[da_rambler20]

They have not updated them at all.

Any updates on the video detailing the construction?

Nope. Likely never happening.

Two very disappointing answers. I really had hoped for the video that kept being claimed was being worked on. Oh well. Off to the forums I go for information.

[venkman71]

I just found out the video is supposedly still on the way. It'll just LONG and needs a cut down.

[da_rambler20]

Awesome! Thanks for the reply!!!

[venkman71]

I am also planning on putting up a build/conversion thread for my personal build with my kit that I just got.

It'll be the Anovos kit for the most part but upgrading parts, lens caps, fittings, light kit, etc.

-V-71.

[Marcus B]

I'll throw in some more tip to new recipients of the kit, as I've just started going through it with the kit I received a year ago...

1. Get a good diamond-tipped Dremel bit to carve out the area around the powercell lights... This is a gloppy mess of fiberglass on the inside, and will take some serious cutting and grinding down.
2. When you get to the wand, the handle pipe on the inside of the box is capped! This will need to be Dremeled open to run your pack ribbon cable through... Do this before mounting and gluing in all of your electronics. I learned that one too late.

For the power cell, I was planning on a dremel bit as you say, but do you think it would be easiest to start with a drill bit and drill several holes down the length of it first?

[venkman71]

When you get to the wand, the handle pipe on the inside of the box is capped!

WHA!? I've built three of em' so far for Anovos and I never saw that in any thrower. Must have been an overzealous glasser. I'll be interested to see if any more come in like that.

Pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean “tap”?

No worries, sir. You can get a drill and tap kit almost anywhere,....

https://www.amazon.com/Combination-Dril ... 6001488011

A tapped hole is a hole drilled prior to a machine screw being inserted. You start with drilling your desired sized hole in your part and then switching to a tapping bit of corresponding size that cuts threads into the inside surface of the hole, readying it for attaching by corresponding sized bolt.

[venkman71]

For the power cell, I was planning on a dremel bit as you say, but do you think it would be easiest to start with a drill bit and drill several holes down the length of it first?

Yes. Do this.

Yes,.....have some.

-V71

[deadderek]

I just found out the video is supposedly still on the way. It'll just LONG and needs a cut down.

Glad to hear that as the radio silence from Anovos is deafening.

[Marcus B]

My poor thrower:



I can say mine definitely doesn't need the hole drilled out inside for cables. It's completely open.

[venkman71]

Yeah, that collar is a legitimate problem. A "simple" fix is to grind the rest of the collar off down to the weld line and replace it with an aluminum collar of the same outer diameter. I'd extend it about a half an inch into the body of the thrower and epoxy the sh!t out of it.

[Marcus B]

If I had to, I would look to fix it myself. But I expect Anovos to replace it. No excuse for showing up this way.. the broken pieces were not even in the box, meaning it happened prior to being prepped for shipment. Only way I'd think that can happen is that it was dropped at some point.

The PPD was also broken.. I'm not sure what all is missing from it, but I can see where there is missing epoxy on the inside.. maybe for some nuts to attach the ladder? One of the screws was broken off, found inside the box surrounded by epoxy. This is more easily fixed.. but I still prefer Anovos to make it right.

[echo419]

The E26 part on the wand seems real thin, think I'll reinforce it with some resin.

[xandman]

After owning the pack for 3 days now here are some pros and cons I have had with my pack.

----CONS----
Cracked knob
Cracked clippard
Missing 3 elbow fittings
missing some blue and red hose
Holes dont line up
metal knobs where not tapped (yet posts where they attach are threaded)
Fitment on the want (needs flashing and sanding)
Sticker sheet was folded and bent
Ghostbusters sticker on the motherboard was upside down
Plastic motherboard (I knew this going in)
Trigger tip should be metal! (its the resin they use on the rest of the gun and i see these breaking)
Wand tip shuld of been Acrylic

----PROS----
quick assembly (in theory)
Looks nice and heavy
metal parts are quite nice


----Thoughts----
This pack is amazing for the price point, if you got it for the original price of 600 then its gonna be a great project. The "CONS" listed above I hope where things that hopefully only affected me (missing or cracked pieces). I have gone through the proper channels to let Anovos know what im missing and whats damaged and I hope they stand behind their product once it is in the end users hands. Luckily the parts i had arrived damaged are common upgrade parts such as clippards and knobs but sucks that it is another expense.

Is it worth the price?(at the 600-700 range)- YES
Is it worth the price?(at the 999+ range)- NO

[twmedford23]

I must be one of the lucky ones. The only things broken in my kit were the heat sink and instrument bar. Given the nature of the breaks, fixing them wont be a problem. I might even replace them with better parts to avoid possible issues in the future.

Some of the holes don't line up but that was expected. I don't think Anovos should be given a pass for this however. These issues are fixable but it would have made more sense NOT to have drilled any holes to begin with. And this peg system is useless. Simple pilot holes and screws/bolts would have worked just fine. In theory, it seems like a good idea for novice builders. But in reality, it was probably a way for Anovos to prevent recasting.

All that said, it's a really good kit. The parts are accurate enough, especially the shell. That ribbon cable clamp is atrocious, though - that'll be the first thing to go. I'll likely replace the clippard valves, crank knob, shock mount, straight/elbow fittings, tubing and labels. Not that these parts aren't sufficient - I just happen to have accurate parts on hand to use instead. With a little bit of effort and patience, this thing could look like a proper "screen used" replica. For only $600, it's a steal. For $900, I would hope to see some better quality control.

[livewire008]

Yikes. Maybe I should be glad they haven't shipped my pack yet, despite paying the shipping a week ago. I e-mailed them today and they said they're just really slow right now (as opposed to the last two years?) so "thanks for your patience, we'll be sending this out soon" blah blah blah. I'm glad people are getting their kits, but it doesn't make any sense why people who ordered after me are getting theirs first... I don't recall being given the option of pre-paying shipping back when I ordered or I would have.

Not looking forward to anything being possibly missing/broken, and given how long they've taken to get things things out the lack of quality control is inexcusable but should something be broken, hopefully it's something easily fixable/upgrade-able.

I already have some items I was planning on upgrading, like hat lights, real clipboards and the booster ladder. Well, fingers crossed at any rate. I keep stalking my e-mail waiting for shipping confirmation, but it looks like I'll have to wait until after the holiday. Hopefully next week will finally be the big day.

[twmedford23]

I also should mention that I placed my order just over two years ago. Was it worth the wait? Personally, yes. Mostly due to the level of accuracy. It's impossible to find a shell this accurate. Is it dead on accurate like a Bosh or a production lineage shell? Not quite but it is the closest that's currently available.

Here's a quick pic, with some of the parts that I'll be using instead of the stock ones:

http://imgur.com/vUfUI5T

[venkman71]

I was there when they scanned the pack in the Sony archives that became the base for the kit. I know I keep saying this but seriously,...I would have killed for this kit in 1989. Warts and all. Got Maul and I used to talk back in the day of a plug-n-play pack kit that fit together like Legos. I'm super proud to have been a part of this kit coming to the fanbase. It's a great give-back. Personally, getting this kit, I would use about 85% of it AS IS and then upgrade parts from the gbfans shop. I'd probably use all of the hat lights, lenses, Clippard valves, and light kits from AJ and mix and match with the Anovos kit. Paint, weather, and you have your Halloween costume for life.

[greg883]

Just did quick inspection of my kit - couldn't find any broken parts and all the hardware looked clean/no rust.

Unfortunately, the sticker sheet was put in first under the shell/backboard and was folded over. Fortunately, it was mostly between labels but the red stripe for the N-filter is creased. I probably would have masked and painted that anyway.

[livewire008]

For the red stripe on your N-Filter, you could just get a sheet of red vinyl from Micheal's for about $1 and cut a strip off of that. I did that for the red strip on my brother's Spirit Pack, when I upgraded his decals.

[twmedford23]

1/4" for a GB2 semi hero pack:
https://www.autozone.com/decals-and-gra ... e/7343_0_0

3/16" for a GB1/2 hero pack:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Premium-Doub ... 9EALw_wcB

[da_rambler20]

Pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean “tap”?

No worries, sir. You can get a drill and tap kit almost anywhere,....

https://www.amazon.com/Combination-Dril ... 6001488011

A tapped hole is a hole drilled prior to a machine screw being inserted. You start with drilling your desired sized hole in your part and then switching to a tapping bit of corresponding size that cuts threads into the inside surface of the hole, readying it for attaching by corresponding sized bolt.

Would this use standard or metric taps and dies?

[mike_waclo]

For the power cell, I was planning on a dremel bit as you say, but do you think it would be easiest to start with a drill bit and drill several holes down the length of it first?

Yes, start with the drill pilot holes. But beyond that, there's just a lot of thick, messy extra surface on the inside, so you'll have to grind things down a lot to not only make a flat surface for the blue powercell lens, but also just to make enough room for the lens to even get into the space. The injector tubes stick into that space a lot, so you'll have to grind a lot of that away to make space for the lens and the light board.

[echo419]

Bolts/metric sizes
I-6 M3
H-2 M3
G-2 M6
F-8 M4
E-2 M5
D-10 M5
C-4 M5
B-4 M6
A-1 M5

[da_rambler20]

Thank you

[greg883]

No worries, sir. You can get a drill and tap kit almost anywhere,....

https://www.amazon.com/Combination-Dril ... 6001488011

A tapped hole is a hole drilled prior to a machine screw being inserted. You start with drilling your desired sized hole in your part and then switching to a tapping bit of corresponding size that cuts threads into the inside surface of the hole, readying it for attaching by corresponding sized bolt.

Would this use standard or metric taps and dies?

Both - sort of.

I've been test fitting the thrower parts. At least on my kit, the machined knobs on the thrower are drilled but not tapped for any threads. I'm not sure that the "screws" on the body are actually threaded but just "flanged" to hold the knobs with an interference fit. Even with glue, you know that one or more will be knocked off at the worst time - somewhere in the hotel during a con, but you won't discover it until the end of the day when you are packing up.

Surprisingly, the holes are the correct size for a #6-32 tap! The soft aluminum only took a few minutes to thread (cut just little bit at at time, back out and clear the shavings, and lubricate with something like WD-40). I'll drill out and replace the kit studs with actual #6-32 machine screws and blue Locktite(R) them in place.

[xandman]

In the event that any motherboard should break on these, I took mine and made a pattern with it and measured it so that if need be you/I/we can make replacements.

[da_rambler20]

I was thinking of making a more sturdy motherboard. Maybe out of MDF and run bolts thru existing holes in pack thru MB.

[livewire008]

I'm incredibly happy to report; after 3 days shy of 26 months; the traveler has come -- my pack kit has arrived! I've gone through it, and nothing is missing, or broken... the stickers (which have been a casualty for many) even survived.

No frame, despite being bought at the same time, but I bought an extra one thinking the Anovos frame would never materialize, so, I'll build the pack while I wait (or not) on that.

After looking at the parts provided, it was a good call to have upgraded the hat lights/misc wand lenses, brass clippard's, clippard valves, and booster ladder (if only so it didn't say "Anovos" on the pencils, haha). I also bought the GB fans machined ring trigger (and lights/sounds). The trigger in the kit feels solid, but just being metal will give the thing a look I could never paint.

Of all the corners to cut, I just don't get them being cheap on the colors of the hat lights.

The Anovos pack seems like an amazing starter point, being able to mix and match pretty much whatever you want to replace. Definitely worth the initial $600 investment. The 2 year wait? That's subjective, haha. I had no time table on this; it was a bucket list prop I wanted to make, so we're doing it. Finally \o/ cool, cool.

[venkman71]

I'm slowly putting together the particle thrower, (updates to come). Using real 12 V and hat lights. They all go in pretty easily with a little bit of work.

[Marcus B]

While await replacement parts from Anovos (no ETA yet...) I can obsess over the electronics. I purchased the gbfans sound board, pack lights, speaker and necessary cables for everything and I'm pretty excited.

The speaker, I think I might replace however as it distorts easily when volume is barely increased. I wasn't expecting that being that the amp is 10 watts and the speaker 40 watts but I don't know much about it. Is there a speaker I should look into getting instead?

GBFans is out of the power cell/cyclotron kits. I have one on order but I was wondering if I should cancel that as I noticed Spongeface is selling an incandescant version of the kit on ebay. Does anyone have experience with this? How is battery life.. and is the increased amount of heat bad?