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 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 posability or transformation, such as toys which can essentially transform but have parts that are difficult or impossible to click fully into place.

Examples

Swapped parts

• Universe Blackarachnia's forearms
• Universe Battle in a Box two-pack Ultra Magnus's forearms (error carried over onto the Cybertron Optimus Prime redeco, then fixed with a running change version)
• Universe Repugnus's beast mode foreclaws (the same error is repeated on the BotCon 2005 reuses of the mold.)
• Animated Blitzwing's upper arms
• Cybertron Ransack's rear wheels (the same error is repeated on every subsequent reuse of the mold except for BotCon 2006's Rattrap.)
• Energon Stom Jet has his inside legs swapped so that the knee joint faces the wrong way (the same error is repeated on every subsequent reuse of the mold).
• Human Alliance Bumblebee (Movie)'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 "missassembly" as the "correct" assembly.

Backwards parts

• Classics Ultimate Battle Megatron's feet.
• Universe and ROTF Silverbolt's knee joints and shoulder joints.

Nonfunctioning/compromised gimmick

• Cybertron Runamuck's punching gimmick.

Transformation-inhibiting errors

movie bumblebee Don't get his gears wet!

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 kitbashing 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?

Unusual cases

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.

Nature... or nurture?

An example of this is the Titanium Series 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.

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 manufacturing error, 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.