Hi all,

As you're probably aware, noted TF book writers Jim Sorenson and Bill Forster were guests at Auto Assembly over the weekend - as an extra treat for visitors, they put together a presentation of seldom-seen TF artwork dug up from Hasbro/TakTom/etc archives. Most of this has only ever been seen once before (if at all!) in public.

I'm sharing these on the basis that there was no 'no photos' policy, and that Jim & Bill acknowledged that people would be putting photos up on the net and had no objections to this...

First up is this, believed to be the first piece of Japanese G1 artwork ever made, for the publication 'Comics Bon Bon':



Made for TV Magazine, a kids' puzzle:



(I've tried it, it's difficult for a kids' puzzle   )

Next up, from TFTM, is a planetary scale guide:



L-R, Unicron, Lithone, Moonbase 1 & 2, Cybertron, Quintessa and Earth! Interesting to see that Earth is actually quite massive compared to Cybertron.

A matte background from one of the G1 cartoons, I can't remember which one but I suspect it's Japanese:



Next up, two pieces of Japanese lader-disc (LD does not stand for Lucky Draw in this case   ) box set artwork, from Studio Ox:





Reference art, this time the interior of Gaia from BW2 (prior to the Earth retcon):



Cybertronian chess!



Moving onto BWN, artwork for the Cybertron fleet:



Here's a closer look at the nearest ship - looks familiar!



Early concept art for RiD's TAI:





And into the Unicron trilogy, with some concept art for Megatron & Tidal Wave's combined mode:



Here's concept art of a VERY different Armada Unicron:



Unicron as Cybertron's moon, very much as it appeared in the cartoon:



Ideas thrown around for Unicron's head to be left orbiting Cybertron:



Reminiscent of the Unicron head included with Cybertron Primus!

Blackarachnia artwork from the pitch document made for Animated:



Blitzwing, from the same:



Apologies for the sometimes blurry photos, the light on the stage wasn't too great and the flash was ineffective at that distance, but I hope folks have enjoyed these pics.  

 

Awesome stuff love the chibi Optimus in the corner of the megatron maze picture lol

 

You sure the LD doesnt stand for laserdisc?

 

D'oh, yes it did now you mention it. Edited thanks, my brain's still a bit cloudy from the weekend's events.  

 

D'oh! I missed that presentation coz I was standing in the Scott McNeil line!

 

Through the joys of Photobucket you get to see it, but Scott McNeil has to be experienced first-hand! Was the queue already going out of the door at this point?

 

Man, that's very cool stuff.

That Japanese Arcee Laserdisc image - so it looks like Pat Lee copied that pose for that Arcee poster he did back during the Dreamwave days (which was eventually turned into two very ugly statues).

 

Thanks for the photos, looks good

 

Moon unicron remind me of early rumors of unicron being the moon in tf3...

 

^ Why's that? There aren't really all that many Cybertronians. The only evidence in favor of the planet being Earth-sized is that it holds an O2 atmosphere, but if it weren't for that I'd think that Cybertron was extraordinarily small. I mean, you can see buildings on the surface!

 

Very cool, thanks for sharing. And Jim & Bill are great too!

 

I didn't think we'd ever get a definitive scale guide for Unicron and Cybertron. Useful stuff!

 

Hi!

Thank you so much for taking all these pictures!   I love seeing artwork like this; it really makes me wish I could draw. It's really great that these drawings have now been preserved for everyone to see!  

Hi Fit For natalie!

I agree with you that the artwork you're referencing does look like it might have inspired the Arcee poster, but, just for the record, that poster was not drawn by Pat lee; Rob Armstrong was the real artist: Rob Armstrong - Transformers Wiki  

 

This looks like the Decepticon Matrix that i designed a few years back.

 

Awesome pics, thanks for taking!

 

Thank you for sharing   I tried to read some of texts but it was mostly too difficult.

Cybertron fleet appearance in the cartoon;
Great Convoy - Transformers Beast Wars Neo - Transformers Resources
Some blurry screencaps here.

 

Tai's concept art connects as part of final form animated sari's design! There are elements at least. Though that could just be a illusion contrived from them both being armored up robot girls.

The cybertronian space fleet art is Epic. I like it because of the obvious overwhelming millitary power; The staggering scale drawn in the distance and that you can clearly make out fort max!

 

Nice -thanks for posting.

 

We think Jim and Bill's panel went pretty well, which was good as when we paid for them to come over they weren't 100% sure on what to do.

Jim gave us s sneak-peak the day before, and we thought -- oooh.

Now, I need to find my TV Magazine mazes