We all love the articulation, designs, transformation schemes, and slick vehicle modes of our favorite alternators. But let's be honest: with all those shifting parts, sometimes it seems IMPOSSIBLE to get our robots to stand or the panels on our carmodes flush. Does your viper's groundclearance frustrate you? Does it look like someone caught the seatbelt in the doors on your skids? Does your Wheeljack implode if you look at him crosseyed? I'm proposing this thread as a tips and tricks on how to get your Alternators to do what the designers MUST'VE intended them too, but just doesn't seem well communicated through their instructions. Heck, I can't even find where they tell you to extend Skids' legs and that's actually a pretty big part of the transformation! At any rate, without further ado, I will provide my tip on how to get groundclearance out of your viper every single time you Transform him (mostly because it took three releases of the mold before I finally figured it out myself). The Dodge Viper: The key to the viper mold and getting ground clearance is the arm transformation. Move them into the wrong position and the wheels will slip too high and the black hinged bar that connects the body to the tail end will drag on the ground. This tip assumes you already pretty much know how to transform him, these are just a few tweaks: every millimeter counts. With the tail section open, have the fists swung outward, but close, so that the thumbs are almost hugging the hinge on the upper arm. Also, for Streaker and Deadend, turn the head so that it's diagonal. This will allow the arms to be closer together. The rest of the arms parts should all be at right angles so that everything is flush. Also, make sure the bolt side of the shoulder joint is facing down (you can get him into car mode without the bolt facing down, but the wheels won't roll right). With the car upside down, if you wrap your index finger around the wheel and place your thumb on the bolt, you can apply opposite pressure to adjust the joint so that the wheel assembly is flush with the connector. This joint seems to be the most crucial. Now, close the tail section and lightly squeeze the rear wheels together to eliminate anymore possible give. The car should now have ground clearance...at least as much as a low rider can afford. If this is helpful to anyone, I can also offer my tip on how to get Skids' doors flush. I'm still working on Wheeljack's imploding *feature*. And if someone can explain to me why Silverstreak seems to fit together fine, but Smokescreen's car mode fits together like a jalopy, I'm all ears. The only Alt yet that seems to have no issues are the RX-8 mold, aside from Shockwave's huge head. God bless ratcheting joints.
Well, the problem with the RX-8 molds is with their arms. They have a tendency to "pop" off. Prowl has a similar connection with his arms, and hence, the same issue. Smokescreen's like Silverstreak/Bluestreak in that the legs need to be folded together first and then snapped into the seats. He is a bee-atch to transform and usually stays in robot mode. Skids is a bit easier to fix, but the doors aren't exactly "flush." Before finally snapping everything together, if you reach in and pinch the main roof joint together to make the roof flat it helps greatly. As for poor Skids, Hasbl0w really ruined him when they left out the step of pulling/extending his legs, but pictured him as having his legs extended.
I figured out the Viper transformations you mentioned but I am definitely interested in your Skids door fix if there is something that My03Tundra didn't mention. Thanks!
Actually, Tundra's spot on, but there are so many joints that feed into this...that's why the doors almost always pop out. The roof joint needs to be flush, the rear floorrunner pannels need to be plugged into the front runner pannels (which is another reason I mentioned the legs sliding in my previous post), but the real killer, the one people would likely be tripped by, is the rotating joint on the front of the front doors. You know, the one that you have to rotate in robot mode to get the arms out? In car mode, that joint is a trouble spot. They have to be rotated just so: too far either way and the door isn't flush. But what makes it even worse is that the hinge also bows out to the side. Just remember to adjust both of those joints during transformation to get the doors flush. Roof joint, two door joints, rear section transformation...oh, and the windshield. Make sure the windshield is snapped into hood. Hope that helps!
Another trick to "align" Skids' vehicle mode is to fold down the arms down while almost Transformed and push and pull it all together, making sure to have the hood open to insure the window does get into position. For the adventurous, one thing that MIGHT work to fix the arms on the 'bots with popping arms is a bit of nail polish on the bit that goes in. Another possibility is to use a small eyeglass sized screw, predrill a small pilot hole and put the screw in expanding the joint. If you've done this with some success, please let us know.
Well, I don't have photos, but I can list instructions as to how I did it; 1. Transform Prowl to robot mode, twisting both legs to expose the three inner screws. 2. Remove one of the legs, being careful to set the screws aside in the order they were removed. One of the three is longer then the other, and they are all small. 3. Repeat the process with the other leg, seperating the screws from the other side. 4. GENTLY remove the legs and swap them. Once in place, put the screws back in the oposite order as removed from. 5. Transform back to vehicle mode. Unfortunately the bottom panels won't be flush, but it does not effect Prowl's ability to roll along. 6. Now, when Transforming it is not required to rotate the waist and, to me, looks a lot more like the old G1 Prowl we all know and love(d).
*shrugs* I never noticed any ground clearance issues with the Viper mold. But thanks anway. That was really informative.
