Eric Siebenaler

The name or term "Eric" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Eric (disambiguation).

"I see what you did there."—Siebenaler at BotCon 2005

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.

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.

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. 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.

Known design projects

Armada

Super-Cons Laserbeak (his first design) Wheeljack with Wind Sheer

Max-Cons Overload with Rollout

Laserbeak

Energon

Energon Class Arcee Blackout / Stormcloud Blight / Kickback Bonecrusher / Sledge Divebomb		Duststorm / Wideload Insecticon Sky Shadow / Terradive Treadshot / Windrazor		Combat Class Barricade Demolishor Downshift Energon Kicker with High Wire Hot Shot / Energon Hot Shot Inferno		Prowl Roadblock Rodimus Steamhammer Storm Jet Tow-Line		Energon Class Arcee Combat Class Hot Shot
Mega Class Ironhide / Energon Ironhide Jetfire / Overcast Mirage Cliffjumper / Beachcomber		Command Class Landmine / Landquake Bulkhead / Quickstrike		Leader Class Megatron / Galvatron Optimus Prime (with Takashi Kunihiro)		Supreme Class Omega Supreme / Omega Sentinel

Cybertron

Scout Class Armorhide Brakedown Clocker / Swerve Lugnutz		Overhaul / Brushguard Ransack Scattorshot Shortround		Deluxe Class Crosswise Dirt Boss Downshift Hot Shot / Excellion Cybertron Defense Hot Shot		Landmine Override / Override GTS Red Alert Thunderblast Thundercracker		Leader Class Optimus Prime
Voyager Class Crumplezone / Dark Crumplezone Cybertron Defense Scattorshot Evac Mudflap Quickmix (w/ Stripmine) Vector Prime / Galaxy Force Vector Prime (w/ Safeguard)		Ultra Class Cybertron Defense Red Alert Jetfire / Sky Shadow Menasor (w/ Heavy Load) Wing Saber		Leader Class Megatron / Galvatron Metroplex (w/ Drill Bit) Optimus Prime / Galaxy Force Optimus Prime		Supreme Class Primus (early concept work only; Takashi Kunihiro worked on the final toy) Starscream (with Shogo Hasui, based upon The War Within Starscream by Don Figueroa)

Alternators

Dead End Tracks

Classics

Deluxe Class Astrotrain (with Takashi Kunihiro) Bumblebee / Cliffjumper (with Alex Kubalsky) Grimlock (with Takio Ejima)

Rodimus Mirage (with Alex Kubalsky) Ramjet Starscream

Voyager Class Jetfire (with Takashi Kunihiro) Megatron (with Takio Ejima) Optimus Prime (with Don Figueroa, Takio Ejima and Alex Kubalsky)

Box Sets Optimus Prime vs. Megatron: The Ultimate Battle

Voyager Megatron

Transformers (2007)

Deluxe Class Arcee Barricade Bonecrusher Decepticon Brawl Bumblebee (Classic Camaro) (with Alex Kubalsky)

Bumblebee (Camaro Concept) (with Alex Kubalsky) Autobot Jazz Longarm (with Alex Kubalsky and Jared Wade) Payload

Voyager Class Blackout (w/ Scorponok) Ironhide Megatron Optimus Prime Autobot Ratchet Starscream (with Shogo Hasui)

Leader Class Megatron Optimus Prime (with Takashi Kunihiro)

Deluxe Payload

Animated

Deluxe Class Blackarachnia (with Alex Kubalsky) Blurr Bumblebee / Elite Guard Bumblebee (with Alex Kubalsky) Autobot Jazz Lockdown / Blazing Lockdown Oil Slick Cybertron Mode Optimus Prime		Prowl / Samurai Prowl (with Alex Kubalsky) Autobot Ratchet Sentinel Prime (with Alex Kubalsky) Snarl Soundwave Swindle Swoop Waspinator		Voyager Class Blitzwing (with Alex Kubalsky) Bulkhead Grimlock Lugnut / Atomic Lugnut Cybertron Mode Megatron Optimus Prime Starscream / Skywarp Shockwave Wreck-Gar		Leader Class Bulkhead Megatron / Shadow Blade Megatron Ultra Magnus / Roadbuster Ultra Magnus		Deluxe Lockdown Voyager Wreck-Gar
Entertainment Packs Jetstorm and Jetfire (and Safeguard) Optimus Prime vs. Megatron: The Battle Begins

Revenge of the Fallen

Scout Class Dead End Depthcharge Dirt Boss / Deadlift Dune Runner

Ejector Knock Out Ransack Rollbar / Wideload

Voyager Class Demolishor The Fallen Long Haul Megatron

Mixmaster Starscream Stratosphere

Scout Class Dirt Boss

Power Core Combiners

2-packs Darkstream with Razorbeam Heavytread with Groundspike Huffer with Caliburst Icepick with Chainclaw Leadfoot with Pinpoint Salvage with Bomb-Burst Searchlight with Backwind

Sledge with Throttler Skyhammer with Airlift Smolder with Chopster Steelshot with Beacon Undertow with Waterlog Windburn with Darkray

5-packs Bombshock with Combaticons Crankcase with Destrons Double Clutch with Rallybots Grimstone with Dinobots Mudslinger with Destructicons

Over-Run with Stunticons Skyburst with Aerialbots Stakeout with Protectobots Steamhammer with Constructicons

Grimstone with Dinobots 5-pack

Dark of the Moon: MechTech

Deluxe Class Nitro Bumblebee Jolt Ratchet

Skids Topspin

Voyager Class Optimus Prime Skyhammer

Leader Class Sentinel Prime

Voyager Skyhammer

Transformers: Prime First Edition

Deluxe Class Arcee Bumblebee Cliffjumper

Starscream Vehicon (his final design)

Voyager Class Bulkhead Optimus Prime

Entertainment Pack Optimus Prime versus Megatron

Deluxe Vehicon

Convention appearances

• 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

• 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

Mini Mayhem!

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

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Extended Eric Siebenaler gallery

Notes

• Fellow designer Aaron Archer has observed Siebenaler's key design signature to be "square-jawed robots".
• 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.
• 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.

External links

• 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)

Interviews

• An interview with Siebenaler on TFW2005.com about himself, Transformers work and advice to aspiring toy designers
• Ozformers report on meeting Eric, a later response and corrections from the man himself, and an explanation on the relationship between Hasbro and Takara in designing Transformers.