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I've checked out the responses to your post on a.t.t., and I'm happy it
was well received by everyone.

Now let me respond to Sipher's entry:

 >> I was in charge of seven designs for Energon (Optimus, Scorponok,
 >> Megatron, Divebomb, Cruellock, Omega Supreme, and Wing Saber--that's
 >> in the order they were developed), and am now in charge of several
 >> more for Cybertron.  You can see a few of my design images on ASM's
 >> web page (www.alteredstatesmag.com).
 >
 > You know, Divebomb does not surprise me one bit. Something about him
 > just seems very, very Ichikawa-y.

I must add in here that Divebomb had some extremely cool concept art
from Hasbro, which played a big part in his design quality.  His robot
and beast mode head designs are practically unchanged from the Hasbro
concepts.

 > And he's responsible for Cruellock's face? I LOVE Cruellock's big
 > fangy face.

And Cruellock's face is also by Hasbro.  Aside from these two, the faces
of the characters I was in charge of are all my designs.  (However, I
did not take part in the addition of a mouth to Optimus.)  Scorponok's
visor was added in at my insistent request.

 >> Takara's designers said that they could
 >> probably have given WS's vehicle mode much better styling if not for
 >> these conditions.  Ironically, the American-market Wing Saber in
 >> question was packaged split up into separate pieces!  This sort of
 >> thing probably happens a lot in the business world.
 >
 > ... Isn't WS's vehcile mode too wide to go  in a Mega box?

I can't confirm this, as I don't have a sample of Wing Saber on hand,
but the plan was that his wings would fold back in vehicle mode to make
a "container mode" for packaging purposes.  However, at the
cost-calculating stage, the gimmick that let you store away the "toe
cannons" on his feet was omitted, so the gun barrels remained exposed.
This may have prevented the container mode from being realized.  Anyone
who has Wing Saber, please confirm this.

 >> Also, regarding WS's lack of a hand weapon, the developer had hoped
 >> to make the Energon Saber his main weapon, but unfortunately, his
 >> request wasn't granted.
 >
 > What, as in "packed in with the toy"? That would have been wildly
 > appproprite, and more Mini-Cons is always a good thing... a recolor,
 > I'm guessing? Three tech jets packed with a tech jet, the minis
 > becomng the sword of the guy modeled after the guy from G1 with the
 > big sword...

Er, this demand was in regard to how he'd be treated in the SUPER LINK
TV show; the idea wasn't about packing a Mini-Con team in with the toy.
  (For TV, the Energon Saber was given the role of Kicker's personal
weapon, so the request for WS to use it wasn't approved.)

I did my Energon design work at the same time I was writing the
"Linkage" DVD comics at We've's request, and since this work let me hear
requests directly from the Takara designers, I wanted to make use of
that info in the comic.  One of the most useful pieces of background
info was that the Omnicons and Terrorcons were evolved Mini-Cons.
At that point, which was just before SUPER LINK started airing, I had a
discussion with We've in which I asked them, "Would it be okay if I drew
several Mini-Cons in the final episode of 'Linkage' in their evolved
state as Omnicons or Terrorcons?"
Surprisingly, though, they knew nothing about this background info and
had already created their own explanation for the origin for the
Omnicons.  Apparently, in the meetings between the anime production
staff and Takara, the only people attending from Takara were from the
Marketing Department, so none of the ideas or requests from the
Development Deparment people were conveyed.

I was told several such disappointing stories, and so my interest in the
SUPER LINK cartoon declined drastically, and I quickly gave up any
efforts to connect the "Linkage" story and SUPER LINK.  (When I saw
Kicker's hair light up in SL Episode 1, I thought, "Oh, this can't be
good," but despite that, I went ahead and made Stella's hair glow
platinum blond as I'd originally planned.  Naturally, there's no
connection between her and Kicker.)  If I were to compare, I'd say I
liked Dreamwave's ENERGON comic many times more than the SUPER LINK cartoon.

I still have a little sense of expecation for the GALAXY FORCE cartoon,
but I think it's about time the storytelling for TF shows was left to
scriptwriters from the West.
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Doug Dlin
apcog at hotmail.com