Concept Artwork
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…
Hasbro Marketing Book
By Steve Mapes | In Concept Artwork , Marketing Guides | 27 Nov 2013, 4:38 p.m.
An official piece of Hasbro marketing material, not intended for public viewing, the Hasbro Visionaries Marketing book was given out to licencees to ensure that any and all Visionaries products were made to exact specifications to insure brand recognition.
The pages included box art imagery, line art, colour images, bios / information and colour charts. These would then be taken and use on official merchandise such as watches, lunch boxes, stickers etc.
The guide includes instructions to all licence holders on what they had to do to in order to comply with Hasbro's specifications, in order to get their products signed off before production took place.
Here are some of the interesting facts contained in the book
- A Visionaries logo should appear on all panels of the packaging
- The typesetting is Benguiat for all product names and logos
- Exact PMS colours for all characters along with the gold and silver for the Spectral Knights and Darkling Lords, as well as the black are specified …