Eric Siebenaler
| This article is about . For other uses of "Eric", see Eric (disambiguation)|The name or term "Eric" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Eric (disambiguation).}} |

Eric J. Siebenaler is a Hasbro designer who worked on the Transformers brand for several years. He graduated from Purdue University with a degree in Industrial Design. Siebenaler joined the Transformers team in 2002, and his first design was Armada Laserbeak. Siebenaler was largely responsible for developing the Transformers Animated series, serving as its lead designer.
Siebenaler did not attend BotCon 2008 personally as he was in Australia on a working holiday. However, Hasbro provided a life-size cardboard cut out of Siebenaler that fans could write messages on, which Hasbro would then mail to him. The non-cardboard Siebenaler briefly appeared on the Australian children's program Toasted TV on August 8, 2008, to talk about designing Animated toys. He also appeared on Network Ten's TTN and men's magazine FHM for similar interviews.
On November 8 and 9, Siebenaler returned to Australia as part of a promotion by Hasbro Australia, the Cartoon Network Australia and K-Mart Australia. He drew Transformers designs by children who had won a Cartoon Network competition.<ref>OzFormers forum news post about the promotion and Siebenaler's brief return to Australia</ref>
BotCon 2011 was his last as a member of the Transformers design team, as he had already moved onto the Star Wars brand within Hasbro a year prior. Following a brief stint as design manager for the Littlest Pet Shop brand, Siebenaler quit Hasbro in 2014 and went freelance under the name EJS Design LLC. Siebenaler continued to work with the Transformers brand as a freelance artist, notably contributing a significant portion of the concept design work for the Transformers: Cyberverse franchise.<ref name="linkedin">Eric Siebenaler's Linkedin profile</ref>
In December 2021, he became head of character design for independent art studio Superplastic and subsequently retired from freelance work in February 2022.
On October 25, 2025 during his and Aaron Archer's toy design panel at TFCon Chicago, Siebenaler annouced that he is returning to the Transformers toy design team and will be working with Mark Maher on the Generations line. <ref>[1]</ref> Then on March 30, 2026 he annouced he would be returning to work at Hasbro full time though which department he's currently working on remains to be known. <ref>https://www.instagram.com/p/DWhVmk7EibE/?igsh=MWJoNnJrYWkxZGE0MA==</ref>
Known design projects
[edit]Super-Cons
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Max-Cons | ![]() |
| Energon Class | Combat Class | ![]() ![]() | ||||||
| Mega Class | Command Class | Leader Class | Supreme Class |
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| Voyager Class | Ultra Class | Leader Class | Supreme Class
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Deluxe Class
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(with Alex Kubalsky) |
Voyager Class
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Box Sets
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Transformers (2007)
[edit]Deluxe Class
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Voyager Class
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Leader Class
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Deluxe Class
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Voyager Class
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Leader Class | ![]() ![]() | ||||
Entertainment Packs
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| Scout Class | Voyager Class | ![]() |
2-packs
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5-packs
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| Deluxe Class | Voyager Class | Leader Class | ![]() |
| Deluxe Class |
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Voyager Class | Entertainment Pack
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Convention appearances
[edit]- OTFCC 2003
- OTFCC 2004
- BotCon 2005
- BotCon 2006
- BotCon 2007
- BotCon 2009
- BotCon 2010
- San Diego Comic-Con 2010
- BotCon 2011
- San Diego Comic-Con 2025
Hasbro Pulse livestream appearances
[edit]- January 21, 2026's The Origins of Transformers: Age of the Primes | SDCC Artist Roundtable | Hasbro Pulse on YouTube, with Mark Maher, Marcelo Matere and Ken Christiansen.
Fiction
[edit]Mini Mayhem!
[edit]Eric assured everyone that, though the Transformers Animated toys wouldn't be out until June 2008, they would be worth the wait. When Cyclops wound up getting kicked out of his house for watching too much Transformers Animated, he wound up crashing at Eric's house, and oggled Blackarachnia off his big-screen TV. Later in the year, at BotCon, Megatron attempted to track Eric down so he could use the upcoming toy designs to conquer the Autobots! But Eric was hanging out with Unarchy in Australia at the time, and so Megatron's plan fell to shambles.
Eric met negative-polarity Rodimus and Ultra Magnus, and pleaded with them to deactivate their aggressor units to avoid getting beaten up by the two of them. Whether he swayed them to spare him or not, he definitely didn't succeed with Snarl, who left him groaning on the floor in pain after socking him in the gut.
On Thanksgiving Day, Eric enlisted Derrick J. Wyatt to cook a turkey for dinner. But Derrick got too distracted by his new designs for Transformers Animated, and wound up burning the bird. Derrick and Eric were later seen eating a pie together, but Optimus had something much more exciting to show off... Sunstreaker and Hot Rod eating a pie! Mini Mayhem!
Gallery
[edit]Notes
[edit]- Fellow designer Aaron Archer has observed Siebenaler's key design signature to be "square-jawed robots".<ref>{{#if: This is a completely Eric Siebenaler item. He took their brick image and veneered it completely. This is one of his square-jawed robots... you'll start to see in these conversations, especially in deep-dive... the square of the jaw? Almost guaranteed that it is an Eric item. If it's a pointy jaw with goggles, it's more leaning towards me. |"This is a completely Eric Siebenaler item. He took their brick image and veneered it completely. This is one of his square-jawed robots... you'll start to see in these conversations, especially in deep-dive... the square of the jaw? Almost guaranteed that it is an Eric item. If it's a pointy jaw with goggles, it's more leaning towards me."—|}}{{#if: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow2iKv7DrL4&t=3717s |Aaron Archer|Aaron Archer}}{{#if: The Toy Armada |, The Toy Armada|}}{{#if: |, ""|}}{{#if: 2022 |, 2022{{#if: 10 |/{{#switch:{{#len:10}}|1=010|10}}{{#if: 25|/{{#switch:{{#len:25}}|1=025|25}}|}}}}|}}{{#if: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow2iKv7DrL4&t=3717s ||}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow2iKv7DrL4&t=3717s%7C7%7C11}}%7Cweb.archive= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow2iKv7DrL4&t=3717s%7C8%7C11}}%7Cweb.archive= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow2iKv7DrL4&t=3717s%7C7%7C10}}%7Carchive.is= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow2iKv7DrL4&t=3717s%7C8%7C10}}%7Carchive.is= (archive link)|}}{{#if: | (dead link)}}</ref>
- On the Transformers Animated season 2 DVD set, Eric provides episode commentary on "Mission Accomplished" and "Garbage In, Garbage Out" alongside Marty Isenberg, Derrick Wyatt and Matt Youngberg.
- He gets served at Maccadam's Old Oil House.
- The last toy he designed for the Transformers brand during his original run was the Vehicon toy in the Transformers: Prime toyline.<ref>{{#if: TFW fun fact: The Transformers Prime Vehicon toy is the last toy to be designed by the greatly respected Hasbro design team member Eric Siebenaler. It’s a far cry from his first Transformers work, Armada Laserbeak. Those are the bookends if you want to own the first and the last. |"TFW fun fact: The Transformers Prime Vehicon toy is the last toy to be designed by the greatly respected Hasbro design team member Eric Siebenaler. It’s a far cry from his first Transformers work, Armada Laserbeak. Those are the bookends if you want to own the first and the last."—|}}{{#if: http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/transformers-prime-39/transformers-prime-vehicon-in-hand-images-174009/ |Sol Fury|Sol Fury}}{{#if: TFW2005 |, TFW2005|}}{{#if: Transformers Prime Vehicon In Hand Images |, "Transformers Prime Vehicon In Hand Images"|}}{{#if: 2011 |, 2011{{#if: 12 |/{{#switch:{{#len:12}}|1=012|12}}{{#if: 21|/{{#switch:{{#len:21}}|1=021|21}}|}}}}|}}{{#if: http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/transformers-prime-39/transformers-prime-vehicon-in-hand-images-174009/ ||}}{{#switch:{{#sub:http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/transformers-prime-39/transformers-prime-vehicon-in-hand-images-174009/%7C7%7C11}}%7Cweb.archive= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/transformers-prime-39/transformers-prime-vehicon-in-hand-images-174009/%7C8%7C11}}%7Cweb.archive= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/transformers-prime-39/transformers-prime-vehicon-in-hand-images-174009/%7C7%7C10}}%7Carchive.is= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/transformers-prime-39/transformers-prime-vehicon-in-hand-images-174009/%7C8%7C10}}%7Carchive.is= (archive link)|}}{{#if: | (dead link)}}</ref>
- Considers Armada Laserbeak his most dissapointing figure he ever worked on which was his first figure he designed.
- His first Transformer was Skywarp.
- He still continues to post Transformers art on his Instagram account of Unicron Trilogy characters in the Animated style.
References
[edit]External links
[edit]- Personal website
- LinkedIn account
- DeviantArt account
- Instagram account, featuring a selection of his Cyberverse work
- A Tribute to Former Transformers Designer Eric Siebenaler by Kickback, TFW2005.com (Also where the updated toy design list came from, thanks to TFW2005)














