Not with that mismatched front end it's not.
Masterpiece Theater: the MP thread
- Thread starter Powered Convoy
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He just drove through a deep puddle and hasn't had time to go to the carwash yet. Give 'em a break.
That front end mismatch is yikes!
I think it's something the animation model has? Not that it looks any better for having that reason. I saw some while googling, but of course, I am not THE person to ask.
Ah, there we go. Must've seen one of those erroneous fanmade things or whatever.
Yup, that seems to be it. Woof.
This is all making me more excited for the SS86 anniversary one.
This is all making me more excited for the SS86 anniversary one.
I've been wondering for a while. I've seen several of these animation sheets with the Marvel/Sunbow/Toei logos. Are these the actual animation model sheets, or are these just fan-made slides compiling the publicly-available images? If they're the actual sheets, where did they come from? They seem way too clean compared to the stuff that normally gets scanned in from whatever document becomes public decades after the fact.Here's the animation model for comparison:
they're from here: https://www.allspark.com/home/threads/the-most-accurately-coloured-g1-animation-models-online.301/
and the tl;dr is they are 'fan made' but made using official production materials that people have collected over the years so they're as close to official 100% accurate model sheets as we have
Thank you! That was what I'd suspected, but the corporate logos were making me question it. Unusual to see someone put them on something like this.
I'm guessing D.M wanted to make these look as formal in their presentation as possible, likely to prevent others from passing them off as their own works.
Circular reporting - Transformers Wiki
A Ukrainian fan site, https://www.transformers.kiev.ua/?pageid=g1encyclopedia, once attempted to recreate the G1 Sunbo animation models from scratch, and they got some details wrong.
Thing is they were the only "high quality" reproductions of the G1 animation models for years, so they spread far and wide online, and became some of the first results if you went searching for this stuff. So Hasbro and Takara ended up referencing these incorrect model sheets quite a bit with official products.
There has been an effort in the fandom to create more accurate model sheets based on the Sunbo designs, but the incorrect Ukrainian ones have a decades head start and are still widely used and referenced online, so if HasTak needs a reference point for a G1 Sunbo deco... they still pop up.
Circular reporting - Transformers Wiki
tfwiki.net
A Ukrainian fan site, https://www.transformers.kiev.ua/?pageid=g1encyclopedia, once attempted to recreate the G1 Sunbo animation models from scratch, and they got some details wrong.
Thing is they were the only "high quality" reproductions of the G1 animation models for years, so they spread far and wide online, and became some of the first results if you went searching for this stuff. So Hasbro and Takara ended up referencing these incorrect model sheets quite a bit with official products.
There has been an effort in the fandom to create more accurate model sheets based on the Sunbo designs, but the incorrect Ukrainian ones have a decades head start and are still widely used and referenced online, so if HasTak needs a reference point for a G1 Sunbo deco... they still pop up.
Which is completely understandable, but you would think that someone doing the deco for a high-end product would get to something that seems off, like that the front of a car was suddenly a slightly different color for no reason, and would maybe check a second source.
You'd think so, but this is Takara. The company that seems to pull G1 decos almost exclusively from faded Laserdisc scans of the G1 show.
Going with an earnestly attempted but inaccurate G1 model sheet as a reference is a big step for them.
I can understand the laserdisc scans, mind you. They're aiming for a Japanese audience and focusing on the way the show looked in that country. That there isn't a better version readily available is more a failing of Toei than it is them. But you could fill a book with "anime that looks all wrong thanks to Toei".
I will say, even if I don't like it, there is a reason for the car front end being a different color, beyond just that there's a fan-made deco sheet that does it. Hot Rod and Rodimus both have two shades of red/magenta/whatever. There's the lighter shade that's used on his arms, most of his helmet, and part of his waist. Then there's the darker shade that's used on the rest of his helmet and waist. That darker shade is also used on his abs. This is perfectly on model, and can be seen on the better model sheet Sabrblade provided, and can be seen in plenty of shots from the cartoon. His car mode, meanwhile, is done entirely in the lighter shade.
The thing is, his abs are supposed to be the front end of the car. His chest is the hood, and the orange ab sections are the headlights. So having the car front end be the lighter shade while having his abs be the darker shade is one of those magic mid-transformation color changes G1 did so often. It's just not as obvious as others since it's just a change of shade, and you also have very similar shade differences elsewhere just due to lighting and shadows.
So this new figure having the darker front end makes sense from the perspective of matching the robot-mode character model, and then making it as if that really did transform into the car without faux part cheating. Which is bizarre, since this figure does use faux part cheating, and that's the sort of thing they usually use to make it so they can better match both robot and alt modes to the source material. Using it this way here is just weird, and a poor decision IMO.
The thing is, his abs are supposed to be the front end of the car. His chest is the hood, and the orange ab sections are the headlights. So having the car front end be the lighter shade while having his abs be the darker shade is one of those magic mid-transformation color changes G1 did so often. It's just not as obvious as others since it's just a change of shade, and you also have very similar shade differences elsewhere just due to lighting and shadows.
So this new figure having the darker front end makes sense from the perspective of matching the robot-mode character model, and then making it as if that really did transform into the car without faux part cheating. Which is bizarre, since this figure does use faux part cheating, and that's the sort of thing they usually use to make it so they can better match both robot and alt modes to the source material. Using it this way here is just weird, and a poor decision IMO.