My T-800 is half completed. He’s half armless (h-armless) and almost completely legless.
I started back in March 2021 with Pack 1, putting eyes into sockets and testing the LEDs. At the beginning of the build, it doesn’t look much like a terminator. You assemble different parts that eventually come together.
By pack 3, I had a disembodied head, two shoulder cuffs and a right arm. The instructions switch between various elements of the upper body - head, neck, shoulders, arms, fingers, hand - which stops the build becomming monotonous. You do need somewhere to store these component parts until pack 4 brings them all together with the rib-cage.
Pack 5 extends down the spine, to the pelvis and connects everything together.
The packs of fingers came with plastic sheaths for the knuckles, so I have been lucky not to suffer the loose finger problem of the Hatchet original. I have similar problems as others with the shoulder rotator cuff catching on the right arm.
The left arm shoulder cuff rotates fine in both directions, but does not yet have the weight of an arm.
However, it’s the right shoulder rotator cuff that doesn’t rotate fluidly in both directions. The arm can be lifted easily but returning to the side catches making it more difficult. I’m waiting to see how the left left shoulder cuff handles with the weight of an arm. The model is already quite heavy. As I add more, it just keeps getting heavier.
With the right shoulder rotator cuff, the spring seems to catch. I have tried the online forum suggestions of greasing it and cutting the ends from the spring to shorten it. Neither provided a good result.
Having cut the spring, I asked Agora for a replacement and they kindly obliged. If you need replacement parts, quote the pack and stage number where the part is first introduced (and laid out with part numbers and names). Don’t quote the stage where it is combined with parts from later blister-packs - you’ll get the parts from that later blister-pack instead.
Initially this miss-communication on my part resulted in the wrong replacement blister-pack being sent. This was no problem for Agora who sent the correct item when I realised. In fairness, I returned the wrong part back to them. Nothing seemed too much trouble.
I fitted the replacement spring and the shoulder rotates much better (though not as smooth as the left shoulder). For now, I think it just needs some excercise.
My only other problem was minor in comparison.
Stage 55, Step 7 (Pack 6) shows the combined hip joint sections from stages 53 and 54 fitted to the top of the right thigh. There’s no mention of gluing these hip joint sections together. However, when the thigh was connected to the pelvis, I noticed the combined hip joint sections came loose from the thigh.
I hope a little bit of glue to hold them together (not indicated in the assembly instructions) does not cause problems later. After the glue had dried, there did not seem to be any problem with hip rotation. No hip replacement needed yet!
Soon after, the thigh muscles were attached to the thigh and pelvis, as described in the detailed assembly instructions, and I have half a Terminator T-800 Endoskeleton:
Agora recommend the incomplete T-800 is protected when not being worked on, so I currently keep him in an underbed storage box on a matress of bubble wrap and packing polystyrene - sleeping in the lap of luxury!
As you can see, and to paraphrase a line from the classic Jaws:
I’m gonna need a bigger box…
Comments