By Generation: Universe 2.0 Dinobot - Raptor Robot Kibble Fix

Discussion in 'Tutorials and How Tos' started by Matt Booker, Nov 18, 2012.

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  1. Matt Booker

    Matt Booker Fantasy Adventure Author

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    Universe Dinobot isn’t a bad Transformer, even if the color scheme is a bit questionable. It’s got a decent robot mode, but while the dinosaur mode is better than the original, it doesn’t even try to hide the robot arms.

    Take a look at this picture in the TFW2005 Resources section:

    [​IMG]


    The raptor thighs don’t cover the robot thighs, but I’m okay with that. They may not look great from the front, but at least they look good from the side. But the robot hands, they stick out under the dinosaur face and don’t look good from any angle.

    The mod for how to fix this is easy, and doesn’t require cutting the figure or even gluing it.


    Step 1 – Swap The Arms

    Yep. Just swap the arms. The shoulders are on balljoints so they pop off and on with no problems.

    The arms are backward at this point, so you’ll have to turn them around at the upper arm swivel.

    Before you complain about the fingers and thumbs being reversed, read on to the next step!


    Step 2 – Swap The Fingers And Thumbs

    The fingers and thumbs are on pin joints, so you might think that swapping them won’t be as easy as the arms were. Normally, that would be right. Pin removal can be difficult, after all.

    But this step doesn’t require pin removal! Dinobot’s fingers and thumbs are made from rubbery plastic, and they can be removed by easily bending one side off the pin and then sliding the other side off as well. It doesn’t damage the plastic, and you can use the same method to put them back on after swapping them.

    [​IMG]


    Step 3 – Filler!

    Now that the fingers and thumbs are swapped, Dinobot’s hands look good but the arms have hollow spots. Those spots could be filled by anything you want, whether spare plastic to look like techno bits or if you want to sculpt and paint matching dino bits. What I used was a spare twist tie. Dinobot has bone spikes as a theme in his robot mode, and the look of a coiled twist tie matches that. Get a longer twist tie and wrap a section around a pen. Once you’ve wrapped it around twice, cut off that section and make another.

    Two coils are all you need for each arm, each with the tips pointing the same way. They should be just big enough to fit tightly in the hollow upper arms. This will take some massaging, but keep adjusting it until it looks good.

    [​IMG]


    The robot fist is still showing, and there are two hollow sections where the show accurate thumbs would fit before the mod, but those don’t bother me much. A couple of twist tie pieces could be glued in the hollow sections, and the robot fist could be covered up with some plastic scraps or even sculpted over.

    But with the mods so far, the robot mode already looks great.

    [​IMG]


    But the bot mode already looked good. So where’s this improved dinosaur mode?

    To get to that, you have to alter the transformation. Swapping the arms was the important part for this, with the other stuff just being cosmetic changes to the robot mode. Before, the arms would fold up onto the chest. The upper arms still form the chest, but now the lower arms fold down between the legs. Just turn the arms so that what is now the outer edges are facing each other. The dinosaur skin should be facing the outside, and the lower arms form the gut.

    [​IMG]


    Fold the robot mode fingers together and they’ll sit snugly up against the trigger/storage hook on the tail.

    Take a look at this picture:

    [​IMG]



    Compare that with this.

    [​IMG]


    The arms are easy to swap, so try it out and see if you like it. Dinobot has a bit of a bigger gut in dinosaur mode, but the difference in hand is significantly better. The robot fingers are still just folded up, but they’re hidden between Dinobot’s dinosaur legs. It does, however, look like HP Lovecraft’s interpretation of goatse.

    [​IMG]

    :eek: 

    ~Matt Booker


    No problem. Seeing the gut area on an unmodded version looks really empty now. This looks a lot more natural, especially considering your link.

    But it's something best seen in hand. Since all that really needs done to try it out is swapping the arms, it's easy to try out if you've got a Dinobot.
     

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    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 21, 2012
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