This figure's fantastic, but it's also in some ways the definition of "8.8/10 not perfect" in that just about everybody I've seen who's got one has made some kind of cosmetic change, with the neck being no exception. Because I found the DNA Design's offering to be way too saturated and the rest of the third-party market's takes too expensive, I thought I'd take matters into my own hands and make what may have been the designers' intentions all along. First step was cleaning the paint off the neck case. One hour-long bath in 71% IPA got most of it to rub off almost instantly, with a second taking care of what was left. Disassembly and painting were absolutely no sweat. Bless the designers for going back to using screws on pretty much the entire figure. After getting the vertebra removed and primed, I did some quick attempts at color-matching with a base coat of Tamiya TS-47 chrome yellow followed by a sprinkle of TS-21 gold. Results were surprisingly close if not a tad lighter, not that it mattered too much considering how brightly colored it would have to be just to be seen from the other side due to the smokey plastic's opacity. I'll definitely have to see how it looks in a lighter colored case if I ever find a matching pair of the dino-mode neck and bot-mode chest, but for now it's nice to see some color consistency in that the bot chest isn't the only clear piece. A side-by-side comparison with a copy of the original that I bought as a failsafe. At the end of the day even I don't know which one I like enough to keep, but I'm still pretty happy with the results. Hope you enjoy!
cool well done i tryed removing the neck paint on my copy and it melted but i used 91% IPA i think that made a diffrence .
I'm impressed that you used IPA and the clear plastic didn't just turn into dust like Thanos stopped by. Looks solid.
Like others, I'm just amazed that this clear plastic didn't crumble to dust after being soaked in IPA for an hour! I didn't realize the neck was clear under the gold... crazy! I imagine this means Hasbro will offer some "toy-style" exclusive down the road at double the price. Nice job. The clear plastic might be just a bit too dark to show off the gold internal bits, but this is still really neat. z
I didn't realize the neck was that clear black under the paint. You can get straight up clear replacements for both if you so desire. That's what I did and then I used thinned down acrylic inks to darken them. Nice that you were able to match the gold so well - if I'd tight I could, I would've, but I just repainted all the good parts on mine.
The clear plastic was definitely something I wanted to plan ahead for considering how allergic it can be to IPA. The trick was to soak it in a weaker solution for a longer period of time so it only affected the paint and not the plastic underneath, as opposed to a half hour in 91% which surely would've led to at least a crack. All things considered though, it helps that Grimmy's neck is also much more pigmented compared to infamous cases like Jazz or the Datsuns, meaning it could take more exposure without splitting. Glad you guys like the end result, and best of luck if you ever plan on doing the same!
Definitely doing this. I tend to prefer to scrub with the alcohol using cotton swabs and cotton balls. Worked a treat for removing the cruddy paintjob I did on Armada Unicron.