Analysis of TF2's character design concepts (beta and final) from a down-to-Earth perspective. Offense edition!
...who, from what I've seen has mostly been pointed out for his prominent two front teeth, and high socks. These aspects have been most popularly been used to suggest an animalistic inspiration. (I really beg to differ)
Starting with the topic of his teeth, you know who else has prominent two front teeth? The model in this dentistry advertisement;
Prominent front teeth is very common in photography and television! It's seen in lots of celebrities and lots of people that we don't even notice it.
The poster is from a dentistry, what are they likely showing? Straight teeth! Perfect, white teeth!
Since straight teeth is a beauty standard it can be part of the indication that he's supposed to canonically be an attractive guy. That he's kind (conventional smiles), hygienic, and/or young. As in many character designs where two-front teeth are emphasized it usually indicates the youth of the character.
High socks are very commonly associated with track and sports in general. Here's an article about it's benefits. Scout's high socks were likely to highlight Scout's athleticism and give a sporty look. As seen in several of his character designs where his outward physical build is more noticeable.
Scout's dog tags were la left-over design choice from TF2's previous military inspiration as it's also mentioned under one of the official blog posts about Scout's beta designs; "This succession of Scouts was produced around a point where we were still exploring the transition from the older military version of TF2 towards a more stylized set of unique individuals." I believe this is also why Scout's cap looks more like a patrol cap than a baseball cap, but in the comics it's more baseball-looking.
I feel like as TF2 over the years Scout's character has leaned more into the kind of ditzy boyish-baseball motif side rather than the original, more serious, yet cocky and impressive young-and-strong-man borrowed from his beta concepts (the far right of the second picture next to the sock closeup), backstory, and as seen in the Meet the Scout video.
Scout's hand wraps evolved from evidence he gets into fights, and is not afraid to get his hands dirty (look at all his heavy blood spilling weapons), to also just another way to say 'he likes baseball!' But it's interpretable either way. I personally prefer standing with what seems to be the original intentions which is a mix of both, to me, the original, unflanderised Scout is a balance of his two extremes. (im sorry scouts section is so long I just have so much to complain about when it comes to him since they give us so so so much of him it pisses me off)
I couldn't find any blog posts officially speaking about his beta designs, however I did find the art itself. I won't show all of it but I think it speaks for itself that the ideas of the Soldier has stayed kind of consistent, except he might have been less insane-like.
For a lot of the concept art they seemed to want to lean into the military beret design, to make the Soldier seem like a character who is authoritative and kind of a commanding, independent force.
The grimace on his face can also show he's kind of rough and intimidating, it still maintains over exaggerated hands and an overall top-heavy blocky build, which can indicate either strength or over exaggerated self importance in a character. If I'm being honest his design on the right gives him look a little closer to Saxton and Mags.
Though, the oversized soldier helmet beta design is what ended being closer to the final design, and I think is where the crazy soldier gag mainly rooted from. It balances out the seriousness and can really visually show the exaggeration of Soldier's being a very patriotic self employed Soldier.
All the stuff on him has mostly been simplified in the final design with a simpler coat, the Soldier looks a bit less bulky.
Pyro's beta concepts compared to their design and gimmicks now is where it gets pretty interesting. Again I couldn't find much I had to dig again. No blog post, big frowny face. I wonder if these are a scan of traditional work or a digital art.
I found these pretty interesting, but I don't know if the red one is actually real?
They obviously went with this one to make the final design, there's no major changes;
But it does seem like once they decided that once her face was completely hidden, they ended up going for the more cryptic 'ooo... whoever he could be...' Judging by the serious expressions, maybe unmasked Pyro would have been originally made to have a more stoic personality, and maybe with the more of 'nonspeaking and terrifying' gimmick without the whole Pyrovision thing which serves for TF2's classic and iconic contrast that makes each character unique. His entire character design seems to mostly lead up to the mask, if anything. But its still enough to know that this is the Pyro.
