Clutch vs Friction problem with #70366 Battle Suit Lance

iamterry

Anybody else having problems with the feet for #70366 ?

My son got awfully frustrated trying to build this today as whenever he tries to move the feet, the 1x2 ball cup plate pops off the white technic 2x1 brick due to the force of the friction of the ball within the ball cup being greater than the clutch of those two parts.

He ended up asking me to glue it (which unfortunately I think I agree with him) which really surprised me for a very recent set :(

Aanchir

I've had that happen once or twice, but it hasn't been a constant or unavoidable problem for me. I can see how it could be frustrating for a kid.

SprinkleOtter

Call CS, blah blah...

iamterry

Emailed them actually, they want to send some replacement parts to see if that makes any difference.

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to follow through - I raided my mixels parts for the ball joint parts to see if they made any difference and whilst they helped a little bit, they didn't solve the problem

I now think that the friction on the ball joint is just too high in certain movements causing the plate to separate from the technic brick - the initial force required to start movement on the ball is surprising.  Maybe my son's got unlucky with these particular parts but I'm surprised this was missed during review stages.

Aanchir

Perhaps just take the connected joint pieces on their own and wiggle them around a lot to see if that wears them in a bit? I've had success with that when I've had sets with flat hinges (https://brickset.com/parts/design-73983) that had too much friction.

samiamucc

Why not just take the free parts they are offering, as replacements for the ones you glue/wear down? And I'd suggest that before you glue,  if you're gonna glue, get out the sandpaper or file and decrease the friction the easy way. 

iamterry

I've taken Lego up on their offer - they're going to send me some replacement parts.  They've also asked me to return the existing legs so good job I haven't glued them yet :)

I'm hoping that the replacement does solve the problem as my boy was rather frustrated and it does go against my principles to glue lego!  

iamterry

In case you're interested - we build the replacement over the weekend and this one didn't suffer from the clutch/friction problem at all.

MaffyD

^ Yes, I am interested. Thanks for the update. To perhaps return the favour, may I recommend #70348 : Lance's Twin Jouster - it combines with the Battle Suit, and is a very neat set in it's own right (splits into two or transforms into jet). What you do with the 'spare' Lance I don't know - long lost brother or alternate dimension version perhaps?