The Energon Pub

by **Rated X** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 9:58 pm

I know I wasn’t the first person to do this and I wont be the last, but I wanted to share my custom Diaclone figures. So I bring you Diaclone Sunstreaker, Diaclone Police Sunstreaker and Diaclone Sideswipe AKA Tigertrack. I went a step further by giving them minor paint apps so they looked more like original figures than customs. I also added the custom posts, rocket launcher, and guns made by a resin artist from TFW2005. Unfortunately he stopped making parts before I could order a set in white for Diaclone police Sunstreaker. Theres nothing new about the car modes for the red and yellow Lamborghinis so I didn’t bother to take pictures of them transformed. Diaclone Sunstreaker sports a set of reprolabels, minus the chest label which was yellow. I scanned and shrunk the labels for the original Diaclone Police Sunstreaker to fit the classics doors and hood perfect. I also had to repaint the tail end of the car since the black paint apps came off when removing the red ones from a Red Alert figure. I gave him the red lines on his head as well. Eventually I will add some of the Reprolabels to him when I have time. I think these three guys look great next to some of my other custom Diaclone figures which I will share in due time. Sorry the pics are a bit blurry but that's the only camera I had available today. Enjoy !

News Credits: 1 · by **RhA** » Sat Sep 28, 2013 9:19 am

Classy.

News Credits: 2 · by **Banjo-Tron** » Sun Oct 06, 2013 7:51 am

I concur - good work fella!

by **gothsaurus** » Sun Oct 06, 2013 9:26 am

These look great! Side panels and good look spot on. Nicely done!! Where's you get the original sticker sheet art? Was it a scan or repro? I'm about to work on my own... Please drop me a pm if you don't mind.

by **Susha** » Mon Oct 07, 2013 10:05 pm

I would really like to have some figures similar to the maximum dinobot comic, (the sunstreaekr red/white clones). How did U go on about this? did u repaint the figures or did u buy them that colour? or are they sunstreaker heads attached to other models? And if you repaint how did u do it (what paint etc). Can u please explain?

Would also be great if u told me something about the figure, I see many univ. classic sunstreaker on ebay but some are showing the wrong chest (u know not the top of car but the front) why is that are there 2 versions of the toy or is it just the same mold?

Also why does the price of this sunstreaker vary from 20 to 80 dollars? is there any reason for that?

by **gothsaurus** » Tue Oct 08, 2013 9:42 am

While it's not my custom, I can answer some of these. Most of this can be accomplished with some simple head swaps between Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, and Red Alert (who is no doubt where the white plastic of the police car came from.) These are all the same transformation — you can get two different looks just by rotating the head around backwards. (That's how you get the two different sunstreaker chests on ebay.)

Hope that helps!

And again, have to add that there is some really nice detail work on these. Looking forward to trying it.

by **Susha** » Tue Oct 08, 2013 10:05 am

so basically if i wanted 2 sunstreakers (1 white 1 red) then i'd have to buy 2 sunstreakers for the head and 1 sideswipe and 1 redalert?

is redalert entirely white may i ask?

whats the cheapest way of getting these then?

cheers in advance

by **gothsaurus** » Tue Oct 08, 2013 10:35 am

Yeah, I think that's right. Maybe you can find some broken ones or junkers for the heads.

Red alert is white plastic, but there is some red fire department detailing you'd want to remove. I think the guy above mentioned having to repaint the tail light area as well.

Good luck!

by **Rated X** » Tue Oct 08, 2013 10:46 pm

Susha wrote:so basically if i wanted 2 sunstreakers (1 white 1 red) then i'd have to buy 2 sunstreakers for the head and 1 sideswipe and 1 redalert?

is redalert entirely white may i ask?

whats the cheapest way of getting these then?

cheers in advance

Well to do the white Sunstreaker you have to buy a Red Alert and a Sunstreaker. I was fortunate to find a broken parts Sunstreaker on ebay for under 10 bucks which I used for the grey parts and the head. Then you just swap the parts and strip the red paint with 90% alcohol and use a pencil eraser to buff out any red stains.

The Diaclone Sunstreaker/Tigertrack is just a straight parts swap but I added black paint to Tigertrack's head and Shoulders to match sideswipe's paint apps.

News Credits: 456 · by **Sabrblade** » Tue Oct 08, 2013 11:45 pm

You should name the red Sunstreaker "Spinout" (or "Spin-Out") after the original preproduction name of the character, since Sunstreaker and Sideswipe are speculated to have been originally meant to have each other's colors and bios.

As for a name of the police Sunstreaker, this one might be a bit tricky, but here's one suggestion. Since he's a white Lamborghini police car and uses Red Alert as a base, you could name him "Mach Alert", which was the Japanese name of Robots in Disguise Prowl. It being an existing TF name that isn't already applied to an American/English G1 character is also a plus.

by **gothsaurus** » Wed Oct 09, 2013 10:43 am

Great input Saberblade.

Knowing it's a can of worms to open, can you list or link to other preliminary or unused names for G1 bots/unused color schemes/diaclone variants like these? Very interested in those.

Thanks if you can!!

News Credits: 456 · by **Sabrblade** » Wed Oct 09, 2013 10:52 am

Off the top of my head, Starscream was originally gonna be named "Ulchtar".

by **Susha** » Wed Oct 09, 2013 11:11 am

thx for all the help.

so does the head come off easy?

i already mentioned this, but the 'diaclone' streakers were used by nick roche in maximum dinobots. Basically scorpnok had used sunstreaker and a human named hunter to make an human army of headmaster sunstreaker clones. I think they also featured in devastation by furman. These clones of course had no faction symbols just like the original diaclone red sunstreaker etc.

and about the name this is from tfwiki
"Generation 1 Autobot Car Sunstreaker (1984)
Oddly, Sunstreaker's Tech Specs and Transformers Universe profile mentions Sideswipe's rear mounted engine, which is a feature on the Sunstreaker toy.[8] The missile launcher and gun in Sunstreaker's profile are found on the Sideswipe toy. The mix-up may have been due to the Diaclone toy decos. The toy used for Sideswipe had three Diaclone versions: red, yellow, and police, while the Sunstreaker mold was released only in red and police decos. This might also explain the red stickers behind Sunstreaker's rear wheels.
The Toy was designed by Koujin Ohno (Takara Toys) and is credited as the first "Car to Robot Transforming Toy" ever made. It appeared first in Takara's Car Robot Series in 1982 before being used in the initial wave of Hasbro Transformers in 1984.
According to original tech spec notes written by Bob Budiansky found at Iacon One in 2006 the original name for Sunstreaker was Spinout. Also according to these notes the numbers for Sunstreaker and Sideswipe's tech specs were not switched, just their bios."

by **Rated X** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 11:06 pm

Sabrblade wrote:You should name the red Sunstreaker "Spinout" (or "Spin-Out") after the original preproduction name of the character, since Sunstreaker and Sideswipe are speculated to have been originally meant to have each other's colors and bios.

As for a name of the police Sunstreaker, this one might be a bit tricky, but here's one suggestion. Since he's a white Lamborghini police car and uses Red Alert as a base, you could name him "Mach Alert", which was the Japanese name of Robots in Disguise Prowl. It being an existing TF name that isn't already applied to an American/English G1 character is also a plus.

Hey I like those Ideas. I think Ill use em

by **gothsaurus** » Fri Oct 11, 2013 9:22 am

Yeah, I also like the notion of ret-conning "Barricade" as a black Prowl variant, like Mexican Prowl... though when I finish painting mine, I'll probably use a bit more black.

Keep 'em coming. This is a fun thread.

News Credits: 456 · by **Sabrblade** » Fri Oct 11, 2013 10:02 am

gothsaurus wrote:Yeah, I also like the notion of ret-conning "Barricade" as a black Prowl variant, like Mexican Prowl... though when I finish painting mine, I'll probably use a bit more black.

The one thing that might conflict with that is how BotCon G2 Streetwise/Streetstar already did the "black Prowl" idea. :-$

by **Susha** » Sat Oct 12, 2013 2:14 pm

so considering we got a masterpiece tiger tracks,
we should be seeing more diaclone inspired masterpiece figures?

Would love a masterpiece "canadian slag" and a diaclone slag too (red face and blu face)
Do these Slag 'Alts' have names?