Exactly. It’s getting to the point of feeling like I’m drowning in it. Unless G1 is put on the backburner for a while, I maybe forced to stop supporting Transformers.
People like to see characters they love and hold adoration for faithfully recreated on the big screen to appeal to their inner child and the nostalgia that has kept them on board for upwards of thirty years? What a bunch of fucking weirdos!
It's interesting, my thoughts on G1 seem to be reversed from a lot of fans. I tend to agree that G1 is feeling played out, but I actually want to see more G1 in the movies. Mainly because it's still pretty new (we've only had one G1-themed movie). I'm hoping for a solid trilogy or so of G1-themed movies. But I'm getting a bit tired of G1 elsewhere. Stuff like Cyberverse and the Combiner Wars online cartoons are very bland and samey to me. I'm starting to get a little fatigued on the Evergreen/Generations look being used for every cartoon, mobile game, comic, toy, etc. In non-movie material, I'm kind of longing for something a bit different. I miss the newness of something like the RID2015 designs. Or even the Animated designs, which are "G1-ish", but have a very distinct art style. I do hope future movies aren't overly faithful. I think blending G1-like designs with new stuff like Shatter and Dropkick keeps it feeling fresh. I want it to be a "G1-inspired" universe, but not "Evergreen/Generations: The Movie", if that makes sense.
^Exactly, Just give it a G1 vibe, But don't overdose it. No matter how anyone feels, TLK Megs had that vibe, A bucket head, A attached cannon, He felt like a work of piece of art. G1 is fine, But I feel Animated/TFP and bayverse gave a new feel of transformers. Thats all I must say. And I have no regrets.
I'd say so, It'd keep them unique and freshness. Which can be proven done. Dropkick and Shatter is matter proof of that.
Evolving is nice and all as long as it doesn't look like shit. A good chunk of Bayformer designs are terrible and don't even look like the characters they are representing. That's not called evolving, that's making an entirely new character who happens to have the same name. A good example of evolution is something like TFP—regardless of what we think of the narrative of that show, the character designs are faithful to the characters they represent while still retaining creative liberty here and there. The designs don't have to be 1:1 to G1, but they should still be instantly recognizable to the average fan without being told beforehand.
Yeah, no, TLK Megatron looked terrible. Oh, sure, he had the arm cannon finally...doesnt excuse that his helmet looked like ass (the horns on the cheeks...what is this a shitty cyberdemon knockoff?) and the shitty armor relief made him overall look far too busy. I feel like TLK Megatron only gets a pass because of the arm canon and it still looks like a robot unlike the pile or vomit that was AOE Galvatron. But the reality is TLK Megatron AT BEST is nothing more than a cleaned up version of the 2007 design.
So basically the BB movie's designs outside of the Cybertron Cameos? Because Bumblebee, Optimus, Blitzwing, Shatter, and Dropkick are all perfect blends of what people call "G1" and movie. Because really, "G1" in this regard is simply "Not-Bayformers." And again, we need to realize everyone besides who I just mentioned was hastily thrown together to pad out the Cybertron battle. To compare a bunch of kitbashed placeholders to fully developed designs is unfair. They didn't have the time or resources to give Soundwave, Shockwave, etc the same level of detail and refinement as Prime or BB, who are both fantastic blends of traditional TF blockiness with movieverse elements and complexity. Bumblebee especially may be one of my favourite TF designs ever simply because of how brilliantly he blends styles and evokes his character. Assuming future TF films will put even half as much effort into the other characters as was put into BB himself, I'm all for this "G1- hybridzation." I mean, he didn't. He just didn't match the rest of the movie's aesthetic at all, nor would he fit in a G1 movie. I know, right, what Megatron would have horns!? I mean, I'll shit on TLK till my ass runs dry, but that Megatron was a serious step-up from previous Megatron designs. And not just in the movies. Across all media, after TFA Megs every Megatron design fell short for me for the character. They were too generic, too ugly, or too basic. TLK Megs worked in the knight motif way better than Optimus, (not that the knight thing isn't still misplaced, but at least it wasn't shit) gave him an awesome new melee weapon, a badass jet mode, and he tusk horns were a brilliant way of giving his head a distinct silhouette without falling back on the typical "horns jutting from head" design you see up top. They're not on the cheeks, either, they still come from the head almost like ram horns or some kind of a tiefling. They just swoop down from the panels on the side of the "skull." Megatron has always been a design that is a difficult to reimagine, because it's really a basic design that lacks really distinct, eye-catching elements. The bucket head is famous to fans, but it's nothing that stands out like, say Soundwave or Optimus. It's just too nondescript outside more simplistic styles like G1 or TFA. Optimus has, almost without exception, had the faceplate, head crest, and antenna in just about every incarnation. Those are so iconic to Optimus that other characters run the risk of evoking him if they share these features in that combination. Megatron, by contrast, has like nothing going on outside the bucket and the brow, and the brow is often forgotten. So we get all kinds of new and nutty portraits for him that just abandon any attempt at G1 resemblance unlike Optimus who could easily fit into any new aesthetic. Or you pull a TFP and just give him an awful, awful fucking head design which is too simple and just looks silly not only compared to other characters, but even on his body it doesn't match the otherwise ornate armour aesthetic. (doesn't help that his face looks plain stupid) TLK Megs comes the closest to evoking G1 without being G1, and reinvents that "bucket head" as something recognizable and readable. It's hardly a flawless design, but boy does it feel like a body suitable for Megatron, and it's far from shit. Its worst offense is being in a terrible movie and still being too distinct as "knight Megatron" and not fitting in with the rest of its universe or any other one for that matter. I really dig it, I love the toys of it, but I hope to God we never see it or the knight shit again. There really wasn't anything wrong with the 2007 design except it wasn't cleaned up enough. I still have nostalgia for that design and yeah, its cool that we basically got a do-over without all the mess of busy greeble and gunk that made up virtually everything on TF1 Megs from the neck down.
It wasnt the fact he had horns, it was the fact he had horns around his chin. The helmet just looked like an afterthought.
Thats just a matter of preference. AOE Galvatron was a big step up outside the first three designs of Megatron. Galvatron was more blockly. Blockly shoulders, Flat surface arms, And not overly complex. But reality TLK Megs wins that over all design changes, Because hes simple yet complex, Which I love. I will repear, This is incline of preference. Pretty much. While people have different preferences of TLK. I enjoyed and loved the movie. I usually ignore the faults and just enjoy the film. I think TLK Megatron had a great mix between ROTF and TFP. Really felt those vibes from him. And of his horns, Megatron's horn's are completely fine, Which inclined of what you have stated is quite clear.
We need some new character renders soon. Here's a comparison of two designs. Let's not drag the thread too much. Would hate to see it close too.
If they adapted some variation of this design for Megatron for the Bumblebee sequels, I'd be cool with that. I'm still curious what the movie's actual "G1 style" Megatron looked like before the scene was cut.
I think Shatter and Dropkick have become two of my favorite designs in the whole brand. They're not too detailed, and not too blocky. They do a great job looking like alien robots while still having identifiable vehicle parts. I love Shatter's weird mouth that's 'not quite a mouth', but is also not animalisitc or beast-like. A lot of robot/alien mouths tend to either look overdone and hokey, or look too human. I also love that Shatter has wings that aren't just "sticking off the back, Starscream-style". I'm starting get really sick of that design trend, it's so overused. These deigns are filled with creativity, they're just fun to look at.
Are they really next to his chin? They look more like they’re higher up, next to his eyes, where you’d expect downturned horns like that to be: He does have things near his chin, but they just look like the natural chinguards any helmet would have. The way the horns/tusks close up around his head as a battle mask is really creative and felt far more “Transformery” than Prime’s overly elaborate new face mask. Plus, they managed to not only give him a far more readable face, but blended the proportions of his TF1 visage with the flat and “outlined” sunken cheeks of his G1 face. It really feels like a design that was too good for the film, like a lot of effort was put into making a highly readable, highly functional character design and they just wasted every second of it. He looks like a character who’s completely evil and monster ours without being an actual monster. Only thing I don’t like is the unexplained red mark and the face that he has cartoon shark teeth still. They don’t fit the more natural face, I think something more subtle or with more pronounced canines versus and even row of plain triangles would’ve looked better but whatever.
Meh, it's still a trash design to me - but AOE/TLK have really made me fucking hate knight armor style robots. It's all overrated generic crap if they are too humanoid to me these days. And by that I mean GIVE ME SOME FUCKING IDENTIFIABLE ALT MODE KIBBLE. Its like that dumbass design was intentionally made to look as far from being able to transform as possible.
Completely agree. I cannot wait for those model kits just so I can have accurate renditions of them. They’re just badass, and don’t need a gimmick or motif to do it.
I do love shatter and dropkick and I also see them as being towards the height of CGI Transformers design, but I still maintain that it was the way bay SHOT the robots that made them more hated. Shatter is super complex and yeah, she's much more humanoid, but imagine if she was shot in bay's typical "constantly rotating, low down, super in-your-face, ADD" camera style? She'd be much less appreciated than she is now.
that is just simply too many assumptions filled with hate? Anyways are there any good renders of onslaught or long haul?
