Aaron Archer is a name recognized and respected immensely in the Transformers and toy community. After stepping away from Hasbro in 2013, Archer has been involved with the fan community through convention appearances and social media, providing fans with the most interesting tidbits of behind the scenes Transformers information from toy design, story concepts, and more.
Archer recently took to his Instragram to share some of his favorite designs from the Transformers Armada continuity that he himself designed or assisted with. Archer’s ideas were the blueprint for the Unicron Trilogy, shaping the series design and story.
While sharing some amazing pieces of art, Archer is interacting with the community by answering questions, sharing stories, and other interesting facts. Some highlights so far:
- Red Alert was designed with influences from both Robocob and Power Rangers.
- Demolisher was originally thought of as a pirate.
- Archer wishes Thrust had hands in his final toy version.
- Smokescreen was the last figure designed in wave 1 and Archer considers him the “bottom of the barrel,” although I’m certain there is at least one fan who still loves this toy ~raises hand~.
- Sideswipe’s color scheme is based on a Takara employee’s racing bike.
- Cyclonus was one of the earliest concepts for how the Mini-con play feature would work.
Check out the mirrored images after the jump and be sure to follow Aaron Archer on Instragram. Leave a comment with your favorite Armada design and let Aaron Archer know you want to see more!
samisham
Stardust262
Stardust262
Prime Wylde
His art style is still so singular and emotional.
Stardust262
RazorclawX
They have to keep using the names if they want to use them.
Ref. The Shockblast saga. That name existed entirely because Hasbro couldn't use 'Shockwave' for a period of time and once they got it back they've clamped down on it hard.
Most famously the trademarking names issue affected the He-man character Fisto who had his name 'lifted' by Kit Fisto from the Star Wars toy line.
Sharing names between Transformers and GI Joe kept quite a number of more obscure characters' names in circulation available to Hasbro.
Stardust262
Energon Dreadwing, not Mirage
griffn29
Armada sold through all of it's toys so much so that the tail end of the line consisted of quick retools of beast wars toys to have new product, so from Hasbro's (and Archer's) perspective it lived up to it's potentential.
Armada was a successful line, so much so that the next toyline was conceptualized to build off of it. Also Archer wouldn't be doing fan art of his Armada designs now or remembering them fondly if he hated the line.
I agree with your complaint about reusing transformer names, though. In hindsight he should have just come up with new names especially because they are different characters.
Stardust262
Thundershot
Am I the only one that looked at the picture and heard him yodel?
Stardust262
rapid_fire
His creativity has never been matched since, that's for sure.
Stardust262
Stardust262
Energon Ravage
GizmoTron
I don't know, I think most would argue his tenure was more a time of "Transformers actually matter again".
Afterburner
His tenure was certainly a mixed bag. He never really "got" TransFormers though and it showed, especially in his early work. A lot of Armada figures didn't only lack articulation, they didn't function properly (joints that made no sense, parts that are way too large forming parts that should be small, etc) and they looked bad. Not just goofy or different, but bad. Sideswipe, Smokescreen, Hot Shot, Thrust, etc all suffer from this. They looked like they were designed and produced in 5 minutes, which we hand't seen since mid-G2. Add Hasbro's corner cutting on paint and their ridiculous random name reuse and you have a line that failed to meet it's potential and doesn't have the legacy today it could have had. The concept was sound, and certainly some of the features were fun, but features don't leave the lasting impression that good fiction and art does. It's on display in our fandom right now. The reason we are still G1 dominated is twofold – that is the core of what TF is and always will be because it came first like it or not, and second we have never gotten anything that could rival it except maybe Beast Wars which is still in continuity anyway. Armada and it's throwaway continuity are largely forgotten except for most small TF's being branded "Mini-Cons" (another example of the ignorance at the brand back then – if you want a true third faction, using -bot or -con completely defeats the purpose and and destroys 16 years of brand synergy in one moment).
That said, the trilogy got progressively better on the toy side and Cybertron was a great toyline. Largely forgotten again because of the careless cheap treatment of the fiction. So he did improve over time in some regards. We never went back to the Armada level of bad, which speaks to how bad it was probably even in his eyes. The efforts of Alternators and Classics were nice, but the first was a poorly planned disaster and the second not ambitious enough as is clear today.
Keep in mind no single person can really be held to the fire at a huge mega corporation like Hasbro. There are likely tons of things he wanted done differently for the better, while at the same time there are other mistakes he would have made if someone else hadn't cleaned them up. But as far as I see the brand's history, his tenure is best described as not meeting it's potential, for whatever reason. His was the tenure of "nothing really matters." We're still paying for that with the embarrassments at the cinema.
PrimeKnightlord
starscream from middle to the end of that show, is what I enjoyed. he didnt turn out so bad in the end. and proved he wasnt a coward, faced up Galvatron and sadly in the end got blasted down by unircron./ or sideways… still a honorable swordsbot he is, and the great jet fiqure if i can recall, his minicon gimic, and that sword from his wing, and those laser cannons
Thundershot
The difference between them and now is that Generations is now the MAIN line. I agree about the cartoons though.
Animated is what really started the G1 reinvigoration. All shows after it were basically “G1 except a different esthetic and a few changed up or new characters”.
SG Roadbuster
Im not talking about Generations. Im talking about the cartoons and tie in merch for those. what is supposed to be the Main Line focus. Beast wars, the UT, Animated, Prime and Bay films had wildly different design aesthetics. and new characters.
we have 5 different lines right now and all of the characters, and designs are flavors of Geewun.
Generations, Cyberverse, Cyber Battalion, Authentics, and Masterpiece.
Archer gave us something unique every couple of years.
Thundershot
I don’t know about that. CW gave us the 1986 combiners we’ve waited so long to get. TR gave us Headmasters after all this time. We’re finally getting things we’ve been asking for for years. Aaron did some great stuff. A lot of great stuff. But to call the new guys hacks is really harsh. Sometimes you have to move on and let the new guys do their thing.