The name is Downshift.
Thread of Thoughts, Questions (and Maybe Even Answers) That Don't Deserve Their Own Thread
- Thread starter LBD "Nytetrayn"
- Start date
Seconded. I'm not a big fan of the movie aesthetic, but I would have bought that mold in every flavor of the rainbow Hasbro chose to release it in.
I did the decos for them (and Bodyblock) and I worked in house at Hasbro off and on around that time, doing freelance decos and such when I wasn't in house.
Well then, you did a fantastic job! Love the look of both. The Downshift especially appeals to me as I really do love that mold. What other toys did you do?
Sabrblade got it right! TFwiki
Oh man, there some absolutely great ones in there! Big fan of your work.
Is there anything else of yours that we don't have credited yet on the wiki? A buddy of mine has been making an active effort to go through finding as many designer credits as possible and making sure that we have everything properly credited and documented.
When I was at BotCon last month, I talked to the likes of Joe Kyde, Robby Musso, and Dan Khanna about getting all of their toy design credits properly cited as well. Kyde said we got all of his, Musso said he thinks we're good, while crediting Khanna's exhaustive toy work is one of our blind spots that we're still trying to work on improving.
A while back I went through all my old invoices and added everything I worked on to my own wiki.
So it should be pretty thorough and complete! And then some of the veteran wiki guys formatted it all to make it look good. It's awesome you guys are doing that for the designers! I was just one little cog (who never even got benefits, ha!) but I got to add some icing to some really delicious cakes the designers cooked up!
Yes. I dropped the "e" in "Saber". Gives my screenname a more unique identity
(and it was one letter too many to fit on my Nintendo DS)
Checking the page again, it looks like the only things we're missing are which specific Construct-Bots versions of Bumblebee, Soundwave, and Wheeljack you worked on, as there were multiple versions of each.A while back I went through all my old invoices and added everything I worked on to my own wiki.
It was the regular/elite versions of Soundwave and Wheeljack, and Scout Bumblebee. I didn't do anything with the Arsenal packs.
Oh wow. Some of my favorite stuff from that era is on that page. 
I don't, or I would have taken pics of him too.
I see. That's too bad.
Also, I was asked by one of the other wiki guys if you might be able to confirm something, since you did the deco for the Universe (2008-2009) Voyager class toy of Leo Prime.
Back in 2019, Jesse Wittenrich once tried to provide an explanation on Twitter for why that toy was colored more like Optimus Prime (being primarily red, blue, and silver) instead of more like Lio Convoy's traditional color scheme (being primarily white, gold, and red). Here is what Jesse said on Twitter, compiled together from multiple tweets:
Can you confirm if this account is accurate, or did Universe Leo Prime's deco stem from a different source of inspiration?Although I wasn't a large part of the planning, I still glimpsed behind the curtain. 2009 was... a hodgepodge. A lot of cooks, one kitchen. And eventually the Wingsverse came out of the oven. (Which was still a bit of a mash up, given its two separate timeframes)
During the hodgepodge-iest moments of the planning for the exclusives, one concept included the original Lio Convoy mold decoed up as 2007 Movie Optimus Prime. The idea was pitched by a then Hasbro employee so it was given a high priority.
Although no mock-up - physical or digital - was created and no characterization explored, the idea of the Optimus-colored Lio Convoy dug its claws in long enough for a tool check. Sadly, this was when it was first reported that the BWII Lio Convoy tool had gone missing!
And so the BotCon 2009 set dropped the Lio Convoy idea and we ended up getting Razorclaw from Cybertron Leobreaker instead. Once a robot lion has been on the table, you need to do a robot lion!
The same year though, in what is by all hunches not a coincidence, Hasbro released Universe Leo Prime... the Leobreaker mold in Optimus Prime colors, Prime-like head-sculpt, and an English-centric name change for Lio Convoy that first appeared on a 2007 "Classics" repaint.
The Optimus color version is not quite Movie Optimus - I've always assumed that the specific callout to that Optimus due to someone wanting to recreate the truck's flame details inside the lion's mane - but the inspiration can be interpreted.
This figure ended up as the only exploration of a red and blue Lio Convoy/Leo Prime. At the time of its release, it was met with mixed reactions.
Oh wow, of all the ones... this is one of my not favorites!
Unfortunately I don't know any of the process or inspiration that led up to deciding on Leo Prime.
Bill Rawley (I'm fairly certain) gave me this assignment. "It's the Leobreaker mold, but in Optimus colors." And he must've specified G1 Optimus, at any rate at no point were Optimus movie flames discussed. Red, blue, and silver were the orders. I think I was even like "what?" and he was like "Just make it work, you can do it." But I think those colors were also his orders and he was just passing them down. He was very excited that they were getting the tooling budget for the new Optimus head for it. So I tried to brown out the red a little to make it more lion and idk how do you brown out blue? But I'm also just not a fan of that mold.
Well, at least it got a second release in proper Lio Convoy colors.
Truth be told, the deco of the first one always reminded me more of Beast Machines Primal Prime than any specific Optimus Prime.
Thanks for your input on that first one. You wouldn't happen to know who did the deco on this second version, would you?
Truth be told, the deco of the first one always reminded me more of Beast Machines Primal Prime than any specific Optimus Prime.
Thanks for your input on that first one. You wouldn't happen to know who did the deco on this second version, would you?
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see, my theory is that Thundercracker WAS Matrix compatible before he got turned into Scourge.I was gonna make some joke about maybe the Matrix really didn't like Scourge and the lumps were some form of punishment for him...
...but now you got me actually intrigued aboutt the possibility of there perhaps being some real lore implications behind it, since Scourge was created by Unicron's power and later Japanese retcons revealed that both Unicron and the Matrix have opposite versions of the same kind of power, so maybe the Matrix recognized a little bit of itself (albeit an inverted variety) inside Scourge and got curious about what might happen if it let Scourge indulge himself on more of its power.
and the Matrix was trying to purge the Angolmois from Scourge and turn him into Thundercrackermus Prime. but the Unicron mojo was making the removal process as painful and horrifying as possible. but if Scourge had managed to hold onto the Matrix longer, the purge would have been completed.