this question occured to me after doing the WJ feet mod. the height increase is actually small but significan enough for me to do this. there's also Ironhide's arm, neck, and height which i did to make it even worthwhile. my self when i look at a toy and i don't seem to like a particular thing i go ahead and mod the toy itself. toy itself is good but sometimes it needs to be adjusted to my liking. i just want to know why you do or don't. i'm talking about cutting certains area or adding something to make it look right (in your eyes.) actually i'm more interested to why people don't modify the toy?
Most of the time, I apply a wash of an appropriate color to bring out details. If a good mod is available, or I can figure one out that doesn't overly affect the figure I usually have tools near me when I open a new figure.
Ayup. Breakaway can look around a little, ROTF prime's eyes and feet hinges look better, turned activator Battlefield Bumblebee into a "bumper" (silvered "hands",silver stripe on head, no horns, shortened chin, he now looks like a racing helmet.) silver highlights on inferno and his fan/friend red alert's helm, to make him look kinda like inferno, lots of silver on "evil wheeljack" (Energon Downshift), silvered bludgeon's noodly wackers, enabled ROTF jolt's head ball joint (no triangle now) and knee swivels, did the "JETFIRE MONSTER GUNS" mod to treadbolt, corrected BWTM2 megatron's neck move gimmick assembly so he can "fly", gave freeway jazz (meister) silver "spats, ear-muff-headphones and glove backs" and gave oil slick's leg lines and "saddle barrel" straps a very dark brown coating, and expanded ROTF legends arcee's face with silvers and a dark blue to not look as tiny.
I will ONLY if you don't have to cut away at the figure itself. I just cant bring myself to do it because I'm afraid I'll screw up, lol.
The only modification I did was an operation on Classics Mirage (cut some bit off so that he's easier to stay in vehicle mode) and opened TFTM Landmine's head to scrape the paint off the light piping. I don't touch my TFs because 1.) I'm often content with what I get... I'm easy to please. 2.) I don't think I have steady enough hands.
i think modifications are always cool to do if it improves the overall figure. My only thing is that if i need to resell the figure down the road, it may/may not hinder the sale of the figure. Some people may think it's a cool custom or a messed up figure. My favorite general mod is to add some additional paint apps, like adding silver to black rims.
i've only done 'soft' modifying,for example,i put a set of reprolabels and a Gear of War missile launcher on Henkei Mirage,and he looks 10 times better.
Just little things. Silver paint on WM red Powerglide, gave wrists to BM Rattrap, Shaved bits and pieces off to improve articulation. Most recently I took a Generations Scourge and gave him a shave and painted his eyes yellow. Just enough to make the sweep slightly different.
It was more of a force mod. I had BW Razorclaw (blue) and then later I got the version that had a video. The gun claw broke on the blue one, since I liked it more I used the other's gun claw. Then a year later that gun claw broke. Since Beast Wars was over with at that point, I combine the two. So now Razorclaw had two big claws and most of the orange been replace with teal. Oddly both small claws broke in the same area.
If there's mold flash I'll trim it off, sometimes I'll do crazier stuff like resculpting heads and whatnot, depends on the figure.
Very few times. The Breakaway Mod. Swapped the head of my Classics Starscream with spare Acid Storm's I and anytime there has been a mis-assembly, like something faced the wrong way. (Legs, arms, levers, etc) Do Reprolables count? But nothing major and/or unecessary. Most of the time I believe some things are done in a certain way for a reason.
Some toys needed it... Windcharger for example was a pile of crap before my dremal got to work. My Sonar toy had both arms on backwards so without modifying he couldn't transform. Firetraps face needing Charadon Granite paint since less than 10% came painted. Some toys ask for it.. Faces painted on Minicons for example, they never had the paint apps but 30 secs of work and there much nicer. Putting the Razorsaw to Lugnut so his fingers are seperately articulated. Some toys I just get bored of... I have customed and rebuilt a bunch of toys just because I can, and its my hobby! So I have no problem sawing up a toy or modding a weapon because it improves it in my opinion. And the Q.C on most recent Toys I have bought, if I wasn't modding them, there glorified GI Joes, since the amount of untransformable Transformers I have had to recut and clean up is getting silly....
It's not a constant thing but I've done a little bit of it yeah. It's mostly done to create new characters, like switching the heads on Heneki Sideswipe and Sunstreaker to make Tigertrack and a new character and just flipping the body around on Generations Red Alert to make Clampdown. I also did the leg mod on Alternators Prowl. Huge improvement on that toy IMO. Nothing I do is that extensive, I'm definitely no customiser.
i guess, for those who don't, i assume you guys don't purchase doubles or more. i built a small custom fodder with unused bots and of course parts through it these years by purchasing more than one copy. if i need something i just look through my custom fodder bin.
Have I done any mods to my TFs? Yes I have: Gave Battle Blade Bumblebee the lower arms of Cannon Bumblebee, made the panels on Recon Ironhide's legs sit flat as they are in truck mode, remove the claw gimmick from Movie 1 Payload, did Matt Booker's Gun, door wing mod to HA Skids plus made the roof/grill assembly removable in robot mode, ROTF Sideswipe windshield slide out in robot mode, Movie 1 Starscream arms and legs removable in jet mode.
Yessur. I find it to be the best part sometimes. Take something that was already cool and make it better. Some of the mods I do, I show my wife and he response is usually, "Why didn't they (Hasbro) do that to begin with?" so it is defintely rewarding in that sense, to improve on an existing idea.
