Following this morning’s March solicitations, the cover reveals for IDW Publishing’s upcoming Transformers reboot keep coming. The book’s co-editor Tom Waltz has tweeted Cover B for April’s Transformers #4, which readers of the previous IDW continuity may recognize as being drawn by veteran artist Sara Pitre-Durocher! The artwork features Optimus Prime walking the streets of Cybertron as Megatron, Windblade, Prowl and other characters look on, and can be given a closer look following the break. After that, you can also leave a comment on the TFW2005 boards!
BIOMEC
Dodger
Knowing IDW I imagine they’ll change artists every 2-3 years so expect this art style to stay
Haywired
There's a rumored Leader-class Optimus Prime coming for this line, except we weren't shown any CAD renders yet. Now there's the IDW reboot coming and tied to the toyline and every drawing of their Optimus is done with a body shaped like the WFC Siege Ultra Magnus except for the torso being heavily inspired by the front of the Galaxy Convoy alt mode. It looks like the artists were given a design for an Optimus figure that looks like a partial retool of the Siege UM inner robot. WFC:S UM is a Voyager figure with an armor up gimmick coming in the Leader class slot.
So it's a theory for now that the upcoming Leader class Optimus might be an armor up retool of the UM toy.
Deadend
Which is still only 1 other use of that mold. For WFC it's a bit different. The others are known for being tetra jets like that. POTP was a different emphasis because of Orion Pax in the line and how Ariel became Elita-1 from that same War Dawn episode that Orion's design was used from.
T-Hybrid
Except Starscream's bot mode really didn't change all that much in the transition either, he just carries a tetrajet on his back now.
People said the same thing when we saw PotP Starscream and he turned into Elita-1 rather than any of the other Seekers or Coneheads.
jamarmiller
really happy to see the toy designs being used in the comic. Its what I have always wanted .
Rodimus Prime
Windblade is likely just there because she's in the new cartoon, same as Bumblebee.
Deadend
That might be too many uses of the same mold. It's already got 3-5 mandatory repaints between the trio, acid storm and maybe Nova Storm. And that's not counting cone heads if they are able to tweak the head. Usually 4 is the max retools/repaints unless it can't be helped. Hasbro doesn't want to be known as the company that sells you the same exact mold too many times.
Darth Gonzo
So going by this, then the story is just the Cyberverse flashbacks.
Tom Waltz on Twitter
deathsheadx
wait, what armor up Leader Optimus Prime?
Thundermania
Exactly, for example Pretenders have shells. It's a thing that happened, let's move on with the plot.
Thundershot
That would be nice. Having the gimmick characters have their gimmick without turning them into an event. And since there’s organics on Cybertron, they could go either way with *masters (organic or robotic).
Haywired
I think that the armored mode will look more like Galaxy Convoy without having anything of its transformation scheme. So the cab is needed for the alt mode, but it'll be covered with armor anyway in the bigger bot mode.
T-Hybrid
Or Slipstream and Windblade are two different paint schemes for the same Starscream mold.
mx-01 archon
Just saying that it's no proof that Windblade will be in Siege, whereas we could lean heavier in that direction if she was shown with a new body.
Thundermania
I just want characters who have a gimmick to have it and not make a big deal of it, sick of each gimmick being a "game changer" plus I want to see the traditional Headmaster relationship/bond revisited.
ZachimusPrime
Agreed. While the last run having all that technology being slowly invented or discovered was unique and cool at the time, it would feel a little lazy to do thag again here. Once again, change it up a little.
Thundermania
Hope Micromasters, titan Masters, combiners, DuoCons and all other subspecies are commonplace so we can just have them from the get-go.
ZachimusPrime
Me too. Especially with thag earlier description about it having organics and other races trading with each other and interacting. Nice change of pace.
PC Brodimus
The chest area seems weird. I love the style but that thing is bugging the hell outta me.