Mech Alive? Mech Dead.

[onslaught86]

My Starscream's mech-alive gimmick does not even work.

I am with 86, better to have no gimmick than neutered gimmicks.


Dom

Howso, Dom? Does the head not turn the nubs on the sides of the cockpit? Do the stabilisers' corresponding nubs not fit properly? I'd think that'd be a fairly hard gimmick to break in a subtle manner, hm.

[Dominic]

I can try to fiddle a bit more over the weekend.

Dom

[JediTricks]

Crap, and I just told Hasbro that one was the only good Mech Alive gimmick.

So what happened with yours, Dom?

[Dominic]

I am guessing that either the connection numbs do not match up perfectly when they plug together or that some of the internal gears do not mesh correctly.

When I turn Starscream's head, the gears in the chest do not turn evenly, almost as if some teeth have been stripped.

Dom

[JediTricks]

Oh yeah, I heard about that in another thread. Singular complaints notwithstanding, I guess.

I picked up a few new figs last week that had Mech Alive.

Arcee: Moving gears, spring loaded weapon. Spring weapon works fine, cool, but not at all Mech Alive in nature. Moving gears, package points to her left arm which is super hollow, NOTHING going on there. Turns out they meant in her chest instead, which has 2 barrel gears that don't do anything important and only move when you raise her head. Verdict: lame.

Long Haul: Working bed, moving pistons, snap-out swords. The working bed is an MA feature?!? Crazy nuts at packaging got desperate. It's just the arm articulation being used. The moving pistons are keen, but limp for an MA gimmick and could use color on the inner part to show the movement. The snap-out swords are ok but don't seem at all MA to me. And then, there's an undocumented feature: an actual mech alive gear in chest that turns when you move the head! Way to miss the boat on that, copywriters. Granted, they made the gear black so it's night impossible to see moving, but it's clearly an MA gimmick and a decent one since it doesn't interfere with ANYTHING else.

[onslaught86]

Heh, and to think you hated on Mega Megs having the same gimmick, JT.

Jolt also has the turn-parts-and-gears-move gimmick, I think it's the best standard use of the idea thus far. I especially dig Jolt's because his is visible through his translucent chest panel. Also completely undocumented. I get a kick out of visible detail behind translucent plastic, it gives figures a bit more 'depth' and the impression that they actually contain mechanical parts.

[JediTricks]

I picked up the Ice Cream Twins the other day, they don't seem to have Mech Alive gimmicks, but they do have Automorph-reveal heads.

Heh, and to think you hated on Mega Megs having the same gimmick, JT.

Megs' chest is a hollow cavity for those gears, and seeing the teeth on the gears turning ruins the scale, there's no way a big robot like this would have gears that big, the stress on them would require incredible strength, even for the movie-verse. Long Haul has the 1 gear, you can't see its teeth, and it's set flush against the chest so there's no big empty gap around it.