Toys first then animation. cybertron line demonstrates that this method works really well.

 

IF it were possible in real toys; would you actually want to go through the exact process of a movieverse CGi transformation ?

I don't think so...

But if you enforce the character designer to adhere to the limitations of toy engineering, then it is exactly that; a creative limitation. In some cases this can be a good thing, in others, a little less good.

 

I think neither choice listed in the poll is the best solution. I think both toy and show model should be developed simultaneously.

 

My preference is to do what they did so extraordinarily well with Animated: design BOTH simultaneously.

Barring that, I would have to say toys first.

 

Nah. Let the artists do the designs.

Toy designers are plenty capable of turning character models into 3D figures.

 

I agree with several other people here that the toyline and animation models should be developed together as a team effort. That way you get the best looking model that can still be turned into a workable real life toy.

But if I had to choose, I would say make the animation models first. When the characters are done first, they're made to look and move as if they were real beings that could exist somewhere. When the toys are done first, you risk having cartoon characters that truly look like plastic toys, unless you go the G1 route and fudge the designs.

I'm surprised that some enterprising fan hasn't attempted it. It would be a huge project to design a toy with THOUSANDS of tiny parts and an absurdly complicated transformation, but I bet there's someone out there who could do it.

 

They should focus on making the toys first, which is created on the computer and use those models for the tv show.

 

They essentially did that for Energon and Cybertron. The end result was often too literal designs, which didn't flow and emote well, that often had clipping issues, where the animators tried to get the characters to do more dynamic things that the toys couldn't achieve.

Ew.


I'd rather the art not be compromised for the sake of being toyetic.

That said, I'd also appreciate if the animation designers didn't do blatantly impossible and cheaty things like with Arcee, where a good chunk of her bike mode parts essentially don't mass-shift with the rest of her, so they stay tiny and unobtrusive, where on the toys, the result is that she winds up with large chunks of kibble.

But having to stick a couple of fake wheels on Cliffjumper's butt because it's impossible for the toy engineering to work that way? I don't really have a problem with that. It's a largely unobtrusive detail, and only sticks out if you're anal retentive about it.

 

I like having the show first. It let's me get a feel for the characters, and from there I decide which ones I want. I don't want a repeat of last year, where I bought the Dreads, only to have them be "hi and die" characters.

 

I agree. It makes figures like Buster Prime that much more astounding.

 

Whatever Animated did, I prefer that. Incredibly accurate yet simple toys, while the TV show characters don't look undynamic like in Energon/Cybertron.

 

The show models gotta come first and the toys must wait, unlike in G1 where the toys- I mean, characters looked different than their toys but even then, I'm not sure if Hasbro and Takara would've been able to engineer 60% accurate G1 toys at the time. Toys come second as it's kinda more impressive if it shows much accuracy to the model.

 

Yeah, i kind agree they design the figures while the show is going on.This allows fan to character connection and more accuracy with the figures.Some people are using Cybertron as an example but lets be honest here,they only take like 10-20 sec's to transform.

 

Whichever way would get the wheel into Transformer Prime Arcee's back, along with smaller wings without 'Animated Prowl''s transformation

 

And yet a whole minute and a half on screen! 

 

There is just WAY too much cheating and complexity in toys nowdays. Compromises have to made to make them show accurate, etc.

I think they should start making toys first, and then the cartoons, or at least work together with whoever is animating to get it right.

 

This.

 

Animation first, then toy, but working together for good engineering, look at FE bulkhead or ROTF Prime! they get very close to the animation model, which looked impossible, yet the toys clearly had time to be created as accurate as possible.

 

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How exactly? I we got a universe version of each in 2008 and they were inspired by the animation models.
I would rather have a unique looking Head-Behind-Windshield-Guy than a the generic looking WINDOW-CHEST-ANIMATION-MODEL-GUY