Just spitballing here, but the Thunderclash upgrades to a figure designed to be the central component of a combiner opens up the possibility to create upgrades for several combiner Wars molds to turn them into the G1 turbomasters! Alpha Bravo with a Rotorstorm upgrade also able to form a leg or arm for thunderclash super-mode? Perfection

 

I wasn't convinced about this Prime when he was first unveiled, but as soon as pics and video reviews started rolling in, I went, "Hang on a second..."

Combiner Wars is seriously one of my favourite sub-lines in years, so far. I feel like I did when I was a nipper and G1 was happening, only older and more cynical.  

Fingers crossed!  

Welcome aboard!  

Y'know, I did toy with the idea of doing a trailer for him, and it's still something I might look into. The only thing putting me off is cost: to be quite frank, a full trailer for him would cost a bleedin' fortune, both to prototype (so I'd need to have a pretty good idea in advance that people would buy it), and the price for customers.

However, I will say that the trailer I had in mind was only a sort of half-trailer, 'cos it wouldn't be Powermaster Prime, and it wouldn't be Ultra Magnus (since I'm waiting to see how his rumoured leader-class toy turns out; I may do an upgrade kit for that figure, to turn him into MTMTE Magnus). The character I had in mind (who's from the comics) is also currently very dead...

And if ye can figure out who it is I'm alluding to, then let me know if people would be interested in him...  

One step at a time, eh?  

Mind you, that is a rather good idea, although then it'd mean doing the Predators as well, and it never ends...  

 

Very nice dude. I'd buy one of these kits. Looking forward to the finished product

 

Well damn. You sir, have just made me want this figure. I've been flip-flopping on whether to get it, and you show up with this beauty after I'd decided to skip the thing! I know it's probably impossible to do because of the engineering, but I feel the chest is just a little too flat, maybe needs a little more depth imo.

Amazing work so far though!

 

i think it's a great improvement! i personally would prefer if the proportions were more like this:



but that's just a personal pref. your work is great  

cheers,

KO

 

Ta very much.  

Thanks very much.  

The torso plate on the front does add a bit of depth to it, so he's not as flat-chested as the stock figure. I'm tweaking that a bit in the next version, too.  

Funnily enough, I agree that this first version is too tall and lanky. You've more or less nailed exactly the proportions I'm aiming for with the new tweaked version.  

ETA:
Well, other than the head, which will be the standard combiner head (with new ears), unless I do decide to go ahead and do a full-on IDW head for him.  

 

What I'm just wondering is how exactly you got the torso that tall in the first place. Would you mind showing how the original torso's transformed under that new chest-piece?
Sidenote; An IDW styled head would be the icing on the cake!  

 

Oooh, go on then. Basically, the entire front of the torso is one plate (or in the case of the IDW version, one plate with two sliding window moobs that collapse in during transformation to alt mode). I modelled an armature that sits on top of the truck cab, in front of where his combiner neck rotates up, with two arms running backwards, so it clips over the smokestacks.

The torso plate then mounts onto that using a hinge and a ball-joint, and hinges down at that joint to peg into and surround the actual new waist joint itself, i.e. this:



That fake torso then hinges up and over to sit on top of the cab in alt mode, hence why I need to model a new sleeper cab, and a wind deflector, to hide it (and to accommodate the lengthened waist joint, in the back; bear in mind that he's going to be substantially longer in alt mode, but I'm focusing on making the bot mode as good as it can be, with everything else being secondary to that).

I'm also thinking I might mount some new smokestacks on the wind deflector, and figure out a way for that deflector to split and to partsform onto the shoulders in bot mode (and make a chest embellishment in combined mode), so that as well as making the tops of the shoulders sit higher, it'll give him his G1 stacks.

We'll see, though, I need to get the underlying engineering sorted first.

If I do end up designing one, I may also design a kind of "EZ-Change" neck joint, so it's easy to swap between the IDW head, and the combined mode head (so that he doesn't use the same head in both modes). I am tempted...  

 

now i wanna get two.

my wallet is going to be lighter than a helium balloon

 

Still waiting for my cheque from Hasbro, for the extra sales I'm supposed to be generating.  

 

Nice 

Three questions;

1. Will the leg extensions and extended waist require permanently altering the base figure?
2. Will you include a upgrade that makes him look more like his current IDW design or rather maintain his stock chest?
3. What would the base kit (minus the chest piece) include?

Thank you in advance I am very interested in this 

 

Thanks very much.  

Other than unscrewing the thighs, nope. The top of each extension has a mushroom peg the same size as the one on top of the knee joint, so it's just a case of opening up the thighs, finding wherever the spring pinged off to (every bleedin' time I took 'em apart), taking out the old mushroom peg, and sliding the new one in.

Then ye just close up the thighs again, and slide the mushroom peg on the knee joint into the bottom of the extensions. It took me a bit of force to get it in, but once in, it gives you a nice tight swivel joint, there.  

Yup, the first torso will be based on the IDW version with the split chest, by Don Figueroa, largely because that's my favourite look for Prime.  

As I said, the whole torso plate will be sold as a separate item; that way, people can pick the torso plate they want (IDW, G1 and Armada will be the first three, then Thunderclash/MW Prime seems like the popular next choice, then I'm open to ideas for what people would like to see), to go with the main body of the upgrade kit. Saves getting a superfluous torso plate in the kit itself, then.  

ETA:
I was replying as you added this...  

Everything in this pic:



Basically, everything except the torso plate, plus the bits I've not designed yet. Sooo, thigh extensions (which I've already tweaked to give his legs some more bulk), waist extension, armature for the top of the chest (plus a clip with a ball-joint, to attach the torso plate), new ears, the necessary bits to fill in the alt mode, and maaaaaaaybe some covers to make the lower legs wider, although I may not bother with that last one, as I'm not sure it would add much to the figure. It'd just make things more expensive (and it's already not going to be a cheap kit).

Ye're most welcome.  

 

not really, just, make a replacement, with a separate grill that rotates, thats it, then everything would just transform as usual

 

It could work if the grille was on a separate panel, that rotated to the side on a ball-joint, but there's not an awful lot of physical room in those biceps to squeeze something like that in (and I'm reasonably sure it might cause sevaral issues with transformation, or leave the grill sticking out a long way in front of the rest of the truck).

That might be something to look at down the line, sure, but for right now, I'm trying not to do too much to the arms, since they do work as-is (and if I'm totally honest, I rather like how they look with the grilles as they are).

 

not really, , let me see if i can make an sketch for you to illustrate how would it work

 

Hokey dokey, no worries.  

 

something like this, if you make a new "grill" block
and then a new elbow joint, conected via a balljoint instead, it will allow you to rotate it all the way, then because of the new orientation it will not only have a better look but DOUBLE elbow articulation, and maybe use it as a rotation point(because the figure dosnt have wrist rotation) and because the double joint, it would allow way more poses, even angle the arms over the chest(just saying)

the image just shows a quick design, the reason i dont do this upgrade myself is that i dont have the figure

 

Ah, I see what you mean, and yup, that would work. To be honest, though, it's still something I'd leave out of the main kit (to keep the cost of that down, since I already have a fair idea that it won't be cheap as it is), and work on as a separate project if I were to go ahead with it.

That's basically my plan with these Prime upgrades: get the core kit done, so he can be converted into a leader-sized figure, then look at extra projects to really go to town on him (e.g. an IDW head, combined mode add-ons, this bicep idea, articulated ankles, articulated hands, weapons pack, etc). I like to keep things modular, y'see, so people don't have to spend more than they wanted to, on extra parts they don't need (although that doesn't stop me, in future, making an all-in-one pack with everything in, although blimey, that'd cost a fortune).  

'Tis a good suggestion, though, and I'll definitely give it some serious thought, but if I do try it, don't expect it to happen until the main kit is fully done and dusted.

 

i dont have the figure and i dont think i will ever get it(here in my country they never bring anything generations) and i dont think i will pay importin fees, i just wanted to help, because i saw a review where the bicep looked way better from the back side

 

No worries, and thankyou, I appreciate the suggestion!