MOTUC Visions: Rock People!

[Emiliano]

I wanted to take on this challenge for a long time, but it was all the Sorceress's wings debacle that made me go back to my old ideas and finalize it.
Not without twisting it a lot, just because of what happened with Sorceress
Without hopefully offending anyone at Mattel, I think transforming figures aren't exactly their thing, and while my first idea was to create a fully transforming figure, keeping the tooling budget low, I realized that maybe in MOTUC they should be executed differently.
Of course, the 4H surely doens't need my input for Stonedar and Rokkon, so, while down below you will find my ideal designs for them, this thread is meant to explore how to make the Rock People work as action figure in the MOTUC line


The philosopy:
scrapping the idea of fully transformable figures, I had to find another way to make them able to change from humanoid form to meteor form.
And hopefully show Mattel these guy can be done propertly without sacrificing their gimmick completely (and maybe havign a separated rock form to display)
The Soul of Chogokin method, with snap-on parts, would probably work better: I found myself accepting that as MOTUC figures are not really supposed to have real working action features but only emulate the action features (IE, Tallastar's extensions).

The transformation:
As showed in pics 2 and 3, it can achived by simply folding down the figures, which have nothing different than any other figure articulation, exceped the extra neck-torso articulation. Then a set of rock plates can be attached to the folded figures to complete the rock form
A separated set of smaller rock plates can be attached to the humanoid forms, to complete the vintage toy look. But even without those, the figures would be cool too, as they would look a lot like the cartoon version!

The tooling:
yes, those figures have a lot of new tooling. Almost all the pieces are new.
On Stonedar, only the hands and the shoulders exist already. Depending on how the thighs are executed, the could just have the red pieces glued to them, but I doubt Mattel would go that way, especially if the rock plates attached to the body with pegs.
On Rokkon, the reused parts are the shoulders, the upper arms, the hands and the feet.
Both figure share the same chest/neck/abdomen part, covered by different "armors".
But here is the catch: all those new parts can probably be creatively reused for New Adventures characters! Even the rotating neck could be reused for Butthead!

Please also notice that I referenced cartoon's helmets to shape them and Rokkon has two silver tones: one for the armor and one for the rock and skin
I hope you like them!

[Emiliano]

And here are Stonedar and Rokkon, based on the concept above:

[JVS3]

Your just rocked my world!

...get it? Rocked my world? *nudges with elbow* Eh? Eh?


Excellent MOTUC compatible ideas and design!

[Eternian Poet]

Oh
My
God

Pure awesome.

But... I have to prepare myself to be disappointed in how Mattel actually does this!

[yeahthatsme1973]

Wow. I had been trying to figure out for myself how they were going to achieve this. This is awesome! Dollars to donuts we get separate rock accessories though... OR do you think with all of the new tooling and two sets of rock armor, the figures could wind up costing as much as a beast SKU does? Maybe a two pak even...

Great job Emiliano

[slackrguy]

Wow, you did a fantastic job figuring out how that could function. Excellent work!

I really like (*edit - LOVE*) the attachable armors, those are totally awesome-tastic! If any part of that concept serves as inspiration, I hope it is that. Now, let me go ahead and throw out the minority/unpopular opinion (I'm predicting at least)...

I'd be okay if they don't transform. I never had them before so there is no nostalgia for me if they transform. Also I'd be very disappointed if the figure sculpt suffered to implement a transforming feature that did not transition well from that well thought out concept to design and implementation. Rounding it out, I don't see myself displaying them in rock form or buying two just to do it.

That being said, I love your designs and they always turn out super-groovy. Hell, if it were legal you could probably put a collection of them together on a poster and sell them for profit.

[Marvelous0ne]

Simply amazing! So wish you were on Matty's payroll cause with designs like these. The MOTUC line would be perfect!

[EldestSon]

wow. that's really cool. i was wondering how they might do those figs.

but i think it might work better if the rock transformation pieces connected to each other rather than the figure's legs and arms. the legs and arms are going to move around and my experience with transformers has shown that sometimes it's really hard to get the legs/arms to get in the exact position you need. therefore if you just crumpled your figure into position, you could just piece the rocks around him - connecting them to each other. then the arms/legs don't have to be juuuuuust right.

[Tallstar]

If you had asked me before this installment of MOTUC visions how I wanted to see these two, I would have insisted on having a true action feature with the rock parts being a part of the sculpt or at least have a separate rock form if they couldn't make it work with the sculpt. I think this is probably better though, because they're still kinda-sorta transforming. Now where's Jewelstar? heh

[13977]

WOW! This has to be your best Vision yet. I would be so please if they looked like this in MOTUC.

[TuShan]

Now THAT is a genius idea for the execution of the rock people! Absoltely rockin' fantastic. I'd buy those two in an instant! Until I saw this design I wasn't really looking forward to the Rock people because I thought the would never be able to incorporate the action feature without compromizing the articulation. Great work!

[Son of Keldor]

truly amazing designs my friend. good reuse of certain parts make for alot of possibility for customization!

=)

[TechTrek]

found a small mistake. not a big deal, but when folding it up isnt it "rotate" the waist 180 degrees, not 360. 360 would leave it in the same position as it starts with.



these things are very very well thought out. its sad Mattel doesnt have engineers like you buddy. great work.

[Grazellka]

*unget the awesomeness*

*dropjawed stare*

i LOOOVE the idea of folding the guys

[Emiliano]

found a small mistake. not a big deal, but when folding it up isnt it "rotate" the waist 180 degrees, not 360. 360 would leave it in the same position as it starts with.

I feel dumb now
Thanks for catching that, I will fix it soon!

[JafariStew]

Well thought out Emil! Remarkable, I hope this is the route they take for the Rock People!

[TechTrek]

yeah, finding a ***** in your armor is hard, but i managed to do it!!

[jdscissorhands]

Beautiful work Emiliano, nice to see some support for the Rock People!! Very clever way to handle the Comet Warriors (if only they could make it into the MOTUC line.....)

Just one question: if you had to do Granita along with these guys, would you reuse parts from The Star Sisters?

[Pixel Dan]

PERFECT! Seriosuly, these are perfect! Awesome designs Emiliano! I really hope this is the the type of design we get for the Rock People. They'd be such awesome additions to the collection, and I really think this would work out perfectly!

[tim]

I absolutely agree with the others' sentiments. That's a great design.

[Devall]

Simply amazing work! I LOVE those designs!

[Underling]

They look awesome! I wouldn't mind if they couldn't transform as long as the figures look as good as your designs.

[Marvelous0ne]

Now this would make for a great figure 2 pack! Only thing I wonder is what about Granita? Make it a 3 pack and have it cost more than the Star Sisters. Have it part of the sub! I would be very happy!

[bribri4u]

Absolutely amazing hope this is how they do them and that they include Granita. I agree I would buy them as a three pack in a heartbeat.

[tmc1984]

PERFECT! Seriosuly, these are perfect! Awesome designs Emiliano! I really hope this is the the type of design we get for the Rock People. They'd be such awesome additions to the collection, and I really think this would work out perfectly!

agree 100% here ... great work emil ! ...