Courtesy of Hasbro Toy Designer Evan Brooks, we can share for you a great “Behind The Scenes” gallery and development info of the popular Transformers Studio Series 86 figures.
Mr. Brooks is the person who primarily works on Studio Series 86 figures and he has updated his Instagram account with images of the concept art, sketches, CAD files, prototypes and samples of Studio Series 86 Jazz, Wreck-Gar, Kup and Grimlock. To make things even more interesting, he has also shared amazing information and trivia about the creative process of each figure like the Takara Tomy designers he worked with, references, changes during the development and more. For example, did you know that Wheelie was originally planned to be a core class figure to go with Grimlock?.
See all the images as well as Evan Brooks comments about each figure after the jump. Sound off your impressions on the 2005 Boards and stay tuned for more updates.
Studio Series SS 86-01 Jazz
Hello there! I’m the person who primarily works on Studio Series 86 transformers. The Transformer’s design team is trying to be more open and transparent about the process of how we go about designing these figures with our partners over at Takara Tomy and I figured I’d start with Studio Series 86-01 that I worked on with Ittoku Kuwazu!
It was super exciting to do an animation accurate Jazz since he’s a classic character (one of the coolest bots around) and his past figures have usually followed his toy design expression.
Before I had joined the TF team, John Warden had a concept for a generic version of his vehicle mode already drawn up by( I believe) Michael DiTullo.
That design was used as a base and then tweaked as the robot form became solidified.
Ittoku and I then worked on the details. The goal of these figures was to be accurate to the animation designs but to also have it so they’d look like they fit in with your other Generations figures and stand with them on your shelf. I tried to bring in some of the details from the original stickers of the g1 toy and sprinkle them about in areas that needed just a bit more “pizzazz”. The abdomen area at our original detail stage also brought in some a-symmetry from the g1 toy sculpt but we later removed it to be more in line with the animation model.
Deco wise, when I work on a car robot, one of my main priorities is to make sure the tire rims get painted. It’s a small detail that can knock a vehicle form up to the next level. The goal is always balance between both robot and vehicle modes and sometimes that means you can’t get every detail you wish you could for one of the forms.
Other than that, The only other challenge was I was asked to change the number on the side of his car form. I picked the number “14” as a nod to his 1984 toy catalog number and also just in case any fan wanted to remove the “1” so they can make it the classic number.
Overall, I was very pleased with how this figure turned out with our updated standards of articulation but do you all prefer the classic toy design over animation? Are you enjoying the SS86 line? Are their movie characters you’ve been waiting for?
Let us know!
Studio Series SS 86-09 Wreck-Gar
Hello again! I’m going to try to maybe post a few of these a week depending on when I have time but I thought I’d jump ahead and drop a bit of the design process for my favorite T.V. talking bot, SS86 Wreck-gar!
To be able to represent this Floro Dery design as close as we can in toy was a dream come true.I had the absolute pleasure to work on this item with the renowned Kunihiro Takashi, who is more than likely the man responsible for MANY of your favorite Transformer toys over the years. He is so skilled that he lays out transformation design plans in MARKER. I can’t even imagine trying to draw anymore without Ctrl+Z.
When we first laid out the design for Wreck-gar’s alt mode, we gave him the front fender that is seen in the Motorcycle animation model but as we got to the Block model, we realized that the naked tire being on his arm as a shield was more iconic so we removed it.
Our goal from the beginning was to make sure that himself (and other bots of similar or smaller sizes) could ride on his alt mode. We also had already planned to put in Junkheap/Junkyard’s head and, thankfully, got some more tooling for that character later to make him look more like himself.
When it came time to paint the character, he brought an issue to light. I had been using my DVD 20th anniversary copy of the 86 movie for the first wave of SS86 characters and had just gotten the 30th anniversary BluRay in which I noticed the colors were different. In fact, depending on which transfer of the movie you’re watching, all the colors shift ever so slightly. Over the years, I feel like certain characters have gained a sort of collective unconscious color assignment because of how other toys have featured them. “Wreck-gar is Orange” was something I thought I remembered so vividly but then it’s like “Actually no, he’s like, rust colored…”
Since this line is supposed to be as close a translation of the film to Toy, the Hasbro and Takara teams talked and we decided that we would use the BluRay transfer of the movie going forward to select colors for these figures.
But what do you all think? Let me know if there are SS86 figures you’re dying to know the behind the scenes dirt on!
Studio Series SS 86-02 Kup
Alrighty, so continuing the Studio Series 86 deep dive, here we SS86 Kup! Our mentor character that totally reminded me of my grandfather who had a story for anything and everything.
I worked on designing Kup with Ejima Takio who is another exceptionally skilled draftsman who I can tell you designed every one of your favorite original Beast Wars figures. He has a fun story about when he designed the Transmetal Optimus Primal, he thought it was so clever how the show made his backpack with the mace weapons turn into a mounted blasters. He had never intended that but it worked so well. It’s amazing how another set of eyes can open new possibilities on these projects.
Ejima also drafts out his transformation plans with marker and I always find the drawings so easy to understand and charming. The goal was always for him to have his limbs be removable but I remember our engineering team not remembering that till we got in samples and they thought they broke him!
From there, I actually reached out to Emiliano Santalucia to design the details. He’s an artist super star who we’ve regularly used for concept kick offs and detail drawings. You should really check out his amazing work!
While working on that first wave of SS86 characters, I was stretched between 3 different brands, working very long hours and was slightly overwhelmed so I desperately needed help, haha. Because of this though, I was always slightly ashamed of how the original deco came out. The sculpt was good and the colors I picked just didn’t read as the Kup from the movie. I just missed so many good details. I would later be moved to just focus on Transformers and when the opportunity for the Buzzworthy Bumblebee capsule came around, I took the opportunity to try and make up for my mistakes. I also used this as an opportunity to test some things. “No clear parts, solid ABS, would fans like that? It would be slightly more animation accurate that way, I suppose.”
There is a bit of a stigma with collectors on the clear plastics we use in these figures. We hear you and are always working to figure out solutions.
Let me know if there are other SS86 figures you want the dirt on! Next up, Grimlock!
Studio Series SS 86-06 Grimlock
Next up: The leader of the Dinobots, Grimlock along with his friend, Wheelie!
I had the privilege to work on this figure with the ever talented, Hasui Shogo who some of you may be familiar with. He’s one of the lead Transformer designers over at TT and has had some of his interviews translated and posted on a few fan sites.
Hasui is just amazing. We’ve worked together on each of the Dinobots so far.
The original plan with Grimlock was to have Wheelie be a fully functional Core class sized figure(before that was a thing in SS) but as we started development, we realized we just couldn’t afford that. This is why Wheelie was reduced to just having 5 points of articulation but making sure he could still ride Grimlock.
The Grimlock figure itself brought in a lot of details from the the G1 toy and practically turned into a smaller MP figure.
I’m sure many of you are more curious about the initial deco that made it’s way out when we used early samples for photography so allow me to explain.
When I first worked on the deco, I went too literal using the animation model as reference. (Yellow!? what was I thinking!?) This normally would have been an easy fix as I could have reacted to seeing the first sample in person and then updated it but then there was a shift in the company. Many of us were moved to different brands and shuffled around and Transformers were no longer my projects.
And then Covid happened.
Both Teams had to adapt to working from home and had to deal with delays in getting samples while trying to keep schedules. If I was in the office then, maybe I would of seen the sample and reacted but that didn’t happen.
The team that took over began to drown in work so Sam and I were brought back in and I took over all my old items. Working with TT, we then updated the colors right before release. We had started development on Slug and realized none of the future Dinobots would have clear pieces so we decided to paint Grimlock’s neck to be animation accurate. The chest piece being tinted was a literal last minute request from TT before the final product began mass production.
It was a wild ride.
I certainly love this figure but what do you all think?
Chadderbug
I mean, it's basically just Twincast but blue chest. Wouldn't be too hard to do?
TargetmasterJoe
So did he just say "hey, if you want, you can swap heads between Percy and Magnificus so Percy can have his toy-accurate head" or not really?
Dinobot Swoop
Still wondering if they'll do a Micro Man-colored Blaster repaint and name it "Bluster" just to cement that piece of canon?
Chadderbug
Or randomly do what the Creatures Collide set did and just pack in the extra head cause why not
Ramberk Magnus
I heard that both heads get produced but obviously only one is used. The extra head’s plastic simply gets recycled. It’s more cost effective to make one mold with multiple heads and simply recycle the extra head. That’s what I read somewhere.
MeGrimlock78
Every time they mention alt head sculpts being produced, it makes me wonder what happens to them?
I imagine a bunch of Perceptor heads being thrown in a smelting pot like the Unicron scene in the movie.
Creepy!
ClearAsChristal
Oh, yea. I had forgotten.
Rodibotimus84
The SS Dinobots got some BTS but not by Evan glaub ich
ClearAsChristal
I think Wildrider already happened. I'm not sure, bit isn't Perceptor the first SS86 figure to have a BTS?
WinstoBot
I really do like this Perceptor figure a lot, but I can’t understand why they couldn’t add just one more parts count and included a panel to cover the huge whole on the back.
JT-bob
The budget kept them from using a second panel to close the hole, but we're seeing in this BTS entry that the design choice was having the head flip out from the front where a panel naturally covers the hole in robot mode or the back where nothing covers it, and because they didn't want to see the back of the head in alt mode they chose to just leave it gaping in bot mode. Of course you're right that adding a simple cheap part, a friction-fit hinged plate, would have solved both issues, but that's the brand we're stuck with.
Chadderbug
Well, they waited this long to do a Perceptor, so it'll probably happen with Wild Rider? Unless he already happened.
Chadderbug
I'd assume it was the budget that got in the way of not including a back panel to conceal the head better. He is a pretty tall and dense figure by what I hear, so yea.
JT-bob
… so, to avoid seeing the back of the robot head in microscope mode, they left a gaping hole in the robot mode's back? That does not seem like a good tradeoff to me, I would not care diddlysquat about seeing the back of the robot head in alt mode, but I'd even take squaring off the back of the head to fold it flush there rather than look at the hollow back of the figure in robot mode. This is such an odd thing that they seem to be doing more and more lately, that's a big compromise to robot mode just to achieve something minor in an alt mode.
Megatronwp38
He's one of my favorite studio series figures.
Vector Oracle
It broke down. Very tragic.
Sol Fury
It's also "sorta" in Marvel UK
G1 Grimlock
Great design
Girl Pants
Nice to see a hint of a Toy-Perceptor possibly happening too. I'm also a huge fan of that multi-color sketch of the basic parts breakdown of the mold. It's cool to see how the basic shapes come into being.
Also interesting to see the whole part about the head storage. After some of the more dour ones (….yeah, Pointblank), it's nice to see a change made for appearance and not purely for budget.
pokemonsdoom
Its ok Evan. We all pretend Carnage in C minor didn't happen either.