Started this one, probably nearly a year ago, but put in on the back burner while I worked on the MP Prowl Trio...among other things. Finally finished him up a few weeks ago. I wanted a decent G1 style Prime for my Deluxe Prime vs Megatron shelf, so I pulled this guy out from being shoved in the back, hidden from view, and started working to see what I could do. I had some basic ideas: Get the cab section to not look like mess in truck mode, replace the head, ball jointed ankles, and of course a new paint job. I took a few WIP pics, so I'll start with them: First thing I worked on was having the wheel wells collapse in further in truck mode. So I chopped into the waist sections, and eventually cut some guide slots for the well to slide in on. Then I cut down the wheel well section some too. Using the original swing pin as a slider, the sides can now slide in to be flush with the arms. Now the grill needed to slide out to meet the front of the truck. I gutted the "punching" gimmick and added a polycap inside, and a rod attached to the grill. The grill can now slide forward. After that, moving on to the arms. I built up the lower arms with some styrene, lengthening and widening them. I also added the cut out triangle and rectangle details to the top. New fists were added as well, from a junker Sideswipe. Not shown, but I also built sliding blocks to collapse the lower legs, gave him ball jointed ankles from Hobby Base's Roll Swing Joints, rebuilt the front bumper, and built new headlight panels. The new headlight panels simply sit attached to the bumper on his back in robot mode...not the most elegant, but I think it looks fine. The new head is the extra one from Maketoys Battle Tanker, modified to look a bit more G1 like, and with a ball joint added. Painted with MM Dark Blue, Silver, and a custom deep, bright red.
I never have never imagined that the Classics Deluxe Optimus Prime could look so AWESOME!!! You did phenomenal work!!!
Thanks guys, still amazed out how totally different he looks myself. Yeah, to be fair, they actually are blue! Just not as blue as they could have been.
Wow... a stunning improvement, with so little changed (which is not to say easily changed... this took some work!). Very niiiice. zmog
Even with its flaws, this mold is one of my favorite deluxes of all time (Blasphemy, I know), so seeing this with all the improvements just... wow. Not to mention your great paint work! I *really* love that shade of blue!
I have to wonder if there's a way to create a hinged panel that can hide the head in alt mode. That might be the only thing this custom needs. But other than that, I'd say it's a top-shelf effort.
well i thought i was happy with mine, now thanks to this work of mastery i will hide mine in shame. :"( one tear for awesome and one for the shame that is mine. and because no one asked.... WHERE'S THE TRAILER?
Thanks, and that's really what I was going for. I didn't want to rebuild the whole figure, just fix a few of its shortcomings. Haha, I tried to justify it being on my shelf for years, now he stands proudly at the front. I did consider that early on, but with all the other junk hanging off the back, I didn't want to clutter it up any more. I'm sure yours is great too! It's funny you ask about the trailer tho, because as I was posting this thread yesterday I was thinking, I wonder if I can still find one of those deluxe Movie Trilogy Primes anywhere to steal his trailer!
Maybe sitting the head on top of a panel that can be flipped (somewhat similar to RTS G2 Prime), but that would mean more work. And honestly, why butcher the sculpted details that you can see through the windshield?
I've always thought it might help hide the head a bit if you painted the back panel of it red. Since you don't really see the back of the head too much when it's on display, it would work at least a little more nicely than just having the big blue patch on top of his truck mode.