Big Grim wrote:Emerje wrote:^^ Armada Prime is great, I'm installing the DNA upgrade kit right now.
Emerje
How is the DNA kit? I'm not sure it adds enough to warrant a purchase for myself. What're your thoughts?
~ Grim
Unfortunately I can't recommend it. It was the biggest headache I've ever experienced doing an upgrade kit.
Regular Prime benefits all around, I like the height extension and covers. But the replacement gold super hands are terrible. The thumbs constantly pop off and their articulated in the wrong direction (they spread instead of straighten) and have a removable 5mm "cup" for holding the gun, but it isn't strong enough to hold, especially if you use the gun extension making it twice as heavy. Why they didn't just make a permanent 5mm ring that can fold into the palm is beyond me. The new chest piece is OK, looks good in super mode, looks too tall in alt mode. annoyingly the part you pop off has a mushroom peg, but the new part just has a normal peg so instead of sliding the part to change positions you're supposed to pop it off and back on. But overall this was all pretty easy, and reassembling the legs was pretty painless compared to, say, replacing ratchets on Fort Max. Probably would have recommended it if this was it, but...
In super mode there's a large part on the back that you're expected to remove a very long, maybe 3 inch pin from to do so. How hard can that be, they even included a tool with no explanation or advice. First I tried to just muscle it out. Yeah right! So then I went and got a hammer, and after AN HOUR of pounding on the pin remover and the pin not even moving a little bit I somehow managed to poke a hole down the side of the pin since the plastic is hollow and thin.
Kept trying, but the pin remover just kept slipping off into the hole. So then I went on YouTube to watch reviews and of the three I watched all of them had the same complaint about the near impossibility of removing that damn pin and resorting to hammers to get it out. So my next idea was to use channellocks and try to use them like a hydraulic press and force the pin out... and broke the outside plastic right off the end.
Welp, no going back now, used the channellocks to basically "chew" the plastic off around one end of the pin so I could get a good grip on the pin. Got a good grip with the channellocks, started working it out... and the end snapped off the pin flush with the plastic that I needed to keep.
So now I have to "chew" the plastic off the other end and finally was able to pull the damn pin out! This was OVER 2 HOURS wasted on this effing thing! Thankfully I was able to get the new part and the replacement pin back in place (mostly, it's sticking out slightly, but I just need to get my little finish hammer out of the shed because it's a tight space). And all that work resulted in a part that really isn't much better than the original, it just splits awkwardly for more leg clearance I guess, folding would have been better than splitting. There's also a right angle part you're supposed to use to make the red missile pod not stick out as far off the back, but it's much, much too loose at both ends and just pops off. And finally there's the parts you're supposed to put on the bottom of his feet that are meant to give him a slight bit of height and cover the back of the trailer in alt mode but they connect at the very end of the toe (and there's a rather annoying gap) and just sag when you pick him up looking like he's wearing flipflops.
He does look OK standing, but for what this kit cost and how janky it is (and not being able to reverse one of the replacement parts) it's just no good.
Emerje
.
Damn shame. I have the Galvatron one, which was decent enough, though I didn't use the leg extenders.
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