The Energon Pub

The Dark of the Moon toy line was riddled with poor designs and voyager Shockwave was no exception. Mechtech weapon gimmicks and monkey arms, shoulders set above his head and a general lack of bulk mean that if I wasn't a kitbasher I would never have bought this figure, even if it had ever shown up in English shops. Yes, that's right, thanks Hasbro, your distribution is and probably always will be 5}{!+. I only managed to get this figure because an online friend sent me one after emailing me to ask for help on fixing his wrists.

There are no clear views of Shockwave in Dark of the Moon but I've done my best to recreate him with these modifications:

- Added a ball joint neck.
- Freed the shoulders so they can be lowered - he no longer looks as though he's taking a massive breath. I've lowered them more than other people's versions by removing some of the treads on his back. They're almost unseeable in tank mode as they're inside and even when viewed from behind in robot mode the missing part isn't very noticeable.
- Ball joint wrist added to the left arm because I hate monkey arms so much.
- The Mechtech weapon gimmick has been disabled because it's not in the film.
- He doesn't have a right hand on screen so I removed his right forearm and built him a new elbow joint. This makes the right arm slimmer and has greater mobility.
- The hose now attaches to a different part of the cannon. It no longer limits arm movement by being too short.
- Screw holes have been filled.
- Added some bulk to the side view of the lower legs. This also helps to cover the central hole in tank mode.
- Added deep scratches, scuffs and artillery damage to show that Shockwave is a well-worn battle veteran. I accidentally set alight part of his chest and forearm so I let the plastic bubble for a while before extinguishing the flame.
- Rhinestones added to the eye and cannon.
- A really lush dark purple was used all over, most of which was then scraped off to look screen accurate.





























And I just couln't resist doing this:


These are just a sample of the full gallery - there are more pictures here so please take a look!

Finally. Took you awhile. Great job as usual.

woah 0_0 almost makes me want to get back into repaints.

paul053 wrote:Finally. Took you awhile. Great job as usual.

Haha, yes it did. I got stuck - I really hated how thin his lower legs were from the side but I couldn't think of the solution. I put him aside, then had no time to look at him, bought leader Ironhide and customised him (gallery coming soon) but got stuck on him while waiting for a delivery so went back to Shockwave and finally finished him. Was he worth the wait?

Mykltron wrote:Was he worth the wait?

Indeed, indeed. And I can understand. Every time when I looked at mine, I know I still have a lot of work to do with him but always have little interest.

In my opinion he was worth all the attention because now I actually have an interest in playing with him.