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Post by Baron B of Triple B on Sept 27, 2016 18:54:35 GMT
I think you're on to something there.
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Post by Toph on Oct 17, 2016 6:05:47 GMT
So finally having chromedome for myself, I'm not so against him as a base for Nightbeat, anymore.
It absolutely would NOT work as a straight repaint. It would be awful. Even worse than the last halfassed Nightbeat.
But a heavy remold could get a pretty great one.
New chest
New rear half of the car.
Change the arms entirely so they transform into the front end of the car.
And that would actually make a really badass Nightbeat.
Minor retool to add a lightbar, and you got Siren. Add a new chest to the Siren retool, and you got a good minerva.
Also, another big retool to chromedome, changing the arms, chest, and front end and you've got a great Clocker.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Oct 17, 2016 16:26:57 GMT
So finally having chromedome for myself, I'm not so against him as a base for Nightbeat, anymore. It absolutely would NOT work as a straight repaint. It would be awful. Even worse than the last halfassed Nightbeat. But a heavy remold could get a pretty great one. New chest New rear half of the car. Change the arms entirely so they transform into the front end of the car. And that would actually make a really badass Nightbeat. I'm not sure I agree with you, but I'm not fond of the original Nightbeat: www.tfu.info/1988/Autobot/Nightbeat/nightbeat.htmCar mode - I think the Generations version is better, more sleazy rundown 70s Detective wheels
Robot mode - I think the tall shoulders look silly. There's enough of a hint of the shoulders in Chromedome to make it worthwhile doing a straight repaint IMO. I'd Like a new chest, but I could live with the present one in yellow. Not painting the chest yellow was the biggest mistake the Generations versions made, again IMO, though a new chest would have been nicer. If I was remoulding I'd look to round out the beige pieces and car bonnet to eliminate all of Chromedome's angular edges. I don't think the Generations version did that bad a job. It got most of the colour, bar the chest, right, it got the head very right and I like the car mode, as I said above but understand your mileage may vary. He could do with a decent gun, but I'm sure there's a Legends Op gun going spare he could use. He feels better as a Nightbeat than he does as Bumblebee! Looking forward to turning one into a Titanmasters body shortly. Minor retool to add a lightbar, and you got Siren. Add a new chest to the Siren retool, and you got a good Minerva. Surely Minerva's chest is Nightbeat's chest? |
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Post by Toph on Oct 17, 2016 17:30:50 GMT
I don't think the Generations version did that bad a job. It got most of the colour, bar the chest, right, it got the head very right and I like the car mode, as I said above but understand your mileage may vary. He could do with a decent gun, but I'm sure there's a Legends Op gun going spare he could use. He feels better as a Nightbeat than he does as Bumblebee! Looking forward to turning one into a Titanmasters body shortly. The generations version did a terrible job for two reasons- 1) Its a butt ugly muscle car. Nightbeat is a supercar. Curvy and sleek. Muscle cars are good only for looking ugly and crashing. 2) It did a particularly terrible job because it's one of the worst molds in generations. Nothing deserves to be made from it. As for Chromedome, yes. It needs heavy remolding because the vehicle is not even remotely close. Even the Timelines does a better job at being nightbeat than a straight chromedome repaint. Of the three, non-Chromedome repaint would be the worst looking. It needs a Streetwise level remold. |
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Post by Philip Ayres on Dec 3, 2016 12:17:33 GMT
Legends ChromedomeChromedome has been tweaked for his Legends release, but only slightly. In car mode the bonnet decal has been reduced in size and the red flash on the side of the car removed. The elbow piece, which was brown breaking up the side of the car, is now cream, instead breaking up the brown on the top of the sides. The windows are completely transparent now allowing you to see inside. A layer of silver paint outlines the cockpit and helps highlight the Titanmaster inside. His Titanmaster Stylor has swapped the brown chest for grey so he more closely matches the original Chromedome's Stylor and has gained some silver paint on his forehead, blue painted eyes and and orange face, all of which are non contact surfaces when attaching him in head mode. In robot mode the arms are now cream all the way down as are the hands which gives us a plainer looking, but more accurate to the original, toy. The feet too have switched from brown to cream all but confirming the feet, hands & elbows are on the same sprue. The front of the lower legs are now painted brown. The Titanmaster's faceplate has changed to give the head straighter sides. You can see comparisons between the 1987 original, Titans Return & Legends Chromedomes in Alfes Blog Entry 2723. Like the other three 1987 Autobot Headmasters, and the three Decepticons from the same year released so far, Chromedome come with an additional Titanmaster accessory. His is Moguru, a repaint of Nightbeat's jet/drill accessory. Legends Nightbeat himself is packed separately with LG-28 Rewind. The drill swaps Nightbeat's pale blue for Chromedome's more earthy brown and the yellow for red. Cream painted side panels and a gold painted drill bit complete the look which is a vast improvement on the original. LG-32 Chromedome was released in Japan on Saturday 26th November 2016. Alfes has a gallery of the toy at Blog Entry 2722
Titans Return Breakaway with ThrottleGetaway is another character who has come to recent prominence due to More Than Meets The Eye. He's had another version previously, Wal*Mart/Asda exclusive Breakaway, a repaint of Cybertron Hotshot originally meant for the Universe 2 toy line. A colour chart for Titans Return Getaway, and several other toys, was leaked in April 2016 revealing it to be a straight repaint of Chromedome with a new face. Hasbro then accidentally revealed Getaway, now under the name Breakaway again when product brought to Cybertron Con 2016 showed the toy on Hot Rod's cardback! While Getaway has had a name change to Breakaway, albeit one he's used before, his Powermaster Rev has also changed names becoming Titanmaster Throttle. Now this I do have a problem with as Throttle was previously used as the name for Darkwing's Powermaster! He's a blue for red and white for brown colour swap of Stylor, Chromedome's Titanmaster and indeed those belonging to Brainstorm and Blurr, making this the FOURTH use of this Titanmaster. The only change here is a new face piece which looks to be painted grey with a yellow faceplate and eyes. The eye could do with another paint application to differentiate them from the jaw but original Getaway had the same problem. Breakaway's car mode is very white. Very VERY White. We've got some grey on the bumper and engine block, what was an approximation of original Chromedome's tech spec reader door and now roughly fills in for his Powermaster. Thin red and blue stripes on the bonnet, larger details in the same colours involving the Autobot symbols at the rear of the sides. The rear of the car is coloured blue to simulate his missing spoiler. The weapons are now blue, to match the colour if not the shape of original Getaway's weapons, and attach to the top of the car better than Chromedome's do. The windows have been tinted purple and look nice but are a poor match for the painted pink/purple that forms the rear of the side windows. There's a bit more colour in robot mode. The inherited Chromedome knees & upper legs are grey, matching the original, but the waist is blue and we suspect that's on the same sprue as the larger of the two guns. The chest is painted purple and yellow, simulating the original's car roof chest. The arms are white all the way down which looks a little plain. The original's were blue, which would have created problems with the car mode, and similarly changing the hands to blue would have changed the elbows, also creating problems in car mode. Blue paint on the interior arm surfaces might have been nice and there's very little contact with other parts that would have prevented this from happening. For the first straight up repaint in the Titans Return line Breakaway is a little plain. It does the job but could have been better. Breakaway was released in Titans Return Wave 3. In a change to the pattern established during Combiner Wars the deluxe case he was in isn't packed evenly with two of each toy. Instead there's just one of Breakaway, the cheap repaint, and three of Hot Rod with two each of Twinferno & Triggerhappy.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Feb 6, 2017 19:53:20 GMT
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Post by Philip Ayres on Apr 20, 2017 14:47:14 GMT
Chaos on Velocitron NauticaOf the three female Transformers introduced during IDW's Dark Cybertron story, Windblade & Chromia received toys immediately. Unfortunately for Hasbro the character that really caught fans' imaginations was the one without a toy, Nautica, who went on to appear as a regular in More Than Meets The Eye from issue 28 with her alternate mode, a spaceship/hovercraft with fans to the side, revealed in issue 33. More Than Meets The Eye fans have already enjoyed new versions of several cast members so it was hoped Nautica would get her own toy quite quickly. Rumours of a Titans Return Nautica toy turned up during 2016 and she was revealed at Toyfair 2017 to be a modified repaint of Titans Return Blurr. Where Brainstorm is a remould of Blurr, the only part of the toy that's physically been altered for Nautica is the faceplate. Essentially she is the original Blurr toy with two extra pieces for her distinctive fans attached to the sides of the vehicles/her arms. Even bearing in mind we haven't seen that much of here vehicle mode, I'm not sure Blurr's car really captures it's shape that well. In Robot mode the only bits that really say Nautica are the new pieces. The fans are pretty good, and the face could be worse. Yes it's missing her visor but she doesn't always have that visible. The face itself has many of her features but it somehow doesn't feel quite right, like the pieces haven't been made the right shapes and put together in the right way. Blurr's long limbed design doesn't do badly for her but nothing looks like it should do. The Autobot symbol on the chest is a nice touch, even though it's not there in the comics, but even that causes trouble because it's the wrong way round on her vehicle window! Then there's the colour....... It might not help that Nautica colour has changed a few times, She was purple on her first appearance, then became blue and was that colour when her vehicle mode was revealed, but has now reverted back to purple again - google Transformers Nautica to see. When fans got their first glimpse of Nautica, courtesy of a Hasbro Toyfair Tweet of Trypticon that "accidentally" revealed a bunch of other toys (They just can't help themselves can they?) there were immediately voices that said "That's the wrong colour" and even some that questioned if the toy wasn't Nautica and was actually Arcee, whose Generations design would translate quite well to being made with Blurr. But no, Nautica it was as we saw the next day under what were thought to be poor lighting conditions. Her Official Images promised something better, with a darker purple and they look better than that on the box back where the elbows and upper legs are a silver grey. But in hand, oh dear, it's a grave disappointment. Most of the toy is a very bright purple plastic. I'm trying to think of another Transformer in that shade and am struggling! The vehicle isn't helped by the clashing yellow paint highlights. Transforming to robot mode reveals the body, elbows, hands, feet and upper legs are a very very pale pink. It just looks wrong! The colours on the box were better, but not perfect. For a toy that's pushing it design wise, the colours needed to be perfect - compare her with Metalhawk in the Siege on Cybertron boxset. However I think this toy proves the concept of Blurr working as a female Transformer, hopefully paving the way for Arcee, it's just that the Transformer they've made isn't Nautica.
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Post by The Doctor on Apr 20, 2017 14:49:43 GMT
The pink looks good!
-Ralph
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Post by Toph on Apr 20, 2017 15:11:02 GMT
It's not a bad deco, and it's not a bad toy, but it's a terrible Nautica.
Nautica should have been Override. It'd make more sence for the mold, AND FOR THE THEME OF THE SET!
Minor nitpick Phil, Nautica is canonically a submarine with extremely limited spaceflight capabilities, not a hovercar/spaceship. (Which is another mark against blurr)
Blurr is an extremely versatile mold that could work for a large number of bots. Unfortunately, Hasbro's yet to use one that works with it.
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Post by Bogatan on Apr 20, 2017 16:15:32 GMT
If they had just remoulded her shield into a shorter rounder shape it would have totally transformed the vehicle mode and made it look less like Blur.
I seem to be the only person who thinks the robot mode looks pretty good. Yes a tweak of the colours and the head would be nice but not vital.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Apr 20, 2017 16:52:34 GMT
Like many others in the Chaos on Velocitron box I don't think she really fits with the theme of the set either. Apart from Blurr's original car mode there's nothing about her that really says speed. An Intelligence/Caminus set strikes me as a better home for the character.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Oct 9, 2017 10:56:09 GMT
Hascon Titans Return Arcee & LeinadThe Future Repaints section for the Blurr/Chromedome reviews had this section in it: Concept drawings exists showing the original Chromedome repainted as Arcee and I've already seen a Titan Return Arcee digibashed from Chromedome which was also turned into a custom. I've also seen an Arcee from Blurr and another from Hot Rod! The obsession for a Headmaster Arcee starts from her appearance in The Rebirth cartoon story where she binary bonds with Spike's son Daniel. As we've seen there was a cancelled proposal to do her as a Chromedome repaint that leads to it being suggested whenever Chromedome turns up. Titans Return Blurr was suggested as a good body base for a female robot, a concept proved when he was used to make Chaos on Velocitron Nautica which in turn for me eliminated the idea of the Blurr Arcee being done as I couldn't see Blurr appearing in two boxsets. Then on Thursday 20th July 2017 at that year's SDCC a Trypticon Cereal Box was released showing a List of Titanmasters which included number of then unknown Titanmasters, including Leinad whose power was listed as Healer. It was quickly spotted that Leinad is Daniel, the name of Arcee's Cartoon Headmaster, in reverse leading to many concluding a Titans Return Arcee was on the cards. Sure enough a few days later trading card art for first Arcee then very quickly afterwards Titanmaster Ultra Magnus, also found on the Trypticon Cereal List, were leaked onto Weibo. A few days later a 2-pack of Arcee & Titanmaster Ultra Magnus were announced by Hasbro to be premièring at their first Hascon convention held in Rhode Island on September 8th - 10th 2017 and then to be released at retail at a later date. The Official Images of Arcee are quite interesting - they're all of the form "C3542AS00_TRA_HTC_COLLECTOR_CLUB_1_" and then an image number. Hasbro announced a new fan club in October 2016 but since then nothing has been heard. Was Arcee originally destined for there? I had thought that Arcee might be, like we think Titanmaster Ultra Magnus is, a refugee from one of the cancelled Titans Return boxsets. Exhibit A for that argument is her trading card art which is presented in landscape format and looks cropped from a larger image rather than in portrait format, with the head landing on her shoulders, like the other Titans Return Deluxe and Voyagers. However in hand she feels like she has slightly too much retooling to be a repaint from a boxset. So I think she was more likely originally intended for the cancelled/postponed Collectors Club or Titans Return Deluxe Wave 6, which in the end only featured one new toy in Slugslinger. The retooling is itself rather interesting. With two major exception the parts changed are the same parts changed to turn Blurr into Brainstorm: they both have new shoulders, hand flaps, spoiler/fin, vehicle nose and robot faces. The new parts change the look of the front of the vehicle considerably, into a kind of squared off version of her Generations Thrilling 30 toy. You can see the Blurr in there, and she looks more like Blurr than Brainstorm does, but the flaps covering her hand and vehicle nose easily do enough to differentiate them. The two changed parts don't really affect this mode too much: one is that her Titanmaster Leinad has a new, rounded head painted silver. Together with the white of the figure it's suggesting Daniel's exo suit from The Movie & the Rebirth. Unfortunately it looks a bit odd, not like it's on-screen appearance and worse will cause some problems later! Th other changed part, hallelujah, is that the gun has gone! I didn't mind it on Blurr but disliked it's inclusion on Brainstorm where I thought his new vehicle nose should have had removable side guns like the original Headmaster. It's also one of the few parts that was carried over to Chromedome, who I think also should have had twin dual guns like his original toy, and thus to Titans Return Chromedome's repaint Breakaway. So I think I now own 4 of the guns on Titans Return toys and another three on the Legends version and am thoroughly sick of the sight of it! In it's place are two small pistols modelled after ones Arcee uses in the IDW comics. Some distinct thought has gone into these as their handles aren't the typical 5mm peg, they're a thin rectangular piece of plastic which is 5mm from, front to back. They'll fit 5mm peg holes just fine but they'll also fit the narrow hands of the previous Generations Arcee. As per previous versions of the Blurr mould you can attach the guns under the nose in vehicle mode and that can be separated to act as a mini vehicle for a Titanmaster. The robot mode is shaped very similarly to Blurr, but the pink and white used helps differentiate them a lot. The new rounded shoulder pieces, with fake car front sides on them help a lot as does the great new face. I want to say the chest looks wrong but some great attention to detail duplicates the pattern on Arcee's animation chest onto a differently shaped surface. Yes the legs are the same, but they work. The only real problem here is the Titanmaster: the rounded shape of Leinad's small robot head doesn't make for a secure connection at the back of the Titanmaster socket so turning Arcee's head to the side can cause Leinad's head to shift in the socket and Arcee's head to pop off. I think Hasbro have done a really good job with Arcee here. Great remoulded parts, with the exception of the Titanmaster head, and fab colours have produced a toy which has made a really good Arcee. I think her US price of $24.99 looks very reasonable for her, a bonus Titanmaster in Ultra Magnus and some fancy packaging. Robotkingdom's $29.90 doesn't look too bad but it's still the best part of £40 before it gets to me in the United Kingdom, assuming it doesn't get customed. Kapow & ID Toys were both asking £35 for it initially, which given the far east price plus shipping plus customs plus overheads doesn't look absurd for them to be asking. However once again is all but £40 taking postage into account which feels a bit expensive for deluxe plus bonus Titanmaster, but I can't see these finding a home at UK retail so if you want it, that's the price you need to pay.
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