#transmetal arts

[transmetal-tk]

She's a biggun, so she deserves a big gun

Anyway I need to stop getting distracted from the things I should be working on...

[churino]

Design for scavenger

Secretly he wants to be an autobot but doesn't want to tell his mutant friends because he's scared they'll make fun of him for it

Scavenger is a transmetal mutant construction worker, like all the mutants his job is to alter terrain to better fit tarantulas' purposes, to aid in this task he's uniquely built to house a colony of miniscule ant minicons within his body, the ants are biologically pre disposed to obey scavenger, they live to serve. even though most of them aren't happy with this situation they can't express it since their voices are outside the usual transformer range of hearing. A sick joke on tarantulas' part

Scavenger is possessed of a profound kindness, and a gentle touch, if his arms weren't razor sharp drills and high powered pistons he wouldn't hurt a fly, but as it stands he's a danger to himself and the people around him, without fingers to hold things he must resort to using his mouth and...well you can see the problem with that. His teeth are attached to pressure sensitive plates that cause him to clatter like a wind up toy when enough weight is applied. Shredding whatever he's holding in his mouth to pieces

Dispite the walls in place between scavenger's dream of being a caretaker and his existence as a demolisher, he takes what he can get, as well.. a scavenger, and takes care of plants and animals that he and his ants rescue during construction work, one day they accidentally caught a human, the autobot minerva separated from her guardian robot after a failed attempt to take the transmetal driver back from the six clan.

The ants took her back to the mutant's secret underground lair where scavenger kept his other wounded animals, before the other mutants could arrive and notice the human girl, she woke up and maybe because she too is connected to another mind, like the ants or maybe because human ears are just different, she could understand the ant's speech and learned all sorts of little secrets from them including scavenger's autobot sympaties

When scavenger came back, he immediately tried to escort the little girl out of the mutant's den in the process minerva told him what the ants told her, and talked him into joining the autobots in the hopes they could fix the things that plagued him, upon arriving at the gate of autobot city, minerva's guardian nurse easily removed the motor that caused scavenger's teeth to clatter and replaced his solid drills with proper claws. But removing his bond to the ants was a little more tricky

So she got help from the autobot engineers, who made a simple solution but wowed scavenger with their projects, particularly how large and in charge bots like bulkhead and leadfoot were able to work alongside delicate equipment dispite their bulk. everything scavenger ever wanted. Seeking to learn the secrets of his new friends scavenger works as a veterinarian in autobot city right between the medical center and R&D department in terratronus' left leg,

[sucharandomwolf]

After the new Earthspark trailer I had to give tarantulas a quick try in my style

[dstevensartgallery]

Blackarachnia

Yet another TFcon piece

[nemesisthetoy]

There’s a mainstream meme about dragons going around, I HAD to do something with it!

[lovelycatdraws]

Who gives a rats a—

[blueikeproductions]

A reaction to a recent ROTB press thing revealing that Takehito Koyasu is reprising his role of Convoy AKA Optimus Primal in it. He almost calls Primal Convoy out of habit (Japanese media used to have its own terminology before adopting the American terminology), hence this Japanese BW dub style bit. Used the Beast Wars Metals designs for added Japanese style.

[nvzblartdump]

Despite the fearsome look of his Transmetal 2 Beast Mode, Joltfang is still a young bot who is intent on being liked by the other Maximals, though some are put off by his enthusiasm along with his 'class clown' act.

Don't let his personality fool you though - he's a highly skilled combatant whose expert knowledge of 'practical physics' makes him a very dangerous foe to face on the battlefield, at range and up-close.

Alt-form - Hyena.

Had a lot of wrestling with the color palette on this - the hot pink/red came in relatively early while the copper was one of the last things that came together for Joltfang (who's a Transformers alt-form of another Jumpchain OC, Shumari, I have who hasn't seen a lot of public light beyond a few offhand lines in some of the writing and two rough arts from almost 5 years ago posted on this very blog). He should get to show up more since I've been working on his design lately but it's been a pretty long absence for him.

Also, like Manticon-4, Joltfang also gets a kludged tech spec card (primarily Lockjaw's, given that Joltfang is based on his toy) but with a few unique traits mixed in, like a stronger intelligence + Metallikato proficiency, both suggested by @poisonbat.

And the reason why Joltfang's tech spec card isn't damaged or anything is because... 1) all of the text fit on there comfortably and didn't need obscuring, thus saving me that work. 2) Joltfang is a good contentious conscientious son-boy who doesn't try to eat random objects.

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Beast Wars - Second Chances - Page 14

Originally posted on February 2nd, 2011

Story - Shaun Flaherty Art - Seb Letters - HdE

deviantART

wada sez: See below for the original script to this one, and a clean panel from Seb’s art.

PAGE FOURTEEN (six panels)

Panel 1.  In the foreground, several Fox Kids Transmetal Tarantulas drones (robot mode) face away from us; they focus their attention upward, toward Inferno and Quickstrike.  In the background, Inferno (robot mode) leaps toward us from above; he fires his flamethrower into the crowd of drones below.  Quickstrike (robot mode) flails through the air; Inferno tossed him into the fray against his will.

Reference: Tarantulas Inferno (Seibertron) Inferno (TFWiki) Quickstrike (Seibertron) Quickstrike (TFWiki)

INFERNO: For the royalty!

Panel 2.  Depth Charge (robot mode) blasts his way through a crowd of Fox Kids Transmetal Tarantulas drones (beast and robot modes), searching for his comrades.

Reference: Depth Charge (Seibertron) Depth Charge (TFWiki)

DEPTH CHARGE: Dinobot!

DEPTH CHARGE (continued): Waspinator!

Panel 3.  In the foreground, Depth Charge turns around toward us; he backhands a Fox Kids Transmetal Tarantulas drone (robot mode), knocking off its head.  In the background, drones (beast and robot modes) swarm as the battle continues.

DEPTH CHARGE/RAMPAGE (thought): Behind you.

WASPINATOR (OP): Bzzd --

DEPTH CHARGE: Waspinator?

Panel 4.  In the foreground, Depth Charge kneels, holding Waspinator’s (robot mode) head in his hands; other pieces of Waspinator are visible behind them.  In the background, Fox Kids Transmetal Tarantulas drones (beast and robot modes) swarm as the battle continues.

Reference: Waspinator (Seibertron) Waspinator (TFWiki)

DEPTH CHARGE: What happened?

DEPTH CHARGE (continued): Where’s Dinobot?

Panel 5.  A close-up of Waspinator’s head in Depth Charge’s hands; he looks up toward us.  He is badly damaged.

WASPINATOR: Lizzard-bot go t-to Ark!

WASPINATOR (continued): Waszzpinator d-did beszzt he could.

Panel 6.  In the foreground, Depth Charge has dropped Waspinator’s head to the ground; it rests on its side in the mud, facing us.  His optics dim; he is going off-line or, at least, into stasis lock.  In the background, Depth Charge (vehicle mode) flies away from us; Fox Kids Transmetal Tarantulas drones (beast and robot modes) swarm as the battle continues.

WASPINATOR (weak): Waszzpinator…h-hero?

[coolvieilledentelle]

Diana Navarro

Son art du chant et le sentiment qu'elle transmet sont inégalés.

J'ai été bluffée par la voix, la modulation, l'importation, la résistance, bref TOUT

[spy-flair-extraordinaire]

Transmetal Blackarachnia

When I was in my late teens, I made this edit of a Blackarachnia if she were not only redeemed, but also has died and then revived via Transmetal, not unlike her Beast Wars counterpart. Last year I made this Allspark Almanac styled-page, with quotes from not just Optimus Prime, but also Primal Major!

Yeah, remember that black hole that Axalon went through that the Almanac says is a timeloop? What if it was a portal that transported Primal and his team to and stranded them on the planet Beast, and it was also a time warp that took them thousands of stellar cycles back into the past, playing into the "past and future" think that the Maximals have going on? Plus it'd be a nice parallel to Team Prime, as they crashed into a technology-oriented Earth in the future, while Team Maximal (that's the name I'm calling Primal's team) crashed into a very primitive Beast in the past. Anyways, that's my hc on the Maximals in Animated, and they encounter a revived Blackarachnia at some point, and she joins their team.

I may explore my version of the Maximals more later. Maybe even make some art of them. For now, here's Transmetal Blackarachnia!

[fred-leforgeur-baudelaire]

“Dans l'antre du club de jazz, où l'obscurité se marie à l'ivresse, je m'enfonce dans l'ombre, isolé dans ma détresse. Le serveur, parfois messager discret des prémices concubines, me transmet, sur un voile, une écriture divine.

"Bonjour, Monsieur", alors, commence l'histoire de cette nouvelle vie ; une femme élégante, envoûtante mélodie. Elle désire être le chemin où nos pas se confondent, où nos empreintes tracent ensemble une autre ronde.

Dans l'attente fébrile, je pose ma plume sur le papier. "Bonjour, Madame," ma réponse, fragile pensée - peut-être, sur le chemin où je me suis égaré, nous croiserons-nous - vouée à découvrir nos affinités.

Le serveur, tel un oiseau portant mon émoi, la serviette en main, vers elle se déploie. Et ainsi, entre les harmonies et les murmures ensorcelants, s'ouvre l'étrange bal de deux amants au destin voluptueux et troublant.„

~•~

“In the den of the jazz club, where darkness blends with intoxication, i sink into the shadows, isolated in my distress. The waiter, sometimes the discreet messenger of concubine premices, transmits divine writing to me on a veil.

"Bonjour, Monsieur", then, begins the story of this new life ; an elegant woman, bewitching melody. She wants to be the path where our footsteps merge, where our footprints trace together another round.

In feverish anticipation, i put pen to paper. "Bonjour, Madame," my reply, a fragile thought - perhaps, on the path where i've lost my way, we'll cross paths - destined to discover our affinities.

The waiter, like a bird carrying my emotion, napkin in hand, towards her, unfurls. And so, between bewitching harmonies and murmurs, the strange dance of two lovers with a voluptuous and troubling destiny begins.„

~•~

— Fred Leforgeur-Baudelaire

Visual art applied : Watercolor, felt-tip pens and oil : FLB (Fred Leforgeur-Baudelaire)

[churino]

Design for wasp and waspinator

After all this time, finally someone back home came looking for the missing autobots, but unfortunately he wasn't looking to help, wasp is looking to settle the score with bumblebee and would do anything to get his way, even becoming a horrible transmetal mutant

Wasp HATES bumblebee, a trottlebot reject he used to hang around cliffjumper and bee back in the day where he had the most experience between the three of them. but his overconfident, opportunistic personality caused bee to pay extra attention to him as he reminded him of his brother hot rod, and wasp hated every second of it.

bumblebee's constant attempts to further their friendship really got to his nerves, seeing the whole exercise as an atempt to control him, and keep him away from his true potential as an autobot scout, he left their little friend group literally one day before optimus choose them to go on the mission to earth

Wasp came crawling back, begging to be let back into the team but he made it more than clear he wanted nothing to do with them the previous day so bumblebee in an act of pettiness, already filled his spot with hot rod and left, leaving wasp to think on his life, while bee and the others would be kocked offline thought to be dead for years, when wasp learned of the disappearance of the mission that in his eyes belonged to him. Rather than be sad about the loss of his old friends, or be relieved he wasn't one name in the list of missing persons among them, wasp grew obsessed with "what if"

What would have happened if he was aboard the ship, could he have made a difference when they got attacked? He convinces himself he would've, and becomes obsessed with tracking down the lost autobot ship, determined to prove he's better than the others, losing sleep and eventually tracking them down but as he wasn't a good pilot, his ship crashed, leaving him stranded on the planet alongside the other autobots

But when he arrived at their new base, he saw a new trottlebot, glyph. Wasp always knew hot rod wasn't really a replacement, he was too different but glyph was born from the same mold as him, was green like him and even had a nasally voice like him,

from his twisted perspective it was clear as day that he never really mattered to anybody, he was expendable, and bumblebee was a liar who clouded his judgement by looking so weak as to make him think he was actually important to somebody, only to be thrown out the moment he wanted more,

Sensing his instability the six clan approached him with a deal, the power to take his revenge in exchange for servitude, and wasp, bitter at the world accepted it, and was transformed by the transmetal driver into the unstable transmetal mutant waspinator

[askvectorprime]

Dear Vector Prime, what would have happened if Dinobot 2 had survived and joined the Maximals on their journey back to Cybertron?

Dear Sempiternal Saurian,

In one reality, Optimus Primal was able to successfully rescue the cloned Dinobot from the Nemesis and carry him to safety, moments before Rhinox’s shuttle obliterated the ship’s bridge and foiled Megatron’s final gambit to win the Beast Wars. Initially, the jubilant Maximals believed that their old friend had somehow returned to life, but were dismayed to find that this was not quite the case. While this “new” Dinobot had indeed inherited some jumbled memories of his genetic template, he also bore the scars—both literal and metaphorical—of serving Megatron throughout the last third of the Beast Wars. Worse yet, he still carried the spark of Protoform X, itself a failed attempt to mimic Starscream’s immortal spark. Suffice it to say, the second Dinobot was a traumatized, empty shell—a living weapon bereft of purpose, forced to work alongside the same ‘bots he’d been conditioned to hate, and perpetually at war with himself as competing instincts vied for dominance. The Maximals quickly learned to give their nominal ally a wide berth, and none of them were particularly enthused when he declared that he would join them on their voyage home, in the hopes that he could find some kind of new purpose on Cybertron.

As in many of the timelines you know, Megatron slipped his bonds during their voyage back to Cybertron, conquered the planet with an army of mass-produced Vehicon warriors, and infected his captors with a paralyzing transformation virus. Thanks to his Transmetal 2 body, Dinobot resisted the virus, but was forcibly devolved back into a simulacrum of his genetic predecessor. Soon enough, Optimus Primal found him, Rattrap, Blackarachnia, and Cheetor; guided by Primal’s supernatural visions, the five ‘bots fled into the depths of Cybertron, and eventually encountered the mysterious Oracle. Dinobot emerged from the computer with a new, technorganic beast mode: a crimson Guanlong with steel-grey plumage, his teeth and claws could easily penetrate Vehicon armor. As he had never truly “known” Cybertron before the Vehicon apocalypse, Dinobot fought not for any kind of higher ideal, or to rescue the populace of Cybertron, but merely to survive; when the Maximals learned that Megatron had engineered the entire disaster and taken control of the planet, Dinobot decided that he hated Megatron more than he hated the Maximals and grudgingly stuck by their fledgling resistance movement, defiantly wearing a modified Predacon insignia for no other reason than to incense his creator.

Already torn between so many states of being, it should come as no surprise that Dinobot struggled to master the art of transformation. Because of this setback, however, the Rattrap of this timeline—who’d already taken a very real dislike to the “cut-rate knockoff”, and could now look down his nose at someone even worse at transformation than himself—never faced the same kind of crisis of conscience that many of his alternate selves struggled with, and learned how to transform by himself. When Dinobot found that “emotional still point” and unlocked his robot mode, he was a mighty warrior indeed: not only could his optics project a wall of telekinetic force to cover his allies and send enemies flying, but his mighty two-handed claymore could also open tectonic fissures and create localized earthquakes. Tormented by his own demons as he was, however, those moments of emotional lucidity were fleeting at best, and Dinobot spent most of his time trapped in beast mode: in his worst moments, the other Maximals had to physically restrain him as his old Transmetal instincts overwhelmed him and he reverted to a feral state of being. Even while trapped in beast mode, Dinobot proved an ambitious and cunning warrior, and he and Cheetor repeatedly butted heads over the position of leader while the Maximal leader was indisposed.

In this timeline, Dinobot’s warrior instincts and animalistic thirst for vengeance helped push Optimus Primal, already convinced that his mission was to revert Cybertron to its primordial organic state, further and further down the road of extremism. Thanks to his influence, by the time that Tankor’s true consciousness reasserted itself and made a play for power, Optimus had already discovered the Plasma Energy Chamber and used it to send an ultimatum to Megatron: leave the planet now, or perish. This time around, it was Megatron who had to go on the defensive; despite these minor changes in the timeline, the end result was largely the same—the clash between the Key to Vector Sigma and the Plasma Energy Chamber resulted in near-deaths for both Optimus Primal and Megatron. The other Maximals realized that their comrade had played a major role in Primal’s death and turned their back on him. While the other Maximals eventually revived Optimus and dealt with the strange Savage/Noble creature, a grief-stricken Dinobot, convinced that he had permanently killed the first being who had ever treated him kindly, buried his higher functions beneath his animal instincts and turned feral, indiscriminately roaming the empty tunnels and savaging any wayward Vehicons who deviated from their patrol routes.

Finally, after many cycles of exile, Optimus Primal—who had dedicated all his time to meditating in front of the Oracle and casting his own sensory net across the planet in the hopes of finding their most troubled comrade—finally reached Dinobot’s sleeping mind and pierced his layers of mental armor. In this shared dreamscape, a jumbled nightmare world of Transmetallized bones and a burning valley—Dinobot admitted that he had no idea who he was. Was he a warrior or a monster? A beast or a robot? A Maximal, a Predacon, a Decepticon? Would he forever toil in the shadow of his progenitor, desperately trying to live a life he’d never known? Or was he nothing but a freak of nature who concealed his monstrous nature beneath the veneer of an honorable warrior?

Inspired by his own recent voyage through the Matrix, Optimus offered his own opinion: just as the Matrix had chosen them to bring nature and technology together into a single, harmonious whole, so too was Dinobot more than the sum total of his origins. He was not the original Dinobot, nor was he Rampage; he was himself, a loyal ally and just as much a part of the Oracle’s grand plan as the rest of the Maximals.

It would take time before the Predacon warrior learned to channel Primal’s sense of balance into his own fighting style as he rigorously trained in private—aided by Primal’s occasional remote coaching sessions—and longer still before he worked up the courage to rejoin the Maximals. When he did, however, he returned not as Dinobot, but as his own ‘bot—he was now Preditron, a courageous and honorable warrior who combined his bestial instincts with the experience of two lifetimes lived. Preditron fought bravely alongside the Maximals in subsequent campaigns, stood by as they welcomed Botanica and Silverbolt into the fold, and made a courageous stand in the final battle against the Vehicon hordes.

Many centuries in the future, long after the Great Transformation that saw Cybertron reformatted into a technorganic utopia, young technorganic Cybertronians still whisper tales of the reclusive Last Predacon, whose immortal spark burns forever. When all else fails, it is said that the Last Predacon will emerge from his secluded jungle home to take young Cybertronians who struggle to master transformation under his wing, and teach them to find the balance within, as he once did himself.

[paulagnewart]

RIP Pauline Newstone

10th December marked 25 years since the Beast Wars episode Other Visits: Part 2 aired on Australian TV. Taking a moment to reflect, I vividly remember watching it (along with much of that season) on a small wall-mounted TV in a dimly-lit hospital waiting room. Hardly my idea of a grand way to spend multiple afternoons, but the prospect of more checkups and needles paled compared to the swelling dread of how, as the credits rolled, I might never see my favourite character again.

When Candice Santora announced three days later that Airazor's voice actor Pauline Newstone had passed away, that all-too familiar dread seeped its way back.

Beast Wars was far from my first foray into the world of those warrior Robots in Disguise, but certainly played an integral part of my life during the latter half of the 90's. Its writing and expansion of the Transformers history was captivating, its animation at the time second-to-none, and its voice acting nothing short of immaculate. Vancouver's finest breathed life into what could've easily been written off as another 20 minute toy commercial, but it excelled. They made the characters memorable, raw with wild, well-rounded emotions and truly raised the bar for future actors.

From the moment she burst onto the scene, I adored Airazor. Smart, sassy, more than strong enough to fight tooth and claw in battle, refused to put up with Rattrap's antics, and mistress in the art of dry wit. A welcome addition to the Maximal cast with a plethora of potential to grow. Granted the good times weren't to last; she was swiftly demoted to cannon fodder and later the role of "Mrs. Tigatron", but I was happy just to have her around. Whenever roleplaying our favourite scenes or making new adventures at school, Airazor was always my first choice. The original (and Transmetal figure a cherished Easter gift the following year) continued to have imaginative adventures after the show ran its course. For a time, something as trivial as a cartoon alien robot bird meant the world to me.

And it all came down to how awesome Ms. Newstone performed her.

It's a feeling the Aussie public clearly shared, as her video pack became one of the top 10 selling boys' toys of Christmas '98 (or maybe it's because the VHS repaint was, and remains to this day, the only version of her basic-class toy to see release here. But I digress). Yet Beast Wars proved a tip of the iceberg for Ms. Newstone's career. She lent her voice to shows including G.I. Joe, Mummies Alive!, Inuyasha, Monster Rancher, X-Men Evolution, Ninjago, and I certainly can't go without mentioning her portrayal of big baddie Frieza during Ocean Group's tenure on Dragon Ball Z (The infamous "Caressing the Balls" meme? That was her. Iconic).

Ms. Newstone was one of those voice actors I always hoped to meet someday. No means an easy feat, as she preferred to keep away from the spotlight in a fashion not dissimilar to the late Christine Cavanaugh. It would've been nice, but I understood and respected her desire for privacy, and commend the extra effort Pete and the other organizers went to adhering her "no photos" request at BotCon 2006.

Learning of her passing, let alone nobody reporting it until fellow actor Garry Chalk saw her name over six months later at the annual UBCP/ACTRA Awards, is a sad reminder how none of us are getting any younger, and each day those little things which used to give us joy slip further into the abyss of time. Cherish those memories and the ones you love, while always leaving room to create more tomorrow. Fiction generally doesn't last forever, but I like to think her memory and legacy both as a voice actor and person will for many out there.

The above image was taken back in 2011 while in Lithgow, but never made public until now. Far from my best work (assuming anything I do can be considered good to begin with :P ), but a decent day. History repeats itself, as that particular Airazor figure went on to appear in many more photos, accompanied me to multiple BotCons, a college graduation party (!), and most recently appeared on the official Oliver Brown social media page for their Rise of the Beasts promotion.

RIP Pauline Newstone. May many glasses be raised in your honour. You came, you stooped, and you sure as hell conquered.

[nemesisthetoy]

Under Flames and Moonlight

Context for this piece, Dragonbot had abandoned Megatron and Predacons shortly after they had crashed on the planet, as he blamed him for stranding them in a different universe (long story).

Now on his own, Dragonbot settled into the rainforest under the alias Autumn, and made a habit of sabotaging Megatron’s plans whenever they came at the cost of innocent lives.

During this period, Dragonbot had never transformed, preferring to use his newly obtained stealth abilities whenever fighting the Preds, partially due to a fear of being outcasted should any dragon discover that he is a Predacon as well.

This lasted about a few months before Megatron had grown frustrated by this, and decided to smoke Dragonbot out, by setting fire to the rainforest! 

This brings us to here, where Dragonbot, with a dragonet he rescued from the flames, is confronted by Megatron himself!