It seems Hasbro designer Sam Smith is not giving us a rest any time soon. Continuing with his “behind the scenes” Instagram posts about Studio Series toys, now he surprised us with information about the new SS-90 Age Of Extinction Galvatron.
Galvatron is a completely new Voyager which proved to be a challenge for both Hasbro and Takara Tomy design teams to bring him into a toy form. In the end, we a have a very nice update compared to the original AOE Galvatron toy.
As usual, tons of information, trivia, images and even turnaround videos of both modes! Read all Sam’s comments and new development material after the jump and let us know your impressions on the 2005 Boards!
SS-90 Age of Extinction Galvatron
“That is why I have no fear! I am GALVATRON!”
Well this release came about prematurely, but its official SS Voyager Wave 3 is here. So lets get into the details on Galvatron! AOE introduced a total redesign for our core bots, along with a major aesthetic change to help refresh some of the design. While the look of these bots were fantastic, there was certainly a new engineering challenge that was presented in terms of how these guys were going to transform. To make that even more difficult, enters Galvatron.
Galvatron was the reforge body of Megatron by K.S.I. who would utilize matter shifting to transform into his first earth bound vehicle form, a Freightliner Argosy (which would later be reused by Paramount as Dr. Robotnik’s convoy in the first Sonic Movie). Absolutely none of the vehicle mode is present on Galvatron’s robot design, so Takara had their work cut out for them with this design. Regardless, it was absolutely amazing to get Frank Welker to make his return as the theatrical voice of this character.
Thankfully, Yuya Onishi was up to the task. Yuya has been such a fantastic design partner at TT, and this figure was no exception. Yuya and the team got to work on a pretty faithful design plan that would do a pretty substantial job of eliminating most of the exposed vehicle paneling from the robot mode, while retaining a fully licensed vehicle design. We were able to maintain his difficult arm cannon, while also including a removable missile cluster that could be mounted to the figures arm, or loaded onto the side fairing of the truck as it was used in the film.
For the deco of the figure, I took learning from the existing AOE design, and knew where the shortfalls were on the molded silver plastic. I tried to work more from the matte base color of the truck, so that I could allocated most of the paint operations to the robot mode. I think this figure would benefit from a bit more paint, but he used up the budget quick since none of the truck paint really carries over to the robot mode which isn’t often the case.
All in all, I am pretty happy with how this figure came out given the number of challenges that it faced, and I look forward to tackling more of the AOE designs. I mean, if we can figure out Galvatron, the rest of them should be a cake walk.
What are your thoughts on Galvatron? Is he a worthy update to your collection?
Steampunk13
My dude, the old figures are irrelevant to this conversation, the new ones are still out of scale. Although I’ve discovered that doesn’t really matter either way. I’ve been saying that a good height for the twins is 3 inches and it turns out that’s taller than the SS Arcee triplets. So this all works out pretty well.
IronWaveJRG
Even if they're off by a few centimeters, the Arcee triplets are closer to being in scale than the old ROTF Deluxe bikes, the SS ones are properly sized in their bike modes and their sizes in bot modes fit with the rest of them
Steampunk13
I mean, the Arcee triplets are out of scale with everyone, similar to Grimlock and Scavenger, so if it came down to it, I’d rather Skids and Mudflap be scaled with the majority rather than the minority.
IronWaveJRG
They would still have to be taller than the Arcee triplets, who are a head shorter than your average Core Class figure
Steampunk13
I would hope so as well.
troglodyteman217
hope the transformations enjoyability doesnt suffer from their size
Steampunk13
If they were to be accurately scaled with the SS line, they’d actually be shorter than a lot of core class figures. Still need that deluxe level budget to do them justice and include some accessories though. I’d love if they pulled a human alliance and brought back the Leo and Simmons minifigs. It would also be hilarious if they had clips on their backs so that SS Bee could pick them up like in the film.
IronWaveJRG
I feel like whenever the Twins get made, they're gonna follow the design philosophy of ER Cliffjumper: small figures but bulky enough to be larger than Legends/Core Class, and some extra accesories to make up for the price point.
Nemesisprime1975
Anyway of the two named in the thread I'll pick up TC.
It's a pass on galvatron.
Shadow25
I bought a second Berserker too, and honestly that's perfectly enough for me. The alt mode is correct, the color layout looks good next to Crowbar and the only 'differentiator' is the red x on his chest which doesn't bother me. I probably wouldn't buy another when the main difference would just be the name on the box.
troglodyteman217
doubt the twins will be core class. they are very small yes but cause of their designs they would end up with the whole car hanging of their backs. atleast with a deluxe price theyd have the ability to fold that in
IronWaveJRG
That's what we've been told (I think it was Pixelmaster who first mentioned it), as far as I know
f-primusunicron
that really doesn't make any sense with the current 3d technology but whatever
Steampunk13
Oh thank god. I just ended up buying a second Berserker, who was still easy to purchase because of how badly he shelfwarmed, but a proper Crankcase would be awesome.
IronWaveJRG
Apparently, the reason why Crankcase turned out the way he did, was because the Berserker mold was modified to make Crowbar, but when it came to making Crankcase it was too expensive to reverse the mold back to it's original form, hence why Crankcase was a Crowbar repaint.
But hey! At least Sam has given us hope for a proper Crankcase down the road
Nemesisprime1975
Realistically they have to be. They played too big a role in ROTF for them to be just ignored by hasbro controversy or not.
Nemesisprime1975
Ah the great mysteries of life. Life and death and hasbro. Lol
Steampunk13
Really? Damn I actually have a sliver of hope now. The old ROTF figures were good for their time but now they just kind of annoy me. So clunky and difficult to pose. Headsculpts still look great though.
Steampunk13
Who knows my man. If they were smart they could make some decent money off of those characters, but sometimes they just make the weirdest decisions. I still wonder who made the decision to make SS Crankcase a Crowbar redeco instead of a Berserker redeco. Do they ever think about what they did? Or did they never even realize the mistake? Questions that keep me up at night lol
TF Hot Rod
Separate. Definitely not with Fallen. Probably Core Class. And we know from leakers than Mudflap and Skids apparently are back on the table for being done.