Megatron X - Built from Marvel Shape Shifters Punisher

    The first step, of cutting things off, was pretty quick. With an X-Acto blade, I carved the face into a more angular form and removed some of the figure's hair. I also used my Dremel to remove the buttons from his beltpouches, so I wouldn't have as much detail to cover up. At the time, I didn't think I would make an arm cannon for the figure, so I drilled holes in the forearms (the arms are hinged at the inside, so they split apart leaving big flat surfaces) large enough to hold the missiles that come with the toy. The idea being that he could have a missile launcher mode similar to the machineguns deployed by Big Guy (of Big Guy and Rusty fame).

    The next several steps were putty, putty and more putty. Turned out that the batch I had was bad (explaining the lumpiness I couldn't get rid of in my Whisper project), and I had to redo some parts because huge gobs of uncured putty would come out during shaping. To allow the transformation to still work, I decided not to build up the legs any, and to use minimal putty on the shoulders. Most parts that I did use putty on got several layers, especially near the end as I started adding little bits here and there to sharpen edges and make seams tighter. The final result wasn't quite as sharp as I'd like, but it's about as good as I could get given the way the structure of the toy kept me from getting at things well. Near the end of the structural phase, I realized that I could use an old laser pointer as an arm cannon. After a protracted search around my apartment, I found that the front end of the frame of the Barbie-scale bikes I used in the Whisper project was just the right size to hold the laser. I wanted to be able to remove the laser (to reverse direction, for ease of painting, so I could replace the batteries later, etc), and the cuff worked like a charm. I cut it down to size and carved a channel in the right forearm to slot a tab I carved on the cuff into, and then secured the whole thing with more putty. Once painted, the fit was just snug enough that I can keep the laser's button pushed down by jamming the laser into the cuff far enough.

    Click here for a picture of the kitbash after I was done with shaping but before I started painting.

    Since I knew this wasn't going to look exactly like G1 Megatron, I decided to call him Megatron X and go with a darker color scheme (and a new background story, see below). The two main colors are gunmetal and metallic black (the latter chosen to match the original color of the toy, in case I had to leave any joints unpainted). The contrast between the two is a LOT greater in person than is visible in the scan above. I used Pactra light grey for the face and one of the abdomen details, metallic regal red for the eyes and part of the abdomen detail, goldenrod yellow for the other abdominal screen, violet and a silver gel pen for the DeXepticon symbol, and a technical pen for the black details. I covered most of the figure in clear nailpolish topcoat, but even so I still got some scraping when I transformed the toy to gun mode for the scans. I did not paint the laser.

Tech Specs

The year is 2012, and Cybertron is once more at peace. Optimus Prime has returned to lead the Autobots, and Galvatron's forces have been driven to the farthest corners of space. But now, disturbing reports are trickling into Cybertron, tales of Sweeps fleeing into Autobot space and seeking asylum, claiming "he" has returned and is visiting his wrath upon all the creations of Unicron. Ultra Magnus is sent with a force to investigate, and arrive on a desolate rim world just in time to see Galvatron torn apart by a black hole created by...Megatron? Claiming that Galvatron was a mere copy created by the Dark God and calling himself Megatron X for reasons unexplained, the former ruler or Cybertron allows Ultra Magnus to live, to be his herald to Cybertron. With his generals, Skywarp and Thundercracker, Megatron X will first purge the Decepticons of Unicron's spawn, then lead the remaining Decepticons and his new army of DeXepticons to conquer Cybertron.
    Megatron X and his forces are powered by a mysterious energy source called Energon X. Rather than simply being used up as is normal Energon, Energon X is self-renewing, freeing the DeXepticons from the need to hunt for energy sources. Hit and run attacks by Autobots have gained some samples of Energon X, which they are using in Project Nucleon, an attempt to replicate this miraculous substance before Megatron X turns his attention to Cybertron.
    In addition to his armies, Megatron X is incredibly powerful on his own, as attested to by his effortless destruction of Galvatron. Part of this is because he never needs worry about conserving energy, but whoever rebuilt him and gave him his armies also improved on many of his systems. Stronger and faster than before, Megatron X is a fearsome hand to hand combatant. His fusion cannon has been replaced by a laser weapon of slightly lesser power but greater range. Additionally, he can reconfigure his arms into missile launchers. Each missile carries a sub-nuclear warhead that explodes with the equivalent of three tons of Terran TNT. However, it is in gun mode that his increased power is most evident. His gun mode exists at two sizes. At full size, it can fire the same missiles he uses in robot mode, but is relatively immobile. At smaller size, usually fired by Thundercracker or Skywarp, it relies on the laser sight to rake enemies with red fire. At either size, however, Megatron X has access to an impossibly potent attack: the Black Hole Projector. Where once he tapped into the power of a single black hole for his antimatter blasts, he now can create and launch miniature black holes. These black holes evaporate quickly, limiting his range. At full size, the darkstars last long enough to cut a swath 500 meters long into his foes, while at smaller size he can still destroy targets within 100 meters, and with much greater accuracy. Anything still standing after it has been hit by the powerful "targeting" laser will soon find itself ripped apart by gravitational stresses. In robot mode, Megatron X can fly at up to 200 meters per second in an atmosphere, and given time can reach orbit. In gun mode he can only hover or fly short distances. Megatron X has armor capable of resisting his own laser, and when he fires his black hole attack he also generates a temporary antigravity pulse that ensures he cannot be harmed by his own attack.

All attributes are 10 except for: SPD 7  FRP 10+