rpetras wrote:Thunderwing is just a REALLY BIG Legends Class. At least in my universe
This put a smile on my face.
I didn't realize this thread had popped up over here, in this part of the forum.
To help clear up any confusion:
The first wave will be Shapeways manufactured until we get a mold maker on board. The kits will be inspected, cleaned, and any parts that fail inspection will be replaced with a part that meets scrutiny. Each kit will include a set of illustrated instructions with painting guide. It will then be numbered, bagged, and boxed.
We are seriously exploring a molded production option in the
near future but, not just yet.
I will try to help with some of the technical questions:
The replacement Nose-block, that image is from an older mock-up the newer part fits much more flush and essentially looks much like the original drone without the wings.
The Nose-block was developed due to the way the original mold stores it's landing gear. It takes up a lot of space in the original included non-transforming drone.
One of our goals was not to have to permanently maim/modify your original toy to install it. Please consider that we were having to cram a basic/scout level articulated figure down into a mini-con sized package. I assure you we literally did the best we could with what we had. Now if the mold had been a Voyager...
As to why it sits so far forward:
This so it can remain attached while deploying the landing gear and also when the larger figure is in robot mode. This was also a throwback to the G1 version of this mold. When it is attached you can also swing the arms up and back along the sides of the larger robot's head guard/fuselage. This does make less obtrusive in combined mode and covers the gap between them pretty well.
As we get to the final fit and pollish stage we will share plenty of new images and some photos of the final product.
Trivia:
The alt-mode is based loosely on the KEPD cruise missile made for Germany and Spain:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KEPD_350