DMK Bumblebee WIP 1

    Here's my last post for 2011, fellas!! As the world (or at least everyone in my timezone) counts down to 2012, I'm home fitting some parts and working on my TF project. As mentioned earlier, the goal here is to use the Dual Model Kit Bumblebee set by Takara Tomy and mod it into something resembling the G1 version, yet retaining the sleek mecha feel of the movie.
    I'm gonna attempt to splice TWO Bee designs together - the movie version and the video game War For Cybertron version:

 The toys translate into:

    As you can see, each version has its merits....The WFC design is truer to the G1 cartoons, and retains the iconic face of Bee. I like the smooth curvature of much of his armour too, but he's a bit too uh...'bumbling'. I want the shape to be sleeker and more menacing, instead of the rotund form. Enter the movie version by DMK. Sleek, mecha-like, but I don't really dig the face, and it still looks too robotic, if ya ask me. I want it to be more mecha-ish, instead of just looking like something that stepped outta the factory and came to life.

    So with all that said? Let's proceed! I bought a WFC Bee and cut him up (ouch). 

    At this point I'm just using cutters to slice up the parts, and sand them down where needed. I might progress to certain bits where I'll have to use a soldering iron and pin punch to knock out those pesky pins which attach the joints and knickknacks together though. Those are tough! And I've never attempted it. But for now...cutting works.

    So I unscrewed Bee's head and reshaped the ball joint to splice it onto DMK's neck joint, and then using the cut up parts from the WFC carapace, try to get a feel for the chest armour of my new Bee. I want him to be sleeker, yet more robust.

A comparison with the internals of a DMK kit I've done prior to this for reference:

    That's all for now folks! Stay tuned for more updates, and have a Happy New Year!!