Transformers designer Evan Brooks continues to take to Instagram (@naveskoorb) to peel back the curtain on Transformers design work for Studio Series 86. This time, it’s the named Sharkticon that gets some love! Hit the jump for Evan’s look at the short shark stormtrooper himself, of Gnaw, which Evan worked on with Shogo Hasui.
Hello and happy friday to everyone where it is currently friday!
Sorry about the delays on updates, just been a rather busy week.
So next up we have SS86-08 Gnaw!
I guess technically this is just a Sharkticon but we called them “Gnaw” because of the history of the toys.
Worked on this character with Hasui san (the living transformers legend!) who you can really see took the reins on this figure. I always look forward to seeing his design sketches because the details he pumps in just look so natural. He did a fantastic job of referencing the Floro Dery sketches and transferring some of that greeble detail over to the final toy.
We bumped this guy up to DLX scale to give us enough room to really nail his conversion(and we even had room at the end to add in his Blaster from the g1 toy!). The antenna on the shark mode had to be removed due to thickness and flexibility of plastic but I still think it reads as an iconic Sharkticon.
The only issue we ran into was the robot eyes had to be sunken back in the head for some reason that I can’t remember. I believe there was an issue we were running into when we made the first physical model so the eyes where then pushed further back into the head. Bit of background on Transformer head designs, on the DLX and bigger figures the head of the robot is usually 2 or more pieces. Normally, it’s just a front and back piece that then encloses on a ball joint for the neck. The eyes for the robot mode are usually on the back piece of the head so that they’re easier to paint without having to worry about over-spray on the face. Then of course, their are a few figures that have light piped eyes so they’re their own unique piece.
But other than that, I love our little army builder figure. I think he even works well with the previous core/legends scale versions so you can make your swarm come in all sizes!
Do you all have a favorite army builder character you wish we would do more of? Let me know what you think! Hope you all have a good weekend.
Here’s hoping for more from Evan, who’s given us quite an eyeful in appreciating the decisions made in the Transformers toy design process. Between his Instagram sharing and the tidbits we get from the TF design team during the live streams, it’s been a good little while for understanding what goes into the toys we get. Show him some love by commenting on these posts on Evan’s Instagram!
Talk Transformers design with us on the Allspark Facebook page, on our partnered Discord at discord.gg/allspark, and on the Allspark Forums !
Source: The AllSpark
