The Energon Pub

[MisterNewUzer]

PLEASE leave feedback and comments, compliments and constructive criticisms- we worked hard on this and would like to know what we did right and what we can do better for any potential future releases!

Available for purchase on Shapeways at Windblade's Lab ([COLOR="Red"]by tfw2005 user F-Primusunicron[/COLOR])

Animated Roadbuster Head Leader Magnus (Head) (7EYNP5QSP) by WindbladeZero
Animated Roadbuster Head Leader Magnus (Visor) (A35DUSNQJ) by WindbladeZero

Several years and one dream come true later, I am proud to reveal the final conversion head for TFA Leader Roadbuster Ultra Magnus into a proper, standalone and unique Animated Roadbuster!

It all started several years ago. I was lamenting the end of Transformers: Animated long after the series finale. I'd been googling toys and stumbled upon the Leader Roadbuster Ultra Magnus toy. Mulling it over in my mind for a bit, I considered the TFA tradition of putting a new head on a body and essentially creating a new character (Ratchet/ Ironhide/ Autotrooper, Bumblebee/Wasp, etc). In the case of this particular toy, a simple headswap and minor color palette changes could easily allow for a proper Roadbuster in the TFA universe.

So I started throwing together some sketches and came up with the following pair; one more G1-inspired, and the other with a DotM inspired "hat" ala the movie Wrecker. I decided in true Animated fashion that the Hat version would be best as it mashed together several iterations of Roadbuster visually.


Eventually I put together the following character model...



...followed by an Allspark Almanac inspired bio.



About a year ago now I linked up with fellow fan, tfw member, and artist F-primusunicron. He very kindly translated my sketch into a 3D model, and after numerous pages of discussion and some tests later, Roadbuster is ready.

[MisterNewUzer]

A few things of note. F-Primus Unicron placed the head on a hybrid ball joint, attached to the neck swivel inherent to the toy. This gives Roadbuster a pretty good range of motion in his head, allowing for some great expressiveness in posing.





[COLOR="Red"]IMPORTANT INFO FOR ADVANCED CUSTOMIZERS[/COLOR]
The conversion kit is designed in such a way that if one were to purchase the visor in clear plastic it would allow for EITHER light piping, or for the extra-handy customizer, an LED light. I snipped the existing wires out, personally, because I didn't intend to have Roadbuster shouting that he was Ultra Magnus. I did, however, purchase the clear visor per F-Primusunicron's request. I managed to tint it to a blue I felt was reasonably close to the existing blue on the toy, and I'm actually pretty happy with the result. Though the plastic didn't print as smoothly as I may have preferred, the light piping functions very well (though my photo doesn't do it justice)!


Rest assured, there are NO clearance issues with this toy. The shoulder cannons can flip over and the head has plenty of room on both sides, if you decide you want to display Roadbuster in such a way that it explains his namesake:


Folks, this thing is awesome. For awhile I thought this would never happen, but through the kindness of a stranger who was just as excited about this prospect as I was, we pulled it together. A HUGE THANK YOU to F-Primusunicron for all he did to make this a reality- as you go to purchase this set, PLEASE check out the rest of his shop, he has some really fun accessories for other figures.

[Flashwave]

I always wanted a good Roadbuster head for this, but I never even saw the figure in stores and eventually gave up. But there's a scene in an old IDW comic of Roadbuster and Kup and others and Roadbuster has very Animated Magnusesque shoulder cannons scraping against the low cieling.

[Leader_Ultra_Magnus]

I am very interested in one of these, but only if it's painted and ready to mount on the figure!

[Thadicon]

I may not an animated fan but I can respect an awesome head sculpt when i see one. I like easy customs that involve just a straight headswap I like the Nice clearance for the shoulder cannons and the lightpiping too.