The Energon Pub

by **clay** » Sat May 05, 2007 12:09 am

Got my Rumbles and Ravages today, and within 30 minutes or so, Rumble had hands.

I shaved down the ball joints on some hands from the Viper mold so that they would fit in the screw shaft in the middle of the pile driver -

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f303/claywyatt1982/P5040381.jpg
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f303/claywyatt1982/P5040383.jpg

The big thing though is that you don't have to take the hands off to transform him -

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f303/claywyatt1982/P5040384.jpg
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f303/claywyatt1982/P5040385.jpg

The hands from the Dodge Viper are far and away the smallest of any Alternator mold, so that helps. I've got another junked Sideswipe to scrap the hands from for when I make a Frenzy, but my other repaint will have to use hands from a junked Scion (not sure if they're small enough to transform the figure without removing them).

Anyway, for those inclined, this is the simplest way I know of to give the Civic hands without swapping parts around, even if the arms are a bit stumpy.

by **TENIME_art** » Sat May 05, 2007 1:22 am

Now, if only I could find Rumble...

by **Ramrider** » Sat May 05, 2007 5:58 am

I like the idea, but yeah, the arms are pretty stumpy there. I've seen versions where someone's used the whole Viper forearm as well, but I don't know how well that transforms.
Just a thought; Is it possible (I don't have the mould) to extend the piledrivers partially out, so just the end drum portions are protruding? That might give the arms just enough length to look right.

[EDIT] Here's one of the ones with the forearms...

by **clay** » Sat May 05, 2007 9:44 am

Ramrider wrote:Just a thought; Is it possible (I don't have the mould) to extend the piledrivers partially out, so just the end drum portions are protruding? That might give the arms just enough length to look right.

Not really - the pile drivers are spring loaded, so they're either all the way up or down. The shoulder joint does slide up and down though, so that can be used to good effect -

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f303/claywyatt1982/P5040387.jpg

That puts the hands in the same relative position to the waist as on the Scion.

by **Ramrider** » Sat May 05, 2007 10:20 am

Ah... I think that looks a bit better, actually.

by **Auceps Prime** » Sat May 05, 2007 12:02 pm

Nice Arm mod! Looks good!

Clay can we get look at your Scion in that last pic. I don't think we've seen that custom up close yet looks preety cool. Not sure who it is a mod of but like I said it looks good!

by **Ramrider** » Sat May 05, 2007 12:25 pm

It's Blot, if memory serves.

by **clay** » Sat May 05, 2007 2:34 pm

Yep, that's Blot - Terrorcon #1. I'm sort of stalled on the other four for lack of paint at the moment, but I should be getting back to them within the next couple of weeks.

by **TF Hunter D** » Sun May 06, 2007 2:09 am

TENIME_art wrote:Now, if only I could find Rumble...

As with me too. I checked all the WM within the whole area and nada. No Rumble, no Ravage, no Classics Devastator

by **clay** » Tue May 22, 2007 8:59 pm

Bit of an update, here's a proper arm mod -

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f303/claywyatt1982/kitbash/rumble1.jpg
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f303/claywyatt1982/kitbash/rumble2.jpg

I took a lot of in-progress pictures to show what I did - I'll get them uploaded later.

by **reece** » Tue May 22, 2007 10:21 pm

I really like what you have done to this guy Clay!

Hopefully I'll be able to pick up one of these soon.
I'm not sure if anyone has had this happen at their Wal-Mart's but I was at one here in arkansas today and I went down the clearance isle and just about fell on the floor. I'm not sure exactly how many alternators were stacked there but it was alot and it included 2 Ravages/Jaguar's and probably at least 10 Rumble's, along with scion's etc. marked at $15.00 apiece.

I really hate being broke sometime's. :evil:

again, Great Job on the figure and I'm looking forward to your tutorial!

by **TM 1987olds442** » Fri May 25, 2007 2:04 pm

Go Go Gadget Arms:)

Looks great

very cool mod.

by **Ramrider** » Sat May 26, 2007 11:34 am

Nice one!

I'm curious; what inspired the yellow on the undersides of the arms? I kinda like it.

by **clay** » Sat May 26, 2007 2:45 pm

http://tfarchive.com/community/showthread.php?s=&threadid=39061

Thoughts? Reply here or at the Archive - I'll see it either way.

by **jimsloth** » Sat May 26, 2007 2:59 pm

Good tutorial IMHO. yes better lighting would help, but if you just take a few still shots of the part you cut the octagon out of I think that would be enough to fully understand your process.

Oh, BTW, If you have a ball bur for your dremel you can use a little on the inside of the screw hole in the pile driver (ball bur has to be smaller than the screw hole to begin with, not the same size as the ball you're putting in the socket), then not carve quite the whole ball off the Sideswipe fist, and it will snap in place and still function as a ball joint.

by **Ramrider** » Sun May 27, 2007 3:26 am

I agree with Jim all the way. That's a really good tutorial, a very thorough run-through. It's kinda difficult to see at points exactly what's happening (partly because of the lighting, partly because of the size), but you've made it pretty clear with your commentary what you're doing.

Oh... *waves hello to Rumble* :lol:

by **Primus_feather** » Sun May 27, 2007 3:37 am

I'll give this a try...IF I EVER FIND EITHER RUMBLE OR EVEN RAVAGE!!! AAAAAaaaaGGGG!!

Like LesserZ on Facebook · by **LesserZ** » Sun May 27, 2007 9:06 pm

Sorry to hear that you guys are having trouble finding Ravage and Rumble. I bought two of each at my local Wal-Mart here in Easley SC. They had an end cap with at least 20 of each. That was a couple of weeks ago. This week when I stopped by, they now have the Devastator on a end cap right next to those alts. Plus the stocker let me look through the new movie figures, but he wouldn't let me get any of them. Curse you Hasbro and your street dates! Anyway, might pick up another Rumble and try painting him as Frenzy.

by **clay** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 12:21 am

Started to work on what will be Frenzy this evening. Used a different set of arms than before for R/eject, so I figured I'd revive this old beast.

I'm going to use another set of arms for whichever Civic stays Rumble, but I'm making a different (and better) mod than just sticking Sideswipe hands on it.

Now, pictures!

More later...