Human Alliance Bumblebee (Leg Mod)

Based on the CGI renders, the details on HA Bumblebee's legs are facing the wrong way. So I tried tinkering with him and found a simple mod. Basically, you will need to disassemble his crotch and re-assemble it backwards. After that during transformation rotate the waist while at the same time rotating the hips part (dunno if it makes sense).



STEPS



Step 1 - Transform Bee's legs as normal and leave the upper body in car mode
Step 2 - Just shows what the crotch and leg parts look like out of the box
Step 3 - Disassemble the crotch pieces (Remove 2 screws from behind)
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Step 4 - Reassemble the crotch pieces backwards (Compare the pics for Steps 2 and 4 to see the difference)

Your done with the mod Step 5 onwards shows the extra transformation steps

Step 5 - Lift up the leg to its side
Step 6 - Rotate 180 degrees at the hip joint

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Step 7 - Bring the leg down (See pic)
Step 8 - Before rotating the waist angle the legs abit as shown in the pic
Step 9 - Rotate at the waist joint

NOTE: Adjust the angle of the legs and the thigh parts while rotating the waist. There is a certain angle where it will allow you to rotate the whole waist smoothly.


And here's a very useful video by Peaugh explaining the mod and how to make clearance to rotate the waist and hips
(Starts off at 00:48 sec)

YouTube - Final Human Alliance Bumblebee update




The best way to do the mod is to swap the crotch pieces and not touch the legs. Reason is that if you try swapping legs you might end up with a non transformable figure. Here are before and after shots.

Crotch Swap - Easier and suggested way (NOTE: You will need to rotate the waist and hips after the mod to transform to bot mode)



Leg Swap - Need to take note of the hip joints. They are alot lower after the mod compared to the original position.



Which ever way you use, it will still end up the same.

Here's a very useful video by Peaugh explaining the mod and how to make clearance to rotate the waist and hips
(Starts off at 00:48 sec)

YouTube - Final Human Alliance Bumblebee update

Attached Thumbnails

         

         

         

 

If you read the instructions, the leg transformation depicted is consistent with how HA BB is assembled in-package -- i.e., not CG-accurate, wheels facing inwards, etc. That transformation is a no-brainer: pull the legs down, and push the hip kibble in towards the crotch. Done.

If you do this mod, the leg transformation becomes a LOT more difficult.

From car mode, you have to unfold the thighs from the rest of the rear, then spin the thighs 180 degrees around on their hip joints (so the screws facing upward now face downward). Push the hip kibble so it covers the thighs, facing upwards. THEN, you have to figure out a way to turn the waist around without getting hip kibble or the thigh itself stuck in the roof.

Remember RiD Sideburn/CR Speedbreaker, and that ridiculous front bumper/arm mess? This is almost exactly like that. That alone is sufficient justification for Hasbro simplifying the transformation, via creative re-assembly (since they obviously wouldn't have the time/budget for a mold fix).

The easiest way I've found to do the waist rotation is to:

0.) Orient your "left" and "right" from the angle of looking downwards through the roof. This is to avoid confusion regarding which leg is "left" and "right", since you can describe them from the robot's POV, or yours. Let's stick with yours.

1.) Bend the *right* thigh at the hip 90 degrees downwards, away from the roof. Also give the lower (not-yet-transformed) leg a 90 degree twist to keep it from hitting stuff.

2.) Turn the waist counter-clockwise 90 degrees.

3.) Bend the right thigh back upwards, so it's straight and parallel with the other leg.

4.) Finish the waist rotation.

5.) Finish transforming the lower legs in the usual manner.

Remember that all of this comes AFTER you've twisted the thighs around, so the hip kibble faces upward (and screws downward).

-XCN-

I believe I've nailed down the offending part that causes the roof gap! After you do the swap, shave off a bit from what was once the inner thigh. This was the part that was rubbing up against the crotch in car mode and pressing it down. The gap is gone now when I transform BB into alt mode.

Yay! That was the offending piece then. The more you shave that edge down the tighter the legs fold in against the crotch piece.

Attached Thumbnails

 

Yeah, but the crotch part in question is facing the back of the figure hidden behind the front crotch plate. You would never see the shaved area. The leg part in question is prominently on the side of his leg.

But my point is you still shaved down a visible part that is supposed to be there. That outer hip bump belongs there in the original shape for accuracy. The back of the crotch can live or die and nobody will ever see it.

Unmodded, the thigh pads need a 180° rotation. (as you said)

After the mod, they need a 180° rotation and a leg swap.


Any further mod to put the thighs in a 100% accurate configuration would indeed result in an untransformable toy.


So they are upside-down in both cases. But I'll venture to say that they look more accurate to me after the mod. The wheel wells are supposed to point to the outside. They point inside before the mod, outside after the mod.


So,
Unmodded: upside-down and wheel wells facing the wrong way.
Modded: upside-down and wheel wells facing the right way.

I agree here - those parts to be shaved aren't touching or rubbing against anything in car mode. There's a huge gap between them and the waist, shaving wouldn't do any good.

I don't think that's the solution. I agree about the waist just being a hair lower now - it could probably be fixed by enlarging the hole the waist post swivels in a little, but that could lead to a loose waist swivel.

The gap is minimal, so thankfully I don't really care.

Yeah, you both perfectly understood what I was talking about.

The other bad point with the mod is that since the leg support is reverted (it faces down), the legs are not as high as they are in the normal mode.

It makes bumblebee taller and "thiner".

So well, as said before, it's 50/50. I guess the prototype just has different upper legs, there's nothing we can do to fix it sadly. They didn't just swapped the legs, they also slightly modified the mold.

Thanks to len_69 (for the authorship of the article itself)

Also, thanks to all of the contributors:

shadow panther
plowking
encline
Razerwire
Cheebs
project9
JinSaotome
Xcandescent
RHALX
MegaMoonMan
Insane Galvatron
AnimatedFan
Dally
J.T.Silversmith
Peaugh (for the video helps)