Reinforcements from Cybertron

26-Jan-2001 Markatron's commentary on the Omnibot drawings

Downshift was my first drawing of the three Omnibots. Of the three, this one is my favorite pose. Also, since it was the only Omnibot I own, I had an example to draw from. (in reviewing the Omnibot offer, they were only a lousy $5 each!)

Thanks to the Obscure Transformer Characters Archive, I found out that his function is "Autobot Security Agent".

This drawing of Downshift was one of my rare moments where I used the very first pose I came up for him. I really liked the fluid motion. He could be skidding across pavement or quickly whipping around to really lay some firepower into a would be ambusher.

Since there was no cartoon/comic rendering, this drawing is purely "toy loyal". I basically drew the toy as it sat on my desk. Of course, I embellished the legs and upper arms to give him a more solid appearance.

Overdrive went thru several iterations before I settled on this pose. He's so similar to Jazz. Some poses I thru out, some poses I reserved for a future Jazz picture. I spent some time sketching out Camshaft's pose. Then I returned to finalize Overdrive's pose. I wanted the pose to be as action packed as the other two Omnibots.

Even though Overdrive is an Autobot Strategist, I didn't go with a "thoughtful or retrospective" pose (that I may use for Prowl). This hot red sports car is a Transformer of action! A doer and a thinker. The Omnibots are young right?

Again, he's just an elaboration of the toy. I don't own one so I had to rely on pictures gleaned from the web. The instructions (courtesy of the Transformers G1 Instruction Scans site) had stickers applied to the feet. But pictures and the boxart seems to have them applied to the kneecaps! Artistic license? Nope, an "oopsie". I like the stickers better on the kneecaps. And yes... He looks like Jazz.

Camshaft may turn out to be my favorite drawing of the three. I dunno. Not having one, I drew him the best I could from scans of his instructions and photos of the toy.

Camshaft is an Autobot Scout. That dish on his back maybe a surveillance antennae or something. Anyway, there is little hard information on Camshaft other than his function.

Still being loyal to the toy, I took the most liberties with this Omnibot. While I like the drawing, the toy is probably weakest of the three. The arms are stumpy and it looks like he's got this HUGE grin on his face (STARs ad).
I had to elaborate on the arms of course. I also needed to de-emphasize that big chest of his. I filled in a lot of metal on the legs too. I tried the best I could to bring out the detail of the stickers. I had some pretty decent photos that showed the stickers well. On the legs, I turned the lower part of the thigh (where it gets wider) into some kind of supply pack. I also turned the face mask into something more like Prime's. He still has the "chinstrap"-thingy, it's just "barely" there.

Back to why I like this one. Overall, I like the pose and motion. It's a bit more subtle than the rest. The shadowing sweeps in the same direction in 90% of the drawing so that lends itself to a kind of "pointing" to his outstretched hand. That's on purpose. And it works. That's why I like this piece.

Wallpaper	Printing
Wallpaper is optimized for about a 1000 x 800 screen.	set to "print to fit" (stretch to full page) Landscape oriented LEGAL (8.5 x 13) b/w is fine

The Markatron Megaplex is not affiliated with Hasbro. The Omnibots are properties of Takara and/or Hasbro. Fan art by me. Please ask permission before using. Thanks. ©2001 Mark Wong