But everyone wants accessory packs and hands/feet for their combiners. TDW and DNA continue to prove that. PE was untouchable at one point, they were the go-to, and now they're just...gone.

 

Superman Studios hinged Galvatron arm covers:
3D DIY Arm Cover Filler Upgrade Kit For Kingdom Galvatron Pre-sale! | eBay

They seemed to have fallen off the face of the planet. Last new release was June 2020 with the Honor and Dark Warrior figures...which weren't very good. The Berserker swords were the best part.

 

Such a shame. I was transforming Devastator and was reminded of their solid designs/plastics and now I'm sad.

 

Maybe they wanted to do something different. You said one part of them started their own line of transforming toys.
The others probably got tired of what they had been doing and decided that was a good jumping off point.
They did have some good kits. I bought all of their combiner wars hands and feet. Never cared for the weapon modes, but they did what I wanted them for.

 

DNA Design DK-18 Studio Series Shockwave Kit

This kit was looking like vaporware and finally came out a month ago in Asia. Picked this one up from The Chosen Prime. S&H is a bit steep, so I ordered along with some other stuff too. Considering DNA's history of having major QC and design botches, this kit turned out well. There are some minor things, but no major flaws

Comes with 3 assembled replacement pieces: right cannon arm, left arm, and blade. There are NO rubbery parts with this one. Installation involves removing the stock arms at the mushroom joints, which is easy. The tube is removed from the stock arm and replaced into the new arm. The cannon arm has a new retractable cannon feature. The left hand features (partially) articulated fingers: just at the bases. The left hand now has new wrist rotation. The new arm blade is now extendable.

The paint match is great. The deco looks great. The plastic itself has that cheap 3p feeling, though. The new pieces are at least a little heavier than stock. The arm blade however changes the silver paint over to gold. To me, that still looks pretty good.

There are some minor issues. The cannon rotates when retracting...which then adds a spiral groove to the cannon. To me, this was over-engineered. The cannon didn't need to rotate at all and a simpler retracting mechanism would've been just fine. The stock rubber hose doesn't stay in as well when stretched or pulled at. I can see some of the rubber bits from the stop part of the tube start to come off, which may have something to do with it. There's a panel that opens up on the cannon arm for the cannon retraction feature, however, the panel doesn't close shut. Mine had a decent amount of the sprue left on, which I then cut off. The fit will still be rather tight but was then able to close fully. Still not easy to open back up again due to how tight it is. The panel also doesn't close fully, on purpose, when the cannon is retracted. The finger spacing on the left hand isn't even as the stock hand is. The bottom two fingers are a little closer than they should be.

Also would have liked blast effects compatibility with the cannon. I suppose I can make an adapter later.

Overall, great kit. This is my 3rd kit in a row without major QC botches (also liked the 1st two Scorponok kits; will not touch the 3rd kit with a 10 ft pole).

Contents and comparisons: DNA on left, stock on right.


The colors and deco look great. The left wrist is able to rotate, which makes the hand-supporting-cannon pose work.


This view includes the new extending feature of the arm blade.


The fingers have articulation only at the bases in one axis. It may not seem evident here but the last two fingers are a bit closer to each other than they should be. This view also shows the new mushroom peg for full wrist rotation.


The corkscrew retracting feature of the cannon adds a corkscrew groove to the cannon...a simple retracting cannon would have been just fine and wouldn't need that groove.


When retracted, the cover panel doesn't close all the way.


Even with the cannon fully extended, the cover panel on ours didn't close all the way. The spacing is too tight, but even then, ours had a bit of extra sprue still attached. Had to use a razor to get that off for the panel to fully close.


During transformation, everything worked fine. All the ports for the stock tabs worked just fine.


This is a different view. Although the rubber tube doesn't stay in as well as stock, it does make it easier to remove and reposition for alt mode at least.


Another view:

 

For what it's worth, I bought a couple Perfect Effect PC-17 Core Magnus figures and a PE-DX11 Honor Warrior figure, and I was very happy with all of them.

 

I can't tell if I like those or not so, I'll wait for your review . . .

 

DNA Design DK-22 - Just the SS-58 parts.

Just focusing on the Leadfoot parts since we don't have the other Wreckers. Also purchased from TCP. For SS-58 (the DNA instructions have SS-58 and 68 mixed up), the kit has 4 gap fillers, 3 blasters, 1 backpack, and 1 chained leash for Steeljaw.

Compared to the DK-18 kit above, this just feels disappointing. The red paint doesn't match the bare plastic. It's closer to the painted red of Steeljaw but still a little darker than that. A white undercoat would have done wonders. Almost tempted to repaint the red parts to a proper match. The red paint on the leg fillers also only cover the top of the filler and not the sides, so the dark plastic creates an eyesore of a stripe. The new blasters really don't have much use in bot mode especially when using the stock weapons. The backpack doesn't fit flush. The gap fillers are a bit loose in their fit. The thigh ones in particular fell out and won't stay on in alt mode. The leash works fine at least.

Contents for SS-58 Leadfoot:


The instructions just have all 3 new blasters on the backpack attachment. This is what it would look if used elsewhere on the figure. The lower gap fillers look terrible since the red doesn't match, and it's only over the top surface of the gap fillers. The DNA stock photos did NOT show the fillers like this: their stock photos have the red over the sides as well as being matching. The leash is OK at least.


This is the backpack accessory. The red in this photo seems like it matches better, but it really doesn't IRL. The back doesn't fit flush.


This is alt mode with just the new accessories attached: backpack and 3 blasters.


This is alt mode with the stock weapons attached.


Overall, really disappointed with this. Liked the leash the best. Mulling over repainting the mismatched red areas and fixing the loose gap fillers. Not recommended.

We're skipping these atm.

PC-16 Jinrai mold was better. I thought they would make the mold much better with Honor / Dark Warrior but didn't quite happen, especially with the joint issues and an even wonkier way to deal with the smokestacks. At least the swords were nice.

 

The next Go Better set is... replacement antennas for MP-44 Optimus Prime.


ZX also announced a set: replacement claws for Earthrise Scorponok Shield. I'm a bit leery of these because ZX is recommending to heat up the prongs before installing...yikes.

 

I'm in for the claws since mine pop out just by looking at them.

 

@wheeljackfan16 any updates on the Fangry leg pieces you were working on or a set for Artfire?

 

Dang, I was looking forward to some reviews of the DK Design Wreckers set, so hearing it isn't up to some of their earlier sets is kind of a downer.

 

The Leadfoot one is pretty bad. I did repaint the lower gap fillers to match, but there's still a sizable gap on the borders. The fillers were designed horribly and look nothing like the preview pics.

Didn't test the others but not expecting much either.

The SS Shockwave set despite some minor quirks turned out very nice in comparison. Definitely would not overpay for early bird import pricing for either and wait for US stock.

 

I finally received an Ark light-up eyes kit from eBay that had blue eyes.

Positives:
* light up eyes look great in blue, thus doing their job.

Neutral opinion:
* doesn't have a fading light mode, only on/slow blink/fast blink/off (only wanted on/off anyway)

* Using in the dark exposes the back half's inner lighting (only plan on doing in light anyway)

* The blue is slightly darker than advertised, thus regular lightpiping doesn't work.

Negatives:
* the magnet it came with doesn't store anywhere and it's just a small brick.


7/10. Pretty good. Gonna have fun now (I'll edit the link where I got it in a little bit)

 

That's a shame. The other light kit's magnet can plug into the screw hole in the back of his neck

 

Shattered Glass Jetfire with the Shockwave Lab V2 Jetfire blades in green. The V2 blades look better than the (repainted) V1 blades. There is a set on eBay with a black base, but that's the V1 blade. The silver base actually looks pretty good over the black arm.


Repainted the DNA Design lower leg fillers for SS-58 Leadfoot...and still doesn't look right. The color matches better, but now the poor fit is even more obvious. The fillers simply don't fit the contour of the legs, leaving noticeable, uh, gaps. The thigh fillers also don't cover up the thighs properly either, and there's plenty of room in alt mode for larger fillers. Still not recommended. I liked the leash the best, although I could've made my own. Surprised they screwed up the gap fillers so bad.

 

I've switched materials, I found the PLA clips didn't last like I wanted them to, so I'm testing with PETG right now. I also made some spacers out of TPU, and they work the best so far, but you would have to pop the pin out of the knee to install them, so that's more of a last resort if the PETG clips don't hold up. I'm basically just waiting to get Artfire in-hand before I do anything for him. I'm working on some stuff for JP93 right now, I was able to make hinged arm covers because of how much room there is between the door and the arm in vehicle mode, so I was quite happy with that. I also made a filler for the side of the foot, as well as the thigh. Haven't been able to make as much progress as I would like, it got too cold for resin printing, and I'm currently trying to hook up our furnace so I can get my operation moved out to the garage, my main goal then is going to be streamlining my inventory management, and organizing everything to make the most out of the space available to me, should help me get orders out quicker and make it easier for me to get people in to help pack orders, it's starting to turn into an actual business and not just a bunch of printers in a random bedroom!

 

A business that I and many others are happy to help grow.

 

That's awesome to hear about the JP93 upgrades you're working on, really looking forward to seeing the things coming from you