You can't win them all...

So last night I attempted to dye my spare Sunswipe (Sideswipe w/Sunstreaker head) black so that I'm one step closer to making Deep Cover and the experiment failed. And what an epic fail it was!

Granted I did manage to dye all the parts I wanted black but it came at a heavy price.
Apparently MOST of the parts shrunk in the dye solution. I don't know if it's because I left the parts in for too long, had a too much acetone in the mix (1 cup of acetone w/ 3 cups of dye and water) or something else. Even worse is that the hood of the car got warped, so even if it didn't shrink it could even line up evenly with the rest of the parts. Perhaps my friend @ COTU World could help me out? Either way I now have spare parts that'll probably go towards Tigertrack.

Here's a example of the warping of the hood. I'd show more but the hood alone shows everything.

2 Characters, 1 mold

Transformers Universe/Classics 2.0 began shipping earlier this year and was known about since last years Botcon. At the show they announced that they will be releasing Sideswipe and Sunstreaker as redecos of each of other. Fans rejoiced and I was satisfied. Of course much like catalogs "products may vary from picture" but after acquiring 2 (more on that later) of each figure I was surprised by the work that went into creating these figures.




It's car mode is based on 2 types of Lamborghini, the Gallardo and the Diablo, to avoid legal issues and it works. They even included a roof mounted rear engine similar to G1 Sunstreaker's for each of the twins, which is nice because it's can double as Sunstreaker's engine intakes a la his G1 mold or for Sideswipe, as his jet pack from the More Than Meets the Eye mini-series. Overall it is a very nice car mold that harkens back to the 1984 molds.



I won't bore you with details on how to transform them as you basically "unfold" the car into the robot. The really cool part is when you get to the torso. Depending on which way you rotate the legs, either the car hood or the the car roof will become the chest for Sideswipe or Sunstreaker. It's like Punch/Counterpuch from G1 but with better, modern technology. The engineering that went into this mold is amazing and quite possibly the best Transformer mold ever created. So it is possible to achieve a Sideswipe body with a Sunstreaker head and vice-a-versa. Of course you would have to pop off the hands and switch them or have a robot with upside down hands.



Of course if you're into the Japanese releases and have a spare Sunstreaker and Sideswipe you can just switch the heads and and make Tigertrack, which is what I did. Granted now I have a Classics/Universe 2.0 red Sunstreaker but with a little work I can convert him to either Clamp Down, Deep Cover or Red Alert. Or even a G2 version of Sideswipe, but I think I'll go with Deep Cover as he's mostly all black, which I can dye all the red parts with Rit Dye and mold new hands, lower torso and head in blue. Here's a quick digi-bash I did of Deep Cover.

Everything new is old again(?)

So this little company out of Hong Kong named BEST TOYS has released a small set called TRANSFOR GO!! ENCO 05 06 KITS.Being called a "KIT" seems a little odd to me and has me torn between a "KIT" or a "TOY". Either way Transformers fanboy around the world knows this set as the "set" that gives heads to their G1 Ironhide and Ratchet.



I managed to snag this set of heads from bigbadtoystore for $17.99 plus shipping. As you can see in the pic above they come in a small box with G1 like styling. Once you open the box you'll find the 2 heads (1 for Ironhide, 1 for Ratchet) encased in 2 clear plastic cases.



Once placed on Ironhide by simply sliding the head on to the what would be the seat ion vehicle mode, Ironhide looks very close to his 1980's animated counterpart. Even though his face is literally flat, it looks great and almost like his animation model sheet. Not bad eh?



Unfortunately this set is not 100% perfect. First of all, even though they look like their respective animated selves their heads are flat in the back. Yes completely and utterly FLAT! Like someone cut off the back of their head and let the front to suffer the humiliation of not having a back. The other problem with this set is not really a problem of the heads but caused by the HEADS. Because of their true purpose as driven robots in the Diaclone line in Japan before they became Transformers, Ironhide was a power load of sorts. This means that without a head the arms are place proportionately, once the the head is added though, it looks like his arms are slumped.



Despite it all it's a beautiful set and highly recommend it. Oh, and for wondering about the Ratchet, all that I said applies, I just didn't have my Ratchet handy. But just to appease the Ratchet fans here's a pic of his head on Ironhide's body. Enjoy!