Transformers designer Evan Brooks (@naveskoorb on Instagram) has returned to give us another peek behind the curtain, this time to show us the design work that went into Studio Series 86 Scourge! Was he always planned to get a redecoed as a Sweep? How was it decided which release of the mold would get which color scheme? Read on!
Of Scourge (whom Evan designed with Takashi Kunihiro), Evan had this to say:
Next up is “Scourge, the tracker and his huntsmen, the Sweeps!”
There isn’t too much to say with this guy other than his figure turned out FANTASTIC. Scourge has had some interesting toys over the years and it was nice to have the opportunity to work on a figure that represents his cybertronian hovercraft/jet mode thing. Worked on this one with the fantastic Kunihiro san who’s marker transformation plan you can find here. The skill of a true draftsman, no pencil, MARKER.
The plan from the beginning was to make sure that his face could be revealed in his alt mode to recreate that scene from the movie, since this is Studio Series and that’s what we try to make this line about. Instead of having it extend outward, Kunihiro san found a very simple yet effective way to make that mechanism happen from the transformation and revealing a panel.
I can’t remember who proposed the open claw hand to get more expression into the figure but I’m so glad it worked out. Had to make sure he got his pink finger nails in! Just sorry I couldn’t also get his pink toes in.
The blaster included is a nod to his original toy weapon and we wanted to get a Blast effect in with him to also plus him up.
As we got to the coloring for this figure, I remember it was another game of “What color was this character, ACTUALLY?” because his blues shifted depending on the version of the movie you watched and I think every episode of season 3 and 4 that he’s in is in a different shade of blue.
We landed on the colors you see the initial release in and I was rather fond of the more muted blues. Made him feel like more of a troop builder, I think.
It was locked in before I joined the team that we would be re-decoing him as a Sweep later on but color wise it was thrown out there to just do the g1 toy deco. That g1 blue was too close to the Scourge color so we then pumped up the saturation to make it stand out as a different color.
I quite love this figure and hope you all enjoy it as well. Which version did you make Scourge and which did you make the Sweeps? Let me know your thoughts and thanks for reading.
These glimpses into how our favorite bots are made are always fun. Remember that Hasbro mentioned at the recent fan roundtable that an art book would be a cool idea — if you think so, let them know!
Michael 
