So am I the only one wondering if the ER G2 Megatron chest upgrade could work on the siege mold?

oooOOOOoooooo..... I like the flatbed. the sky shadow blasters also speak to me.

 

Shockwave Lab is doing a version of their Scorponok claw light for Black Zarak. I would say most of their LED kits have been miss rather than hit. Last thing we need are even brighter uncovered LEDs.


Tim Heada posted stock pics of their upcoming claw accessory. It's supposed to be for the MMC NP figure although can work on others. Very tempting but also very weary of the usual Tim Heada QC issues. Tim has done some great individual pieces before but there have been so many qc problems too.

There have been at least 4 previously from the major groups.

The 115 kit was one of their first ones...which has some of their now classic QC issues. The only thing we still use from that kit are the gap fillers, which actually fit. The blasters had some peg / port wonkiness but not as bad as some of their later kits. The feet cover is garbage.

Didn't touch the Ratchet Studio gap filler set. Ratchet Studio also is notorious for rampant QC problems.

Shockwave Lab made a light for the cab. Still may end up getting that one eventually.

DNA Design's is probably the most popular one...and most broken. Extremely disappointed by how it turned out. The QC issues are way too many to list. Avoid. Thankfully DNA started improving after the UM/GUOP leg kits.

It was noted on ZX's weibo page, which I'm sure most people won't even read. Of course, not all auction listings will have the relevant info either. 3d printed split prongs are extremely rare for a reason. Should've been done in 2 parts with a peg on one side and a retaining ring on the other.

On a side note, for the stock claws, inserting a 5mm-ish plug will reinforce the split peg as not to fall out. Granted, only odd people like myself have 5mm pegs laying around.

 

More sets on eBay:

Tim Heada (again, be weary of potential qc issues) Replacement head for Last Knight Megatron. Was the original head that bad? Not sure if it's just the pic quality, but is this new head made of nylon?
3D DIY Replacement Head For Voyager Megatron Movie 5 The Last Knight -TIM Studio | eBay


Tim Heada (again, potential QC warning) blasters that are being sold as CW/POTP combiner port adapters for WFC weaponizer parts. The bare white barrels are a total eyesore.
Double Gun Upgrade Kit For Combiner Wars Siege Universal Combining Fixed Weapon | eBay


Dinobot mold rotating tail adapters by ? Group.
New 3D DIY Tail Rotating Accessories Upgrade Kit For Kingdom Dinobot Grimlock | eBay

 

No, while the original head and other minor parts of the figure aren't 100% accurate to the CGI model (which a SS version will eventually fix) this is so that you can have the battle mask for voyager since he didn't have the battle mask feature the leader did.

 

WOO! Definitely tempted by this one.

 

I would prefer arm fillers over a new head sculpt personally.

 

Nobody has tried the BDT Airazor set yet? I want to know how good it is for a potential reuse for Skywarp.

Do you know what would be cool too? A shield that has some feather-like texture that can go in the chest of the bird mode (which would complement the use of the swords for Skywarp).

 

Maybe this is a case of "Your milage may vary," and I just got lucky. But I, personally, am very happy with the DNA kit. It solved the two biggest issues I had with the mold, that being the wheel repositioning for the alt mode and the gap fillers for the silver pylons. The new weapons were a bonus... On one hand, they feel tacked onto this kit as something more for the Magnus versions of the kit. On the other hand, it's this version of the kit that actually has good storage for these weapons. The extra height is also nice. I didn't feel the figure was a failure without it, but I am not hating on having it. Everything fits fine. Color matching is decent. I like this kit.

As for this arm upgrade someone else posted a page or so back... That looks really nice. But not $45 nice. The DNA kit gave me two whole new legs (amongst other things) for $25 or $30. This gives me some cosmetic panels that just cover up an existing arm (not that I would want to have to rip it of, mind you) for $45? Get outta here!

 

The problem with the DNA kit wasn't that it failed to solve the issues it set out to. It definitely did- filled arms for GUOP, moved the wheels for Magnus, improved the thigh proportions for armored mode but still collapsed without partsforming for truck mode. The issue a lot of us had was that it created two new problems, namely that the little claws on the legs had a death grip on the truck panels in alt mode but made a super loose connection to the leg armor in robot mode. Combine that with poor QC/materials- the shins pulled away from the legs, and the gray claw bits constantly popped out- and I eventually just removed the kit from Magnus. GUOP still has his installed, but that's because he's been in storage while Magnus was on my desk until the Kingdom version arrived.

 

I must have gotten really lucky then, because I had none of those issues with my GUOP kit.

 

I rag on 115 a lot but their gap fillers were a lot better. They actually stayed in place over time (dna ones kept coming out after use) and covered up more.

The DNA thighs weren't even molded correctly for proper clearance in alt mode, which is why the legs aren't aligned.

It should've came with its own set of wheels.

The hinges are so janky looking and, again, aren't even aligned properly in alt mode.

If your legs haven't fallen apart yet, then just wait.

 

I'll have to get mine out of storage, but I do remember the issues being worse on Magnus.

 

I've never had the gap fillers fall out.

My legs are aligned just fine.

This was actually a selling point to me. How many upgrade kits have there been over the years with wheels that were close to the ones on the base figure, but just off enough to stick out like a sore thumb? Was moving the wheels annoying? Yeah. But it was a one time annoyance, and all of the wheels match perfectly.

Which hinges are you referring to? None of the hinges on mine seem janky or seem to cause anything to be misaligned. The only thing that looks a little odd is the armature that the repositioning wheels is mounted on... But I'm not sure how else that could have been achieved without making those wheels partsforming, and I am cool with how they did it.

Had this kit installed for just about a year now. Transform it regularly. Still seems solid to me.

I'm not trying to say that no one had problems with this kit... And maybe you got hit particularly bad. If so, I'm sorry that happened, and sucks that you couldn't have contacted your seller to try and get a set that wasn't as faulty. But unless I am the most lucky sun of a gun in the world and I got the only non-faulty set, I feel like you're being a bit unfair

 

I never bothered with the Magnus versions. The added height that so many kits (including this one) seem to focus on wasn't a selling point to me. The only Magnus I have from this mold is the Kingdom version, and the only thing that really bugs me are the hollow shoulder pylons. And the DNA kits didn't address that with Magnus. Hoping to grab the JRC Design pieces for that eventually.

 

If you happen to like a bad kit, then great, that's fine. Don't expect everyone else to feel the same way.

It's not unfair to call out a crap kit for being crap. When the UM/GUOP kits first came out, they were being panned left and right for various QC and design issues...and rightfully so. You can go back and read through all the various complaint posts about them. I was by far not the only person.

People need to know if something has the potential to be a bad kit to avoid wasting even more money on this hobby. The base figures are expensive enough to collect.

If your set had a little bit more glue than seemingly everyone else here, then great.

If you fail to notice alignment issues, then that's totally your fault. The hinged wheel isn't level with the other wheels in alt mode. The thighs weren't designed proper to have proper clearance in the hip joints. So, they don't sit flush in alt mode. The legs are then not aligned. It's hard not to notice how the leg connectors near the feet are crooked instead of being straight.

Considering they scratch made new legs, the knee joints look terrible and janky. I can see why DNA decided not to show pics from all angles, because it looks awful:



And as bad as the GUOP kits turned out, the UM ones were even worse based on all the other complaint posts. We only had the GUOP kit and skipped the UM ones after seeing how bad it was.

 

Yikes that's bad

 

I don't expect everyone to feel the same way. In fact, I very early on said this could be a case of, "your milage may vary." But you seem to be going to great lengths to tell me how wrong I am for not having the same experience with this kit as you. To the point that you assured me it was only a matter of time before mine fell apart. So which of us is demanding that everyone feel the same way?

Quite right that calling crap crap is not unfair. What is unfair is being completely dismissive of opinions that don't match your own. I saw bad reviews of this kit before buying. I saw good reviews. I had a decent (although admittedly not perfect) experience with a previous DNA kit that I saw similar mixed reaction on, and this kit for Prime, if it worked, did everything I wanted at a decent price. So I took a chance, and haven't regretted it once.

Maybe I am slightly more forgiving of third parties? I don't know. I do know that they are small operations offering niche items, not major corporations like Hasbro. And I have seen some terrible QC from Hasbro at times! So I really enjoy reviews of products (both official and third party), and I look for bad experiences and good ones. And when relating my own experiences, I try to be honest. If I dislike something I will say so and say why. But I won't rag on someone else if they do like that same thing.

Obviously we have different opinions on this kit. Awesome. People can see these differing opinions and make more informed decisions for themselves. How about we leave it at that and get back to general upgrade kit discussion?

 

Hmm, then by what you're saying, you shouldn't have even responded to my posts in the first place. I gave a viewpoint 1st, you responded, and then I responded in kind...with actual details about the issues. Not just hearsay.

When people were mentioning their legs falling apart, they weren't joking or exaggerating. I had read about it and then happened right away on ours:


If your experience seems to be good QC on a kit well known to have QC problems, then something is amiss. I'm very curious about that. If there's actual running changes (the DK-13 and 14 sets had one more production run), then I wanna hear about it. From what limited info I've heard from others, it's none. If it's just a better glue job, then ok, that can count, and I'll keep that in mind. I glued ours together but didn't fix any of the other problems.

I also recall starting this thread to stop discussing general upgrade stuff in other threads. I'm not the end all be all of upgrade stuff, but I've probably poured much more money into upgrade kits than 95% of the people on this board...with a high amount of regret afterward on bad kits. I'm glad to pass on that knowledge to others.

 

BLACK GETTER

 

Has there been any kits to improve Siege Omega Supreme's shoulders?

I love the figure but every time I look at him I can't help but feel that if he had some plug on shoulder pads that sit on top of his regular shoulders to beef them up a bit it would improve his proportions some.

Also wish we'd got a replacement clear visor similar to how we had clear Grimlock chest pieces available.