shape of the pegs, resulting in the parts not connecting properly. This mostly affects accessories such as weapons.

• Generation 1 Optimus Prime's ion blaster sports a peg that is supposed to plug into the hole in one of his fists. However, the weapon's handle (which has an entirely aesthetic purpose) and the forearms get into each other's way, and since the peg is too short, Optimus can't hold his weapon both tight and straight at the same time. This was fixed by a running change that saw the fist holes elongated upwards, but the problem re-emerged with some reissues of the toy.
• Generation 1 Slag has a similar problem to Optimus Prime involving his sword. The crossguard and his dino mode front feet make it so he can only hold it upright if the flat is facing forward; the only way for him to actually swing it to use the edge is if he wields it reverse-grip.
• Generation 1 Devastator's combined form suffers from several issues in the toy's design, mainly down to pegs and holes lining up, leaving some components on a hair trigger connection. The most notable of these is the chest plate, which has the friction clip barely reaching its correct spot on Hook, making it lean towards the right. There is also clearly a tab on the chest plate made to go into Long Haul's grill, but due to how far his chest sticks out, it can't reach it at all. With hardly anything holding the chest plate on, it is likely to fall off if bumped. The connector that houses Devastator's head also has its posts and holes misaligned with the respective connectors on Long Haul leaving the combined torso with a slight permanent twist to the right as well. It's no wonder the Scramble City combiner design became the "standard" in later years.
• Alternators Prowl's hood is designed to fold down completely flush against his chest, but cannot make it all the way because the support bar on the left steering link bracket in the hood collides with the corresponding part of the rocker panel that folds into the chest (The right bracket is essentially mirrored, but shifts the support bar a few millimeters, and as a result has no such clearance issue).
• Cybertron Deluxe Class Unicron isn't quite as bad... but his claw weapons' pegs were shortened some time shortly between stock photography and release, making it very difficult to plug the claws into his hands tightly.
• Movie Deluxe Class Decepticon Brawl's arms are connected to the torso at the shoulders by diamond-shaped pegs, but the pegs are ever so slightly too big for the corresponding peg holes, resulting in the arms having a tendency to detach from the torso at the slightest touch. This was fixed for the Revenge of the Fallen Deep Desert Brawl redeco of the sculpt.
• Energon Storm Jet and his redecos have a problem with the peg that connects the jet nosecone to the pelvis in robot mode (the official one according to the instructions) as well as in Superion Maximus mode: The corresponding peg hole has a cavity on one side, resulting in the peg not locking in place securely. Meanwhile, a problem similar to the one with Movie Deluxe Brawl occurs with a second peg hole that can be used for an alternate (non-official, though possibly intended by the designers but ignored by the instructions), shorter robot mode for Storm Jet, where the pegs tends to pop out of the peg hole due to too much pressure.
• Deluxe Class Wreck-Gar from the Reveal the Shield subline imprint of the 2010 Transformers toyline has a minor problem with the tabs that connect his torso to the shoulders, which are just a tiny bit too long, resulting in the shoulders not locking in all the way, causing a small gap. It's more evident on his left shoulder than on the right one.<ref name="shoulders">Reveal the Shield Wreck-Gar with particularly poorly connecting shoulders at Seibertron.com.</ref>
• Dark of the Moon Cyberverse Commander Powerglide has diamond-shaped pegs that connect his shoulders to the torso, and a rectangular peg that connects the crotch to the rest of the torso. None of the pegs plug in tightly, resulting in a slightly unstable robot mode.
• Many, many Titan Masters, especially in early waves, suffered from problems of this sort. The intended design is that the neck sockets use a clamp mechanism to hold the head in place, but a large number had clamps that simply weren't tight enough. Poor quality control shares the blame here, but even then, Scourge and Highbrow seemed to be pretty much universally unable to keep their heads in place. Some fans have found the problem to be alleviated by altering the orientation of the Titan Master; for instance, plugging it in backwards, or even sideways.

Strong spring, weak peg

Some toys have metal springs that power a gimmick or help during the transformation (as part of, or similar to, an Automorph mechanism). When not deployed (i.e., the spring is under pressure), the relevant parts are usually held in place by tabs. Sometimes the pegs are slightly too small, resulting in too much plastic clearance. As a consequence, the parts in question are not held in place securely, and the mechanism is likely to be deployed unintentionally.

• This happens quite a lot with spring-powered missile launchers, resulting in the missiles being fired at the slightest touch. In some extreme cases, it's almost impossible to lock the missile in place without it being instantly fired back out.
• The Power Core Combiners are also prone to this. The limb drones use an auto-transformation mechanism that is activated by the same peg used to connect them to the torso robot. However, the transformed "limb" mode is the position that puts pressure on the spring; and due to too much plastic clearance between the connector pegs and the limbs, the drones—specifically the arms, which aren't held in by gravity like the legs are—have a tendency to transform back into their alternate modes, detaching from the connector pegs in the process.
• Generations "War for Cybertron" Cybertronian Optimus Prime's gun can be folded up to a more "compact" form, with a spring mechanism converting it back into its primary weapon mode. The only thing that keeps the spring mechanism from deploying in the compact form is a very small plastic tab.

Wear-based looseness

It's perhaps unfair to include this as a design flaw, but it should be touched upon. When a toy is played with frequently, the plastics or metals will wear against each other, causing the friction that keeps the joints tight to lessen. This will lead to looseness in the toy's joints. The easiest way to avoid this common malady is simply not to play with a toy. Looseness is often not much of a problem with toys kept on display. A loose-armed Generation 1 Optimus Prime will look much the same as a tightly jointed Optimus Prime. However, looseness can be more of a problem for other toys, preventing them from standing or holding together in their alt mode.

Some toys are particularly prone to looseness not just due to wear but also to design. Heavy parts on weak joints are a common problem here, leading to incredibly weak joints that are loose and difficult to use how they were intended.

Ball joints

Ball joints, which rely entirely on friction to work, are a common victim of wear-based looseness. This can be particularly bad for toys with ball-jointed hips, ankles or legs, making them nearly impossible to stand. Looseness in ball joints can also make it easy to lose parts, such as arms, legs, or kibble panels...oh, or heads...or, uhh...well, just about anything on a ball joint.

• Almost all of Beast Wars is afflicted with this problem. Woe to all those kids who grew up on Beast Wars. Good luck having complete toys.
• Generation 2 Cyberjets can be nigh-impossible to stand with just a little joint wear, but it's their arms that tend to get especially floppy.
• The original Titanium Series six-inch Megatron is known to be so loose that he has a hard time even staying together, much less holding a pose. The use of die-cast only exacerbates the problem.
• Titans Return Skullsmasher has horribly loose balljoints for thigh joints right out of the package, making it nearly impossible for the figure to stand upright.

Retractable thighs

A common method of transformation in Generation 1 was for the thighs of the toy to retract into the lower legs (or, more accurately, for the lower legs to push up over the thighs) when in vehicle or beast mode, then for the thighs to extend while in robot mode. It doesn't take an enormous amount of wear for the thighs to loosen, and then they won't be able to stay extended in robot mode. When that happens, you'll either have a very short-legged version on display or you'll have to shove a wedge of paper down into the joint to increase the friction to let the thighs stay extended.

This problem can be particularly compounded when a toy has a really heavy upper body. A toy with electronics or die-cast metal in the torso will be much more likely to collapse its own knees just due to weight, time, and wear and tear on the toy.

• G1 Special Teams toys are particularly prone to this, especially the smaller Aerialbots.
• Tracks represents a reversal of this problem: it is quite easy to overextend his lower legs in such a way that they can never fully compress back into vehicle mode again.
• Astrotrain is particularly problematic due to his heavy upper body and nothing to actually lock the legs into place once extended.
• Sandstorm is also prone to this problem.
• Megatron suffers from it too - his thighs are thick slabs of die-cast, making them incredibly heavy for such parts and straining the tabs that are supposed to hold them in place for robot mode.
• Generation 2 Laser Optimus Prime has a massively heavy upper body and weak knees. It's incredibly common for him just to collapse into Stumptimus Prime.
• Titanium Series Soundwave's entire leg assembly is made of multiple retractable components that lack the ability to lock together securely. Put a heavy die-cast metal chest on top of that and you end up with a toy that will never stand up on its own no matter how pristine it is.

Clipping issues

Sometimes when designing a Transformer, the designers will forget that these things have to work in 3D space. Parts will have to bend around each other or pass through the same space during transformation. Often, if you don't do steps in the right order, this will lead to parts breaking or snapping. This is particularly problematic when you give the designers the freedom of things like ball joints, where you can use their flexibility to transform the toy, leading not just to breakages but to toys that are incredibly difficult and frustrating to transform.

Parts breaking off other parts

Especially around late Generation 1, there were a few toys which required transforming their parts in the right order. If you didn't, you risked breaking your toy when the parts pushed against each other, causing stress or wear. This problem is a lot less common with modern Transformers, which use parts that are designed to pop off rather than simply break if the stresses are too great.

• Generation 1 Skystalker's interstellar shuttle's wings are known to snap quite regularly. This is particularly a problem for his left wing because of the way the base is designed. If you attempt to fold Skystalker's wing down from base mode into its shuttle position before you've folded in the grey box next to it, it's very easy to snap the wing due to the edge of the box just touching the wing. The edge of the box is even curved, giving you the visual impression that it won't be a problem. But it will be a problem, as attested to by eBay's endless supply of one-winged Skystalker bases.
• Animated Lockdown has tabs in his wrists that prevent them from extending into a straight position. Unfortunately, these same tabs act as levers so that if you try to force the hands into a straight position, you will simply snap his wrists. Ouch.
• 2008 Universe Tankor's head rests on a retractable section, but even when extracted all the way up, the surrounding torso still gets in the way of his head rotation, gradually chipping off plastic from the lower section of his helmet. This is almost a clearance issue as detailed above; however, the head can just barely rotate, it merely scratches off plastic in the process.

Common breakage points

Some toys have flimsy plastic, others have joints that are too tight, and still others have metal pieces wearing on poor plastic pieces. Whatever the case, there are often Transformers with predictable, easily identifiable breakage points. Let's have a look at a few types.

Breakable joints

Joints are very important to Transformers. They're required both for articulation and to allow the toy to change from one form to another. Usually, articulation isn't much of a problem, but sometimes transformation puts a massive amount of pressure on a small joint that's just not able to keep up with the strain of moving large parts of the toy from one place to another. You'll see eBay littered with toys that are victims of these sorts of joints, the same toy breaking over and over in the same place due to the stresses on a joint.

"I thought you were made of sterner stuff Megatron!"

• Generation 1 Metroplex is particularly bad, with his entire body rotating around a flimsy little waist joint that likes to snap. Loves to snap. Delights in snapping. Reportedly, the reissue of Metroplex has made this joint a little bit more robust.
• Beast Wars Transmetal Megatron suffers from a weak plastic used in a very small, tight joint. His waist is so well known for snapping that the fandom has mistakenly thought that it was Gold Plastic Syndrome. The fact that the forces involved cause it to ratchet apart doesn't help.
• Armada Megatron's turret has a gearing flaw on the inside. Namely, the ratcheting joint simply...breaks, eventually. The "ratchet" is actually a very small and flimsy gear that is attached to the rotating handle. When the handle is locked in place, high stress is placed on the gear and tends to make it snap somewhere between the teeth, becoming loose or falling off to rattle around inside Megatron. It's not uncommon for the gear to break even under regular, unlocked circumstances. This affects all redecoes of the mold, as they came out in rapid succession and this particular flaw presents over time.
• All four Action Master Elite figures (Omega Spreem, Windmill, Turbo Master and Double Punch) are prone to roughly the same problem as Armada Megatron, in that the gears used to drive their gimmicks are not made of strong enough plastic to last very long. Many an Elite can be found with a half a neon plastic gear rattling around inside. To a lesser extent, this can also affect the Lightformers and Trakkons depending on how much play their turrets endure.
• This same problem is also usually the culprit when Beast Machines Blast Punch Optimus Primal's gimmick ceases working correctly.
• Revenge of the Fallen Scalpel's leg sockets are a frequent breakage point due to the stress put on the relatively weak plastic used for them. Many Scalpels have their sockets broken out of the package.
• Power Core Combiners Mudslinger has an issue with the peg-and-socket swivels used on his thigh rotation. The peg is slightly too big for the socket, and the socket is made of relatively thin plastic, resulting in breakage; in some cases within hours of opening the toy.
• Transformers (2010) Reveal the Shield Wreck-Gar features rubber handles for his motorcycle mode that are supposed to be folded back via an Automorph-style mechanism during the transformation. However, the thick rubber is very strong, much stronger than the joints the handles are attached to. Not using the Automorph mechanism is a quick way to break the joints; but even using it can eventually result in breakage. The only somewhat safe way to avoid permanent damage to the toy is to cut off the rubber tabs that hold the handles firmly in place in vehicle mode. Cutting the nubs off has been the only consistent fix to prevent breakage, which was actually done by Hasbro for subsequent uses of the sculpt.
• The original production run of Generations Thrilling 30 Deluxe Class Autobot Skids came with misassembled hip pieces; swapping out the pieces requires caution, as the ball joints that connect the crotch to the legs have a tendency to snap off under stress. Subsequent shipments of the figure were assembled correctly.
• Leader-class Generations Jetfire and his various redecos have very small hinges on the strut that forms the codpiece. These have metal pins holding them in place, and due to the corners of the adjacent parts used to make it click into place, these joints are under a lot of stress during transformation. The pins also have a tendency to shift, so that the rough texture of one end is holding both the strut and the piece it connects to at the same time, requiring extra force to move if not corrected.
• Combiner Wars Silverbolt's joint for deploying Superion's head is susceptible to breakage, this was fixed for the Scattershot version of the mold.
• Unite Warriors Motormaster's lower front waist is susceptible to breakage, thanks to the swirly brown plastic and the very tight waist swivel.
• The plastic parts on Masterpiece Optimus Prime's (MP-44) lower knee joint's ratchets tend to build stress during movement and eventually break.

Hands with stress marks

Some toys come with handheld weapons that are slightly too large for their hands. For "closed fist"-shaped hands with fist holes for the weapons, this isn't quite as much of a problem; it gets more problematic with the recent introduction of half-open hands with round cavities for the weapons. Sculpted finger "joints" that are aligned in a straight line are an obvious weak point:

• The hands of Revenge of the Fallen Bludgeon (and his redecos/retools) can be prone to stress marks and even breakage because of the size of the katana's handle, although the soft plastic used for the sword helps mitigates this somewhat. (You'll probably end up with the fingers gouging notches on the sword, instead.)
• Animated Prowl's thumbs can snap rather easily if you insert the handle part of the traffic light/flail into his hands one too many times. Making him hold the string part only during play can prevent this, but that would leave Prowl without a secure grip on his weapon.
• Animated Arcee's thumbs can snap right off because of the thickness of her swords's handles.
• Both Transformers: Reveal the Shield "Laser" Optimus Prime and Wreck-Gar are prone to showing stress marks inside their hands after having their melee weapons inserted only a few times.

Clear plastic breakage

Translucent and transparent plastics tend to be noticeably more brittle than the opaque ABS plastic used for most toys. This becomes a problem if the plastic is used in a part that has to endure regular stress, such as joints, and can even be exacerbated with age. Common especially for Diaclone-based toys, which have hinged clear plastic parts that are very well known for snapping or breaking.

• Generation 1 Prowl's roof is particularly prone to this problem.
• A number of Beast Machines toys, such as Deluxe Optimus Primal and Skydive, use clear plastic for tightly pinned joints. These generally break without careful use.
• 2001 Robots in Disguise Prowl's clear plastic car doors are mounted on ball joints. Unfortunately, clear plastic is not usually malleable enough to withstand the constant pressure and tends to break, especially if the door is accidentally dislodged from the joint.
• The joint that connects the windshield to the back of some early versions of Movie Voyager Class Ironhides were made of clear plastic, which resulted in numerous breakage issues. Later releases fixed this by changing the material of the joint to sturdier opaque plastic.
• Movie Deluxe Class Decepticon Brawl used clear plastic for his Automorph gears, which often tended to come broken right out of the packaging.
• The aforementioned 2010 Transformers Reveal the Shield Deluxe Class Wreck-Gar figure is also prone to fractures in his helmet-horns.

Inferior glue

Some toys have parts attached to the rest of the toy not by pegs, screws, joints or struts, but with glue. Depending on the quality of the glue, this can be an open invitation to easy breakage.

• Binaltech Prowl's wing mirrors are glued onto the doors. Trying to open a door by pulling on the mirror could easily result in the mirror snapping off.
• Titanium Series Prowl's blue windshield segments are held on with a rather peculiar rubbery glue that will expand and pop off the windshield segments in warmer climates over time. No permanent damage is done, thankfully. Poor Prowl can't catch a break.
• The Bumblebee Speed Series Camaro Bumblebee's hands is somewhat prone to breakage due to lightly-applied glue.
• Some samples of Generations Selects Cromar have had badly glued-together heads, resulting in a head that, when an attempt to turn it is made, splits in half and falls off. Since a 180-degree rotation of the head is a transformation step for that mold...yeah.

References

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