Toy Fair 2012

« Toy Fair 2012 »
Date	February 12–15, 2012
City	New York, NY
Venue	The Times Center

Toy Fair 2012, hosted in New York City from February 12–15, boasts "over 25,000 attendees, 345,500 square feet of exhibit space, 100,000 products with over 7,000 never before seen in the world, 1200+ exhibitors, [and] 1000 global media representatives."

MediaWiki was invited to Hasbro's 2012 Collector-Fan Media Day at The Times Center on Saturday, February 11, and wiki contributors Greg Sepelak and Matt Karpowich attended. Following a presentation starting at 1pm, fan representatives were allowed into Hasbro's product showroom.

Coverage

Venue and showroom

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  This looks familiar...

The Ride

Notes

• There will be six items with exclusive red packaging sold at the Universal Studios gift store outside of Transformers: The Ride – 3D: Cyberverse Legion and Deluxe Class Evac, Deluxe Bumblebee and Optimus Prime, and Voyager Optimus Prime and Megatron. Bumblebee, Optimus and Megatron were represented using the relevant Dark of the Moon molds.
• Confusingly, a slide stated that Cyberverse Legion Bumblebee would be available, but Deluxe Bumblebee was both shown and called out by a presenter.
• Whether any of these items will be redecoed was unstated, but it has been said at previous conventions that at least Evac will be different from his mass retail releases.

Rescue Bots

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  Roll to the rescue capture!
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  The Mobile Headquarters playset
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  Out of the box
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  Mobile Headquarters package art
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  Cody Burns
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  Police station playset
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  Holy crap a badguy! And he's carjacked Chase!
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  Moichendising!
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  Shirts!
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  Heatwave's got your back.
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  Hot lunch program.
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  Yay!

Notes

• A slide during the Transformers presentation stated that Tim Curry and John DiMaggio will be making appearances on the Rescue Bots TV show!

Kre-O

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  Each set's energon parts separate and in combined cannon build
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  "Cycle Chase" box
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  Two Kreon Autobot Troopers
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  Kreon Barricade
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  "Decepticon Ambush" box
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  Kreon Vehicons and Cliffjumper
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  Cliffjumper's rad ATV
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  Vortex up close
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  Kreon Vortex
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  Not exactly "Stealth Bumblebee"...
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  "Robot build" Bumblebee
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  Kreon Bumblebee
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  Wheeljack "robot build"
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  Wheeljack up close
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  Wheeljack "vehicle build"
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  Kreon Wheeljack
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  Pimpin' ride.
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  Knock Out is a handsome devil.
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  Awww yeah.
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  Kreon Optimus
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  Kreon Megatron
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  Part of the Devastator set box-back
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  Scrapper up close
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  Drillbit
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  Scavenger
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  Hightower
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  Devastator
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  Kreon Devastator
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  Kreon Ironhide

Showcased Products

• Cycle Chase set (77 pieces) with Barricade and three Autobot Trooper Kreons
• Decepticon Ambush set (80 pieces) with Cliffjumper and three Vehicon Kreons
• Rotor Rage set (217 pieces) with Vortex and two human Kreons
• Stealth Bumblebee (257 pieces) with Bumblebee, one bulldog and three human Kreons
• Street Showdown set (273 pieces) with Wheeljack, Knock Out and two human Kreons
• Battle for Energon set (379 pieces) with Optimus Prime, Megatron and two human Kreons
• Destruction Site Devastator set (560 pieces) with Devastator, Ironhide and five human Kreons
  • Devastator is made up of Drill Bit, Hightower, Scavenger and Scrapper.

Notes

• According to the slide presentation, there will be 29 new Kreons coming, with 16 of those being Transformers.
• "Energon" is the general theme of this year's line. Not only are there several clear-plastic parts to make a giant energon weapon and Energon cubes included with the sets, but the Kreons themselves follow the pattern: the Transformer Kreons have "energon" weapons, and most them also will come with a secondary "energon" torso piece.
• While Kre-O had its own display space featuring both Transformers and Battleship sets, both the normal Transformers and Battleship areas featured Kre-O sets mixed in with other products.
• According to Kre-O marketing director Kimberly Boyd, all of the sets are designed and developed internally by Hasbro, with Oxford only manufacturing some of their bricks.
• When asked why the human Kreons have generic names, Boyd said it was to simplify things from a trademark perspective. However, she did say that if they ever make sets re-creating specific iconic scenes, like from the movie, that they would definitely use real character names for the humans.
• Small images of a Transformers Kre-O set featuring a big mechanical scorpion and another set featuring a buildable Soundwave were shown during the slide presentation as part of the demonstration of the "build a big energon weapon from parts of the different sets" concept. Neither were present in the showroom or mentioned in the press materials. The same slide was shown at BotCon 2012, again with no explicit mention of the mechanical scorpion or Soundwave.

Movie Trilogy

Notes

• It was announced that the Movie Trilogy figures shown at the San Diego and New York Comic-Cons (redecos of Nitro Bumblebee, Ratchet in white, Soundwave in black and Wheeljack in white with a new head) will only be available in Asia. Only deluxe Optimus Prime with trailer will be available in the United States.

Transformers Prime

Deluxe Class

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  Deluxe Knock Out is ready for his close-up.

Voyager Class

Notes

• Hasbro took full responsibility for the First Edition toys not making it to the United States, and stated they would try to get the molds out - somehow - later in 2012.
• It was announced that the second Prime Entertainment Pack (featuring redecos of Bumblebee and Starscream, plus Silas and a MECH soldier) will only be available in Canada and Asia.

Cyberverse

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  Knock Out and Energon Driller bio
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  Ironhide cardback

Notes

• Optimus Maximus was described in the presentation as "a giant MechTech robot".
• According to design director Joshua Lamb, the reason Hasbro is able to sell Optimus Maximus at a $30 price-point is because it contains roughly the same amount of plastic as the Dark of the Moon Ark. He concept-proofed this idea by physically unscrewing an Ark toy and hot-gluing the pieces into the rough shape of a robot. Awesome!

Bot Shots

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  Mirage
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  Ratchet
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  Single-pack Brawl
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  Brawl in vehicle mode
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  Super Bot Bumblebee
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  Megatron, Launcher version
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  Megatron's Launcher
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  The Decepticon 3-pack. The Autobot set was only shown in the video presentation.
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  Super Bot Acid Storm
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  "The Battle for the Matrix". Aside from Brawl, no idea who's different in this.
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  "Battle for the Matrix" Brawl
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  Hand-painted Bumblebee

Notes

• Jetfire was also on display, but somehow we missed his figure.
• A presentation slide described Bot Shots as being "snack-sized samurais". Hee hee hee.
• Unexpectedly, the promo artwork shown during the presentation was entirely unlike the Bot Shots packaging artwork; much leaner and generally more "aggressive" in style.
• There will be at least 44 Bot Shots figures to collect. Also revealed at the show (but not on display) was an Autobot three-pack featuring new-deco Sentinel Prime, Bumblebee, and unique figure Prowl (a Barricade redeco).

Generations

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  Deluxe Class Fall of Cybertron Jazz
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  Deluxe Class Fall of Cybertron Shockwave
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  Deluxe Class Fall of Cybertron Optimus Prime

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  Jazz in profile
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  Optimus and Shockwave in profile

Notes

• There are 8 planned Generations releases for the fall of 2012. For 2013, it was announced that Generations will expand in a big way, with "over 40" figures planned.
• The cardbacks for the relaunched Generations line intentionally feature larger artwork in an attempt to bring out "more emotion".
• The releases in the relaunched line will be numbered, emulating the Marvel Universe toyline.
• Commenting on the two sets of colors for the Combaticons, it was said that they will be "game-accurate", but that we might see the other colors available at some point.

Notes

Jerry Jivoin, Optimus Prime, and Joshua Lamb's head.

• Due to the event starting late, attendees were allowed to stay in the showroom until 5:30pm instead of 5pm. Sweet!
• The event was kicked off by a presentation from Hasbro Studios president Stephen Davis, who showcased teaser clips from Rescue Bots and Prime season 2, among many other Hub series.
• The presenters for the Transformers brand team were global brand director/marketing director Jerry Jivoin and senior design director Joshua Lamb.
• After showing a trailer for the Jagex's Transformers Universe, it was stated that there were "great toy opportunities" in the MMO. Hmmm!
• Matt Tieger of High Moon Studios took the stage for part of the Transformers presentation, confirming that Insecticons will be in Fall of Cybertron and that Vortex will have a large role in the story. He implied that it took a lot of work to make Blast Off - who had been a "chocolate brown space shuttle" - into something cool.
• At the end of the presentation, it was teased that 2014 is the 30th anniversary of the Transformers brand, and that products celebrating that anniversary are already under development.
• A number of TakaraTomy employees attended the Collector-Fan Media Day, including Hideaki Yoke and Hisao "Curly" Nishimoto.
• Mike Vogel and Jeff Kline of The Hub/Transformers: Prime were also in attendance, but unlike Toy Fair 2011 did not get up on stage. They did later wander through the showroom floor.
• Ex-Transformers designer Vickie Stratford was present as the senior design director of the Marvel Comics team. Speaking of, the Marvel part of the stage presentation featured a sneak peek at one of the 3 3/4" scale figures for 2013... the original Death's Head!