Hasbro Q&A/May 2009: Answers
1. Given the advances in toy design over the last twenty years, if you could go back in time and impart one piece of knowledge to the Transformers design team of the 80s, what would it be?
- Make friends with the young Michael Bay!
2. Transformers Universe Overload is a redeco of Cybertron Defense Scattorshot in shades of green and brown, which makes him look a lot like the Generation 1 Micromaster Flak. But his bio makes him out to be the character Overload from the Unicron Trilogy, who the toy does not resemble in any way. What led to this peculiar combination of toy and bio?
- As we continue to move into the future of the brand we continually try to re-imagine and re-invent our characters. For example, Overload, who was a big truck in G1, was due for a bit of an upgrade. As a result, we felt giving him a military deco and making him a missile launcher was a serious upgrade that also allowed him to exist in today's world.
- We certainly do out best to avoid any potential conflicts, but as time moves forward and the brand continues to evolve there is always potential for some overlap.
3. In June 2007, Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast released the first series of the Transformers 3D Battle-Card Game (whose website is still functioning at http://www.wizards.com/transformers/ ). This was followed by the first expansion set, "Energon Wars", in October 2007. There were rumors of a second expansion set, supposedly exclusive to Target stores, which was canceled before anything was revealed about it. Was a second expansion set ever actually in development by WotC, and if so, can any light be shed on it, character or concept-wise?
- Wow, we don't get too many questions about the Battle Card Game! We were not aware of a second expansion set, so we checked with the Wizards of the Coast team. They confirmed that there was not a second expansion set that considered. So unfortunately there are no concepts that could be shared.