I think it’s a safe bet that the majority of readers either knows a little bit about Sci-Fi epic Star Wars, or they may be familiar with robot-runner-ups the Gobots, many of you may even know a bit about both.  Well the Command Center is the beast that bridges the two:

The AT-AT Imperial Walker (most notable from “The Empire Strikes Back”) came first, and in the early 80’s Tonka (back then not part of Hasbro, good at trucks, and soullessly lazy at everything else) blatantly ripped off the basic design of the AT-AT for their “Command Center” base for the heroic Guardian Gobots.

I’m betting it was 1-part “Hey this looks cool, let’s borrow from here” and 1-part “Kids LOVE the AT-AT, and not many got one, even if they don’t like Go-Bots, they might buy a Commander Center as a cheap alternative.”  The scale of the thing is actually almost better suited to 80’s Kenner Star Wars figures than it is actual Gobots, for that matter.

Well, recently Hasbro (Who in the kind of corporate licensing synergy that just gets me all giddy now owns Tonka, the Go-Bots, and hence the design to the Command Center, also has the Star Wars action figure license from Lucas) recently released a OMG-It’s-2-feet-tall lights-and-sounds crazy as all hell $100 AT-AT (Which follows last years similar scale-and-price Falcon….can we get a new FortMax already??).  I took one look at this thing, and KNEW I had to get one and make it a Command Center (I DROOOLED over the Falcon, but could not justify it, couldn’t figure out what Cobra –the one 1:18 line of characters I collect- would do with it ;)).  I’m a playset-nut, so I HAD to do this, I had no choice…

The toy is whomping good fun, and satisfies all the dreams I had as a kid of what an AT-AT toy would be like (The early Kenner one ain’t up to snuff on that front, even as a kid, I spied one in person once, and was a little underwhelmed…).  I’ll quickly re-present the phone shots from the twitter feed which will give you a sense of scale:

Dry-fit Monogram-Model Spay-C in the cockpit…she’s about 3” tall.

Hubcap, playing the part of Super Couper, chilling in the crew-compartment.

Marvel Cross Overs Iron Man-Car, destined to become Turbo, sitting comfortably in the launch bay that was designed to launch speeder-bikes.

Yeah…this thing is amazing!

Now, it would be very tempting to leave well enough alone, the two vehicles’ designs are close enough that I could just man the AT-AT with Gobots and call it a day…but where would be the fun in that?

Which brings us to the kitbashing principle of the day.   To my eye, the elements that make the Command Center the Command Center and NOT the AT-AT are the red-dome cockpit up front, and the bright-red stripes and raised-window-things along its flanks.

So I took some measurements and headed out into the world to find some parts that would work.  Because the AT-AT is huge, I had to think VERY creatively, that Cockpit cover would have to be especially massive.   I was hoping to find a giant-clear-red-shampoo bottle in the right shape or something of the sort, but no luck for a few days.

Today on my lunch break, I went where I knew I would end up:  The Container Store.  This is another one of those, making-killer-robots-from-girly stuff moments.   Home Depot and Sears Hardware are great for little mechanical greebles, but if you want beautiful and elegant plastic forms, The Container Store (or it’s like) is the place to go!

I had to browse a few aisles to find what I needed, but naturally I did:

First up (currently just scotch-taped on to test it out), the Container Store’s greatest gift to kitbashers: their clear-plastic “gift box” range.  Recently the purple variety has become popular among Transformer fans as quick-and-dirty Energon Cubes.   You can even mix-and-match the clear and the purple to create those “filling the cubes” dioramas.  Going from .39 to 3.29 or something for the big ones, these are a very economical resource for anything you might need that’s clear, colored and square’ish.   They’re doing a great job as Commander Center-hatches already, in my opinion.

The coup-de-gras though, was finding my cockpit.   Not available in red, I’ll have to tint it, but it’s jest about as perfect as I could have hoped for:

Big ol’ measuring scoop.  Right shape, perfect size, once I whack off the handle and do some detail and paint work, this is going to really complete the “transformation” from AT-AT into Command Center.

So next time you’re out shopping with your lady (or if you are a lady, next time you drag your man along for a house-wares run) don’t forget to keep your eyes open for the shapes, colors, and sizes you need for whatever project you’re working on.   You may even be inspired to start a new project!

Speaking of Star Wars….I HAVE to write a post about how the early X-Wing ‘bashers birthed our hobby…

Got any massive-scale plans of your own?    Tell us about it in the comments below!

Slowly slowly ramping back up, new house is still in disarray, but at least I can spend some time at the computer each night now.

Anyway while perusing the local independent educational toy shops (There are 3!  I am so in Yuppie suburbia now...) I came across a building toy that I hadn't previously known about.  As you may remember, I'm REALLY into using building toys in my kitbashes, especially when I get all scratch-build'y.  So needless to saw, I was excited to find something new: 

It's called "Jaw Bones" and at first glance it probably looks like any other multi-colored multi-shape building toy.   It does build glorious random monstrosities as well as most of its competitors:

But the Unique thing with this system is that just about every single connection point is a RATCHET joint!

Just look at those glorious teeth!

Once properly seated they take a LOT of force to move too, definitely enough strength there to bear real weight on real joints in a kitbash project.

There are simply post-and-hole connections to add more flexibility, and even THESE are designed to ratchet (Though with much less oomph compared to the toothy ones):

You can see the tiny little teeth on the yellow-spokes above.  There's also this dodecahedron piece (I'm guessing. I didn't count the sides...) as well as a "wheel" connector that are fun for building, but not useful for 'bashes, as they don't feature ratcheting connections:

But my FAVORITE part in this system is that elbow-joint pictured above:

It's relatively small and compact, pre-built, and has the best ratcheting mechanism of the whole set.  Its center-hub also ratchets with the spokes pictured earlier:

The set I purchased contained 100 pieces and cost me $20 at the local over-priced boutique, which compared with Revoltech joints or slicing-and-dicing existing figures, gives you a lot of ratchet bang for your buck!

The only downside to the product is size.  The parts are a little on the chunky side, so you're not going to be scratch-building a "scout"- or "deluxe"-scale figure with these, but once you get into the larger scale projects these will work nicely.   And as I mentioned, they're TOUGH ratchets, so weight bearing at those larger scales won't be an issue!

You got any day-glow preschool toys that you want to turn into scale-instruments-of-destruction?  Let us know about it in the comments below! 

Still dealing with new house issues (The new workshop got flooded by a faulty A/C...whoops), but here's another short one to keep your feed active:

A while back I started working on my Wonderfest MetalHawk kit.   He's going to be an on-going project, and any time I make some progress, I'm going to share it with you here on the blog.  Lots to be learned there for sure!

However, the Wonderfest kit is a high-end Japanese resin kit that is officially licensed and hardly qualifies as a "garage kit."  So in the interest of showing off the many different styles of "kits" that can be "bashed" I plan to work on a few different projects.    MetalHawk is the high-ground, fancy, expensive, and a lot of work.   

Today in the mail I got project # 2.   Basic, no-frills, but also GORGEOUS, and a true labor of love by the creator.  This is a REAL garage-kit, likely even cast in an actual garage.   And I couldn't be more excited:

That ain't no easter-egg, it's a Quinetesson!  Created by the artist who calls himself Odeean, this thing is old school G1 cartoon madness, and I've wanted a figure like this since 1987.  I've tried my hand at scratch-building a few myself over the years, but never landed anywhere good.

The sculpt on this kit is WONDERFUL though, and is exactly what I always dreamed of creating.   Not as slick as what Takara might pump out, but for a hand-sculpted work of art, this is pretty darn near perfect.   Here's a shot of a semi-finished kit by the creator:

It's just gorgeous, ain't it?    The thing is big too, it can look Voyagers in the eye with ease.

But even more exciting for me is a little troop-building joy:

G1 Gnaw has mostly eluded my collection, I've gotten ONE in the last 10 years of adult-collecting, and never had one as a kid.  But I LOVE troop-building, and I've always wanted Sharkticon hordes.   I bought 2 from Odeean, which ain't a horde, but it's a darn sight closer than I was.   I also think his sculpt is SPOT-ON closer to the cartoon model and at a better scale anyway, so I'm very very pleased to own these guys!

Still doesn't explain what kins of sharks Floro Deary was looking at in the aquarium, but that is a mystery that may never be solved.....

One of the interesting things that happened in the custom show was that we got 3 very good, very different, Power Master Optimus Prime (Or Super God Ginrai, if you're a JTF snob like me) customs.

Each was sort of unique, one being Kidbash-supporter Tgping's 'Classics' styled armor set for the Mega-Scale Prime, one being a G1-Articulation-and-Build-Up type project, and one being a mostly-scratch-built anime-style figure based on the much-maligned 2-Pack Classics Prime.

I simply cannot pick a favorite, they are each FABULOUSLY cool in their own way, and so distinct from one another.   It really shows that there is always MUCH more than one approach to any custom, character, project, or build.  An open-mind and a willingness to take risks is your only limitation!

Here's a few shots from the Custom show, more to come on this :)

I'm using this Friday to mention that I'm moving into the new workshop (and the rest of the new house ;)) so there won't be anything exciting tonight.

But I'm not blog-fading, so keep your rss feed hot!

Next week will be a little dodgy as well as I'm hitting the road to go to BotCon with the "Design Team" (Yeah we gotta announce his identity sometime... ;) ).  I hope to see some of you blog readers there.   I'll have a DestrongerLupus con badge on (assuming I can find it..) and I'm planning on getting a kidbash shirt made up, so keep an eye out for me!

For those of you not going, I'm going to try to blog from the road and the 'con, so I'll see y'all on the flipside!

Personally I think kibble gets a bad rep.  Now, as you know, on Thursdays we talk about Kitbash Design Theory, and usually my articles are very practical in nature, pointing towards design-choices that are easy to implement, but tonight’s discussion will be a little more “pure theory.”   I’m going to present 1 robot (some silly Football robot) dressed up with a variety of car-parts (the kibble).

Only by configuring the kibble parts in different ways, we’ll end up with three different looks.    If you ever decide to do a scratch-build or a “Revoltech” style figure, you might be able to apply this idea directly, otherwise, you’ll want to file the concept away in the back of your mind as something to think about.

Anyway, onto the first of our three configurations:

So here we have the traditional “Diaclone” look, car-hood on chest, windscreen on back, doors-as-wings.  Many popular characters sport this configuration.   It’s a great look, the wings add a lot of dynamic life to the design, the car hood makes for a big barrel chest, and the windscreen poking up behind evokes a bit of an armored look.  

Moving just a few parts around, we end up with configuration 2:

Notice how by moving the hard-hood to the shoulders the whole profile of the robot changes.   This guy looks like more of a bruiser, “bare” chested, with the door-panels adding bulk to his arms which contributes to the brawler feel.   The character also looks much taller, I think it’s because there’s now a continual line from his groin up through his head.

Ok let’s swap ‘em around one more time, to get our third look:

Roof on the chest, big stompy car-hood feet, and a slightly different set of wings.   This is sort of the “Minibot” look, sturdy and “well grounded” (what, with those massive toes and all).   The roof-as-chest look appears a little confined, but his arms feel the most natural of the three configurations.

I could have reconfigured the parts in a number of additional ways, including various asymmetric ones, but you get the idea.   The point is that given a single set of design elements you can create many very distinct appearances.  Each of those appearances also carries with it an inherent “personality.” 

Got a favorite kibble-config?  Tell us about it in the comments below!

And you may remember the article I did about the potentially-deadly bathtub painting method.   Well, I’m thrilled to report that my apartment-bashing days are over.  I’m still renting but I’m moving into a townhouse with a (semi) private backyard (where I can spray paint to my heart’s content), and a quasi-finished basement.

NEW WORKSHOP!   

Sorry for the slightly blurry pics, but we only had a camera phone while we were dropping stuff off today.

Note the worry free cement floor and copious outlets.

GORGEOUS overhead lighting (this place is BRIGHT!)

A little shin-busting runner shelf (perfect for setting figures aside between coats), and a nice big fan-friendly window for ventilation!

Round the corner there’s a little storage alcove with ancient rickety shelves (not bad for storing kits though..)

Or repro Diaclone Drivers (Thanks to anovasinn!)

I’ll devote a future Workshop-Wednesday to my new workshop once it’s set up and I can take decent pictures!  Any updates to your workshop?  Let us know in the comments below!

The kit is actually a fairly simple one, requiring 1 Captain America Crossover figure, and the bundle of 11 or so parts that come in the kit:

Though sold out for a while, I wanted to (finally) put up a tutorial on how to put together the Kidbash Roadbuster kit, for any folks out there who are still scratching their heads on how to out it together. The kit is actually a fairly simple one, requiring 1 Captain America Crossover figure, and the bundle of 11 or so parts that come in the kit

Now, I strongly recommend prepping and painting before you actually assemble, but I’m going to “dry fit” the parts as they come out of the bag onto a raw Captain America just to help keep everything simple.

We’ll start with the hands, which are probably the most straight forward part.  Your first step is to unscrew the forearm parts:

Once removed, you can pop off the plate, and inside you can see that the original fist just sits in a round channel:

Simply remove the original fist and replace it with the correct resin one (watch those thumbs!):

Replace the panel and the screws, and you’re done.   Be careful when finishing your kit, if you get much paint on the inside of the forearm or on the post of the resin-fist, the hands can get too stiff to turn properly.  You can see in the picture above, that even Hasbro was careful not to paint the wrist joint( It is the molded blue color instead of the painted red of the actual fist..)  I tried to force one of my fists and ended up having to replace it.  So use care!

Next we’ll tackle the head.  This is probably the trickiest part of the kit, but it’s still very easy!   The first thing we need to do is crack open the torso.  Start by unhinging Cap’s waist to reveal the four screw holes on the underside of his torso:

Next unscrew all four screws.   This can be a little tricky as the screws are deeply recessed, so be careful to use the right tool at the correct angle and don’t strip the screw heads!  (I did on one of my Cap’s and had to drill out the screws and glue the torso shut when done, avoid this if possible!)

With the screws removed you can take the two halves of the torso apart:

The screw in the center is what holds Cap’s head on, you want to remove this:

The Roadbuster head, depending on your cast, may need to be drilled out a little to provide a channel for the screw:

After drilling:

Now you simply place the post into the hole in Cap’s upper torso and re-screw in the neck-screw:

And Viola!

I didn’t quite like how my head was sitting, so I compared it to the original head:

And did a little machining to shorten the post and create that circular channel:

I actually went a little overboard, but in a hidden spot like this, no harm done.  And I like how the head sits better now:

We’re almost there; it’s all downhill from here!  The next part we’ll look at is the backpack connector:

The good news:  This is a “safe” part going in a “safe place.”  No matter how you align this, it won’t affect transformation. 

The bad news:   There’s an “Up” and a “Down”, and it’s not super-obvious at a glance which is which.

To attach this part, you simply glue it to the back of Cap as shown:

WHOOPS, I actually did it upside down on the first go (This results in the cannon sitting all wrong, etc.)

That’s more like it.   Basically you want the holes on the bottom and the sculpted detail pointing “up.”  If you’re not sure, test how the backpack fits before gluing!

Speaking of gluing-  DON’T glue the backpack to the backpack connector, in vehicle mode you pop the backpack off and it connects to the back of the hummer on Cap’s shield-port.

Now glue the front bumper….to Cap’s front bumper.   Didn’t see that one coming, didja?

All that’s left now is to glue the extra weaponry on wherever you like.  

I recommend the following spots as it replicates G1 Roadbuster’s robot mode look and looks pretty good in vehicle mode.   But you can put ‘em pretty much anywhere you want:

And that does it!  Well…except for painting…

Got any alternate ideas on how to put the kit together?  Let us know in the comments below!

I plan on continuing that pattern, but for today, to mark my return to the Kidbash blog after a brief hiatus, and to mark the beginning of a new era in the Kidbash story, I want to talk a bit about the key element that brought us out of the Giant-Space-Robot era and into the modern era of the robot fantasy:

There’s a lot of debate about who deserves the credit, I’m going to lay it at the feet of Shoji Kawamori, who designed the VF-1 Valkyrie.  This animation-design, which would later become toy-reality in the hands of Takatoku is generally regarded as the first “perfect transformation” design, which is to say, a recognizable real-world machine (in the case of the Valk, a F14 fighterjet) that can change in a realistic way into a aesthetically pleasing humanoid robot.

This innovation changed how we’d look at the concept of a “robot” forever.   Robby and Gort faded to the background, and Go-Bots and Transformers would eventually rise to fill our collective imaginations.  The shift was dramatic, taking place over just a few years, this concept of “transformation” became the dominant one in robot-related science-fiction, with even surviving  legacy brands (such as Gundam, Super Sentai, and Zoids) adopting elements of the transformation theme into their ongoing stories.

I think the reason this theme has proven to be so powerful and important in robot-fiction is because it speaks to a fundamental aspect of the human psyche.  Even looking back to the earliest examples of human story telling and literature, transformation has always been one of the most important themes, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, for instance is a collection of transformational stories.

It’s a fundamental part of the human experience to look at “what is,” and be able to conceive of “what it could be.”  This is the magic of the Transformers brand, and more over the magic of the hobby of kitbashing.  As artists we look at a toy, and see it for what it is, but also for what it could BECOME with a coat of paint and some new parts.

As I write this blog post, the Kidbash group is hip-deep in the reality of this kind of fantastic change.   What we “are” is a group of fans who’ve had a blast over the last few years hand-casting resin parts to help customizers accomplish specific kitbashing visions.   What we “could be”, what we want to be, and what we are becoming, is a professional company  devoted to creating products which inspire the kind of transformational creativity which we love as a hobby.

This means we’re transforming into something new and different.   We want to own a piece of the market which is unique and special, and we’re working hard to conceive of what that means and how to make it happen.  

The good news is, that one of the things we’ve already decided on, is that we want to continue to hold on tight to the idea of “community” that’s defined Kidbash so far.   We’re going to keep our sketch books and brainstorming sessions open to the community, and we look forward to your input on our ideas as we move forward.  

So come on the journey with us.   We’re going down roads-less-travelled, and may surprise you with some of the choices we make, but at the end of the day we hope to inspire transformational creativity in all new ways.