About the lore: So Colossus is basically reined in by his right arm? That seems inefficient, since the combined mode's psychological stability would be compromised if something happened to Explorer (as hinted at here)...but now is not the time to nitpick third party lore (especially third party lore that is probably G1 based). Though, now I'm curious to see what lore for other Third Party figures is like. I'm sure they're based on Transformers Canon, being based on Transformers characters and all, but I wonder how much was kept for the third party bios (like, for instance, whether Paladin/Chaos is an ancient demigod, or if the whole Dead Universe debacle happened to Hyper Novae).
Actually, it's pretty interesting if you read through it, and not at ALL like the G1 story. Colossus ISN'T efficient. Explorer was originally a scientist working to replicate a 'natural' combiner, the Antegean Assemblage (Superion). His initial prototype was the regular, unenhanced Energon Bruticus. He replicated the symmetry of AA's natural sparkbrothers through spark splicing and cloning, creating physically identical limbs which should have had perfect synch between their identical sparks. The project was ambitious, and there were several iterations planned, and even in development. However, even cloned sparks weren't perfectly harmonized, and the discord between them caused the prototype Colossus to go insane. He rampaged through the base, and eventually plowed into the reactor, killing a number of those working there, and destroying half of the combiner. Explorer was pulled on the carpet, and informed that he had one last chance to make the combiner work, or he would be melted down with it. Feverishly he tried to solve the problem, but could only find one workaround solution: Override the madness with a stronger will. He was given no more time or resources, so he had to work with what he had. He pulled Munitioner from the Second Generation Colossus, and modified him to take on the load of munitions and weapons management, freeing him to focus all of his faculties on controlling the beast. He was forced to rebuild HIMSELF to become part of the combiner, in order to avoid being executed. The result was asymmetrical, and unstable, but brutally effective, and so he got a stay of execution, and the technology was further developed. However, Colossus himself was considered a dead end, and Explorer was dropped from the project. Actually, they can be surprisingly creative.
Nope. I love the Battle Tankers in general, but I've been waiting on the Nemesis version of the mold, and with so much other stuff to get this one keep falling off the bottom of the list.
Notes: Zombie thread alert! The COVID-19 quarantine has me bored AF and so I decided to bust out the toys and do some playing. Hopefully I actually finish this, and don't let it spiral out of control. Also, ever since the fall of Flickr, what do people do for image hosting? I uploaded these to TFW directly, but I already sense the mods looking at me disapprovingly. FB probably doesn't care about the bandwidth, but I also don't know if they allow hotlinking, and they also tend to raep pictures. Someone advise me please!
THIS! although you have to stitch things together into a single image if you go with dA. but if it works for 2 people, i should work for you. also AWESOME UPDATE!!!!