Sonic Concept Art by DiC: SatAM Concepts Look NOTHING Like The Final Outcome

[MamboCat]

The Robotnic one is hilarious. I guess it looks similar to Naugus in some ways, though... perhaps they recycled some of those ideas.

 

I wonder as well if human Sally is an extension of the early Madonna character, too? In later but still early designs she was a rather tall, had blonde hair and wore a red dress!

[Mauro Fonseca]

Now I think of it, human Sally makes the least amount of sense... Sally Acorn was Ricky. That's since 1991. It's not a name DiC created. So either that's not a human and they tried to make her something like Alvin and the Chipmunks, or again, this was a different show and they gave her the only female name available at the time.

[Mega]

re: that gold Sonic, SatAM actually planned on giving Sonic additional forms in its early days. There was talk of Super Sonic, Ultra Sonic, and Sub Sonic in the show's bible. Note that season 1 had episodes named for those forms despite them never appearing.

[MamboCat]

Now I think of it, human Sally makes the least amount of sense... Sally Acorn was Ricky. That's since 1991. It's not a name DiC created. So either that's not a human and they tried to make her something like Alvin and the Chipmunks, or again, this was a different show and they gave her the only female name available at the time.

 

Good point... but was she always Princess Sally? Also in her first appearances she was pink, so was she really based on Ricky, the lil dude that pops out of the Badniks or was that an assumption on the part of Western audiences?

 

I'm not entirely sure what my point is(!) But I guess I'm wondering if this cartoon wasn't intended to be a Sonic one to begin with? It would explain why the over-reaching arc revolves around Sally, her father being betrayed and her starting a resistance movement... rather than revolving around Sonic trashing Badniks.

[Indigo Rush]

Sonic dropping the mic needed concept art.

 

[Delta Starfire]

re: that gold Sonic, SatAM actually planned on giving Sonic additional forms in its early days. There was talk of Super Sonic, Ultra Sonic, and Sub Sonic in the show's bible. Note that season 1 had episodes named for those forms despite them never appearing.

 

I do believe that Ultra Sonic at the very least was recycled into the comics -- if I recall correctly, it was during the weird stories between Robotnik Prime's death and the arrival of RoboRobotnik/Eggman. But that's a really interesting point. I always wondered about those episode titles. 

 

Also, slightly off topic, but since Boom Eggman was brought up... Did they scrap the belly entirely? Or is he wearing a Shatner-style girdle? It's just... he's looking kinda trim or, dare I say it even, buff? o.O

[Chili Dawg]

 

 

 

More keeps gettin' out. These are amazing.  I especially like Robotnik and Scratch and Grounder in the Egg-O-Matic.

[Wittymations]

Also, slightly off topic, but since Boom Eggman was brought up... Did they scrap the belly entirely? Or is he wearing a Shatner-style girdle? It's just... he's looking kinda trim or, dare I say it even, buff? o.O

I actually hope it's not a girdle. While I like fat Eggman better than Eggmacho, if they're going out of their way to actually try to make him seem more intimidating, then they don't need to ruin with a, "lol he's fat!" joke.

[Mauro Fonseca]

Fat people can't be intimidating, then? :V

[Wittymations]

Fat people can't be intimidating, then? :V

Of course they can. But the problem is that this joke would only be used in the opposite. It's a way of handling. The guys behind Boom decided to do all this, making Eggmacho, to help strengthen the idea he's more intimidating and the comedy of "oh, he's fat" is just going to go against that.

Archie Eggman is intimidating and fat, but that is done by his actions. Which, more than likely, wouldn't be done here. So, Eggmacho probably won't be given that room for cheap-shot jokes.

 

Archie Eggman can afford a few jokes thrown at him because of his actions, because you know how dangerous he really is. Eggmacho, probably not. Plus, his buff thing is still part of his character.

 

If Buffles turned out to be wearing anchor arms, that would be fairly ruining for Buffles' fans. Though, people fans of normal Knuckles may be happy about it, it would kinda come into question of why in the world he's wearing anchor arms, in the first place.

 

It's all a part of their physical characteristics, it shouldn't be tampered with.

[Willsy]

So....Robotnik was originally going to look like a classic Disney villain?

Yeeeeah.....think I prefer old Eggy. Otherwise we wouldn't have the good doctor we all know and love.

[SonikkuForever]

New SatAM concepts! Yay! I'm trying to save as many of these images as I can onto my hard drive for posterity. Here we have a Bunnie who's more robot than rabbit, and another, completely different Robotnik design, where they took the "robot" part literally. Complete with "electric pony tail!" Cluck's getting closer, though, and the overall shape of Robotnik is starting to look familiar. Interestingly enough, Rotor didn't seem to change at all.

 

 

[Chili Dawg]

A very liberal take on this 

But damn that's a badass looking design for a villain.

[Forte-Metallix]

 

Those moobs tho.... DIC truly did appreciate the qualities of sexy fat men.

[sploit]

Who won the human sally concept and how much did it go for?

[Your Vest Friend]

Human Sally was won by a Tumblr user who had been eyeing the concept art for weeks (No idea on the cost). They were hoping the stuff remained fairly discrete up until the auctions were over so they could get a good shot at them (it's a practical tactic in the auction circuit), although they would have reported on the cells regardless of winning or not.

 

Then El Driver spotted the AoStH cells, others looked into it further, and the Sonic Stadium made the whole thing a spectacle. 

[sploit]

Yeah I saw them before the article was posted, bought some art from same seller a couple of weeks ago (Sonic Underground Storyboard)...

...just wondered how much the Sally human went for as it was arguably the most unusual piece of those early concepts that appeared.

And by unusual I mean in comparison to the final outcome.

[Your Vest Friend]

Okay, looked it up. The final bid was $43. Looks like it got a bit feisty at the end with the bidding. 

[sploit]

Thanks, I tried to find it but couldn't! $43 is pretty cheap really.

[Badnik Zero]

 

 

Oh cool, more transitional concepts.

 

The singular horn pretty much confirms for me that ROBOTNIC became the concept for Naugus. Naugus was gonna appear as the villain of season 3, in place of Robotnik, right? Now it makes sense, because the wizard was their first and original villain! It must have been their creative darling. Also "electric ponytail"? That's hilarious.

 

So if ROBOTNIC was first a wizard type it makes sense that Cluck looks more like a raven than a robotic chicken.

[SonikkuForever]

"So we've got this fantastical universe planned out, where this menacing dictator reeks havoc upon citizens and only a select few have even a snowball's chance in hell of saving the world!"

 

"That's cute. It's about Sonic the Hedgehog now."

 

"About WHAT?!"

 

vs

 

"Dat ass."

 

Yep, that's pretty much it. Just look at the original model sheets by Milton Knight, the designer of AOStH Robotnik. He certainly seemed to be...  rather fond of Robotnik's posterior.

 

[E-122-Psi]

Truthfully I think Milton Knight might have been watching Woody Woodpecker as well:

 

 

They seemed to have a similar fondness for designing Wally Walrus into basically a nude obese guy.

[azoo]

Truthfully I think Milton Knight might have been watching Woody Woodpecker as well:

 

 

They seemed to have a similar fondness for designing Wally Walrus into basically a nude obese guy.

 

Wally Walrus actually looks like it may have been direct inspiration for Milton Knight's Robotnik! Especially since AoSTH featured a lot of "egg" jokes, they probably caught on to his Japanese name being Eggman, and well, considering the pop culture connection of 'eggman' and 'walrus', that easily points from one thing to another for design inspiration, especially with Eggman's similar rotund shape and mustache. Sure, it sounds like grasping for straws, but considering Knight's affinity for classic WB and whatnot, it doesn't seem like a stretch.

 

Going by this, I guess I can come to a sort of jigsaw'd conclusion on how this all went down..

 

 

 

Sonic Team: Pajama Roosevelt design as scapped Sega mascot idea -> reused and simplified for an enemy design in prototype Sonic -> Sega of America & Sonic Team both decide to make him the main antagonist -> Dr. Eggman is made

 

SoA: Renames in America/Europe to Dr. Robotnik -> edits the Eggman design to be the Robotnik design with beady eyes from Sonic 1 artwork  -> later becomes Sonic 2 "hole-eyed" Angry American Robotnik

 

DiC: Green monster man for an unrelated TV show in progress -> Second, mechanical-based design with black eyes and red pupils is made -> Sega wants to make a Sonic show, gets the team working on this show to make it about Sonic -> Knight takes elements from his inspirations, Eggman and the previous DiC 'fat bad guy' designs and makes his Robotnik -> DiC decides to make two Sonic shows and Milton Knight goes with AoSTH -> DiC's other group takes that design and makes it more like the mechanical design a bit more for SatAM, while rehashing the wizard idea for Naugus

 

SoA/SoE: Adopts the Milton Knight design for toys and merchandise (and attempts to insert it into various localized / in-house Sonic games) -> Milton Knight's design gets used in Sonic the Comic -> SatAM design gets used in Archie!Sonic and Naugus becomes a staple enemy in the series

 

Sonic Team: Really doesn't care and keeps Dr. Eggman as-is in the games and all Japanese material until Sonic Adventure - onward

 

 

 

And thats how it all happened. The end.

 

But nah, that's the best conclusion I can come to about this, since it makes the most sense out of any theory I can think of.

[SonikkuForever]

Truthfully I think Milton Knight might have been watching Woody Woodpecker as well:

 

 

They seemed to have a similar fondness for designing Wally Walrus into basically a nude obese guy.

 

While we're on the topic of sexy Robotnik, I found some more interesting information on Milton Knight's website. He claims that he specifically designed AoSTH Robotnik as "animation's sexiest fat man." He even admitted to writing storyboard directions containing lines like "Robotnik's buttocks weave sensuously". DIC was a bit concerned that they were taking it too far, so they asked Sega about the "appropriateness" of Robotnik's prominent rear end. Surprisingly, the Sega agent simply responded: "Sex $ells!"

 

 

[Badnik Mechanic]

DIC was a bit concerned that they were taking it too far, so they asked Sega about the "appropriateness" of Robotnik's prominent rear end. Surprisingly, the Sega agent simply responded: "Sex $ells!"

 

 

 

Surprisingly, the Sega agent simply responded: "Sex $ells!"

 

 

Dey.... Dey... They said who with the what now? 

 

Is there documentation of this?