The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[Dangard Ace]

The DNA upgrade kit for TFxGodzilla is peak.  This is what Takara Tony should've release.  

 

[mikeszekely]

46 minutes ago, Dangard Ace said:

The DNA upgrade kit for TFxGodzilla is peak.  This is what Takara Tony should've release.

I've been really looking forward to this kit.  I'll review it proper when I get mine, but painting Grimlock gray and calling it a day was a huge letdown.  This kit really looks to take the figure from dud to stud.

I like supporting domestic small businesses when there isn't a huge price difference, and with DNA it was often even cheaper to buy from TCP than ShowZ in the pre-tariff days.  But TCP has gotten to be BBTS slow lately.  If it weren't for the fact that it's CNY and nobody's shipping anything for the next week anyway I'd cancel my preorder and just buy from ShowZ.

[M'Kyuun]

6 hours ago, Dangard Ace said:

The DNA upgrade kit for TFxGodzilla is peak.  This is what Takara Tony should've release.  

 

I didn't go in for this variation, but I'll add my two cents and compliment the good changes that the DNA kit make towards making him more Godzilla-y. As you said, TT should have released it like this themselves, especially with Gojira being a Japanese icon.

[Dangard Ace]

7 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I didn't go in for this variation, but I'll add my two cents and compliment the good changes that the DNA kit make towards making him more Godzilla-y. As you said, TT should have released it like this themselves, especially with Gojira being a Japanese icon.

13 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I've been really looking forward to this kit.  I'll review it proper when I get mine, but painting Grimlock gray and calling it a day was a huge letdown.  This kit really looks to take the figure from dud to stud.

I like supporting domestic small businesses when there isn't a huge price difference, and with DNA it was often even cheaper to buy from TCP than ShowZ in the pre-tariff days.  But TCP has gotten to be BBTS slow lately.  If it weren't for the fact that it's CNY and nobody's shipping anything for the next week anyway I'd cancel my preorder and just buy from ShowZ.

I didn’t buy this variation until I saw the DNA kit.   IMO TT half assed it and wasn’t worth my money.  
 

Too bad DNA couldn’t save Kiryu Prime.  Wasn’t feeling that one at all even with DNAs kit.  

[m0n5t3r]

On 9/24/2025 at 4:11 AM, mikeszekely said:

Me: I love a good "white Optimus" Ultra Magnus... too bad the only one Hasbro gave us is the one that makes up the core of Earthrise Ultra Magnus.  And at least that was Earthrise... I don't think we've had a Nemesis Prime since Siege!

Hasbro: Ok... we'll repaint that toy-style Deluxe Optimus as Magnus, and we'll pack him with a Nemesis repaint of Animated Optimus.  As a Target exclusive with two other guys.

Me, looking at SS86 Optimus: "Not exactly what I had in mind..."

Some guy in China, whispering: "Oh, I got you, bro..."

I'll be honest, I have no idea who's making these.  They come in a plain brown box with "MD-005" A, B, and C written on it, with check boxes that ostensibly should indicate what variant is inside but none of which were checked on either of the copies I got.  As you can see, they're knock-offs of SS86 Optimus, but in Ultra Magnus white and Nemesis black.  Note that Shattered Glass purple also exists, as well as regular red-and-blue Optimus.  I haven't decided if I want the SG version or not, and the regular Optimus version is sold out at my usual stores.

Now, again, this is MD-005.  There's another KO going around as AS-08.  By all reports, AS-08 is an inferior KO that's uses shoddy materials.  MD-005 does seem to use a different plastic than the official figure, but it's solid and feels good in the hands.  The joints are all solid, some tighter than the official figure.  In short, MD-005 feels like a quality figure.

These two versions (and the SG version) come with the rifle, Matrix, axe, and blast effects that SS86 Optimus came with, but not the trailer, repair drone, Roller, or the other effect parts.  Instead, they come with some alternate heads, a battle damage part, and some filler for the truck mode.  Regular Optimus comes with even more stuff, which I'll bring up if I can manage to get my hands on one.

The heads are probably the most interesting bit.  A lot of people seemed to not like the original SS86 head (left), though I thought it was fine.  But here you also get a season 1 head (middle) and 86 movie head (right), plus a battle damaged version of the movie head.  Personally I kinda like the SS86 head on Magnus, but the movie head for Nemesis.  Swapping them is as simple as yanking one head off the ball joint and popping another one on.

There's a notch in the panels on the sides you have to flip up when you spin the upper body for transformation.  The battle damage part takes advantage of that by using a small tab to plug into it.  Undoubtedly this part was created for the regular version of Prime, to recreate his iconic wound from his battle with Megatron, and whoever's making these figured they already had the part might as well stuff it in with all the colors.

As a (nearly) 1:1 copy of SS86, the transformation is the same.  They did replace the plastic wheels with rubber tires, though.  I didn't test the Season 1 head, but the movie head transforms just fine.

Which brings me to that last filler piece.  It's filler for the back of the cab, designed to look like an AC unit.  One side is flat, the other sloped, so you'll know which way it fits in.  And it just wedges in place, it doesn't tab or lock in.  It's a nice idea, and I don't even mind partsforming it, but there's no place to store it on the robot mode, so I doubt I'll ever really use them.

At roughly $40, these are high-quality figures that deliver the repaints that Hasbro can't/won't.  The extra heads are an especially nice touch.  My only real complaint is that I wish they painted the tops of their crotches, the way the official figure did.  If you're a fan of Magnus, SG Optimus, or Nemesis (@Scyla) then I can comfortably recommend them.  Heck, I'd be in for Delta Magnus, Shining Magnus, or Pepsi Optimus repaints, too. 

Sorry for resurrecting an old post. Wasn't sure where this goes... thanks for this and other YT reviews, I finally received my regular MD005 OP copy. Although I had to wait almost 3 months for this 4th batch to become available... good thing though, cuz I got in before the price increase. 

Amazing. All this for only $35. And the subtle aesthetic improvements make a world of difference... better colors (imo), no visible screws and seams, windshield options with no holes, head options, chrome wheels and rubber tires. Plus, qc on this thing (at least my copy) is close to perfect, which, sadly, I can't say for 1 out of every 2 or 3 Hasbro TFs I get, especially when they started with those open window packaging (paint touchups, joint tightening etc.)

Wishful thinking, but I wish all TF releases would be like this.

 

Edited February 21 by m0n5t3r

[mikeszekely]

1 minute ago, m0n5t3r said:

Sorry for resurrecting an old post. Wasn't sure where this goes... thanks for this and other YT reviews, I finally received my regular MD005 OP copy. Although I had to wait almost 3 months for this 4th batch to become available... good thing though, cuz I got in before the price increase. 

Amazing. All this for only $35. And the subtle aesthetic improvements make a world of difference... better colors imo, no visible screws and seams, windshield options with no holes, head options, chrome wheels and rubber tires. Plus, qc on this thing (at least my copy) is close to perfect, which, sadly, I can't say for 1 out of every 2 or 3 Hasbro TFs I get, especially when they started with those open window packaging.

Wishful thinking, but I wish all TF releases would be like this.

 

My original thinking was that I'd be fine with SS86 Optimus for regular colors, and that I'd just get the Magnus and Nemesis versions of MD005... but then I went and preordered the Optimus colors.  My just arrived this week, and I showed it to my wife alongside SS86.  I asked her to guess which one was the KO, and she picked the official.

One of the smokestacks on my copy was a little loose, but that wasn't a big deal since I'd bought some aftermarket stacks for the official.  Once I swapped them onto MD005 the figure is darn near perfect.  My only serious complaint with the mold is that the fillers they added to the parts of Prime's legs that fold up from his calves do too good of a job; one of those cutouts on the official figure is the right shape to plug in the magazine of Prime's rifle, allowing you to store it without putting it in the trailer.

Speaking of trailers... I prefer the blue stripes of the G1 toy (among other toys).  I ordered the Toyhax trailer labels.  I'll put them on the MD005 trailer and get the look I want while allowing the official trailer to remain pristine.

[m0n5t3r]

My thinking now, of course, is I saved some money . I canceled my preorder for the SS86 when I heard about the heel issue and I never got around to getting one whether online or when I saw it in a couple of stores in HK (Takara ver.). Didn't think it was worth the price anymore and I had also just gotten DCS OP to replace the Earthrise OP I sold off... and I was content at the time. I am planning to get that Magnus version when it becomes available from my go-to seller.

Edit: I was pleasantly surprised to find that my fusion cannon already includes batteries . The one I was watching online didn't have any batteries included in his copy.

Edited February 21 by m0n5t3r

[sh9000]

GX-85 Upgrade Kit.

[mikeszekely]

Go Better's stuff has kind of gone downhill.  I try to avoid the 3D printed stuff these days, unless it adds something more substantial than gap fillers.

I just had TCP ship my stash.  It's all DNA kits.

[rsvictor1976]

I love this Godzilla Megatron upgrade.

[Dangard Ace]

Behold....Galvatron.   

 

 

[mikeszekely]

Is that the XTB one?  How are you liking it?  Both it and Sovereign 2.0 look like an improvement on Sovereign 1.0, just not enough to make me feel like buying either of them.

[Dangard Ace]

Yup it's XTB Abaddon.  I like it just fine.  Only messed with it for 30mins.  Spent more time trying to find a faction symbol I liked.   Eventually used a metallic purple waterslide applique.  It's not overly heavy like Sov 1.0 and I don't have Sov 2.0.   No wish to own Sov 2.0 either.

[mikeszekely]

Takara, left to their own devices, has done or is doing some wild stuff, like a sorta Prime that turns into the Fire Valkyrie from Macross 7, but also a (kind of) a truck.  So it was kind of disappointing that, to celebrate Godzilla's 70th birthday, Takara took Studio Series Grimlock, swapped his robot head with Sludge's, painted him black, labeled him Megatron Type Godzilla, and then called it a day.

While Takara's unwillingness to actually remold any parts made the figure difficult to recommend to any but the most hardcore Godzilla fans, it left a huge opportunity for frequent upgrade kit maker DNA to step up and "fix" the figure.  And what they ultimately delivered was DK-67 Monster King.  This kit includes a new robot head, new beast mode toes, new beast mode arms, a new beast mode head, robot feet fillers, robot forearm fillers, a beast back part, a beast tail part, a beast tail extender, and a connector part.  It should also come with a pair of screws, but mine didn't.  😒

So we'll start in beast mode.  Remove these three screws on the stock head.  It'll pull part into all these pieces... which you can put back together and toss in a bag or drawer or something.

The DNA head also needs to come apart, but there's no screws involved.  Line the cutout in the bottom of the neck with the mushroom peg, and fit the rest of the head back together.  Be careful to make sure that this post sticks into his mouth.

To swap the arms, push the stock arms back until the ball joints pop out of their sockets.  Take the new arms and just push them into the sockets.

For the new toes, remove these three screws from the inside of the beast leg.  Pull the inner half off, and you can wiggle the dino toes off the screw post.  Pop the new toes on, then replace the inside of the leg and start screwing him back together, except for the screw through the dewclaw.

If you're going to use the robot arm filler, line up the screw hole on the hinge with the screw hole on the dewclaw.  Instead of using the stock screw, use the longer screws DNA provided.  In theory, the hinge allows this part to open like a flap so you can fold the wrist out, then fold it back over to cover the gap.  In practice, it doesn't lock in place or even sit flush, and it protrudes a bit from the rest of the limb.  If you're mostly going to keep him in beast mode, where the back of his robot fist fills that gap, I think this part kind of makes it look worse.  I wouldn't bother even if I wasn't missing the screws.

Anyway, now we've just got to do the back and tail parts.  Get used to these steps, because removing and replacing them is going to become a necessary partsforming step.

For the small back part, you'll note that there are hinges between the rows of spines.  You need to fold the outer rows so that they're sticking out at about a 45 degree angle, then line the part up (so the small peg is pointing down into his tail).  Once it's lined up, straighten the spines, and tabs on the sides will kind of slide and grab into hollow spots on the hinges on his back.

Grab this little connector part, and it can store on the underside of this piece as indicated.  Then this piece will sit over the stock tail, with these hinged bits using pegs to grab into peg holes that will lock it into place.

Finally, the tail extender has a 5mm port on it.  It just plugs into the 5mm peg on the end of the part you just attached to the stock tail.

Godzilla mode complete!  And, like @Dangard Ace said, this is what Takara should have done in the first place.  Just a few remolded pieces was all it took to take Grimlock in Godzilla colors and actually make a robot that looks like Godzilla.  As a bonus, the new parts add some articulation.  The new toes aren't just hinged like the stock ones, they're on ball joints so they can swivel into faux ankle pivots.  The new arms have actual working elbows, bicep swivels, and wrist swivels.  The tail extension has a few ball joints that allow it to bend and curl.

As happy as I am with the greatly improved Godzilla mode, this is still a transformer, so lets go to bot mode.  Transformation works mostly the same, except for two things.  First, as I already mentioned, you have to remove all the new back and tail parts.  Second, rather than simply flipping the beast head back, you need to rotate it 180 degrees, then slide it back before you flip it over so that it has the room to sit on the robot's back.

The we have the robot mode parts.  Remove this screw on the back of the stock head, then gently pull it apart and pop the back off of the ball joint.  Open the DNA head the same way, push the back of the head onto the ball joint, fit the front on, and screw it together.  I'll be honest, I didn't mind the Sludge head... it actually did have a sort of IDW-ish Milne-esque Megatron look to it.  But the new head has a more traditionally G1 Megatron face, and a helmet that looks more like Godzilla opened his mouth and Megatron's face was just in there, like how Voltron's face pops out of the Black Lion.

The feet fillers are pretty self explanatory.  Line them up with the cutouts for the hinges and the 5mm ports, then just push them in.

The question now is what to do with all the leftover back bits.  One of the simplest things you can do is take the part where we stashed the little connector part and to move it into the 5mm port, so that a 5mm peg is kind of sticking out.  Then you can take the entire tail and plug it onto an arm, fusion cannon style.  This is Megatron, after all.

Doing that doesn't really leave any place for the smaller back part, though.  So, take the extender off the tail.  Fold the long handle out of the back part, and again angle the outer spines out at about 45 degrees.  The tail can then plug onto the back part to create a handheld weapon.  And, again, we fold the clips under the other tail part and arrange the connector part into the 5mm port with a 5mm peg sticking out.

I'm not sure what you'd call the weapon... a sword?  A lance?  Regardless, he can hold it in one hand, while the rest of the tail can use the connector to plug into a forearm and become a shield.  This is my preferred robot configuration.

But you still have options.  Arrange the connector so that it sticks out a bit further, with the 5mm peg pointing down instead out straight back, and you've got a handle on the shield that he can hold in his free hand.  Or, turn the connector upside down and you'll have enough clearance to plug it into the 5mm port on his back, on the beast mode neck.

DNA can be a very hit-or-miss sort of company.  Their worst upgrade kits can fail to address issues I have with figures while introducing a host of new problems, like the ones they did for Siege Magnus and Galaxy Upgrade Optimus.  Their best kits can fix the biggest complaints I have with a figure, like the simple kit they did for SS '07 Megatron that replaced the ROTF chest with one that was '07 movie accurate.  Most of their kits fall somewhere in the middle.

But this kit?  My friends, this is one of their rare kits that not only fixes my complaints with a figure, it does so in such a thorough and complete fashion that it elevates a figure I wouldn't actually recommend in the first place into a figure I'd happily recommend.  The only downside is the price.  This kit costs nearly as much as the figure, which was already a premium over the standard Leader-class price.  But if you already bought this figure, then this kit is a must-buy delivering night-and-day results.  And if you're into Godzilla and Transformers but wasn't happy with Takara's feeble stock attempt at a crossover, the upgraded results are honestly good enough to made you reconsider buying this toy.

[mikeszekely]

DNA clearly has a hit on their hands with their kit for Godzilla Megatron.  Can they keep the streak going?

The next kit we're going to look at is DK-75, their upgrade kit for Age of the Primes Prima.  This kit comes with a new head, a cape, a shield, a sword, and some bits that plug onto the shield.

Full disclosure, the new head is what sold me on the kit.  It always struck me as a bit incongruent that, from the neck down, Prima seemed to be a G1-ified take on the Covenant of Primus' knight-like design, but they gave him a head with goofy ears based on the gladiator robot from "The Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4" that was retroactively determined to be Prima.  Just my personal option, but I find this decision to be extra unfortunate, as that's the episode that establishes the Quintesson origin for the Transformers, an origin that's been largely rejected in favor of Marvel's Primus origin. 

This new DNA head has wings instead of ears and a face/helmet that's a little bit Covenant, but also a little bit Optimus.  I rather like how it looks.  To swap the heads, you have to pop the stock head off the ball joint, and then just pop the new one on.

As for the cape, lift the top of Prima's backpack (the alt mode bumper) and you'll see a hole between the two blue orbs.  On the plastic parts at the top of the cape you'll find a cutout with a tab that's rounded at one end.  This tab, in theory, goes into the hole on the backpack, with the sides of the part kind of clip around the sides of the bumper.  In practice, the tab doesn't really do much of anything, and it's the friction from the sides clipping on that holds the cape on.  The cape itself is made of cloth, with a wire sewn into the edges so you can pose it.

On the back of the shield you'll find a pair of H-shaped sockets.  All those little bits have S-shaped tabs on them.  For the most part, you'll want to take the bit with the handle on it and plug it into the socket near the top of the shield, and the bit that's smooth on the other sides and plug it into the bottom of the shield.

The sword, which is bigger and has a Matrix designed sculpted into it rather than being compatible with Prima's Matrix, still has a 5mm handle and he can hold it just fine.  The handled bit we put on the shield allows him to hold it in his other hand.

If you prefer, though, the handle is hinged and can fold over.  Folding the handle in causes a 5mm peg to fold out, and that peg allows the shield to be plugged into the 5mm ports on Prima's forearms.

As an added gimmick, you can slide the sword point-first through the smooth connector on the bottom of the shield up through the handled connector at the top.  the translucent blue edges of the shield have hinges and can extend outward a bit.  By holding the sword's handle, the combined sword/shield becomes a battle axe.

Up to this point the kit seems pretty good, right?  Bigger sword, cool shield, nice cape, and (IMHO) a better head sculpt.  Unfortunately, the rest of this review is going to be how things start falling apart.

Prima's stock sword had a peg on it that allowed it to plug into 5mm ports on the sides of the bumper on top of his backpack.  But, the cape is covering those ports, and the new sword doesn't have any peg on it anyway.  So how's Prima supposed to store his gear when he's not using it?  Well, for starters, you have to take the shield bit with the handle off, then replace it with either of the other two bits (they're identical) that has the H-shaped tab on both sides.  That'll allow you to plug it into the H-shaped socket on the back of the cap part.  Which... OK, I'm cool with storing the shield on his back, but why didn't DNA simply use a 5mm port on the cape part instead of the H-shaped socket?  Then you could have stored the shield with the same 5mm peg that mounts the shield to his arm, and no extra partsforming step to swap the connectors would have been neccessary.

But then there's the matter of storing the sword itself.  On paper, it seems like you'd want to just slide the sword through the bits on the back of the shield, just like you did for axe mode, except reversed so that the point of the blade goes down through the top first.  But again we've got a little problem.  The blade flares out where those silver edges are on the sides.  This prevents the blade from sliding all the way into the connectors, leaving it sticking way too high on his back.

OK, but a lot of Transformers toys don't bother with bot-mode accessory storage anyway.  So maybe we just make Prima hold his gear.  But a Transformer still needs to transform, right?  Well, for the most part, you transform Prima exactly the same way.  But once you set him down, you run into your next issue... ground clearance.  As you can see, Prima's new face is touching the ground, but his front wheels are not.  Seems DNA made a cool new head that should have been a bit flatter.

Robot mode accessory storage isn't always a thing, but I feel like we've gotten to a point where alt mode storage definitely is.  So how do we store his new accessories?  Well, the plastic part of the cape splits into two pieces.  This allows you to remove the cloth cape.

Now, move the shoulders out of the way a bit, and plug the big tab into hole on the front of Prima's bumper.  Just like in bot mode, the sides kind clip over the the edges of the bumper, and that's what really holds it in place.  But that means that the shoulders do NOT tuck all the way back in.  As for the other plastic part, it plugs onto the two little pegs to form sort of a new grill and bumper, which looks ok, I suppose.

Meanwhile, the sword slides into the shield like you do when you store the whole thing on Prima's back... except we're back to using the handled connector.  Because the 5mm peg on that connector plugs into the 5mm port on the side of the vehicle that's made from Prima's forearm.

And that's it!  There's nowhere to store the extra shield connector, and there's nowhere to store the actual cape.

On 2/27/2026 at 10:40 PM, mikeszekely said:

DNA can be a very hit-or-miss sort of company.  Their worst upgrade kits can fail to address issues I have with figures while introducing a host of new problems, like the ones they did for Siege Magnus and Galaxy Upgrade Optimus.  Their best kits can fix the biggest complaints I have with a figure, like the simple kit they did for SS '07 Megatron that replaced the ROTF chest with one that was '07 movie accurate.  Most of their kits fall somewhere in the middle

This seems to be a case of solidly landing in the middle.  I think the new head and cape do very much improve the robot mode, and sword and shield aren't bad.  But robot mode storage doesn't feel like it was thought out all the way.  Accessory storage in alt mode is worse, as it leaves off the cape.  In that case, you might as well leave off the entire cape, not just the cloth part.  But you probably shouldn't use alt mode at all with this kit since the new head doesn't have enough clearance under the vehicle, anyway.  So, if you like the bot mode improvements and plan to leave Prima in a permanent bot-mode display you might find some value here.  But otherwise I can't recommend this kit.

[JB0]

I'm incredibly disappointed they didn't do anything to fill the gap in the moon buggy roof. Since you aren't gonna be storing the sword blade there with the upgrade kit, there's no purpose to it and the gap is just unsightly.

[mikeszekely]

Took a break took cover some official figures, but I still have a couple more kits to look at.  Today we'll be looking at two, but they're basically the same... DNA's DK-57M kit for Armada Megatron and Tidal Wave, and DK-57G for Armada Galvatron.

As I was saying, both kits are essentially the same thing.  You get new horns, forearm fillers, and new shoulder parts for Megatron/Galvatron.  The only real difference is that the Megatron kit also comes with a few parts for Titan-class Tidal Wave as well, so let's talk about those real quick.

The first part is this simple brick.  If you have Tidal Wave, you may notice that when you have him in his Dark Fleet mode the boat you make from his legs doesn't hold together super well, due to the fairly shallow clips.  This brick wedges into the space above the ankle joint and provides a deeper connection that helps hold the boat together better.

Of course, if you want functional ankles you'll have to remove it for robot mode.  You can store it when it's not in use by wedging it into one of his hollow heels.

My personal copy has been good, but apparently some people where having an issue with the knee ratchets on theirs.  DNA included a fix.  So, we'll need to remove these three screws, then open the shin and the side will come off.  Be mindful not to loose the little purple wheel on the back of the leg!

Remove the spring, remove the top part of the ratchet, and then remove the bottom part.  Out of the box, the bottom of the ratchet has little slots that fit onto these small tabs (circled) on the leg to hold it in place.  As you might imagine, those tabs are kind of small for such a heavy duty joint.  People were basically sheering them off, turning the knees into friction joints.  DNA included four of these bits (middle), two for each knee.  In addition to providing a more solid surface for the ratchet to sit on, they have raised bits that fit into hollows under the ratchet.  The gives the ratchet a much sturdier connection.  Once you've put the DNA parts in, reverse everything to reassemble the legs.

Lastly, Tidal Wave's back was really just an open space with a mini Tidal Wave stuffed inside.  The mini Tidal Wave filled the hollow space, but it's not the prettiest.  So, DNA built a cover that fits over the gap, whether the mini Tidal Wave is inside or not.

You might have notice the asymmetric peg holes on it.  You can remove the parts from Tidal Wave's legs that can be attached to Megatron/Galvatron.  Fold out the pegs (circled), attach them together, and you can give Tidal Wave a winged backpack.  It's not something I'm personally interested in, but it's an option.

For the rest of this review, I'll be installing the kit on Megatron, but unless I say differently this applies to Galvatron, too.  And I like to start with the easy stuff, so we'll start with the horns.  DNA's are slightly taller and a bit more angular.  I thought the stock ones looked fine, but the rubbery material often left them a bit bent.  DNA's are a a harder plastic.  To install on Megatron we simply pop the old ones out and pop the new ones in.  Galvatron is a different story, though.  Despite showing off how the horns could be removed and held as weapons when they revealed Megatron, for whatever reason Hasbro decided to glue Galvatron's horns in.  This makes it difficult if not impossible to remove them without damaging them, and if the tiny glued-in pegs broke off they'd still keep you from inserting the new ones unless you drilled them out.  Long story short, I used the DNA horns on Megatron, but I left Galvatron with his stock horns.

To install the arm fillers, remove the screw on the inside of the elbow, then pull the inner arm bit off.  Note that, like Galvatron's horns, there is a peg that's glued on, and it'll probably break off in the process.  The peg is largely unnecessary, though.  Take the new DNA part, line it up, and screw it back in place.  The screw and the shape of the arm do all the work to keep in in place.

Now for the real work- the shoulders.   Begin by opening the chest flap and removing these two screws.

Turn him over, and remove the two screws from his back, then pull the back cover off.  Behind it you'll find two more screws near the top of his back you'll have to remove.  Then you'll remove a total of four screws from the back of his mid section.  It's a little tricky, trying to work around the turret.

With all those screws removed, you can pull the figure apart like so.  Set aside the legs, back, back cover, waist, and turret.  We'll need those later.  Focus on the upper body.

Remove this screw from the stock shoulder joint.  This will allow you to pull the back off the joint, pull the black transforming bit off, pull the arm off, then remove the front of the joint.  Keep the arm, but you can ditch the stock joint and transforming bit.

Take the front half of the DNA shoulder joint and set it in place.  Slide on the new DNA transforming bit.  Sandwich the DNA arm connector's mushroom peg into it, then put the back of the joint on.

Take the arm and slide it onto the arm connector, then put the other side of the connector on and screw it into place.  Alternatively, you might find it easier to attach the arm to the arm connector, screw on the other half, then sandwich the whole thing into the joint before you put the back cover on.  Either way, once you have all the parts in place, carefully re-assemble the figure by reversing the previous steps.

So what was the point of all this?  Basically, we were replacing the stock single-piece shoulder joint with one that has a mushroom swivel.  See, one of the complaints that a lot of people had with these figures was that shoulder rotation wasn't actually rotation at all, it was a hinge connecting the forearm to the bottom of the tank treads.  You had to lift a flap, then the arm could hinge 90 degrees forward, and that was it.  The mushroom swivel allows the entire arm, including the tank treads, to swivel 360 degrees.  While we're at it, the new forearm pieces have a flap on them.  In bot mode this flap hides the hollow space in the forearm that the hands fold into.  To transform the hands, simply open the flap, fold in the hand like normal, then fold the flap closed.

I was concerned that the new shoulders might not line up right for transformation, as other 3D-printed kits that set out to do the same thing seemed to have that problem.  But, maybe because DNA also replaced those transforming blocks in the chest, I'm happy to report that there are no such issues here.  The shoulders still move up all the way (and the new horns are angled so they just fit between the treads), the blocks swivel and lock into the treads, and the legs still tab into the sides of the blocks.  

I feel like I can give these kits a recommend.  For Tidal Wave, the little brick and the back cover are more nice-to-haves than necessities, but if you're having ratchet issues those knee parts could be a lifesaver.  For Megatron/Galvatron, the horns are forearm fillers are also more nice-to-haves than necessities, but the new shoulder joints, despite the work that goes into installing them, are a major improvement.  The kind I wish someone would have done for the Legacy Laser Optimus mold.  Just as importantly (but never a guarantee with DNA), the kit doesn't introduce or cause any new problems.  There are no downsides to these kits, it's just taking a flawed shoulder design and correcting it to what it should have been in the first place.