The model is very cool right out of the package and fairly easy to modify.
Back in the late 1990s and into the mid 2000s many of the fast food chains vied with each other for customer by giving away cheap little toys that were base on characters and items from current movies. Most of these toys were rubbish and quickly tossed aside but for us many of them were the basis for miniature gaming conversions, and even better they were free! The 1999 Wild, Wild, West movie sort of flopped but produced some great toys for conversion work. The “Burger King” WWW steam spider with professor Lovelace at the helm is a great one and one of my first attempts at a Victorian Science fiction vehicle.
I had seen a few of these slightly modified at Historicon where I got to play in one of Buck Surdu’s “Gaslight” games (the rules were written by Buck and Chris Palmer) and collected a few of them off of ebay to start. With the Wild West toy as a base I replaced the front top section (where Lovelace sat) with a scratch built turret and cannon. The rear smoke stack was also replaced and “removable” smoke added.
One of the problems with some of these cheap toys is the quality of plastic used. sometimes you get the softer near impossible to glue “properly” stuff, this was one of those times. JB Kwick Weld two part epoxy and a good grade of pro hobby super glue is important! This type of plastic is very resistant to paint sticking and the flexing do to the soft plastic can cause the dried paint to crack or flake off. I washed mine thoroughly to remove “mold release” used in the manufacturing process and then used a good auto motive primer before painting.
The Loveless figure was 
removed and large steal washer put in place as a base for the rotating copula made from an old plastic pill container, large washer, and plastic top off a vending machine toy container. Yea, the stuff I toss in the parts bins are all over the map and its amazing what and how it gets used!
Not many pictures since this was done early on in the beginning of my website. I add some soon. Still a classic Victorian model! I think I have 10+ of the basic Burger King toys stashed somewhere! As I remember I built two of these, one is on my desk the other? I’m going to have to take a few more and better picture of this guy, and perhaps it will re-kindle my interest in Victorian Science fiction.
A rare “period” picture taken on the African sub-continent showing a British Spider in action against Arab slavers! Somewhat blurry picture is do to film speeds back then could not photgraph moving objects well.