Got the Red Alert head upgrade kit in the mail this past weekend. Overall it's a great piece of work that brings the toy closer to its G1 counterpart. Truthfully I was a bit wary once Venks posted pics of the final prototype as some heavy modifications were made, but it does look very nice in person. I bought the early bird Black head for use with Sideswipe. His standard G1 styled rifle And the Shoulder rocket. The rocket comes in 3 parts. I'm having some problems with it. The plastic these pieces are made from are a little gummy and rubbery, so the fit isn't a clean snap-together. My biggest issue is that the peg that goes into the shoulder doesn't fit well. I'll need to sand it down a little more. It tends to pop out on its own after a while due to the rubbery nature of the material. The head is quite a change from the original, but still a vast improvement from Hasbro's ugly attempt. For me personally, I think he has a great profile, but front-on his upper head is a little narrow. Again, the slightly rubbery material causes some issues. You should be able to see a crack down the seam of his head. The head fits together fine off the neck joint. But once on the ball joint, it squeezes against the parts and this prys the bottom of the head open. I'll probably glue the thing in. Oh, and the jiggle that Venkstra mentioned you might need to do for transformation? Not needed at all. The head fits very cleanly into the chest and there isn't any parts catching or getting jammed at all. The extra early bird parts I got are an Orange Swipe rifle, and a blue gun I cannot recognise. I'm not a big fan of translucent guns so I may give these a flat coat of something later on. Great to have more weapons though!
Came like that. All you have to do is remove the screw on the original head, pop it off, then use the same screw back on Venkstra's version.
