Coming to us once again thanks to Hasbro Designer Mark “Marklonus” Maher on his Instagram account, we have an interesting set of official images of Transformers Legacy Dragstrip official concept art, sketches and design development.
Read on for Mark’s comments about the creative process behind the new Dragstrip toy which include alternative ideas for Menasor’s arm mode:
Between the hardwork of @artguy101 and Takio Ejima, Dragstrip ended up being a real beauty! Dan Khana absolutely crushed the concept work done for this stunticon henchman. Its a real treat whenever I get to work with Dan, such a talented guy and he really lives for the brand, diehard fan! We talked alot about how the arm would break apart for Menasor and you can see there was a couple ideas thrown around in the up front.
Once these ideas were all sent over to Takara’s team, we all got together and discussed over voice conference calls on direction and aesthetics of the combiner. Ejima san’s engineering mind to situate the smooth locking mechanism which would then become the final Menasor arm is just a stroke of absolute genius.
You can also see me applying details at block model stage to really try to get as close to Dan’s initial art as possible, but, there were some sacrifices made to some ideas to ensure his combining ability could be the best it could be.
Also, you can see some red line drawings for adjustments throughout the process. I thought showing you how much thought and detail went into the process it’d be cool to see. There is all sorts of production limitations and parts of the process that are hard to capture here. Pulling plastics out of molds is definitely an artform of its own and a very interesting world at that.
Funny thing on the last slide is how I was thinking of maybe giving Dragstrip a sort of evil smirk, somtimes those sculpt programs run away from your idea so its good to realign and focus on alotta other aspects of the character that can help amp it up to be the best Dragstrip evahhhh!
I hope yall enjoy the insight and I hope this guy fits into you collection!
Click on the bar to see all the images attached to this news post and then sound off on the 2005 Boards!
Superquad7
Right, but there seems like a better solution for those could have been made. I'd prefer them on the back, for example. They just look silly as is.
Beemer
Speaking of which, Dead End reveal WHEN?!
Slimeformerzaa
I hope the "completeness" will be maintained with Dead End.
Chadderbug
Well, the other way around yea it's kinda required, but for the limbs they seem complete on their own, namely Dragstrip
RNSrobot
Yeah. I understand it's complicated but man that Dan Khanna concept art is lit
ScorponokIsHere
I don't really want to argue whether the proportions of a Dan Khanna drawing would facilitate a specific transformation, since I'm not convinced we're looking at a schematic meant to be that mechanically exact. Of course the thighs of that drawing couldn't fit into the torso of that drawing. I don't think that illustration is coming from that angle. It's more like control art.
I will point out, however, that even at this early stage of concept art, Drag Strip already had the 5mm ports on the fronts of his shins which are used to plug him into the Menasor arm.
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There's no other reason for him to have those ports drawn there.
Drag Strip was always meant to attach to an arm.
Barbarossa Prime
I’m not the only one that reads these updates in Mark’s voice right?
Lore Keeper
If you look at the robot mode, there's no way the thighs can go into the torso. Those extra joints shown in the arm mode appear to be telescoping joints, similar to CW Dragstrip's. This would allow the legs to collapse at the knees. The telescope pieces also appear to be double jointed, allowing the inner elbow joint to bend at a higher point than the outer one. Pretty ingenious, honestly.
The cockpit and engine block are interesting. The cockpit looks like it swivels 180 degrees for robot/arm mode while the engine block flips into it (and possibly rotates 180 too).
I'm not sure if existing CW pegs will fit inside the torso area, but a new, smaller peg moving forward would be better than none at all.
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ScorponokIsHere
Sorry, due to how that thing must transform, the spot where the connector port would go seems like it would have to be where the thighs need to store in vehicle mode. The thighs (and probably the waist and crotch, too, if we want to preserve waist rotation) have to push up into the torso because they can't push down into the shins, because of the need to store the extra joints depicted for combiner mode elbows.
Lore Keeper
Given yhe concept sketches, it looks like a combiner peg could be installed right there. It would be covered by the hood on his back in robot mode, so it wouldn't even ruin the look of the toy.
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ScorponokIsHere
Yeah, you wouldn't even manage 90 degrees with that setup. I imagine that's why they ditched it.
I mean, sure, until you realize there's no way for it to attach to the shoulder! Either there's going to be a big hole in it for a torso-side port, or there's a giant combiner plug you gotta pull out of the torso somehow.
Beemer
The math involved in getting the two legs to turn into two different lengths to make the elbow work seems complicated. I think the finished version is probably more stable and has a greater range of motion.
Lore Keeper
Well that's a shame. On its own, that design looks like a very serviceable combiner arm.
Q Prime
Seeing as without the others he has stick-thin arms and holes in his shins, I'm gonna have to disagree with you on that.
Chadderbug
The upside is that the final product DS doesn't have to deal with hardly any combiner compromising, and stands really well alone and separated from the combiner. It doesn't feel like you need to make the combiner for the full experience. It combining is just kind of a bonus
Novaburnhilde
The radar dish accessory is an odd choice, still a nice design.
Phenotype
That Dec. 3rd 2020 date on the design sheet gives us a really good idea of the lead time for TF's.
ScorponokIsHere
He was always going to be an arm-plug in, but early on they experimented with how he attached to the arm while retaining elbow articulation. The concept art provided is at a stage when they tried to have him attach to Menasor's arm structures without separating. At no point would he have become the entire arm. There is no Commander Class Motormaster without the Menasor skeleton.
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ScorponokIsHere
pretty sure what that art is depicting there is a request for the sculpt to make the engine pipes longer, not rendering the movement of an actual feature
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so, yeah, we got those longer pipes
Chadderbug
At the same time, that would've probably given him pretty limited articulation or very clashing parts. I'd say putting the scoop next to the head was a good call on the engineering front