This looks great! I recall seeing that head, or one very similar, on other concept art for Bumblebee for the '07 movie so its cool to see it there early on too. It has some neat stuff going on, and it looks like the thighs and feet were the inspiration for '77 Deluxe Bumblebee from the 2007 line. If this wasn't the direct inspiration then they are very similar.



Overall this is cool and I'd like to see this design used elsewhere or even get a figure. I still prefer what we ended up getting though!

 

The kibble on the legs and arms is a bit goofy, granted. But I wish he at least kept more design elements from that head Sculpt and definitely the chest! They should've really kept the roof of the car as the chest. Bumblebee =/= Prowl. These transformation elements defined the characters, which is why I don't find BB movie Bumblebee any more G1 accurate than Bay Bee. BB movie is just more childish in esthetic

 

Okay, this would make a pretty sweet toy.

 

I was just asking on this forum a few weeks ago about don.

 

I can see this thing fitting in so well into that toyline that I can\'t help but feel we were robbed.

 

OH MY GOD, Don\'s alive!!!!

 

Wow those legs look almost identical to the 2007 bumblebee toy. Guess that’s where Hasbro got those weird feet from.

 

The drawing looks okay. Howeger, I’m not liking his legs.

 

Thank god this didn't make it into the film

 

It's a shame that such an admirable attempt was left on the cutting room floor and replaced with something much less recognizable. That's not to say they could've altered it a bit / refined a few elements while bringing it to the big screen, but this is just such a better representation of the character than what they ended up with. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if this happened with a majority of the characters: they started out with designs that were actually trying to create 'movie' versions of the classic characters only to eventually end up with designs that (at best) only shared a passing resemblance to their namesakes.

At the very least I know Don also drew some head designs for Optimus Prime that looked pretty damn good.

One of the biggest issues the designers for these movies had is that they seem to value complexity over anything else in regards to character design, possibly based on the misguided notion that the more complicated or bizarre a design is, somehow makes it more realistic, even when we're talking about entirely fictional concepts (for the time being, anyways). It's a tired argument that only sounds good if you don't think about it, and plus the word they're probably looking for when they say 'realistic' is 'believable'... and believability is a super subjective concept.

Now obviously better designs don't somehow make issues with the script non-existent, I think the direction of the designs is simply a symptom of the films larger problems.

 

I hope we see other designs from the first film soon.

 

That's a good point about believability. Regarding realism, I think a distinction needs to be drawn between "realism of presentation" and "realism of design", where the former refers to the way the design is depicted (e.g. lighting, visual weight, etc.) and the latter refers to the technicalities of how the design functions (or would function if it actually existed). I think it's very easy to get caught up in the realism of the Bayverse designs' presentation, owing to the spectacular CGI work of ILM. However, as far as realism of design is concerned, the Bayverse bots aren't really any more realistically functional than most other TF designs.

 

That's absolutely marvelous. If only we could have got this with the head from Bumblebee and the Bayverse battlemask.

We miss you, Don!

 

Give me the BODY

 

Oof, not a fan of those Megatron designs. The bottom two on the right have potential but thank god they didn't go that route.

Loving that Prime head design though!

 

While I am partial to the one we got simply for nostalgia's sake, I enjoy seeing this. I definitely think this one would have made for better toys, since you can get a very clear sense of what goes where on this design, as opposed to the reality-bending shit the final designs do.

 

Ah, you found it too.  

 

Looks very similar to the 'evergreen' design in terms of kibble placement. Like others said, with a few refinements this could've worked. I suppose the designers were looking at pseudo-practicities like how would the doors open in car mode if they're fixed to the arms in robot mode , and ended up overcomplicating the designs so those things wouldn't be so apparent. Still, they could've just looked at Binaltech/Alternators to see how those things could be dealt with.

It's nice, though, to see that a fair amount of this was carried over into the final design. I think that's another reason why the designs have been difficult to realistically put into toy firm, as the original reasoning for certain design elements gets lost with each revision, especially when more than one artist works on a design.

 

I don't think design is as early as some people may think considering that it holds elements of his final design and encompasses a few traits that Bays designs will be known for. It's interesting all the same.

I always was and still am a fan of the design decisions they made for the previous live-action films. It was so different to what we got before, and it's fascinating seeing the aesthetic be perfected as the films go on.

 

I would be so down for Studio Series to make figures of concept art like this. I made an album of ones I think could make great toys:
Cool Transformers Concept Art
Some personal favorites: