The Energon Pub

That Bot wrote:

Autobot032 wrote:ROTF Mixmaster is another one. His transformation is just total dickishness on the part of the designers.

Ree dick u lus.

To add insult to injury, my Mixmaster was misassembled. One of the small hinges in his missile arm was backwards, meaning it can't bend like it's supposed to, and his cannon mode is impossible to make.

>_< That sucks. But, trust me, you're missing nothing on that cannon mode. It's a horrible mess.

I could pretty much tell that. It's just a general bugger, means his cannon doesn't sit well in any mode. Although he's in storage now, so it hardly matters.

Most of the time I'll use the instructions, with the exception of Cyberverse or Legends figures. Maybe I'm not imaginative enough, or meticulous, but I'd rather go by the instructions and get it right the first time (notable exceptions when the instructions are just wrong, like Knock Out).

I used to pride myself as a kid with figuring out how to transform my 'bots and 'cons without looking at the instruction sheet...

...nowadays some of these things require a freakin' PhD to figure out LOL.

Normally I try to give it a go until I find that "one" piece that just wont go until I am already giving it an unsafe amount of force...and then I chicken out and check the fold-out to make sure it is INDEED supposed to bend that way.

Sometimes I get lucky and find a "better" way of transforming one...a widget or doohickey that just looks cooler or fleshes out the figure a little more to my liking if it is done "just so" instead of how the booklet shows it.

Actually, one of my favorite things to do (and something I recommend everyone try at least once with their favorite 'bot or 'con): after I am familiar with the transformation I wiggle, move, flip, twist and rotate every joint, swing, and ball on the figure just to see if there ARE any "alternate" transformationisms.

You never know what you might discover (hey I think there is a thread for that )

I always use instructions. Not only do I not want to break anything, but I don't want to miss anything or mistransform them. RotF leader Prime is a great example of an incredible figure who is commonly mistransformed, and doesn't look as good as it could, because not enough attention was paid to the manual.

I didn't mention this before, but it also depends on what series the figure is from and the size class.

For Legends and Scouts I don't use instructions.
For Deluxes and Voyagers from the Movie lines I often use instructions, especially for Leaders.
For older Deluxes and Voyagers, like Armada, Energon, and Cybertron, I don't need instructions.
Most "Classics-verse" figures don't require instructions either.