The Energon Pub

[Evil Eye]

So. Eyes. Most Transformers have them, even if they only have a lens. The question is, how do you like them done? There's many different ways of doing them, and everyone has an opinion on how to do them. So what's your favourite method of adding a splash of colour to Transformers optics?

Here's a list of all the methods of eye decoration I can think of off the top of my head.

Light piping/translucent plastic.
Pros: Does not require paint. Under the right lighting looks absolutely gorgeous.
Cons: Leaves a big ugly block of clear plastic on the back of the head (usually). Often looks awful under bad lighting.

LEDs.
Pros: Looks awesome.
Cons: Requires batteries. Electronics often hinder the toy. May fail. Looks bad when not switched on.

Matte paint.
Pros: Usually looks OK provided it's done well. Can lend a nice animated look to the toy.
Cons: Looks dreadful if done badly. Merely looks OK in most cases.

Gloss paint.
Pros: Looks OK most of the time.
Cons: Generally somewhat dull looking.

Metallic paint.
Pros: If done well looks very nice. Adds a very mechanical look to the eyes.
Cons: Sometimes the metallic shine is barely noticeable. Sometimes not glossy enough and the eyes just look dead.

Chrome/Vacuum metallization.
Pros: Looks absolutely sublime. Reflects light in a very "heavily shaded 80s mecha anime" way. If there's light, it will reflect off the eyes.
Cons: Chrome is fickle and may flake off. Expensive to produce.

Personally my favourite is chrome, followed by light piping, but what about you guys?

[Bumblebee21]

Led eyes with light piping. Bright colored paint

[SureShot18]

My favorite has got to be some nice brightly colored light piping. I dislike when the light piping is just colorless clear or opaque plastic though.

[Optimum Supreme]

Like most things it depends on the figure and how well they implement it. I like light piping in general, but sometimes they do a really bad job of it or even paint/use non-transparent plastic and ruin it.

G1 Shockwave had a really cool eye, that shiny metallic golden one.