The Energon Pub

News Credits: 61 · by **EvasionModeBumblebee** » Mon Apr 06, 2020 5:10 pm

I’ve been using my quarantine time to make some upgrades to some of my Studio Series bots!

The first thing I worked on was a magazine for Ironhide’s one rifle from the DNA design upgrade kit, which was strangely absent. I took a spare plastic piece that once held the tires to some 1/160 scale APCs and cut it to the right size, sanded it, drilled a hole in the rifle to plug it into, and added a little bit of paint.

I think it turned out pretty well!

: 69770572-A98A-440A-8A21-D6D255B022C2.png (257.61 KiB) Viewed 17803 times

I also cut the vehicle mode headlight pieces off Sideswipe’s feet and glued them to the hood section. It does make the feet more movie-accurate, but I’m not sure if I’d recommend it yet. If you do try it I would be really careful.

Next I painted up the robot mode for WWII Bee. I added a bunch of gunmetal over the gray (and some of the green) parts, went over some of the green parts with a slightly different shade of olive drab (probably most visible on the shoulder pads), added gold and silver accents, then added dark gray model wash and silver dry brushing for weathering. I’m usually not into weathering Transformers, but I think it fits for WWII Bee.

And last, I found a small wooden post that was the exact size to replace the missing pin on my SS Soundwave. Thanks for the toothpick idea, Zelda!

by **ZeldaTheSwordsman** » Mon Apr 06, 2020 5:57 pm

You're welcome! Glad to be of help!

News Credits: 25 · by **LinaNui** » Fri Apr 10, 2020 12:03 am

Did I just discover a new turret mode for mixmaster, or has this been done before? I personally haven't seen it, and I have watched a lot of videos about mixmaster. I know it's not much of a mode, but his turret mode wasn't really.

by **ZeldaTheSwordsman** » Fri Apr 10, 2020 12:49 am

It's something of a turret mode, although nothing like the one from the movie (where he's a tetrapod turret guarded by the drum barrel sections from the front, and with a semi-long thin muzzle).

News Credits: 54 · by **Deadput** » Fri Apr 10, 2020 9:36 am

Yeah no turret mode is a downside for this SS figure.

by **M. Spector** » Fri Apr 10, 2020 11:08 am

You can sorta see some molded gun barrel detail on the black piece behind his head, but it seems that was sacrificed to have the other side of it be the underside of Devys jaw. It be how it is (sigh)

by **ZeldaTheSwordsman** » Fri Apr 10, 2020 4:03 pm

Well, the 2009 mold can do the turret mode.

Of course, the eBay prices on that thing last time I looked.. Urgh.

News Credits: 6 · by **Ig89ninja** » Fri Apr 10, 2020 5:35 pm

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Well, the 2009 mold can do the turret mode.

Of course, the eBay prices on that thing last time I looked.. Urgh.

Not to mention that the Hasbro instructions are inaccurate, and the Takara instructions fell off the face of the Internet.

News Credits: 241 · by **Jelze Bunnycat** » Sat Apr 11, 2020 7:42 pm

Ig89ninja wrote:
ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Well, the 2009 mold can do the turret mode.

Of course, the eBay prices on that thing last time I looked.. Urgh.

Not to mention that the Hasbro instructions are inaccurate, and the Takara instructions fell off the face of the Internet.

Not inaccurate per se, more like not realising the misassembly in the cab.

News Credits: 61 · by **EvasionModeBumblebee** » Sun Apr 12, 2020 5:40 pm

I'm interested to see if any third party/shapeways Mixmaster guns show up. If it plugged into that barrel/Devastator tongue piece, I think it'd make an alright gun mode.

On a different note, I've talked about SS Prime's articulation before but I really like that it can pull off poses like this!

News Credits: 25 · by **LinaNui** » Sun Apr 12, 2020 5:48 pm

Wip of my SS44 prime. Finally taking the time to chrome it out. Still have to do some metallic blue and red work. Sadly he won't transform anymore, but that is why I have 2 of him. I really wish he came stock like this.

News Credits: 61 · by **EvasionModeBumblebee** » Sun Apr 12, 2020 6:10 pm

LinaNui wrote:Wip of my SS44 prime. Finally taking the time to chrome it out. Still have to do some metallic blue and red work. Sadly he won't transform anymore, but that is why I have 2 of him. I really wish he came stock like this.

Awesome work! I used one of those Molotow chrome markers on mine too, although I just did silver spray paint on the trailer. The chrome looks great!

News Credits: 20 · by **Tuned Agent** » Sun Apr 12, 2020 10:01 pm

LinaNui wrote:Wip of my SS44 prime. Finally taking the time to chrome it out. Still have to do some metallic blue and red work. Sadly he won't transform anymore, but that is why I have 2 of him. I really wish he came stock like this.

Nicely done! That chrome really pops. Just curious, but why can't he transform anymore?

News Credits: 25 · by **LinaNui** » Mon Apr 13, 2020 9:05 am

Tuned Agent wrote:
LinaNui wrote:Wip of my SS44 prime. Finally taking the time to chrome it out. Still have to do some metallic blue and red work. Sadly he won't transform anymore, but that is why I have 2 of him. I really wish he came stock like this.

Nicely done! That chrome really pops. Just curious, but why can't he transform anymore?

I mean, it still can, but I just don't want to damage the chrome so it will stay in vehicle mode.

News Credits: 22 · by **Rodimus Prime** » Mon Apr 13, 2020 4:04 pm

So now that MPM-10 is announced, it makes me wonder why we haven't gotten a leader SS Starscream figure. Not yet, anyway. Is it because of MPM-10? Or because they knew that the HFTD leader would be very hard to top? Even if the scale was slightly off.

News Credits: 1350 · by **ZeroWolf** » Mon Apr 13, 2020 4:10 pm

I figured we didn't get a leader screamer as the scale was right where it needed to be in correlation to megs and the others.

by **Jeddostotle7** » Mon Apr 13, 2020 4:11 pm

Rodimus Prime wrote:So now that MPM-10 is announced, it makes me wonder why we haven't gotten a leader SS Starscream figure. Not yet, anyway. Is it because of MPM-10? Or because they knew that the HFTD leader would be very hard to top? Even if the scale was slightly off.

Probably because the Voyager is considered just right for the scaling they've set up.

News Credits: 458 · by **Sabrblade** » Mon Apr 13, 2020 9:03 pm

Yeah, Studio Series doesn't do multiple size classes of the same character in the same unchanged body (Leader SS DOTM Optimus was the same Voyager SS Optimus mold with new big-sized accessories that required a higher size class pricepoint).

News Credits: 20 · by **Tuned Agent** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 9:20 am

LinaNui wrote:
Tuned Agent wrote:
LinaNui wrote:Wip of my SS44 prime. Finally taking the time to chrome it out. Still have to do some metallic blue and red work. Sadly he won't transform anymore, but that is why I have 2 of him. I really wish he came stock like this.

Nicely done! That chrome really pops. Just curious, but why can't he transform anymore?

I mean, it still can, but I just don't want to damage the chrome so it will stay in vehicle mode.

Ah, makes sense. ;)^

News Credits: 1642 · by **D-Maximal_Primal** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 10:51 am

Rodimus Prime wrote:So now that MPM-10 is announced, it makes me wonder why we haven't gotten a leader SS Starscream figure. Not yet, anyway. Is it because of MPM-10? Or because they knew that the HFTD leader would be very hard to top? Even if the scale was slightly off.

They aren't doing the multiple size class thing except for what was said already.

I did have a though this weekend though, related to Infernocus: What if they made 2 Infernocons, one voyager named "Infernocon Skulk" like the torso from the first toy, and then a deluxe one named after one of the other limbs from the first toy or even just "Infernocon" just like we got KSI Boss and KSI Sentry. Then, you buy the voyager and 4 of the deluxe to form Infernocus like a Prime War combiner, and give it monster feet with the voyager and the deluxes have hands and weapons that form the hands and arm mounted weapons.

I think that would be super cool, I want a large imposing Infernocus

News Credits: 42 · by **TF-fan kev777** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 12:49 pm

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:
Rodimus Prime wrote:So now that MPM-10 is announced, it makes me wonder why we haven't gotten a leader SS Starscream figure. Not yet, anyway. Is it because of MPM-10? Or because they knew that the HFTD leader would be very hard to top? Even if the scale was slightly off.

They aren't doing the multiple size class thing except for what was said already.

I did have a though this weekend though, related to Infernocus: What if they made 2 Infernocons, one voyager named "Infernocon Skulk" like the torso from the first toy, and then a deluxe one named after one of the other limbs from the first toy or even just "Infernocon" just like we got KSI Boss and KSI Sentry. Then, you buy the voyager and 4 of the deluxe to form Infernocus like a Prime War combiner, and give it monster feet with the voyager and the deluxes have hands and weapons that form the hands and arm mounted weapons.

I think that would be super cool, I want a large imposing Infernocus

While I do like the idea, I think it would be really tough logistically to pull off if you have only 1 limb bot that would need to be used 4 times. Even if they went with 1/2 of the deluxe case as limb-bots, that would only support 1 Infernocus. If he is popular, the limbs are scarce, if he isn't popular they are the next heli-dropkick.

News Credits: 1642 · by **D-Maximal_Primal** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 1:48 pm

TF-fan kev777 wrote:
D-Maximal_Primal wrote:
Rodimus Prime wrote:So now that MPM-10 is announced, it makes me wonder why we haven't gotten a leader SS Starscream figure. Not yet, anyway. Is it because of MPM-10? Or because they knew that the HFTD leader would be very hard to top? Even if the scale was slightly off.

They aren't doing the multiple size class thing except for what was said already.

I did have a though this weekend though, related to Infernocus: What if they made 2 Infernocons, one voyager named "Infernocon Skulk" like the torso from the first toy, and then a deluxe one named after one of the other limbs from the first toy or even just "Infernocon" just like we got KSI Boss and KSI Sentry. Then, you buy the voyager and 4 of the deluxe to form Infernocus like a Prime War combiner, and give it monster feet with the voyager and the deluxes have hands and weapons that form the hands and arm mounted weapons.

I think that would be super cool, I want a large imposing Infernocus

While I do like the idea, I think it would be really tough logistically to pull off if you have only 1 limb bot that would need to be used 4 times. Even if they went with 1/2 of the deluxe case as limb-bots, that would only support 1 Infernocus. If he is popular, the limbs are scarce, if he isn't popular they are the next heli-dropkick.

I would personally set it up like Reflector: 2 to a case, so you have to find 2 cases to complete the full mode. I think it would help make sure he doesn't shelf warm.

also, I would imagine that each figure would have maybe like a beast or demon mode or something like that, something to make it cool, and also minimum transformation to allow for a larger size. Part of the bad thing for Helicopter Dropkick was that mold just didn't look cool, was small, and just didn't work at all.

News Credits: 2 · by **First-Aid** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 3:04 pm

Here's an afterthought on the upcoming Devastator figure. Will we see to-scale Skids and Mudflap figures? As I remember, those dudes were pretty tiny compared to Devy...

News Credits: 1642 · by **D-Maximal_Primal** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 3:20 pm

First-Aid wrote:Here's an afterthought on the upcoming Devastator figure. Will we see to-scale Skids and Mudflap figures? As I remember, those dudes were pretty tiny compared to Devy...

I'm still hoping for a deluxe class box with both of them inside as more legends sized bots

News Credits: 458 · by **Sabrblade** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 3:21 pm

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:also, I would imagine that each figure would have maybe like a beast or demon mode or something like that,

"Demon" is a good description for what their robot forms already resemble.

Though, to be truly movie-accurate, Skulk and the other four would all have to be altmode-less, going from demon robot mode straight to body part mode.

Or, perhaps, since Infernocus had six components in the movie, two of them would have to form the torso together, allowing for all six to be Deluxes with four forming each limb while the remaining two merge into a Voyager-sized torso.