Eric Siebenaler: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 09:19, 3 May 2023

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 former 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.

His first Transformer was Skywarp.

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.^[1]

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.^[2]

In December 2021, he became head of character design for independent art studio Superplastic and subsequently retired from freelance work in February 2022.

Known design projects

Armada

Super-Cons

Laserbeak
(his first design)
Wheeljack with Wind Sheer

Max-Cons

Overload with Rollout

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 Vector Prime / Galaxy Force Vector Prime		Ultra Class Cybertron Defense Red Alert Jetfire / Sky Shadow Menasor Wing Saber		Leader Class Megatron / Galvatron Metroplex 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

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

File:Megatronclassicstoy.jpg

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

Leader Class

Megatron
Optimus Prime
(with Takashi Kunihiro)

Animated

Optimus Prime vs. Megatron: The Battle Begins
Jetfire & Jetstorm

Deluxe Class

Voyager Class

File:Lugnut animated toy.JPG

Leader Class

Revenge of the Fallen

Scout Class

Voyager Class

Power Core Combiners

Commander Class

5-pack

Dark of the Moon: MechTech

Deluxe Class

Voyager Class

Leader Class

Sentinel Prime

Transformers: Prime First Edition

Optimus Prime versus Megatron (with Jack Darby, Miko Nakadai, and Raf Esquivel)

Deluxe Class

Voyager Class

Convention appearances

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

Extended Eric Siebenaler gallery

Notes

Fellow designer Aaron Archer has observed Siebenaler's key design signature to be "square-jawed robots".^[3]
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 was the Vehicon toy in the Transformers: Prime toyline.^[4]

References

↑ OzFormers forum news post about the promotion and Siebenaler's brief return to Australia
↑ Eric Siebenaler's Linkedin profile
↑ "This is a completely Eric Siebenaler item. He took their brick image and veneered it completely. This is one of his square-jawed robots... you'll start to see in these conversations, especially in deep-dive... the square of the jaw? Almost guaranteed that it is an Eric item. If it's a pointy jaw with goggles, it's more leaning towards me."—Aaron Archer, The Toy Armada, 2022/10/25
↑ http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/transformers-prime-39/transformers-prime-vehicon-in-hand-images-174009/

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

[1] OzFormers forum news post about the promotion and Siebenaler's brief return to Australia

[linkedin-2] Eric Siebenaler's Linkedin profile

[3] "This is a completely Eric Siebenaler item. He took their brick image and veneered it completely. This is one of his square-jawed robots... you'll start to see in these conversations, especially in deep-dive... the square of the jaw? Almost guaranteed that it is an Eric item. If it's a pointy jaw with goggles, it's more leaning towards me."—Aaron Archer, The Toy Armada, 2022/10/25

[4] ttp://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/transformers-prime-39/transformers-prime-vehicon-in-hand-images-174009/

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