Or how NOT to do the leg swap! I think think is the right forum for this. I have no pics so probably not the Radicons forum (though mod, please feel free to move this thread if it does fit better there somehow) and I thought my experience so embarassing it must not be burried as a simple one off post in the Sideswipe feedback forum thread. So last week I found Universe Sideswipe! (Joy! Bliss! Rapture!) Only to find my toy had a flaw. One of his black knee joints was put in backwards! Which meant that his leg bent backwards at the knee. Has anyone else had this problem with their figure? Now I have never kitbashed anything in my life and thought that this would be a good chance for my first try and a perfect excuse to do the leg swap. It sounded like an easy beginner project. How hard could it be right? Mistake #1 - starting off on the wrong leg, literally. Yeah, I started unscrewing the wrong leg first (the one that didn't have the backwards joint, but no big deal right, after all you have to unscrew both legs for this project anyway). Mistake #2 - not realizing right away that it would take unscrewing THREE screws not just one to remove the leg. I unscrewed the one up closest to the knee joint thinking the screw was the only thing holding it in place. But apparently there was red plastic that also held the joint in place even after the screw was out. Mistake #3 - being impatient. Instead of immediately trying to unscrew the other two screws I got another idea that only comes to impatent people who have never kitbashed before. I'd just ease the red plastic out of there as gently as possible. SNAP! Mistake #4 - I BROKE MY TOY! I'm usually so good with my toys, in fact the only TF I had ever broken before was my G1 Hook as a kid (before I got another along with the rest on the Construticons to complete my Desvistor, but I digress). But as soon as I got over that I realized I wouldn't have to buy another Sideswipe, the stress has snapped the back part of his leg simply by the lower screw, easliy fixable with a little glue and would be held back in place once the screw I removed was back in. It was on the back side of the toy so it wasn't that visible anyways and didn't affect the transformation at all. No big. But I had come this far in my kitbashing and if I could get over some breakage I might as well carry on with the legswap, I mean it's not like anything worse could happen right? Mistake #4 - Wearing out the inside of the screw heads of some very tight screws to the point my Phillips was spinning around in circles and I was left with no way to get them out. Actually I managed to only half do this with the second screw which came out after a frustrating ten minutes. The screw down by the foot joint though proved impossible to remove. However the leg was removable after all due to the earlier breakage however this leads back to mistake #1. What more could go wrong? Mistake #5 - realizing that my toy's feet were of the type that wouldn't have allowed my Sideswipe to stand up properly even if I was able to pull off the leg swap (see this problem discussed at length in the fSideswipe feedback thread). Actually I had experimented with this before I even began this sad project and honestly thought I had it figured out only to realize I'd jumped the gun. So there I am with a broken toy with a backwards knee joint and the wrong leg removed. I decided to give up...sorta. I glued up the broken leg and screwed the two screws I had removed back in as nice and tight as I could and let him dry for a few hours while I went out on a date with my boyfriend and got broken toys off my mind, but on the ride back to my place, thoughts of Sideswipe reared it's head to again plague me. Bad solution #1 - live with a Sideswipe with a broken knee joint. After all he could stand up and transform fine, who needed cool poses. Unfortunately after all my efforts this didn't satisfy me, it felt more like giving up. Bad solution # 2 - try unscrewing the joints on the other leg and even if I wore out the screws heads inside the two lower screws, I could at least be able to get the screw up by the knee joint out then I could break the other leg in the same place and at least turn the knee join around. But of course, who wants to deliberately break their toys even if it's to fix a backwards knee joint. The REAL and OBVIOUS soution - let my boyfriend try! And yup, in no less than five minutes he'd unscrewed the other leg, I turned the knee joint around proper, and he screwed Sideswipe back up for me, leading me to realize that the sad truth of mistake #4 was that I a weakling girl and kitbash requires big strong manly hand like my boyfriend has. And voila Sideswipe was fixed! No leg swap, but back the way he should have been with his knees bending the right direction and only a small breakage "scar" to show for it. Yea! Now my Sidewipe is sitting next to my Sunstreaker on my desk ready to serve as my latest fanfic muses. So there's my story I thought I'd share, and why if I ever get around to making the extra Classics Starscream I bought a couple years ago to into Classics Thundercracker, I'll be sure to make a date out of it.
That's a neat story. So far the only problems I've had opening things were with TRU jetstorm and Acid Storm. When I got Jetstorm, I didn't realize you had to push on the thrusters to make them make noise and light up, so I unscrewed the entire tail assembly (6-10 screws of varying sizes and about 3-5 springs) then I realized I was stupid and put the thing back together. With Acid Storm, I took him apart to paint and lost a spring for his leg. I still don't know what I'm gonna do about that...
The nice thing about bashing/modifying current toys is there's gonna be another one available at the store (eventually) if things get messed up.
Not quite as bad, but I ran into a lot of problems swapbashing tigertracks and redsun streaker. Mistake #1: Swapped the legs at the yellow/red piece. The black pegs were different sizes so it snapped. Doh!!!! Better solution is to unscrew the thighs and swap them there. Mistake #2: My first time dealing with the mushroom screws when swapping the chests. Forgot I had a soldering iron and used a hair dryer. Sideswipe's chest piece has some issues to begin with. It looks worse when it's partially melted. . . Mistake #3. When I swapped the chest pieces, I kept the two sliding pieces attached to the hood with the hood. They weren't the same size so the hood was loose on one body and super tight on the other!!!!. When swapping hoods, keep the sliding part with the main body. Mistake #4. The doors. Tried removing the pegs first but couldn't find my correct tools. Tried angling the screwdriver to unscrew. It's easy to get unscrewed, not so easy to screw back in. Finally, accidently learned that YES, the doors do pop off. But by this time my doors are already unscrewed so I had to use pliers to pop the screws out, screw it back onto the door, and pop it back into the correct figure. Had to buy an extra sideswipe to fix my mistakes but it's all done now and it looks good.
Roadrager - the red sunstreaker. The engine is on his chest to give him some tough guy botliness. The gun is flipped backwards like iron knuckles. I sharpied his head red. Sunstreaker is sunstreaker. Need to tilt him all the way. Sideswipe has his guns on his shoulders. I did the leg mod but it's not very stable. Tigertracks looks good in white. He's got the supercharger gun. I need to sharpie the orange part on his shoulders black once I find my black one. He's slightly mistransformed as the chest is too high so the head looks low. For those people too lazy to swap out the white/gray part attached to the hood, it does make a difference in look. Tried a different leg look for him. It's more stable and does give you the G1 feel, but no knees (so I guess that makes it even more G1, =D). P.S. I know i've got a lot of crap in the background. Too lazy to clean it.
