The Energon Pub

[D-Maximal_Primal]

It may seem like Transformers: Animated may be in the past, but the past always finds a way to come to the present and surprise us!

With some recent Animated talk coming up with the potential for a Siege Omega Supreme based on the Ark and the fan theory of a Leader Shockwave using the Animated double spy gimmick, it seems that this Animated topic has shaken loose some old concept art for the series! This concept art comes to us from Watanabe Yoshihiro, who had the privilege to work on some early Animated concepts. while these designs did not end up getting used by the show, it is awesome to see some of the early work and ideas for the series compared to what it ended up being.

Check out the images below, and let us know what you think in the comments section below!

[Octobotimus]

This just makes me happy with the designs we ended up with.... these look too human....

[Bumblevivisector]

I'm always ecstatic to see anything from Animated come to light!

The Bulkheadish fellow's head looks sort of like a humanized Jhiaxus. His whole appearance makes me think of a a generic Mighty Orbot, and I'm not sure if that's just because Wyatt based his final design on Crunch, or if there was some Orbots influence even before his involvement.

[Zeedust]

These look to be from back in the early design phases when the concept was still "Transformers: Hero" and hadn't developed into the "Animated" series we're more familiar with; that last drawing is pretty much a dead-on match for the resin Rhinox toy prototype in the "Hero" section of the Allspark Almanac.

I'm gonna guess the others are Blurr, Optimus (obviously), and Prowl. Blurr kinda reminds me a little of a Mega Man boss for some reason, and I'm not sure what he'd transform into. Prime looks kinda generic, and Prowl is a bit too Naruto-ish for my tastes. Still, it's always fascinating to see stuff like this.

[Sabrblade]

The big dude at the bottom is Rhinox, Optimus is obvious, but neither of the other two resemble Hot Shot's original design (which didn't bear any resemblance to his finalized design either).

[Combat Zero]

I’ve got a Heroman vibe from seeing these concepts.

[Emerje]

From the guy who helped bring us this.



But seriously, the guy worked on Gurren Laggan and Heroman, the later of which shares a similar design aesthetic to these even though I don't believe he did any mechanical design work on that series.



Emerje

[dragons]

This just makes me happy with the designs we ended up with.... these look too human....

Isnt that what most transformers fans want if you look movie, some idw comic issues topics first thing come out of person mouth is besides mistransformed toy, is faces doesn’t look human enough transformers issue prime on cover fighting menasor transformers faces look more machine and less human which is point of those design faces in some idw comic series