Transformers Designer Sam Smith has shared an absolutely comprehensive behind the scenes look at the recently revealed Titan Class Tidal Wave, answering pretty much every question we had about this release. Is this the greatest Titan Class transformer ever made? Is it even close? Check it out.
(@king_samlock)““Tidal Wave, Tidal Wave, Tidal Wave”
With the daunting chant on impending doom and having been officially announced at Cybertron Fest Singapore, let’s get into the details of Titan Tidal Wave. With the launch of Legacy United, we knew that there was no greater time to revisit this character at the titan scale. This guy was a blast to work on, but we had so many priorities we needed to define out of the gate. As a Titan, Tidal Wave needed to deliver a large scale super articulated robot. As a vehicle, he needed to deliver a large flying aquatic war craft, which needed to be assembled out of 3 smaller vehicle form factors (the dark fleet). Tidal Wave needed to combine with Armada Megatron, to create Burning Megatron and we felt that he needed to have an alt mode that was achievable without the need to separate the vehicles in assembly. I’d like to say that we were able to achieve 4 out of the 5, but in the end, we did them all!
Shogo Hasui (Hasui san) was an absolute rockstar to work with on this project, and continued to find incredible solutions in delivering such a massive undertaking. He continued to push this figure forward despite all the curve balls that we through to him.
In the end Tidal Wave delivers a super articulated Titan robot, with waist, ankle, clever butterfly shoulders, wrist and neck. His chest weaponry all 8 turrets points are articulated for rotation, with the larger 4 featuring articulated barrels and 5mm ports for blast effect compatibility. In addition, his palm cannons also used 5mm ports that can be utilized in robot and alt mode
Tidal Waves color spec is primary based on the Armada animation with a few pieces of influence from the original toy, similar to Armada Megatron.
What are your thoughts on Titan Tidal Wave? Was he a worthy selection for the next titan figure? Our would you have preferred to have seen him at a smaller scale? Let us know along with any other questions in the comments below!”
(@king_samlock)“We decided early on, the importance of delivering the dark fleet as 3 separate vehicles to align to the original toy, and the consistent onscreen combination sequence that took place on screen. Due to this figure being super articulated, we would not be able to have him transform from robot to combined war craft without separating the vehicle forms. In order to avoid having him be referred to as a parts former, we introduced a secondary alt mode as a battle station / weapons fortress.”
(@king_samlock)“In order to combine with Megatron to create Burning Megatron, miniature versions of the dark fleet can be extracted from various parts of Tidal Wave in order to combine. To avoid being left with a partial titan during the combination, we introduced a secondary transformation to the hands to keep them in tact so that a very in tact titan figure remains. The miniature versions are able able to be displayed as mini dark fleet vehicles, that convert into their armored accessories for Megatron.
To assist with the added weight of the components, and to deliver a more frightening Megatron, Foot extensions are included to raise the characters height, along with the ability to port the arm weaponry into the sides of the arms or the upper shoulders.”
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Source: The AllSpark
