The Energon Pub

I mean, the prototype was a working arm mode, why not just release that one as MP or something?? I can't be the only one who wants this, right? First time he did that in the cartoon, MAN, coolest thing I ever saw as a kid.

Emerje wrote:Has the prototype been shown in arm mode? I've seen it in bot and lion modes but not arm mode. Pretty sure the hand only appeared in concept art. The prototype was an entirely different sculpt from the finished figure. The cyber key gimmick was in the shoulders, there were hoses going through the arms, the lion head was covered by armor, the claws were hidden in the arms instead of laying on top of them. There's something that sort of looks like thumbs on the knees, but what about the rest of the fingers?

As for an MP, that would require them making a Cybertron Prime first and that's not likely to happen any time soon.

Emerje

Courtesy of TFWiki

From what I can tell, the fingers are tucked away in the upper legs, pushed out when the legs are folded up. Shame they had to simplify it, can anyone design new lower legs for a proper Savage Claw Mode?

Emerje wrote:Has the prototype been shown in arm mode? I've seen it in bot and lion modes but not arm mode. Pretty sure the hand only appeared in concept art. The prototype was an entirely different sculpt from the finished figure. The cyber key gimmick was in the shoulders, there were hoses going through the arms, the lion head was covered by armor, the claws were hidden in the arms instead of laying on top of them.

Not as different as you might think, since there's plenty of vestiges of it (including the funky outward articulation designed to accommodate the shouler claws); also, I think the forearms had Cyber Key slots even on the prototype (meaning 4 slots total) because of having to disconnect them for arm mode. The biggest difference is that they dropped the "vestigial SUV front" chest that would have covered the lion head in robot mode (for the better IMO, since it woulda clashed weirdly and Overhaul didn't have a hood chest anyway).

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:
Courtesy of TFWiki

From what I can tell, the fingers are tucked away in the upper legs, pushed out when the legs are folded up. Shame they had to simplify it, can anyone design new lower legs for a proper Savage Claw Mode?

Yeah, it's honestly relatively simple. Add the thumbs back on to the obvious mounts for them, add the finger mounts on the upper back/inside top of the knees back in, make the paws and heel piece thin enough to not get in the way (and possibly double-jointed), and make the backs of the upper legs open so that you can fold the lower legs into them. Maybe hinge part of the front of the leg to open temporarily for clearance for the fingers? Folding the lower legs up would push the fingers into position, and voila! You would need new 5mm ports or some other mount on the front of the legs for the forearms, but that's ultra simple.
Ideally you'd also make a new pelvis, for the sake of giving him a waist swivel. But again, simple.

Alternatively, you could replace the heel piece with the fingers, and then have the lower legs vertically collapse in somehow.
Or make space for the lower legs to fold into the uppers as described above, while having the heel pieces be the fingers... with their mounting point on an extra joint to accommodate this.

Why yes, this is something I've thought a lot about, and I even made a failed attempt to modify Leo Prime's legs this way when I was an overconfident amateur.
I have been able to devise a potentially-workable kitbash plan to at least get close.
1. Disassemble and narrow the heel piece & flatten the arched bit over the lower screwhole, or fabricate a narrower replacement, so that it can fit through the front opening over the knee.
2. Disassemble the upper legs, and cut out the rectangular indented area on the back above the knee joint, along with most of the inside part above the knee joint. File things down where needed. This is to make room for folding the lower leg inside
3. Optional: Double-joint the paw, so it can fold up against the hips instead of down over the calves.
4. Fabricate fingers and thumbs.
5a. Cheat the finger mounting a bit by making them partsform; their mount is part of an assembly attaching to the 5mm pegholes.
OR
5b. Put the mount for the fingers on the back/inside top of the knee as originally planned, and only the thumbs use the 5mm ports.
6. Sort out new 5mm pegholes for the arms. Possibly make them part of the altered/replacement heel pieces.

The waist swivel would be another matter, haven't planned that out. You'd obviously want to source a ratchet from something for that; don't want to just use a mushroom peg there.