Artist Ken Christiansen, via his Facebook account, treated us with his Earthrise Sky Lynx Concept Art.
Ken has worked with Hasbro designing several toys for different lines, and he has shared images of the early idea of Earthrise Sky Lynx and each of their components and his base mode. As we can see, the general idea was brought into the final product with some changes. An interesting view at the development of this figure.
Click on the bar to see the mirrored images on this news post and then share your impressions on the 2005 Boards!
Mattymo
same. It is just a concept and I look at those legs and while impressive you really ask “where would those even go?” I think the only thing I would have liked is the neck being the internal internal detail. That’s the only thing I wish they’d used
Paxtin
I can only assume it was an engineering issue, in terms of being able to fit them into the alt-mode.
I agree though, the "beefier" bird legs in the art would have looked really good on the figure.
Mattymo
yeah I feel the same. Sky lynx is one of those characters that just looks ridiculous but the ER figure is one of those I can’t stop playing with or even just stop looking at. I wasn’t even impressed with his base mode at first but now I find myself transforming him into that more than his combined shuttle mode. He’s really become one of my favorite figures from Earthrise. Even more than scorponok but not as great as Prime or Bluestreak but he’s getting there
Seeaich
This is one of those rare times for me where the execution of the actual figure exceeds the initial visualisation, ER Sky Lynx has all the key aspects depicted in the concept pieces but with a really nice sleeker finish. I love how the final toy managed to make that goofy 'Toon-ish Lynx headsculpt look cool, and I was initially advocating for a more "realistic" cat head like the CW version before I saw how well they'd done ER's!
Phenotype
I'm really glad they didn't do the solar panels on his face.
Joburg Guy
I really dig Ken\'s art, some of his non tf stuff really nearly makes me want to weep with joy. He\'s worth following on Instagram if you aren\'t already.
SMOG
I like these. Obviously cost would have beena factor, but some of the extra transformations and configuratino options seen here would have made a better figure. I like the toy we got, but the G1 look could use some sprucing up.
And yeah, some flip-out claws on the paws would be nice. or some fins on the dragon head. That kind of thing.
zmog
Requiem Prime
Oh I wish they did the beefier bird legs. I'm pretty chill about quibbles elsewhere, but those just leap out at me.
I'm almost positive there's no way to cleanly replace the whole limbs, but I still hope we'll see better bird feet someday.
Mattymo
its still just detail that folds out from the booster. It’s on both sides. The solar panels are also detail on them
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Max Tower
The extra Transformation step in the shuttle body would have helped it look less lanky and the thicker legs on the bird mode might have made the bird mode stand better too.
Sky Lynx seemed rather undercooked to me – like he needed more time in development to be propely tested, his base mode is illogical and is borderline worthless. He also lacks details and weapons to kit said base out – and has no "proper" weapons otherwise than a couple of ill defined white lumps, personally I'd have prefered that they throw toy and show accuracy out the window and give the lynx some proper ears & paws too.
WhatWouldSkyLynxDo
Lovely work. Nice to see that the Lynx hind-legs were at one point truly triple jointed.
Some really cool details and ideas in this. Lots of stuff that was modified or outright abandoned. Glad the artist shared it.
I still love the toy we got. And can’t believe we actually got it.
P.S.
(Could we see this kind of art for Trypticon? I’d love to see what ideas were initially planned for him.)
Greenspan
Earthrise Scorponok is good. I said so in an earlier post.
So, you see, I'm not always negative.
But, truly, they could have gone wilder with this Sky Lynx.
P.S. I had fun once. It was horrible.
Gepard
I'm referring to the dish on a stalk flanked by solar panels that's behind it. It looks like a satellite to me.
Mattymo
thats just the white boosters/guns skylynx came with. You can see it attached to the legs in other design pictures
Protostar
Look, sir/ma'am, why does it seem like you're constantly complaining about stuff? I have not seen you and positivity in the same post before
Novaburnhilde
I dig this, I think I like this design a bit more than the final one due to it being a bit of a new take while still looking like Sky Lynx.
TFfangeek
This concept art is out of this world!
Gepard
I think Astroscope may have been this fellow:
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Slimaximus
Absolutely magnificent artwork for what has to be one of my favorite figures of the year. Hasbro is just killing it on the big bots
theestampede
Excellent artwork