Skyquake just got released in Japan. I didn't know that his front jet fins can really be removed to make him look more like his original Prime version(?)
I also noticed there's a fan mode to give him a closer look to his Prime look? It seems almost as if Hasbro had this in mind as an alternate transformation? All they had to do was switch the arms at the mushroom peg and remold them to fit underneath the aircraft mode in a reversed fashion?
You can still transform it with the swapped arms, but you'll need to massage the arms and the legs to fit. However, then the gun can't attach to the centre of the undercarriage. Another possible way would be the (slightly harder) method of removing the fists via their mushroom pegs and swapping them.
The final method could be to remove the screw in each forearm and swap the fists (still attached to the grey mushroom pegs). However, the two halves of each forearm are pinned together (for no logical reason), so you will need to "swing" them apart and wiggle the fists in and out of their mounting holes, which might cause some stress marks on the thinner half of the insides of the forearm. This is what I ended up doing.
I'm probably going to paint this side of the arm to match the other side (red/silver trim). The elbow bend isn't as deep as the regular assembly and there are gaps between his cockpit and the rest of his torso but it's a small price to pay for a more authentic Prime Sjyquake and it will help to differentiate him from the inevitable G1/2 Skyquake et al.
The next "mod" I did was to transform the cockpit "correctly". I needed to try a few times but eventually the landing gear did indeed "pop" into the negative space, allowing the cockpit to sit flush, also allowing the shoulders to be supported properly.
Next, I unscrewed the head and pried open the three parts of it and noticed why the eyes looked so "dead". It seems that either because/in spite of the weak light-piping, Hasbro painted a thin coat of red paint over the transparent orange eyes.
I then added metallic/clear red paint to the eyes, a custom mixed green and also boltgun metal parts of the head, before using some clear orange for the head "wings".
Maybe these two are from the same wastes of Cybertron?
I also noticed there's a fan mode to give him a closer look to his Prime look? It seems almost as if Hasbro had this in mind as an alternate transformation? All they had to do was switch the arms at the mushroom peg and remold them to fit underneath the aircraft mode in a reversed fashion?
You can still transform it with the swapped arms, but you'll need to massage the arms and the legs to fit. However, then the gun can't attach to the centre of the undercarriage. Another possible way would be the (slightly harder) method of removing the fists via their mushroom pegs and swapping them.
The final method could be to remove the screw in each forearm and swap the fists (still attached to the grey mushroom pegs). However, the two halves of each forearm are pinned together (for no logical reason), so you will need to "swing" them apart and wiggle the fists in and out of their mounting holes, which might cause some stress marks on the thinner half of the insides of the forearm. This is what I ended up doing.
I'm probably going to paint this side of the arm to match the other side (red/silver trim). The elbow bend isn't as deep as the regular assembly and there are gaps between his cockpit and the rest of his torso but it's a small price to pay for a more authentic Prime Sjyquake and it will help to differentiate him from the inevitable G1/2 Skyquake et al.
The next "mod" I did was to transform the cockpit "correctly". I needed to try a few times but eventually the landing gear did indeed "pop" into the negative space, allowing the cockpit to sit flush, also allowing the shoulders to be supported properly.
Next, I unscrewed the head and pried open the three parts of it and noticed why the eyes looked so "dead". It seems that either because/in spite of the weak light-piping, Hasbro painted a thin coat of red paint over the transparent orange eyes.
I then added metallic/clear red paint to the eyes, a custom mixed green and also boltgun metal parts of the head, before using some clear orange for the head "wings".
Maybe these two are from the same wastes of Cybertron?
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gotta go dig a Decepticon one outta storage to paint red….
