Draxhall Updates--More Transtech Designs
Friday, July 6th, 2007 9:40PM CDT
Category: Toy NewsPosted by: Tigertrack Views: 14,074
Topic Options: View Discussion · Sign in or Join to reply
However, for those who like looking at some great designs from the canceled Transtech line of toys, check out the Draxhall website here. It's been updated with a slew of concept images and design studies from what is being described as Transtech.
There are a lot of sketches to go through, and not all are Transtech, but if you look you can see some fabulous transforming futuristic military vehicles, and a particular robot mode that seems to reference a certain speech impeded sub-faction commander that we all love (Concept 2)!
Enjoy these sketches!
News Search
Got Transformers News? Let us know here!
Most Popular Transformers News
Most Recent Transformers News
Posted by Flashwave on July 6th, 2007 @ 9:47pm CDT
Posted by Blitzwing the warrior on July 6th, 2007 @ 9:50pm CDT
Posted by Tigertrack on July 6th, 2007 @ 9:51pm CDT
Posted by Night~GONE on July 6th, 2007 @ 10:13pm CDT
Posted by Mkall on July 6th, 2007 @ 10:17pm CDT
Posted by i_amtrunks on July 6th, 2007 @ 10:36pm CDT
Whether or not they would have translated into a good series, and good toys is another question.
Posted by Evil Phil on July 6th, 2007 @ 10:39pm CDT
I want this so much.
I'm liking the look of Animated so far. But this would've been kick ass.
At least give us a comic series people!
Posted by Maju Garzett on July 6th, 2007 @ 10:40pm CDT
Posted by Liege Evilmus on July 6th, 2007 @ 10:53pm CDT
It sewed up the story, and left an opening for an untapped future.
Still, I can't help but wonder what TransTech would have offered in said future, even though I think it's better left undone.
However they did seem to have some intresting ideas, and it would be nice to see were they where heading with that.
I don't know if it's been done, and if it hase please let me know, but maybe IDW could elaborate the idea as I doubt any toon series would. I'd like to see how it would play out.
Posted by GetterDragun on July 6th, 2007 @ 10:55pm CDT
Posted by Jaw Crusher on July 6th, 2007 @ 11:04pm CDT
i_amtrunks wrote:Very nice designs.
Whether or not they would have translated into a good series, and good toys is another question.
Transtech Cheetor final concept: http://www.tfarchive.com/fandom/transte ... etor03.jpg
Transtech Cheetor prototype: http://www.behindthetoys.com/forums/top ... IC_ID=7195
Transtech Starscream final concept: http://www.tfarchive.com/fandom/transte ... ream02.jpg
Transtech Starscream prototype: http://www.behindthetoys.com/forums/top ... IC_ID=7198
IMO the toys wouldn't have lost much at all in the translation.
IDW needs to pick this up as a comic.
Posted by Tigertrack on July 6th, 2007 @ 11:04pm CDT
Posted by the purifyer on July 6th, 2007 @ 11:07pm CDT
I want to see the full images
Posted by TheMuffin on July 6th, 2007 @ 11:40pm CDT
Posted by the purifyer on July 6th, 2007 @ 11:42pm CDT
it makes it hard since every image has a certain name instead of concept 1, concept 2 etc. and also what you see behind the bar is what you get since that is what the uploaded instead of just full pics.
I'll get the addresses to them all. hang tight.
Posted by TheMuffin on July 7th, 2007 @ 12:02am CDT
the purifyer wrote:I went through my cache and found a way to get the images. it makes it hard since every image has a certain name instead of concept 1, concept 2 etc. and also what you see behind the bar is what you get since that is what the uploaded instead of just full pics.
I'll get the addresses to them all. hang tight.
Was just about to post the same thing. There is no larger image. The original art has been cropped so what you see is what you get. I got up to about concept 41 before I got tired. You can handle the rest purifyer. Also folks do not quote my post in it's entirety. We don't need 30 images popping up 20 times on a single page.
Posted by the purifyer on July 7th, 2007 @ 12:15am CDT
Posted by TheMuffin on July 7th, 2007 @ 12:17am CDT
Posted by the purifyer on July 7th, 2007 @ 12:25am CDT
As you can see by the image urls some times a number is skipped. I hope they upload the rest of the concept, notably since Optimus and silverbolt are missing. There's definitely more.
Posted by Ramrider on July 7th, 2007 @ 7:43am CDT
But by the titles, it looks like the 'Grimlock' concept is actually an early version of Cheetor...
Posted by Blozor on July 7th, 2007 @ 7:50am CDT
Would make a good subject for a new "Elseworlds" style comic like Hearts of Steel. They could set it in the distant future and have the Transtech designs be the characters. What would it be called? Why "Transtech," of course! Hasbro should totally greenlight this project.
Posted by Black Bumblebee on July 7th, 2007 @ 8:06am CDT
Beast Wars didn't do well in Japan and Beast Machines wasn't even shown (until very very recently), so the Transtech continuation wouldn't have worked there.
In America, Beast Wars did well... but Beast Machines did not. Remember how the writers of the show got death threats and stuff? That was TFs darkest hour in my opinion... we scared off some geniune scifi writers from ever wanting to touch Transformes (Babylon 5 writer J. Michael Strazinsky had considered writing for TF... but decided not to after he saw how they treated the BMs guy).
So, in the states, there was also no real reason to continue the Beast Wars story into Transtech.
In Japan, a little series of mostly repaints and a few good figs was getting some good attention in the way of Carrobots. Fans liked it in the states, said "bring it over here," so Hasbro was... "hmmm... they want a line of mostly repaints? Sure! Easy money."
And thus died Transtech.
However, I haven't fully given up hope of seeing these. After all, isn't that what the "Universe" line is for?
Posted by Liege Evilmus on July 7th, 2007 @ 10:12am CDT
TheMuffin wrote:the purifyer wrote:I went through my cache and found a way to get the images. it makes it hard since every image has a certain name instead of concept 1, concept 2 etc. and also what you see behind the bar is what you get since that is what the uploaded instead of just full pics.
I'll get the addresses to them all. hang tight.
Was just about to post the same thing. There is no larger image. The original art has been cropped so what you see is what you get. I got up to about concept 41 before I got tired. You can handle the rest purifyer. Also folks do not quote my post in it's entirety. We don't need 30 images popping up 20 times on a single page.
I love Cheetor's alt mode, but that robot is upsetting. As for the rest of these, and I know I already said it, it would be very cool if they could touch on these in comics and toys.
I've been looking at the TF comics more and more lately, and I do have to say that figures like the War Within Titaniums, and Classics Jetfire, are great to see as pulled off those pages.
Even the movie line adapting game figures is nice. I know they are only doing so to add filler to the line, but I hope the trend of looking towards other media for toy ideas is something that continues to grow.
Hearts of Steel Megatron anybody?
I have tons of bots that never made it to a show, and they rock just the same if not more because I'm not burdened with a pre-existing story for them. I don't see a reason why they can't just use some of these awesome designs to continue as said filler, maybe keep them as a subline to the main.
Then again, what do I know?
Posted by Liege Evilmus on July 7th, 2007 @ 10:24am CDT
Black Bumblebee wrote:It would have been pretty cool to see these, but I can understand why we didn't.
Beast Wars didn't do well in Japan and Beast Machines wasn't even shown (until very very recently), so the Transtech continuation wouldn't have worked there.
In America, Beast Wars did well... but Beast Machines did not. Remember how the writers of the show got death threats and stuff? That was TFs darkest hour in my opinion... we scared off some geniune scifi writers from ever wanting to touch Transformes (Babylon 5 writer J. Michael Strazinsky had considered writing for TF... but decided not to after he saw how they treated the BMs guy).
So, in the states, there was also no real reason to continue the Beast Wars story into Transtech.
In Japan, a little series of mostly repaints and a few good figs was getting some good attention in the way of Carrobots. Fans liked it in the states, said "bring it over here," so Hasbro was... "hmmm... they want a line of mostly repaints? Sure! Easy money."
And thus died Transtech.
However, I haven't fully given up hope of seeing these. After all, isn't that what the "Universe" line is for?
To bad Hasbro got repaint fever from this line. Then again I guess it's cheaper for them to just keep recoloring Japan's left over crap than actualy make something themselves.
And you know they only charge top dollar for this stuff, do you realy think its fair that they should have to work for it now too?
It's not like Japan realy considers if we in The States will like something, if they did the Unicron Trilogy would have sucked much less, and the KISS line would have been about the band.
Come on now
Posted by Riotflea on July 7th, 2007 @ 1:20pm CDT
http://www.draxhall.com/draxhall/images ... nrobot.jpg
Posted by Tigertrack on July 7th, 2007 @ 1:40pm CDT
I still say it looks Grimlock/dinobotty--BTW, no matter what the pic says...
Posted by massmachine on July 7th, 2007 @ 10:05pm CDT
Black Bumblebee wrote:It would have been pretty cool to see these, but I can understand why we didn't.
Beast Wars didn't do well in Japan and Beast Machines wasn't even shown (until very very recently), so the Transtech continuation wouldn't have worked there.
In America, Beast Wars did well... but Beast Machines did not. Remember how the writers of the show got death threats and stuff? That was TFs darkest hour in my opinion... we scared off some geniune scifi writers from ever wanting to touch Transformes (Babylon 5 writer J. Michael Strazinsky had considered writing for TF... but decided not to after he saw how they treated the BMs guy).
So, in the states, there was also no real reason to continue the Beast Wars story into Transtech.
In Japan, a little series of mostly repaints and a few good figs was getting some good attention in the way of Carrobots. Fans liked it in the states, said "bring it over here," so Hasbro was... "hmmm... they want a line of mostly repaints? Sure! Easy money."
And thus died Transtech.
However, I haven't fully given up hope of seeing these. After all, isn't that what the "Universe" line is for?
death threats@! Thats way overthe edge.I loved beast machines. i know alot did not, but come on it was a different way of approaching the series, no wonder some new ideas never last or translate into anything
Posted by Azimuth on July 8th, 2007 @ 12:05am CDT
Riotflea wrote:Let's just pray this takes place nowhere near our beloved franchise.
http://www.draxhall.com/draxhall/images ... nrobot.jpg
Oh crap, I just busted a gut.
Posted by Superginraix on July 8th, 2007 @ 1:20am CDT
Good stuff, too bad it didn't come to pass. Still, you can see how Transtech Megatron influenced his Armada appearance and there are a few other Transtech influences in the later lines (particularly the movie toys whether they planned it or not).
Still, I wonder if they would have been able to pull it off. Beast Machines wasn't well received by most fans as has been already stated. Would continuing the story have alienated more fans or would it have drawn more fans? It's easy to fill in the spaces of your imagination on black and white images and even the few prototypes we've seen are uncolored (which means you can fill in those blanks with your imagination and make the product look better than it ever would have in the toy aisle.
All things considered, it was RiD that got me back into Transformers (and a very understanding wife ), so I'm not going to complain about the direction the line has taken. RiD remains my favorite line, repaints or no. Without it, I probably would never have looked back to see what I was missing with Beast Wars/Machines.
Heck, without it, I wouldn't have been collecting TFs at all! I'd just have a bunch of G1 toys with a few G2 and early Beast Wars figures. And probably a lot of money, but nothing to transform with it.
Posted by Dead Metal on July 8th, 2007 @ 3:24am CDT
Does anybody know were to find more of Soundwave?