CUSTOM TRANSFORMERS: FROM NIGHT OPS BUMBLEBEE TO STRIKER BUMBLEBEE!

Today we'll look at a fun / basic customizing project. Those familiar with the Transformers Robots in Disguise [RID] cartoon series know that it was extremely watered-down and somewhat diminished,  in comparison to the 3D art style and the story telling that was presented in the previous Transformers Prime cartoon series.

Anyway, this simple yellow toy, the Night Ops Bumblebee that costs like $12 on ebay, came from the RID toyline. And it looked a bit too short, for my tastes, so I decided to cut it in half and make it taller with putty and other plastic layers. Of course that modification altered his transformation ability, but I usually don't care about that stuff; I make my customs for display as upright figures in their robot modes, so it was all right in my mind. And it turned out to be better than I thought!

I recolored him with a candy / gloss red from the Tamiya X27 paint bottle, and I also used black sharpies to create a gloss layer upon his dark panels. Plus a silver metallic sharpie was used for his torso / gut, his feet and his thighs. And I used a lot of white-colored cut-out 0.040-inch-thick plastruct styrene pieces to enhance his body armor, before coloring those panels red. And the pointless four holes placed by the toymakers on his crotch area was covered by a small cut-out panel, which I also painted silver.
The yellow "vehicle headlight" emblems found on his left and right upper biceps were also made of white colored plastic, before I painted them yellow. And his blue sword was painted white as an undercoat [with white paint bought from Home Depot, which comes with an in-mixed Primer], before I started coloring the sword with silver, gold and bronze sharpie markers.

Additionally, I made an arm-blade for him [using the same plastruct material that I mentioned above], while copying the concept of the blade from Optimus Prime. And his hefty blaster cannon came from the Combiner Wars Leader Class Skywarp toy [which comes with roughly 6 weapons that can be used in a variety of ways with other TF toys].
Check out the cool pics of Striker Bumblebee below!

 

 
 

 

#####