#transformers: superlink

[jdrider02]

Energon Starscream midnight doodle

3-22-2024

[beforethestory]

"…Nightscream studied, observed, and rediscovered the world; on that face was one of the most lively smiles Alexa had ever seen… but she couldn't smile herself: it was all alien, and too wrong to smile back without pain."

__

hooray-hooray for sudden sketches and pieces of text from unfinished fanfiction!!

[ojamayellow]

Transformers Funnies [Unicron Trilogy Style]

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / ?

[jason-gold-falcon]

Did a Redraw Challenge where you draw the image as a Ship you like. I did Demolisher (Ironhide) and Cyclonus (Sandstorm) from Transformers Energon (Superlink)

I think I cooked.

[gummyjne]

Rewatching Transformers Superlink.

[blueikeproductions]

More of the Energon AU. This helps lay down some of the general ideas. Already some of the Alpha Q System citizens are teaming up with the Autobots like Kranix. The platform they’re standing on was supposed to be the Miranda II, but it’s now Omega Supreme because in the middle of drawing it I remembered he had a battleship mode. The Seacons were originally going to be part of the Energon toy line as Terrorcons but they were scrapped. Fittingly the Japanese Seacons typically are drones with a single sentient commander, like the Energon Terrorcons so I repurposed them.

In this version of events, Sharkticon and Slugslinger were upgraded from generics, similar to Wing Dagger. Their original identities were, imaginatively enough, Sharkron and Slug. Unicron Scales are lifted from an early concept from the G1 movie, where all Decepticons were upgraded using said scales.

The idea of designated reformatting idento computer terminals comes from an observation that the Energon characters never displayed an ability to Scan on their own, while they could in Armada and Cybertron. Making it a treaty deal so the Decepticons couldn’t sneak around and scan something to fight back was my rationale.

The Dinobot Combiner, Volcanicus Maximus, has sentient components which can all assume Robot Modes, to reflect the idea intended by Hasbro/Takara but not in the cartoon with the other Maximus combiners. Scorn is named after his movie counterpart, while the others are Skar (ankylosaur), Slash (parasaurolophus), Strafe (pachy) and Slog (styracosaurus).

The girl bot talking about Nautica is Optimus’ kid sister Ariel (a deliberate name usage because Ariel was Arcee’s Japanese name, but I don’t see Ariel becoming Elita until Cybertron.) She was a plucky teenager helping with things on Cybertron with her best friend Dion during Armada, while more of an older skewing teen by Energon, being more active in the field alongside her brother.

[laserbread]

[ambitiousscientist]

Super Link should've had hand drawn animation...

Try to guess his emotion.

Ugh... He's supposed to be shocked.

Like this:

[squidhead228]

I made this based on my personal experience

[protagonistprime]

Hasbro released couple of days ago official images for new Earthspark gimmick and i couldn't pass on opportunity . So here are my rough edits of Biblically accurate Bumblebee, Mo Malto, Robby Malto and Twitch.

Original photos belong to Hasbro and Takara These digibashes/edits belong to me.

You can use them for your ideas, but please credit the original owner and person who edited them(me).

EDIT: i managed to downscale all photos so they could fit in Tumblr limit.

[doruumon]

Art redraw! Left is from 2021, right is 2024.

I've gotten better with more dynamic posing, and it feels good. Energon Scorponok is just a blocky guy and it's hard to make that look fun.

[sweetpeaches666]

Kicker: And before you round back to the "original Starscream" again, let's face the facts. He was never our friend.

Sam: We all done the obvious math. The original Starscream was killed million years ago before any of us met.

Kicker: You're the guy we trained beside, fought beside. You're the only you we know.

Sam: You're our friend. Just 'cause you're a clone of some bot who always declared himself as the Decepticon leader whenever he thought he killed Megatron, doesn't change that.

Kicker: Seriously, have you seen the videos about them, Star?

[ojamayellow]

Transformers Funnies [Unicron Trilogy Style]

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / ?

[jason-gold-falcon]

I drew some Sketches of Armada Starscream, and Slight Redesign Sketches of Superlink (Energon) Hot Shot. Quite pleased with the result. and of course the Hot Shot would lead to another photo I had planned as well.

[siphersaysstuff]

ENERGON BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

February's Patreon @tfwiki pic update is on 2004's ENERGON, the awkward middle child of the Unicron Trilogy. Caught in the early stage of explosive franchise growth and pulled in too many directions. But there's good stuff in there. ROADBLOCK remains a solid, fun toy, turning from robot to crane-truck to heavily-armed half of a two-robot combiner.

The Autobots' two-bot-combiners gimmick was certainly an interesting attempt, but TOW-LINE really took the gimmick to more interesting places than most. He's his own combiner, with the lower half of his vehicle mode turning into a mobile battle-sled-thing separate from his robot mode.

Store exclusives were rare in Armada, but by Energon, Hasbro was ready to start pumping them out again, and boy did they. CHECKPOINT, a rededo of Rodimus, came in a Kmart "SWAT" 2-pack with a similarly deco'd Prowl. Back when Kmart was still a thing.

The Decepticons, rather than combining, got "hyper modes" and alternate vehicle modes that deployed more weapons. SIX SHOT, a redeco of Shockblast, is one of the better attempts, having a considerably-different "satellite" mode on top of his space-tank altmode.

Oh lawd he comin. OMEGA SENTINEL, a redeco of Omega Supreme, splits into a "construction vehicle" and "cruiser", each with a "platform" mode. The two can also join to for a "Cybertronian Armored Supertrain" but that wouldn't fit in the lightbox. Plus he can merge with Optimus Prime! Okay mainly he's a suit Prime wears, but there's attachment points for all of Prime's drone-vehicles as well.

With the franchise taking off, Hasbro looked to fill out Energon with more stuff. This Deluxe version of the Mini-Con HIGH WIRE came with a figure of human ally Kicker, rendered in the style of the then-current G.I.Joe toys. This set seemingly was not engineered by Takara, and it kinda shows.

Speaking of... oof. This set. Not to editorialize too much, but... the MEGA-DINOBOT set of GRIMLOCK and SWOOP is... well. Bad. Originally intended for the Universe line, it got shuffled into Energon, and similarly wasn't engineered by Takara. The result is a floppy, awkward mess. One of the very, very few Transformers toys in its 40-year run I'd call "bad".

(Also... yes, I re-did the Grimlock pic. Back in October, I used archive imagery for that update because, frankly, I'd forgotten I still owned this set. Upon discovery, I decided to redo the pic so it's crisper and better positioned. Still not a good toy though.)

Mind you... it's not like things were all roses on the other hemisphere. Takara made SL GRAND CONVOY, a smaller version of Optimus Prime without any of the good points of the larger figure. What IS that torso mode?! (This is the shinier "SL Grand Convoy & Kicker" 2-pack version. And it broke. Super-tight ankle joints made from clear-plastic? A recipe for disaster.)

Didn't mean to end on a down note. Here, have a pic of one of the line's absolute highlights, the Omnicons and Terrorcons, and their buildable energon weapons.

Energon was kind of all over the map, trying a lot and maybe lacking a strong cohesive theme because of it. Some damn good stuff, but also some genuine misses.

If you enjoy these runs through Transformers toy history, please consider tossing a coin into my Patreon ("gregstfwikipics" at patreon dot com). More support means I can devote more time to bigger updates with more images each month. There's still loads to do!

[blueikeproductions]

TF Energon AU thing I was indulging in after watching Superlink during free time. The Energon Grimlock toy can’t actually Powerlinx with anything outside of Swoop, but for these purposes both Dinobots can.