Sage, scribe... swordsman? Alpha Trion's looking a bit more aggressive than we last saw him. Taking as much or more inspiration from a pair of collector's club figures as it does his original character design, Alpha Trion has his charms... but I'd be lion if I said he was my ideal rendition of the character. Click here for 84 images of Alpha Trion!
I don't dislike this, don't get me wrong. But as a representation of the Alpha Trion character as I know him? Not great. But let's talk about what I do like. I like that aspects of Alpha Trion's design are represented here in creative ways. The purple band across the lion's head and horn emulate the spiked pauldrons of the original design. The sculpting of his bicep is designed to emulate the Floro Dery cutouts on G1 Trion's arms - some paint would help bring that out. And why not have his arms covered with a flowing lion's mane when one of his chiefest claims to fame is as The First Transformer With Hair?

The other thing I like is the Vector Prime connection. Vector Prime was a really cool design very much unlike the other figures in Transformers: Cybertron, and Alpha Trion emulates his most distinctive characteristics: the sphere at the center of the chest - which seems to be intended as a spark chamber here - and the elaborate scrollwork. Vector Prime's was intended to be clockwork, but Alpha Trion's is more abstract. The feel is there, though - he is of a piece with Vector Prime, and that just feels right to me. All that said, I kind of wish that the design team had been as intent on fidelity to the original design here as they were for, say, Titans Return Blurr and Scourge.