One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

I recently found an old beat up Hasbro Transformer Alternators: Silverstreak figure.  The previous owner left it in a really sorry state.  Its paint job was scratched all over and some of its parts have already fallen off.  Under normal circumstances one wouldn't buy something in this condition. However, being cast from the same mold as Bluestreak, this guy had the right parts I needed to replace the broken hinge on my Binaltech figure.

 After a quick paint job, my Bluestreak is now completely refurbished.

As good as new. (Well almost...)

I can now officially conclude this restoration job.  But before I start working on my next project, I will leave you guys with a little Transformers trivia:

Hasbro and Takara often used the same car molds to produce several characters in their Transformers toy line.  Bluestreak and Silverstreak, however, were one and the same character. The name change was due to some trademark issue back then.  To add to the confusion, the original Hasbro G1 Bluestreak toy wasn’t even blue in the first place.

Baffled? Here are a couple of links to explain more about this Autobot’s colorful history.

Wikipedia: Bluestreak (Transformers)

TFWiki: Bluestreak (G1)

Bluestreak Repainted

Transformers Binaltech BT-19 Bluestreak
by Takara-Tomy
Paint: Tamiya Color TS-50 Mica Blue
Finish: Gunze Sangyo Mr. Hobby Topcoat - Gloss

I had the opportunity to finish my Bluestreak repaint today.  To be honest, I was a bit unsatisfied with the results.  However, I think it's still a decent attempt from someone who haven't been modeling for quite a while now.  I did accomplish my main goal of removing all of the scratches and the faded colors on the vehicle's body.

Here are some before and after pictures...

Unfortunately, as mentioned in one of my earlier posts, this Autobot will have to go into retirement and live the rest of its life as a display piece due to a cracked hinge on one of the rear doors.  I will, however, keep an eye out for people selling their broken toys. Who knows, maybe someday I'll find a suitable replacement part and truly be able to restore this Transformer to its former glory.

Die-cast Door Dilemmas

It was one of those rainy Sunday afternoons again, so I've decided to stay home and work on my worn out Bluestreak figure.  I've chosen to keep the car’s original blue color and disregarded my initial ideas of doing a completely different paint job on this model. 

In preparation for the first coat of spray paint, I had to cover up the surfaces that I didn’t want painted over with some paper and tape.  While I was masking the vehicle, I noticed a crack on one of the rear door hinge. 

  

This reminded me of the broken door on my Aston Martin DB5. Although unlike the Aston, I don’t really see any other symptoms of a zinc pest attack on this car apart from the unexplained crack I just mentioned.  This may be a different case altogether; it is possible that the break was caused by  the repetitive “transformation” process from vehicle to robot mode and back.

I guess after I’m done giving this Transformer a new coat of paint, Bluestreak will really need to avoid converting to and from his various modes.  After all, we wouldn’t want his fresh paint to get scratched nor do we want his door to fall of completely.

Not quite done, but almost there...

Reviving Bluestreak

What I've posted here are some pictures of my worn out Transformers Binaltech: Bluestreak figure by Takara Tomy.  For those who don't know, Binaltech is the Japanese version of Hasbro's Alternators toy line which were released roughly around 2003.  The main difference between the two is that the Japanese version had die-cast metal bodies while Hasbro's version were all in plastic.  Being die-cast, it is designed more for collection or display only and less of a toy.  The cars are presented in 1:24 scale and are highly detailed to match their real world counterparts.  Bluestreak's vehicle mode was based on a Subaru Impreza WRX. 

Contrary to what I've just mentioned just now, my Bluestreak had been played around quite a bit over the years thus resulting to its current sorry state.  There are numerous scratches all over the body.  Furthermore the color in other areas seemed to have faded away leaving the model with uneven shades of blue here and there.  Well today I've decided to attempt to give this car a new paint job.  I haven't quite decided if I'll keep its original blue color or go all out and custom paint it.

"You break it, I'll remake it" - Ratchet, Autobot Medic

Nevertheless, I've already began to disassemble the parts this evening in preparation for the upcoming task.  It'll probably be a while before I could fully restore this car mainly because I'm swamped with tons of work at the office lately.  I'll try not to let that hinder this project though.  Hope this paint job turns out okay. I'll post the "after" pics when I get things done.