crazy customizing and creativity questions and discussion

[Shockwave]

Or regular Starscream "White Starscream". Actually, no, scratch that.

[Onslaught Six]

Wait, do we have a source on this? I thought the character profile referenced "Machine Wars".

Dom
-oi...

We don't. I think this was 86 and me making vague biased assumptions. Kind of like how Purple Flamethrower Seeker is so obviously Wasteland.

[Dominic]

Okay, next question:

I have an extra Wheeljack. Daytonus (straight recolour or Axer (mixing parts from Tracks? Discuss.

[Onslaught Six]

Holy shit Daytonus yes. I would love to see that.

[Dominic]

And, Daytonus is finally done.


For all of the time and effort put in, the results are, to put it nicely, akin to something you would see on a crafts table at the community fair.

Put more honestly, the results are shit.

I could not get the yellow paint to go on well, and it looks obviously hand painted, complete with brush strokes and uneven coating. Despite me spending several hours on an orange undercoat, the damned yellow still beaded and thus required more than one coat. Applying one coat over another (even when the first was dry) led to more obvious brush strokes and "dragging".

While Daytonus does not look quite as bad as my attempted Sunstorm a few years back, it still looks bad enough. Rather than using yellow primer, I tried using orange this time. The orange went on smoother than the yellow. But, when the time came to apply the paint, it all fell apart.

I should probably do a bit of touch up on the blacks and greens. But, honestly, it would not be worth the effort when the bulk of the figure looks like garbage. And, I am content to call this one done (albeit a failure) and move on.

On a related note, does anybody know of a good brand of yellow modelling paint? I have never gotten good results with GW's yellows, not have I talked to anybody who has.


Dom
-now to try to make something good.

[JediTricks]

Just a quick point regarding the troubles with yellow, Hasbro doesn't using modeling paints or anything like them, they use essentially automobile paint that's been thinned out because it bites into the plastic.

[Shockwave]

I've generally had pretty good luck with Testor's.

[Dominic]

Wacky idea to kick of this post

TFU style Autotrooper:
-the precedent: Autobtrooper from Alternators Jazz. RTS Jazz to Wheelie. G1 Wheelie to Dion. Time Lines Dion from TFU Hotshot.

-the logic: There has never been a CHUG Autotrooper. The Time LInes/TFA Autotrooper would not look right on any CHUG shelf. And, it is also pretty expensive. The Alternators/BT Autotrooper is in a whole different scale and aesthetic, to say nothing of requiring the purchase of a disturbing "Kiss Play" figure.


-Prime Trooper or Motormaster from a 2006 "Classics" Prime:
The base figure for this would actually be a knock-off Prime. But, you get the idea.

The Prime Trooper's precedent is the black recolour of the Master Piece Prime that is apparently used as the model for a troop builder in some pack-in manga. Motormaster as Prime has precedent in "Classics" and "Universe", using Legends scale figures. And, to a less extent, there is precedent using Fun Publications' 2011 set.

I have one vote for the trooper, and am leaning towards that to begin with.

Thoughts?

It bothers me when it is done in an official capacity, like Movieverse Armorhide being SG Huffer, but how people play with their toys on their own doesn't do anything to diminish the characters that are already there.

It bothers me in both cases for more or less the same reasoning. It is lazy. And, particularly when fans do it, it is self indulgent. ("I do not have a legitimate figure of x-character, but I am going to say I have a figure of x-character.")

People half-arsing their hobby just bothers me. A hobby is something that we do wholly by choice, meaning that there is no reason to half-arse it. Honestly, I generally do not like customizing figures of characters with legitimate toys that use the same moulding.

For example, I have a custom CHUG Detritus that I recoloured using a TFU Hound. G1 Hound was recoloured as eHobby Detritus. But, there is no CHUG Detritus. On the other hand, I would not make a custom CHUG Skywarp because there are two legitimate CHUG Skywarps available.

In some cases, something that I made a custom figure of is later made officially. Examples of this include G2 Sideswipe, G2 coloured Ramjet and (soon) Artfire. Now, in those cases, I obviously cannot undo my work. But, that does not make my customs more valid than, or even remotely equally valid to, legitimate toys. Sideswipe is particularly bothersome on this front, as the legitimate toy is not only much better than my custom, but it is incredibly rare. (Ironically, it is also rare enough that I see nothing wrong with making a custom of it.) In the case of G2 Ramjet, I like my custom figure better than the official figure because of a head swap. (I used the "standard" seeker head seen on old toy packaging, rather than the context accurate cone-head.) But, Fun Publication's figure is the correct one. In the case of Artfire, well, how was I to know they were making an official toy? (Ironically here, I customized the Nebulan Minicon only a few weeks before the legitimate toy was announced.)

Similar to "so rare that you probably have to make one yourself", (grean BW Ramulous, BC97Fractyl or G2 Sideswipe), is "so rare that you probably do not want it in the opn. I have customized and commissioned "proxy" figures for certain rare toys such as BC00 Shokoract or BC97 Fractyl. (Generally, I figure that less than a thousand figures being made is reason to use the "so rare you are unlikely to ever get a legitimate copy" exception.)


In all of the above cases, somebody has to do something to make a custom figure. They have to swap parts and or recolour an existing toy. In a few cases, they might legitimately be able to get away with just adding a few stickers or buffing off some paint. But, those situations are rare. (The only real example of this that comes to mind is applying a purple Decepticon sigil to BC10 SG Ravage to make Glit. There are probably other examples though.) But, just re-purposing a toy is goddammed lazy. (The most egregious example of this is Fun Publication's re-purposing Gentie SkyFire as SG Skyfire.)


And, yes, I know that there are examples of legitimate re-purposing. The most obvious being re-purposing any iteration of Scourge as a Sweep or Insecticons as Insecticon troopers/clones. But, in both cases, there is legitimate precedent for the re-purposing.



Dom
-always meant to buy boxes of Insecticon re-issues.

[Onslaught Six]

Repurposing works in a pinch, and when the toy you're using doesn't have very much attachment to yourself. For example, I don't give two shits about Cybertron Landmine as a character. (He's just Armada Scavenger anyway.) I do give a shit about G1 Landmine, suddenly, because of Masterforce. Cybertron Landmine is, easily enough, a distinct homage/new toy of the G1 guy in several ways. (His altmode may be different and some details don't match up, but there have been worse homages and new toys. Look at Universe Galvatron.) So it works out, especially considering G1 Landmine is kind of a crappy toy (being a Pretender does that) and to get him I'd have to pay about $24. (Right now there's no complete Landmines on eBay; I'd have to piece one together from an inner robot and a shell, plus his weapons. And finding these all in good condition would be difficult, since Landmine is primarily made of grey plastic that yellows easily.)

But you've got a point. For example, I (personally) would never customize a figure to represent Optimus Prime, simply because there are literally dozens of Prime figures I could get that could easily represent the character. (I might, occasionally, do something like add neck articulation to a G1 Prime by breaking his neck peg, but that's the extent of it.) Metalhawk, though, has had two figures in 25 years. One of them is prohibitively expensive and rare and not that good anyway; the other is a G1 Japanese exclusive toy. (ohoho, see what I did there?)

Rarity and price are sometimes difficult to ascertain. I can get a G1 Slapdash (in various conditions and missing, or not missing, various parts) for between $9-15 easy. Energon Cliffjumper, on the other hand, costs about $20+ and shipping. But which would I rather have?

[Dominic]

Quick update:

I cannot find my black KO Optimus. I recall it breaking, so I may have thrown it away. My initial plan was to swap in some parts from a regularly coloured KO toy, painting them as needed. Now, regarless of which I black Prime option I go with, I have much more work ahead of me. (And, with KO toys more or less dead in the water, I cannot order another one. Buggah....)

Repurposing works in a pinch, and when the toy you're using doesn't have very much attachment to yourself.

This smells an awful, (and I do mean "awful"), lot like fan fic.

Cybertron Landmine is, easily enough, a distinct homage/new toy of the G1 guy in several ways. (His altmode may be different and some details don't match up, but there have been worse homages and new toys.

"Well, it works, aside from all that stuff that does not work."

Hasbro was re-using a name, nothing more. Takara was not even doing that much. Aside from coincidentally sharing yellow as a colour, there are no meaningful similarities. And, really, why? This epitomizes the lazy salf-indulgence that I was talking about.

Metalhawk, though, has had two figures in 25 years. One of them is prohibitively expensive and rare and not that good anyway; the other is a G1 Japanese exclusive toy. (ohoho, see what I did there?)

I blame Fun Publications, and to a less degree Hasbro, for making this kind of half-assery okay. This year's Metal Hawk and Overlord look like the sort of custom jobs that I would expect from a lazy, (or maybe just young), customizer. The repurposing is just lazy, and made even worse when it is for crap like "Shattered Glass". The official sources really should not be pulling that kind of shit. (And, why the fandom entertains it, I will never understand.)

But you've got a point. For example, I (personally) would never customize a figure to represent Optimus Prime, simply because there are literally dozens of Prime figures I could get that could easily represent the character. (

I would customize an Optimus if I could do it *better* than Hasbro, either in terms of paint applications or moulding. Granted, I cannot. But, there are people who can. But, just repurposing a toy (to say nothing of acting like that is creativity), is fucking lazy.

More often, there is no official toy from a given mould. A recent example is BC12 Tracks being repurposed by some fans as Roadrage. That is, frankly, back-yarder level lazyness. Strike that. It is worse than back-yarding. (More on that below.)

BC12 Tracks is not even the right coloures to be modern Roadrage (or Diaclone/MB Tracks). The purple on BC12 Tracks would have to black (or blue according to other accounts). Additionally, the Autobot sigils are the wrong colour to be anything but an SG toy. (For the record, the shiny purple Autobot sigils are really purdy looking. As much as I hate concept of SG, there is more than one toy from that sub-line that I have to admit looks really nice.) At the very least, people should put correctly colours sigils on the figure as a way to customize it.

"Back yarding" is a term of derision used for bad wrestling. It is a reference to back-yard leagues, people who literally wrestle in back yards. Obviously, some back yarders are kids who are too young to formally start training. But, believe it or not, there are backyard leagues that set up chairs and bill themselves as being professional shows. These are the fanfic writers and lazy customizers of wrestling. And, they are hated. But, from what I have seen, many back-yarders still want to go pro. Many of them are willing to train, and they often to improve over time. They are willing to put the time/effort in to improve their product. Re-purposing is just lazy. It is the equivalent of buying a ring and some tights and calling oneself a wrestler or booker. (Actually, buying the ring and tights at least represents an investment of money and time, so even this is better than repurposing.) Of course, most wrestling fans tend to look down on backyarding. At most, back-yarders are seen as young kids who might have potential if they start training seriously. (But, nobody says that the backyarding itself is okay.)

But, for whatever reason, in this fandom, laziness is accepted and often encouraged.

Rarity and price are sometimes difficult to ascertain. I can get a G1 Slapdash (in various conditions and missing, or not missing, various parts) for between $9-15 easy. Energon Cliffjumper, on the other hand, costs about $20+ and shipping. But which would I rather have?

It is just a question of establishing a cut-off. "Expensive" is a function of one's income and the perceived value of the item in question. I would see $5 for a broken toy as being less of a value than $25 for a complete toy. Of course, in absolute terms, $25 is a bit high right now. (Being so close to finishing a certification, and getting another, I have to start thinking of working more on my loans and planning for my future, rather than being content to tuck away a few bucks a week, hence my cutting back on toys of late.)

Rarity is a question of how available a given item is, with price usually being proportionally high/low. (There are exceptions of course. For a time in the 90s, TFs were rare, but not always too expensive.)


Dom
-looking for an RotF Shadowstriker (black Wheelie recolour).....