Artist Ken Christiansen has been sharing several pieces of concept art he made for the Transformers: The Game from 2007. This game was part of the many Transformers live-action movie products back in the day.
We have several images of characters from the video game (some of them even were made into toys eventually) together with some comments from Ken Christiansen about each of them from his Facebook account.
- Transformers: The Game Triple Changer Shockwave Concept art: “Here’s an oldie, but one of my all time favorite designs. Time stamped August, 2006. Wow, that’s getting old. So happy to see this character appear in G1 form in the #bumblebeemovie . Scroll through to get some purple action, along with black color variations for the game. Went from a ‘Super Howitzer’ to an Apache copter”.
- Transformers: The Game Swindle Concept art: “The first character I designed for the game, which turned out to be the first toy I ever contributed to. Scroll for concept art, initial concept sketch, and shots of the figure. So if this – getting to work on Transformers, designing characters for Transformers, having those designs being made into toys – wasn’t enough of a mind blower for me, the figure was included in the press pack to support the film. It was fun times.”
- Transformers: The Game Dropkick Concept art: “The second character I designed for the game, which turned out to be another toy! Swipe for concept art, initial concept sketch, and shots of the figure. It was originally meant to be just a gray truck, but as Hasbro worked on the figure, they came up with the Decepticon symbol graphic, and asked us to add it to the in game character. Happily, because it looked awesome.”
- Transformers: The Game Dirtboss Concept art: “Dirtboss? That’s a name! The third character I designed for the game, which turned out to be another toy! But not for Transformers : the Movie, he came in 2009 as part of the Revenge of the Fallen line. That made me happy, because he was my favorite drone design, a little scrappy guy, so I was glad to see him get a toy version. Swipe for concept art, initial concept sketch, and shots of the figure”.
- Transformers: The Game Payload Concept art: “The second character set I designed after the initial 3 for the game, this was the kickoff, and turned out to be another toy. This one I got to do some graphics and I really got into it, made a stock armored car service logo, with a Decepticon symbol thrown in there. As fun as this one was to do, I think I like the toy even better. Except for the thing on his back. Owners know what I’m talking about. Swipe for concept art, initial concept sketch, transformation logic, and shots of the figure”.
Click on the bar to see all the mirrored images on this news post and then sound off on the 2005 Boards!
AspiringCreator
I\'ve always wanted a third party company to tackle that Shockwave design. I mean it\'d be hell but that was always one of my favorites.
Yohan PLMIXMB
I liked the Game Designs, well done
thedicemaster
I thought that shockwave was supposed to be a triple changer?
I only see a robot and a siege chopper mode.
Ae38
man Id love a toy of that shockwave…
TheAmazingBrave
On one hand, not being a professional artist doesn't disqualify someone from giving constructive criticism…
But on the other hand, "this suuuuucks" isn't constructive criticism.
User_124141
Imagine Shockwave being a turret
Bumblethumper
… that's a really interesting idea for a series Hasbro could do in between projects.
There's a lot of unused concepts from TF movies, games, toys, comics and shows that could be re-purposed.
Chaotic91
Also I know it would never happen but I would love mpm figures of the drones.
Chaotic91
I remember you could play as that Shockwave design in the DS Decepticons game if you scaned an attack helicopter. They really should’ve made a voyager figure of that to go with the other drones honestly. Maybe even a leader, I remember being so massive compared to everyone else in the game in that form lol.
Red Goblin
All of these were shared back in the day on his blog.
RazorclawX
I have fond memories of using that Shockwave as part of my Transformers DS game Create A Bot.
CleverNamePendingatron
Well this brings back memories.
I'd completely forgotten that Shockwave was in this game. It's not my favourite design of all time, but it achieves what it needs to.
Thundermania
Cyclopian racism is the biggest problem facing Cybertronian society.
DecepticusPrime
Cool to see these. All 4 of these (along with ROTF dead end and breakdown) have been previously added to my AOE Galvatrons army. They fit with him despite the sizing differences.
RetrogradeMercury
These are cool designs especially when you consider this was a movie tie-in game that probably had a tight production schedule. Glad I still have these figures, after ROTF the movie lines didn’t have as many original non-movie characters like these.
plowking
Dropkick was/is one of my favorites from that line.
Now that see he was intended to have a different head, I may have to do that myself. He looks even cooler with the cycloptic eye.
Jazz of Staniz
Me too! I loved these designs, and man I would kill to see Shockwave look like that onscreen.
I actually really loved those heads. Something about the big one-eyed heads just looked so cool to me.
Jazz of Staniz
Man I always thought the drones were the coolest thing ever. In fact I still do. I wonder why TF4 didn’t use these designs for the KSI drones actually. I always loved the one-eye look, and I got every figure that was a drone with one eye. I even got Dirt Boss. It’s a shame they never retooled him with one eye and made him orange. And man that Shockwave was so cool. I wish Bumblebee had designed him based on that because it’s so unique and new but recognizable nonetheless.
I also find it funny that they went from Energon Sixshot to “Shackwave” to actual Shockwave in terms of color.
Zula
I agree.
I really hope that Hasbro/Takara eventually does a toy of this. If not in Studio Series, then perhaps a part of some sort of 'Concept' Series.
Moy
This. Here's hoping for never before seen art from Transformers 3 game.