The Energon Pub

k guys, i just had a pretty insane idea, and should I follow through with this, it will be my first venture into kitbashing....and a pretty BIG one at that. (which i might not begin, I'm on a tight budget, haha)

anyways, I was doing my routine browsing of Teletraan I (http://transformers.wikia.com) and I stumbled across the Nova Prime excerpt (http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/Nova_Prime), and in the TRIVIA section near the bottom it said the following:

"According to Nova Prime's design sketches by Don, seen in the back of Spotlight: Optimus Prime, the form seen in the story is Nova Prime's winged cab/trailer super robot. He also has a smaller robot mode consisting of only the cab. The transformation of the cab is pretty similar to that of Energon Rodimus."

which brought me here (http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/Rodimus_%28Energon%29) to find out for myself.

After examining the Rodimus figure


and these images of Nova Prime



I came to the conclusion that a Nova Prime kitbash wasENTIRELY PLAUSIBLE by creating a scratch-built trailer using various toy parts (not sure which ones yet, probly some hotwheels or matchbox truck trailers like i see a lot of people using)

and focusing on particular pieces from this fellow


I'm sure there are gundams with wings that fit the aesthetic better (its a big universe)...I just don't know any.

THEREFORE, suggestions and words of encouragement would be most appreciated. Should I decide not to do this, however, I would very much like someone CAPABLE to pick up the mantle I have a great vision in my head, but making it manifest is something else entirely

Good, I'm glad I wasn't the only one who noticed.

we've discussed this a few times on the transtopia forums on tfmaster.com. A couple of kitbashers even took two different routes to customize their own Nova Prime. I've also planned to do this with an extra Rodimus that I have, but got caught up in a few other projects. I planned on modding the front end of the truck to make it more like the IDW art. The legs, with little work can be positioned for either robot mode. I also planned on making a new torso for a more accurate transformation and combining parts on the arm and wheels for accurate arms. I guess I'll work more on scratchbuilding what I can for the trailer from the styrene that I have. I also bought some cheep car toys at Dollar Tree for the wheels.

yeah, i've discussed this idea with a couple of guys on the boards, and tbh its a great idea!

The "wing" like section almost reminds me of the power rangers falcon zord http://www.rangercentral.com/images/falc.jpg

Primeone said:

The "wing" like section almost reminds me of the power rangers falcon zord

dude, spot on! I was thinking the same the the other day... The only thing is I remember having that toy as a kid, and it had a pretty intense (and heavy) wingspan...i wonder if there were any smaller versions of that figure?

After looking at the sketches of Nova Prime I can also see where Energon Landmine
and Energon Shockblast could be sacrificed to make a plausible Nova Prime. The ariculation
on Landmine may work out better than that of Rodimus and the truck components may be easier to
re-arrange. Unfortunately, I just remembered that Shockblast only has one arm that's worth a damn,
but a hunt through the thrift stores may yield a second one. The arms would be more substantial
while still being posable and an overall larger figure may be easier to work on and be able to support the
larger wing structure of the falcon zord or one of the larger Gundam models wing assemblies.
Finding a suitable head may be an issue but I think that a Micro Master Gestalt head may still fit within
the parameters.
OR...I could be just looking at things totally skewed but then that's the hazard of kitbashing. Turning one of my Gundams into a WW Prime started out as a simple vision but required more part snatching from other bots than what I anticipated. Your basic premise totally rocks so I am confident you'll come up with an awsome Nova Prime.
Kind of kicking myself for not having seen that myself when I saw the sketches in Spotlight: Prime. I had a different vision but it fizzled out quickly due to lack of expendable bot parts.

energon landmine is a nice idea with the combined figure point, but i think it'd be alot had to make it resemble nova, than using energon rodimus. as for the head, just use an energon optimus head!

actually i was thinking along the lines of the deluxe armada prime, heh. I'm def feelin all the suggestions, especially the shockblast idear to use for the trailer, I'll hafta look into that. If I do decide to go through with this it probly won't happen until May-ish, I'm so busy with school (23 credits) and as such don't have a lot of time to work, leaving me fairly pressed for money right now. Should things change I'll keep this post updated.

Otherwise, suggestions are still appreciated, and hopefully I'll see this through to the other side.

Cool idea! I was one of the Transtopians who started on this character. Check out my progress HERE. message me if you need some pointers on the character. I've studied this character inside and out, and talked to Don about the design.

dak wrote:Cool idea! I was one of the Transtopians who started on this character. Check out my progress HERE. message me if you need some pointers on the character. I've studied this character inside and out, and talked to Don about the design.

man that is one awesome oiece of work going on!

Maybe it's just me but when I look at those pics of Nova Prime, I see Tigerhawk.

On a second look, I also see RID Optimus Prime/Omega Prime/Ultra Magnus. The wings are Tigerhawk, the feet and legs are RID Optimus and the hands are RID Ultra Magnus/Omega Prime. The chest looks like a cross between RID Optimus Prime and Omega Prime.

The wings make me think of the Berga Giros from Gundam F-91, meself, though you'd prolly have to have a LARGE scale version of it:

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10029210

If you'd rather have them spread, there's the Vigna Ghinos:

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10029100

After seeing some of the other suggestions (and all are great btw) I started thinking about some of the figures that I have parts or duplicates of. Tigerhawk I have 2 of and have the vast majority of the parts for 2 sets of the RID Prime/Magnus figures from the Costco 2 pack a few years back.
PM me if this could be helpfull and we'll work something out. I was going to take the more expendable of the Prime/Magnus sets and kitbash them into something else but never got around to it so if they can see new life elsewhere, then great.

The thought just occurred to me that maybe using the shell of a G1 Prime trailer may come in handy for Novas trailer. I have one that is pretty much gutted and therfore quite open to being cut down in whatever manner necessary. It might be a good platform to work with since the sides are rigid enough to attach parts to and it's already outfitted with wheels. Wouldn't take much to make it look nothing at all like an Optimus trailer.

As a truck it's easy to see why people would suggest energon Rodimus or Landmine/quake, but the robot modes don't exactly measure up. Rodimus' transfomation looks very similar though. The trailer, as a trailer, kinda looks like cybertron/galaxy force Optimus Primes trailer. The trailer, in station mode, looks like a messed up transformation of cybertron Metroplex. Take the arms off of Metroplex, turn his weapon into the center cannon/tower?, then take the sides, back and guns, in other words, the entire cybertron Prime trailer, and refit it onto Metroplex. Due to how articulated Metroplex is, making that exact trailer wouldn't be too difficult. The only problem with my suggestions are that robot/super mode and truck cab/trailer mode are nothing alike.

That brings to light the downside of my suggestion about using the modified G1 Prime trailer. While it may add workable structure onto which other pieces could be added it does not really lend itself to being easily modifiable into Nova's battle armor. You would have to most likely alter it to the point that it would not really support the pieces necessary to give it the desired trailer look.
Making certain, individual aspects of this toy are no problem but making the complete picture come together is certainly quite the challenge.

The_Cybertronian_Emperor wrote:http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-images/radicons-customs/Scratch-Built/Nova-Prime/

that's mine.

dak wrote:

The_Cybertronian_Emperor wrote:http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-images/radicons-customs/Scratch-Built/Nova-Prime/

that's mine.

SERIOUSLY??? Sweet Primus that thing kicks so much ass!!

I just wish I didn't have so many necessary projects lined up right now. Seeing that makes me want to go digging into my parts/extras box and see what I can bust out. Unfortunately, I can't justify taking the time to do it while there are other things undone around the house. I guess this will be a busy next few weeks for me.