Toy Fair 2016

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Date	February 13–16, 2016
City	New York, NY
Venue	The Times Center

Toy Fair 2016, hosted in New York City from February 13–16, 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 Entertainment Brand Press Preview At Toy Fair at The Times Center on Saturday, February 13, and wiki contributors Matt Karpowich and Greg Sepelak attended. Following a presentation starting at 1pm, fan representatives were allowed into Hasbro's product showroom.

Slideshow presentation and Q&A

• The Transformers presentation was the first of the day! It was hosted by designer John Warden and Ben Montano from marketing. Ben remarked on the oddity that the marketing guy was the one in the t-shirt, where the designer was the one in the nice suit.
• Hasbro is well aware of the demand for more Robots in Disguise Decepticon toys, and more are on the way.
• Titan Class Trypticon was shown off... kind of. He's still in the very early sketch and foamcore construction stage. It was noted his slightly smaller stature will be made up for in heft and length. He also will have connector points to attach other Titan Class citybots and such.
• Hasbro's slide show used Rewind and Chromedome's romance in the IDW comics as the lead-in to introducing Deluxe Chromedome. Awwww. Also, woo, progressive!
• Fortress Maximus was brought out on stage, and he's hefty.

Q&A with John

Due to an increase in the number of invited attendees, this year people were split into two groups and let into the showroom at different times, which severely cut into the amount of time given to take pictures. But one doesn't argue with the fire marshal. The half not in the showroom stayed in the presentation room, and were joined by one of the Hasbro presenters for the toyline they were here to cover for a Q&A session. Transformers fans got to ask questions of designer John Warden.

From that Q&A...

• The head-only Titan Master characters are not off the list for possible Deluxe-or-larger toys with full bodies later. The 1987 Headmasters just took priority out of the gate for bigger toys.
• All-new characters are harder to slot into Generations than for the kid-aimed lines due to the expectations of older fans; it's not as difficult to get people worked up for a new version of even a lower-tier character like Skullcruncher because people already know Skullcruncher. New characters generally need a strong fiction-led story behind them to really make them work in well. So new characters are not off the table, but not super-likely.
• Getting the Unite Warriors Groove and Blast Off toys to the US is a possibility, but no plans announced. Both of those toys were done on TakaraTomy's initiative with zero Hasbro input, long after the Combiner Wars Defensor and Bruticus had been designed and put into production.
• Combiner Wars was very retool/recolor heavy as it was a bit of a gamble and had a harder time selling to the top-office folks. Being able to put out a lot of product on fewer steel molds helped ease concerns. Titans Return will not be as heavy on the recolor/retool front.
• When planning the molds, "pretool" heads are sometimes put in without actual, concrete plans to ever use them. Call it a bit of insurance; the cost is minimal to do so, and if a retailer wants a new exclusive, then that new head is waiting to be used nice and easy.
• Speaking of insurance, the Robots in Disguise toyline was partially so main-Autobot-cast-heavy to secure its footing in the younger-aimed audience. Younger kids want versions of the main good-guy cast more, so the line was tilted to provide. Now that the show and toyline have proven themselves and are doing well, they have more freedom to explore more of the show Decepticon cast.
• Titan Trypticon will not have the more horizontal modern tyrannosaurus profile. He also won't have a walking feature, as they felt including that would likely cost out more impressive gimmicks. Whether or not he includes Full-Tilt and Brunt is up in the air.
• Victorion's green got de-saturated due to feedback from the fans. John noted that they talked with the IDW colorists to nail down a shade of green that would work better with the bright red and evoke the comics coloring a bit more.
• Beast Wars isn't getting the big Anniversary push this year so as not to pull away from the Titans Return series. Hasbro is worried about stretching too thin across too many lines, and both Generations and Robots in Disguise have really strong momentum they want to work on. It's possible we'll see Beast Wars themed product later in 2016, plus the idea was floated that as the series really got its momentum more in 1997, that might be when to make the nostalgia-push. Naturally, Masterpiece Optimus Primal was brought up, and it's a possibility for US release, but no confirmation of commitment.
• A question on the fate of a 2017 Transformers convention was basically deflected to PR, with John quickly and politely remarking that he was a toy designer and maybe let's stick to that kind of question.

Showroom

Robots in Disguise (2015)

Legion class

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  "Groundpounder" apparently didn't clear Trademark.
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  Blizzard Strike Drift.

Mini-Cons

Mini-Cons make up a huge part of the line this year, with a very heavy focus on Weaponizer types. Most are single-pack releases, though there's also multi-packs on the way!

• 
  Collect them all!
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  LORD DOOMITRON, MOTHA!
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  Single-pack Weapon Slipstream
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  Weapon Slipstream in red
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  Slipstream in double-blaster mode
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  Single-pack Bashbreaker
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  Bashbreaker in armored weapon mode
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  Tricerashot
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  Hammer
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  Hammer in ball mode
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  Who's that Mini-Con? ...no, really who?
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  And in ball mode. We're stumped on this stumpy.
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  The Weaponizer 4-pack package
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  Back o' the pack
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  The new Dragonus... as an Autobot?
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  4-pack LORD DOOMITRON
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  4-pack LORD DOOMITRON in weapon mode
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  Lancelon in weapon mode
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  4-pack weapon-mode Bashbreaker... as a Decepticon?

Mini-Con 2-packs

The third wave of Mini-Con 2-packs! This set differs in that the Mini-Cons are Weapon-types partnered with the bigger bots. Also, the clear-plastic armor pieces are designed to work on both the larger bot and their Mini-Con partner!

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  Strongarm & Sawtooth
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  Strongarm & Sawtooth on-card
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  Sawtooth without armor
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  Windstrike without armor

1-Steps

The 1-Step series becomes a little bit of a misnomer going forward, as these toys will have a few smaller extra steps beyond the primary autotransformation.

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  Bisk!
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  Strongarm in truck mode

Warrior Class

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  Windblade jet mode
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  Scorponok robot mode close-up
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  Beast mode Scorponok
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  Deluxe "Power Surge" Optimus Prime close-up

3-Step Changers

No 3-Step Changers were actually on display, but we bring it up here because the press materials for the event confirm a 3-Step version of Bisk and that's awesome.

Power Heroes

These large-scale figures feature electronic lights and phrases taken from the show, activated by attaching Powerizer Mini-Cons to them. Reportedly, the phrases even change depending on which Mini-Con is attached!

Power Surge Optimus Prime

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Rescue Bots

Rescue Bots was only got a passing mention in the slideshow, but that's to be expected with the older-fan aim of the presentation. It shared floorspace with the rest of the Playskool adventure-toy product... though interestingly, it got the whole center wall of its display space, with the licensed Star Wars and Marvel Comics toys shuffled to the sides.

The booth was staffed by a guy who we failed to get the name of, but notably he did not actually work on the toyline. His notes did not cover everything on display.

Mini-Con Assortment

Quick, easy conversions from robo-animals to rescue tools with action features!

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  Valor the Lion-Bot!
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  Valor in rescue claw mode
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  "Cheetor"? Converts to a power socket wrench. Wasn't named in presenter notes.
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  A lineup of Mini-Cons

Rescan Assortment

The new "default" size class sees the return of old favorites, some lost Rescue Bots, a badguy(!), and the newest member of the team Quickshadow! Plus a new 4-pack featuring the core 4 bots!

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  Quickshadow!
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  Quickshadow in car mode
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  Boulder is back in classic bulldozer mode
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  Hoist makes a return!
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  The new MorBot model
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  Motoring MorBot
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  Well, this makes things easier...

Supercharger Assortment

Rescue Bots with pull-back motor action in vehicle mode... and both transplants from the older-aimed lines to boot! The stock photos called these the "Rescue Racers" instead of "Superchargers".

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  Bumblebee car mode
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  Sideswipe? What are you doing here?
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  Pull it back, Sideswipe.

5.5" Amazon exclusives

Color us surprised! These toys are in the original Rescue Bots scale, but are new show characters! Sold only through Amazon.com.

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  Salvage (with original Medix for scale)
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  High Tide robot mode
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  High Tide in watercraft mode

Optimus Prime Racing Trailer

Optimus is back with a car-carrier trailer that launches vehicle-mode Rescue Bots with spring-loaded action. This set also comes with a new-deco version of Blurr!

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  Blurr atop the trailer

Griffin Rock Fire House Headquarters

A massive playset for the Rescue Bots (and other Playkool lines if you're into that). Comes with an older Cody Burns figure in rescue gear, and a rescue ATV.

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  It's big!
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  Cody gets his license

Notes

• It was 3°F in New York City that day. This is not a comedic exaggeration. And that was at 1 in the afternoon. Add in the windtunnel effect the tall buildings of New York give, and yikes. Hasbro actually sent people from Panera Bread to come out and bring hot drinks to the people waiting outside. That was nice!
• This year's presentation seemed much more narrowly-focused across all brands. "Out now/soon" product from previous presentations was more or less nowhere to be seen. Other, later reveals were being held for other conventions so they'd have some scoops (also some stuff just wasn't ready to be shown off yet).
• Attendees were given small bottles of water to drink while there. These bottles were labeled with My Little Pony characters or Robots in Disguise Bumblebee.