I know I have the Megatron, Rodimus, and Grimlock from this line packed away somewhere. The Megatron I remember was meh, the Rodimus was ok and I liked the fully integrated transformation, and the the Grimlock probably my favorite of the 3. The line had some good potential, but was poorly executed.

 

I love seeing these prototypes.
I had seen them before, but they faded into my brain.

While I lament any of Don's designs going unused, I can not lament Titanium figures being unproduced.
Even that amazing looking Cosmos would probably have ended up being displayed in vehicle mode only -assuming the vehicle mode stayed together.

Ooh boy.

That kind of sums it up.
I think the designers threw darts at the blueprints and wherever they landed they put the die-cast metal.
I do think its funny that the Megatron in the picture is among the worst offenders.
AutobotTurbine accidentally included the best of the worst.

 

Pre-Earth Bumblebee is kinda neat...till you look at it from the back. That butt flap, oof. Kinda weird that the cartoon design from episode 1 wouldn't be realized until 15 years after the fact.

And a lot of Arcee toys that went unmade seem like mercy killings to me. The gray proto of the Titanium one is just...oh boy.

 

I need a Tap-Out version.

 

I have Rodimus and Menasor. I would have bought that Bumblebee.

 

Yeah, I’ve heard absolutely nothing good about that figure, but I still love that robot mode design and really, really want an actual member of the Transformers team to take a crack at it.

 

Those are cool, but no way could Titanium Series achieved these transformations, they weren't really that capable as Transformers. I suppose Arcee's thunder thighs are to accommodate the sliding mechanism. And as for Bumblebee's bumblebustle...

 

If that Cosmos was ever made I don't think I would have ever wanted another.

 

Definitely a nice looking Cosmos despite not being G1 accurate.

 

An UNRELEASED Bumblebee, sacrilege! But if they did release it, I'd be down for one for that beautiful alt mode.

 

Of course, we have better versions of all of these today, but I remember being really angry we lost out on these. At the time, the best "Shockwave" we had was Energon Shockblast, after all., and this would have been the first proper G1 Arcee.
I remember seeing the prototypes shown at a Botcon, never knew Don Figueroa designed these!
Arcee skimps out on the rear of the car mode, but as a result she has no kibble in robot mode.
I think there was also a pretty awesome Cosmos too.

 

Another reminder of how much I miss seeing DON artwork in the mainstream.

 

I hate that Don’s legacy with Transformer toy designs is tainted by the Titanium figures. He’s been designing and building his own Transformers for decades (who remembers his MASSIVE Macromaster figures?). The designs are fantastic. He was just stuck with a team that had no idea what they were doing, and it’s their fault the figures are so bad.

Does anyone still have the photos of the Voyager Classics Optimus Prime figure at its original intended scale - deluxe? That design working as a deluxe at the time blew my mind. We wouldn’t see anything close to that again for over a decade.

 

Yeah, the Titanium line is a fascinating beast. It's a designer-driven line (IIRC Don did all the designs for it) with some REALLY COOL picks and deep cuts, but unfortunately implemented by a design team new to Transformers.

There's some solid pieces in it though. I still love that Titanium Cheetor, which a) is Beast Machines because nobody told Don WHICH Cheetor to use so he picked BM b) is still my favorite BM Cheetor toy. OpOp was pretty good too, and Rodimus/Fallen were solid designs as well (though Fallen had some big issues of course with his backpack flopping around).

 

I would have totally dug Shockwave. At least he has a gun mode.

 

it's magically still here, scroll down a bit  

TakaraTomy Staff interview from Generations 2009 vol.1 Translation

 

Damn, these would of been awesome to get back in the day. That Arcee aged badly, but I would of still kept her just for the history of Arcee's toy evolution. I mean, I still got all of my Titanium figures, even diaperwave.

 

Its funny how most of the Arcee engineering ended up inspiring the figure of Thrilling line.
And I really dont understand why Hasbro dont hire Don to make desings.

 

Wow, love Don's designs! I don't give him enough credit.

Er, more like a quarter. And many of these were meant to be Cybertronian alt-modes, so they were purposely given incomplete looks.

'Tis true.

The bad 1's, no. They were ter-Ribble.
But there were some great 1's, like Scourge, and Rodimus Prime who Transformed from robot to full future-truck. Same with Ultra-Magnus that was so hard to find.

 

Arcee and Bee look oddly familiar don\'t they?
Arcee reminds me of Toyworld Leia
Bee reminds me of Maas Toys Skiff
Seems like they took inspirations from these.
Also, Shockwave looks just as awesome.