The Energon Pub

You left out Overlord.

Bowspearer wrote:You left out Overlord.

Wasn't too sure if that was him or not. Had some details that made me think of Megatron as well, like a mix between the two.

Bowspearer wrote:From page 22 of Transformers Generations:

Whoa, Powermaster Rodimus Prime. Cool ! And he appears to be a fire truck based on what looks like a ladder hanging off his back.

That moon lander bot is pretty neat too.

Sabrblade wrote:

Bowspearer wrote:You left out Overlord.

Wasn't too sure if that was him or not. Had some details that made me think of Megatron as well, like a mix between the two.

It may well have been the original concept. Remember, there was originally a radically different prototype for Godbomber too:

xyl360 wrote:Whoa, Powermaster Rodimus Prime.

That's "New Rodimus", not a Powermaster.

Bowspearer wrote:From page 22 of Transformers Generations:

Thanks for sharing. Which Transformers Generation year is this book?

double post

Stormrider wrote:

Bowspearer wrote:From page 22 of Transformers Generations:

Thanks for sharing. Which Transformers Generation year is this book?

PM sent.

To coincide with the release of Takara Tomy's Transformers Masterpiece MP-17 Prowl, the figure's designer, Shogo Hasui, has tweeted an image of the original Diaclone Fairlady Z concept art. This figure went on to become Generation 1 Prowl, Bluestreak, and Smokescreen. As you can see many of the design elements made it from concept to reality with the exception of the head sculpt, which is considerable different. Check out the image mirrored below.

I'd buy a yellow repaint with a new head!

This is great to see how far the design travels from concept to physical form.
Would be an interesting Botcon/ TFCC exclusive repaint/ retool on a deluxe down the line.

The head reminds me of a samurai helmet.

I would love to see more concept art of this nature, and of course toys.

http://www.swordsdirect.com/samurai-helmets-by-hanwei.jpg

Come on eHobby, don't fail me now!!

No offence but that head is hideous. Prowl wouldn't be my favourite Autobot if he looked like that. It's like Prowl possessed by Unicron.

spiderbob007 wrote:The head reminds me of a samurai helmet.

I would love to see more concept art of this nature, and of course toys.

http://www.swordsdirect.com/samurai-helmets-by-hanwei.jpg

Very observant. Many of the Diaclone and G1 Tranformers heads were based on Samurai helmets. The crests, horns, and faceplates are the most notable features. (This was a common theme in Japanese robot cartoons in the 1980s.

I want one from the classics prowl mold. A custom might not be too hard to pull off since white plastic can be dyed and red parts can be swapped from Smokescreen/Bluestreak. But creating a new head would be out of my skill level...

I could be wrong, but that head looks an AWFUL lot like Wildrider's -- at least the head that they used for the animation in the original cartoons. Wonder if this concept sketch is where they got the design that they used in the cartoon...

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:BurdenHarde ... Matrix.jpg

stocky wrote:I could be wrong, but that head looks an AWFUL lot like Wildrider's -- at least the head that they used for the animation in the original cartoons. Wonder if this concept sketch is where they got the design that they used in the cartoon...

Funny that you bring up Wildrider's head, just last night I found this article about the Stunticons, suggesting that Floro Dery worked off early toy designs of the Stunticons when he created their cartoon models. (Save for Motormaster.)

It explains why their cartoon-heads are so different than the finalised toy-heads. And how Dragstrip got his horizontal two-wheels shoulders.

Not really related to Prowl, but an interesting piece of trivia.

Cyberpath wrote:

stocky wrote:I could be wrong, but that head looks an AWFUL lot like Wildrider's -- at least the head that they used for the animation in the original cartoons. Wonder if this concept sketch is where they got the design that they used in the cartoon...

Funny that you bring up Wildrider's head, just last night I found this article about the Stunticons, suggesting that Floro Dery worked off early toy designs of the Stunticons when he created their cartoon models. (Save for Motormaster.)

It explains why their cartoon-heads are so different than the finalised toy-heads. And how Dragstrip got his horizontal two-wheels shoulders.

Not really related to Prowl, but an interesting piece of trivia.

The reason the stunticons toy heads are so different is because of 1986 combiner port technology that required square heads. I dont know if the toys were created after the cartoon or vice-versa, But it was the release of Menasor and Superion that introduced the square head for all G1 combiner limb figures to come. That's why I hate when 3rd parties go with toy accurate heads and ignore cartoon accuracy. The heads were square for a reason and it wasnt to look cool.

Rated X wrote:The reason the stunticons toy heads are so different is because of 1986 combiner port technology that required square heads. I dont know if the toys were created after the cartoon or vice-versa, But it was the release of Menasor and Superion that introduced the square head for all G1 combiner limb figures to come. That's why I hate when 3rd parties go with toy accurate heads and ignore cartoon accuracy. The heads were square for a reason and it wasnt to look cool.

The Combaticons & Protectobots toys also had square-heads, yet their heads were fairly cartoon-accurate.

Compared to them, the Stunticons & Aerialbots had vastly different faces than the toys, and I kind of always wondered why. This article explains that the show designer must have worked from early concept sketches provided in the series "bible" when he designed the Stunticons & Aerialbots.
http://www.ntfa.net/forums/lofiversion/ ... t5792.html



I agree, I also prefer the cartoon models!

And on the subject of Nissan police cars, I always appreciated how Streetwise's toy had a proper head. :)

And this design was meant to be for a human-piloted mech.

spiderbob007 wrote:The head reminds me of a samurai helmet.

I would love to see more concept art of this nature, and of course toys.

http://www.swordsdirect.com/samurai-helmets-by-hanwei.jpg

Good thing we got the Go! toyline giving us just that.

Rated X wrote:The reason the stunticons toy heads are so different is because of 1986 combiner port technology that required square heads. I dont know if the toys were created after the cartoon or vice-versa, But it was the release of Menasor and Superion that introduced the square head for all G1 combiner limb figures to come.

Yeah, the toy molds for the four 1986 combiners were made before they appeared in the cartoon and comics, since they (and Metroplex's toy mold) were originally created for an aborted spinoff line of Diaclone called Jizai Gattai (but its toy molds were completed far enough in the design process to be rebranded into Transformers toys).

Oddly, that head actually makes me think of the Junkions.

Firstly, the toy would have come before the cartoon design did as the diaclone line was well in production still in 1984 and concepts for the 85 line at the very least would have been well and truly in the prototype stage.

To bring this full circle though, I found a review online already for MP Prowl:

Bowspearer wrote:Firstly, the toy would have come before the cartoon design did as the diaclone line was well in production still in 1984 and concepts for the 85 line at the very least would have been well and truly in the prototype stage.

Exactly. They were planned for Jizai Gattai before Transformers.

I know, my point was that it was anything but a "the chicken or the egg" situation.