opinions on translucent vs yellow plastic chests? i'm torn..

 

What's there to be torn by? There isn't a version available with clear plastic chests. Well, there is but the whole thing is clear, not just the chest. You could buy a set of each and swap in the clear chests (which I honestly was kind of tempted to do) but then you're left with a set that's clear except for their chests, which is the opposite of what you want, so that second set is useless now.

Now if they ever did a set with the toy colors and the clear chests, I'd probably buy that. Especially if they went the extra mile and chromed the wings, antennae, and weapons.

 

No, not that all day. First of all, it's absolutely possible to depict transparent glass in cartoons. You telling me no one ever looks through a window in an 80s cartoon?

The reason they usually make transformer windows a solid color is there's just no reason to go into that level of detail, but of course it's possible, when there's a reason to see what's inside, like a driver.

OMG you can see through hounds windshield


OMG you can see through huffers front windshield


OMG you can see through the exosuit helmet!


And Jesus go watch ANY episode of GIJoe and tell.me the vehicle windshields were always opaque. It's just a ridiculous notion.

As I wrote before:

 

wrrd, you're right. the fully translucent ones are interesting x factors, but obviously washed out compared to the stronger colours. i wld love to rage-sell a translucent bug with a solid yellow chest! hilarious.

 

i'm also projecting my epic distaste w ultratoon white xtb aegis chunks... i do want bugs w clear yellow chests and silver/chromed out highlights tho

 

I mean I totally get the desire to have a toy style version, I just find the whole "cartoons couldn't have transparent glass" thing stupid.

 

Not saying you're wrong but which of those is meant to be an orange/yellow window?

 

If you want to make something a colored window, make the detail behind it colored too. Not difficult.

 

[Edit] Nevermind. Decided it's not worth arguing when you know fully well that he was trying to say that it's more difficult to depict transparent glass and that's why the Insecticons were drawn with yellow chests as an effort saving measure. Arguing because a person's word choice is technically inaccurate despite their point being sound is the most useless argument you can make.

 

They were depicted with opaque chests because they didn't have pilots, so no need for glass for anyone to see out of. Yes, it was also easier to draw it that way, I agree, but the reason for going solid metal opaque instead of shiny window-like opaque, as with the other vehicle windshields (most of the time), is obvious.

And I think you need to go back and read the original comment.

"In 1985 there was no way to depict transparent glass in a cartoon."

That's not poor word choice... it's just a flat out wrong statement.

 

1000x yes - I would buy several sets like this. I'm also still jonesin' for a Diaclone color version of this set.

Come on NewAge, take my money already!!!

 

Beat me to it. I was like, "can't do transparent windows? What? Omega Supreme's head, anyone?"

 

Oh, and since you asked...

 

Oh yes? You know for certain that they were depicted with opaque chests in the cartoon? How do you know that? Because it was a flat color? So do you really think that they meant to depict every autobot ever with opaque windows that just occasionally turned transparent for no reason? And they did it because they didn't have pilots: yes, that makes sense. So they said that in an interview or something, right? It's on record that the animators made a conscious decision to depict the Insecticons with opaque chest panels and that their reasoning was that the Insecticons didn't have pilots?

And I did read what he said. And yes, it's inaccurate and overreaching so you chose to use that to ridicule his argument and dismiss it entirely when, again, you knew darn well what he was getting at. Trying to trap someone because of their words is just plain pathetic.

Funny how it starts out opaque and then suddenly turns clear.

 

Yea, as I said before...

"The reason they usually make transformer windows a solid color is there's just no reason to go into that level of detail, but of course it's possible, when there's a reason to see what's inside, like a driver."

So when its far away, its "opaque"... as it gets closer and you need to see what's inside, they draw whats inside.

The toon insecticons don't have cockpits at all though, so they aren't just fake windows, they're not windows at all.

Dunno what else to tell you.

 

Line weight adds up. Try drawing a lot of detail from too far away, like Galvatron in a cockpit window, and it becomes a mess of lines that are hard to read. Save the detail until it doesn't distract from the point.

You can see this in their faction emblems. When the camera is too far away from them, detail is omitted in the drawing, if not the entire emblem. On close-ups they draw it in.

 

So they do draw clear windows as opaque. Which means that, if the insecticons were meant to have clear chest panels, we'd have no way of knowing from any episode of the cartoon because there was never a reason to show inside their chests.

I guess I was too subtle last time? Let me be blunt: show me the source. The animator, designer, or writer who worked on the show that said that the insecticons didn't have clear chests. By your logic (which is correct, of course - they draw them as solid colors when there's no reason to show what's inside) the only conclusion we can draw is that there was never anything behind the Insecticons' clear panels worth showing. We cannot know that they were intended to be opaque. The only source we have to go on, besides animation stills, is the toys which did have clear chest panels. And since we were apparently intended to understand that the blue panels on Optimus' or Bumblebee's chest or the orange domes on Starscream's were clear because they were clear on the toys, we can infer that the Insecticons' chests were clear too because that's how they were on the toys. I mean otherwise we have to look at the source vehicles - Optimus, Bumblebee, and Starscream are vehicles which are known to have clear windows but no equivalent source for the Insecticons exists so we have only the toys to go by.

And, again, let's go back to the original comment. He said that there was no way to show clear glass, which is technically incorrect but according to you there was no reason to show clear glass. It's still a matter of dumbing the toys down to match outdated animation techniques, even if we agree that it is indeed possible to show clear glass (or transparent aluminum or whatever Transformers use for windows). All of this is simply an opinion on the matter of toon accuracy taken to an extreme (that is toon accuracy taken to an extreme, not the opinion being taken to an extreme - wouldn't want to get caught in one of your pedantic word traps) but rather than address that, you decided to focus on his factually incorrect statement which he only made to support his otherwise perfectly valid opinion, and to declare his opinion wrong because you are certain that Insecticons have opaque chests simply because they have no pilots, as if there's no other reason for a clear panel to exist on a robot.

 

Jesus fucking Christ....

You know it's funny, no one ever complains that new dinobot toys don't have clear pieces over non-existent diaclone cockpits.

Because everyone fucking knows the Transformers toon versions don't have cockpits at all.

These are no longer diaclone figures, where they are mindless robots who need a driver. The only reason they have a cockpit or cab is if the alt-mode that was scanned had one too.

 

It's funny how all of these things can be true and not true, just seconds apart in our sacred source material... lol

orange/opaque


still orange/opaque

magically clear!

Stilllll clear


aaaand again orange and opaque

 

Can we get an Ambulance for Rated X and Iron Magnus? I'm pretty sure this is some r/murderedbywords shit right here.