The Energon Pub

I was looking at my kitbashes the other day and I came to a realisation that I favour certain colours over others for each faction.

And then I got to thinking about the main lines and how brighter colours tend to be associated with Autobots, while darker colours with Decepticons.

Looking at my kitbashes that tends to be the case anyway.

For the Decepticons I tend to favour varying shades of brown, green and black with similar darker colours as highlights.

For the Autobots I tend to favour whites and blues.

My way of thinking I guess is Decepticons = evil = dark, Autobots = good = light.

Now this is starting to become a problem for me as i'm running out of different colour schemes! A light coloured Decepticon just doesn't seem right to me, while a darker coloured Autobot COULD work fine provided it has a bio to suit it.

So ... my question to all is, do people share a similar thought in that each faction tends to favour certain colours over others and do they look at it that way with their own creations, or am I just having too many random nutty thoughts?

I'm with you on the whole Autobot-light, Decepticon-dark thing. It's also not surprising each faction uses the colour of their faction logo a lot, ie. Autobots-red and Decepticons-purple.

I have always noticed for years that red, white and blue is used a lot in Autobots. Which isn't surprising, but I really don't want to have to explain the whole socio-political reasons for that.

And Decepticons used a lot of black, grey and purple, especially purple. Again I could delve into the whole subjext behind the colour purple, especially the connoations it holds and it's association with homosexuality, homosexuality being bad in religious terms, bad as in evil, so on and so forth, but I won't.

So in conclusion, yes Burn, you're just having too many random thoughts

Violet and purple have more to do with royalty and power. In medieval times, purple was reserved solely for royalty. Secondly, violet is a very cold color, and the Decepticons are cold and cruel, while red is very warm like the Autobots are warm and heroic.

As for the color shemes of the 'bots and 'cons themselves, yes, there is a tendency for the decepticons to use a lot of blacks violets, greens, and such, particularly in combination—Black and violet, Green and violet, black and green, black violet and green. They also tend to use a lot of bare metal, in combination with other colors. However, they also use every other color there is. A good number of them are red, blue, orange, gold, yellow, brown, beige, etc. all of various hues, tints and shades. The same is true of the Autobots, while certain colors and color-schemes seem more common than others, they still run the gammut. So, don't limit yourself. Do what you think works best for the character, and what loks good. Don't worry that just because he or she is part of one faction or the other that it should limit your color pallette. It doesn't. Ultimately, the colors need to suit the robot's personality and alternate mode (a hot pink tank just wouldn't look right).

Tramp wrote:Violet and purple have more to do with royalty and power. In medieval times, purple was reserved solely for royalty. Secondly, violet is a very cold color, and the Decepticons are cold and cruel, while red is very warm like the Autobots are warm and heroic.

As for the color shemes of the 'bots and 'cons themselves, yes, there is a tendency for the decepticons to use a lot of blacks violets, greens, and such, particularly in combination—Black and violet, Green and violet, black and green, black violet and green. They also tend to use a lot of bare metal, in combination with other colors. However, they also use every other color there is. A good number of them are red, blue, orange, gold, yellow, brown, beige, etc. all of various hues, tints and shades. The same is true of the Autobots, while certain colors and color-schemes seem more common than others, they still run the gammut. So, don't limit yourself. Do what you think works best for the character, and what loks good. Don't worry that just because he or she is part of one faction or the other that it should limit your color pallette. It doesn't. Ultimately, the colors need to suit the robot's personality and alternate mode (a hot pink tank just wouldn't look right).

Spoken like a true artist.

Toyotus Superion wrote:

Tramp wrote:Violet and purple have more to do with royalty and power. In medieval times, purple was reserved solely for royalty. Secondly, violet is a very cold color, and the Decepticons are cold and cruel, while red is very warm like the Autobots are warm and heroic.

As for the color shemes of the 'bots and 'cons themselves, yes, there is a tendency for the decepticons to use a lot of blacks violets, greens, and such, particularly in combination—Black and violet, Green and violet, black and green, black violet and green. They also tend to use a lot of bare metal, in combination with other colors. However, they also use every other color there is. A good number of them are red, blue, orange, gold, yellow, brown, beige, etc. all of various hues, tints and shades. The same is true of the Autobots, while certain colors and color-schemes seem more common than others, they still run the gammut. So, don't limit yourself. Do what you think works best for the character, and what loks good. Don't worry that just because he or she is part of one faction or the other that it should limit your color pallette. It doesn't. Ultimately, the colors need to suit the robot's personality and alternate mode (a hot pink tank just wouldn't look right).

Spoken like a true artist.

It's what I do.

Tramp wrote:(a hot pink tank just wouldn't look right).

Oh but I could easily do a hot pink Decepticon semi. Mostly because the characterisation came first and the hot pink actually makes sense.

As for a hot pink tank, the character is there, it's just not good enough to warrant a kitbash.

It's not just Transformers lines that tend to have red heroes and blue villains. The are tons of them. Remember Sky Commanders? (Nah, me neither.)
There's an interesting correlation with this in Kabuki Theater. Heroes always wear red face paint, and villains, particularly ghosts and Demons wear blue.
As for white colored villains- I like them. The whites on guys like Sixshot really pop. The way I see it, only a villain would see himself as "pure" enough to wear white. I see Megatron's chrome the same way. He might not see himself as pure but definitely as perfect.

I actually made a faction color wheel to make sure my repaints wore their "team colors" - I can't post it now, but if there's interest I will in the morning.

basically, though:
Autobots - red/white/blue/green/silver/gray (primary, natural colors)
Decepticons - yellow/purple/black/orange/gold (angry, warning, stealthy colors)