Dave's Gallery of Robot Art
TF Fan Characters

    These characters are Transformers of my own creation (or that of other fans) that are not MUSH characters I've played. Images are copyright Dave Van Domelen on the date of drawing. I've reorganized it into three sections: Tribarrel, my fan characters, and those that other people at least had some hand in or inspiration for. In general, newer material is at the bottom of its section.

• Views of the real car:
  • Left side
  • Right rear side
  • Front and Rear
  • Some interior shots
• Design sketches: I worked out the design in stages, doing more work as I became more convinced that I would be buying this model of car.
• Pencil art: since I was putting so much effort into this, I scanned the pencils a few times along the way, so that in case I screwed up at any point, I'd at least have a record of the last "good" version.
  • First try: Wasn't really happy with the right arm or the left hand, hence the blur of eraser marks around both.
  • Second try: Modified the right arm to give him a secondary weapon in his right hand, did some other tweaks.
  • Final draft: Fixed some errors, then went outside and sat on a folding chair to get all the little details right, as reference photos only go so far.
• Inks: Fixed a few things between final pencils and the inks.
• Finished Drawing: Altered a couple of things here too, mainly the black lines above the doors on the feet. The blue is lighter than the real car, and I used grays instead of black for the most part, because I didn't want to obscure the details. Finished 4/18/06.
• Techspecs: A smaller version of the final drawing, put into a techspec sort of entry.
• Tribarrel Animated: Done for an AllSpark Art Challenge, to redesign an existing character (fan or canon) in the style of the 2008 Transformers: Animated. Background colored in Prismacolors, and it turns out green penetrates several sheets of paper, oops. 7/9/07. Design sketch.
• Talyn: My car from 2000-2006 (a 1996 Buick Regal) as a mercenary sniper assassin. The big rifle separates into two pieces and stores alongside the driveshaft. 10/11/00. Rescanned 9/1/01 (Included in this section for comparison. I did not make Transformers designs from my cars before this.)

• Beast Wars DVD: Another toy design, this time of myself as a Beast Wars character (in the wake of many posts agitating for a Beast Wars DVD...but they meant Digital Video Disc). Also includes transformation instructions and techspecs. 7/9/98
• Painted Lady: A Predacon ladybug. The transformation actually works, but is complex enough it'd probably have to be done at Deluxe level, especially the double-joint knees and elbows. 10/29/98
• Taurox: From Beast Wars: Pokemon, this is a Poketron with a Tauros alt-mode. I tried something different with the legs, having front and rear beast legs merging to form the robot legs...the engineering needs work, but I think the principle works overall. And, of course, I "Romitized" the proportions a bit to make for a better picture. 12/9/99, rescanned July 20, 2016.
• Ballista: Part of an art challenge on the AllSpark board, I posted this decidedly unfeminine vehicle mode and challenged people to draw a female Transformer based on it. There were many submissions, and then I posted my version. Scanned 9/1/01.
• Twincam: Drawn as part of an Art Challenge on The AllSpark, the idea was to create a female motorcycle Transformer. Rather than go with the usual Motoslave-style transformation, I designed a chopped Harley-style motorcycle with a twin-cam engine for a chest. 12/21/01
• Domo-Con: A transforming Decepticon Domo-kun, woot. 4/5/02
  • Domo-Chan: Yes, Domo-Con is a Headmaster. I drew this back in 2002, but didn't scan it until 2008.
  • Domo-Con Motivational Poster: Put together for an AllSpark Art Challenge.
• Armada Seawing with Intruder: An aircraft carrier with A-6 Intruder. Fin funnel design for part of the deck borrowed from Gundam. 9/3/02
• Stahlfaust: From an art challenge on AllSpark, taking a weird concept car and making a Transformer out of it. 1/10/03
• The Air Power Team - In Japan, the DVD releases of Transformers Armada (called Micron Legend there) are accompanied by recolors of various Mini-Cons. Three of them are female versions of the Air Military Team, and I was inspireed to try my own female versions of those characters.
  • Shrike: A blue not-very-feminine version of Thunderwing, the stealth fighter-bomber Mini-Con. Name comes from mangling "shuriken".
  • Orchid: Color scheme based on the apocryphal female Seeker jet in G1, this is a purple recolor of Terradive, the SR-71. Name is based on the clawlike weapon called an orchid in Zelazny's Dhalgren.
  • Kalliope: Green and yellow oh-so-cute redesign of Gunbarrel. Name inspired by the multibarreled powerguns called calliopes in David Drake's Hammer's Slammers books. And with this one I made it explicit that the trio was Mini-Con versions of the Powerpuff Girls.
• Battle Angel Ivanova: Babylon 5, transformed into a giant robotic Susan Ivanova. Pencils only version. 11/7/03.
• Spyglass: The More Than Meet The Eye: Transformers Armada series made the Space Team into a pastiche of the Fantastic Four...well, the three guys of the FF, anyway. So, of course, I figured there was a need for a Sue Storm. She can become a sight on the Requiem Blaster, improving accuracy. 5/8/04
• Ursacarae: Another AllSpark contest, this one was to turn a fuzzy animal from some other series into a Transformer. I chose Funshine Bear. Here's a template if you want to make your own Care Bears up, with blank tummy-shield, and here's the original design sketch. You'll notice I changed the head design. 12/10/04
• Booster Gold/Skeets: AllSpark contest to make a superhero into a TF with an altmode that is somehow apt. I have Booster Gold turning into Skeets, and managed to make it not a complete shellformer, despite Skeets essentially being an egg with fins. 6/6/05
• Andora: This is a Mercurian cruiser from the game Rocketmen, transformed into a femmebot that bears no small resemblance to Empress Armada of Mercury. Those big red and blue things are laser and shield pods, respectively. 9/3/05.
• Transformers Dalek: A Dalek transformer, shooting for something other than the obvious transform. Dunno if I'll do a full drawing on this one or not. Earlier sketch. 2/10/06.
• The Bug: A Kenguru mini-car for people in wheelchairs, changed by Ted Kord (aka The Blue Beetle) into a transforming mech for Oracle. Concept sketch, colored concept sketch. Final drawing 7/8/06.
• G-Shark: The July 2006 AllSpark Art Challenge was to do a Transformer inspired by one of the summer 2006 wide release movies. So I picked My Super Ex-Girlfriend, the ads for which featured G-Girl throwing a shark at one point. Design sketch, showing how the shark is put together. The final drawing does kinda hide the kibble. 7/15/06.
• Cannonball: The August 2006 AllSpark Art Challenge was to create one of the previous holders of the Cannonball name. The Cybertron character of that name has a Dread Pirate Roberts sort of backstory, in which several others have had the name. My entry has the ambulance from Cannonball Run transforming into the first pirate to hold the name. He turned to piracy after forced out of endurance racing. His first mate Kaotiticon succeeded him as the second Cannonball, and he retired to live off his ill-gotten booty. Mid-August 2006 (I forgot to date the drawing). Pencils.
• Detonator: Design sketch of an AMC Gremlin TF. I have since been reminded that it was the Pinto that was all explody, so I'll probably tweak the design to turn into a Pinto if I ever complete this. August 2006.
• Bytesize: A design I'd had kicking around for over a year before modifying it and making him a her. Techspec. 11/6/06.
• Marrissoo: My entry in an "ultimate twinky fan character" AllSpark Art Challenge. Bio Note. 9/6/07.
• Road Hazard: I got a Fairlady 2000 Matchbox car and added some Autobot symbols to it. Then I decided to make a robot mode for it. I gave him an obvious Fairlady Z family helmet, but otherwise went for a totally different transformation scheme. December 24, 2016.

• Raksha: I messed up the way the head is supposed to look, unfortunately. 3/26/95
• Beast Wars Seawing: Inspired by MSipher's comments on an otherwise bad fanfic, I created this bat/dolphin Fuzor. The drawing is of the toy, not the character, so it's got things like ball and socket joints. 6/11/98
• TMII Robert Powers: Another "mistaken subject line" gag from the newsgroups, like BW DVD. In this case, people were discussing the strange powers granted by TMII sparks, and someone posted that it looked like a discussion of a TMII Robert Powers (a regular on the Transformers newsgroup). Powers chimed in that his beast form would be a duck with a motorcycle third mode, and I immediately saw how this could work. Note that the robot mode is "Romita-ized" (proportions altered to make the robot mode look better than the toy would be) despite toy-like details. I used some Pentel metallic gel pens in coloring this, and the chrome green looks really nice in the actual drawing...but it didn't show up in the scan. One transformation note: the duck bill halves swap out with the robot fists in a manner similar to Mega TM Optimus Primal's forearms. 8/17/99
• Boost: A friend's Toyota Matrix drawn up as a Transformer. 1/16/04
• Serenity-K: A friend of mine has a character named Serena Chu (based on Serena Ku from Shadowfist) who he gets drawn at every convention he attends that has an artist's alley. While at ConQuest with him this spring, I decided to draw Serena as a transforming space ship (inspired by, but not exactly modeled on, the Serenity from Firefly). 6/1/04.
• Eroticons: An installment of the Penny Arcade webcomic mentioned Eroticons, so of course I had to create them. All images are Safe For Work, just sometimes a little disturbing.
• Defunct: A fan character from the AllSpark boards. Timbits are donut holes sold by the Tim Horton's chain. Assume that he has a Double-Double in the off-screen hand. Drawn as part of an art challenge, came in 5th out of 8. 9/7/05.
• Katy Dragon: From a friend's Transformers/GaoGaiGar mashup fanfic, she's a Headmaster partner to KouRyu, the maser truck Symmetric Docker from GaoGaiGar Final. Her cybernetics are heavily influenced by Circuit Breaker, with a few bits borrowed from Minerva's Headmaster armor and other sources. 12/6/09. In an earlier version, she was more anime-ish (not to mention more buxom, and the antennae were wrong), but my friend didn't care for that so I adjusted the final pencils.