Moonshot wrote:With the cassettes they could also just make them much fatter and square in "cassette" mode then make Soundwaves chest all hollow. Much like the Voyager Soundwave and Core Ravage in SS Bumblebee. That way core class bot modes look way better and still fit in Voyager Soundwave. I mean, they already did it and do we really need them to be actual cassette shaped?
I will admit that this figure was pretty much completely designed by the time I joined the team so all praise goes to Yuya Onishi for really setting a new standard for transformers figures. I find this figure absolutely brilliant and bumping him up to a VOY scale allowed for the extra engineering and accessories to really make him stand out.
So, those yellow pieces on top! Yes, they hurt. They needed to be PA plastic due to the flexibility of those hinges and that isn't a type of plastic we can paint. His giant wing spoiler was in the same mold so we were locked to that color. We didn't have room to move pieces to different molds because of the type of material they needed to be.
The other thing I'm sure you're all wondering about is the rest of his colors and I can certainly talk to that!
Before we move to final production, we have a big team meeting where we all come together and look at the figures and deco before approving them. While presenting this item and the first wave of kingdom, there was some rumbling from upper management. The original colors presented were pure magenta and that came as a bit of a shock to a few folks. The reaction is understandable, every toy of classic Hotrod has been some variation of red. There was some back and forth, references shown on both sides as to what colors he should be and this is how he ended up.
I was still so new to the team that my voice didn't carry that much weight even while showing clips of the 86 movie. I think there was still some confusion as to what this SS86 line was supposed to be but I'm happy to say that this was the only time this sort of thing has ever happened. Granted, Kingdom Cheetor and Megatron also had their colors shifted in this meeting...which was just strange...but that's corporate life.
Anyway, as I said before this figure is just amazing and really brought the engineering of a Transformer to the next level. Takara Tomy outdid themselves, but what do you all think? Let me know and I'll drop some more SS86 behind the scenes for you!
Make sure to check out Mark's and Bmac's page for details on the Wrecker program!
@markclonus @bmacatron84
Continuing with Studio Series 86 Dinobots, here we have 86 Slug and Daniel!
Just to clarify, Slug had a slightly different name in the 80's that has since been shifted since words can mean different things in different countries.
As you can see from the images, this is a Hasui san item (as are all the dinobots) so you can see it's chocked full of wonderful detail that references the G1 toy while having the proportions and design elements of the Cartoon animation model.
We began development on Slug and Daniel right after Grimlock so we had a better understanding of what we could do at this pricepoint and scale.
We wanted to make sure we got Daniel in at some form since we hadn't solidified bringing Core Class over to SS just yet so that's why he was chosen as an accessory character.
Other than that, there isn't much to tell!
Development went incredibly smooth for Slug. Deco wise, colors were lifted right from Grimlock to make sure they all looked like they're on the same team (as they should!).
Deco was based on his Animation model instead of his toy so red head and silver horns.
My one regret is we had to remove the little silver hits on the helmet to meet our deco quota. Whenever I have to remove paint, I always try to pick areas that are at least easy for consumers to apply themselves if they need to add them.
I know the dinobots are some folks favorite Transformer characters but which team member is your favorite?
We'll get to all of them at this scale, eventually!
Sowndwave76 wrote:Awesome post!
Thanks, William!
And seriously, what a relief to know we’ll get all of the Dinobots at the current leader scale!!!!
sol magnus wrote:Sowndwave76 wrote:Awesome post!
Thanks, William!
And seriously, what a relief to know we’ll get all of the Dinobots at the current leader scale!!!!
I did fix spike's arms, btw.
Sowndwave76 wrote:Awesome post!
Thanks, William!
And seriously, what a relief to know we’ll get all of the Dinobots at the current leader scale!!!!
william-james88 wrote:Sowndwave76 wrote:Awesome post!
Thanks, William!
And seriously, what a relief to know we’ll get all of the Dinobots at the current leader scale!!!!
Yes, that relieves me too
DeathReviews wrote:Glad to hear that Snarl/Swoop will be the same 'scale' as Leader Grimlock/Slag/Sludge. That would have been dumb, having Snarl as a dinky little wussy-boy next to the others. As Death, I choose to remain cautiously optimistic. Swoop may be able to get away with being smaller in his body, but if the wings are massive, then he could still appear even larger than the other Dinobots. A huge wingspan can create the illusion of greater size, even if he might not have as much mass.
ZeroWolf wrote:DeathReviews wrote:Glad to hear that Snarl/Swoop will be the same 'scale' as Leader Grimlock/Slag/Sludge. That would have been dumb, having Snarl as a dinky little wussy-boy next to the others. As Death, I choose to remain cautiously optimistic. Swoop may be able to get away with being smaller in his body, but if the wings are massive, then he could still appear even larger than the other Dinobots. A huge wingspan can create the illusion of greater size, even if he might not have as much mass.
I think that's what will happen with Swoop, there won't be anything complex with him, but his wings will gobble up plastic, even then though, I think he'll have extras. What this would be, is anyone's guess.
(More human characters? Toy accurate weapons for everyone?)
william-james88 wrote:But we wanted to get some info we found interesting since it does confirm certain things. While it was obvious for many, some fans like hearing it from the horse's mouth and now the designer who worked on SS86 Hot Rod has confirmed that the "voyager" class no longer refers to just a specific size but it is now a price point where a transformer with more parts/engineering could end up regardless of its size.
Till-all-R1 wrote:william-james88 wrote:But we wanted to get some info we found interesting since it does confirm certain things. While it was obvious for many, some fans like hearing it from the horse's mouth and now the designer who worked on SS86 Hot Rod has confirmed that the "voyager" class no longer refers to just a specific size but it is now a price point where a transformer with more parts/engineering could end up regardless of its size.
And that's fine to a certain extent but if they plan to use that excuse to justify releasing a smaller Bot like say Bee or Cliff Jumper in the Voyager price it then becomes an issue, because IMO there's only so much "complexity" you can pack into a small robot. And frankly I don't see how Hot Rod can be considered Voyager while Perceptor is not, according to their website he only lacks 9 steps compared to Hot Rod. The same amount that Blaster has yet he's a Voyager, so does that mean Eject costs $11?
Plus what does that say for the new Elita-1 at only 14 steps to Perceptor's 20, and does that mean it has to be at least 14 steps to be a DLX Bot? What happens if it only takes ten steps to transform will they create a new class or just lump it all in the same having people pay more for a lesser toy?
This is a slippery slope when you consider Hasbro's the one who decides where the bot goes based on complexity as they could simply over design it to fit that higher price point. I've seen this kind of in house manipulation happen before.
Emerje wrote:Maybe I'm being pessimistic, but saying "same scale" isn't the same as saying "same size". A small 4" Deluxe Transformer can still be in the same scale as a 7" Leader.
Till-all-R1 wrote:william-james88 wrote:But we wanted to get some info we found interesting since it does confirm certain things. While it was obvious for many, some fans like hearing it from the horse's mouth and now the designer who worked on SS86 Hot Rod has confirmed that the "voyager" class no longer refers to just a specific size but it is now a price point where a transformer with more parts/engineering could end up regardless of its size.
And that's fine to a certain extent but if they plan to use that excuse to justify releasing a smaller Bot like say Bee or Cliff Jumper in the Voyager price it then becomes an issue, because IMO there's only so much "complexity" you can pack into a small robot. And frankly I don't see how Hot Rod can be considered Voyager while Perceptor is not, according to their website he only lacks 9 steps compared to Hot Rod. The same amount that Blaster has yet he's a Voyager, so does that mean Eject costs $11?
Plus what does that say for the new Elita-1 at only 14 steps to Perceptor's 20, and does that mean it has to be at least 14 steps to be a DLX Bot? What happens if it only takes ten steps to transform will they create a new class or just lump it all in the same having people pay more for a lesser toy?
This is a slippery slope when you consider Hasbro's the one who decides where the bot goes based on complexity as they could simply over design it to fit that higher price point. I've seen this kind of in house manipulation happen before.
Emerje wrote:Maybe I'm being pessimistic, but saying "same scale" isn't the same as saying "same size". A small 4" Deluxe Transformer can still be in the same scale as a 7" Leader. While it would be appropriate for all of the Dinobots to be the same size we know there's this weird preconceived notion that Swoop is smaller. If Hasbro shares that notion then they might view a tall Voyager as being the same scale as a bunch of tall Leaders. I don't know, I'm still not entirely convinced Hasbro will do this right.
That aside a thought occurred to me. The Netflix line is long over and only Walmart can currently release the G1 Soundwave and VW Bumblebee molds, I wonder if Hasbro has ever pitched to them an exclusive SS86 redeco release of them similar to what we've seen with Cliffjumper and Kup at Target? Surely they must have at some point, right? If not that then retro packaged releases like they most recently did with the Headmasters. Hasbro knows how badly people want a second shot at these molds, they must have pitched a second release of some sort.
Emerje
DeathReviews wrote:Glad to hear that Snarl/Swoop will be the same 'scale' as Leader Grimlock/Slag/Sludge. That would have been dumb, having Snarl as a dinky little wussy-boy next to the others. As Death, I choose to remain cautiously optimistic. Swoop may be able to get away with being smaller in his body, but if the wings are massive, then he could still appear even larger than the other Dinobots. A huge wingspan can create the illusion of greater size, even if he might not have as much mass.
Sorry, Death... I have the opposite view... Huge wings attached to a tiny torso will look even more ridiculous. And again, with Hastak's recent releases, I don't see that happening.
As stated in the designer's own post, they're going off of character models.
william-james88 wrote:Emerje wrote:Maybe I'm being pessimistic, but saying "same scale" isn't the same as saying "same size". A small 4" Deluxe Transformer can still be in the same scale as a 7" Leader.
Sowndwave76 wrote:william-james88 wrote:Sowndwave76 wrote:Awesome post!
Thanks, William!
And seriously, what a relief to know we’ll get all of the Dinobots at the current leader scale!!!!
Yes, that relieves me too
I just hope “eventually” doesn’t mean 2+ years from now!!
Silverwing wrote:Also, I feel compelled to give the obligatory:
One for each year of the Movieverse's decade strong tenure. Here's to a few more explosive years!
TOO MUCH ENERGON! wrote:SS86 Hot Rod is an absolute bitch to transform. My hats off to the designers as he really is an engineering marvel, but he’s definitely a toy that will forever remain in robot form on my shelf.
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