The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[nightmareB4macross]

The coolest homage to Takatoku.

Now I have to buy it.

[Chronocidal]

Ok, that's really awesome.  I love it.  I might have to get one myself.

 

[sh9000]

Cool.  I think I'll order one.

[Dobber]

This is the Jetfire for me. Order placed at ShowZ.

Chris

[lechuck]

Still bitching and moaning about MP-44?

Well then maybe Magic Square might have you covered now.

 

[mikeszekely]

I have MP-10, MS-01, TE-01, and a KO MP-44. The last thing I need is another G1 MP Optimus.

Naturally, I'm going to preorder MS-02.

[M'Kyuun]

On 9/11/2022 at 8:28 AM, mikeszekely said:

I have MP-10, MS-01, TE-01, and a KO MP-44. The last thing I need is another G1 MP Optimus.

Naturally, I'm going to preorder MS-02.

I'm tempted. I have MS-01 Light of Freedom for my MP OP on display, but having recently picked up their legends Light of Justice 2.0, the upscaled version brings better articulation and a better looking truck mode. I don't really play with my MP toys all that much and rarely transform them, so honestly, I'm not sure it's worth the extra expense. Light of Freedom is still a really good looking Prime, and I like his chunky proportions. That said, Magic Square have once again made a great MP scaled Prime. Now if they'd only upscale Doomsday, their excellent legends Megatron. I'd buy that without hesitation.

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

I'm tempted. I have MS-01 Light of Freedom for my MP OP on display, but having recently picked up their legends Light of Justice 2.0, the upscaled version brings better articulation and a better looking truck mode. I don't really play with my MP toys all that much and rarely transform them, so honestly, I'm not sure it's worth the extra expense. Light of Freedom is still a really good looking Prime, and I like his chunky proportions. That said, Magic Square have once again made a great MP scaled Prime. Now if they'd only upscale Doomsday, their excellent legends Megatron. I'd buy that without hesitation.

I don't want to say that MS-01 is perfect, because there are a few things I'd change (better materials and paint, bigger fuel tanks on his legs, more prominent blue undercarriage, a more transformed rear to the truck that's compatible with some trailer), but it's by far the closest to my personal ideal Optimus aesthetic, that is, something that looks less like the (often poorly drawn) animation and more like the "real" robot the animation was trying to capture.

But I'm a sucker for Optimus.  Like I said, I have MP-01, MP-10, MS-01, TE-01, a KO MP-44, but going beyond that I have a G1 Prime, Classics Prime (both the Voyager and Deluxe), Combiner Wars Prime, Titans Return Prime, Chaos on Velocitron Optimus, Siege Prime, Earthrise Prime, Netflix Prime, Alternate Universe Prime (the dead one), Shattered Glass Prime, the Kingdom Core-class Prime, Hybrid Style Prime, MS's first Legends Prime, Dr Wu's micromaster-sized Prime, Legacy Laser Prime, Reveal the Shield Laser Prime, G2 Laser Prime, Fans Hobby's Laser Prime, G2 Hero Prime, Machine Wars Prime, G1 Powermaster Prime, Fans Hobby's Powermaster Prime, Maketoys Powermaster Prime, Maketoys Striker Manus, G1 Star Convoy, Gen Selects Star Convoy, MMC's Star Convoy, MMC's Optus Pexus, Planet X's Fall of Cybertron Prime, Generation Toys IDW Prime, Spark Toys War Within Prime, Alternators Prime, Alternity Prime, Spark Toys' War Within Optimus, Generations Orion Pax, TFC's GI Joe Prime, an MP-sized improved KO of Classics Prime, Pepsi Convoy, a Voyager-sized KO of MP-10, and Year of the Horse Optimus.  And that's just the ones I can remember, and I'm deliberately excluding RiD (either), Unicron Trilogy, Animated, Prime, Bayverse, Cyberverse, etc.  So for me the question was less whether or not to buy MS-02, and more a question of why I didn't pick up their revised Legends version, or Newage's Prime, or either of the Primes ToyWorld did.  Those are gaps in my collection.

[anime52k8]

I too think that MS-01 is the most aesthetically pleasing of the MP primes. I like the rounder head sculpt with the more shield-shaped face plate, and the shins that are detailed as actual vent louvers instead of just sculpted rectangles.  that said, I think it's a better take on the cartoon look than the TE version and a really good clean-up of MP-44.

[sh9000]

https://magicsquaretoys.com/product/ms-02-light-of-peace-pre-order/

I'll be ordering 1.

[lechuck]

MP-44 still remains my favourite, but if MS do a SG repaint of this I might be interested.

It will take a lot of convincing on product quality for me to pick this up, because my experience with the recent MS-01 metallic reissue hasn't been very good.

[sh9000]

https://www.thechosenprime.com/ms02lightofpeace

I'm not sure how much Magic Square will charge on their site so I might buy it from The Chosen Prime instead.

[derex3592]

I'm sorry, I can't get over the single headlight thing!!! Just NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! 

[mark-1s]

/\/\/\
Agreed. Everything about it looks amazing and then there’s the headlights.  It’s rather off-putting 

[mantisfists]

To be fair....MS was going for the ultra toon look and pretty much nailed it, if you ask me.  

 

If you like the more "realistic" headlights, their previous offering looks fantastic as well.

I'm still on the fence on getting this.  I have both Light of Freedom and Transform Element's offering and don't need three Primes.  But, hot damn, this guy looks good.  I have his little brother that he's based on as well and it makes me want the bigger one even more knowing what a great figure that is.  Dammit, Magic Square!

Edited September 15, 2022 by mantisfists

[anime52k8]

It's the chrome button headlights. the cartoon just had the white squares.  it's definitely the most toon accurate. It kind of makes mp-44 look even worse with how it's so slavishly toon in some ways but then disregards it completely in other ways.

 

[M'Kyuun]

It does look good, but you know if this version sells well, there'll be a later toy -based release with the silver stripe around the cab and the double headlights. I don't really need another MP Prime (I have MP-10 and MS-01 which are both good Primes, though I prefer Magic Square's), and honestly, I don't have room for another MP Prime, but if they do a toy-based version and I like it, I may just cave. 

given my ever-decreasing space and my ever-increasing collection, I wish I could have seen the future where the legends stuff was done so well, as I probably would have skipped a lot of what I bought over the years in lieu of just focusing on a more space-friendly but nigh-MP quality legends collection. Alas, I'm in deep with Hasbro's mainline, as I like the direction they've been taking w/ G1 figs in the last few lines.  Cosmos, for example, turned out excellent (Thanks Mike S.!). And now Brawn has finally been announced, so slowly they're filling the roster from both the G1 toon and the '86 film, and I'm all but ready for them, smoking debit card in-hand.

All is not high bliss in Hasbrolandia, though, so I'm glad these third parties exist to fix what Hasbro left unfinished, poorly designed, or otherwise unsatisfying with certain figs. For example, Pointblank, who as Prime vs Prime observed likely would have fared better w/ a voyager budget, leaves somewhat to be desired both in the lackluster design of his gun dude and more importantly, the poor articulation of his arms- no bicep swivels and less than 90 degrees of elbow bend w/ the forearms rotated per instructions. I hope third party makes a kit to fix it, if possible- not much room to work with.

What I really wish and hope for, though, is a third party return to CHUG scale. So many of the legends figs have been done far better than Generations, and sometimes better than official MP, so to have those superior legends figs upscaled to match other collections, especially mainline, would be ever-welcome.

[mark-1s]

On 9/15/2022 at 7:20 PM, mantisfists said:

To be fair....MS was going for the ultra toon look and pretty much nailed it, if you ask me.  

 

If you like the more "realistic" headlights, their previous offering looks fantastic as well.

I'm still on the fence on getting this.  I have both Light of Freedom and Transform Element's offering and don't need three Primes.  But, hot damn, this guy looks good.  I have his little brother that he's based on as well and it makes me want the bigger one even more knowing what a great figure that is.  Dammit, Magic Square!

Ya, I checked after I posted and saw other screen shots like those. Heck, I even found a couple that had no headlights at all lol.

Funny how selective my memory has gotten the older I get.

[mikeszekely]

5 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

What I really wish and hope for, though, is a third party return to CHUG scale.

Same. Hasbro's really upped their game since Siege, but they've had a few misses I'd replace with same-scaled 3P versions. Megatron, Astrotrain, Ultra Magnus, and Mirage immediately spring to mind. There's also a ton of characters that haven't had a release since before Siege that could do with an update, like Octane, Broadside, Sandstorm, an Earth-mode Hound, and pretty much all the combiners except Menasor. Some of those guys have had Legends releases that, if only embiggened a bit, would nail it.

As for MS-02, super 'toon isn't my preferred way to go, but it's what MS is after with this release. I think MS-01 and MP-10 have better truck modes, and I still think MS-01 is better as my ideal Prime, but as a Sunbow Prime I'm liking what I see with MS-02 better than MP-44 or TE-01. So I'm in.

[lechuck]

[M'Kyuun]

On 9/18/2022 at 1:13 AM, lechuck said:

With this Prime setting the bar, they need to upscale and add similar articulation improvements to Doomsday, arguably the best transformable G1 Megatron to date.

[tekering]

On 9/17/2022 at 1:46 PM, mikeszekely said:

Some of those guys have had Legends releases that, if only embiggened a bit, would nail it.

[captain america]

On 9/18/2022 at 4:13 AM, lechuck said:

What I'd like to know... is this figure bare plastic, or is it painted with a matte finish?

[Ignacio Ocamica]

Bare plastic, ABS and nylon too.

[mikeszekely]

Few television programs have had quite the impact that The Simpsons has.  I recently learned that "embiggen" and "cromulent" have both been added to the Oxford English Dictionary, and "embiggen" made it into Merriam-Websters.  I find it somewhat amusing that future generations may be watching The Simpsons and the joke from that episode could fly right over their heads because those words have become accepted English.

[tekering]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

I recently learned that "embiggen" and "cromulent" have both been added to the Oxford English Dictionary, and "embiggen" made it into Merriam-Websters.

[Convectuoso]

Some people are already posting pics of NA's Jetfire:

[Convectuoso]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sh9000]

[mikeszekely]

Well, over in the official TF thread I've been saying that rather than compete in the MP space dominated by Fans Toys, MMC, and XTB, or the Legends space dominated by NewAge and Magic Square, that it'd be great if a 3rd party would fill in some of the gaps and offer some alternatives to the missteps Hasbro's made since War for Cybertron and make CHUG figures.  Then I figured I'd better put my money where my mouth is, so I picked up this unusual piece... this is Daban Model 9913.

Some background... Daban is a company that is mostly known for making KOs of Gundam model kits.  It's a little strange that they bothered to make anything Transformers-related, but they did, first with 9907.  Like their models, 9907 was a knock off, this time of Generation Toy's MP-scaled Optimus Prime.  So it's really odd that the only other Transformer they did was the same character (Don Figueroa's IDW Optimus Prime), not simply smaller but apparently a totally unique figure.

And... it's OK.  I mean, it's a pretty cheap figure- I got it for under $30 shipped from a store I've done business with many times, but I've seen AliExpress sellers list the figure for $15 or less.  In a world where even Legends-sized 3P releases cost more than that you have to figure that what you're getting isn't going to be MP-quality.  So I can forgive things like the not-quite-accurate knees, the too-large crotch, and the fact that the panels on his forearms and legs don't actually tab in, relying solely on friction to lie in place.  I'll even overlook the fact that there's some unpaintable gray plastic on his lats, so he's got some gray that should be red, and he's missing the lights that should be molded in there.  Fact is, they've done a pretty good job of capturing the broad strokes of Figueroa's design.

There are some features that are a bit harder to overlook, though.  His little baby hands are worse than Hasbro's standard fare.  And his backpack is a little messy... if only the one panel could get a little tighter against his back.  Oh, and I really wish the other panel split and stretched to give him his proper wings.

I think my real concern, though, is the size.  He's a little bit shorter than Siege or Earthrise Prime.  I don't think he looks too bad next to most of the Deluxes, like Ironhide or the carbots, and might even be a bit favorable if you like Megatron to be a bit taller than Prime (G1 cartoon be damned).  It's a little wonkier, though, when you have him next to guys like Soundwave or Grapple that you know should be shorter but are around the same size.  It makes me wonder a bit why Daban made 9913 this size, exactly.  While this isn't exactly a new new figure it did come after Siege, so why didn't Daban make him closer to Siege Optimus in size?

As far as accessories go, he just gets this one rifle.  It's fine.  I think it's a bit stylized (despite the popularity of Don's Optimus, Don only drew Optimus with his rifle in The Transformers #6- the rest of time time he either didn't use a weapon, or he was drawn by someone else.  In the actual issue, Prime's rifle was your bog-standard G1 rifle, so a stylized version of that is what Daban was probably shooting for.  Still, I rather preferred the rifle Don drew for the cover of that issue, which is what GT used for their Optimus.

Side note, see the screws in the above picture?  Those screws aren't real, they're molded detail, but they mirror the actual screws on the other side just for symmetry.

As you'd expect from a Prime in this price bracket, his articulation is OK-ish.  His head's on a ball joint with some up, down, and sideways tilt in addition to the swivel.  His shoulders rotate but get a little less than 90 degrees of lateral movement.  Due largely to his transformation his shoulders do have some backwards butterfly, so we'll call it a wash.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees.  No wrist swivel.  His waist swivels, though, and he's got 90 degrees of ab crunch.  His hips ratchet a little under 90 degrees forward, 90 degrees backward, and friction 90 degrees laterally.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees on a single hinge.  His toes can tilt down, mostly for transformation, and he's got a slight ankle pivot (but be could really use more).  All-in-all, pretty on par with Hasbro- Siege and Kingdom both have more ankle pivot, slightly better range on the hips and shoulders, plus they have wrist swivels, but 9913 has the ab crunch, so...

His rifle has the usual 5mm peg handle and it fits into his hands just fine.

The instructions that came with 9913 are trash, but fortunately transforming him is pretty easy once you know what you're supposed to be doing. He's kind of a shellformer.  The panels on the sides of his legs fold up to cover his thighs and part of the cab.  The front of the cab is his actual chest and most of his back.  The sides of the cab are filled in with the panels on his shoulders and forearms, with the rest of his backpack making the roof and windvane.  Despite all the panels, I'm happy to report that they all line up and tab together very well, and the truck feels solid.  That said, clearances can sometimes be a pain.  Going from robot to truck, there's a gray piece that fills in his chest that needs to be pulled back, and I found myself grabbing a spudger to get it all the way.  Likewise, that spudger was absolutely necessary for unhooking the front wheels and for folding out his hands while going from truck back to robot.

Actually, despite the size, I dig the truck mode.  Sure, the rear suffers from the usual lazy "it's just Prime's shins", and we've got some visible hinges (although one of them is actually accurate to Don's design).  I dig the taillights molded onto his heels.  The molded door is a little light, and kind of lost in the arm joints, but on the whole it's a very cohesive truck that's very faithful to Don's art (although, if I'm going to be pedantic, most of the blue from the hinge by his knees should be red, and the windvane should be blue, but he wasn't often seen in truck mode and when he was the coloring was surprisingly inconsistent).

You may have noticed that there's a small gap in the back of the cab- no worse than Earthrise's own, but I'm pointing it out because it does have a purpose.  If you undo his transformation slightly, you'll find that there's slots on his arms that face into the gap.  There are tabs on the back of his rifle.  You tab the rifle into one arm, then tab that arm into place against the roof and the side of the cab, then close the other arm so it tabs into the roof, side, and the other side of the rifle.

Alas, there's no peg holes or anything to attach a trailer.

So... how do we judge this guy?  He's a little small, has some panels that don't lock in on robot mode, and his articulation is just adequate.  I don't see too many people want to replace Kingdom Optimus with 9913, which I don't think he's really an aesthetic match for anyway.  Still, I said we need more 3P CHUG stuff.  So when I found an almost-WFC-sized version of one my favorite Prime designs for less than the price of a Hasbro Voyager I can't turn that down.  9913 is definitely good enough and cheap enough to be worth it for a one-off figure to keep on your desk or on a shelf with a bunch of other Optimus figures.

[sh9000]

 

[mikeszekely]

One of the biggest complaints about Studio Series 86 Sludge was the way his robot toes hang under the body of the dinosaur.  I mean, there's a gap in the dinosaur chest, how hard would it have been for Hasbro to hinge the robot toes so they could fold up into that space?  Our own @M'Kyuun rolled the dice on a 3D-printed replacement foot with a hinged toe recently, but it seems that there's another option that isn't a 3D printed.  Today, I'm taking a look at Nonnef's Sludge upgrade kit.

As is the case with Nonnef's stuff, the kit comes on injection-molded sprues.  We'll start with the easy stuff first.

The red sprue has the parts to make a G1-accurate red sword for Sludge.  At the time I ordered, red was the only color available but as of this writing you can get a kit that has a translucent orange blade and a black hilt, like his previous dinobot kits.  Me personally, I wind up ordering an extra sword then swapping the orange blade into the red hilt and the red blade onto the black hilt, so I'm not pressing the sword together and won't be showing it in Sludge's fist.

The black parts are halves of a toy-style rifle.  You can also remove from the gold sprue the two parts to make a missile.  The missile will have a 5mm peg to fit into the barrel of Sludge's stock weapon.  I have mixed feelings here... I'll certainly never use the missile.  As for the rifle, the narrower barrel is more like what Sludge used in the cartoon, but in pretty much every other way the stock weapon is more accurate.  Still, it never hurts to have some extra guns around for the figures that either don't get one or get a sub-par one.

While we're clipping the parts off the gold sprue, you'll notice this bit that looks like a tab on two of the parts.  They're actually separate parts, so carefully remove them but don't lose them!

Now, grab a screwdriver and open remove the inside of Sludge's thighs.  You'll see the gray knee ratchet on the side of the thigh still attached to the lower leg.  Take those tiny gold tabs you just cut off, and jam them into the gap inside the ratchet.  This will prevent the nub on the ratchet from smooshing inward, making his knees feel much tighter.  Close the thighs back up.

While we're cutting stuff off of parts, start separating the gray parts.  You'll find a pair that have two  pegs on them.  One of those pegs, sort of in the middle of the parts, belongs.  The other, near the edges, needs to be removed.  Set those pegs aside, though, we'll need them later.

Take the rest of the parts from the gray peg and lay them out like I've shown above.  These parts are going to make Sludge's new feet (along with the remaining gold parts).

Take the parts labeled "B".  You'll notice that they're actually two parts, a flat base with a trough on the edge and an armature with a peg on the end attached to the base with a rivet pin.  Swivel the armature so the length of the peg is parallel to the trough, then take part "C" and plug into the hole on the base just under the rivet.  Swivel the armature back up, then take part "D" and plug into part "C".  There may be a little gap between them, but you'll squish it all together when you turn the whole thing on its side and plug part "A" into the other side of part "C".  What you've got now should look like the third frame of the above picture; that's the bottom of the foot, so flip it over.

The thicker gold parts without the taper (the parts the did NOT have the tabs you removed and stuffed into the knee ratchets) are the bottom of the toes, so we just plug the bottom of the peg on the armature into the hole inside.  The tapered gold part will also have a peg hole, and you plug it onto the top of the armature peg, capturing the whole armature inside the now-completed toe.  Technically, no glue should be necessary but for piece of mind I used a little glue to keep the halves of the toes together.

I'll note here that the plastic itself is molded gold plastic, so it's not a match for the gold paint that Hasbro used on the original feet.  That said, I think it's probably closer to Hasbro's paint than the coppery paint that BDT used on the 3D-printed feet from M'Kyuun's review.  I suppose you could always paint the Nonnef toes yourself, but I wasn't able to find a paint that matched better than the bare plastic, so...

To install your newly-built feet, pull Sludge's feet out like you're going to transform them.  You'll notice that his feet are attached to a thin flap with a friction clip; just yank the original feet off, and jam the new ones onto the flap.  And... yeah.  Like I said, the gold plastic isn't a perfect match for Hasbro's paint, but it's not as bad as I was originally thinking because his toes (and, I suppose, some painted bits on his stock weapon) are all the gold that really shows up in robot mode.  Well, unless you're looking at his back so you can see his dino head on his backpack, but if you're looking at his back you probably can't see his toes.

And in dinosaur mode, you can't see the new toes dangling down like some kind of robot-brontosaurus udder, so again the mismatch between the gold plastic toes and the painted dino head and hump aren't obvious.  The riveted armature the toes are attached to do exactly what I suggested Hasbro should have done in the first place- swivel the toes up into the gap under the dino chest.

Removing the stock toe-udder does mean that the stock gun doesn't have a place to tab into the underside of the dino mode anymore, but that's not really the end of the world.  There's still the 5mm ports on his robot shoulders/dino hips, and you can plug the handles of either the stock weapon or the Nonnef rifle right into them.

And while we're in dinosaur mode, we can finally get back to those pegs I had you remove from the foot parts several steps ago.  They're fillers for the two screw holes on the side of Sludge's dino neck.  They're not perfect... they're not an exact match in color, they have a notch running down one side, and the end has a taper perpendicular to the notch.  I guess you're picking your poison, though, between an imperfect filler or a gaping screw hole.

End of the day, Nonnef's kit is slightly cheaper than the BDT one, but slightly more after shipping (assuming you even can have it shipped with Nonnef's limited options for international buyers).  However, as I've noted the unpainted gold plastic is arguably a better color match than BDT's paint, you get injection-molded parts instead of 3D printed, and you get more for you money with the included sword, rifle, missile, ratchet fixes, and screw hole covers.  If you've already bought the BDT feel you probably don't need the replace it with Nonnef's, especially if you're also planning on getting DNA's kit (which has fixes for ratchets and a better sword).  Even if you're not getting the DNA kit and you still want a sword, you can buy Nonnef's sword without buying the whole kit.  But if you haven't bought any upgrades for Sludge I'd definitely recommend this over the BDT feet.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

It is such a awesome update of Galaxy Convoy.

[M'Kyuun]

On 10/19/2022 at 2:40 PM, mikeszekely said:

One of the biggest complaints about Studio Series 86 Sludge was the way his robot toes hang under the body of the dinosaur.  I mean, there's a gap in the dinosaur chest, how hard would it have been for Hasbro to hinge the robot toes so they could fold up into that space?  Our own @M'Kyuun rolled the dice on a 3D-printed replacement foot with a hinged toe recently, but it seems that there's another option that isn't a 3D printed.  Today, I'm taking a look at Nonnef's Sludge upgrade kit.

As is the case with Nonnef's stuff, the kit comes on injection-molded sprues.  We'll start with the easy stuff first.

The red sprue has the parts to make a G1-accurate red sword for Sludge.  At the time I ordered, red was the only color available but as of this writing you can get a kit that has a translucent orange blade and a black hilt, like his previous dinobot kits.  Me personally, I wind up ordering an extra sword then swapping the orange blade into the red hilt and the red blade onto the black hilt, so I'm not pressing the sword together and won't be showing it in Sludge's fist.

The black parts are halves of a toy-style rifle.  You can also remove from the gold sprue the two parts to make a missile.  The missile will have a 5mm peg to fit into the barrel of Sludge's stock weapon.  I have mixed feelings here... I'll certainly never use the missile.  As for the rifle, the narrower barrel is more like what Sludge used in the cartoon, but in pretty much every other way the stock weapon is more accurate.  Still, it never hurts to have some extra guns around for the figures that either don't get one or get a sub-par one.

While we're clipping the parts off the gold sprue, you'll notice this bit that looks like a tab on two of the parts.  They're actually separate parts, so carefully remove them but don't lose them!

Now, grab a screwdriver and open remove the inside of Sludge's thighs.  You'll see the gray knee ratchet on the side of the thigh still attached to the lower leg.  Take those tiny gold tabs you just cut off, and jam them into the gap inside the ratchet.  This will prevent the nub on the ratchet from smooshing inward, making his knees feel much tighter.  Close the thighs back up.

While we're cutting stuff off of parts, start separating the gray parts.  You'll find a pair that have two  pegs on them.  One of those pegs, sort of in the middle of the parts, belongs.  The other, near the edges, needs to be removed.  Set those pegs aside, though, we'll need them later.

Take the rest of the parts from the gray peg and lay them out like I've shown above.  These parts are going to make Sludge's new feet (along with the remaining gold parts).

Take the parts labeled "B".  You'll notice that they're actually two parts, a flat base with a trough on the edge and an armature with a peg on the end attached to the base with a rivet pin.  Swivel the armature so the length of the peg is parallel to the trough, then take part "C" and plug into the hole on the base just under the rivet.  Swivel the armature back up, then take part "D" and plug into part "C".  There may be a little gap between them, but you'll squish it all together when you turn the whole thing on its side and plug part "A" into the other side of part "C".  What you've got now should look like the third frame of the above picture; that's the bottom of the foot, so flip it over.

The thicker gold parts without the taper (the parts the did NOT have the tabs you removed and stuffed into the knee ratchets) are the bottom of the toes, so we just plug the bottom of the peg on the armature into the hole inside.  The tapered gold part will also have a peg hole, and you plug it onto the top of the armature peg, capturing the whole armature inside the now-completed toe.  Technically, no glue should be necessary but for piece of mind I used a little glue to keep the halves of the toes together.

I'll note here that the plastic itself is molded gold plastic, so it's not a match for the gold paint that Hasbro used on the original feet.  That said, I think it's probably closer to Hasbro's paint than the coppery paint that BDT used on the 3D-printed feet from M'Kyuun's review.  I suppose you could always paint the Nonnef toes yourself, but I wasn't able to find a paint that matched better than the bare plastic, so...

To install your newly-built feet, pull Sludge's feet out like you're going to transform them.  You'll notice that his feet are attached to a thin flap with a friction clip; just yank the original feet off, and jam the new ones onto the flap.  And... yeah.  Like I said, the gold plastic isn't a perfect match for Hasbro's paint, but it's not as bad as I was originally thinking because his toes (and, I suppose, some painted bits on his stock weapon) are all the gold that really shows up in robot mode.  Well, unless you're looking at his back so you can see his dino head on his backpack, but if you're looking at his back you probably can't see his toes.

And in dinosaur mode, you can't see the new toes dangling down like some kind of robot-brontosaurus udder, so again the mismatch between the gold plastic toes and the painted dino head and hump aren't obvious.  The riveted armature the toes are attached to do exactly what I suggested Hasbro should have done in the first place- swivel the toes up into the gap under the dino chest.

Removing the stock toe-udder does mean that the stock gun doesn't have a place to tab into the underside of the dino mode anymore, but that's not really the end of the world.  There's still the 5mm ports on his robot shoulders/dino hips, and you can plug the handles of either the stock weapon or the Nonnef rifle right into them.

And while we're in dinosaur mode, we can finally get back to those pegs I had you remove from the foot parts several steps ago.  They're fillers for the two screw holes on the side of Sludge's dino neck.  They're not perfect... they're not an exact match in color, they have a notch running down one side, and the end has a taper perpendicular to the notch.  I guess you're picking your poison, though, between an imperfect filler or a gaping screw hole.

End of the day, Nonnef's kit is slightly cheaper than the BDT one, but slightly more after shipping (assuming you even can have it shipped with Nonnef's limited options for international buyers).  However, as I've noted the unpainted gold plastic is arguably a better color match than BDT's paint, you get injection-molded parts instead of 3D printed, and you get more for you money with the included sword, rifle, missile, ratchet fixes, and screw hole covers.  If you've already bought the BDT feel you probably don't need the replace it with Nonnef's, especially if you're also planning on getting DNA's kit (which has fixes for ratchets and a better sword).  Even if you're not getting the DNA kit and you still want a sword, you can buy Nonnef's sword without buying the whole kit.  But if you haven't bought any upgrades for Sludge I'd definitely recommend this over the BDT feet.

Kinda wish I'd known this was coming, as I would have held off on the BDT kit. Alas, it does what I need it to do, I'm not too plussed about the gold paint, and my copy's knees are fine outta the box, and I couldn't care less about the sword. I do like Nonnef's toy-style gun, but I can live without it. TBH, I think the BDT kit looks better in dino mode, as it hangs a bit lower and fills out the lower abdomen better, IMHO. Regardless of which kit you choose, your Sludge's apatosaur mode is going to look much better without the toes dragging the ground.

[mikeszekely]

12 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

your Sludge's apatosaur mode

So, I guess there's been some debate over the years that brontosaurus and apatosaurus might have been the same thing, and if so that apatosaurus is the technically correct name, and then later that maybe brontosaurus might be the same genus but a different species, and if they are different then Sludge's stockier body and shorter neck might yet mark him as an apatosaurus.  The Diaclone toy that became Sludge, though, was "Dinosaur Robo No. 3 Brontosaurus."  Short of Hasbro making a definitive statement on the matter I'm sticking with brontosaurus.