New pics of MW-30 upgrade kit for Earthrise Wheeljack:

 

New pics of MW-31 Roller/Jetpack for Earthrise Optimus Prime:

 

New pics of MW-32 upgrade kit for Earthrise Hoist:

 

Damn. Whatever happened to the Volcanicus guns? Haven't seen anything of them in a while.

 

I was hoping for this, the stock-nozzle gun is just too much like an oversized traffic cone. Granted I do wish it was smaller, but still an improvement. This'll probably be my first Matrix buy.

 

Soon, they are still happening

 

Hmm, going to pass on Hoist. Taking off the mushroom port hands for the pew pews is going to make changing to alt mode extremely annoying.

I see that the backpack on OP is not butt flap compatible. I think I'll still end up getting that one as well as the ZXB kit to compare.

 

I plan on mounting the pew pews on his shoulders, like smokestacks/cannons :-D

 

Very nice. Looking forward to this the roller pack My big hope is I can dock him between the wheels of the trailer so I can get both roller sets.

 

I wonder if those weapons could be mounted on the back in robot mode like the original toy.

 

The picture up there shows the tow ramp folded up and storing the two smaller pew pews. That's how the backpack is in robot mode; then they would point down.

Edit: Actually, forgot about the side ports in there too but not sure if the pegs on the Hoist set will be long enough.

This is with the Prowl set as an example:


I did mods to make the Prowl set fit properly (oversized pegs) and look proper (repainted due to scuffed paint and wrong paint colors).

 

Wheeljack's looks amazing, Hoist looks good, but I am not 100% sure if I will get it (which means I will probably get it in 3 months). 50/50 about Optimus's, but again, that means I'll probably get it in 3 months

 

What'd the cable on wheeljack's bazooka made of?

 

Likely flexible/rubbery plastic.

 

I have never been an upgrade kit guy but I have started watching these Matrix Workshop kits lately and I am feeling them. Anybody that has them, how's the quality? Like do they look/feel like they are 3d printed or are they injection molded or what?

 

3D printed then painted

 

They are good, but they can be warped out of the box due to the 3d printing on thinner plastic. You can fix it with hot water or a blow dryer. Had that problem on Ironhide's sniper rifle, but it was easily fixed. You will have that 3d printed texture but its very light and often not noticeable unless you have it like 5 inches from your face. The paint seems pretty resilient but it will come off if you scrape it badly. Like placing a painted peg into a very tight hole. I assume that is why they leave the handles unpainted. I made rifles out of the silver weapons for the Elita combiner and I know if I pull them apart some of the paint will have come off.

 

MW kits have gotten better starting with the Ratchet set (mw21). Used to have all sort of issues with pegs not fitting or working...like entire weapons sets not working at all.

There are now several groups that do 3d printing. Haven’t tested them all out in person. Have tried MW, Shockwave Lab, 115 Utopia, and GX Studio.

The first 3 are comparable with each other. Print quality is higher than what most home printers are capable of (factory quality) but obviously still look 3d printed. Most of their kits are painted over white PLA. 3d printed pieces are going to be fragile compared to regular plastic pieces. They just snap rather than warp first.

GX Studio either sands and/or uses a ridiculously high print resolution. These ones actually can look like injection molding when painted over. Their bare PLA is extremely smooth.

MW and Shockwave Labs have put out the most 3d printed kits.

Beware of Shockwave Lab’s LED kits, though. Earlier kits didn’t even work right since the batteries didn’t touch the contacts properly. All their kits so far have bare (uncovered), blinding LEDs. Just awful LED kits out the box. One fix is to disassemble the whole kit and put white vinyl tape over the LED.

I did try one “garage kit” from Tim Heada. Worst 3d printed kit I have ever tried and will not buy again.

For all painted kits, recommend some type of clear coat or varnish sprays to protect the paint scheme. Some will dissolve or smudge metallic paints, though, so need to choose wisely for those. I use Tamiya clear spray paint if no metallic paint is present. If so, then I use krylon uv archival spray.

 

The ones I bought are good quality, and look great, but the pegs and holes are almost never the exact right size and need sanding or filing down. Just something to be prepared for whenever you buy 3D-printed weapons.

 

As other have mentioned, they're 3D printed. But they are the best that I've seen. Unless you look very closely, you can't tell. I've avoided any 3D print that has any type of noticeable grain. I usually stick with Nonnef's molds since they look great.

Have you tried the Alclad Aqua Gloss? I use it for my normal painting, but haven't tried it on the MW pieces.