Update: KO TFC Neck Breaker Shovel Piece Blade and Push Frames Modification

I thought since KO TFC Neck Breaker should be easy to do, I decided to start last night... The main job is on the bulldozer's blade (the "shovel" piece) and the push frames. The blade-lift cylinders are removed as I am... PURE LAZY... Cut off Version 1's push frames pieces and will add extender pieces with stopper, to be fitted into Version 2's empty frames...


This is the extender piece with stopper, also cut and shaped out from the Version 1's remaining push frames waste... Super glue and hot glue are used for joining...


After assembling, a cover piece from the waste plastics is secured on top... Minor touch ups like thickening the pegs for tighter joints etc are also done...


Also cut off the 2 ball joints on the head as they look ugly on the head...


Here's the gestalt arm mode... looks good... at least to me...


... and the bulldozer mode looks quite decent too, although the blade-lift cylinders are missing...


And the robot mode, with the 1/2 blade as "foot". Will look good if the 1/2 blade part is not so big (i.e. the authentic version one)...


This my preferred way of feet-transform configuration... I also painted the head black to better distinguish it from the green back-piece...


Back of robot mode... The 1/2 blade pieces help to stabilize the robot well...

Update: KO TFC Dr Crank Minor "Restoration"

Would love to have use the Version 1 (V1) KO Dr Crank as the main body to work on, but as I want to have the flip up gestalt head, I have to use the Version 2's (V2)...

Arm Connector (for Exgraver)
The connector peg from V1 is transplanted to V2 body as I am using V1 KO Exgraver for the gestalt's right hand...


A screw is used to secure the connector peg as these pegs don't fit with each other (V1 v V2)... a thin piece of plastic is used to make the size correct...



Cabin
The hollow cabin belongs to V2, and the "solid" black cabin is from V1, and again V1's will be transplanted to V2...


Done. Also have sanded/scrapped off the extra black paint so that the remaining black paint will resemble the windows...



Lower Arms
The V2 lower arms are hollow and visible from behind. In individual robot mode, it is still acceptable as long as it is not viewed from the back, but it looks ugly in gestalt mode... Ideally, the lower arms from both versions can be exchanged, but in reality, they are entirely different in structure... So the last resort is to cut off the V1's lower arm covers and glue onto V2's...


Here's the back of the robot showing the "covered" lower arms...


... and in vehicle mode...



Crane
Basically, V1's crane will be used, as it has 1 extendable section. Also it has more rotating joints (V2's have none)... However, the connector peg for the crane holder is located right in the middle, which will make the crane block the gestalt head. The original TFC version has a swiveling peg at the crane holder, so I decided to follow it... The extra material from V2 KO Neck Breaker's shovel piece... Once done, the small peg (right in the pic) will be glued tight the circular piece near the edge, and the circular piece will be joined to the crane holder with a screw (shorter than the one in the pic) to allow swiveling action...


The V2's hook piece at the crane is cut off to be glued later to V1's crane...


.. and the new crane... much better than the V2's crane... I later trimmed the length of the peg to let the crane sit down lower...


Pic to show crane extend...



Gestalt Head
Can't remember what these 2 "rings" are for, and hence cut them off since they look ridiculous...


As the LED is removed from the head, I covered up the hole with super glue mixed with tissue papers... and used a red marker to paint it later....


This KO head is simplified to no head rotation, so head rotation modification is carried out...


This will act as the rotating neck...


Gestalt head can be rotated now...



Lastly, painted the individual robot head to black, and the tire rims to silver... Exhausted now... all these "appear" easy, but before these happen, a LOT of trials and errors happened... and is very draining... so might take some time before resuming with the fiddling of this wonderful KO TFC Hercules...



Edit: Need to slice off a portion of the front of the hook piece so as to better balance robot mode... Luckily not too ugly... Used hot-glue to fill up the hollow...

Side-Tracked: Recent Haul of KOs (171) - KO TFC Madblender (V1), KO TFC Structor (V1)

Haul from Taobao.com arrived tonight... Also bought a small bottle of metallic purple paint... Main attraction is the Version 1 KO TFC Madblender and Structor, with a total cost about SGD23.50 ...

This version of the KO Madblender has a movable waist that allows gestalt foot to tilt in open-leg stance. I am thinking of cutting and mixing up the 2 verisons to achieve a better Madblender... Hopefully all goes well...



Similarly, V1's Structor also has the movable waist for gestalt feet to tilt. V2's weird ball joints at the shovel part did not work well for the feet tilt in gestalt mode, so this feature in V1 will be greatly appreciated... Again, I will be cutting and mixing parts for KO Structors.



Back of the packaging, which has the same graphical contents for both KOs.

RTS Tracks Fact That I Did Not Realize Till Just Now...

...yes, since 2011, until I saw Emgo316's review just now, I did not realize that RTS Tracks has a flip-over piece as the flying-car's stabilizer fins (or as pegs to fit in the missiles)... sigh... hahahaha....


And fiddled around the TF and got this flight mode configuration... and nice to know there are already TF fan(s) who has/have attained this configuration too! Hahaha! Great minds think alike, hahahahaha...

Update: KO TFC Heavy Labour Gestalt Tigh Panels Modification

Did the final modification for the KO TFC Heavy Labour... The missing thigh panels for the gestalt mode... It is missing in Version 2 of the KO, and although is present in Version 1 (which I don't have), the version 1's are not rotatable... I used the Version 1's chest-plate and cut out 2 pieces...


Screws are inserted into pilot holes drilled at the side for swiveling action...


... and then the panels are super-glued onto the screws. Tissue papers are used as reinforcement...


Done. Now got swiveling panels for thighs...


Edit: Add a pic of KO TFC Hercules, with the thigh panels...

Update: KO TFC Heavy Labour Arms Modification

Just finish this simple mod a while ago... The KO makers got the KO TFC Heavy Labour's arms simplified wrongly, and causes it to be only displayable in either mode only, depending on the way you plug in the arms... There are quite a few ways some forum-ers in China have done, and I think mine is 1 of the simplest... First, need to cut off the truck panels into 2 parts (removing the arms from body will make it easier to work with)... The longer part of the cut panel is then hot-glued to the (lower) arm... Before gluing, I had to swap the (lower) arms to make sure when they are the correct arms after rotated...


Then I also remove the pegs on the central back-piece, since these pegs don't fit into the holes on the robot shoulders properly in the 1st place...


Done! Truck mode... The width of the arms is a little bit too long and causes the panel to protrude slightly out a little in truck mode... but still it is not as bad...


Bot mode! Now the arms looks decent, and the elbow joint is now working... but the (elbow joints) are a bit loose, but should be able to fix with the old superglue trick... Nice...

Side-Tracked: Recent Haul of KOs (170) - KO TFC Dr Crank and Neckbreaker/Exgraver Set

... before that, here's a pic of the Version 2's individual robot mode...



Finally collected the KO TFC Version 1 set of Dr Crank and Neckbreaker/Exgraver... Bought it off Taobao.com through 65daigou at total price of SGD21.55 approximately... Version 1's Hercules has Exgraver replaced by Neckbreaker with a soil shovel piece... Hmm, upside down inner pack... yeap, the box has been opened... hopefully is not because someone took out to play...


Here's the back of packaging box...


Detombed!!!! Well, sort of... Intend to replace this Neckbreaker/Exgraver's ball-joint shoulders and perhaps upper torso (less head and chest piece) to the Version 2's Exgraver (which has no swivel arm-joints)... oh, also replace the soil shovel piece... Also going to mix-and-match both version of Dr Crank... and of course, the giant hands with moving thumb and fingers!!! Yes... but why green, sigh... hahahaha... anyway, looking forward to the arrival of KO Version 1 Madblender and Structor (not sure if the names are correct... i.e. both legs of Hercules)...