Webdiver Skullrider

This toyhack is one of the most technically insane I've done thus far. That it holds together is a small miracle as it is made up of many unrelated pieces and like all my other hacks uses no screws just 5mm pegs. I started it back last year and put it down. I recently picked it up again and was determined to resolve it.

This project started with a trashed Takara Webdiver Gradion figure. What shall I do with a very expensive 16-bit videogame trainwreck? Rip it apart and see what I find. Sounds of gasps are heard. I had come across a Daigunder toy a few years ago. I sort of wish I held on to it. I did not know the Daigunder was a sequal to Webdiver series. If you look at both toylines you will see a lot of them were either altered into or from pre-existing Transformer toys.

I'm not particularly fond of heavily painted parts, but I was most intrigued by the translucent purple mid section.

The hands are beautiful.

I connected the two shoulder back parts to the one of the mid body sections. I found the arms were very heavy and there was no easy way to connect them to the body in a permanent way.

I had a cool part from Energon Landmine (I used the other one in my Giant Acroyear Acro-Cannon vehicle as a chair). That connects to another piece (I don't remember where that came from) but it perfectly matched the hinge area on the bottom of the skull. I also noticed there was a slot area. I cut out a piece of translucent plastic to make a floor for my figure to stand on. Zoid blox make the neck. I wish Tomy continued to make Zoid Blox. I thought they were the coolest things.

This was my first attempt to give it legs. Unfortunately it was too unstable to stand up properly. And I wanted it to be stable enough to hold a figure.

I used a Z-builder Cannon Spider Cannon as a base. It is braced with a Zoid Blox Night Owl chest shield and a Z-builder Gorillatron spiky shoulder part.

Stable and creepy.

We just need a proper driver. Magneforce Phobos volunteers.

Ready for the Acroyear campaign trail.

Ride!

previous: Micromaster Microtron

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

Multimac kitbash

I don't remember ever seeing these Zoid knockoffs in the NYC area. I've seen them on eBay in the UK, the Philippines, Canada. Several years back I was in a toy store in North Vancouver (BC) and I saw a few boxes of these things. They were boxed and fairly pricey. Since I knew nothing about them and I wasn't gonna plop down the dough. I recently scored a bunch of Multimac parts and marveled at the number of curiously placed 5mm ports. The bronze arms are Zoids NeoBlox (2006).

Previous: Steamhammer kitbash

Steamhammer kitbash

A few years ago I saw a Transformers Energon Steamhammer on sale and thought I could turn it somehow into a Microtron sort of thing with the tank treads and all those 5mm ports. Never got around to it and put it away. It was in the "sell on eBay" box when I was seized with a strong desire to take it apart and see if I can make anything useful with it. These are my results.

I was surprised how many interesting parts came out of this thing. I basically unscrewed whatever I could unscrew with a tiny screwdriver, the one from eye glasses repair kits. And unsubtly yanked out the rest. The lower clips on the legs got trashed so I just clipped them with a pair of clippers. Aside from that most everything came apart fairly cleanly. The blue attachment points are a pain to remove.

The center body part that folds out is exceedingly cool.

Some initial play.

I made this thing with Multimac and Zoid Blox parts. Voila! A shooty dog thing.

This pix shows how the pieces fit together more clearly.
Previous: Statement of intent