Thanks to Mark Maher, we have what might be the most interesting behind the scenes look at a Transformer design ever. In his most recent Instagram post, he shows us the original design for Legacy Prime Skyquake by Marcello Materre. This was designed at the same time as Legacy Arcee and Bulkhead, so a couple of years ago. We then see the new design Mark drew after hearing the comments regarding the Legacy prime characters' reveals in October 2021. We can see that while the original was a Gi-ified version of the Prime character, with the cockpit chest, mark went for a merge of the G1 Skyquake and the Prime Skyquake, combinig elements evoking both versions rather than making a new design for the Prime character. Let us know which version you preffer.
This also gives us a really good idea of the time frame for Transformers designs. Technically, the concept to shelf cycle of Legacy Skyquake is several years if we start with the Marcello Materre design that was approved by Hasbro to what it is now, but in reality we see that we can go from a sketch to a mass assembly of the toy in about 1 year (with this toy coming out in summer, the complete concept to shelf cycle would be Fall 2021 - Summer 2023 so just shy of 2 years).
We also have a behind the scenes post from Sam Smith for Animated Prowl and from Evan Brooks for Metalhawk.
“Leader Legacy Evolution Skyquake is ready to take over the seeker skies and put the smackdown on some autobrats!
The second image features an outline done by the great marcelomatere when the prime redesigns were decided upon before we started Legacy. Since there was mixed feedback on Arcee and Bulkhead I decided to take a swing. My linework is featured underneath Marcelo’s , then my colored concept is featured on the next slide. Then the amazing Hisashi Yuki san from Takara Tomy had a great sketch with some renditions and suggestions. I reformatted my design and along the design development journey we both went.
You can see all the iterations of his head sculpt throughout the process.
The transformation sequence is complex but strong, Yuki sans transformations are always amazing and I often stare in wonderment when he figures them out. The articulation packed into this beast is just wild. You just get a great experience of all kinds of abilities and poses.
IMPORTANT: this sample does not have the final colors, I will try and update yall with the final deets. But I can assure you this guy has some sweet candy metallic paint applications that do wonderous things in good lighting.
He does have head light piping and the engines on his feet along with his gatling blaster are blast effect compatible. The cockpit and sculpt details all over this dude command a decepticons respect.
Please do yourself a favor and rewatch how amazing his brief appearance in the Prime series is, you will not regret it!"
“Transformers Legacy Evolution – Animated Universe Prowl
So this guys been floating around the internet for a few months, but I am glad to finally have him revealed! So let’s get into the details of Legacy Evolution Prowl. Building on the design ideology that had been established for Legacy, it was clear that we were going to have two pieces of entertainment that would require us to push the designs outside of their comfort zones, Transformers Prime and Transformers Animated.
As the debut character to represent the tone of the 2007 animation, I wanted to preserve a recognizable design aesthetic from the original character, while ensuring that it would sit comfortably amongst the rest of the legacy expression.
I reached out to santalux75 with my ideas and he got to work on an incredibly faithful design for both the bot and alt modes. With a couple of alterations to some of the proportions we were in a comfortable position to start executing the design kick off with Takara. Kunihiro Takashi is a huge Animated Prowl fan and put together a wonderful transformation plan that incorporated plenty of historical character attributes along met with modern articulation. We found a balance for how much detail we wanted to texturize the model with, that still left enough of the smooth paneling of the source material. The deco was treated much the same way, utilizing his iconic black and gold livery, met with the patroller khaki pants and his iconic blue visor.
Prowl is outfitted with his shurikens that rotate closed and can be stowed onto the wheels. While he can hold them in both hands, we wanted to ensure that the figure was still compatible with 5mm post accessories, so his right hand is sculpted to support both.”
“Hi Transformer Fans!
Just popping in to do my do-diligence to give you all a few more looks at what we revealed this week!
Starting off with our Voyager, Metalhawk!
So as mentioned in the stream, this bot is a partial of the Kingdom Cyclonus.
It uses the Hands, Shoulders, Biceps, Feet, Back of the legs, Part of the wings and a few of the joints from that figure.
You can probably get a better understanding of what pieces are re-used from Ittoku-san’s masterful detail drawing.
A few other points that I forgot to mention on the stream is that his thrusters use 3mm ports so you can load him up with blast effects. He also has a 3mm hole that becomes accessible in Jet mode for use with a display stand.
This is just a fun figure and I’m hoping going forward we can complete the JG1 Pretender teams.
Thanks for checking out the stream and supporting Transformers!
-Evan”
Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2023 12:14 am
Might try modifying one to take the Headmaster that came with God Ginrai if anyone figures out how.