The Energon Pub

Upgrade kits seem to have fallen a little out of favour in the world of Third Party, compared to designing entire figures. I'm not sure why, as a fair few figures would go from mediocre to awesome with fairly insignificant upgrades.

So what, fellow Seibertronians, are upgrades you'd like to see made, be they for official figures or other 3Ps? Note that the only real "rule" is that it has to be focussed on making a toy or set of toys better rather than being a totally stand alone release, even if it does include a full figure (like FP's Colossus set).

One idea I had was replacement hips/thighs for Armada Megatron/Galvatron/3H Megazarak/Whoever else shares that mold. I love this mold, and all he's really lacking is forward swinging hips and proper knees. The mold is actually pretty easy to disassemble, and there wouldn't be any pin removal required, so it should be a piece of cake to upgrade him. Some people have even made upgrades for him with junker Cybertron Jetfire hip assemblies with minimal cutting, so I'm certain it could be done, and it would make an already cool toy even cooler. The rest of the articulation on the toy is actually pretty good, so I really don't see why they couldn't do this.

Another thing I'd like to see is a set of replacement parts to help differentiate CW toys that share basic molds. So for example, new arms for Blades with skis instead of rockets, a new 4-bladed rotor assembly, new forearms with hardpoint-covered winglets and new cockpit halves for Vortex, a new head for Alpha Bravo (or Vortex) to make the pair look less similar, new wings and a new cockpit for Firefly to make him look more like an F-4 Phantom and thus differentiate him from Slingshot, and of course a whole pack of new weapons for everyone (some better back cannons for Onslaught/Bruticus, a TF2 Medic style syringe gun for First Aid to replace the hardly particularly surgical-standard axe he comes with, etc) thus avoiding overuse of the same weapons and also freeing up the now redundant weapons to be used by anyone with 5mm hands. Now a lot of these upgrades would require pin removal and even cutting, so they'd probably have to come packaged with some sort of tools and very, very clear instructions, but personally I think it'd be worth it.

Anyway, your thoughts?

Love the megs idea, got a botcon megazarak collecting dust 'cuz he can't pose; but how 'bout the same thing for tidal wave, he'd go from mediocre to perfect just like that, or a base/trailer/(poseable) lower legs for armada super prime



(huh, everything here is for armada, and would be easy fixes for re-issues, bet it'll never happen though...)


But, I'd sooner get weaponized wings for cw blast-off before fixing firefly, but I'm digging all the alpha-bravo fixes, that mold just irratates me in it's flagrant laziness

I'd like to see an Exhaust head for Generations Wheeljack. And one for Prime Wheeljack.

Also that drawn-up-but-never-produced Powermaster trailer for Animated Optimus Prime. I thought I heard that somebody was planning on doing that, but that was, like, two years ago.

Glarryg

I still wish that kit to form Menasor for the 2011 BotCon set had become reality.

Rodimus Prime wrote:I still wish that kit to form Menasor for the 2011 BotCon set had become reality.

YES.

Rodimus Prime wrote:I still wish that kit to form Menasor for the 2011 BotCon set had become reality.

That would've been flipping awesome to have.

Rodimus Prime wrote:I still wish that kit to form Menasor for the 2011 BotCon set had become reality.

Ooooo, I don't remember that one, but I instantly love the idea. Who was going to make it?

Glarryg

Glarryg wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:I still wish that kit to form Menasor for the 2011 BotCon set had become reality.

Ooooo, I don't remember that one, but I instantly love the idea. Who was going to make it?

Glarryg

A company named G1Uppers.

I wonder if they'd be willing to let someone else use their designs...

Glarryg

1. Cartoon acvurate head and gun for CW Blast Off.

2. Cartoon/toy accurate guns for CW Brawl, Swindle, Vortex, and Onslaught.

3. Toy accurate head and gun for Botcon G2 Pyro.

4. Cartoon accurate G1 head for Botcon Firestar.

5. Cartoon accurate G1 head for Generations Orion Pax.

6. Bludgon skull head for Funpubs wacky 4.0 combiner to replace the Thunderwing head.

7. Perfect Effect Scorponok set released in Black Zarack colors as an entire set not pieces.

8. Computron head for CW Scattershot IF Hasbro does the proper Technobot limbs down the line.

9. Set to combine Botcon Animated Stunticons into Menasor as many have stated.

10. More Guilty null rays in colors for the Botcon, CHMS, and Henkei seekers.

Now that I ponder it... a kit to upgrade that random Classics Junkion into Nancy.

I had a few more ideas...most of them Optimus Prime related, amusingly.

1: A non-electronic, more to scale version of Armada Prime's trailer to go with the Supercon "Bendy" Optimus Prime. Instead of the autotransformation gimmick and super mode "immovable trousers of power" it'd be cool if it either functioned as an actual trailer ala G1 or alternatively converted into a more convincing version of the original toy's "base mode"- without the need to turn into a hollow pair of legs, it could actually resemble a pretty neat battle station.

2: A trailer for Combiner Wars Optimus Prime that could transform into a set of limbs and armour to give him a Unicron Trilogy/RID2001/Brave-esque "super mode". In an ideal world there would be 4 versions, each sharing the same basic engineering but with heavy retooling to differentiate them aesthetically:
A: Standard Combiner Wars version. Trailer looks a bit like Armada Prime's trailer. Super mode resembles a mix of Powermaster, Cybertron and Armada Prime's super modes.
B: Battle Core Prime "Police" version. Big armoured trailer resembling a Police Command Unit. Super Mode looks a bit like a Patlabor Ingram/Big Scary Police Mecha.
C: Battle Core Prime "Ultra Magnus" version. Comes with replacement combiner head for the base figure. Essentially turns BCOP into Ultra Magnus- trailer mode resembles a futuristic car transporter (or something similar ala City Commander) and super mode resembles, of course, Ultra Magnus.
D: Grand Scourge version. Trailer mode is big, spiky, gothic and downright mean looking. Super mode looks positively demonic.

Knee extenders for CW Defensor/Bruticus to make him taller

Upgrade to Legends Jetfire similar to the original Macross armored get up of the VF1J to make him look beefier like the show. And a G1 anime accurate backpack.

fenrir72 wrote:Upgrade to Legends Jetfire similar to the original Macross armored get up of the VF1J to make him look beefier like the show. And a G1 anime accurate backpack.

I'd love me a Macross homage, but a show accurate backpack (maybe minus the main wings coming out of it) would be really neat!

Okay, I know it's not an 'upgrade' kit and a full figure, but it's gotta be said...

Where the hell is Venom? Fansproject did the other six Insecticons a while ago, and I've seen some MP-style guys, and Hasbro itself has put out some of the Insecticons in smaller sizes, but Venom has been ignored, and it really rankles me.

Nonnef, if you're reading this, it'd be AWESOME if you made Fakebusker's D.R.E.A.D kits in proper plastic.

I'd like a trailer for CW Motormaster. ALL semis need their trailer. It can split up into parts for the combined mode, or even just become a battle station. I was so sure it would happen, but ... nothing!

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I'd like a trailer for CW Motormaster. ALL semis need their trailer. It can split up into parts for the combined mode, or even just become a battle station. I was so sure it would happen, but ... nothing!

Yeah, there seems to be a real lack of add-on/upgrade kits these days. I would have thought the Combiner Wars would have provided a ton of opportunities. Seems like 3P is pretty focused on MP these days...

well with PE going this far. i want another PE set for Optimus Prime set, new heads, new conbined weapon, axe maybe... or a legends fiqure that turns into a weapon.. who knows...

Not sure if Mini-Cons can be considered "upgrade kits" or their own figures, because their function is to enhance the main bot, but I would like to see all the Mini-Cons who appeared in the PS2 Armada game get their own figures, perhaps in a set or maybe 2 sets, or even 3 or 4, as I believe there are close to 60 Mini-Cons in the game that don't appear anywhere else.

I'd like a set of all the playable weapons from Transformers: Devastation for CHUG and/or Maaterpiece. I know some probably exist in plastic already in one form or another but having them all in one place would be cool.

Rodimus Prime wrote:Not sure if Mini-Cons can be considered "upgrade kits" or their own figures, because their function is to enhance the main bot, but I would like to see all the Mini-Cons who appeared in the PS2 Armada game get their own figures, perhaps in a set or maybe 2 sets, or even 3 or 4, as I believe there are close to 60 Mini-Cons in the game that don't appear anywhere else.

Now that I'd be down for.

Rodimus Prime wrote:Not sure if Mini-Cons can be considered "upgrade kits" or their own figures, because their function is to enhance the main bot, but I would like to see all the Mini-Cons who appeared in the PS2 Armada game get their own figures, perhaps in a set or maybe 2 sets, or even 3 or 4, as I believe there are close to 60 Mini-Cons in the game that don't appear anywhere else.

i can agree to this. ^

You know what else I'd like (but will never happen)?

Combiner Wars Scourge and Sweeps for Galvatronus. Along with a cannon for the combined form.

I know, I know. We're getting a great Titan Wars figure! And I'm totally down for that, but I'd really like Galvatron to be made properly and a bunch of Sweeps making the limbs is exactly the way to do it.