The Energon Pub

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The package showed up today after 2 weeks in the mail (CAN/US shipping, what can ya do?). I must say that overall I was quite impressed despite a few small glitches which were rectified, below is how the whole thing came together.

I had ordered one full set. That means the new head bits, the normal gun and the shoulder cannon. The parts came in a sealed plastic bag. No instructions were included though, it seems that they expect you to use their site for step-by-steps, which is fine by me.

Immediately after removing the bits from the bag I got a detailed look of the mechanism of the shoulder cannon. This surprise treat was due to the cannon's simple construction, which fell apart immediately. It is easy to reassemble though so don't worry.

There are 5 pieces to this cannon - the central black barrel, the arm that attaches the cannon very snugly to the minicon powerlink port, the scope and 2 halves of the outer casing which neatly sandwiches all those pieces together. The black barrel slides back and forth, simulating the reload and recoil. It's ingeniously simple really. It's a shame Hasbro/Takara decide to use intricate spring loaded missile firing contraptions when this would work just as well for weapon action. Once everything is fully assembled, you can tell that the most attention went into this piece. It is awesome. I didn't want the gun falling apart on me again, so I glued the casing shut. A word of warning though, if you choose to glue, keep moving the gun barrel in and out until the glue hardens, otherwise the barrel will become fixed and the most awesome part of this kit won't work

The normal handgun is simple enough. It has some detailings; not as many as an official TF gun would, but if you're expecting a newly minted 3rd party to reach Has/Tak quality on the first go, then there's no pleasing you is there?

Moving on to the most intricate part of the kit: the head parts. There are three parts to the head (5 actually, but we'll get to that in a little bit). There's the back of the head, there's the visor and there's the top clip that joins everything together.
Taking apart the original head was a piece of cake if you have the right sized screwdriver. You remove the screw, take off the back of the head, then remove the top half of the front of Roadbuster. His face stays on and the helmet fits on overtop.

Before I go on, I confess very limited modding experience. Thus those with more than I would probably have a better time assembling the head than I did. Balancing the visor was easy, it comes with a little round plastic knob that sits it snugly in the screw hole. The back of the helmet however has some minor issues. As soon as I thought I had it in place, I heard a small pop and the side antennae fell out. Muttering curses I noticed that even with the top clip in place, the antennae weren't going to stay as their friction fit, or light adhesive I couldn't tell which had worn out. Thus I got my own strong adhesive Placed the antennae back where they belonged and made sure they stayed put. After aligning every thing again, I fit the top clip over and after a little bit of finessing, got the head looking like a head again.

Once again, the head isn't as detailed as a Has/Tak fig, nor does it look as detailed as some of the pics on Nato-bot's site. But I'm pleased with it, and I'm happy to report that it survives transformation well.

Final thoughts: Nato-Bot has produced something here that no other company had thought of, and they did a marvellous job of it too. The colours match perfectly, and everything fits together seamlessly. If they do any other Universe figure upgrades, I'll be sure to buy from them again

Nice review dude! I wanted this set bad but by the time I took it seriously I was too late. I can only hope a few end up on e bay! (Unless someone has one to sell or trade! Hint hint.) Lol.

Again, nice review. And its good to hear this set is awesome.

Did you get yours early or have these been released? I pre-ordered these and got a reply that they would contact me with payment instructions when they became available. To my knowledge I never have heard back from them, unless I accidentally deleted their reply or it got caught up my spam filter. Hope not I really want this set.

El Duque wrote:Did you get yours early or have these been released? I pre-ordered these and got a reply that they would contact me with payment instructions when they became available. To my knowledge I never have heard back from them, unless I accidentally deleted their reply or it got caught up my spam filter. Hope not I really want this set.

They've been released, however apparently the mold broke early on, so it had to be redesigned. I was like order 30-someodd so I was lucky

I'd suggest dropping them an email just to double check. It's been almost a month since they last updated.

natobotinfo@gmail.com is them

I got mine a few days ago as well. Considering that Nato is just 1 guy making this I was pleased with the quality of the upgrade kit.

I will be doing some sanding and painting on the head parts, but I love the 2 guns.

I ahven't gotten the ordering instructions for mine yet (I'm 51)...But if you were 30-ish, I imagine my number will come up shortly after the new mold is finished...

Can't wait for this kit! Thanks for the review!

Got my upgrade set last week, but just got to check it out today, was on vacation when it came in. The new head really evokes G1 Roadbuster and really turns this guy from mediocre Hotshot repaint to awesome Roadbuster tribute. The large cannon is cool but it does fall apart easily, not a big problem since it just snaps back together. I may end up superglueing it, not sure yet. Now for the bummer, the smaller rifle. It looks great, but when I transformered him into alt mode and went to hang it over the hook on the driver's side rear fender it snapped on one side. Luckily it broke cleanly and only on one side, so unless you actually pull on it you wouldn't even know it was broke. I initially went for the superglue, but then decided it might be a better idea to just leave it be. With the small unseen break it allows the loop at the top of the rifle to expand when going over the hook. I figure if I glue it, it will just break again next time I try to attach it. All in all it really is a nice upgrade set, and I respect what Nato-bot has done here.

I got mine a few weeks ago too. It is a nice little upgrade set. Not on the same level as Fans Project yet, but very nice for what it is. I'm happy with it.

good to hear, any quality and available custom enriches the TF experience.
If anyone has pics I would love to see them.

GreenLantern of Cybertron wrote:good to hear, any quality and available custom enriches the TF experience.
If anyone has pics I would love to see them.

I'll try to post some pics this afternoon.

My photography skills aren't the best, if anyone wants to see any other views just let me know and I will try to oblige.

whoo thanks for the pics! Now I just wish they'd hurry up and SEND me mine

Got mine today!!

And it is good.


Obviously the pastic is not the same quality as Hasbro's (nost notibly because its not nearly as glossy) but it really does look fantastic, all in all...It's exactly what the figure needed and makes his look not only accurate, but also pretty damn hardcore (as he should)...

And I haven't had anything break or fall apart on me...Everything is snug and working as it should...

Thanks for the review (especially since you said you liked it ). I've had some complaints about the glue failing, I've been using more (and a different kind) for months now. Seems to have worked.

Yeah, I got my set and I have no problems at all. Love it. I have the 3 different colors of this mold and I'm just glad to get a nice add on set to differntiate these guys a bit more. Now if Hasbro realizes how a simple new head makes a world of difference in a toy...

willing to trade RTS misb GRAPPEL OR LUGNUT for NATO-BOT ROADBUSTER UPGRADE hell if it's the complete kit I'll throw in both + a little cash (OK I have purchased the basic kit now I only need the big gun. Same deal Grapple on Lugnut your choice for just the Large gun from the NATO-BOT classics ROADBUSTER upgrade kit)