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Post by triumshockwave on Apr 13, 2019 20:24:53 GMT -5
So, I finally pulled the trigger on a G1 Shockwave. I know, how the hell did I not have one until now? I dunno, it just never seemed to be the right time financially, or there weren't any good ones on eBay, or something. But finally I had money to do it, and a great example was available.
The Shockwave I got is, overall, in fantastic shape. All his pieces are there, nothing is cracked or broken, his hose has only the most minor of cracking. Still, he is 34 years old, and needed a bit of work:
1. The legs were not sliding well side to side at all. This is about as far apart as I could get them:
2. The left leg would not "click" into place, and therefore wouldn't stay extended and support the weight
3. Something was rattling around inside the backpack
The biggest thing was the legs. I'm not super sure what was going on with them not sliding left to right, simply disassembling and reassembling seems to have fixed that. Maybe there was some crud that fell out or something. It did require me to take the torso apart though, which is a huge pain in the ass because of having to line everything up while compressing the shoulder springs and screwing it down. I feel like you really need two people to do it well. Or be Goro from Mortal Kombat.
The rattling in the backpack was from a piece of one of the gray cap pieces for the backpack hinge that had cracked off. I glued it back into place, but it broke right back off as soon as I moved the hinge. I'd probably need to pin that or something, but I'm not that worried about it. The broken piece isn't going anywhere, and it's not hurting anything, so I'm just leaving it.
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Post by triumshockwave on Apr 13, 2019 20:26:00 GMT -5
The left leg was a bit more work. The issue, predictably, is that the little plastic tab has taken a permanent set and no longer springs out to lock into the slots in the leg. This is a shit design to begin with, as it's putting a lot of weight on a tiny piece of plastic. Given how much metal and springs there are everywhere else in this guy, I feel like they could've done better here. The best fix I can think of would be to heat the plastic piece, then clamp it into place in the leg and let it cool. Hopefully that would cause it to reform and take a new set in a more extended position, restoring the function. I don't have the stuff to do that handy, but I was able to hack it by just wedging some wadded up paper towel into the joint behind it to put outward pressure on it.
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Post by triumshockwave on Apr 13, 2019 20:27:07 GMT -5
Finally, I added two layers of masking tape inside the slide to build out the thickness and add some friction. This was probably unnecessary, but it makes me feel better that there's something other than that tab in play.
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Post by triumshockwave on Apr 13, 2019 20:27:48 GMT -5
And then, after an annoying as fuck reassembly, Shockwave was good to go.
Daddy's home.
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Post by Mako Crab on Apr 14, 2019 9:51:51 GMT -5
Nice. Breathing some new life into those old toys!
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Post by iacon45 on Apr 14, 2019 10:26:45 GMT -5
The left leg was a bit more work. The issue, predictably, is that the little plastic tab has taken a permanent set and no longer springs out to lock into the slots in the leg. This is a shit design to begin with, as it's putting a lot of weight on a tiny piece of plastic. Given how much metal and springs there are everywhere else in this guy, I feel like they could've done better here.
When they designed Shockwave back in the day, they probably felt like it would only need a shelf life of a few years at the least and then it would be most likely discarded by an uninterested kid later on. I imagine they never dreamed that these toys would still be on collector's shelves 30+ years later. It just wasn't logical. But overall, really enjoyed your posting. I always love watching and reading about old restorations and this one had my interest. Good job getting him back to his original logical glory!
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Post by triumshockwave on Apr 14, 2019 23:14:09 GMT -5
Everything else on him is so sturdy though. Those shoulder springs for example are no joke, they're hard to compress even after more than 3 decades. And the hip and knee joints are both made entirely of metal. The only thing they cheaped out on was the thing that bears most of the weight. They could've put a spring in there instead of just using the plastic, but chose not to. It's just... weird.
I forgot to post this one before. This is the electronics in the torso. The circle pattern you can see through the clear part of his chest is actually the tops of the capacitors. There are no integrated circuits here. No "chip". It's just capacitors and transistors wired up to make the distinctive sound, and a physical switch that reconfigures the circuit to change the frequency. Pretty fuckin cool. It also means if this were to fail, it wouldn't be hard at all for somebody decent with a soldering iron to just replace the parts. That ain't me though
You can also see the metal tabs at the bottom which slot into the teeth on the hips when you slide the legs out, and provide the ratcheted joint. That's probably why the design of it forces you to slide the legs at a specific angle. There's also the tab in the middle which serves both as a spring for the trigger, and physically bridges the electrical contacts to activate the lights and sounds.
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