He still hasnt replyed. i bet a dollar he's just sitting back and absorbing all these complements with a huge smile on his face :P

Thanks everyone! And my wife says thanks to you all too.

As far as the shoulder mod, I used the "bicep" part from a spare Sideswipe I had, that part is plastic welded to the pivot on each arm (you can see what I'm talking about in the pics). I then cut the part where the arms originally attached for ease of removal. Its a "dis-assembler" as far as the transformation goes, but my wife and I can live with that and as you can see in the pics you can't tell its modified in car mode.

The head is just a reshaped/reworked Windcharger head.

The plates on the arms were actually glued on. Had to pry them off. There's a tab and a "location pin" on the backside where it goes on the arm. All I did was drill a hole a little smaller than the "pin" on each side of the engine and presto! crossbow styled weapon.

looks cool