Home Made DEVASTATOR from Transformers 2: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN

When I was a kid I had the all the constructicons which formed the devastator (and I still have it today). My fondest memories of thing involved the arms NEVER staying attached. So when I found out about the devastator being in transformers 2 I knew I had to challenge myself to build the thing. Originally I started drawing up plans for the transformations back in April. I worked off of the toyfair images of the constructicons and that one movie image that was out. I ended up giving up on the project before I started mainly due to the amount of real work I needed to get done at my job. In the beginning of May I had finished another action figure design project with my art club and I needed something to work on. I knew the Devastator was something perfect that would take me at least 2 weeks to complete and hold me over until a new video game came out to occupy my free time. So I restarted to design the thing.

I set some ground rules for myself just so I didn’t drive myself insane. First I wasn’t going to try to uber detail it (meaning I would use marker to draw contour line on the sculpture whenever I could without it looking bad). Second, I wasn’t going to go hardcore with making the transformation look as movie literal as possible (I learned my lesson when I made Prime from transformers 1). Third I wanted to make the devastator my own, by deforming scale and adding personal touches to the aesthetic. Fourth I was not going to give the constructicons individual robot modes (this would have amplified the difficulty by ten). And Fifth, I wasn’t going to worry about the final product being able to stand up under it’s own weight (because with this amount of detail it never would have anyway).

During free periods, coverages, and sometimes in class with the kids I would work on it. The students would constantly ask me how I would know how to transform it only working from 2 images (one of the devastator and one of the untransformed vehicles). I gave them three reasons. 1) I’m the art teacher 2) I had made transformers before 3) I’m visually dyslexic and visual dyslexics have the keen ability to take apart things with their mind and reassemble them in various ways. So long story short without getting into it. I JUST KNOW HOW TO DO IT, it’s instinctual. I can look at the vehicle then look at the transformation and know how it gets from point a to point b. The entire devastator has a combined 39 points of articulation, it took 3 ½ weeks and about 200 hours to complete standing at 1 1/2 feet tall.

Long Haul was the first constructicon made. The tires were intentionally enlarged slightly to put more emphasis on them during the transformation into Devastator. Originally Long Haul didn’t have the back wheel covers; they were added later along with a reduction in the amount of detail on the body. Long haul is the most scale deformed constructicon of the bunch. Long Haul has 6 moveable points.

At first I thought rampage was going to be difficult to build, but he ended up being the easiest constructicon of the bunch to complete. Rampage has 5 moveable points and one sliding point. The transition from the blue prints to the actual design went VERY well. I remember getting very frustrated detailing the outside of rampage due to the amount of tubes on the exterior that look like pistons (of which there are 9).

Scavenger was by far the most complicated of the constructicons, I spent a full day just designing how to build him. Scavenger is the Hub transformer for all the other constructicons (whereas the 5 other constructicons dock to him in order to make devastator). Scavenger had to be built strong in order to hold everything else but he wouldn’t be totally finished until I had completed all the other constructicons. Because I don’t use rulers or precise measurements when I sculpt I needed the other constructicons completed to physically measure them in order to place them onto scavenger. Scavenger has 10 points of movement and 1 sliding point. The only problem I ran into involved how to dock Mix Master into him. Originally mix masters wheels would lock into the underside of scavengers tank treads but this proved to be a problem when I miss judged the girth of scavenger which by association was going to make mix master too skinny in comparison. So the tank treads for Scavengers had to be redesigned half way through making mix master. And out of anything I hate making, its tire treads (in any sense).

Mix master is my favorite of the constructicons. I spent a lot of time detailing the outside of the vehicle. Originally the cement mixer was much more rounded; I scrapped the rounded design for something more angular. Curves don’t take well to my sculptural style. After Long Haul, Mix Master is the second most scale deformed. The front “cab” section of mix master is much enlarged. This is mainly because I miss judged when building him and didn’t want to re build 2 hours of work. The head of devastator is one of the few things that I could easily pull source images directly from the trailers of the movie. So the face of devastator is a hybrid between the movie, the toy, and my interpretation. I LOVE the design of the razor chains that wrap the cement cab in the movie trailer. Mix Master has 2 moveable points and 4 tooth pick hinges.

Hightower was the quickest built constructicon. Aesthetically speaking I love how Hightower came out, mainly due to the white contour line on the black sections. One thing I was adamant about was I wanted the ropes for the crane to be present on the vehicle, the ropes were absent on the toy (obviously due to them being a choking hazard). The front crane was built in two identical sections. Again due to my lack of ruler use I miss judged one of the two sections. The two sections didn’t meet up once glued together, which is why you see the rope coiled around the crane, to hide the screw up (it’s an old artist trick, whenever you mess up show emphasis on the imperfection in a different way and it will look intentional). Hightower has 4 moveable points and 1 sliding point.

Finally we have scrapper which is the smallest of all the constructicons. Scrapper had the easiest transformation to decipher. Right out of the gate I built everything that was annoying about him (mainly the tires and the 3 plow sections). Then I slowly built everything up around those parts to finish it. My big gripe with scrapper is that the 3 sections don’t join up as tightly as I would have liked them too. But at this point I had been 3 ½ weeks into this project and really burned out, I just wanted it finished. Scrapper has 5 moveable points.

-----------------------------------------------
I'm taking a break after this one. I have have to play the new Fable DLC, along with replaying max payne 1 and 2 on the live arcade, before I know it Ghostbusters will be out. I think the next figure's I'm making are the sinestro corps members that were shown in the free comic day blackest night zero issue back pages. Until then, Enjoy my artwork, tell me what you think. And above all else, hopefully Revenge of the Fallen wont suck or otherwise I just made a 200 hour tribute to a pile of donkey shit.