Hi there. See, recently, while searching for G1 Cyclonus images, I came across "the" interview with Floro Dery for the first time. I didn't know anything about him, or who he even was, but upon finding the interview, of course I was eager to read first hand info from the "original concept designer" of the movie Transformers, and someone who originally worked on season 1 and 2. Surely bits of wisdom, and unknown tidbits of working behind the scenes would be revealed in this interview! I was so blown away, no, outright disgusted with this interview! Throughout the entire thing, he contradicts himself, dodges simple questions, misunderstands other questions, and appears to simply just not know much about TFs at all, yet is claiming that he "singlehandedly designed the look of the Transformers", then talks about assistants and copying box art, claims he alone is responsible for the movie characters designs, yet acknowledges many people worked on them and changed them, which means the "original concept designs" weren't even used! Jeez, he points that out about 7 times in these intervies and it's all over his site. Immediately I located his website, where I located two other interviews. Surely enough, my original impressions were spot-on. He doesn't appear to even remember much of what he's even demanding credit for. I'll post 3 links to the interviews, for convenience, then I'm going to post specific quotes beneath...this guy really irritates me. I wish I could interview him and try to make some sense out of the guy. My new hobby is ousting Floro Dery as an egomanic fool. Here's the links: http://www.geocities.com/extraordinarypino...ANSFORMERS.html http://members.aol.com/tfencyc/interview_dery.html http://www.geocities.com/extraordinarypino...yInterview.html Here's some direct quotes, and then a response from me: (dery in gray) First, we have: I did not choose comics. It was the only opportunity I had during that time. But I'm very good at it Do I even have to comment on that one? Comics is a difficult profession. It involves a lot of practice, experience, and persistence. Only artists with talent can become comics illustrators Really? Have you ever met Rob Liefeld? ok, more transformer based idiocy: "The Japanese designed the toys and I designed the cartoons for animation based on those toys, but very few of my cartoon designs were based on the toy box art" Yet, then he also claims: "What I do know is that the animation cartoon designs for the first season of the Transformers series came from Japan. I simplified it further and my assistants did the clean-up. Alrighty then. So which is it? The question: Newer characters like Smokescreen, Hoist, and Ramjet, were actually based on repaints of first-season toys (Bluestreak, Trailbreaker, and Starscream, in this case). I'm especially curious about your decision to go with the "conehead" look for Ramjet, since the toy instructions don't actually tell you to transform him that way. I did not deliberately change the second season characters from the first. Usually, aside from the above reasons, any artist who designs something over and over again, by time, his/her work will become different. And about Ramjet, he had a "conehead" because he is a jet. It is the front, pointed part of the jet. It is the result of the transformation, from a jet to a robot. Too frustrated to reply. If there was box art, then I would copy it. But most of the time I based my animation designs on the toys. And of course it is easier to copy box art, than to base a design on a toy. You have to use dramatic staging and exaggeration. But I thought the first season animation designs were finished and you simplified them? And ooooo, dramatic staging and exaggeration! How professional you are! For the Transformers series, the Japanese were the designers of the toys. For the Transformers movie, I am the designer of the toys. I was not told that the characters I designed in the movie would become toys. Sigh. My original design for Cyclonus has fixed wings. When it is transformed into robot mode, the wings can be folded. The Japanese toy engineers probably could not figure out my design because Hasbro never communicated with me.So, the engineers probably made the wings detachable because they had difficulty figuring out how to transform it. What Hasbro came up with is an additional flight mode for space travel to justify it. Yeah, I'm sure those Japanese ENGINEERS had a hard time figuring out your designs. Conceited son of a ... Hasbro had no input and never communicated with me. I wasn't even involved in any meetings at Marvel studios. I did it all by myself, without anyone else's input. Everyone else just picked up on my designs. How is that even possible? Is he saying he wrote the entire movie and came up with every idead, concept and story in it? Because if Marvel "had no input into what he was doing" then that is exactly what he is saying. I have two version of Autobot City. The first one was not used because it was too big and too complicated for animation. It looked like a hand that closed and opened. This was my most beautiful design, my masterpiece. I initially wanted to post it on my web site, but someone wanted to use it for free in a movie. Thus, I didn't post it. For the second one, I used New York City as my model. The producer wanted me to model my design after the toy. I got lazy and didn't want to change my design anymore, so I just added some parts similar to the toy on top of my original design to accommodate the producer. Yeah, I'm sure a hand-shaped city was too big and hard to animate. Hello??? UNICRON?!?!?! IDIOT! No one liked the hand, THAT'S why it wasn't used! Get over yourself! No, Unicron is my own original concept design. Even the planet transforming into a robot is my original idea. That's why my credit in the movie is original concept designer. Maybe Takara copied my design because a lot of fans wanted a Unicron toy Again, he's trying to claim that he wrote the ideas and direction of the film. I'm 100% certain someone asked him to design a transforming planet, I mean, that's what the whole damn movie is centered around! Come on! I did not leave the show. After I finished the movie I was laid off by Marvel Studios. Since, I dominated the show and "I became the Transformers", they probably had to get rid of me. I created too many designs, that they no longer needed me. Or maybe because no one wanted to be around you. I just came up with appropriate designs with minimal input from them. Wait, I thought you did it with NO input from them. God you suck; Floro. There's a couple of things I need to point out. He seems to be misunderstanding the difference of "creator" and "designer." He keeps referring to all this as though he created it all himself, but he didn't, he just drew something that already existed, or in the case of the movie, someone told him to, which means he "interpreted' someone's idea, and designed the visual aspect. He didn't write the freakin' movie, people came to him and said "we need two new jet transformers, a planet transformer, a decepticon leader," etc. Then he drew what they requested. He gets so hung up on "I drew the designs, but then the studios and comics just copied those..." yet, all he did for season 1 and 2 was copy and interpret already existing characters! It's the same thing! It's so ridiculous for him to complain that the movie comic artist "just copied his designs". DUHH!! They were drawing a film adaptation! Were they supposed to re-design the look of the characters? WTF! If 1 person draws a picure, then 7 other people change it before it's used, then you are not singlehandedly responsible for the movie design. For someone who is so proud of his degrees, he really misses very basic, simple concepts. After reading how this guy thinks, it's no wonder no one wanted him at the studio! Jeez! All day he was probably walking around telling people how great he was, going to people's desks and pointing out "I designed that" and talking about his degrees. I was going to cut and paste all the conceited remarks about himself, but you can read the interviews for that. Just one more, then I'm done for now. The question: I've got a few specific questions from the episodes themselves. In the first episode, before the characters crashed on Earth, we got to see a few of their Cybertronic vehicle forms, which naturally looked nothing like the vehicle modes they would later turn into on Earth. Their robot modes never changed, though--Jazz always had Porsche headlights on his chest, for example. Do you know why the characters we saw on Cybertron didn't have different-looking robot forms to match their Cybertronic vehicle modes? FD: The vehicle mode were given different styles in order to blend in with the environment on Earth. The robot wasn't changed because it is still alien. A robot stays a robot. Again, COULD YOU PLEASE ANSWER THE QUESTION????
Well, I mean...come on. Have you seen the dude's website? It's not like Transformers was the sole property that he's worked on. Dery's had his fingers in plenty of pies over the course of the 1980s AND, like most people who work in film, HE PROBABLY JUST WANTS MONEY. ...so, would he care about answering the questions? Likely, no.
He probably had the biggest input in the overall visual design of the cartoon & movie. And yeah, the cartoon characters are significantly different to the style sheets. No he didn’t draw everything, think of him as the Pat Lee of the cartoon...... just with a little more mad professor, and a little less breasts. The guy is clearly eccentric, but I don’t think he’s worth getting so frustrated over.
There was a thread at the Allspark recently where someone who claimed to be a close associate of Floro Dery's accused everyone who didn't like Floro's work of being a racist. Because Floro's a Filipino, and everyone who doesn't like his work must hate Filipinos. He would start lots of "anti-racism" threads until someone pointed out that Don Figueroa is also a Filipino. And widely idolized by the fandom. The guy never posted again.
Links first and third: Sorry, the page you requested was not found. Anyway, I like Floro Dery's work, but who knows if it's the truth? Spent about 1/2 hour downloading the art and printing the web pages from the middle link. The interview is terrible as most of the questions seem to be dodged, or is it a language issue? Anyway, it's a fun speculation. I also think it's quite funny that the "The inspiration for The Matrix came from a thrermonuclear bomb! Just imagine Optimus Prime pulling a bomb from his chest in the Movie? An attmept to assassinate Ultra Magnus?
Has it ever crossed your mind that Floro might have misinterpreted the questions because he isn't fluent in english?
Dum dum dum! Though looking aside the inconsistencies, I really like the concept art used for the animated movie.
^^^^ Quoted for truth,after all you're not in the guy's head.Maybe he just did misinterpret Secondly WHY does it matter anyway.The 80's toon died in '87,so what's the point in complaining about this guy now?
I don't know if it is a language thing or whatever but he does seem to have some...let's say "off color" ideas about things. If these interviews are current it's also possible that his memory of what exactly went down has been skewed over time. Regardless, he is very talented and you *can* see the influence he had on the G1 cartoon visually pretty plainly once you're familiar with his style. I'm not sure if you interpreted all that was said in those interviews exactly the way he meant them SentinelPrime, but if so then yeah, the guy is a little full of himself. It's hard for people with lots of talent to maintain an egoless attitude, sadly. Also, I just want to add, I always thought it was John Romita Sr. that lead the "re-designing" of characters from toy to cartoon/comic model Was I totally wrong? It seems Floro is claiming to have done that instead.
They are about five years old, if not older. Romita had never been confirmed, and thus once the Floro interviews popped up, the "Romita designed the cartoon models" story was quickly written off as outdated misinformation.
Dude, he created doors. He designed them with no input from anyone, and then carpenters and manufacturers copied his idea.
Try 3,5. The interview in the one link that works is dated July 2002. The first time Floro Dery even came up in the discussions on alt.toys.transformers was in April 2002, when one of his friends started preaching Dery's gospel, and the first interview popped up about a month later, if I remember correctly.
