Transtech: Difference between revisions
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==Cancellation== | ==Cancellation== | ||
In a 2021 interview, designer [[Aaron Archer]] said ''Transtech''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s was cancelled because ''Beast Machines'' was performing worse than ''Beast Wars'', which Hasbro felt was due to the darker story and how stylised the beast and vehicle modes looked. Hasbro was undergoing a changing of the guard, with [[Brian Goldner]] coming in as CEO and wanting to focus more heavily on Hasbro's own brands over licensed ones, with a more "back to basics" approach.<ref>"For a long time, it had been sequential, so there was ''Beast Wars'', and then ''Beast Machines'' came along—that wasn't performing as well, it was a little more... odd vehicle forms, or even beast forms. ''Beast Wars'' was great, you could tell what things were, even when they were hybrid or Fuzors, you could kind of tell what they were. If you look at ''Beast Machines'', it's kind of like 'a truck thing' or 'a flying thing' or- so that alienated a certain amount of audience, so sales were going down. It got a little dark in the storyline at that same time. They were developing ''Transtech'', but that was very short-lived. [...] That would have been the successor but because it was going down this dark road of ''Beast Machines'' and that wasn't working, obviously the sequel to that wasn't going to happen. So that was also a transition time of leadership, and Brian Goldner came on, and he kind of wanted to reinvest in Hasbro's brands [...] versus always relying on the big licenses [...] so why not develop our in-house things a little stronger with a little more directness? So that doomed ''Beast Machines'' and ''Transtech'' because that whole plan wanted to get back to basics, then. And that's really where this story starts: how do we get back to basics? And what were basics to us then [...] was getting back to vehicles that looked like vehicles [...] and get back to a more traditional Autobot/Decepticon type of storyline."—[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNgWvNmMJfE&t=323s Aaron Archer on ''The Toy Armada'', 2021/12/14]</ref> At the time Hasbro was in severe financial distress: staff layoffs, big debts, and falling revenues for various reasons—most notably overestimating the continuing sales of Pokemon cards—so a change in approach was sorely needed.<ref>[https://money.cnn.com/2000/12/06/news/hasbro/ CNN: "Hasbro warns on 4Q", | In a 2021 interview, designer [[Aaron Archer]] said ''Transtech''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s was cancelled because ''Beast Machines'' was performing worse than ''Beast Wars'', which Hasbro felt was due to the darker story and how stylised the beast and vehicle modes looked. Hasbro was undergoing a changing of the guard, with [[Brian Goldner]] coming in as CEO and wanting to focus more heavily on Hasbro's own brands over licensed ones, with a more "back to basics" approach.<ref>"For a long time, it had been sequential, so there was ''Beast Wars'', and then ''Beast Machines'' came along—that wasn't performing as well, it was a little more... odd vehicle forms, or even beast forms. ''Beast Wars'' was great, you could tell what things were, even when they were hybrid or Fuzors, you could kind of tell what they were. If you look at ''Beast Machines'', it's kind of like 'a truck thing' or 'a flying thing' or- so that alienated a certain amount of audience, so sales were going down. It got a little dark in the storyline at that same time. They were developing ''Transtech'', but that was very short-lived. [...] That would have been the successor but because it was going down this dark road of ''Beast Machines'' and that wasn't working, obviously the sequel to that wasn't going to happen. So that was also a transition time of leadership, and Brian Goldner came on, and he kind of wanted to reinvest in Hasbro's brands [...] versus always relying on the big licenses [...] so why not develop our in-house things a little stronger with a little more directness? So that doomed ''Beast Machines'' and ''Transtech'' because that whole plan wanted to get back to basics, then. And that's really where this story starts: how do we get back to basics? And what were basics to us then [...] was getting back to vehicles that looked like vehicles [...] and get back to a more traditional Autobot/Decepticon type of storyline."—[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNgWvNmMJfE&t=323s Aaron Archer on ''The Toy Armada'', 2021/12/14]</ref> At the time Hasbro was in severe financial distress: staff layoffs, big debts, and falling revenues for various reasons—most notably overestimating the continuing sales of Pokemon cards—so a change in approach was sorely needed.<ref>[https://money.cnn.com/2000/12/06/news/hasbro/ CNN: "Hasbro warns on 4Q", 2000/12/06]</ref><ref>[https://www.fitchratings.com/research/corporate-finance/fitch-lowers-hasbro-sr-debt-revises-outlook-to-negative-07-12-2000 Fitch Ratings: "Fitch Lowers Hasbro's Sr Debt; Revises Outlook To Negative", 2000/12/07]</ref> | ||
The cancellation of ''Transtech'' led to the Japanese ''Car Robots'' cartoon and toyline [[Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2001 franchise)|being imported]] as a stopgap measure while Hasbro and Takara began to work together to jointly create and launch the ''[[Transformers: Armada (franchise)|Armada]]'' line. | The cancellation of ''Transtech'' led to the Japanese ''Car Robots'' cartoon and toyline [[Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2001 franchise)|being imported]] as a stopgap measure while Hasbro and Takara began to work together to jointly create and launch the ''[[Transformers: Armada (franchise)|Armada]]'' line. | ||
Revision as of 09:14, 25 October 2022
| The name or term "Transtech" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Transtech (disambiguation). |
Transtech was originally planned as the follow-up to the Beast Machines franchise. It would have begun in summer 2001, but was instead replaced by Robots in Disguise while Hasbro geared up for Armada.
In 2008, the Transformers Collectors' Club used the Transtech designs as inspiration for the TransTech universe.
Fiction
Story-wise, not much is known about the original concept. It likely would have picked up on technorganic Cybertron following the events of Beast Machines. It's also likely another Mainframe Entertainment CGI animated series would have supported the line, though no evidence of this has ever surfaced.
Toys
The characters transformed into Cybertronic vehicles that in many cases had animal-like features/deco. Cheetor was a Cybertronic race-car with a cheetah-like paint job, for instance, and Prime (confusingly invoking Optimus Primal) was a truck whose front end looked like an ape's face. Designs were done by Draxhall Jump and had somewhat less traditional robot modes (Cheetor had large hoop "wheels" for shoulders and feet, for instance) and didn't always resemble older versions of the character very closely. The overall aesthetic was somewhere in-between Beast Machines' odder moments and the highly complex designs from the live-action film series. Many of these designs were first shown at BotCon 2002 (apparently without Hasbro's permission, as they were pulled from the booth halfway through the show) and subsequently made available online.
Online retailer BigBadToyStore posted a preliminary retailer list of early 2001 Transformers product in December 2000.[1] In addition to revealing several unproduced and delayed Beast Machines toys, the listing indicated the intent of releasing Transtech in the summer of 2001 launching with 4 deluxes (Shockwave, Starscream, Cheetor and Silverbolt) along side 2 mega class figures and 2 Ultra class figures (the requisite Optimus and Megatron). A second wave consisting of a deluxe Rattrap and another unnamed deluxe was due shortly after this initial wave.
The line would have included Maximals carried over from Beast Machines:
A returning Beast Wars character:
Returning Generation 1 characters:
And at least one new character
Design sketches for a Megatron and a Scavenger of uncertain identity also exist.
The toyline got to the early hardcopy prototype stage, and some prototypes, including Cheetor, Starscream, and Prime, have surfaced. None of them apparently reached a stage of production where real, usable molds were created, and so future release is extremely unlikely.
When Draxhall Jump made their design sketches for Transtech available, they also included a number of designs from other lines (such as GI Joe), but put them all under the "Transtech" header for their web page, causing a bit of confusion. This artwork included a work-up sketch of Soundwave as a souped-up blue boom-box, which is often mistaken to be a member of the Transtech line.
 Proceed on your way to oblivion. |
Cancellation
In a 2021 interview, designer Aaron Archer said Transtech's was cancelled because Beast Machines was performing worse than Beast Wars, which Hasbro felt was due to the darker story and how stylised the beast and vehicle modes looked. Hasbro was undergoing a changing of the guard, with Brian Goldner coming in as CEO and wanting to focus more heavily on Hasbro's own brands over licensed ones, with a more "back to basics" approach.[2] At the time Hasbro was in severe financial distress: staff layoffs, big debts, and falling revenues for various reasons—most notably overestimating the continuing sales of Pokemon cards—so a change in approach was sorely needed.[3][4]
The cancellation of Transtech led to the Japanese Car Robots cartoon and toyline being imported as a stopgap measure while Hasbro and Takara began to work together to jointly create and launch the Armada line.
Notes
- According to the creative staff of Transformers Animated at BotCon 2008, Animated Blurr's design is partially inspired by Transtech Cheetor, most notably the hubless wheels making up part of his feet.
- Though the toyline was cancelled, several of the designs have been adapted into other toylines. Notably Armada Megatron, Armada Scavenger and Energon Landmine.
- It may have followed up Beast Machines, but BM's head honcho Bob Skir had never heard of Transtech until 2013.[5]
- In 2005, The designs for Toy Biz's Marvel Megamorphs transforming superhero toyline were done by Draxhall Jump as well. These designs somewhat resemble their Transtech work, specifically with Hulk using Immorticon's design and Iron Man using Starscream's. Unfortunately, Toy Biz lacked the pedigree Hasbro has when it comes to designing transforming robot action figures, so the toys were less than ideal.
References
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20001206140100/http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/news.asp
- ↑ "For a long time, it had been sequential, so there was Beast Wars, and then Beast Machines came along—that wasn't performing as well, it was a little more... odd vehicle forms, or even beast forms. Beast Wars was great, you could tell what things were, even when they were hybrid or Fuzors, you could kind of tell what they were. If you look at Beast Machines, it's kind of like 'a truck thing' or 'a flying thing' or- so that alienated a certain amount of audience, so sales were going down. It got a little dark in the storyline at that same time. They were developing Transtech, but that was very short-lived. [...] That would have been the successor but because it was going down this dark road of Beast Machines and that wasn't working, obviously the sequel to that wasn't going to happen. So that was also a transition time of leadership, and Brian Goldner came on, and he kind of wanted to reinvest in Hasbro's brands [...] versus always relying on the big licenses [...] so why not develop our in-house things a little stronger with a little more directness? So that doomed Beast Machines and Transtech because that whole plan wanted to get back to basics, then. And that's really where this story starts: how do we get back to basics? And what were basics to us then [...] was getting back to vehicles that looked like vehicles [...] and get back to a more traditional Autobot/Decepticon type of storyline."—Aaron Archer on The Toy Armada, 2021/12/14
- ↑ CNN: "Hasbro warns on 4Q", 2000/12/06
- ↑ Fitch Ratings: "Fitch Lowers Hasbro's Sr Debt; Revises Outlook To Negative", 2000/12/07
- ↑ Moonbase 2 interview with Bob Skir, 1:33:20 to 1:33:44
External links
- Transtech concept art gallery from TFarchive.com
- Transtech Megatron Style Study Board
- Transtech Megatron Destroyer Tank Concept drawings
- Transtech Optimus Prime Style Study Board
- Transtech Silverbolt Control Drawing
- Transtech Cheetor Prototype
- Transtech Starscream Prototype
- Transtech concept art and prototype from Transformers Omniverse
