Crew's thoughts on Transformers vs Visionaries issue 1
By Dave Mapes | In IDW Visionaries | 3 Jan 2018, 9 p.m.
This article will cover the personal opinions of the crew behind The Visionaries.net on IDW Publishing's Transformers Vs Visionaries Issue 1.
WARNING: - This article may contain spoilers.
David Mapes - @visionariesinfo
Having not read any IDW comics since 2015, other than Revolutions in 2016, I came into Transformers vs Visionaries without any of the baggage of regular Transformers comics readers who were starting to get upset that their title was being used to try to launch various other brands under the IDW Combined Universe. This allowed me to have more of an open mind for the return of my beloved Visionaries franchise, something I had been waiting to see for thirty years.
Having openly accepted that this would not be the Visionaries from my childhood, I was looking forward to seeing the creative team of Magdalene and Fico would do with the brand. The new look was, to some, controversial, but for me, it made more sense of a post-apocalyptic society than the origin…
Reekon's Staff
By Dave Mapes | In Concept Artwork | 12 Mar 2016, 4:27 p.m.
Reekon is the driver of the Dagger Assault, the largest vehicle in the Visionaries universe and a pretty large toy. As with the three other Visionaries figures whom were packaged with vehicles, Ectar, Feryl and Mortdredd, Reekon did not come with a staff. This was not always the plan however and we shall take a look back at what Reekon's staff may well have looked like.
Like many toy lines the promotional material used for Visionaries features images of prototype toys rather than finished items. This often meant that there were differences between the products shown and the item you could buy later in stores. Some of the images of the Dagger Assault feature different coloured items and more importantly to this article, prototype weapons and staffs.
This image of a prototype Dagger Assault features what we believe is the only image of the prototype staff meant for Reekon. The staff can be seen at the back-right of the image, the gold staff featuring a horse-shoe design. The reason …
History of the Lancer Cycle
By Dave Mapes | In Concept Artwork | 12 Nov 2015, 4:55 p.m.
The Lancer Cycle is one, of two, vehicles piloted by the Spectral Knights in the Visionaries cartoon and comic series. It is the smallest of the Visionaries vehicles which made it through the production run to final product release, and was my least favourite. That has changed, and you will soon see why.
The Lancer Cycle appeared in Episode three of the Visionaries Cartoon series, piloted by Ectar whilst Witterquick jumped on the back. In essence the Lancer Cycle is a high speed motorcycle which has a mechanically released lance on the starboard (right) side. It has two air breaks, one in either side, which contain a holographic knight with a lance. On the port (left) side is a gun and a hologram of Merklynn dons the top (on the toy at least). Its power of protection is activated by chanting the rhyme Shield this craft from one and all. Reflect, deflect, depose and fall!, although the magical rhyme is not used in either the cartoon or comic series.
In a previous version of …
The Holodrome Iron Mountain Playset
By Dave Mapes | In Concept Artwork | 7 Nov 2015, 4:34 p.m.
Of all the Visionaries toys the Holodrome remains the Holy Grail for Visionaries fans and collectors. For years fans pondered how far the Holodrome made it through production, with some unsubstantiated claims that the playset, and Season 2 characters, were released in parts of Europe. Could this be true, could the fabled Season 2 toys be out there? The answer is a simple no. We spoke to some of the team at Abrahams-Gentile, the original designers of and owners of the Visionaries brand, and they confirmed that the Holodrome and Season 2 figures did not make it to full production, although engineering pilots had been completed. The steel tools, used to cut the moulds, were manufactured and last seen in a factory in China in the 1980s. A handful of Engineering Pilots for Season 2 characters were produced for Hasbro, and it is believed they remain to this day in their archive facility. As for the Holodrome, it too made it to a completed Engineering Pilot stage (with a few examples bei…
Darkling Lords' Headquarters
By Dave Mapes | In Concept Artwork | 20 Sep 2015, 5:11 p.m.
Darkling Lords' Headquaters
In the Visionaries cartoon and comic book series, Darkstorm's castle is the Darkling Lords' headquarters in an un-named area of Prysmos. The castle design had similarities to the Mollusk, the animal totem of Darkstorm (leader of the Darkling Lords). Whilst vehicles were produced for Season 1, with more planned for Season 2, only one playset base made it through from the design phase into production, the Holodrome Playset, yet even that was did not see a public release. This was not the only playset that was designed for the Visionaries line. The Darkling Lords' were also going to get a “home”.
One concept for the Darkling Lords' Headquarters was that of a giant Dragon Lair based upon the Dragon Totem used for the Darkling Lords' faction. This would have been a nice touch as neither the Spectral Knights' Unicorn nor Darkling Lords Dragon feature in any of the Visionaries designs.
The Dragon Lair was to feature a slide so characters could enter from the …
Visionaries The Game
By Dave Mapes | In Concept Artwork | 11 May 2015, 8:48 p.m.
Visionaries: The Game
Planned for release by Milton Bradley in Year 2 of Visionaries, Visionaries: The Game was a 2 dimensional board game where the premise of the game was to move your Visionaries characters around Prysmos in order to reach the Magical Light. The tagline to the Visionaries series is Knights of the Magical Light, and although the light is mentioned once in the cartoon series, the Magical Light is never mentioned in name (it is merely assumed that this light is the magical power which Merklynn bestows on the successful knights). In Visionaries: The Game the magical light was actually going to appear as some sort of crystal or light source and the end of the game, we assume indicating that your Knight then gains their power (or some other sort of power). The image below shows an early concept of the Magical Light at the end of the game. Interestingly the image below shows a trap, activated by your hand, pushing the knight away.
The game was to feature 3D piece…
Cyclor 2-up Hardcopy Wand
By Dave Mapes | In Hardcopy , Series 2 Figures | 5 Sep 2014, 10:20 p.m.
For a few years this was one of a couple of unidentified Visionaries 2-Up resin hard copy pieces which we own, that was until we purchased additional paperwork to track down who Madricain was.
We purchased this wand with some other series 2 hardcopy shields and this, along with one other item, were items we we could tie up to any paperwork we owned or published marketing material. All we knew was that the resin 2-up appeared to be a wand and like some of the other Hardcopies from Visionaries series 2 which we own, it included a product code assigned to it (in this case on an external label rather than written on to it. The label included the following mysterious information
- The text VIS, MADRICIAN which indicate to us that the item was indeed intended to be a wand and not some early version of Cryotek's mace. The word Madrician we thought may well be a deliberate misspelling of magician, although it could be something else or an early name of a figure (such as Cavedweller was …