Derrick J. Wyatt

That's right. He absolutely lived the dream!

Derrick James Wyatt (August 10, 1972 – December 16, 2021) was an American artist and character designer from Paw Paw, Michigan. He attended the The Kubert School of art in New Jersey, where one of his teachers was José Delbo. Another was Kim DeMulder! Later on, he received an internship at Spumco in California, which would graduate to full-time employment with the company. Derrick eventually left Spumco, subsequently getting a job at Warner Bros. Animation, where he worked on the comedy/wrestling series Mucha Lucha as a designer. He also provided character design and voices for the Kids WB pilot Go! Go! Moba Boy!. Other opportunities opened up for him while at Warner, where he would join the staff of Teen Titans and Legion of Super-Heroes as a full-time character designer. He also worked as a character designer on Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated and Ben 10: Omniverse for Cartoon Network.

He was the art director, lead character designer, and a color stylist on the Cartoon Network-produced Transformers Animated. As a longtime Transformers fan, this was a dream come true for him.

Transformers portfolio

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Art director

• Transformers Animated

Known character design work

Writer

• Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club issues 24–28: Animated Tech Specs.

Convention appearances

Fiction

Mini Mayhem!

Eric Siebenaler enlisted Derrick to cook Thanksgiving Day dinner, but Derrick got too distracted while making new designs for Transformers Animated, and wound up burning the turkey. He opted to order a pizza instead (and hoped that the delivery guy would be late so it would be free!)

Derrick and Eric were later seen eating a pie together, but Optimus had something much more exciting to show off... Sunstreaker and Hot Rod eating a pie! Mini Mayhem!

2005 IDW continuity

At Auto Assembly 2010 attendees could buy a toy of Derrick in a boxed set alongside similar likenesses of Scott McNeil and Garry Chalk at Swindle's charity auction and tombola. The Transformers #9 cover

Merchandise

Mighty Muggs

• Derrick J. Wyatt (2009)

This super deformed vinyl Derrick J. Wyatt figure uses the standard Mighty Muggs body template, with swivel joints in his neck and limbs. It depicts him donning a Sumdac Systems uniform (with the S in the center of the badge changed to a W). It was released by Hasbro in an extremely limited edition of...one, given to Wyatt himself. Sorry, collectors!

Notes

REALLY lived the dream.

• In his position as the main art director and character designer for Transformers Animated, Derrick had a considerable amount of say during the production of the cartoon, to the point where he personally requested changes on this very wiki after the then-unnamed Cliffjumper and Hot Shot made their debuts in the cartoon. Following the end of Animated, Derrick occasionally produced Transformers fanart of obscure characters in the Animated style, or new characters from the Shattered Glass Animated universe, which he semi-regularly posted on his Twitter and Instagram accounts. However, as these were produced without Hasbro's input, and were not canonized via official sources such as the Allspark Almanac books, they are not canon for the purposes of the wiki.
• Wyatt cited Bruce Timm and Glen Murakami's work on Batman: The Animated Series as the biggest influence on his art style.^[1]
• According to an interview, Derrick's favorite Transformers were "Swindle, Ratbat, Galvatron, and Waspinator". Three of the four made it into the Animated cartoon, which ain't bad!
• On the Transformers Animated season 2 DVD set, Derrick provided episode commentary on "Mission Accomplished" and "Garbage In, Garbage Out" alongside Marty Isenberg, Eric Siebenaler, and Matt Youngberg.
• Derrick preferred the characterizations of the original cartoon over the Marvel comics.
• Derrick's Animated character model—essentially Isaac Sumdac with a new head—was scheduled to appear in "Human Error, Part I", in the scene with Animated versions of Hydra, Cancer and Marty Isenberg. Unfortunately, it didn't make it in to the final scene. Boo!
• He was briefly brought in early on in the Transformers: Prime design process.
• At Botcon 2012, when asked by a young fan why he couldn't watch Animated anymore, Wyatt allowed the child to pick one of the Animated toys he had with him for free. A well-deserved standing ovation took place.
• Even after Animated concluded, Wyatt would occasionally sneak references to it into other shows he worked on, such as a Soundwave-inspired robot in the New Teen Titans short "Turn Back the Clock", and a few trophies on Khyber's ship in Ben 10: Omniverse.
• The 2022 Hall of Fame event featured a category for favorite Animated character as a tribute to him.

External links

• Derrick J. Wyatt's blog
• Derrick J. Wyatt's Twitter feed
• Derrick J. Wyatt's Instagram
• Derrick J. Wyatt's Ko-fi page
• Derrick J. Wyatt's Formspring page (archive)
• Derrick J. Wyatt's DeviantArt gallery (deactivated)
• Derrick Wyatt at the Internet Movie Database

Interviews

• Interview with Derrick Wyatt at TFW2005.com
• Derrick Wyatt Unicron.com Interview:
  • Part 1
  • Part 2