Sunday, July 31, 2016

Minor Painting : Titans Return Galvatron and Scourge

Had a bit of free time, and also because TT Legends Galvatron is out, so decided to do some minor paint touch up.... Used paint pens as I am too lazy to dismantle parts... First is the Titans Return Galvatron, which I painted the neck rim and the caterpillar-track-holders to silver colour... Looks quite good from a distance!


Did not paint the caterpillar tracks as I will be putting them down on table tops, and don't want to risk paint scrapping nor dirtying the table top... Also did not paint the abdomen cover and feet as I like their current colour...


The silver seems to do a good job to break the monotonous purple colour scheme in cannon mode... Nice....



Then I proceed to add some silver to Titans Return Scourge... The paint pen ran out of ink halfway, so had to use a more shiny silver paint pen... still ok, I feel... Saw in 1 TF forum that someone had painted the thighs of Scourge, and it looks super nice, perhaps I will also follow suit after I get a new paint pen...

Friday, July 29, 2016

Side-Tracked: Recent Haul of KOs (184) - 战将 ( Zhan Jiang ) KO Oversized Warbotron WB-03F Rex ( a.k.a. Grimlock )

Collected this solid piece of KO last night.... Bought this from Taobao.com via a Taobao agent, and cost approximately SGD 39.10... Did not expect it to be so large... Was quite late after collecting, so I waited till the next day to check out this KO in detail...


So today I searched and found some old Autobot logo (self-made) sticker and paste it onto the chest before putting the transparent green cover...


Here's Grimlock with all his accessories!!! Nice looking bot... Generally joints are tight with exception of the left elbow ball joint, as the screws securing the 2 halves of the lower arm are loose (screw threads worn out, which can be fixed easily)... Some pegs are too tight too, and requires some sanding down... This KO comes with the typical Grimlock-ish sword and gun, and a little crown... cute...


Very posable figure!!!



He is about the same size as Titans Return Galvatron, and (just) slightly heavier too...


Dino mode looks very very good too... It needs a few times of transformation to smoothen the tabbing/pulling-out of pegs to holes...


I actually prefer the back to NOT carry any weapons, but if have to, I will prefer to put the guns to face downwards... Just personal preference...


"Me Grimlock says me King!!!"


And this pose as archeologists now say that T-rex supposedly walk with tail not touching ground... but this is so not G1... hahahaha....


There is even a mouth cannon... Overall like it very much, hahahaha...



Wah, so many new TFs with good designs are popping out with the Titans Return line... So tempted to get many,but space constraints... in the end if succumb to temptation, I might have to remove some of the TFs from the cabinets... Likely to get the Chromedome (ordered), Highbrow (ordered), Brainstorm, Gnaw and Sixshot (yes! Sixshot!!!)...

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Pics For Fun....

Attack of the Titans (Masters)!!! Hahahahahaha....


My 3 Scourges... (from left to right) G1, Titans Return and Generations... Really like the Titans Return jet mode as it is a very close resemblance to the G1 version...


... though Generations version still has the best looking "cape-wings"...


The trio of Unicron henchmen!!!! Hahahahaha....


... Looking great... hahahaha....

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Side-Tracked: Recent Haul of TFs (183) - Ttians Return Scourge (loose)

Collected my (loose) Titans Return Scourge a few days ago, bought from Taobao.com at approximately SGD 18.10... So much cheaper than the $30+ sold in local TRU... But I have to waste a few pieces of large antibacterial wet-wipes to thoroughly clean it... hahahaha... crazy hygiene-freak... Fortunate to get all parts complete and without wrong-sided parts, but was a bit disappointed that the figure has quite some loose parts, especially 1 of the thigh flap-cover that will not stay up in vehicle mode... So went on to use superglue to coat layers on the hexagonal (?) joint to resolve the issue... also took the opportunity to tighten up some loose joints, head-wobbliness, tab-and-hole, touch up paint, etc ... In the end quite happy with how this figure turns out... Initially only wanted to get the 4 Autobot Headmasters and Galvatron, but I cannot resist the vehicle mode which is so G1-ish... something that always bug me with my Generations Scourge's jet mode...


Thigh flap-covers have molded in details too... 4 guns...


Nice Fracas robot, though the colour scheme has to be all blue... so blue, so blue...


And transformed into robot mode, get ready for Head-on !!!!!!!!


Very nice looking robot mode... Slight nitpick is the shape of the "wings" are not as menacing as the G1 cartoon movie Scourge's is...  I actually quite like the size/shape of the new head, which I thought it gives Scourge some bulk because if the arms of Fracas are to be removed, the head seemed a bit too "skinny"... Not sure why... the Generations version head did fit in nicely on the Generations body though, despite being a "skinny" head... anyway... the face was slightly painted... May also actually see if can get a baby blue paint pen to paint up the abs, fists, knee pads and elbow joints... if I do come across one...


A closer look at the touch-up painted head... Used metallic grey for the mustache and goatee, and stuff some metallic (duller) red paint (after the paint is exposed to air and dried up a bit, it turned gooey and putty-like, hahahaha) into the head laser gun... Looks nicer than the original head to me!!!


This picture so reminds me of the typical James Bond gun-posing pose in the old movies... "I'm Scourge.... James Scourge..." hahahahahahaha....

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Update : KO G1 Oversized Hardhead Stickered Up and Comparison with Titans Return Hardhead

Since I was doing some printing for my work stuff, I figured I might as well print out the stickers for the KO G1 Oversized Hardhead that I got a few days/weeks ago... In the end, I put all stickers except for the 2 shoulder Autobot insignia... Don't know why, hahahaha.... Looks good!


And a comparison of the 2 molds of Hardheads that I have (excluding the all green KO Oversize G1 version as it is the same mold as the normal colour version)... Robot mode first... Very very very similar...


... even the transformation methods are similar, from the back-pieces flipping to the lower legs bending...



Did not paint the canopy to orange colour for the KO G1 version... yet... hahahaha...


Even the guns are similar in design especially the back!!!



Ranting To Release Some Pent-Up on my Chest (after seeing the hollow abs of this KO Oversized G1 toy): 不要一直整天(或盲目跟从)的在喊: “ 偷胶!! 偷胶!! 偷胶!! 偷胶!!" 了!!!!!! (评测)玩具的设计(我觉得)应该着重于好玩性,耐度,美观等等, 而不应该是一味的,盲目的只说着偷胶偷胶... 算了... It's really getting a bit on my nerves to keep hearing comments on this as these people gives an impression that any toys with 偷胶 is worst toy ever and it (or sometimes Hasbro) should be condemned to hell, and Hasbro should be branded evil, 没良心, heartless, etc etc... Its only a toy, so just enjoy it!!! Hahahaha... Having say that, I am NOT standing in the side that 偷胶 is 100% recommended or/and should be more (I believe some people may think this way if I don't make the earlier statement)... I am also disappointed with some of such design, e.g. TR Skullsmasher's hollow legs, but will it be good to move on and actually also enjoy playing the toy? Maybe... Hahahahahahahahaha...

Friday, July 15, 2016

Mod (II) : Titans Return Galvatron and Nucleon ( a.k.a. mini-Meg ) !!!

And now part 2 of the modifications for TR Galvatron!!!! Since I will not be transforming Galvatron into "jet" mode, and also saw in the TF forums of this mod, I finally decided to totally "destroy" the plastics, hahahaha.... So first up is to remove the "cockpit" (not sure what is the proper term but hey who cares, hahaha)...


To save trouble, I also cut off the pin-hole part off the cockpit to use later...


A shorter pin which I found in my junk box (I don't know from the pin is from... ) is used to assemble the parts...


The structure is then glued at the cut-off piece to the back of Galvatron... Reinforced using the UV-light Glue.... Done!!!!! Hot-blowed the white stress marks back to normal too...


The back is now quite clean without the bulky cockpit... nice...


Next, the cannon... the current position Hasbro has is not wrong, as this is one of the many positions that Galvatron has been seen to mount the cannon on... However, the lower arm articulation is heavily hindered by this default position, and this has caused many TF collectors to attempt some remedies, e.g. extra piece to mount into the official arm-hole but cannon at the side of arm... I choose a lazier way of just drilling a 5mm hole at the side... super lazy, hahahaha.... but at least this saves me USD 4... hahaha....


But this is still not enough, so I remove the lower arm fins... and stupidly attempted to paint over the cut sections with metallic purple over it, making a quite ugly strip of paint on both arms... luckily the areas are very narrow and not easily noticeable... Hahahaha....



... and drill a hole at the lower arm too!!!!


So here' the result of the moddings... First up is the cannon mode... Looks good... hahahaha....




And Galvatron in robot mode... Looks good!!! More options to put the cannon now!!! Hahahaha....







And here's a short clip to show the modifications...