Roboto’s shoulders are on backwards

Mattel QC has done it again.

I’m still trying to decide how much I care about this, but over on He-Man.org fans have discovered that Roboto’s shoulders appear to be backwards, much like the first-release He-Man. It looks like the Horsemen sculpted them to match the vintage figure, and Mattel screwed the pooch on the assembly.

Oddly enough, this was perfectly evident way back in the SDCC pics, but apparently no one caught it.

The shoulders are reversed on the Pixel Dan review as well, so I think we can safely assume every single Roboto will have backwards shoulders. And this time we’re being forced to pay for defective products. At the very least, Mattel should allow fans to opt-out of the sub for this one figure and wait for a reissue.

What do you think? Do you care enough about this to not want the figure until it’s been corrected?

I mean, this is pretty damned bad. Yes, you can say it’s not really that noticeable–and that’s kind of how I feel–but at the same time, remember, you’re paying $30 for this thing.

I don’t want to come off like some hysterical fanboy losing my shit over this, because I’m still not sure it bothers me much (although apparently the reversed shoulders on the He-Man caused them to rub and wear away at some points of contact, and the thought of that happening does bug me a bit). But given the subscription, there’s a principle-of-the-thing aspect to this that’s really bugging me.

UPDATE: I want to point out that it’s entirely possible that the sample Pixel Dan received was an early one and that this was caught and corrected at the factory before general production started. But they said the same thing about the bleed around Orko’s ears, and it wasn’t corrected. So you’ll forgive me if I don’t hold my breath.

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20 Comments

  1. The Flash III

    @dayraven:

    Wave 14. People are getting their wave 15 orders from BBTS and finding them at Kmart, but wave 14 is nowhere to be found at good old Wallyworld. All Toy Guru has said is that there were "logistics issues" and it is "delayed."

  2. barbecue17

    Here are my top 5 guesses for the response we'll get:

    5.Imagine there is a machine that the Robot figure is dropped into for quality control. One button says good quality control and the other says Classics quality control. The Classics qc button was pressed.

    4.I was looking at a 200x Roboto online, and I realized that the shoulders on that figure correct. The higher ups have asked that we reverse the shoulders of the classics Roboto to make sure he is differentiated from the 200 version.

    3. Design decisions like reversed shoulders are left up either to the boys in Jersey or the children in China.

    2. Do you want correct shoulders or do you want Catra and Ram-Man?

    1. Want to know why Roboto has incorrect shoulders? Keep reading the bios!

  3. Heli

    I'm sure this return will be almost as massive as the She-Ra and Orko returns. That'll teach Mattel.

    PS Did Poe finally cave and admit that these figures cost 30 bucks and not 20? One of us! One of us!

  4. @Dlia: "Keep in mind these are supposedly the same factories that missassemble Apple Iphones and other electronics."

    Not the same factory involved, since Mattel has revealed that they own their own factory (ies?).

    From Zimbio article: “Mattel says its situation is unique because it owns its production factories outside the U.S. and can do the required safety testing there.”

    http://www.zimbio.com/CPSIA/articles/2xqc4_do3Ee/

  5. œ Damien:

    For me, Toy Biz' "Lord of the Rings" toyline still tops any other in terms of quality control. I've bought about two dozen figures, and half of them lost limbs literally two minutes after getting out of the blister. Even my Spawn figures (back when McFarlane Toys really did make toys instead of statues with a few cut joints) didn't suffer from broken joints as much as my LotR ones.

  6. Lovable-Bill

    If no one would have mentioned it, I never would have noticed.

    Count me as one of the few who are not put off by this at all.

  7. Mose

    @FakeEyes22: (Claps) Couldn't have said it better myself.

  8. I think Mattel should offer refunds to those who want it. Unlike He-Man (Where I still can't tell the difference) it's pretty clear these are on backwards. His wires should connect at his arm and they don't.

    It looks awkward now that attention has been brought to it. I'm usually whatever about these little nitpick items, but this one seems pretty heinous if the arms are indeed on backwards.

  9. FakeEyes22

    @WilyJeff

    That was great and funny so I'm calling attention to it.

    @Andrew

    I'm reading this alot, how the figure was shown months ago, therefore it's the fans' fault. That's kind of insane to me. For one, the protos are often assembled at the cons, with the rushed setups understandably causing mistakes in construction or display, like Buzz-Off's wings. This was the first glimpse of an actual figure, and it seems wrong. It's a tiny detail, and I'm amazed it was spotted at all, let alone months ago in con photos.

    So I guess as a fan who just realized he has a career in quality control, let me apologize to everyone for Roboto and other minor problems. I was too dumb to realize my responsibilities and I really dropped the ball on this one. We all did.

    I'd say that the "whiner" berating has gotten a bit out of hand lately. Sure, there are plenty of unreasonable fan demands, but this is a case where most people, like myself, seem to simply hope this isn't an error that causes damage in the long run, and are more resentful of what the error represents.

    My sub starts in January, and things like this shake my confidence. I have committed to paying them for 12 months, for product I haven't even seen yet, but I am doubting their committment to hold up their end of the deal. Mattel sure as well wouldn't allow me to accidentally pay $19.95 for a figure one month, so I should be able to expect the same.

    I can understand human error on the first He-Man. It was a new thing, learning the ropes, whatever. IF the same thing has happened again…wtf? Are the rules now to just poop out whatever and play clean-up later? Of course not, since their clean-up involves an opportunity to purchase a non-defective item later at full price.

    Let's take a look at Gygor's armor. Inside the arm and leg guards there are an "L" or "R" stamped into the plastic. Many toy lines do this on places that are obscured once the parts are assembled. It's simple, right? Maybe not, but I'd think it would be standard practice once an identical error happened! Something's got to be done with the communication at least, even if the Horsemen need to carve or sharpie letters into parts or duct tape sword holsters to Prince Adam's effing face. It's really a minor, understandable mistake, but they add up and become unacceptable when concerns are dealt with and excuses are given for anything that interferes with the widest profit margin possible. They can work out a way to exlude as many accessories as possible in the 2 packs(Hawkman's got a sword-less holster!) but manage to repeat a previous production error? I guess I'll go F myself then.

    My rant is meaningless because I'm totally buying his Robotic ass anyway. I doubt his reissue will be anything more than leftovers from this run, right? Hopefully Dan's is uniquely assembled.

  10. Damien

    Forget a 'missing wave.' DCUC has been so plagued by the most miserable quality control on the planet that I've all but stopped buying any of those figures.

    When I used to order entire cases, it was so bad that fully half or more of the figures had QC issues – exploding joints, horribly twisted limbs, incorrect limbs, broken joints, extremely messy paint, etc.

    I've actually never encountered a toyline as poorly run, QC-wise, as DCUC. Maybe people don't complain about it as much anymore because people have just given up. Doesn't seem like Mattel has any interest in fixing the massive amount of problems.

  11. dayraven

    @The Flash III: who in their right mind gives two hills of crap about DCU anymore? you got all the heavy hitters, quit yer whining!

    πŸ™‚ JK… which wave is this?

  12. The Flash III

    Wow, it must be nice that this is a big deal for MOTUC fans, when DCUC fans have been wondering how a whole wave has disappeared and can't get an answer.

  13. Maybe I'll get an "error" figure with the shoulders in the correct places. LOL! πŸ™‚

  14. I wouldn't be bothered about the shoulders if it didn't happen for the second time on the line, already. Or if we didn't get figures with loose ankles, bad paint apps or wobble heads all the time.

    As much as I hope for it, I doubt that Mattel caught the mistake. If they did, I'm sure Mattel would posted a huge proclaimer, bragging about how well they did their job by correcting an error even though it wouldn't be necessary since nobody noticed it yet.

  15. Damien

    I'm typically at the forefront of saying 'complainers need to stop nitpicking.'

    But in this case, it's not a matter of personal taste or likes and dislikes. This is a defective figure, if indeed they all have the incorrect shoulders. And since it does affect the final product, well – return it.

    Even if it kills the line, which would be insanely unfortunate, the fact of the matter is that no one should be forced to pay for defective product.

    While I hope Mattel caught this issue before the figure went into full production, I really doubt it.

  16. americanhyena

    @JimPansen:

    Did they confirm a re-release is getting a second removable hand?

    Honestly I never would have noticed this and if anything like that it makes the arms look different.

  17. PrfktTear

    Also at this time I would like to take a moment and remind everyone that Roboto should not be exposed to water/humidity as it will fry his circuitry. In addition, it is advised that you do NOT play with your Roboto in the sand box, because tiny granules of sand will find their way inside and screw up his gears. Mumma told me so back in the day, but I didn't believe her, and when I took my Roboto outside and his gears got jammed, she didn't have any sympathy for me.

  18. JimPansen

    Nearly everybody has already planed to buy the rerelease because of the second removeable hand.

    So nevermind.

    One reason more to justify the purchase of a second Roboto πŸ˜‰

  19. Poe

    @dayraven: Pixel Dan confirmed over on the He-Man.org forums that the arms aren't removable.

  20. dayraven

    like poe, i think the principle is more important than this particular fig, if they think they can sell us shit, they will. i'll fire mine back at them if it doesn't have proper shoulder alignment, and i'm not dropping a red cent on shipping either. if they expect me to blind-purchase an item, they can damned well get said item right.

    that said, let me ask, since the arms sockets look a tad shallow, and we know that at least trap jaw had pop-off arms, has anyone asked if roboto can arm swap too? that would certianly provide an easy fix to the problem.

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