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 properly 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 different than what is perfectly possible in accordance with the design. Those issues should be caught in quality control.
Useless joints
Some toys have parts that are intended to have articulation, even featuring the necessary joint... yet the joint is made useless by adjacent parts getting in the way of the articulated part. This mostly affects head sculpts.
- 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.
- Likewise, Movie Fast Action Battlers Ironhide has a head that sits o 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 Voyager Class Autobot Ratchet has articulated thumbs that can't move because plastic parts of the wrists get in the way.
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 resulting from 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 others' 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-erged with some reissues of the toy.
- Cybertron Deluxe Class Unicron isn't quite as bad... but his claw weapons certainly have very short pegs that make 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 correspnding 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.
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 due to design too. 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.
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 midget 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.
- Sandstorm is also prone to this problem.
- Generation 2 Laser Optimus Prime has a massively heavy upper body and weak knees. It's incredibly common for him just to collapse into Midgetimus 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 given 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.
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.
- 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 relatively 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 and become loose or just fall off and rattle around inside Megatron.
- 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.
- This same problem is also usually the culprit when Beast Machines Blast Punch Optimus Primal's gimmick ceases working correctly.
Clear plastic breakage
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.
- 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.
- Movie Deluxe Class Decepticon Brawl used clear plastic for his Automorph gears, which often tended to come broken right out of the packaging.
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 breage.
