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I love this one so much. There's a bit of history to it. Let me explain.
There's a piece of Skywarp artwork in the Genesis art book by Guido Guidi, whose artwork I put on a level almost as high as Ichikawa. Ichikawa edges Guido out with his insanely well-thought-out mechanical detailing that looks like actual mechanical detailing (witness his Hot Rod and Ironhide in the Chronicles fanzine) without pointless random panel lines and greeblies, but they both have incredible skill at drawing absolutely gorgeous Transformer artwork... FULL OF CHARACTER. They're both excellent with body language and expression, so that even characters with non-humanoid faces' emotions come through crystal clear, and they both know when to RAMP DOWN the detailing. And they both know how to tell a story in pictures. They are easily my top two TF artists ever.
(For those keeping score, Dan Khanna's more or less in third place.)
Any rate, this Skywarp picture. It's great. He's got this wonderful evil smirk, and he's pumping his fist in the air. Liquid Velcro! described the picture as if "Skywarp had just watched Ramjet slip on the roller skate he put in front of the stairs"... which then struck most of us in the chat room as a very, very, very Skywarp thing to do. The vision so easily popped into my head. He puts the skate down, Ramjet slips on it and tumbles face-first down a flight of stairs... and Skywarp just goes "Heheheheheh. AWESOME." and pumps his fist in the air.
Skywarp pushing people down stairs and laughing about it basically became, to us, the Official Skywarp Thing, despite his having never done that in any offical fiction.
So at OTFCC '03, we see the preproduction Skywarp "Legend of Cybertron" Mega-SCF figure. It's using the "Coronation Starscream" SCF mold, with the pegs on the shoulders for the attachable armor... which presumably Skywarp would not have. To our chagrin.
Because King Skywarp would be AWESOME.
"My fellow Decepticon! As your new leader..." (pushes Ramjet down the stairs) "Heheheheheh. AWESOME." (pumps fist in the air)
Which is why I'm a little pissy at my lack of Ramjet PVC. Oh well, Thrust works in a pinch.
I'd just like to point out right now, for the record, that I did NOT simply swap parts from a Skywarp HOC. Hell, I only have one of those anyway. Nosireemartha, the full base was an HOC Starscream with crown, and I repainted all of the robot bits. Because I love you and would not cheat you like that.
The cape and shoulder armor were left alone. I didn't see any need to alter those, really. The crown, however, I repainted, as the "gemstone" red paint was incredibly sloppy, so a layer of gold, and then more careful red reapplication.
Deciding to stick with cartoon model here because hey, why not, no silver chest bits this time. The off-white is in fact a mix of Fortress Grey and Skull White. I made a fair amount of this shade, knowing that I'd have plenty of use for it. Not so much for the various other SkyRaider recolors (since most of them use the Air Warrior base), but for a few others.
I wasn't sure about putting sigil stickers on him, really. Maybe I'll apply white-backed ones.
Any rate, this fills me with mirth.
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