MTMTE Trailbreaker Design: Alex Milne

Discussion in 'Transformers News and Rumors' started by VaderPrime1, Dec 23, 2011.

  1. SharkyMcShark

    SharkyMcShark Hi. I'm better than you

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    [​IMG]
     
  2. SharkyMcShark

    SharkyMcShark Hi. I'm better than you

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    Oh god, he is being serious.

    I can't help but wonder how familiar with Gundam the people that cry ZOMG IT LOOKS LIKE GUNDAM every time one of these designs is released are
     
  3. Stryker055

    Stryker055 Trying my best here!

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    Yeah, I've been looking at tons of different Gundam designs for the past several months, and this looks nothing like a Gundam.
     
  4. Slipstreamer 8

    Slipstreamer 8 Well-Known Member

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    this
     
  5. brr-icy

    brr-icy MP Collector

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    generic design? sure, trailbreaker. no
     
  6. Paxtin

    Paxtin ...

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    I thought I'd chime in here, as a person who generally likes modern over retro designs I actually don't completely like this. But maybe for different reasons then most.

    For me, the problem I have with it is that, like with a lot of these recent IDW designs, it feels like they're just segmenting the details for the sake of making it look segmented rather then (I hate to put it this way.) actually thinking about how it applies to the character design.
    The whole aesthetic also feels unbalenced. Like it's trying to hard to be retro and modern at the same time.

    This likely wouldn't win over any of the old school fans, but to me the re-edit I did on the right is what this design should look like. I took out some of the retro bulk from the knees that just didn't feel like they belonged, and tightened up a lot of the chest, so as to look a little more solid.
    [​IMG]

    I donno how many people will actually agree with me, but imo that looks a lot more balenced as a design.
     

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  7. RedAlert Rescue

    RedAlert Rescue Banned

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    I was looking at it earlier and stroking the ol' chin and having similar thoughts - and I though that it needs some of the old Trailbreaker design cue put back in it.

    I'd flatten the toes rather than have them pointed, make the forearms more rounded - keep the chest similar to the modified one above - straighten the angle of the wheel kibble. and perhaps rotated the wheels so they sit behind his elbows and make a vague suggestion of his old door panel kibble he used to have. I also think thicker ankles with the wheel partially embedded in them and thinner knees would look better. as he stands he looks a bit like he's wearing football socks. The crotch plate might need reshaping too. and he might need more rounded looking hands.

    The head back kibble and biceps are fine though.

    As I said before though if you wanted to toyify the one above and release it as a 'Tweeny or Movie toy that's fine it works for that and would complement Lockdown or NEST Brawn fine but If it's Classicverse Trailbreaker you want that to serve at then it's not really going to work without at least some substantial tweaking - and I'd just prefer that any deluxe took the Legends as it's leaping off point just as Legends Warpath inspired the design for Dlx warpath. - not only that though I'd quite like a redesigned Prowl somewhat based on the legends toy too (just with the doors moved like they did with Jazz).
     
  8. Paxtin

    Paxtin ...

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    Yeah, I tried my best to make them look not quite as pointy. But they could use a little more flattening out.

    Dont think that would really work. I think much like the bulky knees, it would throw off the overall aesthetic and look out of place.

    Yeah, I actually would have tried to rotate them (The feet wheels, at least.) but I actually don't know how to do that in this version of PS I have. :/


    Again, I think that'd throw off the balence of the intended aesthetic.
     
  9. SMOG

    SMOG Vocabchampion ArgueTitan

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    Heh... Knight Rider, eh? That's kind of funny. I sort of see what you mean, though I doubt the influence was deliberate. :) 

    To some degree, yeah... though it's good to remember that G1 Soundwave was actually designed way before Gundam ever came along (1974, amazingly!), so that robot aesthetic was fairly developed even before Gundam.

    I liked Cybertron for the same reasons actually. It was a good mix of detail and classic G1 robot styling.

    Wing Gundam? Seed? Man... those are pretty "normal" as far as Gundams go. A little more bling than the older Gundams, but that's about it. I think the main distinction is that Gundams have a lot of extraneous futuristic styling, while most Transformers have alt-mode parts that lend them a certain utilitarian charm. But when you look at things like Transformer head crests and wings and antennae and other aesthetic touches, I wouldn't say that they're spiritually so far off.

    True enough.

    You mean like G1 Jetfire and G1 Shockwave? :) 

    I know what you mean... Animated doesn't match Classics which doesn't match Movie-style, which doesn't quite match WFC... (though WFC is close to classics, I'd say). I agree that there are some serious discrepancies in the stylistic approaches that IDW is playing with right now. On the other hand, the new storylines are exploring the idea of a Cybertronian diaspora, so physical differences between the various bots can present some interesting possibilities of divergence in the Transformers race over time and space. Still, it looks weird when Cliffjumper who looks like a Bayformer fusion is standing next to Sunstreaker who is based on his Classics mold. It starts to feel sort of random.

    I see what you mean... but I think you're making too much of the "movie" or "gundam" influences. Or rather, your threshhold for what is considered a pollution of the G1 style is a lot more stringent than mine is.
    That's fair. But I think you were a bit harsh and overzealous in throwing around indictments of what you call the "movie style" where it might not quite apply.

    Also, I think a certain amount of allowance should be granted for individual artist's styles as well. We're bound to see more variation in a comic form than we would within the fixed models of an animated series. Admittedly I'd rather see that in terms of style, not different character designs for every month of the year... :( 

    I agree with your sentiments, but I also recognize that Transformers can grow beyond just one style.

    Interesting. I'm more of a case-by-case kind of guy. I actually love the MOTUC line so far, but I agree that many characters are much more impressive in their MOTU200X versions. Sometimes I like both... which is the same reason I can happily own Animated, Bayformer, and classics versions of the same characters. They might not stand side-by-side on the self, but if it's a good toy, I'll give 'em a chance. :) 

    Well, except for size, and some degree of styling... and a truck mode that looks more credible. That's still something.
    Agreed. The Classics "Fairlady Z" mold isn't quite satisyfing for me either.

    Again, I agree on those points. But I don't think this Trailbreaker is necessarily a symbol of Bayformer pollution in IDW's G1 either. :) 

    zmog
     
  10. RedAlert Rescue

    RedAlert Rescue Banned

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    When I say Bayverse I mean any Transformer that contains a lot of randomly split up panels and that might have quite skinny limbs with bits stuck on them. I don't mean that it looks exactly like 2007 Megatron or Bumblebee (or has mono-optics, goat legs or claws) I'm as much thinking of NEST Brawn or Lockdown too.

    It's more down to things like say g1 or Classics jazz has the whole front end of the car on their chest where as Movie jazz the front end of the car is fragmented into pieces and they are re-angled against each other - that's what I mean.

    As a (former) Microman collector (as they don't really make it any more [sadface] :(  ) I can confirm that the 1974 date on Megatron and Soundwave does not date their original date of design but the dates mean the following ;

    1974 is the date for the overarching Microman toy lines existance 1980 and 1982 is the date for the beginning of the 'New Microman' line and for the Microchange and Diaclone line that evolved from that. So it's like cascading registration dates the newer one is his true design date of 1982 Soundwave/Cassetteman was designed in 1982 and released in the Microchange line in 1983. Microcassette recorders of that design were not even invented until the 1980's. if there's a reissue toy that has a newer date on it then that usually means they made a new mould.

    There's some people on these boards who have studied patent law so they will tell you better than I can though that is the gist of it.
     
  11. cuters

    cuters Diabolist

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    cool but i still want a g1 classic,s verse trailbreaker this just will not do on my autobot shelf.
     
  12. kajobaldisimo

    kajobaldisimo Well-Known Member

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    very cool design.

    not trailbreaker.
     
  13. SMOG

    SMOG Vocabchampion ArgueTitan

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    Interesting... I've always found that date stamp really amazing and slightly confusing. I'd always known that Japan was a bit ahead of North America in terms of the latest gadgets, but I always thought it was pretty impressive to think that they had micro-cassettes way back in '74, and that Soundwave's design could actually be that old. Thanks for clearing that up. I'm both enlightened and somewhat disappointed. :) 

    zmog
     
  14. RedAlert Rescue

    RedAlert Rescue Banned

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    Yeah they rushed out the Diaclone toys into making them Transformers so quickly that some Transformers still had the original Diaclone sticker sheets when they shipped.

    Poor Ol' Microman the 1st Line from the 1980's was dented by Gundam and then Killed off by Transformers and then the Modern Microman line was dented by kids growing older younger and killed off in favour of Revoltech by the Takara-Tomy merger/buyout.

    I hope Takara and Hasbro cooperate and bring it back again via New Micronauts in the not to distant future. (hoping that New Micronauts if made is not so totally different that it does not work as a follow up to Microman too).
     
  15. SMOG

    SMOG Vocabchampion ArgueTitan

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    Sunstreaker's red shoulders being one notable example.

    I loved my Micronauts as a kid. Repto, Kronos and especially Centaurus were regularly terrorizing the rest of my collection of Star Wars stooges, and the Hornetroid was a force to be reckoned with. But then, that's not really Microman, is it? I did also have a small army of Time Travellers with various misplaced limbs and tummy engines. :) 

    I've got some of the later Microman stuff, like Robotman Baron, and the later BBI 12" cyber ninjas. Kind of sad that series with such a legacy fizzled out.

    zmog