Courtesy of Hasbro Toy Designer Evan Brooks, we can share for you another “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 Dinobot Sludge. To make things even more interesting, he has also shared amazing information and trivia about the creative process with references, and several ideas that were considered during the development and more. Did you know that the early block model had the horns on the robot head looking more like the G1 toy instead of the animation model?
See all the images as well as Evan Brooks comments about each figure after the jump. We are also catching up with images and info of SS 86 Slug. If you missed our firsts round ups of images and info, you can find part 1, part 2 and part 3 on these links. Sound off your impressions on the 2005 Boards and stay tuned for more updates.
Studio Series SS 86-15 Sludge
Hi Transformer fans! It’s been awhile since I’ve posted, apologies for that. It’s been quite a busy time getting everything prepped for SDCC!
I thought I’d follow up with another dinobot so here we have SS86 Sludge!
Land Before Time was a favorite movie of mine as a kid so the Brontosaurus shaped Dinobot was my favorite of the group!
Hasui san worked on this big bad dino and really made sure to bring to life his animation look. You can see his amazing pencil sketches for the detail drawings that bring some of the g1 scribe details into the character’s form and feel so natural to them.
Always impressed how he keeps the transformation looking like the standard toy transformation but gives it a twist so the modern proportions and articulation of our figures can really shine.
Some of you might notice that the early block model had the horns on the robot head looking more like the G1 toy instead of the animation model. We made sure to update that as we moved to the physical model to make sure to get in those arched horns that were iconic to his design.
When we started development of this figure, we found he needed the most pieces of all the Dinobots so far.
This means that there wasn’t any room to slip in a smaller character but since we had just launched Core Class for SS, we figured that it was justified to proceed without.
Other than that, there isn’t much to tell!
I hope you all enjoy completing the original Trio of Dinobots by picking this guy up (If you like him).
Studio Series SS 86-7 Slug
Hello!
Seems like a lot of reveals dropped today.
Hope you all are excited for the cool things the team has been working on!
Make sure to check out Mark’s and Bmac’s page for details on the Wrecker program!
@markclonus @bmacatron84
Continuing with Studio Series 86 Dinobots, here we have 86 Slug and Daniel!
Just to clarify, Slug had a slightly different name in the 80’s that has since been shifted since words can mean different things in different countries.
As you can see from the images, this is a Hasui san item (as are all the dinobots) so you can see it’s chocked full of wonderful detail that references the G1 toy while having the proportions and design elements of the Cartoon animation model.
We began development on Slug and Daniel right after Grimlock so we had a better understanding of what we could do at this pricepoint and scale.
We wanted to make sure we got Daniel in at some form since we hadn’t solidified bringing Core Class over to SS just yet so that’s why he was chosen as an accessory character.
Other than that, there isn’t much to tell!
Development went incredibly smooth for Slug. Deco wise, colors were lifted right from Grimlock to make sure they all looked like they’re on the same team (as they should!).
Deco was based on his Animation model instead of his toy so red head and silver horns.
My one regret is we had to remove the little silver hits on the helmet to meet our deco quota. Whenever I have to remove paint, I always try to pick areas that are at least easy for consumers to apply themselves if they need to add them.
I know the dinobots are some folks favorite Transformer characters but which team member is your favorite?
We’ll get to all of them at this scale, eventually!
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.