The Energon Pub

I loved a lot of the Cybertron figs, but hate the Cyber Key gimmick. Most of the figs I have, I've now managed to rig so that they can be activated without having to summon a mystical switch from Trailerland.

Most of them, like Excellion, Skywarp, Ransack, Crumplezone, Evac and GF Starscream, have been a simple case of cutting down a Cyber Key to the bare minimum and supergluing it to the activation button. Brakedown was a tad more complex.

But for quite a while I was really stumped on how I could trigger the gimmicks on Soundwave and Sideways, and now I've finally got it.


Sideways was the more complicated fix. The biggest problem was that he's basically Autobot by default; I needed a way to keep him in Decepticon mode without having to keep the mechanism forced in.
I wound up removing the spring from the slider and attaching a thumbswitch to it, so I could slide the switch forward to turn him into a Decepticon and trigger the blades, then slide it back to change him back to Autobot.
After taking the slider out, I attached a small piece of thick styrene to the back end, just long enough for the top of it to sit higher than the top of the cannon. Then using a diamond burr, I carved a slot in the cannon top, from the back through to the point where the front of the tab needed to stop.
After reassembling the cannon, I noticed that by sliding the switch forward, it only partially depressed the release mechanism for the blades, so I took the slider back out and padded it with some pieces of styrene, which I glued on and filed to shape.
Once I'd made sure the mechanism worked properly, I made a thumbswitch, again from thick styrene. To try and stop it from standing out as a blatant add-on, I decided to make it into a pair of tail-wings. Once that was glued on, I painted it black, gave it a few coats of varnish (because let's face it, it will have to deal with a lot of rubbing), and reinstalled it.

Voila!











I'd actually really like to work out how to make a second face for this guy; it seems off to have him switching factions, when he looks exactly the same for both of 'em. How he fools anyone, I'll never know.

Anywho... Soundwave was actually a bit easier, once I'd worked out how the switching mechanism worked. I was baffled by how the linear movement from the key activated the rotary movement of the door latch. Then I realised the key basically forced its way under the latch and pushed it round.
So, cut out the middleman, then. I made a lever using a strip of thick styrene (wondrous stuff), along with a little knob on the end (more for effect than anything), and glued this to the back of the switch (I use a very good superglue).
Then it was just a matter of shaving out some plastic from infront of the switch, so as to clear a path for as far as it needed to move. I just shaved a chunk out, tested it, shaved out a bit more, and tested and so on, until there was enough movement to pop the latch.
Again, paint and varnish and we're laughing...

Omfz!
That is awesome, the main reason i don't buy Cybertron figures is because of that really annoying gimmick.
My Dreadwind Powermaster always annoyed me because i had to press the button to do anything with him, though now the mechanism seems to be warn out. (I can't even remember buying him, so i don't know if he was second hand or what, i thought he was a supered up Skywarp until I found annual about five years ago which featured him)

I gotta agree, styrene IS the most wonderful stuff. I fixed up my Magnus' arm with some really foamy stuff. Pop it in, glue it on, blowdry the sucka and it expands and keeps everything snugly fitted.

Nonetheless, great job, you've proven that, with enough tinkering, anything can happen. Oh, by the way, with the others, how exactly do you un-activate them if they're glued in place?

The syrene I use is not like expanded polystyrene, it's what GW call 'plasticard'; literally sheets of plastic. You can cut it into shapes and make darn near anything.


As for the 'glued' gimmicks... basically if you look inside most of the Cybertron figs (with a few exceptions), you'll find a small button; all the Cyber Key does in these cases is to reach inside the port to push that button. You could just as easily do the same thing with, say, a screwdriver.

What I've done for these guys is trim down a Cyber Key to the point where it's just the actual 'key' part that triggers the mechanism, and the raised haxagonal part joined to it (which just acts as the button for practical purposes). Then I file the sides and top of the key part to loosen the fit - if you just insert the key as is, it's designed to be tight against the sides to hold in place, so file it down, test-fitting it as you go.

Once I've got the key trimmed down, I just apply a bit of superglue (it'll need to be decent superglue as opposed to poundshop crap - I use Loctite easy-brush) to the end of the key (making sure not to let it go onto the top or bottom of the key) and insert it into the port, holding it for a few seconds till it sets. Once it has, you'll be able to just push in the button to trigger whatever spring-loaded feature it uses.

Have a look at the Skywarp mod I linked to in the first post to see what it he looks like now; that's the most basic version of the mod.

It all makes sense now, Scientol- sorry, i mean: gluing JUST the bottom down, sorry, working on a flash for too long makes your mind hurt.

It's just the tip; not the bottom. The very end bit that pushes the button. Unless you realised that already and were just getting your murds wixed up.

Most of the gimmicks, I've found, can be rigged to not need the key quite easily. The trick is to look inside the port (which in some cases will involve actually opening up the TF), and work out exactly what it is that the key does - find out what triggers it pushes. Sometimes there's a latch on either side, usually there's a pushbutton at the end. When you know what needs pressing, you can then work out how you can rig something to press it. Most of the time it's fairly simple; sometimes it needs a little extra work.

Another one I'm looking at modding, for example, is Shortround; by the look of it he's got a little button on either side of the port which gets pressed in as the key passes it. So I'm thinking about installing a little scissor-style switch to the back; squeeze two buttons together, and inside arms move out to press the buttons.