5mmToyhacker

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Micromaster Microtron

Microtron is back and he is a bit less friendly.

The Micromaster Defensor KO head had a truly awful paint job. I ended up filing/sanding the paint off. I rather like the look of unadorned primary colored plastic.

He seemed naked without his shiny drill. So the drill stays.

Blockman has hitched a ride.

The shoulders are G1 Transformers Twin Twist legs. The red arms and chest piece are Kabaya Toraichenja Robo candy toy. The yellow plates are a pair of plastic dividers I cut with a pair of sissors. The tank treads are from a GI-Joe vehicle.

You may gasp that I unscrewed the original red and blue tank treads off, it isn't particularly difficult.

Whaaaat? Another drill sporting, tank treading automaton? If you want to see more of Scitex Microtron the updated link is here.

prev: Crater Cruncher Army 2.0

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Crater Cruncher Army 2.0

Crater Cruncher Army Assemble!

Previous: Micro Rover

Micro Rover

The Micro Rover is made up of parts from Energon Scoponok and Stormcloud, Cybertron Quickmix.

I had started stacking shapes and trying to figure out strategies to bind them together. When I was playing with this I was reminded of 70s and 80s sci-fi illustrator Chris Foss. His design palette was colorful, the shapes were blocky and industrial.

The figure is Military Force Stealthcamo with the head of the figure that was inside 2004's Megalon. His name is Kim and he doesn't like smiling.

Need to drill 2.5 mm holes on the side of the cockpit and attach handles for my figure to hold on to.

The trick with this custom was finding viable connection points that were stable. If a peg is too loose. I tape the peg with white tape to build up the thickness for a snug fit.

The Micro Rover faces off the Drill Dasher.
Previous: Drill Dasher

Computron Afterburner Drill Dasher

Every race car needs rocket powered drill bits to dig deep into the earth.

The original version is here. Nice but it needed a little something.

When I placed both of the large arms things from Cybertron Quickmix. They evoked engine thrusters on steroids. I thought "one could go further."

The clear arms are from Energon Scorponok. They were incredibly difficult to detach. Disassembling Scorponok was a challenge as the screws seemed to be fastened especially tight, a joyless task. They are attached with Micronauts Battle Cruiser elbow joints plugged into a zoid blox, with a 5mm zoid peg. The drills are from G1 Twin Twist.

I realise a gun or something can fit into the front and a Minicon on one of the arms. I will save that for later.
Previous: Crater Cruncher Scout

Crater Cruncher Scout

Instead of being a vehicle for a Micronaut, it's now an autonomous scout unit. Which is probably a good thing as a driver would probably get his head banged by the very large crane.

This was the original toyhack. Original pix here. The head and arm/chair appendage thing was from Cybertron Quickmix. The gray forklift arms are from 1999 Microman kits. Each of the kits gave a surplus of those things. It was used to hobble together all the kits into a combiner form. I didn't think the combiner form was terribly compelling.

I was playing with parts from an Energon Scorponok and liked how they changed the shape of the Crater Cruncher into something leaner and meaner. I definitely like the idea of taking something familiar and changing it up, reordering it into something new but familiar.

The changes to the original toy are very minimal. Two 5mm holes drilled to the front and top of the Crater Cruncher. Holes are drilled to the bottom of the Energon Landmine crane and the Scorponok nosecone. The yellow and gray connector is a Transformers Universe recolor of a G1 toy, who's name escapes me.

I've been asked where I get 5mm pegs from. I often find a lot of random plastic parts that are 5mm. I test them out with a Micronaut part. If it fits I cut it down to size. Zoid Blox came with a large number of 5mm pegs.
Previous: Claw Gun Upgrade

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Quickmix ClawGun Upgrade

I originally was going to simply rephotograph and rewrite my previous entry to make it clearer, but of course it didn't work out that way. I ended revamping my previous work into another iteration. The original version can be seen here.

I wasn't happy with the white wings as it's a stationary cannon. I felt I could improve upon the base.

I replaced the white wings with yellow knee caps from a minature Xabungle KO. I widdled down the peg so it can fit into a 5mm black peg. I had a base that belonged to the Bandai squid gun Shinken-oh candytoy from 2009. These toys have some useful 5mm ports on them.

Three 5mm holes were drilled into the Quickmix Cannon. On the underside, and in the centers of the clear parts. I also drilled 2.5mm holes at the ends to fit the Microman Biomachine MB-04 Kong claws

The blue fellow is Microman Masterforce Skymaster from 2004.

Previous: The Giant Acroyear Acro-Cannon kitbash

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The Giant Acroyear Acro-Cannon kitbash

Originally I had two bikes I was playing with, the Acro-Cannon and a Pentabot bike.

With the original and the upgraded version side by side you can see what how I swapped out parts out. The Earth Jetter clear purple missile replaces the original red one. The Escargot clear blue nose section replaces the Acroyear flying pack.

Previously I had hacked a Transformers Energon Barricade and didn't do anything with it. The legs were structurally similar to the Acroyear legs. They were easy to replace.

I had some Multimac parts. I noticed the more realistic mech style matched the Barricade legs. I drilled additional holes into the Multimac part to move the cannon forward from it's original position and to add the nose cone.