posted
The more I see these, the more I like the design ethic. These are SENTIENT ALIEN MACHINES, after all. The concept that the original G1 guys look like they COULD turn into Earth vehicles even before they got there, is ludicrous (though admittedly this was reconned somewhat in the Dreamwave comics). Beast Wars got it right by showing their generic robot forms pre-Beastialization (or whatever), and Beast Machines also got it right by showing the Vehicons as non-terrestrial tanks and such with visible mouths and such (on Cybertron there's no need for disguise, so why not have a head in cycle mode?).
This is a logical extension of those ideas. You can SEE that Optimus is a decidedly non-Earth robot underneath truck parts that are essentially pasted on, which will shift to become a truck "shell" as the alien machinery underneath moves around inside it to accomodate the shape.
Also, this Optimus has a mouth, but under a classic Prime faceplate which presumably retract. Best combination, and far better than he various mouths that Optimus Primal got stuck with after his first body.
But essentailly, instead of the G1 "cars that change into robots" toy mentality, here we have robots that change into cars, done far better than ever before. I like.
Mark
[ September 05, 2006, 03:19 PM: Message edited by: Mark Nguyen ]
posted
You know, there's been something about the Prime design that not only seemed kinda... familiar, but also kinda... right. I wasn't able to put my finger on it until reading that article. It definitely has a Megas-ish vibe to it, whether intentional or not. I happen to like it.
-------------------- "Kirito? I killed a thing and now it says I have XPs! Is that bad? Am I dying?"
-Asuna, Episode 2, Sword Art Online Abridged
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I love the body- but hate the paintjob and that nose thing has to go.... Or maybe it's just the eyes not being the cool blue I remember that throws it for me...
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Reminds me of RoboCop 2, the black one. Like R2, I think this design shows too much exposed wiring and parts, too busy and Tribal-Gothicky, but perhaps it looks good when transforming. They probably have assigned some of the small parts to slide and whirr into place nicely, like the beautiful and reinvented VF-0 Veritechs received new ways to better transform logically in "Macross Zero".
Registered: Aug 1999
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-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
The "black" Robocop 2? There are two: the one in the movie of the same name, and the one in the "Prime Directives" miniseries, portrayed by a black actor. I'm gonna assume the former, which does has a lot of exposed mecahnics - something that never made much sense given how unarmored he was otherwise:
I did like how logical the design was otherwise, though - the two large drums on his chest, for example, were for his nuclear reactor and ammunition for the gatling gun on his arm.
I would like to see him in a metal exo-skeleton. That extendable punch-piston he has there on his left arm was cool, reminded me of the telescoping arm designs of the "Patlabor" mechas, specifically the Zero-type of the first movie, with its piercing-hands.
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
You know, I am so out of the loop that I didn't even know there was a Transformers movie being made until I read this thread!
Having now watched the trailer on the movie site, I have to say that's the best explanation for Beagle 2's loss I've seen yet!
Hopefully the imagination and creativity suggested by the trailer will play out in the movie as a whole. I already sense a real danger that this turns into nothing more than an expensive CGI robot bashing flick with gorgeous, glossy and heavily choreographed action scene after action scene. That would be dull. I hope the movie will also have something to say, and dare I hope... incorporate some characterisation.
I speak as someone who, when he was knee high to a table leg, inhaled Transformers comics like they were oxygen.
Actually, I still have most of them stashed somewhere They're a bit tatty though.
Registered: Jul 2006
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They're a bit tatty though.
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