Movie/Cartoon Color Scheme or Toy Colors.

Comics, cartoons, movies and fan stuff.
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Nick Dickens
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Movie/Cartoon Color Scheme or Toy Colors.

Post by Nick Dickens »

Hi Guys this is my first post after joining, I've finally decided to take the plunge and joined the great online fanbase of the BEST licenced property ever (Star Wars comes a close second and TF ties for me with DOCTOR WHo and ahead of Trek as being the best thing since life began on this planet.

I have one major bugbear/concern when coloring my Transformers illustrations (for Generation 1). Namely do I go with the toy color schemes or the cartoon/animated movie schemes.

For example I never really dug Galvatron in the purple hue (a bit too much YMCA for my tastes). Whereas a Megatron Kick A** color scheme of silver and chrome is really nasty and speaks business.

Likewise Grimlock's eye visor looks cool red ala the toy, but the blue (for the Autobots ala the cartoon looks a little non-descript). Although I can see that it does look less threatening I always colored the Dinobots eyes red to give them that edge.

It's just some elements seem a little too non descript like Swoops blue body (I can understand the clash with too much red for the animators) and especially the coneheads (sorry Ramjet, Dirge, Thrust) look REALLY silly with the noses of the fighters not bent back and sticking up. So I've always drawn 'em with the dome or nose cones down.

I might be thinking about all this too much, but I'd love some insigt on what you folks think.


close :wtf:
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Post by Denyer »

Logically most people who're looking at art/comics will be familiar with the characters as they're depicted in fiction, more-so than the toys.

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Re: Movie/Cartoon Color Scheme or Toy Colors.

Post by Silly Cow »

Originally posted by Nick Dickens
especially the coneheads (sorry Ramjet, Dirge, Thrust) look REALLY silly with the noses of the fighters not bent back and sticking up. So I've always drawn 'em with the dome or nose cones down.

I've always liked the coneheads as they were in the cartoon. Sure, they might look a bit silly but I think it's kind of a cool way to distinguish them as the second generation of seekers. And six almost identical robots with only different color schemes is a bit too much, IMO.
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Post by Rurudyne »

Hi Nick!

The following link will help you with one of the most persistent Transformer bug-a-boos with respect to color scheme: Link .
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Nick Dickens
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Post by Nick Dickens »

AAAARRRGGGHHH!!!!! I am an idiot, I never stopped to consider Rumble and Frenzy.

PS I was always wondering about them and always assumed that Rumble was just given Frenzys color scheme. UNTIL that scene in the movie when they both have pile-driver arms - like why would Frenzy need those.

Hoo boyy, makes that whole debacle in the 80s with Zuckass and 4-LOM in the Star Wars toy range seem positively straight forward. :wall:
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Post by Rurudyne »

I'm not sure the animators knew which was which. :)
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Post by Tramp »

I tend to follow toy colors more, as do the modern comics. The Dreamwave comics , for example, follwed the toy colorings over the cartoon colors, including having Grimlock and the dinobots with red optics. Remember, the cartoon was based upon the toys not the other way around.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Didn't Dreamwave start of by using the cartoon colours for Rumble and Frenzy but switch to the toy/Marvel way round by the time of MTMTE?
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Post by Tramp »

No. To my knowledge, they always used the toy colors for Rumble and Frenzy. I know for certain they did for War and Peace, which was their second six-issue series which leand into the ongoing series. It was only the cartoon that had the colors reversed.
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Post by Ozz »

Originally posted by Tramp
To my knowledge, they always used the toy colors for Rumble and Frenzy. I know for certain they did for War and Peace
Do you know for certain which one was which? And wasn't one purple/violet/whatever instead of blue?
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Yep, they used the cartoon colours.

Generally I'd say toys, but there are odd exceptions in my preferences... Marvel comics Perceptor (well, when they didn't do that weird half-shaded face thing), Swoop (the TFU one they settled on after a bit) and Megatron, cartoon Goldbug (flat yellow, but with the blue head... though this is partly because, for some weird, inexplicable reason, I always think of Goldbug as a seperate character to Bumblebee... in common sense terms, it's Marvel again... for the toy, I'm just glad they hadn't discovered gold 'paint' at the time). Some cartoon changes I'm torn on - Ironhide, for example, is a lot more interesting to look at when half of him's black, but when you think about it you start wondering where the masses of black come from... Soundwave is another - in theory the cartoon version's a lot more visually interesting, but he just looks better with a mainly-blue head...

Generally the cartoon weakened the colours along with the detail, as with Shockwave and (my pet hated cartoon scheme) Thundercracker, resulting in some very bland looks.
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Post by Tramp »

Originally posted by Ozz
Do you know for certain which one was which? And wasn't one purple/violet/whatever instead of blue?
Yes. Frenzy is the blue and violet one, and Rumble is red and black.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Now I remember- They definately had the blue one doing the pile arms in The Prime Directive...
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Post by Tetsuro »

Galvatron's a little confusing with the toy colours used only in the comics while the cartoon is closer to blue like his fellow Unicron-spawns...while the reissue toy is closer to some weird shade of lilac.
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Post by Nick Dickens »

Thanks guys,

I know some people consider this a minor issue, but I appreciate all the advice. I do like Galvatron's color scheme being a kind of Shockwave styled purple. I must admit I don't like the reissued toys kind of more pink/lilac/lavender color.

I didn't care much for the cartoon with its rather grey/blue pale purple tint. I know overexposure, inconsistancy in color schemes can result in some radical changes. But I always assumed that most of them were for readability (ie would all the red in swoops color scheme make the character look too unrecognisable (or too close to Prime). I always did the Dinobots with red eyes as they look more bad a** and evil looking as they were meant in my eyes to be (only just) good guys.

But Powermaster Prime is a big bug bear (i like the red eyes) but he looks too evil with them. Then again I always did him with the pale blue eyes (ala the cartoon and live action film). Not the original G1 toys yellow scheme.

I love Goldbugs yellow/gold color scheme and always did him with a yellow head like the earlier UK issues (found in Flllen Angel? TPB), even though the toys head is blue.

I never had a problem with Ironhide and Ratchet in the cartoon, I hated the comics completely red colour scheme.

PS Did you know Megatron's face is almost white in the original gen 1 cartoon? I didn't until someone pointed it out to me last night. Nice touch that, as it makes the helmet and main body look a little different. I've always colored my Swoop like the toy as the blue body is too much for me (I always prefered the grey, chrome gold and silver, red and black colours of the Dinobots best), mind you the comics often had him with a blue beak, whereas mine has the cartoon colour of a pale yellow... mind you Slags spikes, silver or red...aaaarrrgghh!!! ooh boy I've opened a big can of worms for maself. :rant:
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Thing I like about toy scheme for the Dinos is that they just look so much more like a team. For some reason cartoon Swoop always stood out... the close-knit colour scheme always seemed to match them being a close-knit team (which they are more than any other team, mainly because at least one member of every combining team seems to have a serious personality disorder). Same thing with the Constructicons all having matching schemes :)
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Post by Nick Dickens »

I agree with the remark regarding the Constructicons and Dinobots.
To clarify on the Ironhide issue, I preferred his cartoon red and mid/dark grey tones, rather than the all red of the comics (esp the UK ones where he was an important regular).

The comic scheme especially with the red face seemed too lazy. I do think sometimes the cartoon had more attention paid to it at times (forgetting the errors in giving certain characters the wrong color scheme). I think they tried to get certain details more accurate wherever possible.

Heck even in the UK comics, Galvatron changed color scheme (going from his Target:2006 debut toy accurate, to fall in line with the US Marvel comics less accurate(but more accurate than the movie color scheme). If I remember correctly, in the US movie adaption he had dark grey knee plates and after this came out in the winter 1986 collected comics special (after Target 2006, he had the US comic color scheme from then on in the UK comics. ;)
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