Zeta Toys Zeta-EX09 Ford (G1 Fortress Maximus)

I finally got around to trying to fix the rocketing head problem, but lost one of the springs forever. It flew at my face and I wasted an hour with a flashlight trying to find it. So I had to take them all out, and it just looks fucking awful. There’s a huge and visible gap above the tech specs thing. Since the chest panel is translucent you can see it all the time.

I’m really bummed out by this. Shit like this happens any time I try to fix or mod anything. It’s not as bad as the laptop that died right after I put a fresh install of Windows on it this summer, mind you. Or my dad having some mysterious throat problem that they’ve been trying and failing to diagnose since January. or all the other depressing hellworld 2020 stuff going on. but the big problems make everything harder to cope with, even dumb things like this.

The worst part is that the problem was caused by a huge piece of sprue on the bottom of one of the parts, so if I hadn’t lost the spring, he would’ve been fully functional.

I’ve taken apart a bunch of ballpoints but the springs are all too big. I bought the toy from Toy Dojo but it’s been sold out there since like June so there’s no way they’d have a spring. I can’t find a way to contact Zeta outside of Facebook and I deleted mine years ago. I don’t really want to make one just to ask if they have any springs. He’s just going to have to be like this forever.

The Energon figure with the Perfect Effect head is probably the best option. Reminds me I need to fix my black Scoponok. His shoulders disintegrated when I disassembled him to do the headmaster conversion. I got the replacement parts from Shapeways but haven’t gotten around to reassembling him.

Speaking of those Perfect Effect Headmasters, I just replaced my Ford’s head with the Perfect Effect one and it looks good. BBTS is apparently restocking the SD figure that includes the head if anyone was interested in doing the same.

JJJ

Is there a similarly sized Scorponok to go with this?

The one from printformers and I think the Energon's version too.

Is there a similarly sized Scorponok to go with this?

Rewind

Glad you like it, and happy to help. The person I sold my extra Ford to said the head was fine on theirs too so luckily it’s not a problem they all have.

Gave mine the Kabaya sword, which is too small but fine until something better comes along.

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I think that sword is pretty good! Maybe I’m easily pleased? LOL

I ended up just taking the gear parts out on mine. He still has plenty of friction to hold his arms out. I saved them and can always sand them down if he later needs it. Honestly I think they are just made from plastic that is too stiff. If they had just a little give to them they’d work better as springs.

Rewind

I went with a different approach on the shoulder ratchets this time. Rather than shave down the teeth I just removed them entirely. The shoulders no longer have outward ratchets but they are still very tight.

Dirty tutorial time:

Remove the ramps (they just peg on) from each arm so you can access all of the screws. Remove the screws and the two halves of the shoulder slide apart. You may think they are glued but it’s just a very tight fit.

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Then you have two options:
Shave/sand down this tooth on each side (it slides out easily) until you get your desired amount of smooth clicky resistance.

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Or just leave it out and enjoy smooth posing but no delicious clicks.

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Thank you for sharing that. Mine arrived today and he has this issue. I'll be glad to fix it though because otherwise very happy with the figure. So far I don't seem to have the issue others have with the head popping off unexpectedly.

Lord Of Tetris

I just found out the two pectoral pieces can rotate. You know, the hinged box-shaped pieces that the arms attach to. What's the purpose of having them move? It seems like these pieces are supposed to be in the same position in all three modes.

Was wondering that myself. Thought about customizing him to look more like the G1 (the Marvel version with that kind of white bar across the bottom of his chest) but I haven't really pursued it because it would block the rotation.

mag_jr.

Any luck on the spring issue yet? I just got Ford from Toy Dojo a little while ago, and the head pops out like crazy despite having the clear coat on the tabs like yours. I’ve poked around a little with a size 0 screwdriver, and it seems like the culprit might be the spring on Ford’s left side (if they used more than one spring). The tab only depresses halfway and gets stuck. The middle one depresses with no issues, and the one on Ford’s right is 50/50 on whether it will get stuck or depress properly.
So it might not be the springs, but maybe a molding issue. Or maybe (if there’s more than one spring) the left & right might just need to be swapped or have a length cut off? It does seem like there’s too much pressure pushing upwards from those springs, because I’ve still got the Toyworld Hardhead and that headmaster also just flies right off of Ford’s shoulders. My bro has a G1 Fort Max, but I don’t think he’ll let me borrow Spike to test further 

I did have to shave down one of Cerebros’s leg tabs a little to get his legs to tab together at all, and the red paint (?) from the neck mechanism is rubbing off on the sides of poor little Cerebros’s head, but apart from those issues he feels solid as a rock. They must have even oiled the shoulder ratchets on mine, because I got grease all over my hands checking out that tooth piece for the shoulder ratchets.   Makes a decent Marvel scale Fort Max to hang with my legends figures and MFT Huge Dragon, and micromasters fit on his ramps perfectly too. The metallic finish looks really, really nice, much nicer in hand than I expected, and he’s heavy for a figure with no die cast.

The only gripe I have is that they removed a couple of little paint apps (or stickers? not sure, I never owned Grant or Infinitor) from the central tower made from the bits that wrap around his torso. There used to be a couple of yellow and blue stripes each to kind of fake windows, as on the G1 toy, but now it’s just that bone white color. Not a huge deal because I can’t see myself having him in city mode that often.

Thanks for the reminder I forgot to post my results!

So what worked for me is pretty simple:
1- Remove 6 screws from back

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2- Everything you need to work on is in one convenient little canister.

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3- Remove 2 screws from bottom of canister. Hold it panel side UP and plug the headmaster in to pop the panel off. You'll find 3 springs inside, one for each sliding doohickey.

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4- The springs were slightly too long on mine, creating too much tension and thus pushing the head out. Remove a spring doohickey and trim one(ish) coil off the end with a nipper. I had to trim all three springs before the headmaster plugged in solidly, you may want to test yours one at a time until you get the desired tension.

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5- Reassemble and enjoy your non-launching head (which hopefully has less sloppy blue stripes than mine)!

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A reversible option if you don’t want to cut anything is to just take the springs off and put them in Ford’s box. You’ll lose the stats functionality, though. I was just going to remove them because I don’t care about the stats, but I decided to go through with the operation in the name of science.  

Also, your problem may be different. Since each spring is supposed to be seated in it's own housing on the underside of the canister lid, it's possible you could have a spring that is outside of that seating, thus not working properly. In any case, the disassembly and reassembly is easy and there is no glue involved or risk of breaking anything so it's pretty safe to crack him open and see what's going on in there.

Bumblemus Prime

I had Infinitor and had zero problems with the tolerances for the headmaster. Is this a rare example of Zeta's engineering being worse than Toyworld's?

My Infinitor was just fine too. Everything else on Ford is identical to Infinitor in terms of overall quality, of not a little better (my Ford Cerebros has tighter joints). I’ll know more about what the neck issue is after I open him up. I’m guessing they just used the wrong springs.

Rewind

Huh…my Ford just started doing this. It was fine up until today, but now it's just like you said – tap the head or jostle him a little and the head goes flying. It feels like the little red clasps inside the torso aren't clipping to the slots on the sides of Cerebros' head like they're supposed to. Looks like I'll be opening him up and either fixing those clasps or removing the springs for the stats bars.

Too bad I don't have the skill to open up a toy without ruining it forever.