I came across these really tiny faux gemstone that are used for nail decorations, and thought they'd make good TF movie eyes.



Edit: Here's what they really look like. The last octagonal pic was just something I goggled. Lazy me.

Unlike conventional TFs the movie versions have round glowing pupils. Unfortunately, most if not all the toys have really sucky light piping.

These things just need to be glued on. I found a brilliant blue type for the Autobots, but no right red ones. Lots of pink though. So i bought a neutral clear set and added red translucent paint.

The results were better than I expected. They capture light extremely well. Check out Bumblebee in lighted and low light conditions:





Even in low light the eyes "glow". Sure beats the crappy eyes he had before.

Here are some more pics of Bumblebee, Barricade and Ironhide with their new eyes. They're all undergoing some custom tweaks and paint apps which aren't done yet, but I thought I'd show off the eyes first.













Update: Here's Blackout!





Yeah, I whittle his head to try to match the actual movie design...

His eye slits were triangular and smaller, so I had to chop the gemstones in half for this one.

 

Those look cool..... ... 

 

Bling bling baby. Looks cool.

 

Great find! I have some of these with the peel-off backing and the smaller ones like you found. I just can't get past the octogon-look tho and activly searching for tiny concave ones like a contact lens. I find big ones like that, not little ones... grr.

 

Pretty damn cool. Though if I had the ability I would give the Movie TF's new heads, and the Decpticons Hands  

 

wow that looks really cool, where do you get em, and how'd you do it??

 

Dude...kickarse...

 

Wow those look great!

 

never would have thought about that.

 

nice

 

I thought these would be wack, but your photos prove me wrong. It looks pretty sharp.

That being said, I love light-piping and think it's the best extra a toy can have for the cost.

 

Great idea! Eyes make things come to life. Those things are tiny! Do you use a gemstone tweaser to get them in or can you do it with your hands?

 

Dude, those look great! At first, when I saw that you were using faux gemstones, I thought they would stand out and look too gaudy... but the end result is actually really nice! It's subtle, but really adds a lot to the faces.

 

A little thing that makes a hughe difference  

 

I was skeptical, but that works really well!

 

I had my doubts when you showed the pic of what you were applying... but on the toys it looks really great! Way to think outside the toy box.

 

QFT!

dare, props to you for a fantastic find! Your work with what you found is nice too   Good job!

 

I agree, I love me some light piping.

Those things do look good though.

 

Bedazzled!!! LOL These look pretty cool, but I'm not digging how they are circular, wish they made oval ones.