Smooth transition between two mesh?

Is it possible to do this without shapekeys? I was thinking something along the lines of morphing one mesh into the very different shape of another mesh, but smoothly and without the ‘now it’s one, POOF! now it’s the other’. I am open to all ideas( even shape keys, but preferably not). Thanks in advance!

I used shape keys to do this it worked ok. I used sculpt to get it fairly close havent used this in 2.5 yet though

Here’s an older post with a shape key example
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=186051&highlight=morph

Thank you for the speedy response and the links! :smiley: