Via: Transformers Wiki

Via: Transformers Wiki

Via: Plastic Fetish

Via:

(link)

Harley Davidson transforming toy. Via: Gear-Gear

Steve Twist's Major Project for his BA (Hons) Computer Visualisation and Animation undergraduate degree at Bournemouth University (NCCA). The film took 8 months of work from concept to completion.

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen production designer Steve Jung's
early motorcycle sisters concept art

I am curious plastic-More than meets the eye.

Transformers animated series Prowl. Via: tformers.com

Transformers Sequel reveals the mysterious "Motorcyle Sisters".

(no name given)-MV Agusta

Arcee-Ducati

Chromia-Suzuki

Arcee, a single consciousness driving three female Transformers that transform into three motorcycles: a pink Ducati motorcycle, a blue Suzuki motorcycle, and a purple MV Agusta F4. Although this ability was dropped from the movie, the robots that make up Arcee were once meant to be able to combine into a single robot. This ability can still be seen in the movie's novelization and toy line.

Arcee, who initially transformed from a single bike, was dropped from the first film due to concerns of her being too small compared to the other bots, and the fact that the writers felt there was not enough time to explain her "gender", despite her and several other female Transformers appearing in the first film's toy line and tie-in comics. Whether to explain robotic gender or not was something the writers were unsure about, and it remained undecided until post-production, with the issue eventually remaining unaddressed in the finished movie. The modifications to the motorcycles providing the vehicle modes for Arcee were performed by custom sportsbike builder retroSBK.

While the name "Arcee" is used for the three characters collectively in the film, the accompanying toyline has characterized each bike separately. Thus, the pink bike is called Arcee, and the blue motorcycle is named Chromia. In the 1980s cartoon, Chromia was Ironhide's girlfriend, something reflected by her film version toy's biography, which states Chromia was "friends with Ironhide for centuries, and their reunion on Earth was one of the high points of the war for both of them. Now they work side by side, hunting and destroying Decepticons. Neither of them has ever been happier." The purple third robot has yet to be characterized in any ancillary media.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Picts via: Seibertron

Norm Dwyer's Transforming motorcycle concept.

Via: Untitled work in progress

Buy me that!-Maisto's transforming motorcycle Res-Q Cykon.

Via: mini model bikes

Saturday morning cartoons: Gobots.

Pict via toybender

Wiki:

"Challenge of the GoBots (also known as Mighty Machine Men) is an American animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, based on the Gobots toy-line released from Tonka. Most of the toys were imported from the Japanese Machine Robo toy line.

GoBots dealt with two opposing forces of transforming robots from the planet Gobotron: the heroic Guardians and the evil Renegades. The Guardians were led by Leader-1 with others including Turbo and Scooter. The Renegades were led by Cy-Kill, with Crasher and Cop-Tur among their ranks. The characters rarely had guns, instead shooting energy blasts out of their fists. Unlike Transformers, GoBots had regular female characters. However, the females were built like the males (only Crasher receiving any distinguishable female features). The GoBots' origin as organic beings accounted for the presence of genders among the robots.

In the 2006 movie Clerks II, Gobots are referred to as "the Kmart Transformers". Clips from the Gobots were used in Errol Morris' Fast, Cheap and Out of Control.

The webcomic Lilformers, features Gobots from time to time, as hopeful Transformers

(link)

In the animated series Challenge of the Gobots, Cy-Kill was the leader of the evil Renegades. He was originally a member of the Guardians and friend of Leader-1. He wanted to be the sole ruler of Gobotron to better protect it (since he felt he was the mightiest guardian), but Leader-1 believed in democracy. This led Cy-Kill to break away from the Guardians and become the leader of the Renegades. He sought to conquer the Gobot homeworld and have all the power for himself. He was very ruthless and a thorn in the side of the Guardians.

Cy-Kill today: fan art from Edwin Gautreau

The toy of Cy-Kill was originally Bandai's Bike Robo from their Machine Robo toyline. Bike Robo was a heroic character in red, white, and blue colors. Tonka, however, decided to make this character a villain. The Tonka version was originally released in the red, white, and blue, but in the final year of the toy line this was changed to a more "evil" black and green color scheme. The animated version, however, had already been drawn in the original colors and so he stayed that way on TVA larger "Super GoBot" Cy-Kill was later released, based on the Bandai Big Bike Robo figure. As one of the lead characters from the TV series, Cy-Kill featured on numerous items of merchandise as well.

Bad motorcycle, good toy: Cy-Kill

Scooter was the Guardians’ resident inventor. He was highly intelligent, and equipped with an array of equipment that allowed him to hack into computers and the like. Scooter was also equipped with a hologram projector, allowing him to create illusions either to confuse enemies or provide himself with cover. He was unarmed, but briefly tried having blasters fitted in place of his hologram projector – however, he eventually realized the latter was more in tune with his personality, and switched back. He enjoys a friendly rivalry with fellow Guardian Turbo,

Joking about the stronger Guardian’s lack of intelligence. Since his arrival on Earth, Scooter has become good friends with the young human astronaut Nick Burns, finding him to be something of a kindred spirit. However, one thing they don’t have in common is that Scooter is a complete coward – Nick regularly has to coax his Gobot friend into action in tight situations. Scooter is simply the youngest Guardian in appearance, personality and voice.

Scooter’s toy was a re-release of the Machine Robo Scooter Robo figure. It was first issued by Tonka in 1983, and remained available throughout the production of the Gobots toy line. It was also released in Europe. In 1993, the figure was reissued as part of Bandai’s Robo Machines line.

geek alert!-The Gobots/Machine Robo Scooter

Transformers: The Motorcycle refugee.

In all wars there is always a refugee...

Via: transformers.wikia

"The motorcycle refugee is an Autobot in the Cybertron portion of the Unicron Trilogy continuity family. The refugee is one of the many civilian Autobots in hiding on the planet Earth following the evacuation of Cybertron. She enjoys taking long rides out in the desert, where there are no humans around to see (since a riderless motorcycle is kind of a giveaway)"

Via: worth1000's Giant Killer Robots competition

Youtube: Ravage Transformation.

(via: angryscott. link)

Arcee.

Transformer Movie production designer Ben Proctor's design for Arcee

Via: transformers wiki

"Arcee is an Autobot from the Tansformers Movie and wasoriginally going to be a member of the live-action movie's Autobot cast, but was later replaced by Ironhide. According to screenwriter Roberto Orci, they would have needed to explain the point behind female robots, which there wasn't any time for in the movie.

In another interview, Alex Kurtzman cited "scale issues" as an additional reason for dropping Arcee; allegedly, Michael Bay simply considered her too small as compared to the rest of the Autobots. It's commonly assumed that Arcee's big part in the movie would have been the scene in which William Lennox starts his solo assault on Blackout using an abandoned motorcycle. However, the screenwriters rejected that notion, stating that this scene wasn't written until after Arcee had already been dropped from the script—but if she had remained in the movie, that scene would have featured her as the motorcycle.

In the special edition DVD of the 2007 live action film, the possibility of Arcee appearing in the sequel was mentioned.

She's tough and has a body to die for-Arcee

Though small compared to many of her peers and adversaries, Arcee compensates with speed and aggressive maneuvers, making her one of the most dangerous Autobots around. Moreover, Arcee is a born hunter. She honed her speed hunting turbofoxes with other speedsters, challenging herself to get as close as possible before tagging them with her bow. She's a crack shot with said crossbow weapon, and Ironhide has trained her to use her speed to her advantage in battle, striking suddenly and swiftly and then vanishing away again as fast as she appeared.

Arcee believes without question that the Decepticons must be stopped at any cost.

Ben Proctor's early proposal for Arcee

In the toy world, unusual for a Transformer, Arcee does not hold her weapon in her hands as most figures do. Instead, her Energon Bow mounts on a peg in her arms, with her hands being positioned to give the appearance of her using the bow. The bow itself is spring-loaded, firing a grey missile 'arrow'.



In robot mode, Arcee is quite accurate to the final CG concept design, though with more solid limbs and and a more recognizably feminine appearance influenced by Energon Arcee's sculpt and general arrangement of parts. Reasonably articulated, Arcee features ball joints in her arms, hips and neck, with swivels rounding out her ankles, knees and wrists. Arcee's "Automorphing feature" is located in her crossbow weapon (formed out of the seat/storage area of the bike), activated when the projectile (the bike's tailpipe) is inserted, which pushes out the recurved lath parts on the sides of the weapon. As with most larger Transformers toys that become motorcycles, Arcee has a kickstand on the left side of the bike; unfortunately it's mounted so low that she will fall in the opposite direction if it is fully extended. Those seeking a good rider will find it can accommodate 3 3/4-inch G.I. Joe figures."