I bought a TE2 from the MadCatz UK online store as in the UK that's the only place you could buy them at the time(I think that's still the case), I was going to a few SFV events a few weeks ago, wanted a stick, really liked my original TE and TE S and thought "Well i'll buy one eventually".
First issue is it was £180 which converted for most of you here is around $270-280 this hurts but considering the normal TE retailed for £120-150 over here it was to be expected.
When it arrived it had air/moisture bubbles under the top plastic layer, they got more and more extreme too.
Video of them when they weren't that bad
![image]()
I was a bit miffed by this as when you spend that much you want it to arrive looking perfect... (On a side-note the packaging for the TE2 is cheap and shoddy compared to the TE1)
When I went to the London SFV event the next day there were loads of the same TE2 model I own, each and every one of them had this same air/moisture bubble issue.
The other day this annoyed me enough that I popped out the alan-key screwdriver that came with the stick and to fix the bubbles as all it should have taken was lifting the sheet and putting it back down to fix. That's when the serious issues happened.
The way its build the 2 corner screws near the hinges are very hard to access, one of these and one of the top screws had been mechanically tightened to such a degree that nothing I could do would loosen it. After carefully trying for a while it began to turn but no... The alan-key top of the screws had just given away totally and it was now just a circular hole.
I'm really gentle and careful not to ruin screws but these seemed to be made out of the cheapest softest metal, I checked a few of the ones that had been loose enough to remove and just doing that once with the provided alan-key screwdriver had been enough to visibly damage them a bit. I tried one more time to loosen the tight top-screw so i could at least lift the top sheet a bit to sort the bubbling issue and almost at the same time that screw died in the same way and the plastic of the screwdriver gave away meaning the metal rotates inside the plastic handle now.
I don't even know how many times I've opened up my TE1 and TE S but they're both perfect, nothing has needed to be replaced, all screws are fine. Its just made from better quality parts.
Other gripes ->
The top of the stick has too much flex and isn't nearly as solid as previous TE Sticks
There's no Mic port -(this actively harms online play... Chatting in lobbies can be fun and unless you're dropping money on an expensive headset you now can't communicate as there's no official wireless headset)
I would have killed to have the turbo button support back during "Press Any Button"
First issue is it was £180 which converted for most of you here is around $270-280 this hurts but considering the normal TE retailed for £120-150 over here it was to be expected.
When it arrived it had air/moisture bubbles under the top plastic layer, they got more and more extreme too.
Video of them when they weren't that bad
I was a bit miffed by this as when you spend that much you want it to arrive looking perfect... (On a side-note the packaging for the TE2 is cheap and shoddy compared to the TE1)
When I went to the London SFV event the next day there were loads of the same TE2 model I own, each and every one of them had this same air/moisture bubble issue.
The other day this annoyed me enough that I popped out the alan-key screwdriver that came with the stick and to fix the bubbles as all it should have taken was lifting the sheet and putting it back down to fix. That's when the serious issues happened.
The way its build the 2 corner screws near the hinges are very hard to access, one of these and one of the top screws had been mechanically tightened to such a degree that nothing I could do would loosen it. After carefully trying for a while it began to turn but no... The alan-key top of the screws had just given away totally and it was now just a circular hole.
I'm really gentle and careful not to ruin screws but these seemed to be made out of the cheapest softest metal, I checked a few of the ones that had been loose enough to remove and just doing that once with the provided alan-key screwdriver had been enough to visibly damage them a bit. I tried one more time to loosen the tight top-screw so i could at least lift the top sheet a bit to sort the bubbling issue and almost at the same time that screw died in the same way and the plastic of the screwdriver gave away meaning the metal rotates inside the plastic handle now.
I don't even know how many times I've opened up my TE1 and TE S but they're both perfect, nothing has needed to be replaced, all screws are fine. Its just made from better quality parts.
Other gripes ->
The top of the stick has too much flex and isn't nearly as solid as previous TE Sticks
There's no Mic port -(this actively harms online play... Chatting in lobbies can be fun and unless you're dropping money on an expensive headset you now can't communicate as there's no official wireless headset)
I would have killed to have the turbo button support back during "Press Any Button"