It's always annoyed me that the missiles for the rocket launchers of the later G1 seeker re-releases (like the Transformers: The Movie series) were stupidly long. This was chosen for safety but made the airplane modes not faithful to the cartoon or original toys.

So I finally got around to a small project - cutting the excess shafts away and glueing the ends together.

The hardest parts are:
  • Making sure the length is right. Too long and the missile still sticks out too far. Too short and the launcher clip won't grab onto the missile end so it will just fall out (and you've got an even more useless missile).
  • Cutting the end at right angles or else the glued missile will be crooked.


Original G1 Thundercracker launcher vs TFTM Thundercracker.




I tried a few methods to achieve a right angle cut experimenting on some wooden dowels - using a hobby vice, rotary tool, hacksaw, and a self-made mitre box but I couldn't get a good enough right angle. So I bought a hobby mitre and saw set.


I measured the length to remove (43mm: 42mm plus 1mm to allow pushing the missile in further to catch the launcher clip).




I had to create a support for the missile to accommodate the head raising the missile higher than the shaft, making a cut angled. So I was lucky that a wall plug in my toolbox gave me the right height after slicing it open.




Because there is slight wriggle room for the blade to move, the cut was not 100% right angle but I used some sandpaper placed on the table to rub down slight mis-angles. It's also better to cut longer and sand down than cut too short.




Cyanoacrylate superglue fused the ends well and then fine sanding to remove excess around the shaft.




Much better.