Artist Don Figueroa has posted up on his Twitter account images of his concept art of the unrelased Titanium Arcee, Bumblebee & Shockwave.
While we had seen the prototypes of these unreleased figures before back in the day, now we have a look at the original idea of Don Figueroa for these characters where we can even see the proposed transformation sequence. We can spot several changes compared with the prototypes, probably due to costs and other factors, but it’s an interesting material about how these figures were developed (but never released, sadly).
See the images after the break and then share your impressions on the 2005 Boards!
Novaburnhilde
Always a pleasure to see more of Don's work. Truly a shame we never got that nifty Cosmos he designed.
stucksomewhere
I love the artwork for the Arcee. Don't know why they screwed up the implementation.
It would be fun to attempt to model this design out and give printing it a try.
MehWave
OMG, that's beautiful.
MehWave
These designs DO look dated, however, the integration of the wheels into Arcees heels would do wonders for her stability, I think. And it looks cooler, IMHO. But then again, I dig wheels in heels. Or calves.
Pushan Halder
Arcee and Bee look oddly familiar don\'t they?
Arcee reminds me of Toyworld Leia
Bee reminds me of Maas Toys Skiff
Seems like they took inspirations from these.
Also, Shockwave looks just as awesome.
JLvatron
Wow, love Don's designs! I don't give him enough credit.
Er, more like a quarter. And many of these were meant to be Cybertronian alt-modes, so they were purposely given incomplete looks.
'Tis true.
The bad 1's, no. They were ter-Ribble.
But there were some great 1's, like Scourge, and Rodimus Prime who Transformed from robot to full future-truck. Same with Ultra-Magnus that was so hard to find.
Heriatan
Its funny how most of the Arcee engineering ended up inspiring the figure of Thrilling line.
And I really dont understand why Hasbro dont hire Don to make desings.
Wh33ls
Damn, these would of been awesome to get back in the day. That Arcee aged badly, but I would of still kept her just for the history of Arcee's toy evolution. I mean, I still got all of my Titanium figures, even diaperwave.
unexistance
it's magically still here, scroll down a bit
TakaraTomy Staff interview from Generations 2009 vol.1 Translation
WishfulThinking
I would have totally dug Shockwave. At least he has a gun mode.
General Tekno
Yeah, the Titanium line is a fascinating beast. It's a designer-driven line (IIRC Don did all the designs for it) with some REALLY COOL picks and deep cuts, but unfortunately implemented by a design team new to Transformers.
There's some solid pieces in it though. I still love that Titanium Cheetor, which a) is Beast Machines because nobody told Don WHICH Cheetor to use so he picked BM b) is still my favorite BM Cheetor toy. OpOp was pretty good too, and Rodimus/Fallen were solid designs as well (though Fallen had some big issues of course with his backpack flopping around).
Valkysas
I hate that Don’s legacy with Transformer toy designs is tainted by the Titanium figures. He’s been designing and building his own Transformers for decades (who remembers his MASSIVE Macromaster figures?). The designs are fantastic. He was just stuck with a team that had no idea what they were doing, and it’s their fault the figures are so bad.
Does anyone still have the photos of the Voyager Classics Optimus Prime figure at its original intended scale – deluxe? That design working as a deluxe at the time blew my mind. We wouldn’t see anything close to that again for over a decade.
Hadlen_Weltall
Another reminder of how much I miss seeing DON artwork in the mainstream.
BB Shockwave
Of course, we have better versions of all of these today, but I remember being really angry we lost out on these. At the time, the best "Shockwave" we had was Energon Shockblast, after all., and this would have been the first proper G1 Arcee.
I remember seeing the prototypes shown at a Botcon, never knew Don Figueroa designed these!
Arcee skimps out on the rear of the car mode, but as a result she has no kibble in robot mode.
I think there was also a pretty awesome Cosmos too.
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Galva12
An UNRELEASED Bumblebee, sacrilege! But if they did release it, I'd be down for one for that beautiful alt mode.
Robogeek28
Definitely a nice looking Cosmos despite not being G1 accurate.
bellpeppers
If that Cosmos was ever made I don't think I would have ever wanted another.
JT-bob
Those are cool, but no way could Titanium Series achieved these transformations, they weren't really that capable as Transformers. I suppose Arcee's thunder thighs are to accommodate the sliding mechanism. And as for Bumblebee's bumblebustle…
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AutobotTurbine
Yeah, I’ve heard absolutely nothing good about that figure, but I still love that robot mode design and really, really want an actual member of the Transformers team to take a crack at it.
jimmyh
I have Rodimus and Menasor. I would have bought that Bumblebee.