The Upgrade Kits Thread

Donocropolis said:

They got me for the weapons only kit. I wouldn't mind having the shoulder adders, but don't need them enough to get the rest of the kit. The Drone Weaponizer Pack energon mace works pretty well with SS Megatron, so that eliminates a need for what would otherwise be the most tempting part of the kit for me.

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I didn’t pick that set up, so I’m in for the mace. That and the shoulder really help the wonky turret. I notice the kit is significantly more expensive outside Asia though.

On some thinking, I kinda wish they’d ditched the helmet and key and just gave him the pistol he shot Optimus with.

Also pics of the gun grip with both the stock and the new cannon. It’s a homage to the G1 gun stock’s turret mode but eh. I might have considered this if it did anything for tank mode. The color matching to Megatron’s “black” parts is noticeably better on this thing.

The Mighty Mollusk said:

In the old Toonami days he would've had a full bikini top painted on.

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At least they didn’t edit a sandwich over his chest.

Of course not. It's a jelly donut.

Grape would explain the color. I never pegged Megatron as a messy eater but then again etiquette is probably not much in demand in the gladiator pits

Megatron has spilled his donut all over his chest plate! I, Starscream, am your new leader!

The Mighty Mollusk said:

Megatron has spilled his donut all over his chest plate! I, Starscream, am your new leader!

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*Starscream immediately sits down for a congratulatory dinner and spills an entire plate of spaghetti on his lap*

lastmaximal said:

There have been like a dozen kits or whatever, and not one has bothered to do this. It's as weird as Hasbro putting them there to begin with. Gap-filling is, like, the lowest hanging fruit. But I guess Nobody Likes Hot Rod, what else is new.

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Addendum:

Was just about to post this, heh. This likely isn't for me considering it comes with a ton of other stuff I don't really need and definitely can't afford, but it's nice that someone's finally bothered to do this.

I really only want the spoiler bits, the chrome chest star, and maybe the Star Saber. Even letting go of the latter, idk if that's worth buying the kit for a parts-out resell. I wonder if anyone locally might be buying the kit and doesn't need the spoiler bits.

These upgrades really aren't doing anything for me. I don't need Megatron to be a gun.

Wasn't sure where to put this, but it DOES involve an upgrade kit, so I guess here's as good a place as any.

This was one of the belated tailend-of-December buys that arrived in the first week or so of January. As I'm sure many others did, I missed out on the Legacy release of the Animated Optimus mold (which quickly rose in price on the aftermarket), and was more or less content to do so, being focused on waiting for the then-rumored Nemesis Prime redeco. That worked out well, and I was quite pleased with the Nemesis Prime release (just some minor quibbles about the shade of teal used).

My only disappointment with the arrangement was missing out on a modern version of Wingblade Optimus Prime, which was brought to fruition by the DNA upgrade kit. One of the better ones they'd done, this integrated smoothly with the existing mold and delivered just what was wanted from it, no additional nonsense or hoopla. And that's all it needed to do.

Both the new base mold and the upgrade kit delivered a much more satisfying experience than the original Takara Wingblade Optimus (itself something I had to work to track down in the late 2010s), and even integrated into a full, betrailered altmode, much like the rumored-then-cancelled third party upgrade kit from way back when (I actually skipped the Takara Wingblade Op originally in the hopes of getting that for my Hasbro copy). Definitely a release whose time had come, with modern 3P sensibilities, production, and distribution, and a very solid base body to now work on too.

But then that caused the Legacy Animated Op to rise in price and dip in availability, and the kit itself was the usual pricey fare that itself became pricier with demand, and I had to just shrug at missing out on it. Until Baiwei continued their trend of blessedly not oversizing every damn thing they knocked off, and released a KO of the whole thing: a modified version of the base body for OP, and an under painted but otherwise as-is (afaik) copy of the upgrade kit.

Funny enough, the kit is so spot-on it's less remarkable; I just need to figure out which bits to paint now (mainly thinking the inner side of the wings, the cannon barrels, and the bottoms of the boots). But it's all solid and integrates smoothly, even in altmode, which I really appreciate in an era of unstoreable/non-integrating upgrade kit bits. It's cool how the hammer disassembles and pegs in, everything forms straightforward blocky stacks to complete the rectangle, and pegs into the cab surprisingly sturdily. About the only thing I don't really dig is the way the latter juts out so far from the main body in armored robot mode, but they only had so much to work with.

So there's almost more to talk about with the OP base body itself.

There are a few changes made to the mold, and I like all of them (with some caveats) as they do address concerns I had with the Legacy original.

First, the new torso/ab piece: one big plus of the Legacy redo is the removal of the clunky spinning waist gimmick. But this improves on that by restoring the "heroic barrel chest tapering to a narrower waist" look of the original, which was a big miss with the Legacy one's truncated "wide box on narrower box" execution. (Another change in the same relative area is that the ab flanks no longer house wheels. Some dislike it, but I don't really notice that much in altmode.)

Second, the head is basically a new piece that brings back the original headsculpt or a copy of it, with the shifting mouth plate gimmick and all. The downside is it's on a swivel and nothing but (initial reviews misleadingly said "unarticulated"; words mean things, y'all). Still, I was dissatisfied with how either Legacy headsculpt translated the look of the original, and it's not like the neck of that one had significantly more expressive range anyway.

Third, and I'd forgotten about this until getting it, the Baiwei release uses clear blue plastic for the chest windows, and the circuitry patterns look so, so good compared to the flat black of the Hasbro release.



I have to admit, if they do a Nemesis colors one, I might get it, if only for the notion of delicious clear red windows (and the chance to repaint the teal to better match TA-01B, on a cheapo non-official copy.) I'd even get it if they just do a cab-only KO.

But right now what I'd LOVE to see is Baiwei do Animated Prowl, kit and all (and maybe finagle a way to get the original head on there.)

I wish I'd waited. I already bought the Legacy Animated Optimus and the DNA kit, plus customized them. This would have been cheaper and the torso extension really helps the proportions. The brighter colors look really good as well.

It's one of the vanishingly rare times when me not being able to afford something ends up helping me afford something.

I'm interested. We don't get enough super modes anymore, and this looks well done. It's crazy how much difference the new abdomen makes.

This kit is shockingly pricy ($75 US), but it does make for an interesting hypothetical G1 toy Megatron that turns into a tank. Not interesting enough for the price for me but I dunno, it's probably worth that to someone.

Looks like somebody put on The Wrong Trousers.

Looks like the Toy Megatron kit above has encountered massive problems consisting of the chromed parts breaking on installation. Probably due to not accounting for the added thickness of the chrome.

A new company popped up with an AOTP Prima upgrade kit. It's an all-in one alternative to buying a bunch of Achai's rather expensive kits and to DNA's upcoming and more expensive kit and unlike both of these, it actually tries to do something for the altmode. It also works with the base figure's aesthetics instead of transplanting parts from the Covenant design to cover up the base figure. It also helps to add some color to the figure. I'm seriously tempted although, tracking down a Prima at this point is proving difficult.

Origin Toys is a new conpany who came out of the gate with a comprehensive upgrade kit for Prima made of injection-molded plastic. It comes with new weapons, armor parts, new heads and gap fillers. Is it any good? Yes.


The set comes with gauntlets, new shoulder pads, shin armor and cape parts. Everything pegs and tabs into place with no need for glue or modification. Results are good in my book, bulking him up to around Leader class mass and adding some extra punches of visual interest. The colors match very well although the dark gray is a tad too dark. They also have some deep metallic blue paint aps that mimic the detail on the stock figure. Not all that obvious but it is present. The shoulders and cape parts can cause some restriction in articulation by clashing with other parts but they do have joints to move them out of the way. If I were to critique, I’d like some of the parts in the off-white rather than dark gray. The new shoulder pads occasionally veer too close to Warhammer at some angles but are generally okay.


The kit comes with two different head options cast in the dark gray with the light gray faces, emulating the stock head’s colors. The first is a Optimus-like helmet with an unplated face and the second is a faceplated covenant of Primus helmet with the wings. The head with the exposed face is alright and has some Milne vibes to the sculpt. The Covenant head has some eyes that are a bit too far apart but still good overall. The head just pop on the ball joint and have a nice, snug fit. The heads can be disassembled but disappointingly, the faces can’t be swapped.

Covenant head has the wing protrusions and is slightly wider. It fits into the space dedicated to the head in alt mode without any risk of parts clashing. The hinge fits perfectly between the helmet wings. It also has about as much clearance above the floor as the stock head.



In the box is also set of fillers for the forearms, biceps, abs and inner thighs. I didn’t particularly mind the gaps but these are a nice addition. They come on a sprue, so get the clippers out. They mostly slot in pretty well but the abs fillers are a very tight fit and I’d recommend some light sanding. They work well to plug the gaps and match colors. Aces all around.


The box contains some new weapons for Prima. First is a gun. Doesn’t seem to match his motif but it looks decent enough. Uses a 5mm peg but the barrel isn’t blast effect compatible. There are two Star Sabers included, cast in the dark gray plastic with some silver and metallic blue paint aps and a 5mm peg on one side for storage or attaching the Matrix. They are essentially upscaled versions of the stock Star Sabers although they cannot disassemble. You get the choice of a silver blade or metallic blue blade. You can dual wield although they identical meaning the pegs aren’t mirrored, always leaving one side without the sculpted detail.

if you want to keep the stock sword with his emblem on it around or just really liked The Phantom Menace, the kit’s Star Sabers have a peg at the bottom of the hilt to connect the stock blade.

Transformation is relatively unchanged. None of the new parts really affect the motions of the base toy. The vehicle mode with all the addons looks lesslike Siege Ironhide and more like FOC Optimus’ fist on wheels, The cape partsforms and attaches to the sides of the bumper via 5mm peg but if you really want to avoid that, you can leave then attached to the side of the shins. But why would you want to do that when those parts do something even better?

The cape halves combine along with a handle part to make a shield. The connection is nice and solid. Looks the part and he holds it well. Also pictured: a copy of Dr. Wu’s Prime star Saber.


The handle can stay attached to one of the shield halves in either mode or can clip between his legs in vehicle mode. Pretty secure fit.

Overall, it’s a well-thought out set that adds a lot of value to the base figure. It enhances the base figure, is easy to install and adds a lot of options. Plus, it only cost me like $15. That’s insane value for a injection plastic set with so many parts. That’s the price for most 3D print filler kits alone, DNA’s sword and shield kit or Achai’s standalone head. This is a no brainer. Definitely a recommend.

Well, I've had my DK-65 kit for Ginrai for while and finally decided to put it together today, and the elbows are so loose they just sag there uselessly. I guess I'll try and contact them and see if they can send replacements.

I'm not in the MP game any more but from what I heard, their Ginrai arms upgrade had a host of problems, some inherent to the design itself. Hope you get it sorted out.

I love the clear red Big Convoy chest but pushing pins AND resin cast are not a combination I care to see. Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

DNA revealed a kit for Onyx Prime. The new spear parts are good, and the new tail being able to store the original tail is also a decent addition but overall, I don't see much value in this kit. All I really wanted is new hands that make for better claws in beast mode. I'm a bit divided about the new head. The stock head is distinctive and the kit head's a bit too far removed from it and a bit too generic. The new head having a neck is a big improvement, though.