They do that from time to time, I'm not sure why. I guess it's common enough that nobody thinks to comment on it.
LEGO Optimus Prime
- Thread starter SHIELD Agent 47
- Start date
I would absolutely NEVER build a Lego set out of instruction order and it seems a crazy thing for anyone to do imo.
I get errors and mistakes I have to page back and figure out when I'm going step by step. (My eyes are terrible at distinguishing Black, Dark Blue, Dark Grey and similar close colors)
-ZacWilliam, why would I want to make the build harder? The Lego dudes put things in an an order for a reason.
I get errors and mistakes I have to page back and figure out when I'm going step by step. (My eyes are terrible at distinguishing Black, Dark Blue, Dark Grey and similar close colors)
-ZacWilliam, why would I want to make the build harder? The Lego dudes put things in an an order for a reason.
I guess it's the Lego collectors' equivalent of Transformers collectors transforming their toys for the first time without the instructions.
I'm a madman and went on a 7+ hour build session to finish him in one go. My only issue was there was a time it wanted four of the same piece in the chest construction and I only had two and two similar pieces. It worked out since you were supposed to build one on top of each other and put them on opposite sides. I just used the black ones it called for first on the bottom and then used the two similar grey pieces to try to make it right. Being inside the chest it's not going to affect the build greatly visually.
This was taken mostly as I completed each bag save for the two Leg bags which I waited until both were done. Just noticed I never took a pic of Prime with the Jet pack though. Also forgot to switch the one part forming piece of the Transformation with the lower grill panel there with the last shot with MP-01.
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It's crazy. And a little on the impulsive/ADHD side, but that isn't a new thing. Skipping around like this broke up some of the monotony - I don't usually build sets with 404 steps. I wanted to build the head first, and had the parts left over for arms and hands, so I put those together, too. I did realize I'd left out a 1x1 brick, so I cracked open one of the legs to put it in. It didn't show, it was just a support thing inside, but it bugged me that I'd left it out.
Daith put up his pics while I was trying to get quotes to work, so I won't put up my in-progress shot, but basically mine has two legs, two hands, part of two arms, and a head. Looks a little weird standing here on my desk, too, but I've just been stacking parts as I built from the feet up.
Got my copy in today, start on it later on or within the next couple of days!
I finished putting mine together over the weekend. I'd actually had it sitting around in a box for a few days without realizing it. It came on the same day something was supposed to come for my wife from Amazon, so I never really looked at the box. Only realized what it was after she mentioned her package had gotten delayed.
Anyway, it was a fun build, and he looks great. Even the face looks a lot better to me in person than it does in pictures. It helps that I love how they used the pieces to sculpt all the major elements of Prime's head. It didn't really stand out to me looking at it in pictures, but it really did as I went through the process of putting it together.
I have two things I would've liked to have seen done a little differently. The more minor one is it would have been nice to have his arms lock in a little better in truck mode. They're not flopping around or anything, but there's nothing really holding them securely in place either. So he tends to end up looking like a lot of TFs where you can never quite massage all the panels into place correctly. This one's pretty nitpicky though, as they stay where they're supposed to and can easily be massaged back into proper alignment at any point.
The second is that the lack of knee articulation feels wrong. He has all the articulation above the knees needed to pull off some good, dynamic poses. And when assembling it, at first I assumed that the knee joint was intended to actually work as a knee. But then once the legs are fully assembled, his knees can only rotate, and his ankles only rock side to side. It leaves him feeling a lot stiffer than he otherwise would have been. I mean, it would have been entirely on point to just make him a figurative brick, but he's ALMOST fully articulated. I'm guessing it's necessary for stability, but it just feels like that really would have put it over the top.
Anyway, I hope this leads to more LEGO TFs in the future. Not sure what he'd turn into that LEGO would actually make, but I'd love to see a LEGO Megatron to go with him.
Or if they want to get really ambitious, the Constructicons would be perfectly themed as a LEGO set.
Anyway, it was a fun build, and he looks great. Even the face looks a lot better to me in person than it does in pictures. It helps that I love how they used the pieces to sculpt all the major elements of Prime's head. It didn't really stand out to me looking at it in pictures, but it really did as I went through the process of putting it together.
I have two things I would've liked to have seen done a little differently. The more minor one is it would have been nice to have his arms lock in a little better in truck mode. They're not flopping around or anything, but there's nothing really holding them securely in place either. So he tends to end up looking like a lot of TFs where you can never quite massage all the panels into place correctly. This one's pretty nitpicky though, as they stay where they're supposed to and can easily be massaged back into proper alignment at any point.
The second is that the lack of knee articulation feels wrong. He has all the articulation above the knees needed to pull off some good, dynamic poses. And when assembling it, at first I assumed that the knee joint was intended to actually work as a knee. But then once the legs are fully assembled, his knees can only rotate, and his ankles only rock side to side. It leaves him feeling a lot stiffer than he otherwise would have been. I mean, it would have been entirely on point to just make him a figurative brick, but he's ALMOST fully articulated. I'm guessing it's necessary for stability, but it just feels like that really would have put it over the top.
Anyway, I hope this leads to more LEGO TFs in the future. Not sure what he'd turn into that LEGO would actually make, but I'd love to see a LEGO Megatron to go with him.
Or if they want to get really ambitious, the Constructicons would be perfectly themed as a LEGO set.
While I not built my copy (YET) a video that popped up on Youtube and I added to my watch later, which I'll watch in due course, but I thought I share it anyway:
My daughter would go crazy for this. Price kills it, though.
It should be possible to build a functioning knee. If joint stability is absolutely needed, a Technic piston or worm gear might allow the knee to be repositioned for posing yet still hold the position firmly.
Well, went to my nearest Lego store, and lo and behold, I found him with no problems. Bought him, too.
It's gonna be forever before I assemble him, but I got him.
It's gonna be forever before I assemble him, but I got him.
The only mod I'm taking from that video is the bit about flipping the thigh decals upside down. He's absolutely right. Those decals are clearly based on the G1 character model, but the instructions depict them upside down from how they're supposed to be. I doubt I ever would have noticed it if it hadn't been pointed out, but might as well get it right.
The bit about the two plates on his butt is a fair point. They do limit his hip articulation in theory, and they're simple enough to replace. If his legs were fully articulated, I'd probably go ahead and do this one. But with his leg articulation so limited, there's no point in ever rotating his legs backwards where they're a problem. And the grey wedges do help fill in the classic grey Optimus briefs pretty nicely, so I'd need to see some advantage for it to be worthwhile. I could see including this as a part of a larger leg mod, but it's pointless as is.
Everything else is removing stuff he doesn't like. Personally, I found every change he did makes it less appealing to me. Pulling the wheels off the hips is the only change he made that doesn't make it look worse in my eyes. But it doesn't really look much if any better IMO, and I would much rather have both modes fully incorporated rather than have to start pulling bits off and setting them aside in one mode of the other.
They are only optional, its down to you, if you want to make them or not, I can't judge with mine, yet as I only started building last night with the first two bags
As it is now, it resembles a strange museum displaying Optimus Prime's individual body parts.
Completed mine, yet following the instructions, I found that his arms would not go where they needed to be for vehicle mode, thou I sort of sorted it, I got two pin holes appearing on top of his shoulders as I had to move the 1x2 brick down, now everything fits together, I already made couple of minor mods, one which was featured in the video I posted the link to the other day and the other is with his front grill to ensure that doesn't fall apart on me everytime I touch it, for that, I just added 4 4x1 plates in dark grey behind the metal coloured plates.
Overall, not a bad build but its not without its issues, not sure what went wrong on my build to force me to mess around with the arms in the manner I did, before I made the changes on the arms, I found they were stuck and would not slide under the torso, I'm pretty sure that I followed the instructions correctly as everything else on the torso worked correctly
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I figured out what went wrong, I thought the problem was in the upper arms, it was actually the lower arms I messed up on, the block for the elbow joint is where things went wrong, its now fixed and the top looks a bit better in truck mode!
Overall, not a bad build but its not without its issues, not sure what went wrong on my build to force me to mess around with the arms in the manner I did, before I made the changes on the arms, I found they were stuck and would not slide under the torso, I'm pretty sure that I followed the instructions correctly as everything else on the torso worked correctly
Edit:
I figured out what went wrong, I thought the problem was in the upper arms, it was actually the lower arms I messed up on, the block for the elbow joint is where things went wrong, its now fixed and the top looks a bit better in truck mode!
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Finally got to open mine last night (it arrived last week and has been taunting me the whole time.) Spent about 2 hours or so on it, got to the halfway-point, bagwise: torso and legs. Satisfyingly big and hefty so far!
Finished mine. Didn't stretch the process out as long as I'd planned, but it was still fun to do a little at a time. I did keep going with the 'build him from the ground up' idea - one of the pics in the collage is from when I had the head, shoulders, knees, and toes, but no arms attached.
One of my dogs jumped up on the couch while I was taking the last of the pictures today, so I made sure he made it into the collage.
One of my dogs jumped up on the couch while I was taking the last of the pictures today, so I made sure he made it into the collage.