Artist Ken Christiansen, via his Facebook account, have treated us with images of the concept art of the Transformers War For Cybertron Kingdom: Earth Mode Mirage.
Read on for Ken Christiansen comments about this art:
An update pass over the existing Cybertron Mode of WFC Seige Mirage. Not originally designed by me, I just asked to provide concepts on a few newly retooled areas to make him fit in on Earth.
See the images after the jump and then sound off on the 2005 Boards!
Vanya
Wow. Hadn't seen these before.
I would have liked this way better than what we got.
I honestly never liked either of the two moulds we got as Mirage.
Never liked the faux chest, but on the Siege mold I can kinda do something about it.
On the Kingdom mold it needs the stupid faux spoiler in alt mode.
The Siege one really works better as Slapdash.
And the Kingdom one works better as Leadfoot.
They both still deviate quite a bit from their alt modes, but at least the general transformation scheme is fairly close.
That's a hell of a lot more than I can say for mirage.
GrimCharr
The Siege/ER Mirage gets a lot of criticism. Dunno. I never had a Mirage, and he fits in with my collection very well. He looks good as a static action figure on the shelf. Posable. The alt modes are forgettable either way. But I think he's also very toyetic in a way that makes something very playable, tactile, bold colors and clear lines. Hand-holdable for kids.
Gets too much hate, IMHO. There are a lot of Transformers that are big, expensive, overly complex, fiddly, or weird looking. I think it's an excellent $20 toy.
autobot prowl
It's unfortunate this design was so blah. I absolutely love Mirage and they have yet to make a decent figure for him. Classics could have been good if not for the pin head and ridiculous amount of car crap going over his shoulders. Heck, the new Dragstrip looks a lot better than this design and it combines
Optimus1138
I don't get why they chose to engineering the Siege figure like this in the first place, it makes no sense. Using a more straightforward transformation would have achieved a much better alt mode (for both the Cyebrtronian and Earth designs) and an equally good (if not possibly also better) robot mode without the need for faux parts or an overly finnicky leg transformation.
Dinobot Snarl
It\'s unfortunate that even at the design stage it has the arms in a very unfortunate position, that breaks any attempt to suspend disbelief.
POSSESSED_DIGIT
Ha! Thanks. I actually mentioned Kabaya Gum kits in an earlier post
Quippy
It's an old subline but: Transformers Gum – Transformers Wiki
POSSESSED_DIGIT
Maybe. Legos are fun to build. I’d be down with that, as long as it was done properly. KreO and Built To Rule were not the greatest at that.
but I would still want model kits too lol.
Novaxmaximal
collaboration with LEGO?
POSSESSED_DIGIT
that’s what I was thinking. But simple toys with simple transformations would be nice. They’ve been making snap together transforming model toys like that as long as transformers have been around. It just thought it would be cool if Hasbro did something along the lines of a high-end Transformers Gum kit, doing a few a year.
Novaxmaximal
I guess it's because it's a remold from the siege version…or maybe it's for a completely different reason
octobotimus
Hey look, concept art for a toy that looks like an actual toy.
Novaxmaximal
I actually prefer what we got
JomasterII
Optimus1138
Me coming back to this thread periodically to torture myself looking at what we could have gotten likeView attachment 29397742
AutobotTurbine
A transforming model without using parts forming would probably be difficult to pull off. Heck, Bandai’s been in the plastic model kit game way longer and I can’t think of a single transforming Gunpla build I own that doesn’t involve some sort of partsforming.
Houndini
Do you never get tired of that horribly unfunny joke?
I would love to get some smiles on mainline headsculpts, everyone is scowling or emotionlessly staring into the abyss
POSSESSED_DIGIT
What he said I said
honestly I wasn’t aware flame toys models were licensed by HasTak or available in stores in the US. So thanks for that heads up. Not exactly what I’d want out of a model kit transformer toy, since they don’t transform, & are basically stylized robot action figures, but they do look nice. So thanks for the heads up!
JT-bob
Dang, they really executed the hell out of this idea, it looks pretty much like everything on the figure, good and bad. Yes some details are different and lost their charm when translated to physical tooling, but they also made it so the figure could stand on real feet.
Q Prime
"preferably ones that could transform"