HOBBY SCHMOBBY... CUSTOMIZING TRANSFORMERS

It has been over two months since I updated this blog... so I thought, what the hell, I might as well dust it off and put something new in this place! [although I've been posting art at Facebook, so check out the Facebook link on the left of this blog page].

Everyone needs a hobby, whether it's making music, DJing, art, sewing, vid-games, LARPing, working out, or a sport. FYI... "malling" / shopping is not a hobby... its a damn addiction! :D
Anyway the hobby keeps your mind active and frankly, it can make you a lot of money, when you have perfected your craft and the right doors open.

Earlier in the year, I joined an underground group of skilled people from all over the world, who secretly do things; very strange things, and dangerous things.... no, it's not a cult, they're a group of Transformer fans, who literally transform their toys, thus making them better.

It's a time consuming hobby. And while an older generation from the 50s and 60s would buy and paint little trains, spitfire jets and toy ship models, those born in the 80s and 90s will be more familiar with the nostalgia created by the Robots In Disguise that they beheld as giant weekend titans on the TV screen, in their childhood days.
And now, I collect some of those TF toys and I Kitbash the hell out of a few of them.

I'll briefly explain what Kitbashing is; this refers to the mixing and matching of TF toys, and some people call it modding or customization.
You can Google "Customized transformer toys", and you'll see all kinds of stuff.

Personally, I prefer to mix Transformers with Gundam parts, using the weapons / wings from the Japanese plastic models to make the Transformers look cooler. In this process, you can glue things together, add putty to enlarge the mismatched joints, or often just sand them down or reattach them.

And when you buy a Power Drill for your stuff, then trust me folks, that goddamn hobby just got serious!!!

This article really isn't a comprehensive "How to customize transformers"; instead, it is more of a teaser with some tips for this hobby interest. 

But for those who want to know, the drill bit recommended for use with drilling holes into your TF toys is the 13/64 in. drill bit, which is the equivalent of the 5mm drill bit size. This is the size for the pegs of most of the handheld weapons that the TFs use... and the attachment pegs of the items from the Gundam models are actually smaller than that, hence you need to drill smaller holes in your TF model, before you attach certain Gundam weapons / wings to them.

And after fixing up the toy, you can re-color them with Acrylic paint or Sharpie markers. Yet you must never use Enamel paints for coloring plastic toys, because that stuff will literally corrupt / melt / weaken your plastic toy's joints, and then the limbs will start snapping without much pressure. Trust me, I had to research that stuff. And I also learned about the intriguing world of 3rd party transformers.... they're super-cool, but also quite expensive.

And please beware; not all TF toys are compatible, per their joints and limbs. So you have to know which ones are placed in the warrior class, versus the commanders, deluxe, leader, legends, voyagers, etc.

Hopefully I will post more pics later. But this post was just a teaser... stay tuned...