The Energon Pub

I'm still really early in development. I have a concept that will combine 2 hotrods, one mirage, one cyb downshift, and an OP together with modifications that will minimally affect the individual robot modes and vehicle modes. The Hotrods will be modified so that the two don't look identical... one will have a spoiler, albeit much smaller, and keep the engine, the other will not have a spoiler, and its engine will become an intake. I'll be making a drone car that is a homage to the original, but instead of a chestplate it will become a foot for the hotrod leg (that leg is just a tiny tiny fraction shorter than the mirage leg). I will fix downshift's engine so that it folds down to keep the head hidden in arm mode, and also add in a hinge inside the cab so that it can fold out of the way to allow the legs (waist as an elbow) full range of motion as an arm since it will have the waist mod done to it (and the head mod too). The head on Downshift is getting modded too, I'm actually going to transplant cyb hotshot's face, plus trim down the ears a bit to make them more pointed (he's to be Wildrider) The Downshift guns will go with the drone when separated so its not on the car, and when combined, they will attach to a hotrod gun.

I chopped a spare ramjet missle in half and a hotrod missle in half and epoxied them together and so the combined gun looks great together. I've taken prime and come up with a nice torso transformation, added some hidden flaps to fill it out and make the torso mode taller so its better proportioned. I've had the guy standing up so the knees(revoltech joints) work great. I plan to do all the modifications before I bother painting anyone of course. The hands are from Omega prime. The head will be a Supreme Starscream with some mods like what TFM did for his alt version.

Oh, I'll be making a trailer for Motormaster, but it won't combine with him or Menasor... It will homage the fact that the original could combine with Metroplex, so it will become a city-base (nothing like prime I can assure you). Menasor's head and hands, the only "parts" you have to add to make the combiner, will be able to work with this when he's not combined.

very interesting so far. any parts able to combine yet?

looks like he just needs to make holes in primes feet for the revoltech joints and then he can connect the body and legs.

Ooo... interesting stuff so far. I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out. I'm particularly curious to see how they work together scale-wise. My own version is working on Scout-class figs for the limbs and they seem to work well (certainly the legs, but the arms should work too), and I'm wondering if Deluxe cars might be too bulky? Love to see how they fit.

yeah, mirage and one hotrod connect as legs already, just I don't have a picture of them yet until I can finish the drone car/foot for the hotrod leg as there's a fraction difference in height, but they do stand. I do have a concept picture of them laid out on the floor, I took it before I started any actually physical work on these guys, when I was first trying to see if it was even feasible or not to try.


Keep in mind, that's NOT what will be his head




When all is said and done, he'll stand about 12.5 inches tall or so.

so is downshifts head just going to be playing mpeek-a-boo-i-can-see-you then?

IS this going to be able to do the whole "Scramble City" where any smaller bot can become any limb? I ask because Dragstrip was usually an arm, not a leg, and you have him as a leg.

Indeed, I too was curious about Dragstrap's placement as a leg. Also, will the combined mode be super-poseable? I thought that the Liokaiser made out of Classics bots displayed at the con was really cool. What I didn't like about it though was it took six really awesome figures and made them merge into a brick.

scramble-city, no It took me forever to find a way to do it at all, and have all the limbs look proper and have same lengths.

super-poseable? hell yes. today I did some face-transplanting and modifying to cyb downshift and he's now Wildrider. I also did the head-mod and the leg-mod so that he's fully poseable, and his waist is the elbow of the combiner limb, so now he has arm rotation as well. The hands are from Omega prime which are highly poseable, and as they combine to the limbs, they'll have wrist rotation too. the legs use prime's thigh rotation for them, plus you can rotate them at the knee joint.

I used Mirage as a leg even though that isnt' the most common position for that mold simply due to having the limbs look good (I couldn't come up with a good enough looking arm mode for that toy AND also have it be the same length as the other arm)

The trailer's city-mode will actually be fairly similar to the original's, and that's pure coincidence, but a happy one!









Tomorrow I'll be working behind the head. I have a piece that folds on a built-in hinge that will go behind the head and can fit inside the engine piece, so that you won't see it in car-mode, but when in arm mode it can be used to hold the head down inside the hood. I'll also be cutting the cab and putting a hinge inside of it so that it won't hinder elbow movement in arm-mode, it'll be able to bend out of the way.


Oh yeah, there is ONE weakness to my poseability in combiner mode... the hotrod arm! It IS possible to make his waist rotating, but I do NOT have the tools you'd need to do it, cause you have zero room for error I think that I'll just have to swap the arms for certain poses... would be nice if both arms had full articulation, but hey, he's sitll going to be surely the most poseable combiner out there?

why not try a movie fig as an arm then? it is just as cheety as cyb downshift.

not really, because at least cyb downshift's aesthetics fit in with the other classics... none of the movie figures robot modes look anything like those in the Classics line...

I got downshift's modifications all finished today other than making a simply hole for the hands to pop on, and the pegs to attatch him to prime (going to check out legos as a possible alternative to my original method), but the cab now can hinge outward to allow even more poseability in arm mode, and the head stays hidden in this mode as well. I've some shots for you, and you can also see that I did the head and waist mods to him. I'm nearly finished with the foot for the hotrod leg also, ought to be able to get that done tomorrow, meaning that I really close to having him all rigged up sans truck trailer, so that It won't be long until I get to start prepping these guys for painting.

WOW, did the last mods look that bad??

Nearly done with my drone car/foot, my first foray into scratch-building. The wheels are 2 sets of cybertron hardtop rear wheels, so you can swing 'em up for when its a foot, that's why there's ball joints on the sides. I still have to pretty it up with some putty, but the main build is actually done now

I got the hands in the mail today!! Thank you thank you thank you Allen! *bows* and micromaster Skydive? damnit, now I WANT to get that superion set you sure are mean These hands are absolutely PERFECT.




remember, its still ROUGH!

wow. it is very swindle-y. was that intentional?

Cool bananas. Are you making two of these, or is the other foot going to be integrated into the legbot or something?

apparently, the other foot is mirages spoiler folded into the robot feet

I was busy today. I got the hand attached to wildrider, added pegs to breakdown's legs so that they'll hold together for when in arm mode, cut off the engine and puttied on a hoodscoop as well as finished the drone car (far as I know, test is tomorrow) and built an adapter so that these large hands can still hold the tiny handle that is on the hotrod engine/gun. The adapter fits perfectly in the palm, uses a peghole already there, and can work in either hand. This way the gun still can mount in breakdown's carform. I hope to have all the physical modifications done tomorrow minus menasor's head and motormaster's head. woohoo, the painting process begins soon!!!! :rock

So other than the head, the whole upper body is finished, and so is one leg, I just gotta now make another drone scratchbuilt car/foot tomorrow.

sandiego-con exclusive alternator hotrod... Damn. I'm jealous.


BTW I really like the shape of the torso transformation. great use of the gun/pipes.

thanks Even with all the hours I've already logged into these physical changes, I don't think that I've still yet surpassed the amount of time I've spent just planning everything out. This is the first big project I've had... Most of my work's been either straight repaints, or simple head-swaps other than the LOC Punch/Counter-punch and the Alt Motormaster getting the leg-mod, so I want to make sure I don't screw anything up

I didn't get too much time today like I'd hoped, but I did get a lot done on the second drone car/foot though. I cut the front wheels off one of the two butchered hardtops(stole the rear wheels for the first one) for the rear wheels of this car and am using the whole frontend for the front. I'm using the legs from one, modified with armorhide's missle battery and both big guns from the hardtops so that the rear end can swivel and move up/down for full range deployment; sits between the wheel wells on the rear end. I'll have to use a liberal amount of putty to blend in the front end, and fill in the hollow parts of the wheels at the rear. I'm also seriously considering cutting a pair of grooves on each side of the legs/missle battery to add 4 missles from my model FA-18, the one that I stole the missles off of for my Cybertron Dirge I did last year.

I didn't take any pictures today because its still just a pile of modified parts. I will be putting them together tomorrow on a thick sheet of styrene, and then Monday I'll do all the putty work, and attach a peg for Mirage/Dragstrip to be able to connect firmly to the drone/foot.

Here's an early WIP shot, the base styrene with three parts glued on, plus a glued peg for the rotating missle battery. the mirage leg will peg in the big area between the front and rear pieces. still a lot of work to be done, but that being said, the missle battery is modded, I'm just not gluing those last parts on until after I drop the main piece into some dye. The main base piece will be cut down after the sculpting of the putty is finished, so that it'll be just the right shape.

I still have a ton of work to do on this thing. I have the putty there... I filled in the hollow cut-up parts on the back end and on the two big guns too, and of course the front-end. that is hollow. The spoiler of mirage slips underneath. I will have to grind and sand the front end putty after work tomorrow to get the hollow part shaped right for the spoiler, and then to get the outer parts of it more angular to blend in with the rest of the drone. In this pic, you can get an idea of more what it'll look like when finished, the missles aren't glued into place (waiting till after the dye bath) and the two sidewinders aren't on the sides of the battery for the same reason, but there you go.

Oh yeah: ignore the excess styrene on the bottom, that'll get trimmed once the putty work is done (I'm further along than this picture shows of course)

So am I doing that badly, or is everyone just waiting until I start repainting everything? *L*


Well, I'm moving away from the lower body now and have started working on the combiner head. I still have sanding and shaping to do on the horns, but they're there at least! Oh, the head is based off of TFM's design that he used for his MP Menasor, the scale is perfect! Head work and the trailer-to-base conversion are all that is left before dying and painting everything.

i'm still posting. have you found a way to attach menasors noggin' to the transformed motor master yet?

I think the project is really cool, I just dont want to start sticking my nose into how you're doing things because you have really pulled some good stuff off already.

With the drones etc - is there anyway that they could be combined with the other bots in a weaponary(?) way, bit like (shudders) Cyb op super mode?

the head is plenty big enough to do like TFM did and just cut a hole in the bottom so that it slides right over MM's head just like how the helmet piece on Classics Jetfire slides over his head...



I'm now done with the head too. Trailer should show up either tomorrow or not till monday/tuesday but that means as far as menasor and the limbs as individuals, and the drones, are ready for their dye jobs! I'll be working on that throughout the weekend, so that everything will be ready for the beginning of the painting process for next week with the single exception of cutting up the trailer and converting it into a city-former (no robot of course!).














As far as the drones are concerned, not as of right now they can't. I have them so that when they're not menasor's feet, then they're heavily armed cars that can drive around wreaking havoc, could be used for distractions, more covert missions, or to flank the enemy. MM's trailer will become a small city like piece that homages the original trailer's ability to combine with Metroplex, so you could say the drones are paired up with that when they're not combined to the legs of Menasor.