Mechaform.com SkyGuardian "Not Skyfire"

First things first I would like to say hello to everyone.I am the owner of a new company called Mechaform.We are going to various websites around the net to let people know we will be making transforming related robots.We want to be very interactive with the fans because its important fellow collectors guide us in the process since they are they ones buying so it only makes sense.I have included a attachment of our first project SkyGuardian that was first shown a few weeks back at TFcon but we had not officially announced our company name until now Mechaform.We really hope fans can help guide us by posting feedback in threads or even direct PM and most of all emails once our website mechaform.com is set up.You can also reach us on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/mecha.form.7 We have already made changes since our first showing based off feedback read so let us know what you think.We are going to try and be available as much as possible on various forums and other forms of media to serve your needs.Cheers!
http://i41.tinypic.com/25qqixf.jpg

Hello and welcome to the boards. I have been keeping an eye on your thread over on TFW and this has caught my interest. I hope it turns out well. Of the other Skyfires on offer yours certainly looks the most promising overall. The alt mode looks pretty cool and for the most part the bot mode looks good as well. My only areas of concern are the head scuplt and the size. I would REALLY be interested in this for my MP collection but I hope it isn't to small and from your renders it appears (to me) to have an animated chin happening.

Do you have any info on estimated release date yet? And there be any possibility for group buy discounts?

Anyway, best of luck and I hope you churn out a great product!:)

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Originally Posted by Trent

Hello and welcome to the boards. I have been keeping an eye on your thread over on TFW and this has caught my interest. I hope it turns out well. Of the other Skyfires on offer yours certainly looks the most promising overall. The alt mode looks pretty cool and for the most part the bot mode looks good as well. My only areas of concern are the head scuplt and the size. I would REALLY be interested in this for my MP collection but I hope it isn't to small and from your renders it appears (to me) to have an animated chin happening.

Do you have any info on estimated release date yet? And there be any possibility for group buy discounts?

Anyway, best of luck and I hope you churn out a great product!:)

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Thanks for the welcome and the time you have taken to comment :) Can you let me know what size exactly you think would work best?Also we will talk and have another look at the face again based on your feedback.Right now we are still working on a number of details and cant give a release date yet but once we can we will be sure to let people know.I have not had a thought on a group buy but its something we can explore what did you have in mind?

Welcome :)
I too have been following with great interest. As for suggestions i have two

The head sculpt:
i cant quite put my finger on it, but it seems old and a touch tall

The elbow joints:
A minor suggestion, but i would prefer white coloured joints as opposed to the grey that appears in your render.

All the best

hi Mechaform,

welcome and thanks for taking the time to talk to us.

my first concern is the head sculpt, its too long and not round like all g1 versions - he looks like an old man :p

i also agree with sinnertwin that the grey elbow joint breaks up the colouring of his arm too much and its preferable to be white.

he does look very tall and lanky though, i've noticed the thighs looks very hollow and there because the is a gap between the hips and chest, it accentuates his lower torso as being too thin.

lastly i am not liking the legs at all really. the dont look very nice and it looks like there will not be much articulation in the knees or feet.

if this product is going to be the size of the Takara/Hasbro MP line, then it needs to fit in more with the aethetics.

here is a photo showing what i mean.

http://i1320.photobucket.com/albums/...ps02067d2b.jpg

Fantoys' Quakewave when compared shows how close to design style they are. And I would much prefer a bulky but well proportioned Jetfire/Skyfire than a tall, gappy one.

I do like what I see :D I would also give him better more MP style hands.

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Originally Posted by Sinnertwin

Welcome :)
I too have been following with great interest. As for suggestions i have two

The head sculpt:
i cant quite put my finger on it, but it seems old and a touch tall

The elbow joints:
A minor suggestion, but i would prefer white coloured joints as opposed to the grey that appears in your render.

All the best

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Hi and I am happy you have also been following.To answer your questions we are looking at the head based on feedback.The grey you see will not be on the toy its just part of the render.we think it might also be the way we rendered the image making the face look long.

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Originally Posted by kaiden

hi Mechaform,

welcome and thanks for taking the time to talk to us.

my first concern is the head sculpt, its too long and not round like all g1 versions - he looks like an old man :p

i also agree with sinnertwin that the grey elbow joint breaks up the colouring of his arm too much and its preferable to be white.

he does look very tall and lanky though, i've noticed the thighs looks very hollow and there because the is a gap between the hips and chest, it accentuates his lower torso as being too thin.

lastly i am not liking the legs at all really. the dont look very nice and it looks like there will not be much articulation in the knees or feet.

if this product is going to be the size of the Takara/Hasbro MP line, then it needs to fit in more with the aethetics.

here is a photo showing what i mean.

http://i1320.photobucket.com/albums/...ps02067d2b.jpg

Fantoys' Quakewave when compared shows how close to design style they are. And I would much prefer a bulky but well proportioned Jetfire/Skyfire than a tall, gappy one.

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Thanks for caring to give us such great suggestions.I answered some of your questions above and we will review some of the aesthetics suggestions you have made :)

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Originally Posted by VERT

I do like what I see :D I would also give him better more MP style hands.

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Finger articulation I would guess you suggest?

looks sweet mate dont really go for third party stuff but he looks nice

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Originally Posted by Mechaform

Thanks for the welcome and the time you have taken to comment :) Can you let me know what size exactly you think would work best?Also we will talk and have another look at the face again based on your feedback.Right now we are still working on a number of details and cant give a release date yet but once we can we will be sure to let people know.I have not had a thought on a group buy but its something we can explore what did you have in mind?

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I think the best thing for your company is to decide exactly what sort of toy you are going to produce. I agree with allowing fans to have input and to take into consideration what they say, but in the end if you ask 1000 different people what sort of Skyfire they want, you will get 1000 different answers. You need to accept that you are not going to be able to please everyone and make some of these decisions and stick with them despite what the fandom say.

Another consideration is that you have competition. There are currently 2 other designs working their way toward production. If you want to produce your Titan to fit in a particular range, say classics, then you need to see who you're competing against and do your best to produce a figure better than theirs.

As I stated before, I think so far, your product (to me) is the most appealling. It is the best all round Skyfire and you have a potential ht on your hands.

I believe you need to take a leaf out of Takara's book when it comes to design. If you want Titan to be as G1 as possible, then you have to spend a lot of time studying the G1 cartoon character. For example, here is a screenshot of Skyfire:

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/c...us/skyfire.gif
http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/c...jetfirecon.jpg



And here is a screenshot to give you an idea of his scale.

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/c...us-skyfire.jpg


Hope this helps. :)

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Originally Posted by Trent

I think the best thing for your company is to decide exactly what sort of toy you are going to produce. I agree with allowing fans to have input and to take into consideration what they say, but in the end if you ask 1000 different people what sort of Skyfire they want, you will get 1000 different answers. You need to accept that you are not going to be able to please everyone and make some of these decisions and stick with them despite what the fandom say.

Another consideration is that you have competition. There are currently 2 other designs working their way toward production. If you want to produce your Titan to fit in a particular range, say classics, then you need to see who you're competing against and do your best to produce a figure better than theirs.

As I stated before, I think so far, your product (to me) is the most appealling. It is the best all round Skyfire and you have a potential ht on your hands.

I believe you need to take a leaf out of Takara's book when it comes to design. If you want Titan to be as G1 as possible, then you have to spend a lot of time studying the G1 cartoon character. For example, here is a screenshot of Skyfire:

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/c...us/skyfire.gif
http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/c...jetfirecon.jpg



And here is a screenshot to give you an idea of his scale.

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/c...us-skyfire.jpg


Hope this helps. :)

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Hi Trent this helps loads! we are very happy that fans care enough to provide so much time in helping.I have a question because after looking at these great screen shots what size do you think our SkyGuardian should be 10 11 or 12 inches tall?Because it looks like this is a very important subject with fans.

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Originally Posted by Mechaform

Hi Trent this helps loads! we are very happy that fans care enough to provide so much time in helping.I have a question because after looking at these great screen shots what size do you think our SkyGuardian should be 10 11 or 12 inches tall?Because it looks like this is a very important subject with fans.

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Like I said it depends on what line (classics or masterpiece) you want him to fit into. I also imagine that how big he is affects his detailing, articulation, joint strength, etc. all factors that need to be considered. If you decide to make him bigger, does that mean that you have to do some redesign?

As for sizing, 10 inches is a good size for him to fit into classics. However it is too small for MP. 12 inches would be a good MP size. And no matter which line you pick, if it is a great product, it will sell.

And something to think about with your thread over on TFW, all the requests that are being made, are they from the vocal minority? Because remember, if it is the same 10 or so people telling you how this toy 'has' to be, they are not necessarily representative of the majority of your market. By catering to their personal preferences, you may be excluding a greater number of people.

Just some food for thought. :)

And just in case this hasn't been thrown in your face a million times already, he is a scale chart. You can clearly see Skyfire on the top row. This is why I, and probably a good many other people, think that at your current 10 inch size, you should be aiming for the classics line.

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/c...C6184B8916.jpg

Welcome to the forum and Im glad someone is doing Skyfire. I agree with what most has been said. The face looking a bit.... off somehow. I do like the overall aesthetics. For sizing , as Trent has said, something to fit the Classics line would be good in the 10-11 inches scale, coz if you guys are aiming for MP scaling then that's gonna be a really tall and big figure, prolly around 15 inches.. which I don't mind but yeah budget wise and mebbe the number of real customers will have to be considered.

Coz, there's always gonna be people expressing interest, but converting those interests into solid buy, buy, buy is another matter.

So with that you have to keep in mind which line your targeting as well. Targeting for the Generations line first , then later on if the first waves are statistically showing there's a good following and sales then move to a bigger scale, that of the MP or vice versa.
Of course, with the MP there would be a lot more upgrade expected, like finger articulation ( not all fingers but have a look at the articulation of the current MP Soundwave et al. ) Knees and Elbows joints/articulation, sturdy material, good paint apps and clear crisp mould/edges, detailing especially in the face.

Ive had quite a few issues with some 3rd party stuff - e.g. Sonicron release - not sure if your familiar with that toy. The execution of the toy would've been awesome if not for very loose joints - on the hip no less and panels not lining up, and the parts clips are weak as thereby you can't even play properly with the toy with out it breaking apart during play.

link to my review of that toy here...
http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showth...+review&page=2

Also Id like to touch more with regards to the materials going to be used, right now the current plastics used for the 3rd party company Fansproject toys are very nice - solid and tough, doesn't feel cheap... which unlike say the recently released 3rd party KFC cassetteformers - birdbomber - I got one but somehow it feels cheap plastic - KOey, when you get to see it and hold it ( it only looks good in the pictures). Some third party and also on official TFS have really cheap like materials that they end up getting stress marks quite easy or worse breaks and cracks - especially on the more moveable parts - elbow and knee joints, neck, ankles ( oh btw gotta have ankle tilt :D) so those parts need to be more sturdier at best.

Again, welcome and keep us posted here on the developments of this project. Best of luck!

I love the aesthetic of this , though i agree the face is a little off and something around the hips just doesn't look right, though for me personally i think the sizing is off. I already own a classics jetfire! is it as good as this looks? no but its an official release so i personally wouldn't be inclined to replace it with a third party figure . personally i would prefer a masterpiece scaled figure (even if it was just a few inches bigger than mp10 ) as it fits a gap in my collection that i feel hasbro/takara wont fill themselves.
this is purely just my opinion though

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Originally Posted by Trent

And just in case this hasn't been thrown in your face a million times already, he is a scale chart. You can clearly see Skyfire on the top row. This is why I, and probably a good many other people, think that at your current 10 inch size, you should be aiming for the classics line.

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And if it's made to fit into Classics, more modern classics aesthetics are probably a good idea.

Personally speaking, I prefer toys to have a more modern detailed sculpt. I am not fond of the simplistic cartoon aesthetics. For example, I am a fan of Mastermind Creations because their toys offer both the nostalgia in the overall design but also modernizes it with nicely detailed sculpts and aesthetics. To me, traditional cartoon aesthetics are way too kiddish.

Something that I have learned over the years is that the primary factor that sets the 'tone' or 'personality' of the overall design is the head sculpt. If that doesn't look right, it will affect the rest of the toy. For me, the head sculpt as it is now is too cartoony and reminds me too much of Animated rather than G1. Due to this, I don't see SkyGuardian in it's current form fitting Classics very well or Masterpiece for that matter. It would just look odd when displayed with those toys.

As it has been mentioned, every person will give you their own personal views on how it should be. You have to be able to take an artistic and commercial position on what you want this toy to be and stick with it. It is ok to take suggestions here and there that you think are appropriate or work better but you have to maintain your own artistic focus.

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Originally Posted by Mechaform

Hi Trent this helps loads! we are very happy that fans care enough to provide so much time in helping.I have a question because after looking at these great screen shots what size do you think our SkyGuardian should be 10 11 or 12 inches tall?Because it looks like this is a very important subject with fans.

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Hi and welcome!

Im impressed that you would take the time to come to Ozformers and ask for some feedback from fans, so thank you :D

For me, would love to see the 'not Jetfire' in scale with the old MP-1 and 4 as it would fit very well with the current MP line.

Would it have any metal parts? (i do understand that this might cost more)

Cheers