“Blowout: Defective Model” Over the years, Hasbro has used several Megatron toys as the basis for new characters (with varying degrees of redecoing). The most well-known of these is Megaplex, the winged robot in the upper left. He was released in the Machine Wars line, and his packaging bio explained that he was Megatron's "decoy." This idea actually goes back to the heyday of G1, when small monochrome rubber figures of various Transformers were included with the standard toys as a promotion. They were also called "decoys," and naturally there was one of Megatron. Rounding out the group is Archforce from G2, who looks nearly identical to Hero Megatron because he was simply the European release of that toy. His packaging bio was basically Megatron-ish, but no acknowledgement was given for his uncanny resemblance. G2 also gave us Blowout, whose toy is just Go-Bot Megatron cast in translucent plastic. This resemblance was likewise left unexplained, though his gun's ability to "draw energy from distant stars" sounds a bit like Megatron's ability to "connect [his] cannon interdimensionally with a black hole, where it can draw on anti-matter as its power source." Thing is... Blowout is an Autobot! My own explanation for all this is that these characters are indeed Megatron clones, but for some reason Blowout's programming went awry, and he wants to switch sides. Now... knowing all that, bonus points to anyone who can name the three Autobots he's headed towards! Comments/crits? - Jackpot
Great action, awesome picture! It looks like the lowermost Autobot is G2 Go-Bot Prime, and the middle one is G2 Hero prime, but I have no clue about the other one.
You're definitely on the right track with the two Primes, but it's not actually them. Think about the theme that the other characters have going.... DINGDINGDING! That's one! A bonus point for you, sir. Thank you! It always feels good to put one out there. I'm currently experimenting with a way to work it into my schedule more regularly. If all goes well, I might be able to crank out about one per month, but we'll have to see. (I can already tell December is probably going to be too busy for that...) Thanks! This started out with me pondering what Archforce's deal might be, whether he's a Megaplex-type, and it all grew from there. It was originally a Maccadam's vignette in my head, the three 'Cons around a table nursing drinks, covered in injuries from their hazardous work, and glaring at Blowout, who's on the edge of a group of 'Bots. But that image would work better as a background thing than the focus of a piece, and I don't have any plans for another Maccadam's pic yet, so I figured I could play it as a battle scene instead. I think it turned out all right, and if it's appealing enough to make folks care about this little chunk of TF arcana, then I can call it a success.
One piece of artwork from you would make me happy, man! I've been a fan of your TF artwork since around 2000, when I ventured back into the hobby I know I've probably said that before, but every time you share your work here, it really takes me back to the days when I was looking at your Machine Wars work
Thunderclash (Europe release of MW Optimus Prime), Sureshot (Europe release of Hero Prime), and the only thing I can guess since you said it's NOT Go-Bot Optimus Prime would be GoBot Firecracker (as he too is clear like Blowout) but is also an Autobot. Awesome work Jackpot, I love your art, always have
DINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDING Bravo sir! One bag of bonus points for you! (For what it's worth, I don't have any particular explanation for why there are a bunch of Optimus doppelgangers like the Megatron ones... maybe there's been a Primus apotheosis outbreak...) Thank you! I'll keep sharing it here when I have the time to make it.
