I’ve been drawing my own Transformers characters since I was maybe seven or eight. Obviously, my drawing skills have increased exponentially since then, and I’d like to share some of my sketches.
Note: The photography and Flickr upload process totally ruined the image quality of all these sketches, so I’ll provide transcripts.
Autobot Fuel-Up
Stationed on: Earth
Weaponry: Flare shotgun, fuel ignition flamethrower
Alternate mode: Fuel tanker truck
Function: Transport
Design Stuff: The weird cross-hatched part of Fuel-Up’s chest is supposed to be the grill of his truck mode split in half. My favorite thing to do with Transformer designs is to incorporate weaponry into their alternate modes in an interesting way, so Fuel-Up’s shotgun forms from his rear wheelbase and his flamethrower becomes part of the fuel tank. His smokestacks end up on his shoulders.
Decepticon Jetlag
Stationed on: Earth
Weaponry: Heavy Rocket Launcher
Alternate mode: Jet liner
Function: Destroyer
Design Stuff: Jetlag would have to be utterly enormous in real life, since he’s a passenger jet. The windows end up on top of his torso and the cockpit becomes his visor. For some reason, I decided to base his rocket launcher loosely on Optimus Prime’s ion blaster.
Autobot Beatdown
Stationed on: Earth
Weaponry: None
Alternate mode: Armored truck
Function: Brawler
Design Stuff: The array of horns on top of Beatdown’s head is supposed to be formed from the ram bar thing on the front of his vehicle mode. The windshield splits apart and ends up on his arms.
Decepticon Overture
Stationed on: Earth
Alternate mode: News chopper
Weaponry: Pulse shotgun
Function: Surveillance
Design Stuff: I like the idea of the 24 ending up on Overture’s chest in robot mode. The cockpit winds up splitting in half and ending up on his shoulders, while the rotor blade splits apart and goes on his shins. The tail rotor assembly pulls out and becomes his weapon.
Decepticon Runthrough
Stationed on: Earth
Alternate mode: Sport bike
Weaponry: Microserrated spear
Function: Messenger
Design Stuff: Nothing much to say about Runthrough’s robot mode, except that his shins and forearms are slightly wider than his upper limbs, which I think makes him look fairly dynamic. His spear is based on the one wielded by the 1988 Japanese toy BlackZarak (image from TFWiki):
Let me know which one of these is your favorite (if you can make out any details despite the image fuzziness…) I’ve got five more hopefully coming next week in case anyone’s interested!