My local comic shop also sells video games and consoles, among other things like DVDs and books.

One day, I was there to get my weekly comics, and noticed they had two first-generation GameBoys for $3 each, and I was suddenly struck with a Real Gears inspiration, so I bought 'em both.

My first step was to measure one of the GB's, then create a cardboard mock-up, so I can work out the transformation and positioning of parts. Next, I had to figure out what to use for various parts, such as legs and arms, etc. Bionicles to the rescue!

After some experimentation, I've decided my best bet for his legs are "beast-type" (hey, it worked for Dropkick!), as shown here:





His feet are what I originally created for my project to re-shell an Alt Tracks with a G1-ish Corvette Stingray, but I determined that using an actual Alt Tracks was gonna end up being far more trouble than it was worth, so I reset my sights on an extra Side Swipe. That project is one of many currently on back burners.

I may end up using some other Bionicle feet, though, as these seem a bit small.

Anyway...my original GameBoy mock-up was made with printer card-stock, but that's too flimsy for this, so I've started re-doing it with some thin cardboard, instead. I've used hot glue to "spot-weld" the green pieces in place inside the GB shell pieces, and it's turning out pretty good so far. I'm gonna have to fiddle with the placement of the green bits though, 'cause the bottom of the GB is ending up slightly out of alignment with the top half.

I have no idea how the mock-up ended up so much taller than the real GB case, since I measured and re-measured at least twice, but there you go. *shrug*
It looks like I can just shorten the top a little when I remake it with the cardboard, though, without affecting anything else.






After I tweak the positioning on those parts a bit, I'll move on to mounting the middle of the shell on his thighs. Then it's on to working on his arms and head!

I'm planning to make one an Autobot and the other a Decepticon, and my current backstory idea involves them being brothers. They were two of a series, and a single Spark accidentally got split between them. I'm not sure yet what that means for their minds/personalities, other than their disparate faction allegiences are a direct result.

A few years ago, takara made a transforming Microman robot suit that transformed from robot to gameboy and back.

Ive tried looking for a pic online but I cant find one anywhere. I actually own a limited edition version in clear blue but its back home in the UK.

Sorry.

Still, if you can find one it might help.

you mean that?

Nope. That is aphotoshop jobby.

THe bot Im on about was microman. It came with a pilot too.

Awesome idea!!!

This... leaves me torn. On one hand, I say "Oh, wow! Gameboy Transformers! I've wanted these since I was a kid!"... On the other hand, "Oh, no! He's gutted two perfectly good Game Boys!" Yes, I still get a bit nostalgic with my big, grey (still-working!) Game Boys.

But it's awesome! Can't wait to see 'em finished!

If you don't mind me dropping a couple ideas...
- For the die-hard Nintendo fans, you could give the alt mode a face... From a certain character from this old series: http://www.retrojunk.com/details_articles/24/
Then again, you probably want your bot to look... well... "bad-ass"

- You might have enough room to put in the electronics from a Game Boy Micro and wire up the old buttons to it. Maybe make it a fully-functioning Game Boy in its alt mode? But placing everything (and finding room) would be a pain...

Just some thoughts.

It's probably possible to do that with a GBA SP (or original GBA), but I'm pretty sure that's beyond my expertise, 'cause, as you said, I'd have to rewire it to use the GB's buttons and D-Pad (nevermind the shoulder buttons..), then there's the problem of the screen; Micro's is way too small, I think, and GBA/SP's is too wide. Also, I'd have to deal with the batteries and cartridge connector, which I just don't think I'll have any room for.

The GB's electronics literally fill the internal space and now the robot parts are gonna fill up most of it, if not all. I'm not even sure at this point whether I'll be able to keep the buttons and d-pad pushable (as opposed to glued permanently in place).


As to Captain N's Gameboy.. I'd completely forgotten about him! I'm planning to build new fake screens for the twins, with fake displays on them, but now I might look into creating interchangable screens...especially if I end up creating Game Pak minions, 'cause I've got game titles in mind for both of the cartridges, as well as new labels for them. I was already thinking about title screens for the displays; it shouldn't be too much effort to make panels for GB's face, as well as an "evil" one for the Decepticon.

You guys (here and elsewhere) keep giving me great ideas! Thanks!

*laughs* Maybe make the evil twin have the "Game Brain" face... Why can I remember that so well?

Was that after he'd been reprogrammed by Dr. Wiley for Mother Brain?

Yep! In the first episode that Game Boy appeared! Good memory.

... Okay, I'll stop before I go on a full-blown Captain N rant. There are other forums for such things.

that's an intresting way to place joints

I thought you'd like a progress report:

I've had to scrap the leg part of the mock-up, 'cause I didn't think to take into consideration the shape of the left side (the speaker corner), so I'm re-building that part and re-working the positioning of the legs.

I've also decided the parts of the case with the d-pad and buttons will be attached to the bots' forearms, 'cause putting them on his thighs just won't work. After that comes the hard part--building the internals of his chest and figuring out how to mount the arms and head, while accomodating the screen(s) and cartridge slot, so they can carry their minion-bots.

I say "screen(s)" 'cause I'm considering making them interchangable, so I can change what's displayed on them, but that'll come after the main bot stuff is worked out.

hmm... cartridge and screen minions, sounds like soundwave.

i suddently got a name idea! gamewave!(or wavegame)

The screen isn't a minion, it's gonna be interchangable, so I can change what's on the display.



I think their names are gonna be One-Up 30X (Autobot) and GameOver D-86 (Decepticon).

ok.

http://www.microforever.com/Microboys.htm

Those are the Takara Microman figs mentioned by Primal-Convoy.

Looking forward to the finished project.

Thanks! I was on that very same sodding site looking for them.

Not the best designed site to search for things though, is it?

Cheers!

Indeed, the site isn't easy to navigate.
But I've been there loads of times, so I kinda but not quite know it.

This was originally a thread I started for the transforming GameBoy(s) I was working (currently on the back burner), but since we can't make new topics in the KB/Custom forum, and I don't really see a point to submitting very minor mods and/or WIP projects to "the garage," I'm turning this into a catch-all, kinda like Sami's projects thread.

Note to admins/mods: how about a Garage sub-forum for WIP stuff?




Now, on to what I just finished!


I had a suggestion that I should use TFA Grimlock and re-make my "King Grimlock" avatar with him. Well, that sounded like a plan to me, so I grabbed him and the crown, and then decided I wanted to cover up that big gap in his dino chest.

What to do? I was already thinking about making a new chest plate for him that will fold in like his arms (haven't decided on a single piece that folds into one half, or splitting it and folding it into both halves of the dino chest), but that was a tad more involved than I wanted to get just to take pics of TFA King Grimlock, so I grabbed some cardboard, did some measuring and cutting, and came up with a nice little temporary insert.

Then I sprayed that with flat gray primer, masked it off with scotch tape, then sprayed a stripe with Krylon Fusion Satin Burgandy. I also took the now-burgandy scotch tape and did up some makeshift stripe extensions for where the stripes around his neck don't go to the front of his neck; this will eventually be replaced with a proper paintjob, but I didn't feel like trying to mix up the right color tonight.






It's not perfect, but it'll do until I can get some sheet styrene and do it up proper, complete with hinge(s) and possibly extending it to cover the hole in his neck as well.

And here is King Grimlock, Animated style!

w00t!

I started working on the real chest piece tonight, and so far, it's coming along great!

Here's the current state of the piece:





Which started out as a drive-bay cover from the face-plate of an older computer:





And Grimlock during a fitting:





Also, he likes to be skritched under his chin.






I'm gonna use more pieces of the drive cover to build the chest plate up where his collar is, and I think I'm gonna try to use some pieces cut from CD cases to build up the rest to better fit with the original contours.

I was planning to try to make it fold into the halves of his dino torso, but while I was uploading the pics to Photobucket, I realized it might work better if I hinge it at his collar and have it fold between his back and his dino head.

Pretty cool Dark Prime. I like the GameBoy toy as well. But reffering to your Grimlock, how does this effect robot mode?

It doesn't. I'm looking at ways to fold the chest piece away, but doing it as a single piece is proving to be problematic, so I'm making two more plates so I can cut them in half and try making them fold into both halves of the dinosaur torso.

I'm making two copies 'cause when I cut with my rotary tool, I lose about 1/8" of plastic from the edge(s), so with two duplicate plates, I can cut them both at slightly more than the halfway point to compensate for lost plastic, so the finished halves will fit together, rather than having a gap down the middle of his T-Rex chest between the panels.

I'm not sure how I'm gonna handle the hinging yet; I'm probably gonna order some styrene tubes and make the hinges from scratch, though.

I agree with you about the forums. I wish we could still post regular posts, as then we can just see the pics of the kitbashes on the thread page without having to go to a album. Its nice to have the album feature though, but I dont look at this forumas much as I used to...sigh.

I ripped out the lame "gravity spin" transforming thing and made the entire transformation manual. I also fixed his damned loose waist.

Behold:



Also, he has friggin' AWESOME light-piping!



This is the auto-transform bit inside his crotch:



I think that spring used to flip his legs down or something; I forget. Regardless, it's not needed now, so it's gone.



This is the gear assembly that sticks out the back. I removed the large gear and put the rest back onto the pin.



This is what the inside looks like now. The large gear I removed went in the middle and meshed with the gear from the waist piece. The back gear rolled along a row of teeth when the waist was swung back, rotating the legs around. I kept the back gear thing so the whole thing moves smoothly when I swing his legs back. The waist piece is now firmly glued into place, so the blue hip piece rotates around it.



This spring has to stay in place so the release lever works.



Now, when his legs are swung back and rotated for truck mode, the clip still locks into the hole in the front of his pelvis until the lever is pushed.

Nice grimlock mod. think you could maybe make a guide on how to do that? I also have an Idea on what the colors should be:

just thought that might help.

I plan on doing that too, but I'm also going to cover the hole by his thighs (excuse the ness)
(BTW, did you take my advice on your prof or were you planing that beforehand?)

As for Prime, I heard there's something wrong with his knee articulation, but have no idea what it is. Are you going to tackle that too?

The cardboard insert, the plastic insert, or the split plastic chest plate that folds into the halves of the dino torso?



Thanks! It will!



My King Grimlock avatar? Yeah, thanks for the suggestion! The crown doesn't quite fit him as well as it does Classics Grimmy (that one, it fits exactly like it was molded for him!), but it works.



I dunno, but it may be that the front of his thigh stops the knee hinge, so the calf stops just short of a 90-degree bend.

I'm not sure if that bothers me enough to do anything about it, though.

I was considering ways to give his neck a ball-joint, but the way it's molded/built will likely make anything I do look like a hack-job.

I mean which ever is the best. So the fold-out, I guess. As for the ball joint, jin has a guide for that :How to make a Tranformers Ball-jointed neck! not sure If it'll be what ya need, but Jin knows what he's doin.

The new chest armor is coming along nicely.

I decided to make it split in half and fold into the halves of his dinosaur torso, as I couldn't figure out how to fold the single-piece plate out of the way.

The new hinges used to be the legs of an Armada Minicon, but I don't remember which one; I think it was a member of the Requiem Blaster team, but I'm not sure.

I cut the ball posts apart and trimmed them to fit, then glued them inside Grimmy's "wings", then trimmed the leg pieces and glued them to the undersides of the chest plate halves. (and it was a PITA getting the damned things lined up right, despite measuring and re-measuring! )

I'll be trimming the bottom edges of the panels so they're even with the bottom of the torso, and bulking them up slightly with pieces from a CD case, so it's more flush with the original contours. I've also got an extension made, to make his "collar" go all the way across.

I still need to trim the hinge piece on his right side to match the left, so it fits down over the robot-mode collar, too.

Awesome, now make them hinge in the middle..
anyway I had a very similar idea to that, just didn't know how to implement it. THANX

Eh? You mean, make the two panels fold on themselves to hide better inside the dino halves?
I probably could slap some tiny hinges in there, but I think that would compromise the stability a bit.

Anyway, the bottoms of the panels are gonna be cut down to be level with the bottom edge of the dino torso, and once they're painted, they'll blend in with the existing wings.



Glad I could help.

I only had a vague idea when I started. I mostly made it up as I went along (much like most of my other projects ) and did a lot of trial-and-error.

The ball-joint I originally tried to use came from Armada Blurr's Minicon's right arm, but it failed miserably: it would not stay glued to the chest panel at all, and I only had one of him anyway.

Luckily, I found this other set when I went through my Minicon parts again, and they worked perfectly.

Inspired by Rodimus VTS, I've taken on another project in between TFA Grimlock's chest-plate and my various other customs: Classics Wheeljack!

I'm using the same mold Rodimus did (Classics Sunstreaker), but I've implanted a new neck post so I can use Energon Downshift's head, and I've modified his legs so he transforms differently from both Sunstreaker and the upcoming Sideswipe.

I would've preferred to use a Cybertron Downshift head, but my extra (from my Cybertron Shockwave project) was used in the creation of a custom Optimus Prime head. If anyone has an extra C-Downshift junker (or just the head) they want to get rid of, let me know.

Here's the current progress:



I cut off the old neck post, drilled a hole and glued in a ball post from an old Xevoz (I think). The ball had to be sanded down to fit Downshift's head. To transform, the head turns backward; I had to sand down the clip at the back, as well as a little off his chin.

For the legs, I just swapped thighs--in alt-mode, the front of his crotch faces out from the car body now. With the legs swapped, it's now possible to face the car's hatch halves forward. Now I either have to modify his feet, or the bottoms of his legs, 'cause his feet don't fold out flat. I can cut into the yellow part that rests against the tops of his feet, since they don't show in alt-mode, or I can cut the ends of the yellow parts off (where they notch into the back of the roof) and glue them into the space in the roof.






And he still transforms just fine.

Looking good DLP. If I had a Cyb Downshift I probably would have used his head too. I'm actually a bit surprised it fits so well. Good luck on his racing stripes. I did mine all by hand and they were kind of a pain.

i've been trying to o that with mine but it never comes out nicely, I am going to use repro labels on mine as they look quite good on him.

btw, the alternative leg transformation can be stable, just don't deploy the feet.

Nice! Could you say which page your latest mods are on though please? The date itself doesnt really help us locate them after other people comment on whatever it you have done recently. Cheers!

Well, I could, but I just noticed that I'm up to post #35, and it's still a single page for me.

That being the case, I've modified the topic to say which post the update was in.

Update!

I was gonna paint the yellow parts white tonight, but halfway through taking him apart, I realized I needed to make the new bumper I had in mind first, so..


Using the two pieces of the underside of the nose as templates, I drew on and cut up more of the drive bay covers from the Grimlock project, taking the front and side of the bay cover, then I cut extra strips off the sides of the bay cover.

After gluing the new undercarriage pieces to the originals, I made holes to put the screws through, then mounted them back on the car's nose, and glued extra strips to the new pieces. Using my heat gun on LOW, I softened the strips till I could mold them to the shap of the fenders, then glued those into place and sanded them down to a single contoured surface.

Next, I cut a 2.2 centimeter L-shaped strip from the bay cover and glued it to the bottom edge of the grille (the piece that folds against the hood so the front of the car can fold down and clip onto his back), and modified the holes where it used to clip so it can clip slightly higher up, 'cause the new grille doesn't fip open all the way and I had to make adjustments to get it out of the way of his waist.











I think I might sand the top edges of the new bumper so it angles into the body of the car tomorrow; or do you guys think I should leave it as it is?

I think you should leave it as is. I'd hate to see the front end of this car with a Louisiana smile...

Small update today; I remolded the new bumper to make it "flow" into the car better, and I have WIP pics of his big-ass shoulder cannons.


First, the bumper. I made them taller and sanded the top edges to angle toward the car body, and added thickness to the middle section.








The cannons are made from two oversized ink pens I found at Wal-Mart for 94 or 96 cents each ("The Exec," by a company called Inc.), along with a couple pieces that used to be the upper arms (I think) of a Xevoz figure. The mount came from the same set.

Also, as Wheeljack is currently in pieces, Sunstreaker has been kind enough to model the cannons for us. And doesn't he just look sexy, sporting his snazzy red "G1-look" shoulders?













I think next up for WJ himself is just painting and detailing, and the cannons need some more detail pieces added, then I can paint them.

Also, Wheeljack's weaponry is likely to make poor Cliffjumper suffer from projectile-envy, so I have a couple ideas in mind for a BFG of his own.

Primary painting is done, and most of my customized decals are applied. Now, I have to work on detail paint apps and decide on some decals to break up all the white on the sides; I'm thinking modified versions of the Lancia's green stripes down the front fenders will work nicely. Oh, and you'll probably notice I've decided to forgo the racing, and adapt the Alitalia graphics for the street.

Onward, to teh UPDATE PICS!

This is just the shell, snapped together for photos and to see how it all looks together so far.


The last couple days, it had occurred to me that I'd made the new bumper without thinking about the rest of the car, so I was suddenly afraid I'd have to make some "ground effects" to make the rest of the car level with the bottom of the new bumper.

Tonight, I realized that adding the new bumper had actually made the front of the car level with the rest.




Check out that sexy new wraparound windshield! And I basically reversed the Lancia's hood and hatch decals, so WJ's legs should end up looking close to G1's, as far as color layout.






The windshield was done by using my rotary-tool with a cutting disc at a 90-degree angle to the windshield struts, carefully shaving them down, then sanding it smooth. Then it was just a matter of painting it gloss black.

You can't really see it, but I filled in the grooves on the roof with Testors contour putty, then sanded it smooth and painted it white.

Next up, spraying the shell with gloss clear-coat to protect the decals and give it a showroom shine, then the detail paint.

that's.... just so damn pretty... a real work of art!

Thanks for the WIP pics! Great descriptions too.

Awwww, thanks.

I redesigned the roof, hood and side decals. The roof is larger; the hood is larger, sharper and comes to more of a point; the sides, well, the difference should be obvious.

I think that's it for the body decals, but I'm debating whether or not to put something on the spoiler, since I dropped the racing motif. Oh! And I've got a Lamborghini hood emblem to put on later, too (assuming I can cut the thing out--it's freakin' tiny! o_o)!

Whoa Wheeljack looks incredible. Good job.

Also awesome mods to Grimlock. Don't have one yet but I can see how the gap in the chest could really irritate some people. One thing I'd consider is to see if the chest plate can serve as some sort of shield in bot mode. I think it would be pretty cool for Grimlock to have both sword/shield.

Is the chest rotation really that obnoxious with animated Prime? I haven't found him yet so I don't know. I just don't care to preform surgery on any toy unless absolutely necessary. This looks like it might be one of those times.

The last toy I cracked open as Cybertron Overide. Damn thing didn't want to stay in alt mode so I gutted all of the automorph from inside. Now she stays together just fine in both modes.

Whenever I do get Grimlock I think I'll give the chest/shield plate a shot. Looks simple enough.

Can't wait to see Wheeljack finished.

Thanks!



Well, apparently, you're supposed to press the thumb-lever on his back, and that's supposed to allow the "gravity spin" mechanism to swing his legs down and rotate to the front, then you're supposed to lock it in place, but mine didn't.

Since it didn't, there was nothing stopping his waist from spinning freely, so that's why I did the mod.

*sigh*

When I sprayed the car shell with gloss clear coat, the car ended up shiny, but it turned the already-glossy black windshield to matte. I have no idea why, and any enlightenment on that would be greatly appreciated.

I was gonna go ahead and just finish it and leave the windshield matte black, but now I've decided to strip it and repaint it, hopefully without having to strip and re-do the roof.

Also, a couple spots turned slightly yellow when the gloss coat dried, and I'm not sure what to do about that, either. I think it's just in the crease where the rear fender meets the side of the hatch, and both halves of the spoiler.

I'm planning to re-coat the spoiler with gloss white, but since I've already done the decal work on the fender panel (the gloss coat was to protect the decals and, obviously, add a "showroom shine" to the car body), and really don't wanna re-do all that work.

Anyway, what this all means is, it's gonna take probably another week, at least, to finish this project.

Mine did the same thing. I have no clue as to why. It might have some thing to do with the fact that the clear coat might not stick to the clear plastic correctly and as such once it dries you get the texture of the spray lifting away. I thought about using an ultra fine sand paper to clean it up but I don't want to mess up the white paint. The white paint on mine yellowed in some areas like yours did too. Once again I'm not sure why but I wasn't about to redo all of that hand painted detail. I tried going over the areas that yellowed with a gloss white acrylic brush paint using a very soft brush but it didn't really help too much.

what I think might be the problems:

Windshield: most clear plastics are sensitive to solvants, they turn milky on contact, and there is nothing you can undo about it, as it isn't superficial, but a chemical reaction throughout the whole plastic =(

Yellowing: that would be the original yellow shining through ... it's again a chemical reaction between the clear coat and the white paint; the clear paint softens the white one up with its solvants, and them a small amount of them mixes, making the white more transparent ... no damage on the plastics here.

Did you use primer ? That bright brownish stuff ... usually prevents that from happening.

Wow I didn't know that, and you just helped explain both of our problems. So I guess from now on when painting things white always prime, and always leave the windshields taped off.

Except that the windshield was already painted opaque, gloss black. The clear coat never touched the clear plastic (which was already not-clear anymore due to me shaving off the windshield struts and sanding the thing to smooth it out). I think my problem with it was a reaction between the black paint and the clear coat. *shrug*

I hit the roof/windshield piece with another shot of clear coat, and it's almost-but-not-quite how it was before; close enough for me, so I'm almost finished with him now.

As for the yellowing, it's not the same color as the plastic. It looks like white plastic that's sat and aged in the sun. I repainted the spoilers with Krylon gloss white, and I'm just ignoring the slight yellowing on the rear fender/his right leg, as it really is only along the crease where fender meets hatch.


In other news, I'm in the process of trading for a Cybertron Downshift, so he'll be getting a more accurate WJ head eventually.

The only thing left now is reattaching the spoiler pieces and getting to work on those shoulder cannons (they've taken a backseat to the bot).

I know of a way to polish clear plastic,but in this case, it may not be enough. considering it's only got a slight curve to it, two choices are : 1) use a larger windshield from another model to cut a new windshield from, or 2) try making a new one from a CD jewelbox.