Mild toy design annoyances
Working on the puma mode. Still looks far too much like a humanoid robot on all fours with a head swap. Looked a bit better when pulling the shoulders inwards, as big cats tend to have front legs almost in line with back legs and be fairly narrowly built. The tail is still far too heavy, being made up of both railguns and centre limbs. One solution - go for more of a Smilodon look, with short (or nonexistent) tail and position the railguns as a weapons backpack.
Still need to adjust leg joint angles and psuedo-lengths to more resemble big cats.
Next issue - the head is slightly too large to fit into its storage space. Luckily it's mostly hollow, so it should be able to fold up a little. At the same time, it's really too small for the mode. Oh well. Maybe's it's a superheroic puma. :)
Paws. Without them, the legs just look wrong. The back legs in particular need something to flip out as feet - the blue prisms are far too large to take that role. Further note - should flip them inside-out to be white; it's a better fit for the colour scheme.
Fortunately, the prisms are empty, with the lower legs being full of dragon heads. There should be room in there for articulated paws and even jet landing gear.
The front legs are another matter. The bird-claws just don't work well as paws in any mode - they're too big and clumsy. The toy doesn't lend itself all that well to the griffon look even if I used the railguns to simulate wings. The forearms are full of robot hands which, although very articulated indeed, don't look like paws at all. I realise Sixshot got away with just having tiny clawlike protrusions on the ends of his forelegs in wolf mode, but I'd like to do a little better.
Thought - maybe see if the hands, curled up into fists and with the thumb tucked away, look sufficiently paw-like.
Still not sure what to do with the jet intakes. Keep them open as a kind of homage to Transmetal Cheetor and a random bit of visual-interest kibble, or close them up and try to find somewhere to put them which doesn't look contrived?
Should the whole thing be flipped over? Might make doing something with the cargo pad easier, but the current high-stance narrow hips and shoulders with underslung belly mass looks better.
Further notes: Cubes and other components which have an E-shaped connection track on them are actually able to flip end-for-end as a transformation despite being connected to things at both the top and bottom of the E. Components with an S-track which visits the exact same connector points can't do this, which makes for simpler transformations but less flexibility.
Final notes: where does the mode fit in terms of functionality? OK, it's one of only two broken-terrain modes with any kind of weaponry, and it's more sure-footed, a better dodger, and has more gun barrels than the dino mode. The dino mode, in comparison, has a much longer-range main weapon, probably a higher top speed, and has hands (or will do once I model them).
Still need to adjust leg joint angles and psuedo-lengths to more resemble big cats.
Next issue - the head is slightly too large to fit into its storage space. Luckily it's mostly hollow, so it should be able to fold up a little. At the same time, it's really too small for the mode. Oh well. Maybe's it's a superheroic puma. :)
Paws. Without them, the legs just look wrong. The back legs in particular need something to flip out as feet - the blue prisms are far too large to take that role. Further note - should flip them inside-out to be white; it's a better fit for the colour scheme.
Fortunately, the prisms are empty, with the lower legs being full of dragon heads. There should be room in there for articulated paws and even jet landing gear.
The front legs are another matter. The bird-claws just don't work well as paws in any mode - they're too big and clumsy. The toy doesn't lend itself all that well to the griffon look even if I used the railguns to simulate wings. The forearms are full of robot hands which, although very articulated indeed, don't look like paws at all. I realise Sixshot got away with just having tiny clawlike protrusions on the ends of his forelegs in wolf mode, but I'd like to do a little better.
Thought - maybe see if the hands, curled up into fists and with the thumb tucked away, look sufficiently paw-like.
Still not sure what to do with the jet intakes. Keep them open as a kind of homage to Transmetal Cheetor and a random bit of visual-interest kibble, or close them up and try to find somewhere to put them which doesn't look contrived?
Should the whole thing be flipped over? Might make doing something with the cargo pad easier, but the current high-stance narrow hips and shoulders with underslung belly mass looks better.
Further notes: Cubes and other components which have an E-shaped connection track on them are actually able to flip end-for-end as a transformation despite being connected to things at both the top and bottom of the E. Components with an S-track which visits the exact same connector points can't do this, which makes for simpler transformations but less flexibility.
Final notes: where does the mode fit in terms of functionality? OK, it's one of only two broken-terrain modes with any kind of weaponry, and it's more sure-footed, a better dodger, and has more gun barrels than the dino mode. The dino mode, in comparison, has a much longer-range main weapon, probably a higher top speed, and has hands (or will do once I model them).