ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:@WolfmanJake, I'll grant you that it's
possible having the jet cockpit visible there in tank mode is iconic to one of the designers. However:
1. That still doesn't mean the cartoon's funky "naked" depiction of it there (how/why did that even happen, anyway? Did Floron the Moron forget the lines for the surrounding tank hull? Was he trying to be crude? It's particularly odd given that it makes the area more
complex to draw) is necessarily a good look
2. Saying that comes across, at least to me, as you grasping at straws to make the choice acceptable.
3. If it
was iconic to them, I would think they'd have gone for a less-confused execution. It has a faux-canopy instead of the abstracted stripes to match the toy having the canopy up top, but it's naked like the cartoon version, and both the canopy and faux-canopy are cast in red so they don't match either.
It's definitely more than just one designer that had made sure to replicate the cockpit at the front of the tank mode, believing it part of the iconic G1 look, which they likely referenced by studying the original toy, package art, cartoon models, and Marvel comics. That's the reason it's there. Otherwise, it wouldn't be. It was on purpose, not laziness or apathy. I'm trying to help people understand why its there, even though they may not like it. It's because it's meant to be a direct G1 update of the character, a character whose tank alt mode has the plane cockpit visible in all forms of media it appeared in during the original 1980's run of the franchise. We all just overlooked it as children, but that's how it was.
1. It doesn't matter if the cockpit in the tank mode is a "good look." It's THE G1 LOOK. That should really be the end of the thought experiment for everyone. The design teams at Hasbro and Takara very much did it on purpose because it makes sense for how they've been approaching the Transformers Generations line for the past 3 years in particular.
2. It's not grasping at straws. It's a critical analysis of what we know of the current Generations design team's direction for Transformers, from making explicitly more G1-accurate versions of G1 characters for the first time at mass retail (Masterpiece not included). I'm not telling anyone they have to like what Legacy Blitzwing looks like, but no one should be surprised or think that the design team should have done any differently, when we know it's going to be all the G1 it can be.
3. The fact that the cockpit has a faux cockpit so it sits "right side up" in tank mode is actually more evidence that it was a VERY intentional inclusion by the designers. It had to look right, or it wasn't doing the figure due diligence to them. It's the same reason the figure has fake wings for the robot mode shoulders. The existence of any faux parts is all the evidence needed to understand that the designers believe a certain mode NEEDS those parts to "look right" according to design specifications (e.g., look as unmistakably like the G1 character as possible).
Also, it doesn't matter that the cockpit has red windows instead of blue, at least as far as understanding why the cockpit is visible as it is in tank mode. While people believe that the current toys are always "screen accurate," it's not at all the case. It's a mish-mash of details from the original toys, G1 character models, and compromises due to budget constraints, etc. They could only have one clear plastic color for the figure's sprues, and they chose red, because they wanted the energon accessories to be that color for some reason instead of blue. I'm not saying that was the correct choice, but it was the one made.
/ 
that be will unveil another Astrotrain through the Series 86 line...I'm just sayin'. 
