Ever since I got the CDMW-02 waist upgrade from CrazyDevy, I've had a really hard time getting Devastator to stand up (straight up at attention, legs spread, action pose or otherwise). After asking around, it seems like the other 3rd party upgrades from X-Transbots and Junkion Blacksmith offer little, if any, improvement. After looking at my own figure and pictures of other waist upgrades, it seems as if they all have the same fundamental problem. By changing the point where they connect to Long Haul and by increasing the overall height of Devastator at the waist, they're changing the center of gravity upward and slightly to the back... which makes Devastator quite back heavy. The *ideal* solution to this would be to have a waist upgrade which connects to Long Haul the same way as the original G1 connector or positions the new legs slightly to the rear, or some combination thereof. Since that's not how the 3rd party companies chose to mold their upgrades, the only other logical solution to this problem, aside from doing some heavy modifying to the upgrade part and/or the figure itself, is to change the center of gravity back downwards and slightly to the front. The way you do this is by adding weight to both Mixmaster and Scrapper. Here's a small tutorial I made showing how to add significant weight to both figures and stabilize the balance of G1 Devastator with 3rd party waist upgrade parts. The best part... it costs next to nothing and it doesn't really show on the figure itself.


First off, you won't be doing anything that changes or damages your figures, so there's no need for any cutting, gluing or sanding. Here are the things you're going to need:

1.) Precision Philips screwdriver
2.) Lead pellet gun ammo or tungsten Pinewood Derby BB weights (like $3 bucks at Walmart)
3.) Zinc bar weights for Pinewood Derby cars ($4 bucks from the hobby store)
4.) Lead tape for tennis racquets ($4 bucks from the sporting goods store)
5.) Needle nose pliers


Okay, let's get started. First, you'll want to remove Mixmaster's barrel. You'll see the barrel pulls apart quite easily. Fill both halves of the barrel with as much pellet gun ammo as they can hold and simply fit them back together and put the barrel back into Mixmaster. You'll immediately be able to tell the weight difference in Mixmaster.








Next, you'll want to take Scrapper and remove the shovel from the front to gain access to the screw holding the body together. Once that's off and you've got Scrapper taken apart, take the lead tape, fold it up and pack as much of it inside him as you can without obstructing moving parts. The best place I found to put it was around the shoulder area (see pictures below).




Alright, then put him back together and get out the zinc Pinewood bar weights. Using the pliers, break off two full bars (it should look like [__][____][__]) and place them inside the legs as pictured here. You'll notice they fit perfectly without inhibiting the ability of the legs to move. If you notice any burrs on the edge of the weights simply clip them off or file them down if need be.




Then break off two small pieces of the zinc weights and wedge them inside of Scrapper's arms as pictured here. Again, you'll notice they fit perfectly and stay in place without need of glue or tape.




Lastly break off four more full bars of zinc weight and then break one small weight off the end of all four bars. Each one should look like [____][__]. Bundle them together as pictured here and wrap them TWICE around with the lead tape. Then wedge that bundle into the underside of Scrapper's canopy (see pic). You'll again notice that it fits in there tight and there's no need for tape or glue.






Attach the canopy back onto Scrapper and you'll notice he's quite a bit heavier than he was before. So far so good!




Now reassemble Devastator and try standing him straight up. You'll notice he's quite a bit more stable than he was before. If you're careful, you might even be able to bend him back slightly, so he's looking upward a little bit without him falling backwards. At any rate, it's a decent improvement from before the weight modification. One thing I noticed during this little project is that a secondary problem with the CDMW-02 waist upgrade (at least the one I got) is that the right leg is ever so slightly longer than the left leg. Notice how I had to bend the right leg slightly at the knee whereas the left leg is more or less straight? Does anyone else have this issue with the CDMW-02 parts?




Anyway, that's my simple little modification for helping Devastator stay on his feet with waist upgrade parts. BTW, since you're working with some lead here, I'd suggest wearing latex gloves or at least washing your hands thoroughly after you're done to avoid too much exposure. I've got the X-Transbots XP01s 2.0 upgrade set on the way, so we'll see if the waist upgrade for that set is any better than the one I currently have. If anybody has any questions, feedback or further suggestions/ideas, feel free to post them!