darkSpyro

Critique any Skylander design to your heart’s content and describe how you’d change them. Destroy them. Obliterate them. Or just mildly tweak a few things. I got interested in redesigns recently and want to read some hot takes.

Throw Rubble Rouser in the treeeesh. Can't believe they just made Crusher with nothing appealing(well, knowing the game's development, now I do know why). Either make him out of diamond so the drill aspects are cooler, or make him another species entirely. Also give his design ANY color, it's way too desaturated, and for the love of god he needs wider legs and forearms, it's even worse than most of the Swap Force characters because of the drills.

Rubble Rouser and Doom Stone were robbed. What a shame.

This one is on the mild side, because I don’t have much bad to say about Mysticat. I like that he’s a taur and you can’t go wrong with cat puns. The whole species mishap with Scratch got a bit confusing, but that’s a story for another time. Please give this man a snout. I’m not asking much, just even the slightest of muzzles will do. A lot of these characters have the same smooshed-in face. Glowing eyes and a flat face makes for the quintessential Skylander.

Scorp, Thrillipede, and Dune Bug all look like extras for a mock-buster of A Bug’s Life. Wipe those grins off your faces, boys. Especially you, Scorp. These 90’s tude-grins are getting tiresome. Any Skylander who has one looks like they’re about to put Sonic and Crash in a hospital or trying their best to hold back a witty one-line. Scarabs and scorpions are so cool; it’s not fair to them to be represented by those two. I think they mostly just need some face-lifts, perhaps some new names. I like Dune Bug’s iridescence and Scorp’s radioactive green colors. Admittedly I’m not quite sure how to turn a millipede into a charismatic character, but Thrillipede is not it.

Quote: JCW555

Quote: BlueFox

These 90’s tude-grins are getting tiresome.

B..but I like 90's 'tude grins

Ugh, what a hideous dragon. Almost as bad as that gross hedgehog and cheeto-powdered bandicoot. I miss the good old days, when you needed to buy loveable characters and put them on a portal. Where's my remaster, Activision?

It's all good, Drawdler.

Somewhere in a different timeline, younger BlueFox is sobbing. Leave her Swappies alone. jk I lost those rose-tinted glasses. They're big boys, big ugly boys, and they can handle it. (But I will snap if anyone goes for Magna Charge. He’s a good robot, shaped like a friend)

Actually, your redesigns were what mostly inspired me to create this topic. Your Stink Bomb's snout is boop-worthy and that Boom Jet deserves all the cuddles. Having him walk on his hands is very cool! Monkeys need more love; marmosets and tamarins are just the cutest things. I'd like to draw him, if that's alright with you.

Quote: Drawdler

and you get one of the gayest designs of the series as a result.

How'd you find my unreleased fanfictions? I thought I only published that one about Wash Buckler and Spy Rise. Well, Activision did confirm in that one quote. "Yeah, we gay, keep scrolling," -Activision, 2013. That was a good day.





"Hi, I am very ugly, but you should enjoy the game anyway!"

Punk Shock's tail was taken straight out of Krayken/Riptide, so yeah it makes sense. But holy crap if they made the facepaint a LITTLE less strong she'd be at least alright; they clearly couldn't decide if it was a pattern or a helmet until the last second and now the helmet is fused into her face.

Aurora...

In a game where I can play as a chicken that shoots lightning from his eyes or a derby vampire that skates on saw blades, why would I choose to be something so basic, so boring? I'm still upset by this. She's just taking up space! A perfectly good Light Skylander could've used that spot! I know her being human and related to Eon is interesting lore-wise for some, but she pales in comparison to just about any other Skylander. I mean, at least Deja Vu and Knight Light wear masks and Chill has those cool eyes. Heck, Kaos has fangs and Mags gets by with her outfit alone. I'm not suggesting that humans can't be Skylanders or that they have to have some fantastical physical trait. It's just that Aurora is super vanilla. I know nothing about her gameplay; I'm judging solely on design.

I like a majority of the Skylanders that have been listed so far in concept, not in design. (Well, almost. There's the usual SF culprits, but I honestly didn't expect to see Trail Blazer here. I've been sleeping on him; he's a very cute pony. But this isn't the topic for that) Aurora utterly blunders in both categories. I like doves, and it sorta fits into the holy and divine aesthetic. I'm thinking something like a fantail pigeon, big and showy with gilded feathers. More birds that aren't affiliated with the Air element please. Tap into Lord Shen a bit. You know, the regal-but-will-mess-you-up look.

She also has his face slapped on top of her outfit, which is creepy.

Yep, there's also that. I didn't want to mention it, hoping we'd all just forget that was ever an actual decision...

I don't know why media as a whole favors the mediocre. It's like they choose the most boring one out of the bunch, really bottom of the barrel. There's this great talk by Matt Rhodes on YouTube about characterization and concept art. I feel that everyone involved in related industries can learn from it. I don't think scribbling out black blobs or slapping on random traits (I'm still stuck on that duck-billed Stink Bomb; my brain's trying to make sense of it by suggesting it was inspired by a kappa...but that's not it) is constructive, kind of seems like a waste of time. They're likely just going to be skimmed over anyway.

Astroblast has the gleam of a great character. A crystalline alien with a laser gun, using a flying saucer to race. He has the themes of shiny, pristine retro-futuristic art. Real 70s Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland vibes, the vision white picket fence Americans had of the future. And this little scamp moonwalks! Sounds good to me. But his atrocious spikes and that annoying smile make me want to punt him across the room. What a boring face. And what's with his figure? The pose looks awkward. When ranking the Light Skylanders, he's better than Aurora, but that's not saying much. Spotlight, shine bright, shine far. You're a star. My hero. Keep the extraterrestrial and prism themes, change his entire head.

High Volt as a whole makes me uncomfortable. Who's out here begging for a riot control officer Skylander? Very unsightly, plain ugly. A squatty, small Spy Rise-lookin' fool. It appears that VV has a limited number of faces they choose from. I honestly don't see much redeemable in him. I have so many questions. Why's his body look like that? Why did they specifically seek out Josh Duhamel for this? Who is Captain Flynn the Sand Pirate?! I guess the plug-and-outlet idea can be salvaged, or in the very least the electricity element. I've always liked seeing crocodile clips used in a character design. Maybe he can be a serpent that eludes to this, with the clip itself being his head, using serrated metal teeth and bolts to attack. Give him two heads. Think of the Twingersnaps from Viva Pinata or real snake mutations. Maybe he can even be a hydra.

I don't know. I'm not a character designer; I'm just here to rant.

NGL, as much as I love VV's character designs, looking through both art books, I do feel disappointment. Lots of short cuts were taken it seems, like Freeze Blade's now gone tail and more cat like mouth. And thucking Snake Doom Stone, come on, that's PERFECT.


Although, I quite like Rubble Rouser's design.

For a little refresher. Here’s that handsome fella. Interestingly, the file says “Nova SS Mountaineer”.

HE'S PURFECT ISN'T HE?

Feline fine. *insert Eartha Kit Catwoman growl here*

On birds that aren’t Air-related, we’ll never forget you, early Stormblade. Gosh, she’s so beautiful.



I love ornithology as much as the next guy, but Storm Chickens don’t exist and neither do Sky Barons. This was too unrealistic? We can have a peahen with gorgeous feathers. I gather the reason this was scrapped was due to something tone-deaf.

Quote: BlueFox

Feline fine. *insert Eartha Kit Catwoman growl here*

On birds that aren’t Air-related, we’ll never forget you, early Stormblade. Gosh, she’s so beautiful.



I love ornithology as much as the next guy, but Storm Chickens don’t exist and neither do Sky Barons. This was too unrealistic? We can have a peahen with gorgeous feathers. I gather the reason this was scrapped was due to something tone-deaf.

I think it was changed because while being a Peacock, she was female, as a lot of play tester kids pointed out she wouldn't have those features. What I didn't get it, why not just change her gender to make for accuracy, then go with Smash Hit's Triceratops girl design.

Quote: HeyitsHotDog

Quote: BlueFox

Feline fine. *insert Eartha Kit Catwoman growl here*

On birds that aren’t Air-related, we’ll never forget you, early Stormblade. Gosh, she’s so beautiful.



I love ornithology as much as the next guy, but Storm Chickens don’t exist and neither do Sky Barons. This was too unrealistic? We can have a peahen with gorgeous feathers. I gather the reason this was scrapped was due to something tone-deaf.

I think it was changed because while being a Peacock, she was female, as a lot of play tester kids pointed out she wouldn't have those features. What I didn't get it, why not just change her gender to make for accuracy, then go with Smash Hit's Triceratops girl design.

That’s what I’ve heard, but it’s still frustrating. When has this series ever been about scientific accuracy? If that’s the case, foxes have slit pupils, rhinos can’t drive motorcycles, and dogs can’t talk. Might as well fix the skeletal structures on essentially every animal character because they’re exhibiting heavy neotenic and brachycephalic features; that doesn’t usually happen without selective breeding or domestication. Spyro should be reverse sneezing. Where do Pop Fizz and Trigger Happy’s organs lie? Are they coiled up like a tadpoles or something? Their heads are their bodies! Why does that bomb have teeth? If the robot characters eat food, where does it go? Why do Boom Jet’s goggles blink and bend like they’re flesh? That’s just nasty. I could keep this up for days.

They threw an awesome design out the window because it’d be “confusing”. It’s really not confusing at all, but k. All good, VV. Would’ve been nice if a kid mentioned Mmamoriri the lioness.

I agree, looking at their concept art is like a stab in the heart. I don't mind Smash Hit, he's a cool little dude. I can't deny that the Triceratops girl was better.

I mean, its a lot simpler to make a Peacock's gender accurate than it is for, well, all the stuff you pointed out, for one thing. I'd find it kidna jarring if she was a Peacock but female, tbh.

Here's the problem: she doesn't even have an actual peacock tail. Those are all blades anyway. Could just remove the crest, and keep those colors solely because of the suit she's wearing - Stormblade is purple.

This is good stylization. They’ve got snouts that could poke an eye out and fat bushy tails. Not something you’d see on a real life wolf, right? But it works. It’s exaggeration, and I love it. You can still recognize that they’re wolves or at least canids.

I watched an unboxing video once where someone was genuinely confused as to what animal Stink Bomb was supposed to be. It was originally easy for me to scoff at that because of the striped tail and name. Wasn’t it obvious?

I was drawing him a few minutes ago and couldn’t even finish it. What were they thinking? What’s going on with your face, buddy? I don’t want to repeat what Drawdler’s already stated, so I’ll leave it here. I want a Nico Marlet Stink Bomb. Push those shapes, emphasize them.

Good night, sweet prince. You taught me about horse colic symptoms, the metabolisms of sloths, and the nuances of fart jokes. That’s something I’ll always cherish. Wow, age is really starting to sour the nostalgia of SF for me.

You know what skunk design I’ve started to appreciate because of this? Skuntank. Do they look like skunks? Yeah, kinda. Do skunks spray from their pompadours? No. Still gets the job done. Also their faces are butts and that’s...that’s incredible.

I wouldn't be surprised if most of the Final designs in SF were made the way they were (Like Freeze Blade) because they were easier and cheaper to model hen compared to the OG designs. Stink Bomb's got a great design aside from his face, IMO. And this isn't the case for all SF design, but definitely a considerable amount of them.

What even...? What’s...what’s the deal with Fist Bump?

Fist Bump looks sloppy, like they smashed a bunch of features together and called it a day. He’s got boots and horns and huge rock hands and spikes and it’s just too much. He’s also a rock panda? I’m scratching my head over here. That ain’t a panda. Minimize. Take out some elements. Other than that, I’ve got no clue. He’s such a bizarre character.

Pretty sure Fist Bump is heavily inspired by Aftershock from SF's development, lots of similarities, but Aftershock has a much better design. Fist Bump, which a cool design, still feels lacking.

Consider this...

What if Hoot Loop was a white faced scops owl, the transforming owl of early YouTube fame? He's got an okay design and a fun concept already, but his face doesn't scream owl to me. He just looks like a buggy-eyed Jet-Vac. Owls are weird; he has to show off that weirdness.

Owls also don't have regular bird faces - they're VERY flat, and that's what makes an owl character design stand out. Other than making him look like Jet-Vac, there was really no reason to not do that in here.

Eeehh, I get that Hoot Loop is an Owl, and I DO think he shows off the weirdness of them. He's definitely got a, well, loopy personality that can cause quite a hoot. Owlthough, I can understand the ruffled feathers that the design may cause for not being owlly enough, but frankly, I disagree with that opinion, which I think is for the birds.

Quote: HeyitsHotDog

Eeehh, I get that Hoot Loop is an Owl, and I DO think he shows off the weirdness of them. He's definitely got a, well, loopy personality that can cause quite a hoot. Owlthough, I can understand the ruffled feathers that the design may cause for not being owlly enough, but frankly, I disagree with that opinion, which I think is for the birds.

I find your abundance of puns disturbing.

I agree that he's a bit kooky. I like how he blinks. That's an odd thing to say, I know, but I like that one eye is slower than the other. He's got a lot of personality, very animated, especially in the Card Game short. It's just that, again, his face is just kinda samey. I also don't think I've seen an owl with a beak that wide.

I can't be mad at him. He's a teleporting owl magician, and I'm glad he exists.

all female humanoid after giants are just chill clones change my mind

All the near-human ladies generally have the same baby face and bodies, yeah. Anna and Elsa syndrome.

okay, hear me out. what if stink bomb...



was a swat kat???

and that was bluefox’s shower thought of the day.

I’d like to actually draw some of my ideas out and render them. When I eventually get the patience to do master studies of humbleego’s work, of course.