Character model

Deviate from this and invite scorn!

A character model is a stylistic guide created to help animators and licensee artists depict the Transformers in a consistent and recognizable way. A typical character model is illustrated with a series of model sheets, containing two or more line drawings of each of a character's modes, showing the front and back, weapons, and sometimes details as well. Character models are most often derived from a character's toy, though in some instances the toy and character design may be designed simultaneously.

Character models produced in the 80s were typically black & white, with a separate color guide that would often cover just the front of the model. Modern character designs are usually in color, though sometimes the designs for the backs are only produced in black & white.

Character models are not to be confused with control art, which is used in the toy design process.

Creation

The earliest Transformers character models were created by Japanese artist Shōhei Kohara. It is unclear just how many he created; he was, at least, responsible for the original eight designs (Optimus Prime, Sideswipe, Jazz, Prowl, Megatron, Soundwave, Laserbeak, and the shared Seeker body-type) that appeared in the original 1984 Transformers commercials.

Kohara's designs were simplified for the animated series itself by Floro Dery, whose modifications included the removal of wheels and the enlargement of the characters' heads, and the more extreme redesign of Megatron to better resemble his toy. Dery went on to become the primary designer for the rest of the cartoon; there is evidence that he created at least some of the remaining 1984 character models using the toy's package art for reference,^[1] while most of the 1985 models seem to have been based on photographs of the toys (see "Design oddities," below). The cast of The Transformers: The Movie, meanwhile, flipped the sequence of events around, originating as Dery designs that were then converted into toys.

Nuances

"He's not heavy, he's my brother."

If the same toy is used for multiple characters, they may be depicted with very different character models—for example, Sideswipe and Red Alert. These two toys are essentially identical, but while Kohara's design for Sideswipe is tall and athletic, Dery's more toy-derived design for Red Alert is short and stocky. This pattern of artistically differentiating two very similar toys in order to make distinct characterization easier was particularly common with the 1984/1985 toys, many of which were redecos of other toys. Examples include Trailbreaker/Hoist, Prowl/Smokescreen, the Seekers/the Coneheads, and others. In general, the 1984 toys were vastly anthropomorphized for the screen, while the 1985 character models resembled their toys much more closely, resulting in a stockier group of robots.

The practice of varying the character models of characters who share a bodyform was revisited in Transformers Animated. Though Ratchet and Ironhide share a bodyform, Ratchet's character model has a paunch while Ironhide's form is more buff. Bumblebee shares a bodyform with roughly a dozen other characters, and their bodyshapes run the gamut from skinny to stocky to curvaceous, depending on the character's needs.

Guess which one can actually turn into an ambulance?^[2]

Character models may vary wildly from the toy itself, leading to greater or lesser degrees of "show-accuracy". Perhaps the most conspicuous examples are Ironhide and Ratchet. In those instances, droid-like and "alien" toys were heavily anthropomorphized in the character models, adding humanoid proportions, heads, and faces.

Perhaps the best representation of both of the above factors—character models differing from the toys, and later character models differing from earlier ones based on the same toys—is shown by Tarantulas and Blackarachnia.

A few exceptions, such as Whirl and Roadbuster, who only appear in the Marvel UK comics, appear to have no character models at all, and their art is based on their toys. Regardless, even in the later years of the Generation 1 franchise, the creation of character models persisted. One example is the 1989 Pretenders, whose character models are replicated faithfully by José Delbo. Even though artistic interpretations of Bludgeon, Stranglehold, and Octopunch diversified with later artists, elements taken from the character models continued, such as their individualized melee weapons. (These weapons were not included with the individual toys.)

We don't have these weapons.

Most of the Generation 1 character designs from before 1987 were done by Floro Dery. The widely distributed model sheets of those characters may have been redrawn from his designs, or they might be his direct work. The first three years' worth of Generation 1 character models formed the basis for the artwork of Marvel's The Transformers Universe profile books. Additional profiles were later published in the back of the main comic book, showing character models for some of the 1987 and 1988 characters.

A vast collection of Generation 1 character models are available in the books Transformers: The Ark, Transformers: The Ark II, and Transformers: The Complete Ark. Many of the same designs are also available in Transformers Generations, though its pictures are quite small and typically feature only the front of the robot and the alt mode.

Design oddities

On the left, Optimus Prime's head as it appeared on his original character model; on the right, the more stylized version from his later-produced head turnaround. Note the change in shape and thickness of the cheekguards, and the alteration to an angular, straight-edged mouthplate instead of a curving one.

Head turnarounds

In addition to full-body character models, close-up head turnarounds were also created later in the production of the Generation 1 animated series for the various Transformers, which depicted them with more stylized, angular heads, their helmets sometimes slightly different shaped, and with sharper facial-delineation lines compared to the softer renderings used on the original models. The influence of these close-up models can be spotted in some of the better-looking season one episodes, but became the default look for characters in season two. AKOM, by all appearances, never got these turnarounds, and consistently drew the Transformers with the softer heads of their original models; drawing the new characters from the second season in this manner also appears to be a hallmark of the mysterious unknown animation studio.

Package art influence

Some character models clearly used the toys' package art as reference, which had some knock-on effects on their designs.

• Hound's character model is in the same pose as his package art. The model misinterprets the box art's foreshortening of his rifle, which resulted in Hound wielding a stubby little gun in robot mode, while in vehicle mode, it was its proper length.
• Wheeljack's model also shares his package art's pose. The package art adds various technical details (notably, two triangular shapes) to the insides of his lower legs that are not part of his toy, but which wound up transferring onto his character model.
• Ravage's character model and package art share an identical pose, which would go on to be widely replicated across much Transformers media.
• Rumble and Frenzy's package art shows them with only one of their Thruster guns attached to their backs, and one in their hands. This translated to the character models, which resulted in the two brothers intermittently having only one gun on their backs throughout the show.
• Superion's character model has a very long rifle attached to his arm that is not part of his toy. This appears to have been added to his character model by a designer who misinterpreted the toy's package art, which uses forced perspective to make his normally-sized handgun appear much longer.

Made-up rear views

Some Generation 1 character models appear to have been created from photos of the toys that show only their fronts, rather than from the artists having in-hand samples of the toys to work from. After generally accurate, front-facing character models were created based on these images (likely by Floro Dery himself for pre-movie characters), a rear-view model then had to be made up based on that design, probably by Dery's assistants, rather than the man himself.

• Pretty much all of the new characters from the 1985 product introduced in season two bear hallmarks of this. Grapple and Inferno are missing the crane arm and ladder, respectively, that ought to hang down their backs; in Grapple's case, a misinterpretation caused details representing his crane arm to become part of his legs. Red Alert and Smokescreen feature their vehicle mode trunks on the backs of their torsos, when those parts are supposed to become their legs. The wheels of Hoist's tow-trailer, poking out from behind his arms, became reinterpreted as the hinges of some extraneous panels hanging off the larger panels on the backs of his arms. Astrotrain has a tail fin on his back, when it is supposed to sit on his chest. Instead of his tank turret, Blitzwing has a "rocket pack" to which the wings that are supposed to be on his shoulders are attached, while his tank barrel is moved to extrude from the back of his head. And the other new Autobot cars and Decepticons jets feature rear view designs that, while not noticeably bizarre, are generally simplified and lack even basic details from the toys. Omega Supreme and Seaspray are the two definite exceptions to this strange rule; Omega's rear view model that incorporates a very detailed rendering of his toy's molding, while Seaspray's includes his toy's wheels and screw-holes, ironically features that shouldn't be part of his in-universe appearance!
• In 1986, the Protectobots continued the trend, with rear views that misinterpret and/or omit virtually all kibble. First Aid's windshield-panel and Hot Spot's ladder, for instance, are both completely absent, while Blades's cockpit is misinterpreted as two random panels sticking out of his back. Groove still has his front section hanging off his back... but because it wasn't visible from the front-view, the designers didn't realize his front wheel was also supposed to be attached to it. Defensor, meanwhile, does have some of the kibble that's missing from the individual 'bots (like First Aid's and Blades's panels hanging off his shoulders), because it was visible in the photo used for reference!
• From the 1987 line, the pre-final models for the Technobots fell victim to the same foible, with all the team's members featuring made-up rear-view designs that mirrored other chunks of their body to create the backs of their torsos—even the back of their combined form Computron was a mirror of Lightspeed's chest. In particular, misinterpretations of the three-quarters view of the front-facing models resulted in Scattershot's cannon and Afterburner's wheel—parts that are supposed to rest in the middle of their backs—becoming parts of their shoulders in the rear-view designs. These borked designs only appeared in AKOM-animated episodes; corrected character models were used for appearances animated by Toei.

Created from early concept art

• The original Megatron character model was based not on the toy, but on early concept art for a prototype version of the figure that differed significantly from the finished article. This design—featuring a different, black-helmeted head, an alternate scope/cannon, and the gun's barrel on its back rather than its hip—was used for the very first Transformers commercial, and the first two issues of the Marvel Comic. Although the model was amended to slightly better resemble the toy before the cartoon itself was produced, much of the finished Megatron design remains rooted in the prototype.
• In 1986, the Aerialbots' character models were mostly based on simplified lineart of their toys, rather than the actual toys themselves, but this did not result in much divergence from the finished toys. The exceptions came in the form of Silverbolt, whose rear-view model lacks the jet nosecone that ought to rest on his back, and Superion, whose model has a mouthplate instead of the toy's visible mouth.^[3]
• Also 1986, the Stunticons' models were created in a similar way to the Aerialbots, except they were based on lineart of prototype designs for the figures, which included head designs that were very different from the noggins the finished toys would ultimately have. The team's models were then subject to further design revisions, which wound up taking the designs even further away from the toys, even retaining the early head designs. The result was a team of character models that looked virtually nothing like their toys. An early character model for Breakdown, published in The Ark, shows his early, concept-art-based design.^[4]
• Given that the Combaticons also look nothing like their toys, it seems likely they went through the same process as the Stunticons. Early models published in both The Ark and Transformers Generations show alternate designs for the whole team that are not especially any more toy-accurate in robot mode, but with much more accurate vehicle mode forms; presumably, these early designs underwent the same revision process the Stunticons did, resulting in the finished Combaticon model seen in the series. Unlike the Stunticons, however, the Combaticons early head designs were replaced with more toy-accurate ones, likely based on the toy's package art.

Variations

When applied to fiction, character designs are often interpreted differently by various artists. Other times, a model may not be available at all, resulting in art based directly on a character's toy, or something entirely made up.

Skyfire is Jetfire on 'roids.

• Jetfire / Skyfire had two different character models from early Generation 1 series. The toy-accurate one appeared three times "fictionally," once as a miscolored, partially-obscured background character in the fourth Marvel Comics issue, again in the Marvel Comics as a spectator at Optimus Prime's funeral (right next to his "Skyfire" model), and finally in the Milton-Bradley promotional comic. It would also occasionally crop up in secondary media, such as coloring books and the animated portion of the commercial for Jetfire and Shockwave.

The Broadside on the right has had kibble-reduction surgery

• Broadside has the distinction of having two sets of drastically different character models. His pre-final models are based on a prototype of his toy that apparently went just short of production for some reason and features a similar color palette to his final models. His final models, on the other hand, are based directly on his finished toy. The pre-final model was rendered in animated form in the episodes "Thief in the Night" and "Carnage in C-Minor", as well as the commercial for the 1986 Triple Changer toys. As with most of the characters used in the Marvel comics, all of Broadside's appearances used the pre-final model—even going so far as to color it with the same palette as the prototype toy!

Me Grimlock like more chiseled look.

• Grimlock had a pre-final model design which quickly disappeared from the original The Transformers cartoon, replaced by a more toy-accurate model with the episode "War of the Dinobots". This pre-final model has the distinction of having a much rounder robot mode head as well as a few more smaller details that had not yet been refined to the smoother look of his body in the final. The pre-final version would often return in episodes animated by AKOM, however. The pre-final model was also used in the US Marvel comics, up until he became an Action Master in "Still Life!".

Soundwave's having his mouthplate dry-cleaned

• Marvel US Soundwave was drawn without a mouthplate by artist José Delbo, based on an early version of his character model. Soundwave was also colored purple in nearly every appearance in the US comics, probably due to the early model's seemingly lavender coloration. The UK comics coloured him blue in every appearance there and gave him the toy's yellow visor, working off a different model sheet.

Pick a head, any head.

• For their character models, the face/Nebulan and helmet/seat pieces of Nightbeat and Siren were inexplicably switched. (It is difficult to tell for sure, but they may have kept the correct antennae/guns judging by the basic shapes involved.) This switch gave comic book Nightbeat the "shades" he's remembered for, as well as the crest on his forehead, while comic book Siren ended up with his trademark combined brow/nosepiece. How or why this switch happened, and in what stage of development it occurred, is unknown. Nightbeat was depicted with his own toy's head (for the first time) in Dreamwave's The War Within: The Age of Wrath. Nightbeat's appearances in IDW Publishing's Transformers comics retain the Siren face design, but inside the Nightbeat helmet. In Fun Publications' "Cheap Shots," his appearance is based on his new toy, whose head is based on Siren's face and helmet.

Shades optional.

• Devastator had two different animation models in the original Transformers cartoon; at the least, he had two different head designs, one with a visor and one without. Though the visored version was the finalized model, both head designs would continue to be used (almost at random) in subsequent episodes. The correct visored design was used for his dramatic scene in The Transformers: The Movie, and thus seems to have "won out"; it appears on all modern Devastator merchandise.

Shut your mouth or I'll shut it for you! (by erasing it!)

• Hot Spot would occasionally switch between having a faceplate or having a mouth drawn on his faceplate in his appearances on the original The Transformers cartoon. He had a mouth in "Ghost in the Machine" and "The Ultimate Weapon" — episodes that seem to have been animated by two different animation companies, suggesting that Hot Spot's mouth may have come from an alternate character model.

Arcee does Jenny Craig.

• The Transformers: The Movie: Most of the cast of new characters in the movie had early versions of their character models that changed to varying degrees before the movie was animated. These character models were often used in the Marvel comics and occasionally showed up in season 3 episodes of the television series. Since the toy design process had longer lead times, the toys were designed from the earlier models.

Model sheet poses used in fiction

Occasionally, animation studios (most notably AKOM) actually used the character models of certain characters in the episodes themselves in order to spare themselves from having to draw new poses. Examples are the Predacons when they first appear in "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5", various scenes with Devastator, Broadside and Galvatron in "Carnage in C-Minor", and at least one shot from "The Autobot Run". This would also routinely happen in Marvel Comics stories (most notably by José Delbo and Robin Smith) as well.

Notes

• Character models were created for both Topspin and Twin Twist back in the '80s, but they were never animated, not even in a commercial.

See also

• The Ark series - A series of non-fiction guidebooks chronicling Transformers character models.

References

External links

• Some of the G1 character model celworks from SUPER TOY ARCHIVE.
• Some Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo character models from Transformers At The Moon.
• Extensive galleries of Marvel Productions character model sheets at the Sunbow Marvel Archive.