Aaron Archer

This article is about the real-life Hasbro designer. For the Animated supervillain, see Angry Archer{{#switch:{{#sub:Angry Archer|-1}}

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Aaron draws a portrait of Batman for fans at BotCon 2005. LEGENDS OF BATMAN!

Aaron C. Archer (born August 26, 1972<ref name="bday">TFW2005 thread for Aaron's 36th birthday.</ref>) is a former high-ranking employee of Hasbro.

Aaron's career was somewhat unusual insofar as he started out as a regular designer and eventually climbed up the corporate ladder.

As a designer, he first worked on toylines such as Batman and Jurassic Park before being moved to Transformers during the Transmetal 2 phase of Beast Wars. There, he designed toys like the Transmetal 2 incarnations of Cheetor, Iguanus, Dinobot, Optimus Minor, and Megatron.

In the year 2000 Aaron was promoted to lead designer on the Transformers brand, where he played a large role in the planning of Armada, which was released in 2002. He played a similar role in the development of Energon and Cybertron, as well as Alternators. As well as designing characters and planning out the toylines, Aaron also wrote the story concepts for all three Unicron Trilogy lines that were eventually made manifest in the lines' cartoon series ignored by the Japanese production companies. In the middle of all of this, in 2004, he was further promoted to design director.

In later years, he held titles such as "Snr. Design Director", "Director of Global Design and Development" (for the Transformers and G.I. Joe brands) and, finally, "Vice President of Intellectual Property Development". In 2013, he resigned from Hasbro for initially undisclosed reasons.<ref name="aaronquit">"Aaron Archer No Longer With Hasbro, Yup" at the Allspark.</ref> He later confirmed that his main reason was the increasing difficulty of developing "fun" toys while dealing with rising plastic prices and the constant pressure for cost efficiency.<ref name="tfcon2014">"Aaron Archers statements on toy design at Tfcon 2014" at TFW2005.</ref> After living for about a year in Morganton, North Carolina, where they operated their own art studio, he and his wife have since moved back to Rhode Island.<ref name="transmissionsinterview">Interview with TransMissions Podcast on 7 October 2014.</ref>

Aaron is relatively well known in the fandom, partially because he spent several months posting to the boards at TFW2005 under the username "Orson", a name by which fans sometimes still refer to him. This is in turn a reference to Orson Welles, the voice of Unicron in The Transformers: The Movie.

He now has a beard. And long hair. And a long forehead.

Toys Aaron had a hand in designing

Beast Wars

• Transmetal 2 Dinobot
• Transmetal 2 Iguanus
• Transmetal 2 Megatron
• Optimus Minor

Proof that Archer is fluent in Japanese?

Armada

• Hot Shot
• Megatron
• Starscream
• Thrust
• Cyclonus
• Unicron
• Many, many Mini-Cons

Energon

• Signal Flare
• Early Scorponok concept

Masterpiece

• 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime<ref name="transmissionsinterview"/>

Universe (2008)

• Acid Storm (deco stripe pattern)

Orson's World

Aaron Archer did not actually have a magnificent beard when this internet drama was going on. Perhaps if he had, it could have all been avoided.

In early 2002, prior to the official launch of the Armada line, Aaron signed up to the boards of TFW2005 (then merged with the late Transfandom.net, later Transfandom.com) under the alias "Orson". After refuting a fan's pompous claims about the alleged properties of some of the Armada toys, the staff verified his identity as a Hasbro designer and created a special sub-forum for him, named "Orson's World". There, he would answer fan questions, but often only giving very vague hints or rejecting a carefully phrased, multi-point question with a blunt "NO." When the 2005 Boards split from Transfandom, "Orson's World" was migrated to the new TFW2005 site with Aaron's approval.

Aaron's stint as "Orson" eventually came to a sudden halt in September 2003, when he was asked by his superiors to refrain from any further posts at TFW2005 and have his "Orson" account as well as his entire posting history deleted. Aaron initially blamed Jack, the owner of TFormers.com, another fansite, for sending a "sour grape email" to his PR department.<ref name="grapes">Mirrored version of Aaron Archer's farewell message as "Orson".</ref> Jack initially denied any involvement and threatened legal action for defamation of name, but later endorsed the termination of "Orson's World", without directly claiming responsibility: Allegedly, Aaron, in his "Orson" persona, had been behaving "unprofessionally", had been "rude" towards fans<ref name="tformers">Jack's version of the story.</ref> and allegedly secretly supplied TFW2005 with photos of prototypes, thereby undermining a strict ban on photos of prototypes Hasbro had been enforcing for the better part of 2003. Other suspects blamed by "inside sources" were the staff of other fansites such as Seibertron.com, The Allspark (who later went on record several times denying any involvement, even explicitly mourning the loss of "Orson's World") and the owners of the late Transfandom.net/Transfandom.com, the latter of whom had allegedly phoned Hasbro and literally insulted their PR contact.<ref name="tfd">Former Transfandom.com staff member telling his side of the story (archived), continued (archived).</ref>

The true details of the goings-on behind the scenes that had led to the end of "Orson's World" will probably never be revealed in full. Which is probably for the better.

Fiction

Lil' Jerry

Aaron Archer and Lil' Jerry answered fans' questions at BotCon 2005. Lil' Jerry's Big BotCon Adventure

Notes

"Do you want ants? Because that's how you get ants."

• Aaron is a very, very bad speller. Reportedly, he was even known for this within Hasbro. The fact that he managed to rise that far up in the company's hierarchy despite his shortcomings in the writing field can be considered a testament to his skill, dedication, and effort in the areas in which he excels.
• Aaron's favorite Transformer toy during the original run was Perceptor. However, he felt Perceptor never got enough screen/panel time, which he attributes to the fact Perceptor turned into a difficult-to-utilize alternate form.<ref name="triple">Triple Changer: From Toy To Comic To Screen, Shout! Factory Transformers Season 1 DVD featurette</ref>
• When the Energon Piranhacons (who would eventually become the Transformers Collectors' Club Seacons) were first introduced in a Hasbro panel at OTFCC 2004, Skalor was labelled "Archerbot" after Aaron as a joke, as Skalor's name had not yet cleared Hasbro Legal.
• Movie Longarm has an Orson's Towing logo on his door panels, a somewhat obscure nod to Archer.
• Aaron's name and likeness are the basis for the Transformers Animated character Angry Archer. He was unaware of the character until fairly late in production, but went along with the idea when the Cartoon Network team agreed to give him a "robot arm" to fit into the future setting more and made him left handed (Archer is left handed).
• At the BotCon 2008 Hasbro panel, Archer revealed that he was unable to find the Wal-Mart-exclusive Masterpiece Starscream at Wal-Mart retail stores. He was forced to purchase one off eBay.
• Archer was featured on Shout! Factory's G1 Bonus Features "Triple Changer: From Toy to Comic to Screen", "The Combiner: Forming the Transformers Animated Series" and "The Autobots, the Decepticons & the Fans". He was also featured on Shout! Factory's Beast Wars Bonus Features "Maximize! Creating A New Breed Of Transformer" and "Remembering the Spark".
• At his BotCon 2016 panel, he claimed to have designed more Jar Jar toys than anyone else.

Footnotes

<references />

External links

• Aaron's own website
• An interview with Aaron about his work on the Transformers and his youth, at CantonRep.com (archived)
• An interview with Aaron at Fields Edge.com
• Photos of Aaron's wedding.
• Fans of Aaron Archer's beard