TLK had all these characters that were clearly designed and included for no other reason than to make kid appeal toys, but the movie was so weird and random and not kid-friendly that it ended up making it even more of a mess than it would have been. Isabela, Sqweeks, baby Dinobots, canopy, and probably a couple more I’m forgetting about. So weird.

 

These throwaway guys got a SS release 3 years ago and yet here we are without even a rumor of Frenzy coming to the line

 

I find it weird that the Baby Dinobots never got many toys (aside from the SS toys that were released a couple years after the movie came and went). Seems like the kind of thing tailor-made for all manner of plushies and whatnot.

Kind of feel the same about Sqweeks to a lesser extent. Sure he got a few toys, but he wasn't nearly as prominent as you'd expect. I mean, compare him against someone like BB-8, Bumblebee, or Baby Yoda, who basically became franchises in themselves. It's like the TLK writers (or producers) wanted a cutesy BB-8-esque character, but Hasbro realized Sqweeks was kind of ugly and unappealing and didn't really push him any more than the other Autobots. Bee still seemed to take the focus. Sqweeks was barely in the trailers, and didn't even have a lot of screentime. It's like they failed at making a cutesy character. Which shouldn't be that hard. Usually the problem is overdoing it.

On a side note, I find it hilarious that Baby Yoda has quite literally become a brand in himself. A lot of current Star Wars merch is actually branded as "Mandalorian: The Child". Baby Yoda is basically carrying the whole franchise on his shoulders at this point.

 

My mother in law sent me some baby yoda thing in a text once and I responded with "may the force be with you" and she said "what?"  

 

Just in time for the SS figure to come out and for me to start thinking about which areas to paint! Thanks!

 

Yeah it's weird especially considering it's pretty obvious there only reason for existing is to sell merch like a BB8 which was for sure what Squeeks was.

Wow, what a fake fan.

 

Power Master Optimus. By Josh Nizzi

 

Did my best to make this look a little more finished:




I may have made him slightly too crispy.

 

While I'm not a fan of Megatron's head design in general (both before and after) in regards to the first live action movie at least they had a fairly humanoid structure to them (though I tend to find the pointy teeth pretty goofy).

Those final / semi-final head designs were at least better than whatever these renders were meant to be:

 

Wasn't that supposed to be a battle mask that closed over his face during combat?

 

I don't think so? The face looks entirely different to the ones we got later on.

 

I can’t remember exactly but I think this was at one point supposed to be a battle mode but then it was probably scrapped it, became what the concept art shows, then finally what we got in the end.

 

Don't tell me those blue things are his eyes

 

Somehow I really like this design. Is it awful? Yes it's freaking awful, yet i find it so amusing.
Maybe its the menacing face, that looks good on a still image, but it wouldn't have translated well into the big screen once in motion.

 

I think I'm kind of in a similar boat, honestly. The weird-looking eyes so close to the toothy mouth and a small face in general... there's something lovable about it.

 

Can anyone cut out this Optimus?

 

There's a full poster of it to the Right. Hopefully someone took a photo of it.

 

Fixing SS Galvy with better render artwork

 

Curious if Takara Tomy displays a render like this for the Fallen.