#rockmon

For some reason when I was a kid Musyamon stood out to me and ended up being the first Digimon to attack the protagonists of my Digimon fanfic. I always think of that when I see the card, so it's kind of special to me.

I know I’ve done this before, but it’s been several years, and my perspective has changed a bit. I’ve gotten really into designing Digimon, and my appreciation of certain ones and aspects have shifted. Plus I feel like my last list was very aesthetic heavy.

10. Rockmon

Rockmon’s an odd Digimon. It’s been my icon on multiple sites for ages, but mostly because it’s just… generic? And I suppose that’s part of the reason I like it, but I also think its origins are interesting. It was a roster bolster, being an altered Frigimon wireframe, only appearing in 3 early games before it suddenly appeared again over a decade or two later in Adventure:.

It's also one of those Digimon with weird name shenanigans. Nowadays, Golemon is distinctly Golemon, and this is distinctly Rockmon, but their names got interchanged a bit in the early days. I've had more than one conversation about which is which.

It’s just a neat Digimon that I have a weird, personal connection to.

9. Paildramon/DinoBeemon

This is an interesting pair. Digimon Adventure 02 was the first season where Digimon were designed explicitly to be toys, and Paildramon was one of them. It almost feels like a proto-DigiXros, being ExVeemon using Stingmon as armor. Not only that, but it continues the thread of themes started by Veemon.

Armadillomon and Shakkomon’s bodies are fully covered in armor, Hawkmon and Silphymon blend their elements together, and Veemon wears its additions as armor while exposing itself underneath. (It’s why the three of them primarily grow bigger as they evolve so these themes can be further replicated and evolved.)

And just as Veemon might wear Courage or Miracles as armor, ExVeemon wears Stingmon as armor. Wormmon has also been shown to be willing to sacrifice itself to protect others, so having Stingmon become armor works incredibly well thematically. And being able to rearrange these parts to form a second Digimon is very cool.

Not only a great design, but evolves the themes of its component Digimon very well.

8. Bastemon

I considered putting another lady on this list. I’ve been following more artists who draw more cute and wholesome art of Digimon’s divas, but at the end of the day I have to rep my girl.

I think I glossed over Bastemon a bit last time because it’s a little awkward to explain why you specifically like a female design, y'know? I like the belly dancer aesthetic, she has some of my favorite jokes in Xros Wars, she was quite intimidating in Ghost Game. She also has an interesting origin, being one of the few original Digimon introduced in Digimon World 3, I believe. Also, in a franchise produced in Japan by Japanese people, most humanoid Digimon look Japanese. Or some shade of purple. And it’s nice to have some diversity.

I just think she’s cute.

7. Hackmon/Huckmon

Our 15th anniversary Digimon, Hackmon is the one Digimon to make the jump directly from Digimon to Appmon. And as someone who enjoys the concept of design and redesign, I really enjoy both versions of Hackmon. Don’t get me wrong, they’re both very edgy, try hard, “we want you to like this Digimon” Digimon, but I do enjoy an edgy design now and again. And I also enjoy how different both versions evolve, with Digimon Hackmon becoming a knightly dragon, and Appmon Hackmon leans much more into an eldritch dragon motif with extra mouths and lots of spikes, yet both still feel like natural evolutions of their starting point.

Going back to their first forms, however, something I really like about these two as redesigns, is that apart from the colors being reversed, there isn’t much difference. Appmon Hackmon’s hood has teeth and drawn eyes while Digimon Hackmon’s has goggles. Digimon Hackmon’s limbs are a bit longer and sharper. There’s the App Links. But really? The biggest difference is just that Appmon Hackmon always wears his hood, and just using that subtle change really makes it feel very different.

It’s something that only a franchise like this can do, and I think that’s very cool.

6. Shoutmon X7

On my last list I put both Shoutmon X3 and OmegaShoutmon X on a higher and lower placement than this, but there are just more designs I’ve grown to appreciate since then, and after getting all of the toys, I just appreciate the engineering we didn’t get but was still fully designed to be a toy.

So while you might not be able to tell from the show alone, Xros Wars seems to be rife with issues and late development based on some of the concept designs we’ve seen, promotional images, differences between designs and toys, etc. Cyberdramon and Tuwarmon have subtle design differences between their artworks and toy releases, OmegaShoutmon and ZeigGreymon were different colors up until their debuts, and if we go back to our topic at hand, Shoutmon X7? Was not originally supposed to include MailBirdramon or ZeigGreymon. Greymon and SkullKnightmon were supposed to DigiXros to become SkullGreymon, and SkullGreymon was supposed to combine with Shoutmon X5 to become Shoutmon X7. It’s just such an interesting history. And while I like what we got, there’s this part of me that really wants to see what could have been as well. Maybe I’ll try my hand at recreating it myself one day…

This design has a tumultuous history, but I still really like it in spite of that.

5. Tyrannomon

Tyrannomon is the first mascot of Digimon, eventually overshadowed by Agumon and Greymon. And even though he still gets some love, I do feel for the guy and wonder what the franchise would be like if they retained that status. But part of the fun of Tyrannomon is its variation game, which is pretty big and feels more diverse than Greymon because they’re willing to take more risks:

We’ve got the classic Tyrannomon from the first VPet, Tyrannomon X (which we’ve also seen the concept designs for, and they are all fire), a dark variant in DarkTyrannomon before Greymon Virus or GeoGreymon ever showed up, a DarkTyrannomon X that borrows from some of those unused Tyrannomon X concepts, a MetalTyrannomon to mimic MetalGreymon, MetalTyrannomon X, the until recently underappreciated MasterTyrannomon who's my usual ace in DDCB, the silly Raremon filled ExTyrannomon, RustTyrannomon who has some silly and crazy cards, and Dinomon who brings in a lot of elements from the original VPet into its design.

Not to mention Tyrannomon also has connections to Mugendramon/Machinedramon, the first Mega, and Chaosdramon, which is a pretty stacked roster of boss characters.

While Tyrannomon doesn’t have as much attention as Greymon, there is definitely a lot of love put into their bevy of designs.

4. Gaioumon Burst Mode/Gaioumon: Itto Mode

Returning to the list at a slightly lower place is Gaioumon Burst Mode. An unofficial design by As’Maria, who designed the original Gaioumon. Gaioumon was originally supposed to be BlackWarGreymon X, but the team liked it so much more than WarGreymon X, and thought fans would too, so they made BlackWarGreymon X a recolor (I think the only one in the X lineup) and made Gaioumon its own Digimon. And then, when we revisited X Antibody Digimon a few years ago, Gaioumon actually did get a Mode Change, bringing this unofficial design to some official capacity as it shares a handful of ideas. Like a few of the Digimon on this list, it’s one with an interesting design story behind it, which seems to be a trend with me.

And even then, it’s just a really interesting pair of designs to compare and contrast. To see what similarities they have and how much they differ. To speculate on what changes were As’Maria’s development as a character designer, which were company mandates, which were recommendations from other designers working on the project, etc. It’s a pair of designs you can just have a lot of fun looking at side-by-side.

A fascinating story of an unofficial design becoming official years later.

3. Zephagamon/Medusamon

It’s probably a little early to put either of these two on a list, but I just want to talk about them, as I find them both to be excellent pastiches of the typical “Hero” Digimon, but in different ways.

Your typical Hero Digimon come in the standard primary colors: red, yellow, and blue, with the majority of them being red or having red in their evolutions. Gammamon is the one exception, but it plays with the concept of color, and has both a red and blue evolution. Additionally, Hero Digimon are always reptilian, with their evolutions being either saurian or draconian in design, and ending off very humanoid. These are the most basic concepts Hero Digimon follow.

And then we get to Pteromon, who is green. And that may be a very basic take, but when you consider that red is the most popular Hero color, and that green is red’s opposite, it is an important choice. Yet they still have that bit of red in their design as well. Furthermore, Pteromon is a bird. Reptiles and birds are intrinsically linked through their ancient origins, putting Pteromon on a separate but parallel path to a lot of the Hero Digimon. Quite a few birds are also famously known for their mimicry, so having a bird Digimon mimicking the motifs of the shows’ reptile protagonists is very on point. And then we get to its evolutions, which perfectly follow the typical routes, starting with getting bigger, then becoming armored and more masculine, and ending up very humanoid and knightly. It’s just such a well thought out design for a spinoff protagonist.

Then there’s Elizamon, who takes a path both similar yet opposite to Pteromon. Elizamon is, and importantly continues to be, a reptile, keeping true to its trope’s origins, yet also avoiding the saurian route of its predecessors while also keeping on that parallel path to Pteromon. (Dimetrodons, while they lived at the same time, were not dinosaurs but giant reptiles.) Elizamon also sticks to the color themes of the Hero Digimon, being redish. The thing that makes Elizamon stand out the most is that its designs are inherently feminine, while everyone who has come before has been very masculine. And then as it evolves it deviates slightly from the norms. It’s supposed to signify that their owner, the rival character, is the true protagonist, only to have the rug pulled out from under us, and is done expertly.

They’re just two very well thought out and thematic designs.

2. DarkKnightmon

DarkKnightmon was not on my original list, yet has risen to second place, superseding Shoutmon even. And I think this is in large part to me finally getting the toy and experiencing the engineering first hand. It’s just such a well done design. DeadlyAxemon isn’t much to look at at first, but being able to turn into a giant axe and fill out SkullKnightmon’s proportions both go to show how well thought out it was. It’s the reason I undertook trying to make a new partner for SkullKnightmon myself with PiercingBowmon, just to see if I could even come close to this level of design. And while SkullKnightmon requires a bit of parts forming, almost every removed part reveals a new element that’s incorporated into DarkKnightmon. The united color scheme, and being in some of my favorite colors also give it a few points. It’s also a popular design, being the only of the Xros Partners to appear in multiple seasons, with DarkKnightmon appearing as an evolution of Gatomon in Adventure: and as a one-off in Ghost Game.

There really isn’t much else to say about this design; it speaks for itself.

1. MetalGreymon/WarGreymon

MetalGreymon topped my list last time, and my love of this design hasn’t changed. It’s actually quite similar to DarkKnightmon in a lot of ways, but with a few key differences that make it stand above. First is that Greymon doesn’t need to transform to combine with MailBirdramon, while SkullKnightmon does require a bit of partsforming. And second is that this is a redesign, which it may be apparent that I enjoy those quite a bit.

That all being said, I’ve also tested my hand at more partners for this design, designing several, but most importantly being WaruMonzaemon and WarGreymon. I spent literal years trying to find both figures so I could have a full understanding of how the design worked before wanting to commit to it, and all that mental attention has made me consider WarGreymon my de facto choice of partner, despite all the original Digimon I’ve designed.

It’s a design I already liked, and through thinking about it and reiterating on it, it ended up cementing itself as first place.