After the initial batch of character designs, and a rather off-beat bunch of logo and package concepts, we now arrive at the weapons for each of the StarStrikers. Here's a very brief rundown:

Sylvia's sword was originally dubbed the 'Scuttleshift Implemented Electricity Displacement Sabre'. Sylvia immediately renamed it 'Ellie'. We first caught a glimpse of Ellie back in August in the Darryl & Sylvia pin-up, but this gives you a better idea of how it's supposed to look end-to-end, and in color of course.

Corinne's gun is a custom Beretta 92 (of sorts) that was actually manufactured by Lowenstein. It can fire traditional ammunition via a standard magazine as seen here, but can also use a special mag to unleash powerful blasts of energy. I've accumulated a lot of reference material over the years for Corinne's gun, which helped when I had to painstakingly create this as a vector piece in Illustrator. At first I really wasn't sure about having the StarStrikers emblem on the grip, but now I've come to love the dichotomy of this dangerous weapon having a cutesy smiley face on it!

The Lowenstaff was an aborted design that I'd filed away in my 'old junk' folder. I had planned to start over and try something completely different, but instead decided to resurrect it and try to fix it up a little. I added the binary design on the main body, plus a small StarStrikers emblem and reworked the points on either side. I still feel it's a little plain, but then perhaps a more ostentatious weapon wouldn't suit Lowenstein. Since the Lowenstaff has three modes, I've tried to demonstrate them all here. In its first iteration it's simply a staff - this is the defensive mode. Intermediate mode is a lance, with a spike on one side. Finally, offensive mode is a spear and the weapon becomes double-edged.

From the early days of StarStrikers until very recently Darryl carried a normal, very modern-looking switchblade knife. This design is a little more traditional but at the same time is more of a fantasy weapon: the blade is a conduit for Darryl's psychic energy (much like Ellie is for the electricity from Sylvia's Carnage Gloves). The line-art and coloring for this was all done in a couple of hours, which makes a nice change. ^_^

I still have a few more character and vehicle illustrations to get down, and then I'm just gonna get right down to it and start work on the illustrations for the first book.

EDIT (02/12/2008): Amended the Lowenstaff slightly. I felt it was still a little dull so I changed the body of the staff from black to red.