Toy, showing off the hand transformation

[the_s_guy]

The hand pieces aren't completely finalised, but it's just a matter of fine-tuning from here. Here's the somewhat complex hand transformation, for those who are interested.

Comments

[tainry]

Why the two nested "lids"?

[the_s_guy]

The first lid doubles as a set of tank treads - the red area will have tank-tread detail in it in the final version.

The second lid has two functions. Firstly, it covers up two underlying flip-outs (the robot hand and half of the dinosaur head from the last post) when the primary lid is open for tank mode (it'll also have tank detailing added, or at least a splash of red for visual interest).

Secondly, it forms the lower panel of the side of the dinosaur head itself. I had the panels coloured green in the last post to highlight them, but I didn't add that to the primary model, so it's not showing up green here. It's a little confusing, as the red bits are part of the primary model - I haven't finished putting all the permanent colour on.

Effectively, the internal lid should be red on the outside and green on the inside. Christmassy!

[tainry]

Aha! Very slick.
Heeee! :D

And also, dear Primus I wish it was you doing the transformation instructions for the toys................... XD

[the_s_guy]

Heh. I don't know about that - this was knocked up in MS-Paint in about half an hour. Not the greatest way to go about it. ;)

[lunatron]

That hand looks really, really breakable! I assume this would be a Masterpiece size toy, at least?

[the_s_guy]

I've estimated that I can't go below about one centimetre per 'block' (the width across the forearm here) without the pieces becoming really fragile. That would put the robot mode at roughly 13cm tall.

Ideally, it would be around twice to two and a half times that size, or 13 inches, which would put it in Masterpiece territory. At that size, the arm here would be a full inch across. Beefy!

Fanonically, the character was designed to be a large-size robot, so a 13-inch version would be pretty much in scale with the Masterpiece line.

I'm just glad I could cram such a large mitt into the tiny slot left in his forearm. I was worried for a couple of months that I'd have to end up using teeny tiny fists, or some kind of cop-out like a flat panel with a 5mm hole in it.

[the_s_guy]

Random extra information: the welding spike on the back of the wrist has been there in the character concept for years. Pretty much from day one. The original four modes were truck, helicopter, insect, and robot, and it was always the case that the front pair of insect claws were going to form these spikes.

Oh sure, the minor details have changed. It was originally gently curved into a long claw, until I revamped everything into straight lines and sharp corners in order to have it all fit together. One of the things I must do at some point when all this is completed is go back over the modes and see if there are any panels I can change back from straight lines to curves, or add a little kibble to, just to break up the silhouette a bit.

Still, this spike. Such a little thing. And yet, it's taken ten years from conception to actual representation. It's been sitting in my head, completely alone, for an entire decade.

And now you're seeing it.

It's nice to be able to show someone.