Emce Apes not for kids?

[megozilla13]

I gave my twin nephews a set each of Emce ape figures, they are seven years old and just saw the first film last weekend. I'm sitting there watching them stand the figures up and pose them then snap.... a soldier ape arm breaks off at the shoulder. I undressed it and it seems the metal hook just ripped through the connecting hole in the upper arm. Within 15 minutes of watching them lightly play with the figures, the same thing had happened to 3 more figures. It's easy enough for me to fix them up for them, but disappointing. I remember this being an issue when the new bodies came out years ago, but I figured the problem had been resolved since now they are being sold as a toy for kids as well as a collectible.

mikej

[rche]

I had the same issue with a Mugato. Took a look at the Gorn I had and the connecting hole was rather stretched, so I restrung it T1 style. I've been restringing all EMCE items since then to loosen up the tension. Seems to be worse on the non-caucasian colored bodies.

edit: I brought this to Doc's attention and he did not seem to think it was a global issue for the toys. He was very cool and did send me a new arm to repair the Mugato with.

[Dave Mc]

The DM bodies have had this stretch issue with the arm holes since day one, but I've rarely had one break and my kid has tons of them. He has most of the MC treks and isn't real gentle either. Haven't lose an arm yet! I wonder if some runs (I'm thinking more runs of color) are more likely to break than others. The apes are a unique color, as is Mugato.

[Luke Landwalker]

wow.was going to pick these up but i didn't know they were made so crappy.I'll stay with megos.

[AcroRay]

wow.was going to pick these up but i didn't know they were made so crappy.I'll stay with megos.

They're not made "crappy" at all. If anything, they're much better overall than Mego's production work. Some runs just have some bugs.

At the very least, you'd be ahead if you pick one up and simply swapped out the body for a cheap vintage Mego.

[megocrazy]

I've made dozens of customs with Doc's bodies and posed and displayed them with no breakage. Granted I don't "play" with them. I believe they are all the same wether they're the loose bodies or the production ones. If your having an issue give him an email in a week or so after the SDCC and he'll come through. Doc always does.

[Tothiro]

Hmm. I had an Andorian arm do that just out of the package, and I had to swap the Gorn parts out for vintage. Uhura snapped a hip pin first thing off the card too.

Since all my male DM arms are stretched out and either about to pop or have super limited motion because of the deformation I've actually changed everything I've gotten over to vintage bodies (which is pretty much everything EMCE has released). The exception is a mugato body I have for a different custom - I swapped the internals to vintage bands and it's much better, still stretched out (so limited motion) from the factory assembly, but otherwise ok.

I sent Doc an email about the arms right around the Sulu release suggesting a harder plastic for the upper arms - I'm sure he's sick of getting emails from people who think it might be new news... so he didn't respond then.

It's a shame, because everything else about them is fantastic, and I'll keep picking them up, but it would be nice to change this one simple flaw in an otherwise great figure series. If it were just about restringing, that would be fine, but by the time they come to retail the structural damage is done already. I've had the issue with apes, NOTLD, Trek... and with so many others saying the same thing happens with theirs I don't know if it's a run here or there issue... I think it's an issue of both material and assembly across the board.

The factory would almost surely be using steel molds - swapping production for ABS shoulders like the torso should be fairly easy (except it might be too expensive, if say the molds are multiple part shots and there'd be a lot of waste product I suppose).

Anyway. If wishes were ponies the bodies would be perfect. As it is I'm still a happy consumer.

[megozilla13]

It does seem like a design flaw. I checked the other figures that didn't break, and they look like they are about to. If you lift the arms up out away from the body, the whole upper arm gets pulled into the chest cavity. It seems like it would be something easy to fix at the factory.


mikej

[CrimsonGhost]

The problem is the stringing and not the arms. I restring every one of them myself and never have a problem.

[actjac01]

I love the new EMCEs as well, but I've had issues with the assembly as well.
Not only are the elastics doubled up, which I think is the main reason for the the attachment hole on the arms stretching and, in some cases, tearing (none of mine yet, but it may be just a matter of time ), but the internal assembly is all wrong. Just compare it to to an original Mego body. It's almost like the factories got the things assembled without fully understanding how the body was designed to go together.

[mego73]

I've been lucky, my EMCE bodies are a-ok. I do wish the shoulders were more posable but that's not a biggie.