Howdy fellow bot fans.. sorry this is gonna be a bit of a long post, but hopefully the pictures will help space things out LOL Kids have recently blown through the available Rescue Bots episodes on Netflix (any ideas where to watch the other seasons?) and I wanted to make a set of… more “grown up” versions of the Rescue bots team. This is still a work in progress and I would appreciate any input / feedback / constructive thoughts. These were heavily based upon the following render done by thedream86 on deviantart: Also, it was partly spurred on by the custom titans return rescue bots thread posted by AutobotSparklight here on the TF forums. Like her, I ordered the four custom 3D printed heads off of Shapeways but ended up only using 3 of them due to size differences. I added and modified a few things to maybe slightly better emulate a few of the vehicle / bot characteristics that I think define the characters. With the exception of Heatwave, I ended up basically milling / sanding down the heads of the other three, preserving the rear portion of the OEM head and epoxying on the front 3D printed head. When possible, I tried to preserve any inherent light piping, as I find that to be a pretty cool (and IMHO underutilized) feature. Boulder: based off of Generations Scoop, with custom head. It’s not a perfect match in either mode, but there are no TFs that I could find where a bulldozer type vehicle uses the scoop as the legs and feet, so I guess this was about the closest I could find. I looked at some of the 3rd party bots too, but was unable to find anything quite right… *maybe* Cybertron Landmine might have worked a bit better? But I already had a copy of Scoop in hand (and he scales well with Blades and Chase), so… Heatwave: Based off of the Protectorbot Hot Spot 2 pack figure (nearly the same mold as RTS Grapple and Universe Inferno). I chose this one cause the molded plastic is a bit of a brighter red, as opposed to the slightly darker red of the Inferno mold. Also, Hot Spot already comes with blue tinted windows. I ended up designing and 3D printing a sliding extendable ladder, and the necessary mounting bracket parts. Had to source a couple of pins from the local hardware store. Removed the OEM arm boom / crane hook thingy. 3D printed his hand / forearm water blaster jets, and used a combination of Dremel / sculpting epoxy to redo the head. This is one where the Shapeways Heatwave head was simply too small. I think the results came out quite good, though. 3D printed the brim and “ears” to make his fire helmet. I also cut down and glued his visor, using a piece of light blue lighting color filter material. I also ended up cutting down and shortening his front bumper (no idea why it was molded to be so prominent). I also prefer to keep it attached up instead of flipped down – I feel it emulates Heatwave’s cartoon bot mode a bit better that way. Chase: based off of generations Bumblebee, specifically because of his clear plastic windows. Chase in the cartoon has yellow / gold windows, so I wanted to copy that appearance by spraying the backside of the windshield. I originally wanted to try a candy yellow for this effect… Didn’t quite work out correctly though. 3D printed a police light bar siren and glued it in place. Unfortunately, there’s no good way to easily have it flip up to mount behind his head in bot mode without partsforming. Blades: here is where I made the largest deviation from the render. I decided to use Studio Series 45 Drift as a base donor. I felt his rounded chest shape and pre-formed car grille made it easier to emulate Blade’s cockpit glass. Also, it allowed me to design and 3D print a set of “pontoons”. In the cartoon, Blades is a two seater (maybe occasionally 3 seater) bubble dome helicopter, and I thought in terms of scale and overall appearance, Drift fit the bill. We still have the large (albeit a bit more pointed nose) cockpit glass that, like Hot Spot, is already pre-tinted blue. He still partsforms his large helicopter blades though.. So I guess he has a set of swords that he can hold if he really wanted to. I cut down his backpack set of blades so they’re not as prominent as on drift. The kids commented that Blades didn’t have as long a tail as Drift, so I also cut down his tail boom a bit. I tried 3D printing a few things to recreate his rear rotor and tail wing but they didn’t quite look right so I guess that’s still a work in progress. The best I could come up with was a set of winglets with rotatable fanblades kind of like what Windblade uses. These looked ok and promising, but I also would have liked them to be able to fold up and away in bot mode so they don’t stick out quite so much. The small size made it difficult to achieve a good result (so far). Any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated. Finally, as an added bonus, I’m thinking about making a custom Quickshadow. So far, the best two donor molds that I can find are Cyberverse Bumblebee and RID Alpine strike Drift. There are characteristics of both that I like as far as being transformed into Quickshadow. Size is closer for Bee I think, although the front section might have to be remolded a bit to be more like Cyberverse spark warrior class drift (I considered using this mold as a donor, but the silly sword gimmick is… Ugh. I would probably have to redesign the entire right arm for that to work for to my liking. Not completely out of the question, but… Anyhow, I would appreciate any other thoughts? Ideas / suggestions? I’m sure there are molds I haven’t seen or thought of yet. To my eye, Quickshadow’s alt mode is soft of like a cross between an Audi R8 / Audi TT / Nissan GT-R / Nissan 350Z, so I’ve been using that as a visual guide. Additionally, I tried to find a donor bot where the arms / legs / and chest are similar or easily workable to better mimic her figure. For instance, for the RID Drift, I would just have to reform the chest with some sculpting epoxy and obviously remake a head from scratch. Similarly, for the Cyberverse Bee, I would mostly just paint and redesign a head, and reform the chest a bit. Cheers! -C
They look great! Will you make the new recruits? Siege mirage would work for Blurr, if you don't just use the RID Warrior.
Mainly Quickshadow... Maybe High Tide if I get around to it and can find a suitable donor mold. Wasn't quite going to do Blurr, but I guess I'll see what the kids think..
the cartoon wasnt my cup of tea, but these look like a missed opportunity by Hasbro. these look great.
you forgot to paint the A pillars on chase also someone already did quick shadow with the cyberverse bumble bee
Excellent work! I'm surprised we officially haven't seen any bleed through from RB into the main line.
These look great! I’m only now starting to watch the series with my 2 year old, and new rescue bots would be awesome! I briefly skimmed your comments about each and saw you might want a better Boulder figure(even tho yours looks great) and I was reminded of Armada Scavenger: He has the tread arms, and the scoop feet. The downside is he has NO leg articulation, due to his “walking” gimmick. Also he’s HUGE compared to the other 3. Just fun food for thought…
Great work - will you give us an overview of what you did for Blades? You went into pretty thorough detail for the others...
For…blades? I thought it was a pretty complete description in the OP above… BTW if people want the STL files LMK.
you mean as a donor mold for Quicksilver? Yes I had considered his mold, but I don't really feel that the classic Porsche is *quite* the right silhouette for Quicksilver... Now Animated (or even maybe Reveal the shield) Jazz on the other hand.. that *might* be a possibility (I have one of those coming in the mail shortly). For now, Bee still takes the cake. I have another couple potential donors coming as well. Will post updates when I have something more substantial to contribute