Blue Bluestreak and alternate Mirage character models found

[brianj...@gmail.com]

http://news.tfw2005.com/2018/05/28/unseen-generation-1-mirage-ravage-and-bluestreak-animation-models-and-color-guides-364481

Saw this posted the other day and thought it was really cool. Some thoughts:

It is very very odd to see Ravage, especially in that pose, in colors other than black. Ravage of course appears in that pose on his box art, his character model, and then tons of times any time anyone wanted to draw him. So that's what I've seen over and over and over for the past 35 years! The Ravage recolors from the re-issue periods probably have similar recolored box art but I never paid as much attention to them so seeing this is so out of place.

That being said, there was a blue version of the Microman version of Ravage, but this seems to replace the metal bits with the odd choice of red. I can't really think of a reason for this. Odder still is that when this was recolored to black and silver, they didn't just switch the colors but extended the silver.

Here's another odd point. The Ravage character model is based off of the Microman box art, which is black. But for some reason the colorist was sent the blue version? Meanwhile, Budiansky was sent (most likely) the black version for his character profile based on the disappearing in the shadows stuff. I've always thought that Budiansky was making up the names and profiles earlier than the character models were drawn, but maybe that's not as accurate as I thought.

I know we've all known for a long time that there were TONS of mistakes being made in the rush to get all this to the shelves (Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, Rumble and Frenzy, Bluestreak), but it's kind of amazing to see that there were almost MORE big mistakes like this one.

Next up is the blue Bluestreak. I'm not surprised that this exists, there are so many wrinkles to the blue Bluestreak myth that it's a never ending string, but it is really cool. I'd have to really think about what new information this brings to the debate, but at first glance I would say...not much. It's probably the first color model done based on either the Diaclone box art, Transformers box art, or Diaclone toy done before they decided to change to a more (all) silver toy. But I _suppose_ it could even be a "we were going to do a silver or silver and black toy but we are going to change to a blue one" that didn't get changed in time? Like I said, I have to think about this one.

The green is..cool? Certainly a simplification of the pelvis stickers, but I don't really have a thought on it yet.

And then there's a whole new Mirage! My very first thought was that he looked similar to some of the odd character models that would pop up in some of the early coloring or story books. I did some checking, and the one I was thinking about was Decepticon Patrol, but I'm not sold on it. So where did it come from? Mirage was one of characters who did not have Diaclone box art to go from, so the toy would be the only reference. The lack of an Autobot symbol would imply that this was early, but that would mean that this odd one was done first, then somebody said make it more like the toy and we got the one we know. My entire Transformers life I've thought it was always the other way around!

All this reminded me of something else I wanted to ask. Zob, you at some point mentioned you had a theory about different character models for Frenzy/Rumble, SS/TC/SW, based on a discussion we were having about the weird different heads we saw in the coloring books. There was a link to your page but I never saw it and it was dead the last time I tried. Care to elaborate?

[Zobovor]

On Tuesday, May 29, 2018 at 7:58:34 PM UTC-6, brianj...@gmail.com wrote:

> Saw this posted the other day and thought it was really cool.

I noticed it as well. The person who posted them said they were part of a big batch of early models he bought, so I'll be interested to see if there are any more later.

> It is very very odd to see Ravage, especially in that pose, in colors other
> than black.

What's really funny about this is that there's a miscolored version of Ravage in "Auto Berserk" (he pops out of Soundwave's chest, but he's colored like Frenzy's cassette mode) and he's blue and red, looking a lot like this drawing. I named the background character Catscratch and I did a whole profile for him. It's uncanny how similar they are.

> That being said, there was a blue version of the Microman version of Ravage,
> but this seems to replace the metal bits with the odd choice of red. I can't
> really think of a reason for this.

I got nothing.

> Budiansky was sent (most likely) the black version for his character profile
> based on the disappearing in the shadows stuff. I've always thought that
> Budiansky was making up the names and profiles earlier than the character
> models were drawn, but maybe that's not as accurate as I thought.

I always thought that Budiansky was basing the profiles directly on the toys, not the animation models. This is why Jetfire is described as having omni-directional guns on his head, something the Hasbro toy has but which the Skyfire animation model definitely does not. It also explains things like the Sideswipe pile drivers (the Sunstreaker toy has them if you attach the shoulder rockets to the wrist sockets) and the Sideswipe rocket pack (the engine on the back of the Sunstreaker toy looks like rocket thrusters).

As I've said before, Trailbreaker's characterization as being mopey and depressed makes more sense if Budiansky was describing the original toy (so that he's literally and figuratively blue) and Ironhide's name makes sense if describing a black-colored toy (since that's the color or iron ore).

> Next up is the blue Bluestreak. I'm not surprised that this exists, there
> are so many wrinkles to the blue Bluestreak myth that it's a never ending
> string, but it is really cool.

I honestly think what happened was that Hasbro wasn't aware that there were three separate and distinct color schemes for the Fairlady Robo in Japan. They must have selected the blue version at one stage, named it Bluestreak, and photographed that toy for the packaging and catalogs. At some point, somebody else was tasked with doing a color model for the Bluestreak character, and they were probably told it was the Fairlady Robo toy, so they grabbed the silver one with the black hood and went to work. Finally, when Hasbro geared up to manufacture the toy, they based the production version on yet another Fairlady Robo, the all-silver version.

Maybe they were intending to hold back the all-silver version as a 1985 redeco, and it was originally going to be sold along with Smokescreen, Red Alert, Hoist, etc. A lot of Diaclone color schemes got lost in the cracks, though.

> The green is..cool? Certainly a simplification of the pelvis stickers, but I
> don't really have a thought on it yet.

I really dislike the green. It's hideous.

> And then there's a whole new Mirage! My very first thought was that he
> looked similar to some of the odd character models that would pop up in some
> of the early coloring or story books.

This alternate head for Mirage makes absolutely no sense to me. It doesn't look anything like his box art or his G1 toy, so there's no logic as to why he's being drawn this way... UNLESS Hasbro was planning to sell both the blue and red versions of the Indy Robo, and the two characters were going to be drawn a little differently to distinguish them (the same way that Bluestreak and Prowl are drawn differently from each other).

Still, that head is a huge departure from the toy's design. Those forehead things wouldn't even fit when he transforms!

> All this reminded me of something else I wanted to ask. Zob, you at some
> point mentioned you had a theory about different character models for
> Frenzy/Rumble, SS/TC/SW, based on a discussion we were having about the weird
> different heads we saw in the coloring books.

I might still have the files saved locally. Let me try to dig them up and I'll come back to this.


Zob (why do I smell wet dog?)