Studio Series SS-89 Thundercracker Screen to Toy Concept Designs by Sam Smith

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Another round at the Bumblebee Movie open sequence results in another seeker! Let’s take a look at the breakdown for SS-89 Thundercracker.

Thundercracker had always been my favorite core seeker growing up. Likely because he was clad in full blue, it was always the design and color variant that I gravitated towards. Naturally when the opportunity came up to redeco a seeker, Thundercracker was my first choice. With the tooling for these variations having been established, it was a great opportunity to start knocking these background characters out.

Different from Starscream and Thrust, we see Thundercracker in a non cone head form, with a face covering, wings in a downward position, and more uniquely with his null rays facing upwards.I love that the studio took the time to incorporate subtle unique details to help differentiate each of these characters, vs simply adjusting the color slider.

Speaking of color, there was a lot of newness going on for Thundercracker’s deco. once again, different from Starscream and Thrust who were primary molded in cool grays, Thundercrack’s base colors are a vibrant metallic blue. Paired with some deeper silver and gray metallics for the rest of the body, and some unique livery treatments to the wings, Thundercracker breaths a bit of new life into these molds. There were a number of alternative paint operations to the windshield surround, as well as to the exposed chest plate to further differentiate the character.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments! Will you be adding Thundercracker to your collection? And which seeker do you want to see made next?