Courtesy of Hasbro designer Mark “Markclonus” Maher, via his Instagram account, we can share for you some official in-hand images of the new Transformers Legacy Deluxe Knockout plus some concept art images of the toy. As usual, Mark has also shared some interesting trivia and secrets of the development of this toy, including all the designers involved and a concept energon weapon.
I’ve been seeing alot of posts enjoying the new Legacy Deluxe Knockout figure, so its his time to shine! @marcelomatere worked with John Warden on the initial prime character concepts and I really loved his awesome style jammed into this upfront artwork. Please be sure to check out his work as he is an absolute TF beast, and better yet, a fantastic dude!
After he was kicked on over to Takara Tomy, Yuya san, I believe, did the car concept artwork, looks like his hand style, which is of course, nasty nice!
I worked with Yuki san on the figure after the concept phase and he actually suggested making this guy a partial off of the Studio Series Jazz mold since the robot designs were so much alike. I was simply like…Yuki san, u r a genius!
You can then see me adding some 90’s flare to his alt mode and really concentrating on getting a decent head design. Note to self, sculpt lines get sculpted a whole lot deeper on the face then ever intended! 🤷🏻♂️
You can also see a concept energon weapon that was initially drawn up by @santalux75 , another amazing artist you should check out! I did an overlay drawing of what came back from the block model 3d render to try and make it a cooler weapon then just a cattleprod!
My favorite…deco time! Obviously the mustard gold rims were a must, but I concepted out a bunch of different custom styled graphics for the side of the whip. I ended up with somthing closer to his show appearance but dialed it back to something I’d see when I desperately wanted a dope car as a kid growing up in the 90’s!
I hope you pick up this sultry crimson baddie and enjoy replaying lines from the Prime series over in your head, or even outloud, why not, have fun!
“Sweet rims…real heavy duty!” 😎
Click on the bar to see the new images and then click on the discussion link below and share your thoughts on the 2005 Boards!
cynw32618
I see what you’re saying, but the reason Apeface & Snapdragon got figures is because a) They were the last two headmasters to be made, and there’d been a clamour for several years for fans wanting them
b) They were two years after every other ‘87 headmaster who was in Titans Return, for the very reason that HasTak didn’t have repaints / remolds so they needed to know there was a demand first.
Doubledealer got one because a) Even though he wasn’t labelled with the Merc symbol, He was the original mercenary that all the others were built around (remember BugBite, Exhaust etc having that third faction logo? And that wasn’t popular, so we’re unlikely to see it again)
b) He was getting a big push in the Netflix Earthrise cartoon (the leakers here heavily hinted KnockOut was similarly chosen for Legacy because he would have have got a big push in the Legacy animated series, but Netflix ultimately passed on it)
As for BW, they only got the series because again, two years earlier Optimus Primal won the fan vote. AND lots of Beast Wars fans similarly complained at the time that he wasn’t exactly what they wanted, as small Primal just turned into a surfboard while they skipped Optimal Optimus’ car form entirely.
Hasbro said that this success was a big part of what made them want do an exclusive Beast Wars line, which was originally its own thing but put into Generations proper when half of Kingdom’s original G1 cast was moved to Studio Series (the original 3rd part of the WfC trilogy was going to be based on the ‘86 movie, not Beast Wars)
Each time there was a lag of several years, due to how big the lead time is for planning the Transformers line (they’re currently working on 2025’s line now!), however once Hasbro sees what the fans want they move direction – The only thing now is to sit tight and wait!
Shadow25
I get this, I just think it's totally flawed line of thinking on Hasbro's part that these characters need to have retool potential in order to justify being made as test runs.
We got plenty of pretty obscure characters in WFC Trilogy in larger size classes who haven't been retooled or repainted once, like Leader Doubledealer and Voyager Snapdragon and Apeface.
The BW characters all got unique and faithful molds as well, although certainly there was more repaint potential there with the alternate heads and such. But they committed to doing the majority of that show's cast in a pretty succinct period of time, without any need for testing the waters or the like, so I don't really see why Transformers: Prime, which was very popular and has a similarly sized cast, needs that justification.
Optimus1138
Me too! It'd work well for Slipstream too, although I'd still prefer either the ER mold or a new Animated Seeker mold for her.
cynw32618
The real reason Prime hasn’t had 100% accurate figures? Businesses want to eliminate risks as much as possible (‘especially’ in this economy!) – Prime figures alone don’t have any retool potential other than themselves, therefore the safer bet is to test the water first by making sure they can be retooled from/into a much wider variety of characters and then see if there’s demand for Prime figures.
If / once they see there is, they’ll get more accurate ones when they know they can shift them. Till then they’re just being cautious, as plenty have said before this has happened with almost all Transformers over the last 20 years.
Hell, I only got a decent accurate sized G1 Blaster in kingdom six months ago, and I’ve been wanting him for 30+ years! Look at G1 Pretenders, we had tiny guys in PotP, Legacy has given 2 at Core class and now we have Metalhawk apparently coming next year, as you can see even the mighty G1 isn’t immune to this.
And I’m not saying Prime fans have to like this. I get it. But just understand that this is the way it works, it always has and if these sell well we’ll see much more accurate Prime figures in about 18 months.
Vanya
Yeah, but I would buy that in a heartbeat just for the alt mode.
Optimus1138
I know, the joke's just gotten very, very old.
Realistically, I think a G1ified TFP Starscream would look basically like a lankier Cyberjet with hunched shoulders, wings that point up behind his shoulders rather than fold down behind his back, and an F-16 alt mode.
Robogeek28
Yup.
bellpeppers
You and I are both grandparents.
Robogeek28
Yup, same here, and now I'm waiting for a Devcon, and GOOD season two fembots.
Rodimus Prime
Most lines:
View attachment 29566724
Prime:
View attachment 29566725
TF Hot Rod
I’m pretty sure he’s being sarcastic.
But if not yeah G1 Starscream is different from a G1-ish styled Prime Starscream.
It would have been nice but I will say it’s it looks a little to restrictive here. But again it is a custom so who knows.
Optimus1138
Novaxmaximal
Something like this?
Heavy/Scratch: – ROTB Mirage Custom
View attachment 29566632
Toolala
Yes. Yes you are you silicone casted yellowing turd.
jokes aside, I would buy the hell out of that mold if it was made with actual plastic in decent colors, it has that distinct old school Machine Robo daftness, specifically reminds me of Tomcat Robo/Skyjack.
TF Hot Rod
I don’t see him rotting on shelves but I think of the wave he and or Elita are probably gonna be the one’s seen on pegs the most.
TF Hot Rod
IKR
KibblerGrrrl
I'm apparently an outlier, as I greatly prefer Yuki's non-Porsche car alt, which seems to draw some styling inspiration from both the current generation Toyota Supra and the final generation Toyota Celica GT.
And when G1 Downshift and the other Ominibots come up for development, <heresy> I'd much rather Hasbro start with the current or at least recent models of their car alts instead of their original now-dated designs. </heresy> They were never in any cartoons and were barely in comics, so "screen accuracy" be damned.
I'm fine with him being an SS86 Jazz retool, but I'd really wished they'd started by considering the hood to split open to give Knock-Out his shoulder vents. And really his Prime head was perfect, they should have barely touched it and kept his sneer/smirk. If Road Hauler can yell, KO can smirk.
Don't get me wrong, I'll definitely be getting him. I just wish getting G1 versions meant looking for ways to carefully adapt & integrate Prime character's physically distinctive traits into a G1 design, instead of sanding them down or discarding them entirely.
bellpeppers
No joke: I’ve wanted a Skyfire since I saw him on the show as a kid in the 80’s. Finally got him with Siege.
Pixelmaster
What a fall from grace for Hisashi Yuki. He was the man who did the unique tooling for Unite Warriors— aka the reason why UW was far better than CW.
I’ll get Knockout, only because I want a Decepticon medic. No rush though— I can see him rotting on shelves for ages. No interest in the actual character or his personality, and it doesn’t help that this new de-evolution misses the point of the original Prime design.
Ackar
people really say wait till you are 50 and finally get those toys you wanted when you were younger
im on a speed run im not living past 34 at worst
it was nice seeing those concept for the car mode tho I liked that