A question archive of, and links to the answers from, the March 2010 Hasbro Q&As, released on March the 31st or shortly thereafter.
Questions
16bit.com
- Can you give us a status report on Transformers Animated in 2010? After seeing Animated Rodimus show up briefly on Kmart.com and Blackout in Japanese collector magazines, we'd love to know what (if anything) to expect the currently available Arcee and Cybertron Ratchet figures, such as if these might be absorbed into "Generations" or put back on some degree of long-term hold. Also, if like a recent magazine article alluded and unreleased toys do make it into the Japanese range, will it be likely to see these in the American line or should we just consider Animated more or less over?
- How important is the character selection when assembling a line? For example, "Transformers Universe 2.0" had few of the heavy hitters in it-- no Optimus Prime, no Megatron, no Bumblebees, etc. Meanwhile, "Transformers Generations" seems to be starting off with War for Cybertron versions of several major characters. With Star Wars and GI Joe it seems like there's a mandate to include Duke/Luke/Snake Eyes/Darth Vader/etc. in the line at all times, but it seems there's much less of this going on with Transformers. So just how much weight do you grant characters over gimmicks and alt modes and whatnot, anyway?
Actionfigs.com
- Unlike the G1 cartoon on DVD, the pilot and first 2 seasons of Transformers Animated were released on DVD directly by Hasbro. However, also unlike the G1 cartoon DVDs, the final season of TF Animated has never been released on DVD, despite season 2 being released 14 months ago and the final episode having aired nearly a year ago. Since then, Transformers Animated DVDs for seasons 1 and 2, as well as the pilot DVD, have long since gone out of print. Yet TF Animated has grown to be a fan favorite. Since Hasbro was publisher and distributor on these DVDs, the question goes to you: when will the season 3 DVD set finally be released? What has caused the delay, and is it possible to see the other DVDs in the series re-released so late-comers can also get their hands on the whole series, hopefully before the toys leave the shelves?
- With the 3rd Transformers movie coming up next year, it likely means another break for TF Classics, so this seems like the best time to ask the following... Would Hasbro be willing to do an official fans choice poll that could be included in the next round of Classics that comes after the 3rd TF movie, or at least sponsoring a fans choice poll from the fan sites? This would be an exciting way to keep hardcore fans feeling involved in the line, and give Hasbro plenty of time to design the winning figure. Of course, fans would prefer to choose a brand new figure, but even deciding on a remold or repaint would be something. So, any chance we could get a fans choice poll?
ActionFigureCollectors.com
- How much design input did Hasbro have in all of the characters for the "War for Cybertron" video game. Obviously some (hopefully a lot) of these characters need to translate to toy form. Did Hasbro dictate the design for Activision, vice versa, or was it a 50/50 collaboration?
- Can you tell us if any of the unreleased season 3 Transformers Animated toys such as Rodimus will ever see the light of day here in the US? And if so, what might the outlet be?
AllSpark.com
- Fans have come up with unofficial terms to refer to certain properties of Transformers toys, such as:
- "kibble" for parts of one form that serve no function in the other form and basically just hang off or stick out (such as the robot "backpack" on Human Alliance Autobot Skids, the "wings" on Revenge of the Fallen Deluxe Class Sideswipe's back, or the visible hands on Revenge of the Fallen Voyager Class Starscream in his F-22 mode)
- "faux-parts" for elements of the robot mode that are sculpted to resemble characteristic parts of the alternate mode which end up elsewhere on the robot mode due to the conversion scheme (such as the fake wheels on Revenge of the Fallen Legends Class Sideswipe's feet, or the fake truck windows on Voyager Class Optimus Prime's chest)
- "shellformer" for Transformers toys that basically convert by hiding the robot body inside a "shell" that makes up most of the alternate mode (such as Revenge of the Fallen Human Alliance Sideswipe, or Cybertron Deluxe Class Thunderblast)
- Do these elements ever come up during the design process? And if yes, does the design team have its own terminology to refer to them?
- Does the Transformers team have any fun, humorous or heart-warming stories behind any of the Transformers names? Were any of the names chosen by a child who thought it was "a aweswome" name? Have there been any other "fan-inspired" names other than Dispensor? Did anyone in the Hasbro offices start a hunger strike after the name "Fearswoop" was chosen for the Walmart exclusive rather than "Hooligan"? That sort of thing.
ASM
- Would you be able to provide production information for the online "Cyber Mission" episodes? Who are the writers and the voice actors behind these shorts?
- Between Ratchet and Lockdown's weapon-sharing, Recon Ironhide's exchangeable 3mm peg weaponry, and the Mindwipe/Skystalker & Sea Spray/Breacher team-ups, it seems like a lot of thought was put into the interactivity of recent toys. How deeply was this cross-figure compatibility developed?
Cool Toy Review
- What are the chances of gestalts coming out that are more closely designed from the G1 sources? I've seen the Superion, Bruticus, and Devastator molds from the past couple of years, but they are the Energon molds and not G1 that most people want. The same mold used for two characters in the same set doesn't help either.
The characters that make up the gestalt could be released over the course of the year with a new gestalt each year. The characters could vary in size from deluxe to voyager to Ultra. A lot of people thought, or at least hoped, that Silverbolt was going to be like this. This would make for some awesome and high quality combiners. The time for collecting figures to build something bigger has gotten popular again over the past several years. Just look at the Marvel Legends and Star Wars build a droid stuff.
- Will the masterpiece Skywarp be easier to get than the MP Starscream? I never saw one at any of the 9 Wal-marts in my area. As a matter of fact, I even inquired using the UPC code & none of them even had it in the system as orderable. Heck your own Hasbro representative even told me none of the stores in my region were going to get it. Of course she also had no idea what the currently shipping Star Wars figure packaging looked like. I'm in Carbondale, IL, by the way.
Cybertron.ca
- Will Masterpiece Grimlock be released in Canada?
- Why have you chosen to produce toys for characters that were not even in the movie when you could have produce the remaining Constructicons, for example? Voyager Overload instead of Voyager Bludgeon, Voyager Hightower instead of Voyager Mindwipe and Deluxe Scrapper instead of Deluxe Lockdown?
Parry Game Preserve
- At Toy Fair this year, a Classics 3.0 Drift was shown. Has a redeco/retool been planned for this toy at this time?
- What design considerations did the team discuss to bring the character Lockdown from the Transformers Animated world over to the Revenge of the Fallen line?
Raving Toy Maniac
- Fans were excited to see Human Alliance Jazz with Captain Lennox debut at Toyfair. However, many fans have expressed confusion about the deco design choice for Captain Lennox. Josh Duhamel, who plays Captain Lennox, has facial stubble and short, spiky dark brown hair in all of his movie appearances. However, the Human Alliance Captain Lennox figure has no facial hair and non-spiky, whitish-blonde hair. Was this deco design choice purposeful? Is there any chance of the deco on the Lennox figure being changed before the figure's release, as it is unlikely we will ever get another figure of him?
- Recently it was revealed that Toshiba would be releasing the Device Label line of Transformers from Japan. Any insight into Hasbro's involvement in this and why it was decided that this was the right line to release outside of Japan over other lines that are currently exclusive to the Japanese market?
Seibertron.com
- At best, it has been really difficult to find the Toys R Us exclusive Transformers Animated Arcee and Cybertron Mode Ratchet. Rumor has it that these two figures have been cancelled after their extremely limited initial release. Can you let us know what's going on with those two toys as well as the rest of the remaining Transformers Animated figures we saw revealed last summer at BotCon 2009 such as Rodimus and Blackout?
- It seems like Hasbro's toys and IDW's comics are missing an opportunity to cross promote each other. In the past, it seemed like it was a very successful venture of promoting current toys in the current comic books (such as the G1 toys in the Marvel comic books back in the 80s). Can you explain why the current comics are not being used as a marketing device by Hasbro to directly promote a current series of Transformers toys (outside of the ROTF comics ... this is more of a reference to the Classics / Universe toys in relation to the ongoing G1-themed comics)?
TFormers.com
- During Toy Fair 2010, Hasbro's other lines including Marvel showcased Robot Heroes-like figures, but the Robot Heroes line was not included in the Transformers portion of the conference. What precipitated the decision to cancel the Robot Heroes even though there were still figures scheduled to be released?
- How often do team members of the Hasbro Transformers team peruse fan media websites and/or forums to get an idea of what fans think about a newly-released figure, recent press event (like Toy Fair, BotCon), or desires for certain characters?
TFViews.com
- Will we see more secondary characters from one aesthetic being translated to others? This questions is especially focused on new character-specific molds (like movie Lockdown) rather than recolors (like movie Gears). We know it helps when the character has an interesting story to add to the lore, or interacts with a main character in their line. So beyond that, what is the process behind deciding which characters get that treatment?
- Why is it that Leader-class figures in the ROTF line have just 1 voice clip per figure, yet the Animated line had 3 lines of dialogue per Leader figure? It can't just be about paying actors since ROTF Jetfire uses a different voice actor altogether. And why is it that all of these Leader-class ROTF figures single voice line are just them introduce themselves rather than having interesting movie lines or at least exciting, in-character dialogue? Even some of the little-kid-themed ROTF toys do more talking than these $40+ figures, doesn't that seem like a waste of a voice chip to use merely 1 line of dialogue?
TFW2005
- What is Hasbro's strategy for the release of the remaining, announced Transformers Animated figures such as Rodimus, Ironhide, Blackout, Thundercracker, etc.?
- How do you solicit and determine which stores receive exclusives? (Not answered.)
TFWiki.net
- Is the new Voyager Sea Spray a character who lives in the live-action film universe?
- At Toy Fair 2010, a yellow redeco of the Revenge of the Fallen Voyager Long Haul named "Payload" was revealed. There are two other yellow Constructicon dump trucks that exist within the extant Revenge fiction: firstly, within the movie itself, a yellow dump truck that is a different model truck from Long Haul forms Devastator's left leg with a yellow Rampage, while Long Haul himself forms the entirety of Devastator's right leg. Meanwhile, within the Revenge video games, there are the "Constructicon Warriors", generic enemies that are the Long Haul game model in yellow. Which of these concepts, if either, does Payload represent? Is Payload perhaps the unknown yellow dump truck from the film, who is in turn a Constructicon Warrior? Or is Payload not connected to either, meaning that there are three separate yellow dump truck characters within the Revenge universe?
Toyark
- What is the reasoning behind using the Chromia mold for Hunt for the Decepticons Elita-1 as opposed to the Arcee mold? Concept art for Elita-1 appears to resemble the Arcee mold more than the Chromia mold.
- Was the recent shift from twist-ties to a paper-based tie done on the basis of cost, environmental sustainability, or some combination of the two? Will we see other changes in how Transformers are packaged, from an environmental perspective, in the near future?