The Energon Pub

Okay, waaaaaay sooner than I had thought, I've been able to put together this nice little gallery of my latest project, a Micromaster version of the G1 Stunticon, Breakdown.

Basically, I took a G1 MM Freewheeler, chopped him up, gave him a spoiler and a new head, and painted him accordingly; you can see my "Work In Progress" thread for him here.


This is what it was all about for me: Making a vehicle mode that looked good (if I may say so myself). The red stripe on the roof is not present on the original toy, no, but was seen originally on the prototype, and since I love the red on the hood, I figured I might as well give him that on the roof as well. Makes him look sleeker IMO.


My absolute favourite picture; gotta love this angle. Sure, some of the surfaces are a bit rough, but keep in mind that this is on a very small scale. The lower front bumber is done in putty, BTW.


Comparison with the original (1990 Classic release). The hood on mine has faded a bit, but other than that, the colors are a perfect match. The repaint has a bit sharper angles than the original, though, but that doesn't really bother me.


Top view. There's a small gap in the hind section which I suspect is because of the paint coats messing with the clearance between the leg halves.


Underside. Nothing fancy here, just generic Micromaster engineering.


Robot mode. Note that the head is not original, but from a decepticon MM plane of sorts. Fitted Breakdown better than Freewheeler's own, IMHO, so I cut off the original and fused this one on instead.


Back view. The backside of his head is a bit messy, I know (can't really remember why anymore, come to think of it...), but this shot is mainly to show that the MM version has the same backpack kibble as the original.


When you get as close as this, you can see all the messiness. The white sections of the torso are molded in putty and came out nicely, I think. The face's mold detailing is a bit obscured, because I initially used both paint thinner and ethanol to remove the old paint from it, which softened the plastics. Sadly, it was the only head I had, so I kinda had to go on anyways. Again, you aren't supposed to look *that* closely...


Another comparison pic. The chest is sculpted and painted after his cartoon/Marvel comic appearance (reference pic here), and the legs inevitably had to look like this. So maybe robot mode isn't as spot on as it could have been, but I initially set out on this project with 2 basic rules in mind:

1) Authentic looking vehicle mode, and
2) Basic G1 MM engineering (no fancy balljoints, etc.).

Keep watching the above mentioned thread for the development of the remaining Stunticons!...

Your micromaster looks marvelous man!
Sure it looks al gobbled up upclose in the pics but he's tiny.
I'm eally anticipated to see the other stunticons now, especially motormaster

Now that is a real nice job there.

Damn man, that is awesome! You won my heart with the cartoon accuracy!

Very Sweet Fighbird. And considering I happen to have Freewheeler on my shelf I can't even imagin the patiences and skill it took to get the paint job looking that good on some of those details.

You need to make a full gallery for him and the rest of the stunticons when your done.

You should truly be proud of yourself. That guy came out great! You really put a lot of detail into such a tiny figure, and it shows. Both modes are awesome, and the car mode makes you do a double take it's so good.

...


...do I NEED to say how forward I'm looking to the rest of the bunch? Again?

Thanks so much, guys!

And the rest of the Stunticons? All are in the works. But it's gonna take me at least 6 months to complete the rest, though.

I won't delve into it much in this thread (but rather in my WIP thread here), but this is how far the other 4 are:

Wildrider: Complete rebuild from various original MM parts. Am still fiddling with the bits, and there is an old WIP pic of him in the WIP thread.

Dead End: Am basing him on the red Brave repaint of Sonic Bomber's MM partner (spot on vehicle mode). Am waiting for the second one of those to arrive in the mail, as the one I have is from my "do-not-kitbash" Brave collection.

Drag Strip: In the design phase. I have plenty of ideas to make his very unique vehicle design work, but he is gonna be one heck of a jigsaw puzzle. Haven't got any of the raw material I need for him, though...

Motormaster: Will practically be building him completely from scratch, with a unique transformation designed by yours truly. Have a design drawing of him somewhere, that I'm a little embaressed about sharing at this point... Need raw materials for him as well, and I will need to venture into polystyrene on this one.

Menasor: Still not an option -- and never will be. The five members and their vehicle modes are most important to me.

So, check the WIP thread for updates on the rest.

BTW, Pun-3X, what do you mean by "the car mode makes you do a double take it's so good"? My english apparently isn't good enough to catch that one...

Ah. A "double-take" Is where you look at it once, look away, then look back again. Like, you really can't believe what you saw the first time you looked at it.

Aw, shucks, thanks! Always nice to learn a new nifty english phrase.

Remember to check my WIP thread on the status of the remaining four Stunticons...

Did 2 new pics today, as I finally have another Free Wheeler to do comparison shots with:



It's really amazing IMHO how much a difference the colors, the spoiler and the reshaped front does to this mold -- these two could easily be written off as 2 completely different molds; Free Wheeler looks very "round & bulgy" to me, and Breakdown much more "square & flat".



Robot modes. I still see some of the less good things about my resculpting of the torso, but again these could easily have been two different molds; the headswap is one of the major factors in accomplishing that, I think.

Man, I love kitbashing.

Still love how that one came out. Nice with the comparison shot.

So, did you ever get back to that Motormaster?

I think Breakdown looks great. I've always loved Lamborghinis and bought Breakdown back when they first came out. I can't beleive the patience it must've took to complete. Thank you also for the comparrison shots with Freewheeler, Its amazing to see the changes you have made.

Your Breakdown looks so fantastic!

Thanks for all the kind words, guys.

I am such a sucker for Breakdown's colorscheme in vehicle mode. I don't know what it is, really: The blue "lining" all the way around the edge, the red trapezoid on the hood, the red stripe on the top of the roof or the general white/blue/red combination. Of all the projects I've ever done and/or started on, Breakdown here is still my absolute personal favourite (I find myself actually playing with him on a regular basis! ).

Regarding Motormaster, I have most of the parts I need to start on him; I just want to complete the others first. Need to experiment with the correct scale-adjustments between vehicle and robot mode, as I don't want him to be a giant compared with the other 4. He will still be substantially bigger than the others, though -- that can't really be changed.

"More on this as it develops..."