The greatest part of my job here at Sector 70 is getting to bring you d00ds special features on standout customs. Getting to see extra images never seen anywhere else puts a big ol smile on my face and I hope it does yours. With the help of the master crafter Jaf, I get to bring you some sweet photoshopped images of the Predacons in their natural environments.
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The Past:
1: Did the character to which this build is based, have any impact on your childhood? A favourite character/ one you looked up to/ thought he just kicked ass?
Yes, a very big impact. In fact, Tantrum has a big place in my heart and my overall love for Transformers. As a child I was not so priviledge as the other kids around. I had two Transformers toy growing up, 1st Blaster and secondly Tantrum. All throughout my childhood I keep wondering how Tantrum will look like if combined with the rest of the Predacons. As I started to earn money for myself, and was able to finally buy the whole set. I was so overjoyed, it felt like I was living one of my childhood dreams. To dedicate to that experience and love of the character, I went ahead and build my own version as sort of a dedication to the child in me.
2: Did you own the original figure as a child? Did you see the original as satisfactory at the time? How about now?
I owned Tantrum, and I very much love it so. I still feel the same way now, but it just doesn't seem fair to the rest of the character as I tend to favor Tantrum more.
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The Present:
3: How did the idea for this one first come up? Did you immediately see the potential in the donor figure/figures?
I've been planning to build Predaking for quite some time. I'm just waiting to have all the experience and knowledge I needed to give justice to the character that I love so much. First I wanted to build him totally scratch built and with the same scale of 3 ft. I realized though that I might not be able to give it enough detail to match the scale. Then I remember zoids and I got to thinking of building a version that carry such a heavy load of firepower, and that is how I got to naming them with an X after their respective name as in extreme.
4: For all those reading, exactly who/what all went into this custom?
I had to go through my treasure chest filled with parts from all past customs I worked on. I went to ebay bought about 10 different Zoids, a box of Bionicle parts, a couple of Gundam, a dash of Transformers, a sprinkle of love, and voila Predaking. Obviously I used Animated Grimlock as a base for the arms, and Classics Prime/Magnus for the rest. I used the same base for each corresponding limbs to give it the same scale when combined.
5: Were there any major obstacles to overcome in order to achieve the desired results?
My major obstacle was time. Just been so busy that I had to work on my schedule to find maybe an hour or two in one week to work on him. In the end it took me over a year to build him, and I was so worried that it might be so outdated by the time I finish him. The drive to build him was not a problem as I was so passionate to have him finished. Painting and photography was an obstacle too. I wanted to catch up with all the new techniques and fad being used by customizers now a days. Techniques such as; light tents for taking pictures ( I was able to do it with the individualized Predacons, but not on Predaking himself as he is just too big), and airbrushing for the paint job. I'm an old fashion guy as I do all my painting with manual brush, so using airbrush for the first time was a challenge.
6: Do you prefer to work in favour of toon accuracy, comic accuracy, toy likeness or prefer to "update" in your own style?
Nothing in particular, it's all a trial and experiment with using airbrush and manual brush for the details.
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7: What was your original plan of action to execute this custom? For instance, what parts did you plan on using at first and what mods did you want to make to those parts?
Basically just combining Zoids with Transformers and using a magnet system for the weapons. For the combined mode I wanted to try something new. Using the same and very famous unicron parts(shout out to Ptitvive) and just expanding from it. Also, I didn't want the combiner parts laying around and so I build something out of it, and a chariot seems to be a good choice.
8: Now that things are complete, how close was your original plan to what actually happened?
I'm not really the kind of guy who plans and illustrate with blueprints. I just start building and work from that and discover ideas along the way and incorporate it to the custom. I really have no clue or idea how the custom will turn out until I finish it.
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The Future:
9: Looking back, is there anything you would do differently or would have liked to have done?
no matter how good or crappy my custom turns out, I never change it. I just learn from my mistakes and apply the knowledge for the next project. If I could have done something different probably go back in the past leave it under a christmas tree and leave it as a present to myself as a child.
10: Any plans to sell this guy or is he a keeper?
Definitely all mine
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11: Is there any other character you hope to tackle in the coming years to pay homage to?
Blaster definitely and finish the Galvatron that I've been working on for over a year now. I really got a rush from building a combiner and I've been
thinking of building a movie verse type of combiner.
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Dim 17 Fév 2013 - 12:35
