Micro Ace Quality Control Issues

[Mudkip Orange]

My recently-arrived Nankai Series 2000 has substantial bowing in the lead car, such that it scrapes on the track, picks points, and generally doesn't look all that great. My also recently-arrived Rapi:t has similarly non-flat plastic chassis, although thankfully there is not enough warping in any particular direction to cause the problems I've had with the 2000.

 

To my eye it almost looks like they're using an ABS base, even while the shells remain styrene. Which is... ridiculous. I had previously considered MA to be near Kato in quality, some of their Keihan trains are my most reliable runners. Now, not so much.

 

Will try to take some pics tonight.

[katoftw]

MA has an array of issues currently.  This could be as simple as a Chinese Factory issue or worse.  I'm playing the wait and see game with any MA product at the moment.

Edited August 27, 2015 by katoftw

[Ochanomizu]

Hello Mr Orange,

 

Who is your retailer?  Perhaps if you contact them and include a photo the retailer might replace the product.

[mrp]

I think you’re not alone.  This post seems to describe the same warping problem with the A-8051 front cars.  I believe the poster is saying that he tried to straighten the warping out slowly by hand.  Pretty bad!

 

[bikkuri bahn]

Word out on the internets is the situation with Chinese factories is not good- with companies going bankrupt, taking the money that Japanese companies invested in new products.  Micro ace especially seems vulnerable since almost all their manufacturing occurs there.  QC would take a hit too, when the suppliers are in such a state of uncertainty.  Probably why I'm still waiting for my HO scale ED's.

[Welshbloke]

Sounds like the problem Bachmann/Liliput had a few years ago.

 

It's apparently caused by ejecting the mouldings from the tooling before they're cool enough. The plastic is still soft, and the moulding ends up warped. Of course, if you slow down a bit to allow them time to harden you can't make as many in a day...

[HantuBlauLOL]

Probably the worker's salary got cut.. So they wont work as good as before.

[katoftw]

Probably the worker's salary got cut.. So they wont work as good as before.

They actually got a pay rise.

[railsquid]

How do you know?

[katoftw]

How do we know they were cut?  We'll never know from the outside.

 

One can only assume that when they striked for more money.  Concessions from both sides would have been needed to end the strike.  The huge increases in MAs pricing recently might be to absorb it.

 

Or they just went to another factory to get their stuff done.  But got same wages with crappy product.  All just assumptions.

 

The only real facts we have are the prices have gone up, and the quality has gone down.

[cteno4]

Doing production business in China has always been a gamble. Factories can go poof between runs, even pretty established ones, i know she had it happen to us on some products. Factories can also decide a bigger client is more important and you get pushed to B team production line and equipment and even materials. It was tough keeping relationships established even when working with/thru bigger partners on this end that did lots of business with them. Labor issues have slowly crept up, but they usually don't go like western strikes/negotiations from the little I saw, and didnt cause price issues as much as quality or timing issues. Labor cost was usually increased when increased quality or shorten schedules were requested because they hired more staff for the run.

 

Economic down turn in China is hitting many companies now overextended and thus they may be jacking up prices to bring in extra cash as well. Also many of these factories are slowly being forced under more regulation which costs them to do or avoid... I think the uber fast and loose and cheap are slowly going bye bye there,mthis costs are going to rise.

 

Jeff

[JR 500系]

I really wonder what's happening in the factories... Quality issues, then a lot of sets that were slipped out of the factory and sold in the black market... Not only QA failed ones, now a days we can see mint in boxes ones that is suddenly appearing in the black market...

 

Don't the factories have some form of security to check the bags of employees against these? Or are the securities guards also in it together...

[katoftw]

Morality issues in China make is a very corrupt place.

[cteno4]

Boxes that fell of of da back of da truck are not anything new or particularly Chinese! A phase many societies and economies go thru from time to time. Gray markets exist here in the states from time to time depending on the situation.

 

Jeff

[kvp]

It is possible to have good security, but that would cost more, driving up production prices. Product loss is usually calculated in, but can cause serious truobles for low volume products. One of the reasons maerklin moved production to Hungary was this besides qc issues. Lego on the other hand tries to produce at many locations and assemble at safer places so less people have access to all required parts.

 

Ps: There is and old joke about a worker in a brick factory, who took home a single brick each day in a wheelbarrow and they let him. It took years until someone noticed he is actually stealing the wheelbarrows...

[E6系]

Hello,

 

What to do about this?  Return the product to your supplier and ask for exchange/refund.

[Mudkip Orange]

Here's the images.

 

From the top view, you can see a gap between the gray chassis piece and the blue interior piece, so it's clear that the chassis came out warped and then they just glued everything else onto it anyway.

 

 

As for the recommendations to ask for a refund, this came through Fmodels, who say "We do check the motor and lights of the train model(if they had ) before shipping it out. No return,please."

 

Has anyone else had any luck sending a return to Ms. Motoko?

 

 

[miyakoji]

That's too bad.  Pretty obvious problem there.  The dealer should be able to return it to the manufacturer.

[JR 500系]

Oh wow... That is pretty bad condition. It's strange as you got it first hand through a retailer. Havent had luck with FModels returns yet but that is really quite a bad wrapping case. I thought these only happens in Tomytec...Clearly QC was lacking in MA with this model being release...

 

Something bad must be happening in MA factories in China... Bad QC/ QA control, very seriously delayed productions, a surge of Black market goods recently... Anyone has other issues with recent MA releases?  

Edited September 1, 2015 by JR 500系

[Robert46]

Does it mean the future pre-orders are also facing the same questions??? Will be bad if the east-i pre-order productions being affected with this issue..

[katoftw]

MA has an array of issues currently.  This could be as simple as a Chinese Factory issue or worse.  I'm playing the wait and see game with any MA product at the moment.

Robert46 - I'm not prepared to order any new stuff from MA currently.  I'm waiting to see if and when these issue will be resolved.  As a recommendation, if I was buying a new MA product, then I'd be buying from someone I can communicate with and accept return.

 

Their older stuff, ie pre 2014 seems okay and wouldn't have an issue buying.  I'm just now prepared to buy post 2015 items.

[Densha]

As for the recommendations to ask for a refund, this came through Fmodels, who say "We do check the motor and lights of the train model(if they had ) before shipping it out. No return,please."

Oh... Fmodels... I ordered once from them but I did not get a very good treatment to say the least. Your experience only confirms that my case was not the only one where things went entirely wrong in the communication with this store. I felt like I had to be thankful for them letting me buy products from their store. I don't think I need to say more, do I?

[1954G]

The warped chassis issue really sounds vexing.  The MA models I own (5-10 years old) are good runners with zero quality issues--it's hard to believe that their current offerings are so much worse.  But as others in the thread have said, changing factories brings all sorts of headaches. 

 

 

I have an East-i on order, but since it isn't scheduled for release until next year, perhaps the chassis problems will be resolved by the time it is manufactured. 

[Martijn Meerts]

I checked both my Rapi:t trains (I ordered both the standard blue and peach one), and I didn't notice any warping whatsoever .. The only issue was that on the motor car of the blue one, the couplers are a bit low compared to the rest of the cars, the peach version didn't have that. (of course, it comes with rapido couplers, which will be replaced eventually anyway)