ROBOTO cracks are getting worse

[Eternian81]

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After talking to Mr. Yuck and reading this thread I went to check my Roboto and sure enough....

[Robin Hood]

Takes one look at the fracture patterns in the transparent plastic and the reported spontaneous breakage by Roboto owners and concludes I’ve seen this before, its residual stress/strain cracking.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environ...tress_cracking and section on “Predicting ESC”, which states:
“Residual stress and residual strain are especially important because they can drive crack growth. They frequently arise from poor injection moulding, especially where cold tools are used in the process. Polycarbonate is a particular problem, and tool temperatures in excess of 80 C must be used to lower residual stresses and strains.”

Polycarbonate being one of the few commercially produced transparent plastics.

Now for the next step. IMO, Mattel or whoever is in charge should ask the manufacturer for comment and have their factory production control manual and records independently review, as it would appear they are providing some defective goods. They could also confirm the cause of cracking by employing someone skilled in residual strain measurement and in the fracture analysis of brittle materials (e.g. glass, transparent plastics) by allowing them to examine and test the cracked Roboto's.

[Exinferis]

Takes one look at the fracture patterns in the transparent plastic and the reported spontaneous breakage by Roboto owners and concludes I’ve seen this before, its residual stress/strain cracking.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environ...tress_cracking and section on “Predicting ESC”, which states:
“Residual stress and residual strain are especially important because they can drive crack growth. They frequently arise from poor injection moulding, especially where cold tools are used in the process. Polycarbonate is a particular problem, and tool temperatures in excess of 80 C must be used to lower residual stresses and strains.”

Polycarbonate being one of the few commercially produced transparent plastics.

Now for the next step. IMO, Mattel or whoever is in charge should ask the manufacturer for comment and have their factory production control manual and records independently review, as it would appear they are providing some defective goods. They could also confirm the cause of cracking by employing someone skilled in residual strain measurement and in the fracture analysis of brittle materials (e.g. glass, transparent plastics) by allowing them to examine and test the cracked Roboto's.

Yeah, but that all costs money and we know how Mattel loves to spend money!

Someone mentioned that they'd be happy to re-buy Roboto if Mattel re-made him. I just don't understand that kind of attitude; if something's broken upon arrival, or if a manufacturing defect causes an item to become damaged then it's the company who sold the defective figure's responsibility to replace or refund it.

I keep asking this question, are there no consumer laws in America? In the UK there's the Sale of Goods and Services Act. I have no hesitation quoting chunks of it to UK retailers if something's defective! Mattel have a UK head office, I'm sorely tempted to write to them and see if there's any recourse that way. Probably won't be as I bought these from their US division, but it's worth a shot!

In the meantime Mattel USA are doing a bang-up job of pushing it's customers away with the, "Oh you have a defective figure? What a shame. Hey, look at this shiny new toy!" attitude. It's wearing extremely thin.

[Robin Hood]

Yeah, but that all costs money and we know how Mattel loves to spend money!

Mattel affix the CE mark to the packaging of their MOTUC figures and by doing so they are stating conformity with the appropriate European Union (EU) Directive/Regulation for both the product and packaging. In this case, the most applicable directive would appear to be the Toys Directive. This Directive however applies to products designed or intended for use in play by children under 14 years of age so it does not apply to the MOTUC figures. On a side note, this is probably one of the reasons why the packaging always says for the “adult collector”.

This leaves the question of what Mattel are claiming EU conformity to? The default would be the General Products Safety Directive (GPSD). This Directive obliges manufacturers to place only safe products on the market. Now this could be very important for those with Roboto figures which unexpectedly crack. This is for two main reasons:

1) Products which crack have the potential to cut because of exposed sharp edges or for pieces of the figure to come off and be consumed by the user. In particular, children might reasonably be expected to play with such figures (even if stated for adult collectors) and to accidentally place any loose irregular fragment in their mouths posing a potential risk of choking. A cracked Roboto figure could therefore be argued to pose a safety risk.

NOTE. If the plastic used can be shown to be toxic or contain dangerous or hazardous substances (unlikely as the plastic is clear) the safety risk would be increased as there would be a further risk of poisoning.

2) The GPSD imposes several requirements for the figures to comply too including meeting consumers expectations on safety. A product which is cracked on receipt or which unexpectedly cracks in use for no obvious reason could be argued as not meeting this safety expectation as explained in the first answer above. Such a conclusion would be supported by the number of criticisms on the condition of the figure in this thread.

The Roboto figure could therefore be argued to be in breach of the GPSD and thus in breach of UK or other EU member state Law. Penalties for non-compliance being stated in the Member state legislation that implements the GPSD.

And I’m not sure how Mattel can claim the product is in conformity if it does not have some form of quality control (QC) checks in place in North America and the Chinese manufacturer has a functioning factory production control (FPC) system in place. I would asked to see these if investigating. I would also expect Mattel to follow normal practice in most large organisations that sub-contract or have manufacturing sites in China and have an auditor who visits and inspects these sites regularly (usually a minimum of once a year). What happens after the auditor leaves of course is an unknown so problems can always arise through no direct fault of Mattel or even the manufacturer (e.g. raw material supply). This is where Mattels' QC procedures (e.g. visual inspection) should kick-in and identify problems such as cracks allowing time for remedial action before products are shipped to consumers.

So yes it is Mattel’s concern that one of their products is being found to be defective by consumers and appears to be a potential safety risk. It also leaves the road open for consumers to take legal action against Mattel in the European Courts if they are disssatisfied with product quality. Having said that I'm not surprised when a company makes innovative products such as Mattel that they develop the occasional teething problem. They are probably spending money on solving these issues, they just need to know how to overcome problems with their manufacturers' FPC procedures and with their own QC procedures, and implement the requied remedial action.

Further info on the GPSD is here: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/safety...s/index_en.htm

And the European Commission’s overview of toy safety: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/secto...s/index_en.htm

There’s also a useful summary of EU toy safety requirements here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_safety

Someone mentioned that they'd be happy to re-buy Roboto if Mattel re-made him. I just don't understand that kind of attitude; if something's broken upon arrival, or if a manufacturing defect causes an item to become damaged then it's the company who sold the defective figure's responsibility to replace or refund it.

Agree, I wouldn’t buy a new one until I had confidence Mattel had fixed the problem which caused the cracking. I expect the problem will recur and will be an issue for other companies who make figures other than Mattel. The cause of failure should be identified and the remedial action to prevent it recurring implemented by the manufacturer (FPC) and the distributor (QC).

Note I would like the line to continue so if there is anyone from Mattel who reads this post, PM me and I'll let you know a simple test to have done at the beginning and end of each shift or during QC procedures which can be used to identify residual strain problems before they reach the marketplace or consumers.

I keep asking this question, are there no consumer laws in America? In the UK there's the Sale of Goods and Services Act. I have no hesitation quoting chunks of it to UK retailers if something's defective! Mattel have a UK head office, I'm sorely tempted to write to them and see if there's any recourse that way. Probably won't be as I bought these from their US division, but it's worth a shot!

One additional effect of Mattel having affixed the CE mark to the packaging of all its MOTUC figures (I’ve checked it’s on all those that I’ve got) is that it is making a legal statement that it complies not only with EU Laws but also the relevant laws of the member states, such as the UK. And since Mattel allow consumers from the EU to purchase MOTU figures from each of the member states they are effectively placing the product on the EU market and therefore the market of each of the member states. The result is that UK Consumer Protection Law in your case also applies if it is delivered to the UK!!!!! This is recognised on the packaging for the figures as it lists “Consumer Relations” offices in Maidenhead in the UK and a European Office in the Netherlands.

So yes go ahead inform them about your rights under EU Law and the UK’s Sales and Goods Act. Just note that under the latter I believe you are within your rights to change your mind on accepting the goods at any time within the first seven days of receipt, so only within this time can you return the goods and get a full refund under UK Law, including the delivery charges. I expect they might not be to hot on the legal requirements under EU law though and would not wish to risk adverse publicity of putting a potentially unsafe product on the market which did not comply with the requirements of the GPSD (it has been incorporated into UK Law) so you will probably get the full refund.

By the way if Mattel was a responsible UK retailer with the number of complaints in this thread I would expect from experience the retailer to have carried out a product recall by now, but that’s probably because UK and European Law acts more in the interests of the consumer while US and Canadian Law (I've worked in North America for two years) acts more in the interests of the manufacturer and distributor.

Now I have to be fair to Mattel. If I’m correct this is a residual strain problem from manufacture there are very few independent organisations in the world with the expertise and facilities to correctly diagnose the problem and recommend appropriate remedial action. So given their use of a Chinese manufacturer to keep costs down it’s not a surprise that Mattel have been hit with this problem of figure cracking. I expect other companies having action figures manufactured in China or elsewhere will have similar problems in the future if action to identify the problem and resolve it are not taken and widely implemented.

In the meantime Mattel USA are doing a bang-up job of pushing it's customers away with the, "Oh you have a defective figure? What a shame. Hey, look at this shiny new toy!" attitude. It's wearing extremely thin.

But you're an EU consumer and you have more rights! Use them!

[mekaneckpain]

So did TG pass along the pictures to his subordinates yet? It would be interesting to see what kind of solution will come of this, if any.

April 10:
Last night he was all over the Toyguru Matty collector news thread --- Guess he didn't have time to visit this one to let us know what the deal is on Roboto. Seems he only goes to threads that have his screen name or say TMS in the title.

[Dr Kain]

Moine doesn't have any cracks in his chest, but I do see some splits starting where his arms are. Thye are too small and light to take a picture though.

[darkmoon766]

I just made a poll to see if we can tell just how severe this problem is.

http://www.he-man.org/forums/boards/...-Re-inspection


Please examine your Roboto carefully under good lighting to look for small cracks before you vote. (seems many tiny ones are near the reversed shoulders) Thanks for participating!

[zodak74]

Here's a photo of mine with a crack, which I just noticed a few minutes ago after finding the poll/other thread...
the other shoulder's small stress cracks don't really show up well on my iPhone.

[jibernish]

Yeah, I tried to get people to fight the good fight --- until I realized that like you, most of the fans on here have that "I'll take whatever Mattel throws at me and be happy about it" attitude --- if you notice, I don't pursue that anymore for just that reason. One man can't do it alone, which is why I TRIED to rally people together. Key word is TRIED ... which is more than most on here is willing to do. So I pat myself on the back for at least having the passion and TRYING. Don't try and say my attitude is the problem because it's not. I may be a venom spitter most of the time, but very few will ever out-match my love for MOTU.

Well I cut back on new figure purchases. I'm buying Spikor, and if they release Two-bad, I'll pick him up. But that's about it. I'm passing on most of the rest.

[Jii Dee]

I knew my luck couldn't hold out forever. just notices a pair of tiiiiiiiny hair line cracks in roboto. Not sure how long they've been there. Maybe from the start. They ARE pretty small. Mine sits in a detolf with his buddies. I'll monitor it over time. *cross fingers*

[mekaneckpain]

Last night he was all over the Toyguru Matty collector news thread --- Guess he didn't have time to visit this one to let us know what the deal is on Roboto. Seems he only goes to threads that have his screen name or say TMS in the title.

[jibernish]

Last night he was all over the Toyguru Matty collector news thread --- Guess he didn't have time to visit this one to let us know what the deal is on Roboto. Seems he only goes to threads that have his screen name or say TMS in the title.

Honestly I don't think there is anything for him to say that hasn't already been said AND demonstrated with action. Just like with all the defective figures, you can ask for a refund. You will not get a new figure, it's too late for that. And Mattel will not be making more Roboto's - not to replace defective product and not even for resale.

We've been through this time and time again. We know what Mattel's stance is, and we hate it. Maybe TG will pop his head in over here and reiterate that, but I'd hate to see you waiting for an answer that may never come and that you'll hate if it does.

[mekaneckpain]

Honestly I don't think there is anything for him to say that hasn't already been said AND demonstrated with action. Just like with all the defective figures, you can ask for a refund. You will not get a new figure, it's too late for that. And Mattel will not be making more Roboto's - not to replace defective product and not even for resale.

We've been through this time and time again. We know what Mattel's stance is, and we hate it. Maybe TG will pop his head in over here and reiterate that, but I'd hate to see you waiting for an answer that may never come and that you'll hate if it does.

lol... not really waiting for an answer, Just rubbing it in that what Mattel has done is wrong and bad busines. To sell a broken item and not replace it when it's basically part of a collection is just mean. If the figure wasn't a crucial part of this collection I wouldn't care so much... but it's Roboto man! Can't have cracked Roboto's in our collections! But your right, He not going to do anything about it and either is anyone else... but don't rob me of my right to complain about it.

[Eternian Poet]

Perhaps this will be a "Compelling" reason for Mattel to release a 200x version?

Even if Roboto wasn't "cracking up", I thought it was a shoddy figure anyway.

[Robin Hood]

For the attention of Mattels Action Figure department (I hope someone can forward this on):

Here’s the web address of one organisation who should be able to resolve the cracking issue:
http://www.strainoptics.com

And they provide some free downloadable publications including “How to Measure Stress in Transparent Plastics” which should be of help in understanding and resolving the cracking issue:
http://www.strainoptics.com/page.asp?page_id=87


For everyone else this brings back some fun memories. Working in a laboratory assessing glass and plastic products, establishing the cause of failure of such products and best of all getting paid to break things! It even involved explaining to Chinese manufacturers how to resolve cracking issues with their products! They were good days.

[coolapex]

No way! No freak'n way! Just checked mine and it has cracking around the back of the shoulders. Why Roboto!? I've treated you so well. I've done nothing but love you and take care of you.

[mekaneckpain]

I think everyones Roboto will (if not already) have cracks in the torso. Call me crazy but, This sounds like a 100% complete production run of Roboto that is, or will be defective and Mattel says "oh well, tough luck." about it. Mattel needs to be sued ASAP.

[Lord Anubis]

Just checked mine. Arms and stomach are cracked pretty bad. Never even played with it. Opened it, took pics, bagged him and put him away.

Seriously, the line is made like CRAP. I know we're all happy MOTU is around and yay, I agree, but COME ON. So Goddess, Hsss, Roboto, Snout Spout, King Grayskull 1.0 with his epic exploding feet...... what else am I missing?

Did Scott address this issue yet, and if they will do a refund thingie like before with him OR snout spout??

[Jii Dee]

It occurs to me that if mine does crack apart I May try and glue it together to try recasting it in clear resin. Normally I'd baulk at resin toys....but...

[darkmoon766]

Hey Guys. Just want to remind folks if you have just checked your Roboto and seeing this thread, to vote on the poll.

http://www.he-man.org/forums/boards/...-Re-inspection


The "No cracks" team needs some help. Just make sure you check the Roboto chest very carefully, the smaller cracks are hard to see.

[melmoth666]

I would have never known to check, but mine is hosed too...both arms and a longer one across the chest by the left arm....ARGGH

[Bjjer]

count me in for the cracked roboto torso. It has been only on display since I purchased and opened it.. Sucks but I only paid $15 shipped for it so the crack is more palatable.

[PAT]

When I got my Roboto, There was this cracks issue that was related on the forums. So I immediatly checked that out when I opened my blister and everything was OK.

Now I read this topic and I think to myself that it's surprising Roboto could crack spontaneously, just being displayed in a cabinet. Anyway, I decided to check mine, who knows ? Aaaaaaand, surprise ! The ab area had a brand new crack ! The figure has never moved from its place... I'm a bit sad about that now...

[Southzen]

Is it possible to get a MOC pic of a cracked Roboto. I'm checking mine when I get home. So far I've been lucky with MOTUC problems.

[mekaneckpain]

Is it possible to get a MOC pic of a cracked Roboto. I'm checking mine when I get home. So far I've been lucky with MOTUC problems.

i think someone did post a MOC cracked Roboto pic a few pages back.