Lamenting Scopedog

Well, I got good news and bad news. That big huge box (about 3 or 4 cubic feet) arrived at my door on Friday. The idiots decided to leave it there unsecured but luckily my folks were there to grab the box before something bad happened.

So what was it? It's a 1/12 scale "Scopedog" mecha from Armoured Troopers VOTOMS. And with the crazy sale that was on at the shop, I was able to snag the limited edition "Red Shoulder" elite model with the option clear armour parts. And on top on that, I was able to get a whole bunch of add-on packs like the additional weapons sets, the zero-G flight-pack, and the parachute module. All for a fraction of what it would have cost under normal circumstances.

Sadly, there's been a little, um, snag:


That unsightly seem? It's actually the first sign: the upper arm was flimsy and came apart the moment I took him from the box. I was needless to say, severely disappointed thinking that it was broken or something. But then I looked at the pieces closely and noticed:
Those are the 2 pairs of armour bits that should wrap around the upper arms. Notice anything? The pairs are supposed to snap-fit pegs-to-holes. But I've actually got only 1 "peg" piece and 3 "hole" pieces! Crap.

I've already written a message to customer service asking what my options are. I don't want to
ship the whole damn thing back (this sucker's huge!). But I asked about sending me a replacement piece...

So what if I can't get satisfaction? Well, I have 2 choices then... Firstly, because it's the limited edition, I guess I could just always display it with the clear parts (which would be kind of cool in itself). The other option is to mod the "hole" piece into a "peg" piece myself by cutting the correct elbow joint into it (because the "hole" piece only fits on the back of the upper arm outside the elbow) and then figure out another way to make some kind of pegs for it out of toothpicks and super-glue... hmm...