Customer Reviews

Transformers: The Ark - A Complete Compendium Of Transformers Animation Models

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I decided to get this book upon a suggestion from an internet friend. I personally love drawing and recently started making attempts at some of the original Transformers. I was pausing the computer screen and making attempts to hunt down good reference material. This book worked wonders for me. It is all in black & white,with multiple views of the characters. Apparently most are character models that the animators used for the cartoon.It does have all the characters from the 3.5 American Seasons of the cartoon. If you enjoy drawing or just want to remember who everybody was, I'd recommend this book.

This book is more of art book. There plenty of pictures of transformers as seen in their cartoon form(also contains early concept models). There is not much to read in this book except for a couple of paragraphs. If you are a fan of the cartoon show than get this book.

I got this book for my 8 year old son on the advice of a friend. It's wonderful for the artists! It gives front and back line drawings of all the Transformers in both mech and vehicle/tool format. It is a terrific resource.

Very nice book who are fans of the original animation. It has many nicely character design (model pack drawings) in the book. The book's graphic design is layout by T.V. seasons. Easy to follow the progression of each generation designs for the series. I am very satisfied with this book. What I like to see is the next book from the publisher is to have a background layout drawings and paintings from the television series.

Substantial historical reference of the Transformer robot roster of the 80s. While the line quality can be poor in a few models, they are all still adequate as a starting point for budding artists. Given their simpler block construction, they are easier to study, copy, and position in 3-D space for young artists eager to learn how to draw their own transformers. For a good basic library of Transformers Art, this would be a good bundle with You Can Draw Transformers (DK) (Spiral-bound).

"Transformers: The Ark" is a fantastic resource for any Transformers fan or budding artist. This book is a great compendium of all character sheets from both the original Transformers G1 cartoon and the animated movie circa 1986. All character sheets are presented in black and white from the original drawings.

There are even some historical notes for specific characters an changes that were made in their design.

If you area true TF fan you have to get this book! Its got sketches of just about every single transformer from the original series and some that were only released in the toys! Its a completely amazing art book and a must have for TF fans!

THE ARK is an interesting offering from IDW Publications, current producers of the Transformers comics. It compiles the original character design models created by Floro Dery for the original Transformers cartoon and Marvel comic book; these designs are simplistic in nature compared to the toys for the express purpose of enabling the original animators and comic artists to produce their wares in a timely fashion, as the original toys are so intricate and detailed that they would have been ill-suited for direct translation.

Anyhoo, this is quite a comprehensive guide of lineart for many of the prominent characters in both mediums - the chief 'body' models were the heaviest influence on Marvel's work, with the head turnarounds and transformation sequences used to guide the animators. There are also addendum pages which feature many of the core human characters in the cartoon, as well as pages showing initial character models for various characters that were changed prior to production of the animated series (the most notable of which is Skyfire, the animated iteration of the toy line and comic's Jetfire). You also get to see views of Cybertron, the Autobots' and Decepticons' respective spacecraft, as well as other fun 'side' elements like the Quintessons and their lackeys, the Lithonians seen at the opening of the original animated Transformers movie, some Junkion models, Headmasters, Targetmasters, etc. It's quite a comprehensive guide.

But as I pointed out in the title of my review, THE ARK is by no means the "complete compendium" it touts itself to be. Several very memorable characters are missing from the book - among them Elita-1 and her team of female Autobots; for that matter, the original incarnations of Optimus Prime and Elita-1, Orion Pax and Ariel, as well as their buddy Dion; many memorable human characters are also absent, chief among these Earth Defense Command chief Marissa Fairborne (a prominent character in the show's final season). Plus, the fact that the book is in black and white isn't so bad, but the obvious photocopy-wear of many of the designs is painfully present, and color comparisons might actually have been fun to see as there are many color disparities between the Marvel comic and the animated series (and there ARE color versions of many of these designs still in existence, if you know where to look on the 'net).

While it's not a perfect book, THE ARK is a pretty good first step toward providing a look at the early Transformers design process, and hopefully it will merit either a revised edition or second volume later on.

These illustrations are black & white and very basic. Despite the cover by Don Figueroa, who is fantastic, don't look for the amount of detail here that you see in Dreamwave's or IDW's comics of the Transformers. This style is typical of that seen of the original cartoon and somewhat in the Marvel comic series. There are some illustrations of Cybertron, the Ark, and the Nemesis that are more detailed, but generally you just get two or three perspectives on each character.

Transformers the Ark is a great look at G1 history! This Transformers book is great! It has 500 animation models of all the characters from the original Transformers cartoon series from 1984-1987! All the design models are here! Best book I have seen of the animation models Transformers: Generation one! the introduction is by Transformers US comic book writer, Bob Budiansky! Highly Recommended!