I'll post one crappy pic realy quick right now (I'm at work), then follow up tonight w/ better pics and a little writeup:

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I've removed the Big Honkin' Plunger o' Doom from our little friend Payload. See this thread for my first tentative take on this:

http://www.TFans.com/talk/index.php?showtopic=74581

He is now plunger-free and lovin' it! There ends up being a small bit of Lego-forming- you have to remove the grill/bumper from truck mode and slip it into his back in robot mode, and the capture-claw function is history, so if these things bother you, you'll have to skip this one.

I still need to glue the chest piece in place and tweak the grill/bumper mount so it staty put in alt mode, but as you can see it's a much cleaner look. And easy- took me an hour to figure it out and do it, plus a few more minutes for the above-mentioned clean-up, so it should take you guys less than that.

See the whole smash below!

OK, here we go!

Here's PL w/ his top half removed, and the plunger in place. The plunger is already modded at this point, but I put the pieces back together to show how it fits. The claws are not shown bec. I cut them off.
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Remove the plunger by taking apart his hips and removing the little screw that holds the gray piece on the metal shaft in the above shot. Two screws hold the plunger together. Remove them, pull out the shaft, and cut the plunger body where shown, basically on the inner side of the screw bosses:
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Cut the claws off as close to the plunger body as possible. You can prob. leave them on and they'll fill in a little gap on either side once you're done, but I chose to remove them. Note that if you do leave them on you'll prob. ahve to clip off the little ends so they don't interfere w/ the bumper/grill panel once it's slipped into place.

Now here's PL with no plunger at all:
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Here are the new front and rear pieces test-fit onto PL, lower body:
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And onto underside of the upper body:
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This is looking thru his body from front to back:
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And back to front, at the inside of the new front panel:
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Here is the new front panel, and how it just slips into place. You might want to glue it in, but be careful where you glue so you don't jam the sliding part of the "wings", the little tooth in that slot in the center just above the gray chest piece:
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You might need to bend inward slightly these tabs to get the front piece to grip the inside of the arms in alt mode:
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Alternatively you could apply a little glue to the inside of those tabs to thicken them up a bit. Should work the same either way.

The end result:
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Lookin' trim!

Couple more for ya:
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Now claws for weapons! I just took the cut-off claws, drilled a hole, and pegged them onto his forearms:
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Trim the inner surface of the "shaft" on each claw, and you can slip them into the open end of the plunger stump that holds the front bumper/grill:
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In alt mode, you can store them out of sight, as with all good alt modes:
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Comments please!

Looks better, but he's just not worth the effort to me. He broke my heart.

how do you get the plunger pieces to stay in altmode? It doesnt look like there would be anything to hold it to the front of the car.
Beause the shaft of the plunger doesnt really lock into anything ....

Other than that - very nice! I especially like the claw mod. Although i really do hope there is a way to keep his grabby arm gimmick - cause i think thats neat.

The art of destroying a perfectly fine toy.

I wouldn't exactly call a giant pole through you back "Perfectly fine" yes over all he's a GOOD figure, but the "spike" in his back only hurts the quality.

Clever!

Wow, I was really tempted to buy this figure until I saw this and that horrible plunger. I'm not sure I like him enough to fix him up, but this is a great mod if you ask me! My inclination would be to put a new head on him and repaint to somebody else, but I'm not sure who... the figure doesn't cry out any particular character to me.

i seriously wanna do this. and BTW, this is a great lookin fig, and this mod is definately a plus. he is pretty much anatomically correct (for a TF that is), and who cares about mechanical claws, squeezing the legs together for a swing punch, or other useless gimmicks anyway? i just pose them, not play w/ them.. this is great! kudos bro.
zedz

I wanted Payload, until i saw that awful plunger. YOU saved this figure for me. THX. Now, If I could only find him somewhere.

Glad to help- I think. I know that, for me personally, sometimes it's a Starscream to change my mind about a fig and decide I do want it after all, like Voy SS (got him after a bit of a search, very cool) and Ldr Megatron (haven't seen him in weeks, bummer). IIRC I was at KB Toys near Chicago a few weeks ago and they still had Payload.

That said, this mod is pretty intensive, but if you're at all competent in modding it'll be fine. Good luck.

HipHop - how do you get the grill to attach in Altmode?

Sorry, I never did reply to the last time you asked that.

See this pic:

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The little rails on each side, where the screwdriver is pointing, will grip the underside of the alt mode. Hard to explain verbally, but I'm afraid I don't have my camera around to take another pic right now. I'll post again tomorrow to detail that part.

It does work, but if you want to use the claws and store them in alt mode like I did above, you should prob. glue together the halves of the remaining plunger "stump" that the grill attaches to, since storing the claws in that stump tends to spread the halves apart, and this reduces the "gripping action". Sorry I can't show you better pics now, but it's really late and again, no camera. HTH for now.

ingenious! now anyone wanna try a new head mold? hate these monocled fools. hed make a good movie skids. hehe.

i just did this mod. very easy and very effective. i like how the "claws" come together and fit snug in the front bumper hollow area. at first i was wondering how they stayed in place. great job; you managed to turn a mediocre fig into a great one. and BTW, this is not all that time consuming and the payoff is a better fig. dont hesitate to chop up your payload ppl. you wont regret it. thanx Hip-Hoptimus Rime, you are a figure saver!
zedzdead

So.... Tempted....

So now it's a parts-former? I thought that was a really, really bad thing for Transformers?

Parts-former :: oddly, the truck's grill isn't factory attached. neither is the frontside circle chest thingy. both pieces can just snap on & off.

And if you can transform payload from truck to bot without removing the grill, MORE POWER to you. ...I can not, SO, it was already a parts-former for me.

I can not wait to do this mod. I had to do some in-hand research following your pics before I start (this evening)

Hey guys, glad to see you like the mod. If you see a way to improve it, do tell!

FWIW, I'd rather not do any parts-forming either, but sometimes it's better than what Hasbro gave us, as above. It kinda stings that RiD Optimus Prime is such a big-time parts-former, but he's just so cool I can forgive him.

honestly, it is no different than either BB w/ his guns latched onto his hands in alt mode. the only piece that has to be put on is his grill. and btw, it holds pretty tightly on mine in alt mode. drop it on the floor and it will fall aprt tho oops. regardless, for the most part, i hate gimmicks, auto morph is neat, but gimmcks suck. plus at least you can store everything in alt mode as hiphop said. the perfect, most effective mod this line has seen. i was appauled at that 3 inch pole stuck in his back, but now i love this fig. and btw again, i now proclaim dropkick as the new king of kibble!!! for anyone who cares. still a nice fig.
zedz

Completed the mod last night. LOVE it. THANKS!

Changed one thing: cut off the thinner claw ends, then glued them into the chest to cover the gaps.

Also added some simple yellow (shoulders), red (shins & 'eyes'), and gold (lens ring) paint apps.
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Darn you, smuggles! You not only improved on an awesome mod (which may be my first ever attempt) but NOW i have to add paint apps too! So simple, but wow! What a difference!

Wow, thanks for that enthusiastic response to the paint apps.

I also went ape-Blot over Hip-Hoptimus Rime's mod.

I can't afford him, and don't really have the time to do this...

But dammit...you've made me want Payload again...

(If I can find him...)

I realize this changes his robot mode look a bit but rather then turning the grill into a extra part that you have push into his back lego like when you transform him you could always remove the plunger stump completely, slice the grill down the middle, and then glue the two halfs to the the truck front part that becomes his feet. The added grill parts shouldn't interfere with anything.

Of course with this plan you loose the storage for the claws that Hip-Hoptimus Rime came up with, but you could probably come up with another method if you want to keep them.

Hmmm, intriguing. * grabs Payload* The grill halves would e3nd up on the tops of his feet, like where the laces are on your shoes. Doesn't look like it should interfere w/ the foot articulation. The hard part might be getting the grill halves glued in exactly the right spot, so they line up correctly w/ the rest of the front end in alt mode. Nice idea!

Though you'd have to have a steady hand the easiest way I can think to do that would be simply glue the grill to them while he's in truck mode with the plungerpart still there to hold it steady, do a partial transformation to get clearance and then cut the grill at that point. Other option is of course cutting it first then tape or use some silly putty on the front to hold it together and glue it on in alt mode, let the glue dry, remove the tape or what not and there you go.

You most not have a longarm yet! It is good figure much better than payload though equal to dropkick. Though the gun screwed to his right arm is a bugger.