ok folks here is a how I got rid of hotshots shins; or how I made Super Boots RoadBuster. Equipment needed Super glue gell Exacto Knife Small rare earth magnets file Universe Raodbuster Step 1 Disassemble: the shins/feet are held on with 5 screws. Remove them and set them off to the side. Prise the two halves apart and set the missile pods off to the side. They will fall out so be ready to catch them. Step 2 The back of each leg has a tension box in it. a little spring loaded orange square. since we are using magnest we will not need those. save them for replacement parts on other bashes. Step 3: leg manets The front of each leg part has a seam running down the middle. this is very helpful to find center. the piece you will be drilling is just over 3/8 of an inch long so go up or down 3/16 and mark your drill point. Start small and work your way up. In my example I originally planned to put magnest on the front and the back so I went all the way through. Since front magnets alone were more than enough I scrapped that idea. so you do not have to go all the way through unless you want to. When you have sized your hole use the superglue gel to affix teh magnet in place. tighter is better than looser. Step 4: Shin and leg slide Prep The new legs will slide in and out of the shins being stopped and held by the magnest. For this to happen you will need to shave off the small fins on teh sides of teh upper legs and the small overlap on the tops of the shins. I have circled them, but the lines might be too thin to see unless you blow up the pick. use your exacto to shave off all of those extra bits of plastic and a file or emory board to finish the job. Smooth sanding = smooth glide. Step 5 Shin magnets I glued a pair of magnets into the front of each shin to hodl against the upper leg magnets. If you have thicker magnets or back the one with styrene you will not have to double them up. on the edge of the two shin halves is a divit the tension block used to lock into. this is where you will cut. The magnets will eb glued to the layer behind the divit so the cut away doesnt have to be exact like the drill holes. cut away enough that your magnets can easily fit past them. Once that is done put the legs back together and figure out what side of the magnets needs to face in. Remember like deflects like. they need to be oposites so figure this out before you glue. Apply a small amount of superglue to the outside of the magnet, put it in place, and use your extra magnets to hold it there till it's dry. Make sure you put the missile pods back in before you glue the magnet in. if you use a lot of glue the shins will be permanently attatched and you wont be able to stick them in later if you forget them. REpeat for leg #2. Thats it. As you can see a single magnet set is strong enough to support the entire weight of the figure, and since all fo the modifications are internal there is no need to fill holes or repaint. When you want to transform him just pull your legs off, swap them back and transform as usual. with the legs pushed all the way in there is no need to have and other connections. This was my first how to so I hope it was helpful. If you have any questions please PM me. I will redo the circles when I get a better program to add them on with. Enjoy and good bashing.
Great idea! With Sculptbot's Roadbuster head that would look even better. It's the little things that make all the difference; too bad the little things require a lot of work, tho. ~Z
it looks good yeah, i´m just not feeling it, he loses like 30 missiles and partsforms. For people who dont care about partsforming this one will be a nice mod to do though.
I say good job all in all!! I can live without the missile pods, and I actually like the feet better this way. Parts forming is forgivable, but I can't help but think there is way around it!
There was but I dont think I have the rebuild skill to pull it off. If one were able to work small enough there is an orange piece behind the skirt that could be cut in half and made to rotate. I dont think I would be able to though, there is only about 1/8 of an inch to play with between the screws. I know someone will be able to make a rotating waist and improve on my mod and I would love to see it done but I didnt want to ruin a fig I have been waiting for. parts former, still fully funtional, I cant guarantee he would be if i choped his pelvis in two and tried to make it a swivel joint.
I never quite understood the negative sentiment the customs community harbors toward "parts forming".
It's not just the customs community. Either way, for me it's mostly because by detaching it doesn't really transform. Like i said though, for people who don't mind, this modification is still neat.
still transforms just is altered afterwords. but like teh white prime being magnu argument it will never be decided.
Regarding parts-forming, I grew up during G1. Some of the most enduring and endearing characters are: The Seeker Jets Optimus Prime Shockwave Sunstreaker The list goes on and on. What do they have in common? All parts-formers! Now I do see the other side of the argument. In the customs community we strive to go beyond what's expected or accepted, pushing ourselve's to engineer "a better way" in many cases! My
which is acceptible because they were engineered in the 70s, when I was born. That's just not good enough 30 years later!
Agreed! Point taken. I was born in '70, and I must admit back when G1 hit they were quite astounding feats of engineering! Today they would be as sneered at as dollar store RoadBots KOs!!
I think the mod is great and I'm sure you will have helped at least a few people work something out that was otherwise a mystery. I still think the adding a waist that rotates would have been the best solution cuz then you get waist articulation in a figure that lacks a lot of articulation to begin with
yeah I think that would be the best solution too, but if you have seen his waist you know there is very little rom to play with behing that green skirt. If I get another I may try that venue, until then I went with what I knew I could accomplish and acomplish well.
