The Energon Pub

Posted: **Sat Aug 18, 2012 6:18 pm**

Being TF collectors, you are well aware of the repaints phenomenon. I dont mean the pricey Botcon Or Club repaints. Just the basic ones you can find in stores.

Sure, many repaints have some retools meaning a new head or even another new part. Still, some of the molds are just too similars. Well, maybe you have done it before, but just MINOR MISTRANSFORMATIONS CAN MAKE A UNIQUE AND BETTER LOOKING CHARACTER!

First example, my Alternators Shockblast. From the start, I dont really like how his feets look and I'm receiving Alternators Jazz soon with a Reprolabel sheet so he will not be looking like his own character.

Here's what I'm getting:

Jazz HAVE to remain properly transformed as shoiwn. This IS Jazz.

Still, that Shockwave is a little too similar:

So, I just removed the hood and the muffler (he already have a gunarm) and place them in his backpack. Also, his doors have been laid back. It make for a bigger backpack, but I think it improves the look.

Finally, his feets are backward. Just some twists and turns with the legs, wiast, and feets did the job. The feets in this way look WAY better.

Here, have some pictures:

See? Shockwave look more like his own character rather than just a repainted Jazz.

Now, do you have some repaints you slightly mistransformed to make them more unique?
Please post pictures!

Posted: **Sat Aug 18, 2012 6:24 pm**

a lot of people do the tall Blurr with the pointed up shoulders to differentiate him from Drift, or so I'm led to believe.

Posted: **Sat Aug 18, 2012 6:24 pm**

Well, I don't have any pictures but I do do this. Example: Transform Blurr's hip doors up onto his back, and fold his shoulder kibble straight up. Now, him and Drift look TOTALLY different.
I also don't have a Blurr. But I've done it with Drift before. Anyone with both figs is welcome to test it.

Posted: **Sun Aug 19, 2012 9:05 pm**

BeastProwl wrote:Well, I don't have any pictures but I do do this. Example: Transform Blurr's hip doors up onto his back, and fold his shoulder kibble straight up. Now, him and Drift look TOTALLY different.
I also don't have a Blurr. But I've done it with Drift before. Anyone with both figs is welcome to test it.

I have Drift and Blurr. I tried a little something with blurr, by straightening his "shoulderpads" up and putting the doors alongside his body.

That ironically make a very beefy Blurr from the front...

...but a very slim Blurr from the side.

Posted: **Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:19 pm**

I don't have pictures, and it's minor, but for my classics seekers, I transformed the fins on their feet differently.

I also did some alterations to Skullgrin, like stripping off the clip weapons, folding in the chest armor and fiddling with the backpack.

Posted: **Mon Aug 20, 2012 8:37 am**

GUYS, I DISCOVERED THE ANSWER TO THE MYSTERY OF WHY SOME PEOPLE LOVE TO BUY USELESS AND EXPENSIVE REPAINTS LIKE THE BOTCON OR CLUBS SO MUCH:

Form this Cracked article:

#2. Chivas Regal: If We Jack Up the Price, They'll Assume It's Good

Despite having a pretty-good-tasting whiskey, and selling it at a bargain, Chivas Regal's sales kind of sucked. Simple market math says in that situation you need to cut prices, or improve the product, or pour millions into advertising. Ideally via The Flintstones.

"Gee, Barn, I just feel like unfiltered Camels better deliver the slow release I crave from this torturous life."

But there is something unique about the liquor market that makes it different from selling other beverages. Perception is everything. But how do you change people's perception of your product?

The Deviously Simple Plan:

Leave the product exactly the same, and massively raise the price. And we're talking about charging far more than any of the major competitors.

"Johnnie Walker? Oh I'm sorry, I thought you wanted scotch, not oak-matured goat piss."

Suddenly, people started buying it.

Yeah, it turns out that most people don't know anything about alcohol, or what makes for good-tasting scotch. You can't blame them -- besides looking at proof, there is no objective way to measure the quality of alcohol. So, in situations where there really isn't anything tangible to consider, people look at the price. People automatically assume that if the company charges more for a product, it must be worth more. And get this: They continue thinking that even after they drink it.

If you don't spend a lot of money, how will anyone know how much to hate you?

Scientists actually tested this: At the California Institute of Technology, they did an experiment where they stuck people inside an MRI and gave them a couple glasses of wine. Although the glasses were both from the same bottle, the people were told that one glass contained regular table wine, and the other contained an incredibly expensive vintage. As the subjects drank from each glass, the part of the brain that controls taste behaved the same, but the brain's pleasure center went off like crazy on the "more expensive" glass.

And if you're thinking that you'd never fall for a cheap trick like what Chivas Regal tried to pull, well, guess what: That's why it works.

Just transfer that to a mold you can easely get for 10-20$, BUT IT'S IN PINK!

Posted: **Mon Aug 20, 2012 9:17 am**

I don't entirely disagree, but the Botcon (etc) exclusives are unique paint jobs, often of unique characters, and sometimes with exclusive head sculpts. Whilst I and many others do definitely enjoy the engineering aspect of Transformers as a major part of them, the longevity of the brand is down to people's affections for the characters. There have been, and will continue to be, other lines of transforming robot toys, and some of these toys will no doubt be better physical pieces. Botcon/E-Hobby/SDCC/store exclusive repaints often give us representations of characters we're unlikely to see in a mass release line, and there are also significantly less of them produced.

Think about it like this: How many of us have a set of Seekers? I'd guess that at least as many collectors have at least 3 of the same plane/robot toy, just in different colours. Many of us will have all the colours produced and some will have sets from multiple lines. This is down to the characters, as well as an element of army building.

I don't have any Botcon toys because they're too expensive for me, but if I could afford them, I wouldn't necessarily pass just because I could get the same mold cheaper. In fact, even with as minor differences as you can get between Japanese and western releases, people will sometimes pick the one they like best, or end up getting two of the same.

This thread started about making alternate looks for characters who share the same basic moulding, it's strange that we're now onto the bashing of repaints.

Posted: **Mon Aug 20, 2012 11:40 am**

craggy wrote:(...)
This thread started about making alternate looks for characters who share the same basic moulding, it's strange that we're now onto the bashing of repaints.

I'm not bashing ALL repaints just the ones that cost over 9000$ just because they are "collectible"

Here, the mother of all repaints, the dreadful LUCKYDRAW:

Posted: **Mon Aug 20, 2012 11:48 am**

I don't mind Lucky Draws. Usually they look pretty horrible anyway, so the ridiculous price doesn't bother me.

Posted: **Mon Aug 20, 2012 8:20 pm**

craggy wrote:I don't mind Lucky Draws. Usually they look pretty horrible anyway, so the ridiculous price doesn't bother me.

I'll dont mind... having one either... Then I'd sell it and pay off some depts...

...

Who I am kidding! I'd buy even more Transformers!

Posted: **Tue Aug 21, 2012 3:46 am**

-Kanrabat- wrote:
craggy wrote:I don't mind Lucky Draws. Usually they look pretty horrible anyway, so the ridiculous price doesn't bother me.

I'll dont mind... having one either... Then I'd sell it and pay off some depts...

...

Who I am kidding! I'd buy even more Transformers!

PEW PEW PEW!

Posted: **Wed Aug 22, 2012 12:17 pm**

This is what I did to my Red Alert.

And after I finished my Battle Chargers from PRiD Wheeljack, I raised their shoulder so they look kind of different than WJ and that makes the arms a little shorter also.

Posted: **Wed Aug 22, 2012 12:19 pm**

nice Battlechargers, paul!

The Energon Pub

How to deal with repaints? Easy: minor mistransformations!

How to deal with repaints? Easy: minor mistransformations!

Re: How to deal with repaints? Easy: minor mistransformations!

Re: How to deal with repaints? Easy: minor mistransformations!

Re: How to deal with repaints? Easy: minor mistransformations!

Re: How to deal with repaints? Easy: minor mistransformations!

Re: How to deal with repaints? Easy: minor mistransformations!

Re: How to deal with repaints? Easy: minor mistransformations!

Re: How to deal with repaints? Easy: minor mistransformations!

Re: How to deal with repaints? Easy: minor mistransformations!

Re: How to deal with repaints? Easy: minor mistransformations!

Re: How to deal with repaints? Easy: minor mistransformations!

Re: How to deal with repaints? Easy: minor mistransformations!

Re: How to deal with repaints? Easy: minor mistransformations!