Artist Ken Christiansen has been involved with the Transformers franchise for quite a long time. We have seen a lot of his work in Transformers product packaging and other media. Now, via his Facebook account, he has shared a very interesting initial concept art of new character Ectotron from the Transformers x Ghostbusters crossover.

All images in the news post below:

Ectotron Initial Concept Art By Ken Christiansen - Transformers News - TFW2005

 

This be why no good come of Inferno.

 

Yeah my complaint was that there weren't enough car parts in bot mode....looks like the concept artist agreed with me.

But....it's still very nice

 

Makes me wonder how long it'll take before they start giving these new crossover TFs brand new moulds.
If they have any plans beyond Ectotron, that is.

 

This looks better than the final product, lol

 

Its always like that.

The concept looks WAY better!

 

I guess it would be the case. I can see both the return of Marvel & Star Wars Crossovers. Along with some potential Sonic/ Transformers crossover. Dr Eggman/ Robotnik researching Cybertroinian tech would be an interesting concept.

 

i actraully like thats art better then the box art and the art looks like a cooler transformmation then the toy. 
 

 

That concept art was MUCH better than the final product - reminds me of the original figure concepts of 72 BB from the 2007 movie, which had a MUCH better design as well.

 

ooh, link?

 

Edit: attached referenced artwork from Alexander Kubalsky
Not sure this is the model to which I was referring, as it doesn't appear much different than the final toy - but I'll keep looking.

That said, the torso looks much better in the concept design.

Not only that - but the trans-clear-ant windows of the prototype toy, as well as the original neck armor piece AND the planned rotating forearm panels, would have made the OG figure more accurate as well.

Looks like the forearms were originally gonna have the hands fold into them, as well as be much larger - which would have put the figure closer too.

 

Refined? This looks way better than what they ended up doing.

 

The bot is so bland looking that I plan to keep it displayed in box in car mode. I'm not a MIB collector, but sometimes things just better that way.

I already have enough custom/fix projects to do.

 

I dig the simplicity of the final product - it\'s straight to the point with the Ghostbusters-themed design. That being said, the concept art gives the character more personality and makes him more unique. Also, using that design as the final design probably would have resulted in a slightly more involved and less generic transformation for the toy.

 

Reminds me of Downshift/Big Daddy.

 

Unfortunately, this is another case where the concept art is better than the final product.

If the final design had looked akin to this, particularly with more parts of the vehicle mode integrated into the robot thus making it less “shell former-y”, I would’ve been willing to shell out the $50 for it.

 

While I like the jumpsuit look of final Ectotron, I also really like the more integrated vehicle mode of the concept art.

 

The concept looks a lot better

 

Looks much cooler than the final figure, which was really constrained by being a remold. I'm not sure why exactly you venture into something like this and don't take the opportunity to design something a bit more stylish.

That said, I'm happy the vehicle mode didn't really cut any corners even if the robot mode is very bland. That was the most important part for me.

 

How much input did Cadillac have in the toy layout? I wonder if that factored in a lot of the changes to the final concept, and why they opted for the extensive retool of an existing toy