Art Feather Bumblebee mods

I picked this figure up for the novelty of a VW alt mode, but wasn't keen on the bot. The main thing was to do something about that damn hunchback! I modded the rear of the car so it rotates 180° instead of flipping down (cut the spine and put a swivel inside).



Had to build a new hinge (well, series of hinges) for the chest/roof to stay attached to the front, done with styrene and rods. So the whole rear end including wheels and arms rotates, meaning his arms are swapped left for right.

Note the head/neckpiece is now fixed in place to the hood section. I also cut the ends of the curved pylons that attach to the main body, making them c-clips instead of pin and hole.

I was going to make the popular mod to fold the hood under the chest, but it turned out there was room to store the doors inside the torso, which I figured was a better option, just because I hate them on the arms and didn't want to cut them to make them fold round the legs, as some do.



The front bumper is now on pivots so it gives the illusion of ankle tilt. I also found Art F BB is very prone to tipping over backwards (unless his legs are spread wide enough to lift the wheels off the ground) so I cut out part of the underfoot area and glued it to the back of the lower leg; as the leg rotates up for transformation this part moves down and back and makes a heel. As it turns out this was superfluous, since I ended up clipping the spare hood sections behind the foot, as Quantum Reflex first did in the Art F pre-order thread.

With the doors and hood he's a partsformer, but at least I can look at him on the shelf and see him as a Masterpiece now, which I couldn't before...






EDIT note that I have put the black rear wheel/shoulder parts that rotate on the metal rods a certain way (the ball joints are not molded symmetrically in the middle). The ball joint for BB's shoulder should be toward the rear of the car and offset to the front of the bot, to bring his arms better into place.

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I love this. I wish my skills were that good. I can paint, yes but this......

can i have one?

Love this figure and love that backpack mod. A definite improvement.

i like it can you make me a set of hinges like that. for his chest and his feet. where are the doors and hood at ? does it still transformers?

I asked for a rundown of how to do this and am in awe.

That is well beyond my ability but damn does that look amazing!

Thanks guys!
Yes it transforms, with some partsforming; the doors are inside his body and the hood parts clip onto the heels (you don't need to do any modding for that btw, the hood sections are c-clipped to a metal rod and will pop off by hand, then clip on the rear of the feet).
Cheers, I think it's a definite improvement!

Wow. Just, just wow.

Nice...very nice. Much more "realistic" looking.

LOVE your mods!