Yeah, they totally can.

They could rescale the model if the entire rig were parented to a locator and the locator were scaled. Even easier, they could matchmove the environment at a different scale than reality and have Lockdown appear relatively larger or smaller as needed. It would be no trouble to build shadow-catching proxy objects for, say, that oil refinery (or whatever it was where the final fight took place) at 50% scale and then adjust the camera to make the plate match. Boom, giant Lockdown. A project I was on as an intern at a VFX company had to do exactly that with a complex robot model and they handled it by cheating the scale of the environment.

EDIT: Also, don't forget that there are multiple versions of each model built for the transformation sequences. If they have to make new ones per shot anyway, why not also change the scale as needed?

 

"He's big in the fight scene"
Yes, he's big in the fight scene, but not as big as Optimus. If Optimus is a leader class size, then a tall voyager figure would be the perfect height. Lockdown is never in any scene taller than Optimus's chest. But a leader class Lockdown would be the same height as a leader class Optimus. That's too big.

"a bigger, more imposing, more bad ass, more fun, more visually impressive toy is the result. Why should we not desire that?"
A bigger toy is not necessarily more fun than a smaller one. In fact, most of the time, I prefer clever voyager figures over complicated leader figures. You can desire a giant, imposing, inaccurate Lockdown all you want, but some of us care a little bit about scale.

 

This. You can scale the model, hierarchy, lighting etc, all really easily

 

Why is everyone so concerned about Lockdown being quite short compared to Prime? Optimus Prime beat Grindor and Grimlock in a fight and he's significantly shorter than both of them.

 

Have we seen sizes of Lockdown next to Leader Prime (ROTF or DOTM?)

 

Nope, but he will look like this (DOTM Ultimate Prime):

 

This'll do me just fine, thank ya sir.

 

Man I wish we could get some more pics, especially with it next to something.

That scale chart isn't right anyway, as I actually measured it and "22 foot" Lockdown is only 20 feet compared to Prime. "24 foot" Lockdown is correct at 22 feet compared to Prime. (and a 24 foot Lockdown would be about one head higher)

Each block represents one foot in height. Green is 22 feet, grey is 24, red is 28.

Yes, they can, because they've done it before. They made a small Bumblebee for DOTM, the Protoforms in TF07 were all different sizes, there were giant Hatchets in the opening of DOTM, many generic 'Cons will have their sizes altered in DOTM and ROTF, "Twohead" was a dramatically shrunken Shockwave. The list goes on. They've messed with the sizes of characters plenty. It's no effort reszizing someone for scenes. Their animation software is certainly sophisticated enough to handle that.

Hell, they do it constantly with characters depending on what looks best for a scene. It's not complicated because "scale" is all relative. There is no set scale in their computer models, it's all however big they are when they composite them into the scene. The models aren't actually 22 or 28 feet tall, the size is determined once the scene is created.

 

Oh! And don't forget Blackout/Grindor, the same digital model but Grindor was, like, twice as tall in ROTF.

 

Eh probably am underestimating the efficiency of a movie teams cgi. So people can stop correcting me now, you made your points well enough.

Regardless I don't want a small Lockdown, and I sure am glad this isn't going to be a small Lockdown. Probably have Maketoys and MMC to blame for that, they keep putting out more n more bigger than voyager figures and the overall mp boom has dramatically impacted my interests too. And Lockdown is one of very few movie designs that I really love a lot and I feel like a voyager just wouldn't do justice to that incredible robot design in the way an ultra+ mp10 ish sized figure will. The way surface molding works surely a lot of his detail would be lost in a downsizing and they may have had to compromise on some of his engineering too or not include joints that are as meaty (satisfying) or whatever. That's the thing with size classes if a designer is doing things right he's factoring that in to his design.

And I already have MT Cupola and Contact so I'm use to owning big robots that turn in to cars by now. Despite the extreme differences in aesthetic he's gonna look great next to those two guys on my shelf.

 

Which makes sense given his alt mode was bigger... but he still had Blackout's kibble. Whoops.

But that's okay because Blackout/Grindor looked so cool. Fun with CG models!

 

No. We must continue to berate you until we feel better about ourselves.

 

Then that'll take a while, because my self-esteem is as existant as an MP-scale Unicron.

 

That wss cool man can you tell me the YouTube screen name he uses so I can see more of his work? And see it in HD would be nice I just watched that and the wheels folding up inside of his abs/chest is accurately placed, the others wheels disappearing in his legs, accurate, the arms coming out the side and how the legs split and come from the back of the upper cab part, nicely done, o think you might be right!

 

Karaage9332 is his name. He's just completed a Lockdown build and has also made Grimlock.

 

I know I'm late to the party, but... here are my two cents worth.

Regarding the scale of Lockdown I used the screenshot posted earlier and tried to recreate it with the figures available.
Here are my findings.

Using TLK Voyager Prime and an AOE Deluxe Lockdown I tried to recreate the angles and distances. Looks about right.
So if both were standing straight up the height difference would look like this:

I think a Voyager sized Lockdown would look better with a Leader Prime than a Leader Lockdown would.

 

I second this (@Lukelbs ) , but I still feel that peru kill will be awesome to have, as a feat of engineering. Probably, a small leader, or large voyager would be good for scale, though.

 

Yall can have it in the incorrect voyager scale by getting the wei Jiang one and some of us want a cool.toy version and one that's a bit better sized than a Voyager

 

I would also prefer a Voyager Peru Kill, simply because I'd find more thigns for it to scale with than a Leader sized car. Though I really think those pics of the figures don't match up with the screenshots. Granted Prime's kibble and the inability to see both their faces makes it hard, but compare where the tops of both their torsos are. Lockdown's is way too short compared to Prime. In the screenshots his torso is, based solely from that angle, about a head or so shorter. The toys however are way farther apart.

If AOE Lockdown was a normal/pre-DOTM sized Deluxe I'd say they were the right scale.

This was difficult to read.

Has Wei Jiang knocked off other 3P figs. Also, not everyone considers "cool toy" leader sized. Bigger is not always better. To me it'd be more impressive if it was Voyager sized, it would fit in more displays, scale well with otehr toys, and be more managable.

Also there's more than enough evidence to show Lockdown being the same height as Prime is anything but correct.

 

Thank you! That's exactly what I've been saying all along. Deluxe Lockdown scales almost perfect with AoE and TLK voyager Optimus. Leader Lockdown is too big.