The Energon Pub

by **Greyryder** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:30 pm

I'm getting ready to build a Roller, that I hope will eventually have a trailer to call home. I don't want to build a carbon copy of G1 Roller. I've already got wheels for him. Chrome ones, with soft vinyl tires. They've got a nice ATV like V-tread to them. I got them off a John Deer dump truck toy.

Right now, I'm debating making it a closed vehicle. I don't see a lot of need for human sized seats on a giant robot's unmanned drone. Gonna try not to make it look like the ground vehicles from Lost in Space or Battlestar Galactica TOS, either.

by **Ramrider** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 10:04 pm

Sounds pretty cool. If you're making it closed and completely unmanned, then you'd be pretty much looking at a mobile weapons platform, right?
For some reason, I've just had popping into my head an idea reminiscent of the Starcom vehicles. Maybe Roller could be an ATV (with communications booster, maybe a double-barrelled cannon?), and compress into a handy pod- or crate-like form for storage in the trailer when it's not in use.
If you like the idea, you can have a look at some of this stuff for inspiration.

by **Greyryder** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 10:18 pm

I wasn't thinking of weapons platform, so much as all terrain recon. I was thinking of a couple of small guns on it, though.

by **tentagil** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 11:00 pm

Damn I remember those Starcom things. Didn't the little guys have magnets or something on their feet?

Actually on topic though, I'd say go enclosed because like you said no real reason for roller to have seats in him. I'd give him a pair of small guns, a com dish of some type since he'd make sense as a relay point/signal booster. Maybe some kinda repair type tools that can deploy as well for when Prime is in need of a quick patch job and Ratchet isn't around.

If he's enclosed you could fit alot of this stuff inside and jsut have it foldout when needed to keep him looking sleeker.

by **Greyryder** » Tue May 01, 2007 12:15 am

Com equipment sounds good. Maybe a couple of short antennas, and some kind of futuristic parabolic. (dish)

Don't know about having too much retracable stuff. I'd like to keep roller kind of simple. I'd still like to build the full trailer, before I'm done.

by **jimsloth** » Tue May 01, 2007 5:33 pm

I have this one cool starcom vehicle that has wheels that flip out/extend both forward and backward. That would be cool on roller so he could be smaller while in the trailer and longer/more off road looking while out and about.

btw, which prime is this for? Just wondering on scale.

by **Greyryder** » Tue May 01, 2007 5:40 pm

Voyager Prime. Outside track on the wheels/axles I'm using is about and inch and a half.

Looks like the Army's beat me to it, though. :lol:

by **jimsloth** » Tue May 01, 2007 5:51 pm

by **DTM** » Tue May 01, 2007 6:43 pm

the pics are showing up for me...

by **jimsloth** » Tue May 01, 2007 8:27 pm

Da Tran Man wrote:the pics are showing up for me...

they are... good for you.

if you meant they aren't, here are the addresses:
http://www.virtualtoychest.com/starcom/ ... ader2c.jpg
http://www.virtualtoychest.com/starcom/ ... ader1c.jpg

and these are just pics of the starcom vehicle I was talking about. Nothing of Greyryder's

by **Greyryder** » Tue May 01, 2007 9:38 pm

Your pictures are giving "403 forbidden" errors.

by **Greyryder** » Wed May 02, 2007 12:43 am

Okay. I finally managed to sketch out something I like. I've got a very basic chassis built, to work from. Because of the length of the axles I'm using, it's going to be kind of narrow.

Basically, there'll be a canopy at the front, that would presumably cover the optics/sensors. There'll be a small turret on the top, that's inspired by G1 Prime's cartoon gun. There will be two whip antennas near the back, with a sci-fi parabolic antenna next to them. The dish, and gun should hoepfully be able to pivot and elevate.

All of this is subject to change, but hopefully only for the better. Thanks guys, for the input on the design.

by **Ramrider** » Wed May 02, 2007 11:19 am

jimsloth wrote:
Da Tran Man wrote:the pics are showing up for me...

they are... good for you.

if you meant they aren't, here are the addresses:
http://www.virtualtoychest.com/starcom/ ... ader2c.jpg
http://www.virtualtoychest.com/starcom/ ... ader1c.jpg

and these are just pics of the starcom vehicle I was talking about. Nothing of Greyryder's

Yeah, those aren't showing up. But if you click the link I gave and go down to the Shadow Force stuff, there are pics of the Shadow Invader there. It's cool, I know - one of the ones I had (and still have, IIRC). Actually my favourite of the little blighters (that I had), and the one that I think would be best suited to adapting to Roller, would be the Laser RAT, although the M6 Railgunner was up there too.

Any chance of showing us what you're sketching, GR?

by **Greyryder** » Wed May 02, 2007 3:36 pm

I'll try to get it scanned, and posted later. I don't know if there's much point. What I'm building is turning out to be a lot narrower than what I sketched, so I'm moving things around, to compensate for it. It might not look much like the sketch, when I'm done.

by **Greyryder** » Thu May 03, 2007 11:05 pm

Sorry. I got distracted by stuff, and never did get the sketch scanned.

Anyway, pictures:

by **Ramrider** » Fri May 04, 2007 7:18 am

Niiice.

by **tentagil** » Fri May 04, 2007 8:10 am

Looks pretty cool. Obviously he's equipment less, but the base design is both sleek and rugged at the same time.

by **Flashback77** » Fri May 11, 2007 11:56 am

I really like what I see so far. Can't wait to see what kind of gear you give him.

by **Greyryder** » Fri May 11, 2007 3:35 pm

I need to get more pictures up. I've got both the dish, and the gun built. Gun's too big, though. I need to build a smaller one.

by **Flashback77** » Fri May 11, 2007 7:59 pm

I've never understood the need for human seats on a giant alien robot's unmanned drone either. I always assumed that was where I was to imagine Spike & Sparkplug travelled with Prime. I thought Armada was a missed opportunity, Prime's Minicon should have been a transforming Roller. But that's neither here nor there at this point.

by **jimsloth** » Fri May 11, 2007 10:07 pm

layouts77 wrote:I've never understood the need for human seats on a giant alien robot's unmanned drone either. I always assumed that was where I was to imagine Spike & Sparkplug travelled with Prime...

The DW comics were hinting at an explanation to this, but never got far enough to really tell it. Something about alien races, both robot and organic having history together long before anything told in the Cybertron mythology.

by **Glue** » Sat May 12, 2007 6:00 pm

layouts77 wrote:I've never understood the need for human seats on a giant alien robot's unmanned drone either. I always assumed that was where I was to imagine Spike & Sparkplug travelled with Prime. I thought Armada was a missed opportunity, Prime's Minicon should have been a transforming Roller. But that's neither here nor there at this point.

Being a fan of the cartoon, my retcon presumption has always been that the Quintessons manufactured "military hardware" and "consumer goods" robots for humanoid customers that were never yet seen in the show. This would explain why Cybertronians seemed to have cockpits and controls so perfectly contoured for non-existent humanoid pilots. This would also explain why Cybertronians themselves started out vaguely humanoid shaped (they certainly weren't patterned after their creators, hehehe).

Particularly with G1 season 3, the TFs setting has shown a universe full of organic aliens, and a number of these were somewhat humanoid shaped with a single head, two arms, and two legs, and walking upright.

I've always figured that this was the obvious no-brainer explanation, but it doesn't seem like any post-G1 continuity has ever really delved into this

by **Greyryder** » Mon May 14, 2007 10:59 pm

Here he is, before painting. I haven't built a whip antenna for him yet, and I don't know if I will. It seems like it would just get in the way, of try to roll him around. It's easy enough to do, if I change my mind. I've done it before, on a tank model.

The canopy is off center, but there's nothing holding it on. It'll be glued on, (centered) after I've painted everything.

by **Ramrider** » Tue May 15, 2007 5:16 am

That works on the cartoon history, but that's always been questionable. As Jim said, there was a hint in the DW Micromasters series that the Powers-That-Be (whoever 'burnt' the Golden Disks, it would appear) predicted that Cybertronians would come into contact with humanoids long before it ever happened, and that their destinies would be somehow intertwined. That's why their forms were designed to accommodate these beings. Unfortunately we never found out any more than the little that Countdown told Groundshaker about.

Nice Prime-style gun, by the way. Is it actually mounted on a ball-joint, or is it just my eyes screwing up again - and if it is, how did you make the socket?
And what's that cool transparent bit round the disc made from?