Vbuild of Kabaya Candy Optimus Prime

We have posted a vbuild eith review of the Kabaya Optimus Prime model kit. Check out the pics, and video below. 

Custom TFCon Exclusive ToyworldGrant (TW-H04G) aka Grand Maximus

This is a quick and simple custom I did for the Toyworld Grant figure. I had gotten it at TFCon 2014, and you might had seen in in some of my instagram photos. When I got the figure, snapped a pic and put him in his box. Once I saw there was another version with more paint apps I thought I might end up trading it for the other version. Well time went on, and it seems the market is somewhat flooded with these figures so I decided I will make due with this one. 

I was not sure where I was going to begin my approach. I had not seen the character in the shows, so I didn't have any attachments to make it look just like the character. I figured I would add some details based on the colors that exist to see what could improve the overall design. 

The character model for Grand Maximus.

The original toy thanks to seibertron.com. 

The original heads bot mode thanks to seibertron.com.

As you can see in the photo I took they improved the toy some. It isn't a straight Knock Off, but updated, and actually much smaller. So small that it does not have an additional headmaster for the headmaster, and other accessories. It does however have all the modes for transformation, but with added details and articulation. It was a well built figure, but the colors seemed sort of bland. 

You can see from the sales photo that it came with stickers, and they add a little to its look, but it is still a little over saturated in these molded colors. I figured I could repaint a lot of the figure, but I am going to see what I can do with it by just modifying the head. The head was mostly a single color, and it made the figure feel lifeless. 

I started with adding some color to the head robot itself. I painted his helmet and chest to break up the single molded color. I also added some silver to his face and yellow eyes. It was a bit tricky to paint the face because this figure was so small. More or less it was done with a single bristle brush. 

The rest of the helmet was painted with a brush as well. It had to be painted twice because once I moved the finished product into another light I found that this was not a blue as much as it was a blue green tone. It was not too hard to match the paint to the plastic once I saw it closer in the light. I then added some paint below the jaw to give it more shape and painted his face mask & horns silver. I also added a little silver to the gray vents before adding the stickers. 

I think compared to the productions photos he looks less like a stone faced statue and has a bit more character. On top of that, he is more toy and character accurate. Check out the rest of the photos of this guy. 

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Custom Painted MP10 Optimus Prime Eyes

Here is a quick little custom for MP10 I thought I would share for those wanting to try it. As you can see below, the eyes on MP10 are rather dead looking. They chose a dark blue, and it was one of the weaker design elements of the figure. The Hasbro version went with lighter eyes. 

Rather than spraying the eyes, I used these yellow paint pen. I chose yellow for the G1 toy rather than the cartoon model. 

 Here you can see how they slide out of the back of the head. You will need to open the head with the two small screws on the back, and let the paint dry before reassembly.

And its that easy. Below you can see some photos of the finished product. 

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Blinking Light Win NES mod Review

Here is an item I got from a kickstarter that was successful for me. Its called the blinking light win. You can check out their kickstarter for more info. Now that my kid is getting old enough to game, I wanted to enjoy the NES with her. I remember the old NES being finicky, but I forgot how much of a pain they could be to get running right. I got this device to make games more reliable. 

My main gaming center. Yes that is a VCR, and those are VHS tapes. How else can I teach my kid the evolution of media. 

Check out the video below for the full review, and install of the Blinking Light Win.

WST Retro Gashapon Optimus Prime Model Kit

A neat little capsule toy I picked up over a decade ago. It has some nice sculpting in the cab, and might be a good item to pull the head and cab from to improve the WST version. Here you can see some comparisons with the PVC truck, and the WST toy. Also check out the build video at the end. 

Expressalo Toy review

I found out about these guys on instagram and fell in love with them. Turns out they were part of a kickstarter that I missed out on. Luckily not long afterwards they were available on their website, so I got a couple. Checkout a couple of shots I took, and the video review below. 

Thoughtful Toys: Halo Mega Bloks Mecha (Mantis/ Quad Walker)

Continuing our discussion on toys to use for inspiration of illustration or other forms of creation, I wanted to start talking some building block sets. One could easily just talk about "lego" and be done. It is more or less the ultimate creation toy. Since one of the main goals of this talk is to find ways to come up with robots or other sorts of machines, I wanted to talk about the set that pulled me in to lego again personally.
When I had a kid I started going on a building block buying binge. I want her to have toys to explore her creativity. I knew it would be a few years till she could play with these, but as I saw sets on clearance or at close out shops like TJMaxx, I started picking up various sets. Everything from Hello Kitty, to Transformers Kreo. I am big in the mechs, so I decided to get the Halo Mantis kit for myself. At the time it was the only way to get a physical form of the design, and I am very glad I did. Mega Bloks did something very special with this kit, and I hope they continue this trend. They came up with the equivalent of revoltech joints for building block systems. In other words they produced a ratchet joint that can bend, and rotate. It is exactly what the robot builders needed. The other thing great about this kit, is the olive drab color that is perfect for military style vehicles.

I decided to add another kit to this review due to being under the Halo brand, and using the same style of joints. The quad walker also has a good color for robot designs, and has a good assortment of these joints. While I got my Mantis kits new on Amazon and TRU, I got the Quad Walker at Ross and someone had taken many of the parts out of the box. Luckily it had the joints which were the most important parts of the kit for my purpose.

I did notice that some of the joints from the Quad Walker were not as nice as the ones from the Mantis kit. Some pop apart. They also have only one type of ratchet joint where the Mantis has a great double joint for the chicken walker look. One note is the blocks these go into come in a couple varieties as well allowing you to come up with different limb sections.

You can see here where the joint has a 180 degree bend, as well as 360 degree rotation where it connects in the special blocks giving lots of possibility to the robot. 

Note the double joint at the knee. 

Since I did not have the full Quad Walker kit, I wanted to use what I had to do a quick simple bot. Going with the simpler design I am able to give the bot some character and make him a cute little machine of destruction. 

Like I said, I had been collecting a lot of building blocks lately, and a few of those kits have been for my daughter. But having them in hand gives me the opportunity to make a Hello Kitty Mech. What a great way to accessorize that cute kitty by making her a harbinger of doom.

Includes a cockpit that opens and closes to keep kitty safe. 

While I was limited on the vibrant colors to work with, due to the HK kits being somewhat stingy with pieces, I was able to cover and integrate much of the mechanical bits into the overall look.

Halo Kitty.... I am right? 

As you can see, for building bots, these joints are a must. Lego has started producing something similar, but they are sparse in their kits, and they still like to rely on their ball joints. I don't care for the look of their ball joints, and of course they don't hold the weight near as well. The mantis kit is getting harder to get, but it is the most desirable of the two. The Quad Walker is however still quite plentiful and comes with some great parts.
I will touch on other types of building toys as time goes on, but like this post I will be covering specific lines of building block toys on their own for interesting parts they bring to the creators tool box. I will continue to also build with these parts and share them here and on instagram, so stay tuned for more reviews of great creative toys for the artist. And if you have not already, check back in the blog for reviews for other creative toys. Until next time...