So here is my list of fixes:
1) Loosen the battle mask as it was so tight I had to rip it off to put it over his face. This involved carving a ramp at the edge of the holes at the back of the channel it slides in and shaving the top off the ridges on the bottom edge.
2) Increase range of motion of shoulder ball joints. This enables him to have is elbows closer to his sides when they are at a natural height rather than adopting the muscleman pose like Universe HotShot, thus taking up less room on my crowded shelves (next project: put up more shelves!).
3) Add rotating wrists. I made a T-type swivel joint (like the ones in his biceps and thighs). I've never made one of these before so I was quite concerned. Parts of the yellow forearm plates had to be shaved for this, fortunately this meant the blade got in the way and had to go. Why is this a good thing? Because it forced another change:
d) The blade no longer swings out on a sprung pivot. It is attached via a magnet so that it can still be stowed securely in the same place for car mode. By trimming some troughs in the blue plastic and embedding more magnets the blade can now be wielded at a more useful angle than before. For storage in robot mode it slots into his backpack.
5) By shaving some of the grey plastic from the elbow joint I have enabled him to bend his arm slightly beyond 90°.
6) Glass beads added to the eyes, gun and headlights to catch the light and look as if they're lit.
After all this he was painted with about two thousand coats of yellow (being careful not to cover the black lines in car mode) and some other detailing.
Enough waffle, on to the pics:
Here's the finished thing:
This shows the increased mobility of the shoulder ball joints:
Notice how much closer to the body the arm can go now?
So there we go. Now that I've made these changes I think he's even better than Hu
man Alliance Bumblebee who only needed a new right hand to complete him (see my repaint and mod here). Thanks for looking! If you want to see the full gallery of Battle Blades Bumblebee click here.
