Issues with KidsLogic products

[Palantirion]

Hello all, it's been a while since I've posted. Over a year ago I got KidsLogic's 1/6 scale VF-1 cockpit, and aside from the enormous weight it was easy to put together and everything worked...for a little while. This year I received my 1/1200 SDF-1 statue/speaker system (do note that the speaker base was radically reduced after the preorder phase ended). I have technical issues with both products and I have exhausted every avenue of communication with Kidslogic that I could think of: Direct email, FB messenger, FB posting (which was deleted), I even contacted BigBadToyStore to see if they, as a vendor, had a way to contact them unavailable to the general public. There was not, and their request was ghosted too.

 

So it appears that I must fix these problems myself, and thus I thought it might be useful to brainstorm solutions with this fine forum. 

 

Issue 1: The VF-1 cockpit's primary LCD panel no longer activates when I power on the unit. All the other LEDs illuminate and cycle as they have before. The LCD panel did work when I got it, and worked after I moved it to the unit's current location on my desk. I do not know how to test to see if the display is bad or if it is simple a bad connection. I cannot tell how to access the internals of that part of the statue.

 

Issue 2: The SDF-1's right side giant shoulder cannon barrel does not light up. From my tested I know that the barrel's male 3mm jack does receive power correctly and the LEDs do light up when I use an extension wire. And I know that the main body's female 3mm jack is outputting power correctly. So it would seem that there was an issue with the fitment or molding such that it is not possible to push the cannon far enough into the main body so that the tip of the 3mm male jack properly contacts its target on the female end. I was wondering if there was a way to simply extend the tip slightly - maybe simply by adding a dot of solder?

 

These issues, and the poor fitment quality of my 1/2 scale Mospeada Ride Armor from them, and the complete lack of support for their products make me seriously question if I would ever buy a Kidslogic product again.

[jenius]

I can't really help but I can offer a bit of solidarity. When my 1/8 VF-1S bust arrived, there was a piece on the collar that had popped free during shipping. I reached out to them and inquired if I needed to use a special adhesive since I wasn't sure what materials were involved. I never received a response. Fortunately, good ol' super glue did the trick for me. 

I hope someone a little more electrically inclined can offer you some pointers to resolve your issues since I don't think you'd have recourse with Kid's Logic one way or the other. 

[pengbuzz]

On 4/21/2021 at 8:19 PM, Palantirion said:

Hello all, it's been a while since I've posted. Over a year ago I got KidsLogic's 1/6 scale VF-1 cockpit, and aside from the enormous weight it was easy to put together and everything worked...for a little while. This year I received my 1/1200 SDF-1 statue/speaker system (do note that the speaker base was radically reduced after the preorder phase ended). I have technical issues with both products and I have exhausted every avenue of communication with Kidslogic that I could think of: Direct email, FB messenger, FB posting (which was deleted), I even contacted BigBadToyStore to see if they, as a vendor, had a way to contact them unavailable to the general public. There was not, and their request was ghosted too.

 

So it appears that I must fix these problems myself, and thus I thought it might be useful to brainstorm solutions with this fine forum. 

 

Issue 1: The VF-1 cockpit's primary LCD panel no longer activates when I power on the unit. All the other LEDs illuminate and cycle as they have before. The LCD panel did work when I got it, and worked after I moved it to the unit's current location on my desk. I do not know how to test to see if the display is bad or if it is simple a bad connection. I cannot tell how to access the internals of that part of the statue.

 

Issue 2: The SDF-1's right side giant shoulder cannon barrel does not light up. From my tested I know that the barrel's male 3mm jack does receive power correctly and the LEDs do light up when I use an extension wire. And I know that the main body's female 3mm jack is outputting power correctly. So it would seem that there was an issue with the fitment or molding such that it is not possible to push the cannon far enough into the main body so that the tip of the 3mm male jack properly contacts its target on the female end. I was wondering if there was a way to simply extend the tip slightly - maybe simply by adding a dot of solder?

 

These issues, and the poor fitment quality of my 1/2 scale Mospeada Ride Armor from them, and the complete lack of support for their products make me seriously question if I would ever buy a Kidslogic product again.

1) It sounds like a wire may not have been soldered on as well as it should have, or another connectivity issue. A simple volt meter should be able to tell, but the trick is accessing the wires going to the LCD panel to get the probes onto the connections. I tried researching that online (bet you have as well), but no dice!

2) That would sound like either the male or female end is recessed too deeply into the body/ shoulder cannon to properly make connection. The issue with hat is that the plug is divided up into different zones that would receive positive or negative current (from my time fixing headphones), so adding a drop of solder may or may not fix it.  You can try it of course to see if it works! I wonder if either of the plugs could be coaxed out of the part (I'd imagine it would be very difficult, due to the nature of the material and how well those plugs are glued in!

In all the cases you mentioned, it sounds like QC is very lacking on Kid's Logic's end, and they don't want to be bothered about it. That stinks man; i feel for you.

[ps99042]

I have similar issues with every Transformers Kids Logic product I've ever purchased.  Light and motorized parts often didn't work right out of the box but I loved the designs and had bought most of them on clearance or in Asia so I didn't even try to contact them for help.  QC is definitely not one of their strengths.

[Palantirion]

Thanks for the replies guys.

My thought about adding solder to the male end stemmed from noticing that it's only a 2-part jack and that the barrel is very long compared to the tip. So if I added a mm or so of solder to the tip, the rear barrel portion could still make contact anywhere along its (appx.) 4mm length.  

[Kicker773]

Fearing the sdf having issues 

[Palantirion]

So good news...I fixed it!

After some careful measuring and testing with my 3mm jack extension cable I concluded that the male end was appropriately fixed but the female inside the SDF-1's body was either recessed slightly too far and/or not secure enough to make a positive connection. So I took a large flat file to the indexing stud the male jack sticks out of, shaving off around a mm. In doing so I noticed that the deck of that stud was far from level. The attached pic is at about the halfway point of the filing, when I was done there was still a small bit of the original paint visible. After shaving it the male jack was able to go into the female far enough that the lights turned on! 

Edited April 30, 2021 by Palantirion