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View Full Version : Universe Roadbuster Upgraded!



kup
11th June 2009, 07:49 PM
Today thanks to Jaydisc I received my Roadbuster Kit.

The kit is overall pretty good and certainly does the job of bringing out the character of Roadbuster into the Universe repaint which out of the box looked more like CD Hot Shot doing a Roadbuster cosplay :rolleyes:

Although the material quality used for this kit is certainly bellow those we see with Fan Projects such as City Commander and also bellow Hasbro's contemporary manufacturing standards - It is infinitely better than that 'Why so serious?' City Commander upgrade and the sculpted pieces are nicely done even if the low cost materials do show some minor defects here and there but no more than the ones you find in a packaged mass produced toy and hardly noticeable.

Overall it was an easy 5 minute 'install' to get the upgrades on. The head is the trickiest bit but its still fairly easy even if a bit scary as you need to apply pressure to 'lock' the head together by pushing in the top of the helmet into a rectangular 'peg' (remaining part of the original head). The whole head stays together pretty solidly through this 'lock' design and you don't need to add the screw you removed from the original piece so you can just store it with the remaining pieces of Hotshot's helmet. Although the 'face' of the original head remains inside of the Roadbuster helmet, It's very difficult to see it though the visor as the clear plastic piece is fairly thick.

The pieces also don't need to be of tougher plastic as they are peripheral to the toy's engineering and more cosmetic in practice as they don't support any heavy moving pieces. The green color on the weapons is not a perfect match to the base toy's green but it is close enough not to be distracting and blends in pretty well with the rest of the toy. The designers have indeed succeeded in bringing out the character of Roadbuster into this repaint without having to re-engineer the base mold with the only difference being that you need to turn the head to the side before Transforming into alt mode due to the increase size.

The kit's only real flaw is in its main weapon, the recoil canon. The canon doesn't like to stay together and has a tendency to split in half a bit, it doesn't fall apart but it does often split open. I will probably end up gluing the halves together but before I do that I wish to insert a spring in there as the recoil gimmick doesn't have any feedback.

Overall I am impressed with this kit and I am glad I bought it as the character of Roadbuster is now unmistakable in this toy as seen in the gallery bellow:

http://kupscigar.com/fun/rbkit1.jpg

http://kupscigar.com/fun/rbkit2.jpg

http://kupscigar.com/fun/rbkit3.jpg

http://kupscigar.com/rbkit4.jpg

http://kupscigar.com/fun/rbkit5.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/wow_frostwolf/fun/rbkit6.jpg

http://kupscigar.com/fun/rbkit7.jpg

http://kupscigar.com/fun/rbkit8.jpg

http://kupscigar.com/fun/rbkit9.jpg

http://kupscigar.com/fun/rbkit10.jpg

TheDirtyDigger
11th June 2009, 08:01 PM
He looks cool. Like G1 Roadbuster has a little brother. Nice review as well.

Robzy
11th June 2009, 08:11 PM
He looks great!

kup
11th June 2009, 11:58 PM
Thanks guys!

Omega Supreme
12th June 2009, 06:20 AM
Nice review Kup and thanks for all the nice clear pics :) He looks alot better with the upgrade kit.

lcz128
12th June 2009, 07:05 AM
Haha - you beat me to it! I was going to do that over the weekend after having assembled mine - (that said mine's a little different because I'd already added a balljoint to roadbuster's head...) it's ended up working better for me though

That said, DO NOT dismantle the head once you've assembled it as the plastic on the top used to hold the two halves together may snap like mine did!!!

liegeprime
12th June 2009, 07:15 AM
Ooooh cant wait to get mine, :D. I see what you mean about the Recoil gun splitting on its own.... erm you said your gonna put a spring in it. May I ask where are you gonna get one pls? Might try that as well.:)

Bartrim
12th June 2009, 07:19 AM
Great review Kup. Oh I can't wait to get mine.:D

GoktimusPrime
12th June 2009, 09:45 AM
Look at War Within Grimlock prancing around the background trying to get attention!! :p

jaydisc
12th June 2009, 10:23 AM
Looks great. It really makes a useless repaint useful.

Lordy
12th June 2009, 07:54 PM
That does look nice. Are the Universe Roadbusters still easily available?

I have a G1 Roadbuster that I am fixing up. The paint on his metal leg parts was heavily chipped and repainting that over the weekend. I have all the parts for him, including the viewfinder on the gun.

However still waiting for my repro stickers from Reprolabels. Been two months and one screw up at their end so far...

kup
12th June 2009, 08:37 PM
Ooooh cant wait to get mine, :D. I see what you mean about the Recoil gun splitting on its own.... erm you said your gonna put a spring in it. May I ask where are you gonna get one pls? Might try that as well.:)

You can get a spring from a pen :) If you need a very thin spring you can get them from those 'multi ink' pens.

kup
12th June 2009, 10:05 PM
More pics with Botcon'07 Springer:

Looks almost like a different mold :)

http://kupscigar.com/fun/rb-springer2.jpg

http://kupscigar.com/fun/rb-springer1.jpg

liegeprime
12th June 2009, 10:35 PM
You can get a spring from a pen :) If you need a very thin spring you can get them from those 'multi ink' pens.


Oh yeah, why didnt I think of that, Ive got a few ol pens dried up lying around :D......

GoktimusPrime
13th June 2009, 11:52 AM
Roadbuster loves Guns
Ironic that it was a BFG that Roadbuster was using that killed him in G1. ;)