Found this guy's Artstation page today. He seems to have been the one to design the initial alt mode designs for the PotP Terrorcons, Slash (seems she had dual daggers originally), WFC Hound, Optimus Prime and seekers, as well as some Series 1 Botbots - and some even wilder designs like a giant transforming Botbot fridge (their Metroplex?)  

Aaron Gray




Also, he drew the "vote for X character" versus set artwork - Impactor vs Mirage, Needlenose vs Tracks, Wheeljack vs Spinister. As well as the PotP Optimus Primal fan vote illustration.

 

WOAH! Some of those alternate WFC designs look really GOOD!

 

Yeah, would not have minded hovercar Sideswipe, and having all those guns on Megatron.

 

It's weird that all those Sideswipe designs look more creative and Cybertronian than the one they went with (which is essentially just a slightly sleeker version his Earth mode). I understand if they didn't want to go too out-there with the hovercars, but any of those uncolored sketches would have been a fine middle ground. Even some of those Optimus designs look a bit more alien.

I always find it frustrating when someone has great designs, and scraps them in favor of something more generic. That seems to have happened a lot with The Force Awakens. They had some really cool designs for the First Order Tie Fighters, and they ended up just making them color-reversed versions of the OT Tie Fighters.

 

Not feeling this design at all:


I'm so glad we didn't get this Primal in Kingdom. Once they finish BW in the current aesthetic then I'm would be glad to see this kind of robotization of beast modes for those who like these kind of designs. The current aesthetic is exactly what I want, so please HasTak overlords don't deviate from that for now.
Overall I give it:

 

These BotBots concepts need to happen.

 

I want those botbots and hovercar sideswipe. SOMEONE 3D PRINT WHEEL REPLACEMENTS AND WHATNOT!!!

 

FWIW that's not Kingdom Primal art, it's from POTP.

 

Fairly certain that's Power of the Primes concept art. Instead of that Primal, we got this Primal:

 

Siege seeker alt mode looks about 100X better than what we got, but maybe a little to close to a BSG Viper?
the one on the page of alt modes is even better.

those alternate Sideswipes are niiiiiice.

I can rant for days about the incredibly lame design aesthetic of the SW Sequel trilogy. Say what you will about the prequels, most of the designs were: creative, unique, interesting and FELT like Star Wars, the sequel trilogy designs were dull, creatively bankrupt and all "the same but..."
X-wings: "The same but 2 intakes and scissor wings"
A-wings: "the same but stretched out"
B-Wigns: "The same but pointier"
Y-Wings: "the same but more 70s"
Tie Fighters & AT-ATs: "the same but bulkier"

that, or they are just painfully generic.
 

(and super weird when you look at Rouge One which added several new ships & Troopers to the canon that felt perfectly at home in the universe, but totally unique)

 

I really dig Sideswipe #3. Looks very cyberpunk-ish.

 

Blot's tiny arms!

 

Those Terrorcons give me Cyberverse vibes.

 

this kinda hurts... imagine if we got this instead wow

 

TransTech vibe fore sure.

I wished they had made some toys based on TransTech, those designs were RAD!

P.S. Somebody, somewhere has that GROOVY TransTech Starscream and I'd love to see a YouTube review of it.

 

The Sideswipe concepts, esspecially the first one, has some RID '15 vibes

 

And instead they went for minimum effort g1 earth vehicles but slightly different..... Man seige was a letdown for what it could have been.

 

Uh, is that BOXIMUS a thing? Because if not, it needs to be.



And is that a bonsai Botbot too (Botbonsai?). That's great.

 

That is what my Siege Prime will look like in a few months. (hopefully)

 

Ain't no such thing.

The fact that they tried these different designs tells me the issue wasn't effort. More likely the PTB wanted to play it safe and stick to more familiar vehicles rather than go full WFC/FOC.