Robotech Prototype Cyclone concept art? (Or Zillion Tri-Charger early concept art?)

[RavenHawk]

In my continuing quests to fill out my bike/trike related anime love, I've come back to the old Robotech Prototype Cyclone.

This was designed for the aborted Sentinels series, though I'm not aware of it ever appearing anywhere except for the one image in Robotech Art 3. It seems that the general consensus is that it was re-designed into the Zillion Tri-Charger, though there are some big leaps between the two.

Is anyone aware of any concept art for this trike at all? Either on the Robotech side, or during the re-design process for Zillion?

Literally all I've been able to find, after doing a lot of searching, is the one single image below, and then artwork for the finalized Tri-Charger.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Obviously, it's a big design step from there to here:

[tekering]

3 hours ago, RavenHawk said:

I've come back to the old Robotech Prototype Cyclone.

I'd always assumed that was an early Megazone 23 design... especially since Harmony Gold still had the license at that point.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

It's Kaneda's training bike!

[RavenHawk]

1 hour ago, tekering said:

I'd always assumed that was an early Megazone 23 design... especially since Harmony Gold still had the license at that point.

As far as I know, it only ever appeared in Robotech Art 3. It isn't in any of the general ARTMIC or specific MZ23 books that I have, so I'm pretty sure it was commissioned by Harmony Gold for the Sentinels, which would mean it was done by Ammonite in-house of Tatsunoko.

When Sentinels had its funding pulled, Tatsunoko kept the design team together by putting them on Zillion. As I understand it, most fans think that the mecha concepts were repurposed, so the GMU became the Land Carrid, the GMU dropship became the Big Porter, the Inorganics became various Nohza troops, and the Prototype Cyclone became the Tri-Charger.

I assumed it was a new design for the Sentinels, but intended to show a prototype that would have made some sort of sense being developed into the Garland by those who stayed behind on Earth, and the Cyclone by R&D out in space... but I have no facts to support that. It was just 12-year-old me picking up Robotech Art 3 at Waldenbooks, and coming across both The Sentinels and Robotech The Movie for the first time, and trying to make sense of that one picture towards the back.

[RavenHawk]

16 minutes ago, Valkyrie Hunter D said:

It's Kaneda's training bike!

You're SO wrong! It's for when he gets older, and needs a walker.

Hmmm... that might have improved the final act of MZ23 Part III.

[JetJockey]

5 hours ago, RavenHawk said:

As far as I know, it only ever appeared in Robotech Art 3. It isn't in any of the general ARTMIC or specific MZ23 books that I have, so I'm pretty sure it was commissioned by Harmony Gold for the Sentinels, which would mean it was done by Ammonite in-house of Tatsunoko.

When Sentinels had its funding pulled, Tatsunoko kept the design team together by putting them on Zillion. As I understand it, most fans think that the mecha concepts were repurposed, so the GMU became the Land Carrid, the GMU dropship became the Big Porter, the Inorganics became various Nohza troops, and the Prototype Cyclone became the Tri-Charger.

I assumed it was a new design for the Sentinels, but intended to show a prototype that would have made some sort of sense being developed into the Garland by those who stayed behind on Earth, and the Cyclone by R&D out in space... but I have no facts to support that. It was just 12-year-old me picking up Robotech Art 3 at Waldenbooks, and coming across both The Sentinels and Robotech The Movie for the first time, and trying to make sense of that one picture towards the back.

That's interesting to know. I'm sure when I got those Robotech Art books I was only paging through the pictures and not reading much of the text. I'm know I looked over Robotech Art 1 & 2 more than 3. I only found out later that there are more high end versions of the books than the paperbacks. But that Cyclone prototype image is kind of familiar. I only knew Zillion from the Master System game. I found out it was an anime a lot later when I happened to get the music CD.

[danth]

Reminds me a bit of the Gall Force Mouspead.

Edited September 8, 2018 by danth

[RavenHawk]

On 9/8/2018 at 3:30 PM, danth said:

Reminds me a bit of the Gall Force Mouspead.

I hadn't really thought about the similarity, but you're right, the roll bar does give them some definite similarity.

Always love seeing the ARTMIC motorcycle designs.

[Bobby]

It's also kinda reminds me of Bulma's Capsule No.9 Motorcycle...

Edited September 10, 2018 by Bobby

[JB0]

Sci-fi motorcycles: Yeah, they all look suspiciously similar.

[Bobby]

Whaddya talking about... oh wait

YEEEEE-HAAAAAWWWWW!

[JetJockey]

I need one of those walking towards bike shirts for Apple.

[Lorindor]

The Prototype Cyclone doesn't look much like a Cyclone, but it is an intriguing design. I've always wondered how its alternative mode would look like.

[RavenHawk]

On 9/16/2018 at 7:37 AM, Lorindor said:

The Prototype Cyclone doesn't look much like a Cyclone, but it is an intriguing design. I've always wondered how its alternative mode would look like.

Same here, ever since I was a kid. I was hoping some additional concept art might show (or at least give hints to) how it transformed, if it did at all.

[TheLoneWolf]

I doubt the Prototype Cyclone was meant to transform. The Sentinels' toy sponsor, Matchbox, was a newcomer to the field of plastic toys. Matchbox probably told Harmony Gold to keep the new mecha in The Sentinels fairly simple because they didn't have the talent nor the money to engineer elaborate transformations, as evidenced by their disastrous line of Robotech toys.

Edited September 20, 2018 by TheLoneWolf

[RavenHawk]

1 minute ago, TheLoneWolf said:

I doubt the Prototype Cyclone was meant to transform. The Sentinels' toy sponsor, Matchbox, was a newcomer to the field of plastic toys. Matchbox probably told Harmony Gold to keep the mecha in The Sentinels fairly simple because they didn't have the talent nor the money to engineer elaborate transformations, as evidenced by their disastrous line of Robotech toys.

That makes sense, and the one concept image out there certainly doesn't jump out as something transformable... still, I was hoping that, since the Tri-Charger does, maybe their was some thought for this to, as well (at least on paper).

[RavenHawk]

I remembered some mecha concept art on the Sentinels disc of the old Robotech dvd release, so I decided to check it out again.

Some of this was in the Robotech Art 3 book, but most was not.

Let's see...

First we have the GMU, which likely later became the Land Carrid:

 

 

Then we have the Prototype Cyclone...

 

 

No other artwork of that. 

 

Then a motorcycle which I had forgotten about.

 

 

This is kind of cool, and the front and rear view are VERY Aramaki-esque.

Predecessor to the Riding Cepter?

Wait, I don't remember seeing that transformation diagram before.

So, the rider position changes to face the other way... and sits in that seat... that means that this motorcycle is more along the lines of the size of a car?

Did someone just tell a Tatsunoko artist "Draw me a motorcycle that turns into a gun platform"?

 

Moving on...

 

 

So the transformed motorcycle attaches to a robotic horse... I vaguely remember that horse from the books, but that horse was huge in the books.

If that motorcycle is the size of a car, then this horse is around the size of... a Great Dane?

Wait, there's more...

 

 

Ok...

 

 

So now the horse is the size of a small-to-medium-size car...

 

 

Ok, so this would make the motorcycle the size of a large SUV or truck from some art of the horse, and a compact car from the transformation...

 

I don't think I believe the artists had a transformation in mind anymore (not that I was convinced that they did to begin with, but I was optimistic).

Now I think the artists were basically just doing artistic free association, making random sketches based on often contradictory suggestions.

 

Edited October 4, 2018 by RavenHawk
Corrected typo

[TheLoneWolf]

Good finds! I remember reading somewhere that the horses and chariot from slides 42 and 44 were unused designs from SDC Southern Cross.

It appears they were slightly redesigned and simplified (probably to make it easier to animate and produce toys) for Robotech II: The Sentinels.

I think you're right on the money about Tatsunoko just spitballing ideas when it came to combining the Prototype Cycle to a horse to become the Sentinels Chariot. It was probably sent to Harmony Gold with a note saying "What do you think?"

[RavenHawk]

14 hours ago, TheLoneWolf said:

Good finds! I remember reading somewhere that the horses and chariot from slides 42 and 44 were unused designs from SDC Southern Cross.

 

 

I had heard that too though, having recently rewatched Southern Cross (figured I'd give it another chance after many years... still didn't do much for me), I just don't really see the horses fitting in. Still, a lot of the Sentinels concept art (like the walking searchlights) was in Southern Cross. Nothing of this stuff in the limited Southern Cross stuff in the Imai files, though.

[jenius]

Southern Cross was a very different concept seemingly until the last possible moment. 

[TheLoneWolf]

On 10/7/2018 at 12:57 AM, RavenHawk said:

I had heard that too though, having recently rewatched Southern Cross (figured I'd give it another chance after many years... still didn't do much for me), I just don't really see the horses fitting in. Still, a lot of the Sentinels concept art (like the walking searchlights) was in Southern Cross. Nothing of this stuff in the limited Southern Cross stuff in the Imai files, though.

As someone who enjoys riding horses, I could see the mechanical horses being utilized by the Forest and/or Mountain Squads, as loud and lumbering mecha may not have been practical in those terrains. But we'll never know for sure since the show was cancelled before those regions were explored.

As for the Imai Files, as invaluable as they are, they shouldn't be considered a comprehensive inventory of all the unused SDC Southern Cross designs. The date stamps indicate that the Imai Files were compiled during pre-production. Any designs/revisions created during production wouldn't have been included.

[RavenHawk]

11 minutes ago, TheLoneWolf said:

As for the Imai Files, as invaluable as they are, they shouldn't be considered a comprehensive inventory of all the unused SDC Southern Cross designs. The date stamps indicate that the Imai Files were compiled during pre-production. Any designs/revisions created during production wouldn't have been included.

No argument there. I consider them a great resource for MOSPEADA, with some interesting bits of info on SDC, and that's about it.

Some of the stuff is more tantalizing and raises questions than otherwise (i.e. a MOSPEADA side car model listed as part of the line, with no artwork).