primalxconvoy wrote:I think everyone thought they were mechs, even from the beginning. It's why some, like me, have lamented the lack of "mech with character detailing" instead of the "robot cosplaying as a character" aesthetic used. However, that Han Solo head sculpt is definitely a step in the right direction, IMO. Not enough for me to start collecting this line, however.
What's puzzling is that I couldn't really find many examples of fan art devoted to Star Wars vs (insert anime design here) mechs/robots online. You would think it was prime fodder for the deviant art crowd.
I also had always assumed that they were meant to be piloted mechs, but I don't at all like the way they've been done here. They mostly just look like robot people wearing bits of spaceships sticky-taped to various body parts, even moreso than the old SWTFs if I'm being frank. I like it when transforming robots/mechs look like they're
made from the vehicle parts; the problem with these seems (to me) that they're trying so hard to make them resemble the Star Wars characters, that they lose sight of any sense of aesthetic design and just end up with a normally-proportioned guy with a robot head and junk all over called "Han Solo".
On the subject of SW-robits, I was able to dredge up one more piece of crossover mech art via Google, one that I think showcases both the good and the bad of meshing two entities together like this:
Some of the good stuff, I think, is things like taking the "memorable-but-not-quite-iconic-enough-to-be-out-of-place" parts, like the Trooper's belt and color layout, and adding them onto the design in a subtle but recognizable way. On the other hand I still think the head looks pretty rubbish, because even though the design's been altered a bit to fit with the overall shapes it still looks like someone's gone and sat a huge, slightly-melted Stormtrooper helmet over the actual head of the mech. Also the body shapes, and silhouette in general, don't really fit much at all with what you'd imagine a 'Stormtrooper mech' to look like and so it all feels kind of wonky.
TL;DR It looks like someone put an EVA in a Stormtrooper suit, instead of looking like its own thing based on the two entities, and so it ends up looking like an awkward attempt to mash the two together instead of a cool new design.Many of my complaints come from the nature of trying to fit within the well-established aesthetic of the other property, and obviously a hypothetical Eva crossover is not a one-to-one comparison with Transformers, but it's still basically what these SWTFs are trying to do too. The robot modes here aren't trying to fit into the Transformers
universe, but they're sure trying to fit into the Transformers
aesthetic, which for the most part is "robots made out of vehicles". They're trying so hard to slap Star Wars on top of Transformers that they've forgotten to try and actually integrate the two on any meaningful level, and that's where I feel the major shortcomings of these toys come from.
Maybe this was interesting for someone to read? I dunno. Just my two (hundred) cents on the matter.