thecorsair
Super Freak
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2012
- Messages
- 3,621
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- 9
Here's a transcript of a Q&A a member at TFW did with Apollyon's designer on Facebook,
Q) I must admit, this is one amazing feet of engineering. To produce such a show accurate Megatron that actually transforms into an almost perfect Walther P38 is amazing. It puts Takara's MP-05 Masterpiece Megatron to shame.
A) OH that's not fair. MP-05 was designed in a week I believe. I have tremendous respect for Takara's designers. With MP05 they went with a real looking P38, sacrificing the bot mode.
Apollyon's gun mode is wider. Sacrifices were made to the gun mode to accommodate the robot.
Q) Was their a reason his underpants block him from lifting his knee up into a sitting position?
Also, is there a reason why ball joints on the arms were used instead of ratchets?
A) I think what people don't understand is that especially with Apollyon, every change to one part affects multiple other parts, swivel points, clearances, wall thicknesses, etc. Furthermore it would affect the aesthetics of other parts. So thinner hips means thinner legs, means thinner arms, shallower chest, shallower abdomen, and a squished head. Having said that, I realize that every person has an idea in their mind what he should look like. My goal was to connect with as many of those ideas as possible while matching him with MP10 and given the limitations of the alt mode and cartoon models.
Designing this took about 6 months while working a full time job and honestly i could probably still be working on it. There are almost 300 parts in all and in the end i just needed to stop and work on something new.
-regarding the legs.
The shorts have been lifted slightly since the initial test shots. He used to have the same forward movement as MP10. now he has about 80 degrees. Not quite the 90 degrees required to sit comfortably but this was a balance I had to strike between cartoon accuracy and articulation. Aesthetically, with the width of the hips set, shorter shorts would've made the hips look even wider. Forward flaps weren't added because of the way the side hips are molded.
-regarding the shoulders.
There wasn't enough space to create a universal joint because the way the arms tuck in together to form the back end of the gun. Universal joints requires two points of articulation and appropriate wall thicknesses. Ball joint require only one point of articulation. After struggling to find room for a universal joint strong enough and at the right location so the arms turned at the shoulder and not the biceps, I looked to MP08 for answers. After deciding to go with a ball joint, I just had to make sure it was tight enough to hold the weight of the canon (that's the factory's job). And I always loved the subtle nuances in articulation you can achieve with ball joints.
Q) Was their anything particularly difficult you needed to overcome when doing his lower body?
A) The lower legs were particularly tough. If you've ever wondered what the practical use of math in the real world was? Apollyon's lower legs are the answer. Cartoon accuracy can only go so far. At some point the legs had to transform into a believable handle. I can understand folks wanting them to look more cartoon accurate but the gun mode's appearance would have severely been compromised. Part of the handle end up on the hips and yet another part on the back of the arms.
I think it's a really intresting insight into the design process.
