Pages

Monday, November 28, 2016

CUSTOM TRANSFORMERS: WARLORD ULTRA MAGNUS, BEFORE AND AFTER PICS!

Another one of my fav custom toys. I had to utilize two "Transformers Prime Ultra Magnus Voyager Class" toys to build this one... and you can see them in that pic shown on the right.

Both of those Ultra Magnus toys were light-blue / powder-blue, so I had to mix and match their limbs for the kitbash. And I chose the best-looking head, while I repainted him ultramarine-blue. I added the extra left-and-right shoulder missiles from a Gundam weapons kit, while the classic missiles that point upwards were repainted. And stationed upon his back is the large blaster cannon from "Transformers Titans Return Hardhead". The las-rifle affixed on his back horizontally was also taken from that same toy. And those two weapons were painted black and silver, to change them from their original green and smokey light-gray colors. There was a central hole presented in the back of the Voyager Magnus with the crazy legs, the one shown on the right. But I had to drill a second lower hole in his back for the las-rifle, which is shown in one of the pics below with none of the back-weapons attached.

Sigh - speaking of Mr. Crazy Legs shown on the right above, that tough sonvabitch has some of the worst legs and thighs that I've Ever seen... I took him apart and studied it... and I really think he was fabricated with two left thighs, or two right hips above his thighs... his damn legs are just... crazy.... just look at him... he's bow-legged damn it!!! LOL And his freakin' thighs are waaaay too small, while his knees are too high and his boots / lower legs are too long. And his hefty warhammer mechtech thingy sucks!! So I broke it!! [while trying to take it apart to fix it].

And now my rant is over :)

For the rest of the custom toy's coloring, I used blue sharpie marker pens and acrylic paint; and I added lots of white paint, silver and also a few silver stickers to him... but you probably can't tell by looking at it. The sniper laser cannon amended to his outer right forearm was taken from an old TF G1 toy and I customized it, adding the larger scope barrel and thus making it longer - which gives the weapon a slight Megatron vibe. He is holding that weapon, in the last pic of the second row below.

And attached to his left forearm is... The Legendary CLAW of Justice!!! LOL

Those familiar with the Transformers Prime Animated series will recall that Ultra Magnus was presented as a no-nonsense lieutenant of Optimus Prime, and at one point, his right hand was broken during one of the Season 3 battles against the Predacons... and it was replaced with a damn ugly claw.
I never liked that damn claw. But the TF Movie Decepticon Crankcase Claw-gun that I added looks pretty damn cool.

Honestly in the TF Prime animated series, there should have been spare parts stored inside the spaceship of Wheeljack or even within Ultra Magnus' dropship, in order for a new hand, like a badass power-glove, to be created for Magnus by the Autobot medic Ratchet.... come to think of it, I never liked Ratchet, because he was presented as a grumpy old pessimistic fart, who was too traditional for his own good in the animated series ;)

Additionally, I gave my custom toy Warlord Magnus some new shoes... heftier feet created with painted putty, which can carry more weight and help to balance him more readily. And I like the final comparison pic, which shows Warlord Ultra Magnus and Mega Optimus Prime, side by side.  Their weapons are interchangeable, and they utilize the 5mm pegs that a lot of the TF toys currently use as a standard.


 

 
 

 
 

Check out the former article that shows the pics of Mega Optimus Prime over HERE!

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

CUSTOM TRANSFORMERS: MEGA OPTIMUS PRIME, BEFORE AND AFTER PICS!

This customized toy model is one of my favs. It was made from the Arms Micron Optimus Prime and the TF Prime Ultra Magnus; both were Voyager Class models, and they were the Hasbro versions.... The legs, arms and torsos were mixed, while Gundam parts were added as the extra smoke stacks of Mega Optimus Prime, giving him a total of six smoke stacks [four on his back, and two more glued onto his shoulders].
He has some Gundam missiles added to his shoulder-pads as well, thus resembling Ultra Magnus. I also customized the regular double-barrel handguns that are made by third-party company Dr. Wu, thus making them longer and sturdier with some household items [such as the parts taken from clicky pens and spare Gundam parts]. And I colored those new handguns, painting them black and silver. And I had to put some putty into the mouths of the new barrels, before coloring their cores gold, within the nozzle.

Additionally I gave Prime some new shoes... heftier feet created with painted putty, which can carry more weight and help to balance him more readily. A ton of nail polish was added to his legs at the hip joints, which were initially super-loose.

His standard articulation remains, but he cannot transform, since I had to glue some of his chest portions, in order to ensure that the toy would stay in position while I was tweaking it. Two shades of red were added to his upper body, and the new ultra-marine blue of his legs was also added to re-color his borrowed light-blue legs. His chest, upper arms and thighs were colored silver as well, and I also colored the circular lights on his chest. And I had to fill the core of his hollow chest with putty, before placing a plastic crest on top and coloring it silver, like a blank Superman logo placed beneath his windshields.

This guy looks very tough and rugged; and he has two extra & recolored arm-blasters added to his outer arms [one large cannon placed on the right side and and a laser rifle on the left], which both came from the "Transformers Titans Return Hardhead". Those two extra weapons were colored stone-gray and green respectively, but you'd never know by just looking at them, unless you're also a TF toy collector ;)

     


    

 
    

I decided to call him Mega Optimus Prime, since Ultra Prime sounded too generic, and his disciplined Commander, Magnus, already has that "Ultra" tag.

And since I had extras, I've also added a "before and after" comparison of some of his custom-made weapons, specifically the double-barrel arm-blasters from Dr. Wu and the classic warhammer [The Forge of Solace Prime], to show the customization results. Honestly, Prime cannot hold that new huge silver hammer. Instead, it is now fit for the hands of the Leader Class toys, which are bigger in size [as shown above]... or at least Voyager Class toys with hand articulation, so that their wrists can open up to receive the large weapon.

BTW, the former article on the guy weilding the hefty warhammer, Battle-Mode Ultra Magnus, is over HERE

Thursday, November 17, 2016

CUSTOM TRANSFORMERS: SIXBLADE WINDBLADE, BEFORE AND AFTER PICS!

All right, this fembot is one of my favs... and you'll have to check out the before and after pics, to truly appreciate what happened in the final custom job.
There were actually 3 fembot Transformers sacrificed to create the final product [two Windblades "red" and one Chromia "blue"], in addition to Gundam parts and a borrowed heavy blaster cannon from Generations Leader Jetfire.
Thus my "central chassis" is built upon the body of Chromia, but the arms and legs are from Windblade.

And for those who care about base-model details / specs, there are two different Windblade toys that have been released by Hasbro [in the US] and Takara Tomy [over in Japan]. One is the "Transformers Generations 2014 model", while the other is the "Transformers 2015 Robots in Disguise model". I used the former [the first one, which has super-horrible legs that can't really stand up for the cool poses]. Thus I had to buy some new cool rear heels from the Shapeways.com website, where 3D models are printed by TF fans for other fans.

And I had to buy some extra swords [the fancy samurai blades] from China via a kind seller on ebay [the stuff almost got lost in the mail, and the Chinese guy was willing to send me a fresh set, for free... but luckily they arrived a few days late].

I honestly did not like the Windblade toy when I first saw her. But after the custom kitbash job, she became one of my favs. And for those who are curious: no, she can't transform. She is a cool display piece, and that's what I wanted to make. Also, I didn't give her a golden face, since it just didn't look right per my tests... but now, the blue gem in the sword matches her blue face and the top of her rear motorcycle wheel. The colors used for the paint job were two shades of gold, two shades of red, brown and black. And the rear windshield on her back, which was fully transparent like glass [made from white plastic] had to be painted fully black, inside and outside.
Her former slightly transparent sword was colored fully purple, and I had two of them from the two Windblade base models [they are now holstered at her hips].
At one point, during the lengthy photoshoot, she fell over backwards.... but she instantly balanced herself, via all the sword sheaths sticking out of her rear, so I just kept taking the damn photos while she held herself in position! LOL

Also, I thought of adding a ninja-like golden Optimus Prime mouth-guard to her... I dunno if I'll still do it. Such small things can easily be created from the plastic case that comes with the toy, when you utilize a curved corner and cut it down to size and then glue it onto her face, to cover her mouth... I got that tip from another veteran toy customizer. Over the course of this year, I've also learned to use other small household items to customize TF weapons [making hem bigger or longer], and that sort of endeavor is quite cool and takes some creative thinking ;)

Check out the pics of SixBlade Windblade below and the last image shows her with her buddy, Battle-Magnus, who was posted in the former blog article HERE


  


   


   
 

    

Thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!