Quality control

Quality control refers to efforts on behalf of a company to ensure that their mass-manufactured products are free from flaws that affect the functionality and/or aesthetic quality of the product. This has nothing to do with safety-testing which is usually done at an earlier stage of the development process, and which only aims to make sure that the product isn't harmful to the target audience (in the Transformers toys' case, children), but says nothing about the functionality or quality of the product (in fact, safety measures may sometimes affect the functionality).

Usually, quality control involves picking individual samples from a production run and testing them to make sure they're free from a variety of errors. Testing the entire production run is not commercially feasible, so instead, the manufacturer relies on just testing random samples, hoping to catch at least the more widespread problems this way.

Unfortunately, despite these efforts, errors still occasionally creep their way into products available on store shelves. While for the most part, these are limited to flaws on individual samples which aren't caught due to the very nature of the quality control process, the occasional widespread error exists, some of which even affect an entire production run, or at least a considerable percentage of it.

Fields of quality control

Molding

Transformers toys are assembled from many smaller parts usually made out of plastic, die-cast metal or rubber. These parts are cast from mass-manufacturing molds. There are several problems that can occur at this stage:

• Too little material can be used for the molding of one part by accident, resulting in an incomplete or deformed part. This is usually limited to individual samples.
• Parts can be damaged during the molding process or after it, again resulting in incomplete or deformed parts, but again limited to individual specimens.
• The sculpting may be imperfect due to a design flaw, which can result in aesthetically flawed (incomplete or damaged) parts, but also in too little tolerances or too much space between connected and moving parts, or too tight or too loose joints. This usually affects the entire production run, and is therefore more likely to be caught during quality control, although some cases still slip through. For example, Movie Deluxe Class Decepticon Brawl's shoulders are connected to the torso with diamond-shaped pins as part of the transformation, but the pins actually don't connect all that well, resulting in the shoulders easily disconnecting from the torso. This problem was eventually fixed for the Revenge of the Fallen Deep Desert Brawl redeco of the toy, however.
• The molds can wear out and deteriorate due to excessive use, resulting in the same problems caused by imperfect sculpting. Again, this would effect the entire production run. Revenge of the Fallen Deluxe Class "Preview" Bumblebee and Binaltech Asterisk Alert are just two of many examples. Though this sort of problem is usually also spotted during quality control, Hasbro and Takara only address this in rare instances (such as Generation 1 Jazz's head whose mouth had degraded into an ugly smirk with various reuses of the mold, and which was eventually either restored or replaced by a brand new, flawless mold), instead just hoping that the flaws aren't being noticed that much, and eventually just retiring the molds in question altogether.

Materials and stability

Sometimes a toy that was perfectly stable as a prototype may develop problems at the manufacturing stage. This can be due to the materials used for the mass-produced version having different properties and qualities than the materials used for the prototypes.

• Some types of plastic may turn out to be too brittle to be used for small parts or parts put under a lot of stress as part of the transformation process. This affects clear plastic in particular. Movie Deluxe Class Decepticon Brawl used clear plastic for the gears of his Automorph gimmick which were often already broken inside the packaging. This is a flaw that usually affects most, if not all of the production run and therefore should theoretically be caught during quality control.
• Some plastic types will deteriorate after being exposed to air or sunlight for a while. Although in some cases one couldn't realistically expect quality control to notice the problem (such as the infamous Gold Plastic Syndrome, which doesn't manifest until years after exposure to the elements), there are instances where materials have degraded very quickly, such as Movie Legends Class Scorponok's tail stinger... which might be the reason why the toy has never been redecoed thus far.

Paint operations and tampographs

Sometimes something goes wrong at the painting or tampography stage, resulting in weird parts of the deco. Sometimes this is caught before mass production, but the occasional weird fluke gets through:

• Alternators Autobot Camshaft features tampographed deco details (based on Generation 1 Bluestreak, the Alternators toy's originally intended name) on the back of his shoulders. It's possible that this happened because the deco designer didn't take into consideration the fact that the pegs that connect the forearms to the shoulders in vehicle mode are located on the front side of the shoulders, which would have made it difficult to tampograph the deco around them, and thus maybe someone at the factory decided to put the deco on the side without the peg.
• Hasbro prototypes of Universe Sunstreaker used for stock photography and comparison photos in Japanese magazines sported an incorrect "WE R 82" license plate. Fortunately, this got caught in time, and the entire production run of the mass-released toy sports the correct "WE R 84" license plate deco. (It's also possible that the "82" version might have been a reference to the year the Diaclone predecessor of Sunstreaker, the "first transforming car-to-robot toy" according to Hasbro, was released.)
• Meanwhile, Universe Prowl had an odd problem with the paint on his doors and roof becoming sticky when exposed to warm surroundings (such as the touch of a human hand), resulting in the black paint taking on a washed out look. The problem was repeated with the Silverstreak redeco/retool of the sculpt, and was not corrected for the Henkei! Henkei! release. This is also partly a design flaw, since it was never noticed that the paint and translucent plastic failed to bond.
• 2010 Transformers Tailwhip (from the Target exclusive "Rotorwash Rumble" two-pack with Deluxe Class Arcee) sports tiny "™" trademark symbols next to his Decepticon faction insignia. As the symbols commonly show up this way on toy packaging, presumably someone grabbed the wrong file during production. The "™" symbols however do not appear in the stock photos of Tailwhip depicted on the back of the box, most probably because the stock photos use a hand-painted prototype.
• Initial batches of Generations Dirge were missing the white section in the center of the crest for all three Decepticon faction symbols. This was fixed by a running change.

Packaging images and labelling

Apparently he don't do much spelling, either.

The packaging can also turn out to sport errors. Sometimes they are corrected before production starts, sometimes a running change fixes them in the middle of the production run, and sometimes they are never corrected at all:

• Considerable quantities of the Generation 1 Jumpstarters were available with each other's character artwork depicted in their Tech Spec/bio strips. Many fans consider the erroneous versions genuine variants.
• Proof cards of the Generation 1 Micromaster Off Road Patrol featured errors in the instructions: The line art drawing for Powertrain was based on an earlier prototype which had the rear wheels attached to the feet rather than the shins. This was corrected for the production version, as well as a minor fix for Mudslinger's line art that reflects the small indentations added to the inside halves of the wheels on his shoulders.
• At least some versions of Beast Machines Mirage's packaging refer to his weapon of choice as a "piasma mine blaster".
• Both the OTFCC 2003 exclusive Sideswipe and the Armada Super-Con Side Swipe sported the toy's name parsed as "Sideswipe" (one word) on their packaging, although Hasbro had the spelling "Side Swipe" (two words) registered as a trademark at that point. However, the cross-sell on the packaging for the OTFCC 2003 exclusive Shadow Striker/Roulette two-pack referred to OTFCC Sideswipe as "Side Swipe", whereas a packaging variant for the Armada toy released as part of the "Unicron Battles" refresh of the Armada line also saw the name changed to "Side Swipe".
• Commemorative Series VI Autobot Grapple's name was misspelled as "Auotbot Grapple" in several instances on the packaging.
• A typo on Beast Wars 10th Anniversary Megatron's packaging refers to the Darksyde as "Preadcon ship" rather than "Predacon". Since the name sports a trademark "®" symbol after it, Hasbro fixed the error with a sticker sporting the correct spelling, so they wouldn't falsely claim a trademark they don't actually have registered.
• Classics Megatron sports the typo "working scope becomes anti-proton pulse canon!" on the back of his packaging.
• A packaging sample of the Classics-affiliated Toys"R"Us exclusive "Commemorative Edition" reissue of Generation 1 Soundwave displayed at BotCon 2006 identified the included Cassette companions as "Laserbeak" and "Buzzsaw", even though the latter name should have been "Ravage" instead. This was fixed for the final packaging, although Ravage was referred to as "Battle Ravage" (a name previously used by an Energon toy and an Alternators toy), whereas the instructions simply identified him as "Ravage", a name subsequently used by multiple other toys.
• Revenge of the Fallen Scout Class Dead End sported an earlier working name, "Detour", on the cardboard insert inside the packaging for the first batch of the European production run, although the name was "Dead End" everywhere else on the packaging. Later shipments saw the cardboard insert corrected to the name "Dead End".
• Revenge of the Fallen Fast Action Battlers Grapple Grip Mudflap's name was misspelled as "Grappel Grip Mudflap" all over the packaging for the entire European production run. However, considering that the spelling was also used on Hasbro's public website, and is repeated with 2010 Transformers "Solar Storm Grappel", this makes the North American packaging (which uses the correct "Grapple" spelling) the odd one out, thus raising the question whether the "Grappel" (mis)spelling was in fact intentionally used for trademark reasons...

See also: Engrish.