crazy customizing and creativity questions and discussion

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Dominic
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Re: crazy customizing questions and discussion

Post by Dominic »

I got a chance to look over Lewis' RoadRage figure last night. The launchers are blue and the arms/hands are black. Some people might argue that they are purple. I am not sure how much, or if, the colours were changed from MB Tracks, which Lewis does not have.


Dom
-going to amend the custom figure later tonight.
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Re: crazy customizing questions and discussion

Post by Dominic »

And....I have updated my MB Tracks, albeit based on Lewis' Road Rage.

Prowl's mentioning failed customizing efforts in the haul's thread brought back some memories. So, it is not time for a "crazy customizing confession". Like most any customizer, I have work that I am not proud of, including early efforts to recolour or otherwise modify toys.

Early (and failed) customizing efforts:

-'89 movie Batman:
I did not like the fact that the rope retracted in to the figure automatically. So, I pulled the rope out so that it woud not retract....and had to wrapped around the figure. It looked like shit, and actually made a badly moulded and engineered toy that much worse. (Age: 11)

-custom Ice Man from an old Crystar:
When I realized how rare "Secret Wars" Ice Man was, I decided to make my own. I sanded off the red paint...and then realized that the red boots would never be translucent blue. To make matters worse, I did not know about any paint other than Testor's, which of course were terrible. This ended up being my first "abandoned" project. (Age:11)

-Ryu ("Ninja Gaiden") from a Storm Shadow:
Yeah. You read that right, I trashed a "GI Joe" figure to make a character from a video game. I managed to cleanly buff off the "Cobra" sigil. Then, I dunked the whole thing in to a bathroom sink filled with water that was thickly dyed with blue food colouring. Yup. As a kid, your ol' pal Dom was not above "dip n' dry" style painting. The sad thing is that if not for the fact that the skin tones were shaded an unhealthy colour of blue, it would have worked pretty well. (Age: 12)

-Superboy and Krypto:
I had recently discovered pre-CoIE DC comics. I wanted figures of characters that I never expected to see released, even in the days of post-Burton "Batman" and early Toy Biz Marvel... A Toy Biz Robin and a spare "GI Joe" Junkyard were sacrificed to make a really bad Superboy and Krypto. My sanding work was terrible, and the Superboy came out looking bug-eyed for it. Krypto was not only roughly coloured, but was clearly the wrong sort of dog and out of scale for the Superboy. On the plus side, I did learn about paint. (Age: 15)

-Terminataur:
A 1992 endoskeleton figure, an old "GI Joe" Armordillo tank and a pile of random weapons and missiles were thrown together to make.....a tankataur. Had I actually followed through and finished this, it would have come out well enough. But, the fact it lacked any real justification or context sapped my motivation. (Age: 15)


Dom
-still wants to customize good Space Marine and Mega Man figures....
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Dominic
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Re: crazy customizing questions and discussion

Post by Dominic »

Red Meister (RTS Jazz):
Games Workshop really should have released Mephiston Red years ago. This stuff is great. It is a vibrant red that goes on evenly like a primer, but cures honestly like black or a darker blue. If I end up with an extra Mirage or DragStrip figure, I may well go back and revise my red Mirage from a few years ago.

I still have to do a bit of touching up. But, this figure is close enough for me to call it done. (Any touch up will likely be taken care of during maintenance painting that I do from time to time.) Most of the white has been covered in red, and the back windows (unpainted on the original figure) are now ice blue. The lower trim of the car is coloured black.

For the record, I am calling it "Meister" but assuming the story for Zoom-Zoom, displaying this toy on my "homages to toys that Takara actually made" shelf.

I was tempted to do a bit more work, and make a DeadEnd figure (to compliment the custom Breakdown and Motormaster that I am working on. But, I went with Meister if only because I am still hoping to get an extra Sunstreaker to make Deadend (ala "Alternators").




And, now, does anybody care to speculate about one of my upcoming projects?

-base figure: "Generations" Junkpile.
-character and precedent: Bayformers and Kre-O.



Dom
-still exploring that mould.
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Dominic
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Re: crazy customizing questions and discussion

Post by Dominic »

TFU/TFA Longarm: (robot/car)

TFA Longarm is one of my all around favourite characters from the early movie era. I have always liked faction switchers conceptually, (even though the toys are often disappointing). Shockwave is a character that I have always had a soft-spot for. While I was not a fan of the show over-all, I liked some elements of the writing. Oh, and the Shockwave/Longarm toy was actually pretty good, taking advantage of the line's over-all lack of detailed moulding.

Shockwave and Jazz have shared moulding before in "Alternators" as well as on a BotCon custom class figure. Ironically, despite my intense dislike of "Shattered Glass" as a whole and particularly this past year's BotCon set, this figure was inspired at least partially by the custom class figure.

I started by removing the weapons and accessories from a TrU "import" Wheelie. The base colour of the car is Codex Grey, with details picked out in Fortress Grey. The Wheelie figure's tires are moulded in light grey, which is barely passable for a Scout class toy or smaller, but wholly unacceptable on a Deluxe. I painted those black and added some silver for the rims.

Wheelie's speakers and sling-shot did not make sense for Shockwave. The speakers are going towards another project that I am planning and the sling-shot is going right in to my parts bin. (That accessory only works for Wheelie, and even so, only barely.) I had considered painting it white and swapping it with red Meister's gun as some kind of tuning fork weapon. But, the secondary handle ruins that idea.

I pulled the gun and missile rack from a Straxus and used the clips from a Skullgrin figure. The clips fit snuggly on to the mounting bars on the windows's flippy bits. I may sand them down a bit later, but that will not be wholly necessary. Obviously, the main problem with this is that the guns will not fit inside the vehicle mode. But, given how much Hasbro has been relying on cheats like facade parts of late, a few non-integrated pieces are consistent enough with Hasbro's (much relaxed) standards.

To finish the project off, I added two clear background Autobot reprolabels to the shoulders and a Decepticon rubsign to the back. (Reprolabels rubsigns are bothersome to work with. If I had the money, i would track down any RTS Decepticon and cannabalize the sigil from it.)

The head and facial sculpt on this figure *really* work for Longarm. It just looks so friendly and innocent. How could anybody suspect Longarm of wrong-doing?

And, here is a profile:


Name: Longarm
Function: Tactician/Analyst
Motto: Think clearly, act swiftly.

Profile:
Longarm is not a decision maker. He simply scans, processes, collates and presents information on behalf of those who do make the (often important)decisions. He recieves all but the most classified intelligence reports as well as regular field reports, shipping manifests, and duty assignments. It is his job to approve and archive all of these files. In a very real way, LongArm's word determines truth and history for the Autobot army, as well as the direction that army is likely to move.

LongArm has an exceptionally sophisticated processing unit as well as access to various support and augmentic options for exceptionally large jobs. If information exists, he probably has it. If not, he knows where to find it. While not a dediated combatant and having no particular skills in direct combat, LongArm possesses an array of concealed offensive and defensive weapons. While far from enough to win a prolonged fight, they are likely enough to see off an attack and would be particularly devastating if used against an unsuspecting opponent. He also possesses an enviable "baffle" suite of hardware, which can obscure (though not cloak) him from detection by sensor equipment around him.

LongArm's only specific weakness is his low endurance. While sophisticated, most of his advanced systems are highly consumptive of energy. Additionally, LongArm is highly and centrally placed in the Autobot command structure. If something were to happen to him, or if his data-stores were ever corrupted/compromised, the results could prove catastrophic for the Autobots.


Dom
-plans to wrap up a "Platformer" model kit over the weekend.
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Shockwave
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Re: crazy customizing questions and discussion

Post by Shockwave »

Saw the pics of Longarm. It really did come out nice and Wheelie's head does actually make a nice fill in. With the grey paint it really does say "Longarm" more than "Wheelie".

Anyway, I picked up an extra legends class Bluestreak which I plan to recast into the diaclone model.
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Re: crazy customizing questions and discussion

Post by Onslaught Six »

I need to see this.
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
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Re: crazy customizing questions and discussion

Post by Dominic »

Sorry. After T-Mobile made me down-grade to their "new and improved" operating system a few years ago, it became harder to send email from my phone. Eventually, I dropped the whole data plan because it was just not worth it.

Anyway, I picked up an extra legends class Bluestreak which I plan to recast into the diaclone model.
Diaclone colours Bluestreak is the textbook example of "stupidly obvious recolour that does not happen". I almost did not bother with it myself because I expected Hasbro to eventually get to it.

Here is a challenge for ya: Cast the figure in clear/blue plastic. The silver and blue detailing would be easy enough for most fans to paint on themselves. But, clear base-plastic would be something "more" to work with, allowing for clearly different windows and headlights.


Dom
-should probably invest in a digital camera and cabling....
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Re: crazy customizing questions and discussion

Post by BWprowl »

Dominic wrote:Diaclone colours Bluestreak is the textbook example of "stupidly obvious recolour that does not happen". I almost did not bother with it myself because I expected Hasbro to eventually get to it.
Has Hasbro *ever* done a Blue Bluestreak? I don't think Takara even ever got to it, outside of maybe an e-hobby recolor of the G1 mold; neither the Legends nor the Universe mold has ever been officially done up in those colors. (And why should it? How often has either side done any of the Classics molds up in their Diaclone schemes?)

Tell me about stupidly obvious recolors though, I'm still waiting on Classics Sunstorm.
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Re: crazy customizing questions and discussion

Post by Shockwave »

BWprowl wrote:
Dominic wrote:Diaclone colours Bluestreak is the textbook example of "stupidly obvious recolour that does not happen". I almost did not bother with it myself because I expected Hasbro to eventually get to it.
Has Hasbro *ever* done a Blue Bluestreak? I don't think Takara even ever got to it, outside of maybe an e-hobby recolor of the G1 mold; neither the Legends nor the Universe mold has ever been officially done up in those colors. (And why should it? How often has either side done any of the Classics molds up in their Diaclone schemes?)

Tell me about stupidly obvious recolors though, I'm still waiting on Classics Sunstorm.
No. Hasbro has never done the "Blue Bluestreak". Takara had a limited run during Diaclone and that was it for official versions. The closest Hasbro ever got was with the Kreo. But, I do not expect that to translate to them producing the full TF versions... ever.
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Re: crazy customizing questions and discussion

Post by Ursus mellifera »

Since this the place for crazy customizing questions, here I go:

Does anyone remember the Skeleton Warriors toy line from the 90's? The ones with the super sculpting detail? I found mine, and I want to paint them up super detailed and awesome, but I don't want to ruin the chrome bits the toys had on them. Does anyone know of a safe way to remove the chrome pieces so I can paint the figures without accidentally getting paint on the chrome? I also don't want to potentially wreck the chrome pieces by removing them poorly.

Thanks.
Check it out, a honey bear! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinkajou
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