So, on CNN.com today they had a story about fuel efficiency and upcoming hybrid vehicles... and lo and behold, one of them looked an awful lot like the Cybertronian form of Animated Prime (at least to my Transformer-addled brain). It's a concept for a Mitsubishi Fuso truck, and seems to come in both flatbed and dump-truck form. The image on CNN was of the dump-truck version, but after poking around a bit I found that the flatbed looks even more like Prime. Check it out: This image is from a trucking site, http://www.fleetwatch.co.za/magazines/Feb2005/78-WW-Feb05.htm. Anyway, I could be off base with this, and just seeing Transformers where there are none. But I find myself really wanting to see one of these trucks in red and blue.
I do see the similarities between the two, but, I wouldn't go as far as to say that the truck was the insperation for Prime's pre-Earth alt-mode.
Do not diss The Tick man. He rocked In fact, I love the live action Tick series so much that I had to be some friends copies for christmas so they can enjoy the genius of the show.
I've seen a picture of a truck that is almost exactly what Prime's cybertronian truck mode is, but for the life of me I can't find it.
As a trucker I must say I dig the look of that concept. To bad it's a day cab and not a full size model w/ a sleeper, then it would absolutely look like ani-primes inspiration.
Oh, I love the Tick too; just didnt think he shouldve been the inspiration for a robot. I miss the old Tick cartoon, used to come out with Eek the cat on saturdays.
Same can be said for the Scion or Honda Element for Animated Soundwave. Optimus Truck mode looks much more nicer than the Fuso of course.
Him earth mode reminds me of a more wind resistant classic voyager prime with the wind vane on top of the cab and all..
