So, I got a few small holes in modern toys repurposed into G1 style guys. By 'modern toys', for me, it's anything after ball-joints and articulation. I was wondering what people had thought for themselves to use for the following guys. But first...

-No Botcon repaints. No Club repaints unless they're REALLY good and obvious (the Punch/CPunch namely, is primary example).
-Beast Wars toyline on, with a preference towards being as close as possible to released the past few years.
-No Vehicons, nor repaints using Vehicon molds. They've got a purpose to me already.
-I aim for the SPIRIT and the FEEL of the character. It does NOT have to be an accurate paintjob, nor an accurate altmode, so long as the character's theme is intact. Good example: Omega Supreme from Energon. Not a base, but definitely has the feel, style, and purpose of the character.
-NO KNOCKOFFS. Hasbro/TakaraTomy product only. NO Fansproject, whatever else.
-Figures should have had a retail release. Put a bias towards toys that were found on retail shelves in any store. HasbroToyShop exclusives (like SDCC Nemesis Prime) is okay, but should be limited, and hopefully with another option ahead.

So, what toys would you use for these characters?

Topspin and Twin Twist - these guys are a bit annoying.
Broadside - A remold of Tidal Wave from Armada would be great. A homemade repaint MAY be doable, but the Con symbol molded heavily into the toy hurts it.
Eject and Rewind - may just use the upcoming Legends Rumble/Frenzy, repainted.
Steeljaw, Ramhorn - Ideally, likely going to use a Mini-Con or Legend of some sort.
Superion - NO Energon combiner mold, hate those. MAY use Silverbolt from Universe '08, IF a good replacement for Silverbolt is suggested, that doesn't use Energonbiners.
Battletrap and Flywheels - they're like Fuzors, of vehicles, and incredibly hard to 'fit' in style. MAY use the IceCream Twins version of Skids and Mudflap, but...not a great fit.
Cloudburst
Quickswitch - Hasbro seems loathe to do Autobot triples, much less multichangers.
Splashdown and Waverider - not enough boats.
Cindersaur, Horri-bull, Sparkstalker, Squeezeplay - not very many Con beasts lately, beyond Cybertron's line, and none/few of them fit.
Twincast - would love to see Hasbro doing, in the future, Blaster and Twincast in the same style as Soundwave and Soundblaster, but not holding my breath. Uni Blaster is my current Blaster.
Metalhawk - love the char. Botcon figure is ugly. Especially since the Metalhawk I want is the ROBOT one, not the Pretender shell.
Minerva - obviously, several rescue vehicles are available, but picking one that looks and feels feminine enough to be here is the sticking point.
Powerdive - the Con from G2 era. Not wildly important, maybe RotF Ransack's recolor figure (name escapes me) would fit him. Or a Ruination copter.
Krok - now, this may be simple, Croc Megs from BW. But it just doesn't 'feel' right, and with a name like that, well...
Arcee - I got 3 choices, really. So this one is, "Which fits better?" instead of, "I need a toy!" - an embarassment of riches, as they say. Which Arcee is the best toy: Movie 07 (the good one, not the 'wheel feet' from RotF and DotM), First Edition from Prime, or regular release of Prime.
Sari - I liked her character, post-Cybertronian reveal. I'd also like to see some exploring of it. Maybe having her 'true form' in the toy, the form she would have had if she existed on Cybertron would be fine. I know there's no brown skinned human girls that turn into robots in TFs or any other toyline, so would need to be an alternate universe type of thing to really work.

Fort Max - I got an option for this. Actually, two. One can be really interesting and kind of suprising, but let's see if you got an interesting option...

And that's pretty much all the gaps for my own version of "CHUG" - so, anyone got ideas/options/possibilities to fill in the gaps? Upcoming toys are viable also. If, say, FoC Fireflight fits in one of those well, suggest him.

 

customs


topspin/twintwist

eject/rewind

 

You're incredibly limited by keeping it to only official, retail releases. Still, I've got one or two ideas.

Steeljaw- Legends Leobreaker. Colors are a bit off, but hey it's a tiny lion.
Ramhorn- Cyb. Backstop. It's a Rhino. Shitty bot mode doesn't matter.
Cloudburst- Energon Skyblast (or one of his repaints). Fairly similar modes and transformation even.
Arcee- either the Energon version or the NYCC Prime version. If it's Classics, may as well be pink.

 

Yeah, that may be. But I want to support Hasbro/TakaraTomy, and not people who....let's face it, pirate their stuff. It's got to be official.

Customs are okay, so long as the mold that it's repainted/redone from is an official product.

I was thinking the same for Steeljaw and Ramhorn. If I can find the Big Lots Backstop, I'd probably use him for Ramhorn, actually. It's a solid color, so it fits more with Ramhorn.
Energon Skyblast for Cloudburst is great. I'm using one for Strafe, so kind of didn't want to use one for another guy, but it is just too good a fit.
NYCC Prime Arcee - is that First Edition Prime recolored?


To brr-icy:

What're the Jumpstarters repainted from? They look like WFC Megs, am I right? What about the mold used for Eject and Rewind? They look like Breacher, but, also, somehow, don't.

 

The Jumpstarters are both repaints and head-swaps of WFC Megatron. While Eject & Rewind are the Breacher mold, but on the left arm the blue one has the Skullgrin/Darkmount 3 barrel cannon attached to the C-clip kibble

 

yeah they are wfc megatron, with added wings, drills, g1 heads, resculpted chests and backs, and painted.

eject and rewind are breachers, added vinyl for their tape details

ramhorn i'm still debating on using backstop, almost too organic for me though

 

There needs to be Generations Skywarp. He had only a release as an exclusive bundled with Ultra Magnus. That's nearly like having never an official release beside his Henkei release.

 

I have an idea, wait for an official release. Look at all these people flocking to find stand ins a few years back only to have official figs released. A little patience goes a long way.

 

I'd have trouble using Skyblast as Strafe personally. The front end is too dissimilar. Then again I do have the official Strafe which is a Cyclonus repaint and no better in alt mode, so oh well.

The Arcee is the first edition mold just in G1 pink and white. It's probably even still up on HTS, that thing did not sell well.

Someone (I think it was brr-icy here) did customs of the autobot combiner tapes Raindance and Grandslam; Raindance out of Skyblast again which looks awesome, and I forget what for the other guy.

 

Part of the reason I hope for a Generations Blitzwing is that it would make an excellent Generations Slamdance.

I think that Arms Micron Breakdown's minicon would make an excellent Ramhorn.

For Arcee, I'd go with the NYCC Exclusive First Edition. They're still on HTS, and you'll get a Taxicab Bumblebee (... AKA Deluxe Overcharge)

 

yeah, the combiner cassettes were some of my first customs, they've since been repainted, doubt hasbro will ever make them again, hope they do though

 

Those are really cool. They're very well done, congratulations!

I got his Target release, so for me, he's fine. I would sort of doubt seeing another Hasbro release of that mold, it's been used so often. Though, luckily, repainting your own shouldn't be so hard, if you got a spare of the mold.

Hey man, if you don't want to add anything worthwhile, don't add anything. Besides, I -like- repurposing my figures I got already. I don't need the 20+ Optimuses I got to ALL be Optimus after all. Besides, it's not like me repurposing my stuff cements it forever and always as X or Y guy, and there are HUGE gaps in Hasbro's releases anyway. If and when Hasbro releases, say, Topspin or Twin Twist or a Fort Max in Generations/Classics/etc, I'll happily nab them, and repurpose the toy previously used into something else.

I'd love the Cyclonus-Strafe, or even the Mindwipe-Strafe. But, I'm repainting (well, I PLAN on doing so, whenever I can find them to buy at a nice price) the 4 Energon Omnicons and 4 Energon Terrorcons into G1 Technobots and Terrorcons, respectively. Skyblast is being that Strafe. I agree, it's not perfect. But it fits rather well, especially, I would hope, with the rest of the team.

I'll probably go for the NYCC Arcee for my Arcee indeed.

Gen BW into Gen Slamdance is brilliant. Right now I got TFA Blitz standing in place, with the 'in universe' story excuse being he was the first triple, Shockwave screwed up the experiment some, and that was the best he felt like doing. Shockwave then quit and went to other projects, being the crazy scientist type.

I haven't seen the AM Breakdown yet. I doubt I'll get it, I'm not very fond of Takara's sticker-madness nowadays, but if I can find it for a good price in the future, it could very well be worthwhile. Course, if only Backstop got a Legends of Cybertron, that would be great. As it is, I got Big Lots version of Backstop for Ramhorn. It's a pretty solid color, and looks just a tiny bit more like Ramhorn than the original Backstop....I think.

I like Overcharge from Taxi-Bee. That's awesome.  

 

no love for scrounge?

 

I only need these guys now, if anyone had ideas for these, they'd be very welcome:

Cindersaur (not the Botcon one)
Squeezeplay
Sparkstalker
Twincast
Horri-bull
Splashdown
Waverider
Superion (or a good Silverbolt, and make Uni 08's 'Bolt into Superion)

 

How about Reptilion? Similar color scheme, and he's a lizard-like fantasy creature like Cindersaur.

Razorclaw or one of his repaints? None of them are Squeezeplay-colored, but they have crab modes.

Again, not the right color, but Torca has a vaguely-similar tusked alt mode. His GPS problems probably take this mold out of the running, though.

Can't think of anything that wouldn't require doing a custom, but there are lots of custom contenders (WFC Soundwave, Device Blaster, Classics Perceptor, etc.).

Shinobitron did a pretty fantastic Horri-Bull custom from Prime Cliffjumper.

Maybe United Axalon? He's grey and red, and has a shark-like alt mode.

I'd say Undertow or Sonar. Both black boats (Undertow is probably the better of the two, as he has grey bits and two heads to echo the Waverider's Pretender status).

 

Powerdive is getting an update in the Asia exclusive Generations line. He's a repaint of HFTD Highbrow.

 

Those look nice! Any chance you got a pic of Squalkbox and Slamdance side by side.

 

Man, that is too sweet, are those the actual G-1 toys' heads?

 

I'll probably use Reptilion alright. I had BW Iguanus for, well, Iguanus, so wanted to try to avoid it, but no one else is really coming on strong. I got Video Razorclaw for...Octopunch? Bludgeon's buddy. So wanted to avoid using normal BW 'claw, but it IS a good match, in spirit and style. Torca's already nabbed as...uh...Grotesque I think? One of the Monsterbots. His Japanese variant, Elphaorpha (or Elelphorca) may be a good choice though. Axalon is an awesome idea, and definitely going in. Sonar and Undertow are good, but I was trying to avoid cross-faction figures when possible. Well, at least, those with faction sigils on their figures. I'm trying to make it as much as possible stuff you can nab from lots and garage sales and just run with it. Customs are fine, and I suppose -a- figure or two needing stickers applied are fine. I'll likely use Undertow for him indeed...two heads, plus the Micron partner gives it a 'second person' like the Pretender shell running about on its own.

Which leaves Horri-Bull...and that is a fantastic custom alright. I'd probably just use a straight up Prime CJ, with the horns on head and hood, since Horri-Bull needs horns. Probably rename him to 'Horrible' too, instead of the play on words his name is, to make him more...palpatable?

Thanks a ton for the suggestions! Pretty much wraps up all the repurposing for now.  

 

That is badass!

How about G1 Skyfalls partner for Ramhorn. I always thought he would look great repainted next to Blaster.