The Unrustable Bastards is a line of all original transforming figures, mostly futuristic bikes and riders. They had a successful Kickstarter a while back and while not based on Transformers per say, but they do have the same DNA. The crew behind it are long time TFW2005 Boards members and we’ve followed their progress over the years. The crew is now running a new Kickstarter to fund their comic book based on the toys, building an all original world for the many figures we’ve seen so far. We wanted to share that with you today, check out their official press release and hit the KS page here for more details. Oh, and Transformers comic artist extraordinaire Geoff Senior is doing some art on the project too!
You can follow threads for the toys and comics on the 2005 Boards here: Comics, Toys.
Following on from the success of their Unrustable Bastards Kickstarter campaign and subsequent toy line launch, Mayhem Mekanics is back with a fresh Kickstarter project and an exciting and ambitious new aim: to bring the Unrustables universe and characters to life with a six-issue comic book series.
The Unrustables comic will tell the stories of the Unrustable Bastards – a transforming robot-biker gang – and the conflicts that tear apart their desolate, dystopian home planet of Tombstone and threaten to destroy the gang from within. This original, dynamic fiction will follow Unrustable leader – Burley – and mysterious prodigal – Iride – along with the rest of the Bastards as they clash with rival biker gangs the Spector Rogues and the Yamazuki, as they all try to stay one step ahead of the crooked and brutal Enforcers, stormtroopers for the corrupt and oppressive Oligarchy that presides over the central planets, controlling populations with its choke-hold on information and technology. Featuring high-octane action beats, character-driven narrative and epic world-building, The Unrustables offers a foray into a grimy world of mechanical outlaws, grudges, turf wars, tyranny and betrayal.
These and other characteristics will make The Unrustables a sure hit with fans of such properties as Transformers, 2000AD, Sons of Anarchy, Serenity, Jason Aaron’s Scalped, and Pacific Rim. Its vivid, in-your-face visual style recreates the smash-mouth sensibilities of many of the 1990s comics now remembered with fondness and nostalgia by a generation of adult readers and collectors. Meanwhile, its gritty themes and characters and its robustly satisfying story arcs are more evocative of an HBO or FX drama.
The Unrustables creative team draws upon collective decades of experience and passion to bring their vision into being. The series is written by Sid Beckett (a.k.a. C Z Hazard, author of comedy-horror, Generic Vampire Novel, and Kickstarter-born satirical novella, Not In The Eye), and Ceno Kibble (well-known, long-standing contributor within the toy industry and collectors’ market). The vibrant, engaging art is provided by Bryan Sevilla (whose excellent work has elevated many pack-in comics), with colouring by Nate Hammond and variant cover art by comic book legend, Geoff Senior, whose seminal work on Transformers in the 1980s helped inform the medium’s zeitgeist.
The Unrustable Bastards toy line Kickstarter campaign enjoyed tremendous success, crashing through its most ambitious goals and resulting in the release of a line of transforming toys that have delighted backers and drawn in a multitude of additional fans across the globe. Designed by trusted third party mainstay, Nick Calloway (aka Cassy Sark), these sophisticated toy sets each comprise a robot rider and bike which combine to become an awesome “Mech Machine”, with incredible detail, great poseability and options for customisation, as well as an array of appealing weapon accessories.
The Unrustables team now looks forward to creating something that elevates and expands upon the legacy of the Unrustable Bastards toyline. After all, we always root for the bastards, right?
To be part of this latest Unrustables phenomenon, visit the Kickstarter page.
xKAINxCAINx
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Hybrid Style
As requested Chaos Engines has its own thread now.
Mecha-N9 – Chaos Engines
All discussion regarding Chaos Engines will now be posted in its own thread will no longer be posted in this thread
Hybrid Style
It has always been my intention to create a new thread for Chaos Engines once this was officially revealed. I am happy to start one earlier.
And you are correct @CZ Hazard, the original designer will not be involved on an ongoing basis past the initial designing process.
CZ Hazard
As this is unrelated to Unrustables and no-one originally involved is attached to the project*, can I recommend starting a new thread? New, IP, new start.
(*it's my understanding that the original designer isn't involved on an ongoing basis, correct me if I'm wrong)
daimchoc
Might be better to have Chaos Engine's own thread.
Enfin
Looking good. I'll keep an eye on this.
mcart
Those are very fair points and this is what Kickstarter was designed for, to allow for projects that are great but that the individual people creating don't have the funds to produce on their own.
I wish this project all the success in the world.
Hybrid Style
And you have every right to feel this way. And we understand this is a sentiment felt by many others which is why we have had quite a few discussions about the pros and cons around crowdfunding.
But the truthful facts are, there are little to no new IPs released for purchase without at least going through some sort of crowdfunding process first. In fact, as toy fans and collector ourselves who watch the action figure market, I cannot confidently point to any new IP that hasn’t had some form of crowdfunding. This could be early preorders paid in advance with a target amount of orders required before production can begin or the more well known crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter.
EDIT: actually, I can point to new IPs released without crowdfunding. Astrobots by Toy Notch, Dark Source by JoyToy and Archecore by Toys Alliance.
mcart
I'll probably look into this once it gets a general release but after the previous project, and I do appreciate that the responsible part(y/ies) are not involved in this project, I don't think I'm ready to join in on another crowd funded toy.
Not trying to be a Debbie downer, I want this to succeed like I wanted the previous project to succeed.
Hybrid Style
Firstly, thank you for sharing our page and concept art.
We plan on releasing all this information when we officially announce the line.
daimchoc
Might want to post that up on social media.
optimusmegas
Well I am so interested.
Hybrid Style
We have had a lot of internal discussions on exactly how we should do it.
As an original IP (even though it’s a spiritual successor to The Unrustables) with potentially 12 characters in the first wave there are a lot of variables we need to consider. Using a crowdfunding platform such as Kickstarter would help us better determine which characters are more popular than others and adjusting production targets to accomodate accordingly.
The other option is we could pare down the initial wave offering to just the main characters of the story and offer them up for preorder and bypass the crowdfunding platforms.
This is a fan led initiative built from the ashes of a previous, niche product, with no association to nostalgia based interest. We want this to be successful but we also know there is a big hill to climb to get there.
As for when it will be officially revealed, we are hoping to show off the 3D designs Q1 2024 (So the next couple of months) followed by the first physical prototype reveal in Q2 2024. We will then be releasing a free digital comic (first 2 issues have already been written) leading up to the Crowdfund/Preorder in Q3/Q4 2024
BWIguanusfan2
We've never been so back.
DrCalligari
Any ideas how you'll be launching? Will a crowd funder be involved?
Hybrid Style
We will be launching Chaos Engines later this year.
As we work toward our official reveal please allow me to present some early concept art and be sure to follow us on Facebook for more;
Chaos Engines
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daimchoc
Might be better to convert it to an actual page.
soybean56
Love to see it! My I politely ask if you can remember to please keep this thread updated as well for those of us without Facebook? Sorry, I know that adds extra work for you.
Hybrid Style
This was just to follow the early development. It will be used to show the early concepts before anything more substantial is done.
daimchoc
Looks like a personal page on FB.