He's got mad skills, I just hope he doesn't get out of his depth or taken advantage of in the switch up from 3D printing to full-scale manufacture, if you know what I mean.

If everything goes okay he's got a hell of a bright future.

 

I don't have any knowledge about it...Is there any reliable way to polish the surface and get rid of those 3D printed lines?

 

More sanding and polishing utilising some liquid/cream would be my guess to eliminate the lines. I’ve not attempted to remove them from the kit.

@Ottertron - totally agree.

 

It usually involves polishing with an acetone-based solution, that lightly melts down the raised edges in the plastic and lets you even out the surface.

Either that, or priming and a whole lot of sanding work.

Either way, a very time-consuming process.

 

What's the story on LikeToys? Are they a group of former FT employees/designers?

 

From what I gather from previous posts they're a 1-3 man team that does 3-D printed upgrade kits for combiners. They also supposedly did some 3rd party TMNT toys listed on ShowZ. But the guy doing this 48" tall Davis Metroplex is a 1-man team who supposedly knows the owners of other 3rd party transformer companies and has access to their factory/machinery. Oh and it can't be stressed enough, he drives a Ford Mustang.

 

i will keep it short and sweet...Nope

 

I'm pretty sure Hutz Lionel is not the designer/printer. So, more than a 1-person operation, but maybe not much more.

 

Some guy who likes transformers and decided to design and 3d print his own figures.

 

Fiero in the shop again?

 

Whoa whoaa, no need to be so showy about it, a classy dude just sends messages directly from the Mustang interface to humble brag on em.

Hey, you guys remember G1 metroplex?



Sent from Teletran-1's 2022 Mustang steering wheel

 

A man... and his Mustang. What a team!

 

Or...now hear me out...

 

Plausible???

 

Had to cancel and request a refund (still processing). I asked before ordering how long it would take to get my kit. I was told 3-4 weeks to get my order. I messaged the guy at week three to see how it was coming along - and his answer was that I was “way down the list.” I asked him what that meant/how much longer it would be and he sent me a screenshot of a list of names - with mine being 15-20 names down. He said that things should get back on track when the Davis/Metroplex prototype was done. I asked for a refund. It was all a big red flag.

I have no problem waiting for stuff. I’ll preorder stuff from proven retailers, like BBTS and Showz, a year before it hits. I don’t like having the full payment for an item, $325, just floating around in the account of a new and unproven player/company. PayPal has a three month deadline for refunds and claims. If I’m 15 or 20 people down the list at week three, I’d probably not get anything before that deadline hit. Especially since that Metroplex isn’t close to being finished and that’s what’s slowing things down. Getting excuses and waiting past the 3 month deadline is how you get scammed. That’s what the Mp Bw guy was doing, last year. Being one of the people THAT guy scammed, I’m more cautious when I see this happening

I told Hutz that I’ll try again after Davis is done and things are back on track. I DO want the kit and I did trust the guy enough to order one. I wanted two, in fact (computron and abominus), but I wanted to get something in hand before sending another $325 for a second kit. Doesn’t look like either is happening anytime soon.

 

See now why can't they just do a transformation like this for an Arcee figure

 

I can certainly understand the timing of what is happening especially considering that the kits are made-to-order customs. It's good to hear that they are getting busy because maybe it will open up some opportunities for him/them to upgrade operations and ultimately improve the quality and retail price point of the products offered. I was just about to pull the trigger and order the Abominus kit for my personal collection. I will now hold off until their bandwidth frees up a bit. Thank you for posting this.

 

Definitely. It all looks great. The people who have them love them. But we’ve seen this with pro customizers in the past, like FrenzyRumble, that when you blow up, you take on more projects than you can handle, and then you get crazy delays, some people get their stuff, and some never do. Just risky until their “bandwidth” clears up (that’s a great analogy, btw)

 

Back in the busy kitbash days (before 3rd party and 3d printing) I loved seeing works from pro customizers like FrenzyRumble and all of those guys. It was just fun to see all of their new creative reveals back then. I wanted very badly to commission a custom but I never pulled the trigger because I knew those guys were so backlogged with commissions. I feel the same way now with Liketoys's kits. I would totally purchase the 3d files and print/build the kits myself if he were to ever release the kits digitally. At the very least, I enjoy seeing the pictures so there is that.