Ken Christiansen, who did a series of art pieces for Hasbro when Hasbro were concepting the look of Transformers Prime and the Aligned Continuity, has posted up concepts of an Optimus Prime design he worked on. As he explains in his post on The Bad Flip Blog, sometimes he was only commissioned to design one mode for the characters, in this case, he was only asked to do concepts for the Optimus Prime truck mode. As you can see, there are a lot of similarities with the design that was ultimately used for Transformers Prime – although this version looks a little beefier with a slightly deeper cab and elongated roof as a result.
Check out the concept at the link above. Ken Christiansen will be attending Botcon 2013 as a guest in their Artist’s Alley – if you are attending Botcon be sure to say hello to him and thank him for sharing all this cool concept work with us.
HeroicC300
I feel that any time I share BadFlip's designs, he should get news credit as well.
Hopefully we get more than one character a week: according to him he got to do a dozen or so and the majority of the Thirteen. Freelance artist that really, really should be on Hasbro's payroll for designing off-screen characters.
MROptimusPrime
No, you don't HAVE to use a long nose semi to get more mass. You can use a longer sleeper cab COE to get more mass also.
Autovolt 127
I wish we had this to begin with.
Cybertronian
I thought the 'true meaning of Optimus' was Peace, Love, and ROLL!
Cybertronian
As am I.
I concur whole-heartedly.
Fired? I don't know. But I'd be happy to get a Hemi Orange 1969 or 2012 Charger Autobot on-screen as a bribe to keep him employed. ream:
Anti Spark
This why I HATE Concept drawings!
They are always so dam good and I want them made into Tfs!
kaijuguy19
Am I the only one who likes both this design and the one used in Prime?
Anyway this can work beautifully as a Generations Voyager Optimus for Thrilling 30.
Requiem Prime
Very nice. I know we're already getting an Orion Pax, but I would not be opposed to a new Neo-classics Optimus (voyager of course) with this alt mode.
cheetor71
I like this design much better.
shroobmaster
Because that alt mode would not be able to transform into his final robot mode design.
It looks cool and all but both alt modes and robot modes have to be tweaked until they both hit a certain balance where both end up with the detailing and proportions that each one needs out of the other.
The thick smokestacks in that design for example would look ugly on the robot mode's back in my opinion and the shieldshield doesn't look like it could properly turn into the final design's chest configuration and the back portion doesn't look like it is long enough to end up the robot's full leg design.
Wars
That puts the one they used to shame. It looks so much cooler. Why couldn't they have gone with this one?
Rodimus Mike
If this had been Optimus's alt mode for Prime I would have bought it sight on scene.This thing embodies the true meaning of Optimus hands down.
seali_me
Agreed.
I wish I never saw this now.
RedAlert Rescue
The vehicle mode is quite similar looking to the Weaponizer toy.
shadowfall1976
The one in Prime and the Movie look really weak compared to this….whoever makes the final decisions should be fired.
Kaymac
This is way better than what we actually got! I hope they use this design somewhere down the road for a different Optimus.
Rob
Much better then what we got
Smasher
Cool looking truck.
I don't' really have a problem with the model that the TV show uses though.
Transformed
Couldn't this have worked for his 2.0 upgrade? It has the extra mass necessary for his new look.
President Prime
Love it! Wish they would have used that instead of what they ended up with.