Artist Ken Christiansen, via his Facebook account, treated us with his Earthrise Scorponok Concept Art. All images on the news post below. Earthrise Doubledealer Concept Art By Ken Christiansen - Transformers News - TFW2005
From the waist up he's incredible, but i find his legs really hinky. They're open and the joints on my copy are really sloppy. But the transformations are really clever, and the modes all look amazing. Theres some steps on the legs where you have to collapse this double hings in order to make the body of the truck shorter for bird mode and that step is a little scary, but he's a real blast to handle otherwise. You get a ton of accessories to bash on however you want too which is fun. It's a really good modern Doubledealer, and he looks extra great if you can get his powermaster friends.
I believe the OP is referring to Knok and Skar: The original G1 Doubledealer toy had a gimmick where, depending on what Powermaster Doubledealer used, he could turn into an Autobot Robot with Knok (the red-and-blue bot), or a Decepticon bird (vulture? eagle?) with Skar (the bat).
Not just a good ER figure, but really fantastic in general. Looks badass, has a great missile accessory, and is very G1-esque.
The one thing I dont understand on this figure is the knee problem. It seems like the pegs were deliberately designed to be unable to turn the wrong way for transformation, but instead of stopping they just end up popping out of their sockets. It doesn\'t make a lot of sense. And then they made the mushroom slot as inaccessible as possible. I\'m wondering if cutting off that peg would significantly affect the joint.
This is a weird one. Doubledealer's eagle mode looks basically just a mishmash of truck parts with wings and claws and a head. So why not ask him to design all three parts? Why Japan changed Powermasters to Godmasters... maybe it's the old Arthur C. Clarke adage, "Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic." Japan is still a pretty superstitious country. If you have the G1 toy... he is basically that, but with better articulation. People deride his legs/knees but that is necessary to be like that for the transformation, since the G1 toy had those type of joints too. And the extra option to add his Powermasters on him as casette remolds is awesome.
I'm not sure if this is accurate, but I recall reading or hearing somewhere that in Japan the English word "god" is used to mean "power."
Hot take: I always thought Doubledealer's eagle mode was supposed to be a buzzard or a vulture mode. If only because eagles are usually good guys and buzzards and vultures are, y'know, bad guys.
how often do we get concept art of figures? is there any threads here that just has a bunch of concept art that I can check out because I always find this type of stuff interesting.
Yeah, I always assumed this was the case as well. The box said falcon, but that really does look like a vulture or a buzzard. At least the head does. Not as many vultures have Soviet Europe missile truck torsos these days.
One of the best leaderclass figs of late. A triple changer. He's got shoulder to side swivel, double jointed elbows, minimum hollow parts, wrist swivel, a big efing gun and the cash grab Knock and Skar GS release. Also, Hb/Takara didn't scrimp on the paint apps leaving him looking almost a carbon copy of the original G1 fig(except for the wheel rims) I hope this will help you decide as such.
I was always under the impression it was supposed to be a condor. Or yes, similarly, a vulture/buzzard. Definitely something with an ugly, wrinkly, naked, featherless head. If he was actually labelled as a falcon or eagle at some point, well then that person just plain doesn't know birds. Of course, none of those things have teeth, so he's not "realistically" (y'know, loosely speaking, because he's still got a ballistic missile carrier for a frickin' torso) any of those, anyways.
he is a great figure and I lucked out and got him from Walmart for 38 bucks because the box was damaged but the figure was fine. he very fun to play with and reminds me of my old G1 toy of him except with more detail and movement. the only thing I can warn if you get him.be very careful with the legs as it seems they can make a visible stress mark appear from what I've seen on some videos reviews but so far mine been fine and could have just been a QCI and Hasbro been having that a lot lately with me it seems anyways but other that I can't stop fiddling with him since I got him. I can't wait to get his siege partners so he will be whole again at least in my eyes
