The White Bike: Gobots Power Suit Kitbash

My first entry into RocketTubes.Net "New Micro-toys for a New Year" Contest. The details are here. Microman Vain was the figure inside one of the Gameras in 2006.

If you buy mixed vintage transformers on eBay you will inevitable be handed some Gobots Powersuit parts, it's universal law. Scattered about is a 2009 sentai candy toy, Lanard StarForce backpacks, a Transformers Micromaster KO called "Interchange Robot No 5 Rijie," Something called a Roadmaster.

I played with the idea of making some sort of cruiser. A lot of my process is like this. I found these Powersuit parts and I knew I would make something cool out of them. The initial shapes informed a direction. Then I got bored with it and decided to take it into another direction.

While I liked the idea. It was no longer in scale to Micronaut figures. I had set it aside and worked on the black bike. After finishing the black bike I realised it needed a companion. So I went back to the original idea.

The front wheel is from the 1999 Microman Galac Hopper Kit. Not terribly popular but great for modding.

The cockpit is from, I believe the original Star Wars Millenium Falcon. The back wheels are from a 2004 Transformers Energon Sledge. They needed no drilling. The holes were a perfect fit to the existing ports. Happy accidents do happen.

The complete parts breakdown. The pieces fit together rather well. The center part fits snugly within the Power Suit frame, no drilling necessary.

Vain meets up with Shoma, still without his guitar.

Rear view.

Top view.

To see the Black Bike's iterations click here.

Previous: Microrobot V Restoration

Microrobot V Restoration

A little bit of a detour from our usual thing. I recently got some junked toys and found a lovely surprise, a beat up Microman Microrobot from 1981. A complete set looks like this. His stickers are a mess, his chrome paint on his leg is gone, he's missing a wing. Instead of taking him apart to make something new I decided just to do a little of clean up.

I use various plastic utility boxes to store parts. One box comes with these yellow plastic dividers. It was close enough in color and thickness for me to approximate the missing wing. I basically just cut it out with a pair of scissors and filed it a little. I applied Goo Gone to the stickers and used the flat end of a cuticle tool (it sort of looks like a plastic flat head screw driver) to gently scrape the stickers off. I am not a fan of stickers. It took quite a bit of time to remove them. I wiped them down with Goo Gone soaked napkins.

There's a crack to the front red chest shield. I'm thinking of filling it with some model cement filler and painting it or some plastic glue and a small vice to hold it in place. Gonna investigate getting some metallic enamel paint for the legs and to touch up the helmet. Suggestions are welcome.

You'd think I'd be able to scrounge up some proper hands for him. The holes are actually NOT 5mm. They are somewhat smaller. He's definitely a work in progress. Still with some clean up he's much improved.

Previous: Energon Bonecrusher Acroyear kitbash

Energon Bonecrusher Acroyear kitbash

 Hello evil one.

Take one Energon Bonecrusher and disassemble like so. The front wheel carriage went to good use in my Crater Cruncher Army, link here.

Add miscellaneous cool bits like a reduced scale Sixwing head which just happens to scale down to a 5mm hole in the neck. Drill 5mm hole on Bonecrusher back panel.

Assemble your newly created evil Acroyear. To see his cohorts click here.

Previous: Gobots Power Suit Grungy Bike kitbash

Gobots Power Suit Grungy Bike kitbash

The bike arm comes from a black crane. From the soft plastic I'm assuming it was a candy toy based off one of the Takara Brave robots or a knock-off. The arm looked rather plain. I had these black plastic strips which were used to keep Transformers in their packaging. I widened the existing holes with a 5mm drill bit and stuck Zoid Blox pegs to keep it in place.

I had disassembled Energon landmine and was really impressed by the foldy wheel carriage. It fit perfectly under the Power Suit leg. The red pegs are from Z-Builder Gorillatron. The front wheel is from Computron Afterburner.

 I felt the red pegs drew too much attention to itself, I replaced them with grey pegs.

Lastly the I needed proper handles. They are from a Zoid Blox candy toy I think they are called Baratz. This one was a blue grasshopper.

The bike is driven by Microman Shoma sans guitar from 2006. To see it's evolution click here

Previous: Stormcloud/Giant Acroyear Armroid kitbash

Gobots Power Suit Courageous kitbash in progress

Decided to put up something I am working on now. It's all in progress. Up front is a figure from Lanard Star Force. He is waiting for a new head.

I picked up an X-Men Shard (circa 1999) cheap at NY Comicon. At first I wondered why Storm had blond hair. That missile pack has potential.

I also recently recieved a mixed toy lot which had Gobots Power Suits Courageous and Grungy. I will be honest and say Gobots on a whole do not thrill me. Still, there was an implicit challenge to turn those parts into something worthwhile. A red, white and black theme emerged.

I'm currently calling this piece the "Niece-bot." Shard's missiles serve as shuttle nacelle units. She needs arms.

I'm calling this the "Shovelbuster." The white leg thing had lots of crunk on it. A small child had it's way with it.

This one is called "Steamtram." The top part is Multimac or Tomy Scitex. To see what this turned into click here.

Another idea, which came from a more time where it was perfectly acceptable for rockets to have robot arms. I had leftover pieces from Energon Jetstorm and Windrazor, Kabaya Toraichenja Robo and Change Dashers candy toy.

Until the next incarnation.

Previous: Quickmix kitbash: Crater Cruncher Army

Stormcloud/Giant Acroyear Armroid kitbash

I finally got around to making a partner to my other Armroid. The body is Stormcloud, the chopper from Energon Superion combiner. The head and body are from Giant Acroyear.

The yellow missiles I think are Blockman.

If you want to see how it's made, check out the original version I made out of Blackout here.

Quickmix kitbash: Crater Cruncher Army

I picked up an Cybertron Quickmix cheap on eBay. An attractive toy, aside from the funky feet and odd painful growths on his legs. Most Transformers suffer from weird feet syndrome. The orange construction theme made me think about making some vehicles to keep Crater Cruncher company.

The disassembled components present a lot of interesting possibilities to play with.

Some initial play ideas going on. The thing on the far end was a big-headed (deformed) construction robot candytoy put out by Kabaya. I love Kabaya. They have cool animated commercials featuring a crying crow.

TriBuggy—I found a trashed Computron Afterburner (the Tron looking bike) and had a leftover part from an Energon Bonecrusher (bulldozer).

Clawgun—Everything looks cooler with wings and claws attached to them. Kind of like a boss from Thunderforce IV (an excellent side-scrolling shooter on the Sega Genesis). The clear claws are from Microman Biomachine Kong. The clear plastic parts had existing holes which I widened with a 5mm drill bit. The arms are the Quickmix front legs, which conveniently already have a 5mm male end on one side. The front holes I widened with a 2.5mm drill bit. The wings are from a Giant Acroyear.

Crater Cruncher Supremo—The bulldozer gray arms are from a Microman Galac Hopper kit. The head from Quickmix.

SuperChair—The base is from Armada Smokescreen, which offers no joy whatsoever when dismantled.

Mars Rover—having found no easy way to remove metal pegs. I simply clip the plastic parts around them. The yellow claw is possibly from a Shogun Warrior. A Quickmix arm serves some unknown purpose.

All in all I got a massive amount of play out of this Transformer. Worth hacking? Yes.

Previous: Microtron Scitex kitbash

Microtron Scitex kitbash

I had picked up some Tomy Scitex parts. I wonder why Tomy Scitex never conquered America. They are Lego and Micronaut compatible. There are innumerable types of connection points. Color wise however, not very stylish, drab gray and green. I decided off the bat to make a Microtron type robot with his curiously placed drill.

Scitex or Tomics were a little known TOMY toyline in the US during the 80s. They may have been pre-Zoids. Like Zoids they were walking or crawling toys. The parts I picked up had curious cables and a central motorized body.

I picked up these toys 'cause I wanted to see what I could build out of it and to see if they were 5mm compatible. They are. The biggest draw back with this building system are the innumerable amount of squarish connectors. Free-form building is compromised as the parts often fit only one way. It became a game of connecting pipes. It is quite complex, the square ends can be capped off with a part that has a 5mm port on it.

The Scitex line also appears to be the basis for the shockingly colored Multimac KO toys (the gold drill is a Multimac part. They lack the range of cool pieces the orginals had. Multimac and Scitex toys are a fun addition to Micronauts/Microman 5mm toy action.

Previous: Superion Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad Jet Tank

Superion Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad Jet Tank

I hacked apart one Transformers Energon Superion. Hoping it would be as interesting as Steam Hammer, alas no. In addition my drill battery died. I am eagerly awaiting a replacement battery and proper metric drill bits. 

Red and white seems to be a fave space jet color scheme for Takara.

I remember seeing a photo of a Microman Punch Jet. Here's a link of how it looks like. I often am inspired by toys I will never own.

Parts include Transformers Energon Superion, Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad Synchro, Multimac tank parts, Zoid Blox, Micronaut connectors.

Previous: Blackout/Giant Acroyear kitbash