Old Transformers 6 Concept Art of Cheetor Surfaces

Love the cheetah mode. Could be more yellow bit it reminds me of Night Slash Cheetor. Robot mode head is pretty generic and I don't like it (I can only imagine actual TF-fans and people who claim to be fans yet only report the news adding the cliche "WTF, FAIL" thumbnails on Youtube). Would work for a Genericon though.

The Cheetah mode is good in my opinion. The robot mode, not a big fan off. But I've never been a fan of the bayformer asthetic, so take my opinion for what it's worth.

Thank you SO MUCH for correctly labelling this up front as old art that probably has little to no bearing on the upcoming Beast Wars movie. So many comments on the post of this art over on TFW are people losing their minds and despairing over thinking this is representative of what the Beast Wars movie will be like, because the post over there wasn't clear enough about the timeline of it, and I was worried the same thing would happen here too. Thank you so so much for completely avoiding that situation.

I have to agree with the general consensus, the cheetah mode is pretty decent, but looking at the bot mode... I'm still wondering where exactly the eyes and mouth are on that thing.
I mean, it could almost work like a Bayverse animated Shockwave or Punch/Counter Punch with the couple of different faces I see of that thing.

"Ah, yes I'll use these red gems-like things as optics when I'm a 'Con and actually open my optics when I'm a 'Bot."

This old art was also almost adapted for Cyberverse Cheetor too:








Also, some old Orion Pax art:







Plus, three concept videos of a never-made Grimlock gimmick toy (cannot be embedded).

The world is a better place for not having a beast wars movie.

Sadly they will likely churn out five of them.

The design might have been okayish for beastmachines but it would probably look like a messy downgrade rather than an upgrade if it followed some actual decent beast wars designs.

Beast Mode does look interesting. Why am I cynically thinking those massive "rabbit ears" on his Bot Mode head would have had some obnoxious twitch or movement to them?

blackeyedprime wrote:The world is a better place for not having a beast wars movie.

Agreed. Much like The '86 Movie, if ever there was going to be a BW Movie, it should have happened during its peak. The Beast Era has passed and that moment in time, specifically the tone of the 90's, can't really be replicated decades later. Today, they wouldn't know how.

That cheetah mode is solid!
No opinion on the robot mode,since it's just an unfinished head.

Should the rumoured Beast Wars movie actually happen, I really hope they don’t go this route with the characters’ beast forms and keep their alt modes looking like organic animals.

blackeyedprime wrote:The world is a better place for not having a beast wars movie.

Sadly they will likely churn out five of them.

The design might have been okayish for beastmachines but it would probably look like a messy downgrade rather than an upgrade if it followed some actual decent beast wars designs.

BM has the the best Cheetor for me.
The head of this prototype look like a demon,the kind with the horn on the forehead,nothing like that in BM.

BM [Vehicon] designs have always been the most pure version of the central Transformers concept - Alien shapeshifting robots. Their whole faction is the one shining light of that entire series.

The cheetah mode kind of looks like something you'd see in a flashy high-budget car ad, like showing a CGI cheetah made of engine parts to emphasize how fast the car can go, that sort of thing. It looks decent either way, and while I'm not keen on the robot mode it's at least consistent with overall movie style, or at least more than some of the later designs like Hound, Drift or Crosshairs were.

TOO MUCH ENERGON! wrote:Should the rumoured Beast Wars movie actually happen, I really hope they don’t go this route with the characters’ beast forms and keep their alt modes looking like organic animals.

I cannot fathom how an organic animal Beast Wars movie could be anything but extremely uncanny and thus very distracting.

Like in just robot mode or just animal mode could potentially work but it's the in-between, the transformations that will ruin the whole movie.

Plus robotic robot modes with fleshy animal parts clinging onto their forms might gross out the audience.

Beast Wars is not meant for the big screen and never will be, the only way it could work is being robot animals like the concept art but of course fans would hate that.

Robot animals negates the point of Beast Wars. They are an organic animal with a Robot in Disguise, under the skin.
They aren't meant to be Fake animals ala G1 Dinobots, Predacons, Monsterbots etc

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Robot animals negates the point of Beast Wars. They are an organic animal with a Robot in Disguise, under the skin.
They aren't meant to be Fake animals ala G1 Dinobots, Predacons, Monsterbots etc

This.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Robot animals negates the point of Beast Wars. They are an organic animal with a Robot in Disguise, under the skin.
They aren't meant to be Fake animals ala G1 Dinobots, Predacons, Monsterbots etc

I mean yes that's true, that's part of what makes it Beast Wars

Regardless Beast Wars would still make for a rather bad movie if it's "live action" over an animated style.

It's like anime, it just will never work in that format ever.

A purely CG film, equivalent to the show, would work. Back in the late 90's.

But again, it is better to just leave Beast Wars where it is. As one of the last times anyone was allowed to do something new, bold and different with Transformers.
Today it would only exist as a nostalgia cash-cow, with no merit beyond fleecing the fanbase.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:A purely CG film, equivalent to the show, would work. Back in the late 90's.

But again, it is better to just leave Beast Wars where it is. As one of the last times anyone was allowed to do something new, bold and different with Transformers.
Today it would only exist as a nostalgia cash-cow, with no merit beyond fleecing the fanbase.

So with that in mind, why shouldn't they just change the design into robotic animals?

It would be different and "original".

There's no reason the Beast Wars concept has to be limited to one show.

Deadput wrote:So with that in mind, why shouldn't they just change the design into robotic animals?

Because it isn't Voltron. Remove the core Beast Disguise element and it isn't Beast Wars. It is just another Transformers line.

Deadput wrote:It would be different and "original".

Quite the opposite. It becomes a generic knock-off.

Deadput wrote:There's no reason the Beast Wars concept has to be limited to one show.

It wasn't. It had four shows. Technically five, if you want to include Car Robots. The thing is, the Beast Wars concept was played out to its entirety. From Beast Wars Part 1 to Endgame Part 3. The concept was fully explored and fleshed out. Beast Wars was never Sunbow. Wherein the real hook was the visual designs and voices. It had a story and told it very well. It left parts ambiguous that didn't need to be expanded, to tell that specific story.

The only thing they would do with Beast Wars concept today, in contrast to the late 90's, would be to squeeze every last drop of nostalgia and merchandising from it. To milk that cash cow for all it was worth. That, in itself, has no merit or value.

Beyond Endgame Part 3 is a huge untapped universe. But without the direct conceit of the Beast Wars series, it becomes another Transformers space story. Because the context for Beast forms is landlocked.

Transmetals were a thing.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Beyond Endgame Part 3 is a huge untapped universe. But without the direct conceit of the Beast Wars series, it becomes another Transformers space story. Because the context for Beast forms is landlocked.

Beast Wars Neo got away with being a Star Trek-esque space-hopping series with organic beast-moded characters.

In fact, Bob and Larry originally felt that the Beast Wars cartoon should have been set in space all along, and is where they wanted to go with the series for Season 4 before Hasbro decided to make a sequel show instead.

Sabrblade wrote:Transmetals were a thing.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Beyond Endgame Part 3 is a huge untapped universe. But without the direct conceit of the Beast Wars series, it becomes another Transformers space story. Because the context for Beast forms is landlocked.

Beast Wars Neo got away with being a Star Trek-esque space-hopping series with organic beast-moded characters.

In fact, Bob and Larry originally felt that the Beast Wars cartoon should have been set in space all along, and is where they wanted to go with the series for Season 4 before Hasbro decided to make a sequel show instead.

Yes, but The Beast Modes of Neo were not made for practicality, as in the main series. It was a cosmetic choice.

Also, talking Beast Machines is talking beyond Neo. As we all know that Beast Machines is at the end of the Beast Era show timeline. Personally, I think BM poisoned the well on Beast Mode designs too.
It is kind of why I grimly head-canon that Planet Tek in the pilot episode of Shadow Raiders was in fact, the fate of BM's Cybertron.

Ultimately though, it is why even after BM, I would have embraced Transtech. Which to me was blending the Beast Era into vehicle based Cybertronians. Plus I did want to see the Vok explored in depth. As BM completely ignored them.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Also, talking Beast Machines is talking beyond Neo.

Wait, who was talking Beast Machines?

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:As we all know that Beast Machines is at the end of the Beast Era show timeline.

You mean in terms of real world production and broadcasting, right?

Sabrblade wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Also, talking Beast Machines is talking beyond Neo.

Wait, who was talking Beast Machines?

I was, RE: Endgame Part 3.

Sabrblade wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:As we all know that Beast Machines is at the end of the Beast Era show timeline.

You mean in terms of real world production and broadcasting, right?

Yep. Car Robots came next, after all.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Also, talking Beast Machines is talking beyond Neo.

Wait, who was talking Beast Machines?

I was, RE: Endgame Part 3.

Sabrblade wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:As we all know that Beast Machines is at the end of the Beast Era show timeline.

You mean in terms of real world production and broadcasting, right?

Yep. Car Robots came next, after all.

Got it. Though, from an in-universe perspective, Neo is eons after Beast Machines.

Indeed. Which also adds to the notion that the Beast Modes of Neo were cosmetic. Although personally I have always been partial to the idea that Altmodes are locked in. Hence why not everyone changes their mode to a spaceship or weapon. A disguise employed for a specific location.

Besides let's face it, even Gigatron and his Preds in Car Robots are a bit nebulous to place within the Beast Era, before they arrived on Earth. Would a Tenformer have been subservient to Magmatron, Galvatron or the Tripredacus Council?

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Indeed. Which also adds to the notion that the Beast Modes of Neo were cosmetic. Although personally I have always been partial to the idea that Altmodes are locked in. Hence why not everyone changes their mode to a spaceship or weapon. A disguise employed for a specific location.

Interestingly, one of the last episodes of Neo has Big Convoy strongly imply that organic beast modes have become commonplace on Cybertron, as if to say that adopting them is just what the race does by that time (which could also imply that adopting vehicle modes has become a thing of the past by then).

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Besides let's face it, even Gigatron and his Preds in Car Robots are a bit nebulous to place within the Beast Era, before they arrived on Earth. Would a Tenformer have been subservient to Magmatron, Galvatron or the Tripredacus Council?

The Predacon hierarchy in JBW seems to be that those we see in charge of the main bad guy team of each series are just in charge of that particular squadron.

Like, in Neo, Magmatron's Predacon crew were specifically called the "Magmatron Unit", with any other Predacons who guest-starred in the series merely being their allies but not explicitly under Magmatron's authority.

Likewise, Gigatron's Destrongers were just one unit that he commanded within the larger Destron (Predacon) faction.

But in all three, there's no sign of any overseeing governing body like the Tripredacus Council (or "Trypticon Council" as they were called in Japan), but that can be attested to the fact that BW Season 2 hadn't yet reached Japan at the time and so Takara didn't know about that group until after Second and Neo had already been made, since BW Season 1 didn't touch upon Predacon government. IIRC, the first mention of the Predacon Alliance didn't occur until "Other Visits (Part 2)" in Season 2.

So, Galvatron, Magmatron, and Gigatron were all treated as independent agents subservient to no one, each with their own individual agendas, but apparently not as contemporaries to each other either. With the hindsight we have now, I guess we can take this as a sign to deduce that the Predacon Alliance must have collapsed in the days following the Spark War.

Sabrblade wrote:Like, in Neo, Magmatron's Predacon crew were specifically called the "Magmatron Unit", with any other Predacons who guest-starred in the series merely being their allies but not explicitly under Magmatron's authority.

Likewise, Gigatron's Destrongers were just one unit that he commanded within the larger Destron (Predacon) faction.

But in all three, there's no sign of any overseeing governing body like the Tripredacus Council (or "Trypticon Council" as they were called in Japan), but that can be attested to the fact that BW Season 2 hadn't yet reached Japan at the time and so Takara didn't know about that group until after Second and Neo had already been made, since BW Season 1 didn't touch upon Predacon government. IIRC, the first mention of the Predacon Alliance didn't occur until "Other Visits (Part 2)" in Season 2.

So, Galvatron, Magmatron, and Gigatron were all treated as independent agents subservient to no one, each with their own individual agendas, but apparently not as contemporaries to each other either. With the hindsight we have now, I guess we can take this as a sign to deduce that the Predacon Alliance must have collapsed in the days following the Spark War.

Curious. It almost suggests that, whereas the Decepticons had a central unifying leader in almost all eras. The Predacons had become a feudal society. Of the two factions, their internal structure is the most unknown.
Their omission due to "potential confusion" in BM, only added to that really.

Of course, none of this would be explored in a film today. To be fair, a Beast Wars film in the late 90's wouldn't have done so either. If only the media of the era had an official comic running in parallel with the shows. That is probably where such insights would have been explored.