Hasbro Transformers designer Mark Maher is back at it tonight on his Instagram giving us a behind the scenes look at the development of a new Transformers figure – this time he’s putting the spotlight on Legacy Evolution Leader TFP Skyquake!
“Leader Legacy Evolution Skyquake is ready to take over the seeker skies and put the smackdown on some autobrats!
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The second image features an outline done by the great @marcelomatere when the prime redesigns were decided upon before we started Legacy. Since there was mixed feedback on Arcee and Bulkhead I decided to take a swing. My linework is featured underneath Marcelo’s , then my colored concept is featured on the next slide. Then the amazing Hisashi Yuki san from Takara Tomy had a great sketch with some renditions and suggestions. I reformatted my design and along the design development journey we both went.
You can see all the iterations of his head sculpt throughout the process.
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The transformation sequence is complex but strong, Yuki sans transformations are always amazing and I often stare in wonderment when he figures them out. The articulation packed into this beast is just wild. You just get a great experience of all kinds of abilities and poses.
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IMPORTANT: this sample does not have the final colors, I will try and update yall with the final deets. But I can assure you this guy has some sweet candy metallic paint applications that do wonderous things in good lighting.
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He does have head light piping and the engines on his feet along with his gatling blaster are blast effect compatible. The cockpit and sculpt details all over this dude command a decepticons 🫡 respect.
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Please do yourself a favor and rewatch how amazing his brief appearance in the Prime series is, you will not regret it! 😃”
IgnikaMarcus
What's there to correct?
jamarmiller
that’s exactly what I want to do with him too if they do him
Obnimaz
Do any versions of skyquake have the corrected landing gear yet?
TF Hot Rod
That but everything about this figure hints it. It screams we are going to do a G1 Skyquake repaint. Because if they weren’t the chest would likely be the jet cockpit like the show, not like the G1 toy.
No way we don’t get it.
WereDragon EX
I guess the first hint towards a retool into G1 Skyquake is the docking feature with Needlenose. It doesn't make sense for a G1 character figure to have that interactivity with a Prime character figure, barring whatever cross-dimensional shenanigans Legacy's "story" wants to do.
Drat. I hope it's not an exclusive, but you might have a point, given the relative obscurity of the character. I want a G1 Skyquake to repurpose as Scrash, lol.
maloney4playz
it's definitely likely to happen though probably as an exclusive, maybe an SDCC one?
TF Hot Rod
95% we get it. No way we don’t.
WereDragon EX
What are the odds of us getting G1 Skyquake out of this figure? If the odds are slim, then might as well get this figure and repurpose it as G1 Skyquake/Scrash before it goes out of production and commands higher prices on the aftermarket.
TFXProtector
I'll just copy and paste my thoughts, here.
So, mine came in from CMDStore and finally, a Leader that feels like one. Megatron wasn't bad, but he wasn't Skyquake or Galvatron. (Close, though.)
My biggest flaws with the figure are as follows:
1.) The instructions suck. (You miss entire connection points because of this.)
2.) His shoulders do not lock in place. (They're meant to be butterfly joints, but man…)
3.)The torso doesn't want to stay together. (You have to mistransform him, slightly, to make sure everything *is* secured. Trust me, it's usually not.)
Pros:
-Tall mofo. Towers over ER Prime. TOWERS.
-Thick, dense plastic. Feels GREAT!
-Paint apps are nice and even and crisp.
-Articulation is *chef's kiss*.
-Weapon storage and usage, A+.
Final thoughts:
This is a lovely update to Skyquake, but you can absolutely tell this is a pretool to get him sold and that the G1 use of this mold (inevitable) is the main thing. It's like he's Prime from the neck up and G1 from the neck down but somehow they made it work. I can't wait to see what he'll look like on my Prime/PRID shelf. Oh, yeah. (And the Dreadwing repaint will be purchased, too. As much as I have a fondness for the original mold, it's horribly flawed due to the rubber issues and broken backpacks, etc.)
He's honestly a pretty nice figure. The integration with Needlenose is just icing on the cake. Buttercream, even. Homemade!
I definitely recommend him. (Sorry Ben Yee)
He gets a![[IMG]](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/003/574/jaam1.gif)
from me.
Slender102
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Looks like Leader Skyquake is out in Hong Kong.
Thundershot
I’m more greedy than that. I want all 12 MW characters in modern toys. We have the molds for half of them.
Rodimus Prime
Waiting for the Dreadwing Repaint from Wave 4.
MAJINSTARSCREAM
God, if you do exist, please grant me a MW Starscream deco repaint
Ditko
I prefer the first version because I love Bulkhead and like the idea of more G1. It would be neat with The Seekers. That said I'm impressed as is with him and pre-ordered.
Gepard
TCP has him in stock for $125. I own the stealth repaint and he's really cool, although my copy has a QC issue with one of the wings that I was never able to get a replacement part for.
MakeToys MTCD-05 BUSTER SKYWING
BBJazz
Hmmm. Stormbringer was based on Classics Jetfire, so I'd be pretty surprised if Hasbro were to revisit that design. Especially since most people seem happy with the Siege version. MMC might do it, but I wouldn't hold your breath on that. If you're open to 3P, I remember Maketoys had a pretty cool Jetfire that was about leader class in terms of scale.
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I don't know how hard this would be to track down today, but it seems closer to what you're after.
Optimus1138
He's really cool and I'd definitely want to get some version of him if they made a new one, but he wouldn't be my Jetfire, he'd be repurposed as someone else. I might call him Skyfire, but that's also what I'm thinking of calling the hypothetical MW Starscream-into-ROTF-Jetfire custom I'd make if they make him from Skyquake, so who knows. (Ideally I'd want him to be repainted as a more accurate Galaxy Shuttle, because I'd love a reasonably realistic space shuttle bot, but if that wouldn't happen I'd just buy the regular version.)
The Stormbringer version (a lot of designs from that comic seem to be fan favorites, so what I'd really love is for them to open Studio Series up to the comics and do an inaugural wave with a bunch of the Stormbringer designs) or a Legacy Cyberverse version is what I'm really hoping for, and it doesn't seem super far-fetched to me because he has such a common transformation that he could be repainted/remolded into so many other jet bots, but yeah, the Siege figure coming out again might hurt the chances of that. I guess I can also always hope that MMC makes a Jetfire to go with their recent Stormbringer Optimus figure, it'd probably be a tad bigger than I'd prefer but not enough to be a dealbreaker.
Sprocket
IF they were to re-use this as G1 Skyquake and/or King Atlas, I'd want a new head and shouldpads, but that's probably asking for way too much, especially 'cause the head already has so much G1 in it
BBJazz
I understand. That's sort of how I feel about Rewind. As soon as Siege started and the cassettes got smaller and more consistent, I felt like my TR version was outdated. It wasn't until literally a couple of days ago that a version of my favorite character dropped that I'm actually happy with- albeit with too much clear plastic but I'll take my win.
As far as Jetfires that are realistic to happen at the scale you're describing, what do you think of Armada Jetfire? I know it's a different design and not exactly what you want but I could see him working as a leader class at a similar scale to the Dinobots, and with an Armada Prime on the horizon it's not too far-fetched that we might get this version. I only bring him up because I think you're going to be waiting for a really long time for a smaller G1 Jetfire, given that they just reissued the Siege one.
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