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UPDATE: SCROLL DOWN TO 4TH POST TO SEE 'FINISHED' PHOTOS! WOO!


Ok I don't buy a lot of Transformers these days and mainly just stick to purchasing a few select figures from each movie every couple of years but I've kind of fallen in love with the 30th Anniversary Springer like a lot of people have (helps that the old Springer toy was one I played with a lot as he was one of my fave characters in the animated movie and Marvel UK comics). Ok most people got him almost two years ago but for some reason he's only just been released officially in UK more recently. Couple things bugged me about it though. One is the awful yellow plastic colour and the other being that he's missing the little thruster type thingies that were apparent in all three modes in the old toy and his character model in the fiction and are sometimes depicted in being part of his 'springing' action.
Like so:


Ok the yellow was an easy fix. I had plenty of Citadel Yriel Yellow paint left over from improving my AoE Bumblebee and that lovely richer ever-so-slightly-orangey yellow is much nicer than the shade of yellow Springer's plastic is made of so on it went.

Backpack was a new thing to me. I'm barely that good at repaints, actually kitbashing parts is unknown territory for me. I don't have much tools or much spare parts but I think I came up with a nice attempt which what I have.

Ok first part was that earlier today I found some Armada and Energon toys in my local charity shop. One of them was Armada Blurr missing his legs and after fiddling about it with for a while the rear spoiler area caught my eye.
Picture supplied by TFU.info.

I unscrewed the spoiler area and with a scalpel blade heated up by a cigarette lighter (bought specifically for this purpose, I don't smoke. hehe) I sliced off all the screw ports and the mini-con ports. Next I used Jin Saotome's Crazy/Silly Straw tip from a few years ago to make a short 5mm post which I glued to the spoiler so I could stick it into a hole on Springer's back. It looked good as a backpack panel but of course I needed thrusters. Took me a while to come up with something as I didn't think I had any suitable parts and was at one point going to use pens but I didn't think they'd look good. But then I spotted an RotF Jetwing Optimus Prime keyring figure I had.

Ah ha, I thought to myself. He has actual jet thrusters on his back. Huge on him but would look nice and compact on Springer similar to the size of his G1 versions. So even though I really like this little Prime I ripped off his jetpack (rest of him is ok, he's just grounded but that's not exactly a big loss for Prime). I sliced off the pointy cone bits at the top and cut out the hinges so the thrusters had some space inside and I slotted them onto the Blurr spoiler and suddenly I now had a decent-ish looking jetpack. Another reason I wanted to keep the thrusters relatively small is that I wanted this pack to look good in his vehicle modes too and be in the same place they were on his original G1 self. Also I really like how detailed they are which I think suits the rough and ready 'Mad Max' look of Springer's car form. Hopefully the photos below show that it actually does look pretty good.

Another thing I then did was measure the distance between the two holes on Springer's back/roof and create a hole on the jetpack the same distance from the already glued on post. This now let me have the jetpack on the roof in both vehicle modes with the custom post in the hole nearest Springer's windows and the hole of the spoiler lines up perfectly with the hole towards the rear of Springer's roof, and this then lets me put the longer posts of the gun or the rotor blades through the jetpack's hole and snugly into the hole on Springer. The pics show that too (sorry the rotor blades are on Springer still in car form, I didn't have much time to turn him into chopper but you get the idea). Also shown is that the jetpack can be moved further back in car mode with the car spoiler parts brought inwards for another configuration. I also show that in robot mode I can have the pack upside down if I want too. Also shown in one robot mode photo is another gun I added again using Jin's straw 5mm post idea and given a quick drybrush in silver.





















As I mention in the title, this is still a Work In Progress. I haven't glued the thrusters on yet. And I've not yet settled on a paintscheme. The grey and black actually looks ok for now as Springer already had those colours but I'm scribbling some ideas to use green and yellow on it to look more integrated as part of the roof. One mistake I did make was the new hole in the jetpack is a smidge too big so I can't currently store his sword on his back wearing it when he's using both guns as it just falls off. I'll think of a way to fix that (perhaps careful thin layer of superglue around the hole edge to 'shrink' it a bit. I may also carve some details into the Blurr spoiler part to make it look less smooth too and fit the general aesthetic of Springer's design better. Also I'd like to try reshaping the piece and bring the thrusters inwards a bit more but that likely requires tools I do not yet have (and this exact-knife is getting all blunt hehe).

Sorry for all the text. As mentioned it's my first time really having a go at anything like this so I'm just trying to keep a record of it.

Me hope you like.

Looks good mate nice custom . Especially in car mode

Thanks. Yeah I still want to bring the thrusters in more so they don't restrict his arm movement at all and so that they are more snug against the car/chopper roof sides. I have so little experience with this kind of thing it's a little scary cos you don't want to go too far and make a mistake and ruin the whole thing.
Ideally I'd like to be able to cut the spoiler piece so it doesn't have so much of a triangular winged look that's taking up so much of his back. But hey at least it's quite flat so it doesn't add much top-heavy backpack bulk like many other TF figures have. When I'm done reshaping and repainting it I'm hoping it'll just look like it was meant to be part of the figure to begin with.

Update! I cut the 'wings' down a fair bit so they didn't stick out too far and now the thrusters fit more snugly either side and I've glued them on. I carved a few lines on the center part to break up the blankness. Painted the center part green (didn't quite have the right green paint but I mixed it with of that lovely yellow again and got a very close approximation) so now it looks much more like this add-on is part of Springer (but can still be removed and repositioned). I particularly like how it looks when Springer's in his chopper mode too and the rotor blades still connect fine and spin freely. I think I'm gonna call this done for now. Probably tweak it some more later but yeah I think it's pretty much done. It's not the neatest or most professional piece of work but I think it's not bad for a total amateur. Only thing that bugs me is that the hole is a lil off center but I was just lucky to get the distance between that hole and the post on the other side correct (so I could plug the gun or rotor blades into Springer still) that I think it's not too bad.