Hasbro rarely shows us behind the scenes (BTS) looks at the Transformers process at the early stages and that is because the average fan will not understand what they see, as we've seen with fans in the past going ape over a
Predaking mock up that was not indicative of the final version. So being given this BTS look at Cheetor here is quite the treat. To sell an idea, designers go into an arts and crafts mode, putting pieces of pre-existing toys together with what they have lying around to give an idea of what a new toy could look like. There is that famous story of a Kenner designer using a piece of his brown socks for a Jawa toy mock up shown to George Lucas, and we are resharing an example of the Trypticon mock up that was done with pieces of Fortress Maximus. For Cheetor, Mark Maher used a Moonracer toy and added cheetah parts to it and painted it. He also had a non transforming cheetah cut up to show how it might look like in that mode with the seams. Of course, Cheetor turned out quite different (especially since the same cheetah head is used for both modes) but that's par for the course since robot kibble has to go somewhere. The part I find particularly interesting is how the gut gun was the initial suggestion for this toy but must have been removed somewhere along the process after the figure was greenlit. And of course, this does not mean in any way that Hasbro planned initially on having Cheetor be a Moonracer retool, it's just a slim easy mold to use to craft up a mock up.
Here is what Mark said on his Instagram page when he posted this image:
Beast Wars will always hold a special place in my heart, it was the series that got me back into Transformers. I had left briefly but energon was always still flowing in my veins.
Since toy making and engineering came such a long way from the late 90’s it was the perfect time for a resurgence. The idea of making maximals and predacons as close to the real thing as possible was just sooooo coooool! The Kingdom series literally knocked my socks off!
Here is the first initial concept figure for our lovable Cheetor. I was allowed to paint this without any restraints to help sell in the concept.
I had no idea that later on I’d be designing the Netflix release of this figure! Enjoy!
Trypticon Mock up, for reference
