Marvin Mariano Q & A For Actionfigurenews.ca!

[Robimus]

Marvin you did a bunch of the designs for the ill fated Transformers Transtech line some of which are seen here in the archived concept work from Draxhall Jump Studios.

My question is about the newly announced Transformers Animated Transtech Cheetor that is going to be made available through TTCC. It's based on the Animated Blurr mold,which has a lot of similarities to that Transtech Cheetor even with it being a different character.

How much of you Transtech Cheetor design do you see in this new Animated version? And is it nice to be seeing something inspired from that line finally getting mass produced?

[Aernaroth]

Where do you draw your inspirations from? What kind of background do you have?

Which artists (tf/star wars related or otherwise) are your favorites?

How do you approach designing something that has to be simultaneously aesthetically pleasing and technically function?

[marvision prime]

Man it feels like a decade since I've seen all of these designs lined up like that, and kinda cool remembering drawing them at that time. We did A LOT and one of my regrets is not having done enough renditions of Prime and Megatron. I would've love to show Hasbro more of my Transtech versions of them.

Cheetor's head is a dead giveaway and I think the designer for the animation of course had to simplify it even more from my design. I think it's cool that some of it are finally coming out. I do hope I get my own copy though when it comes out. I've had to request Hasbro a couple of times for my comps of the toys I've done, but only had luck with a few,.booo, haha.
Well Christmas is coming and would be wishful of me to receive a few more from them.

[Benzo]

are you only involved with the Star Wars Crossovers or do you do any of the Marvel stuff as well?

[Benzo]

which is your favourite of all the designs you've done that have been made into toys?

[marvision prime]

Originally Posted by Aernaroth

Where do you draw your inspirations from? What kind of background do you have?

Which artists (tf/star wars related or otherwise) are your favorites?

How do you approach designing something that has to be simultaneously aesthetically pleasing and technically function?

I get inspired by a lot of things really. I love tech and I think there's no better sources out there when looking at the way the Japanese design their stuff. Anime of course had a major influence. Take my version of Cheetor's head for example, someone pointed out that it looked like Guyver and I didn't really noticed it after I had finished the design. But hey Guyver is an awesome design and I know certain design features stuck in my mind.

As for my background, I've been drawing since I can remember. My mom says I started doodling on the ground when I was 4 or 5 . I asked her 'Really?', . I was exposed early on to the classic Shogun Warriors/Mecha shows on tv back in the Philippines. One major popular show was Voltes V and I drew the heck out of that robot. When I first arrived here in Canada, one of the very first thing I ever drew was oddly enough Optimus Prime and Voltes V.



I wish it was more visible but that's my only record of it. I always love to draw and I know it's been my passion. My grade 8 teacher suggested that I go to an Art High School which I did after graduating.


I attended Cardinal Carter Academy for The Arts and learned a lot I could say...except for French language which I regret now because I've been to Montreal three times this year for a convention and it would've been nice to talk to the locals in their language. Oui? After high school I took a year off and joined a studio which was practically drawing heaven for me at that time. By that I meant I just chilled and drew and paint all day with several other artists.


I have several fav artists really and just to name some of them right now are; H.R. Giger, Masamune Shirow, Frazetta, Ruis Royo, Bengus, Nobuteru Yuki and Syd Mead.

My fav artist on TF I have to say is Don Figueroa. I just like his take on it and just the insane details he adds. He's very dynamic and I could tell he was born to draw robots, lol.

My approach to designing toys is that I try to imagine it as a finished product and honestly ask myself if this is something I would buy on the shelves. If it's something 'cool' and I won't get bored of it after a while.

[marvision prime]

Originally Posted by Benzo

are you only involved with the Star Wars Crossovers or do you do any of the Marvel stuff as well?

Just the Star Wars Crossovers. Doing the Marvel stuff might be fun too though if Hasbro asks me. I wouldn't mind designing a Galactus/Unicron toy for example

[marvision prime]

Originally Posted by Benzo

which is your favourite of all the designs you've done that have been made into toys?

For a long time my fav toy has been 'Obsidian' from Beast Machines, but now Yoda TF is my number one.

[Scrapper6]

Someone (Rob ) told me you designed for LEGO, so perhaps you'd like to talk abit about that?

I mean, what did you do for them precisely? Did you in fact work for them or is it only a rumor? Did any of the products get made into final production items? What were those production items?

And perhaps you could also mention what the difference is designing fully functional action figures like Transformers and G.I.Joe compared to dealing with LEGO items that are basically built up from various pieces and generally look and feel different toywise comparatively speaking.

[courtdevil]

What software will you use when designing? Or you just think 3 dimensionally and sketch?

Do you also get involved in sculpting / prototyping the toy? That sounds a lot of fun!