Transformers: The Last Knight Google Hangout with the Transformers Team

On June 1 2017, the Hasbro Transformers brand team held an online press conference highlighting main-line and exclusive products based on the upcoming The Last Knight film. Matthew Karpowich attended for MediaWiki.

Presenters

• Aristides "Arrow" Membreno - Design Manager, Transformers. With the brand for a year and a half, works on exclusives.
• John Warden - Design Manager, Transformers. Knew most of the people at the Hangout already!
• Ben Montano - Brand Marketing Director, Transformers. Marketing director for more than two years, been at many conventions.
• John Frazier - Senior Brand Development + Marketing Manager, Transformers. With the brand team for two years, his first time meeting fans.

"Arrow," John (Warden), Ben, John (Frazier). They are presumably higher-resolution in real life.

The Event

Following some incidental sound and video issues (yay technology), the Hangout began slightly after 5pm EST with a "show and tell" that dove into more detail on items that Entertainment Weekly had revealed earlier in the day.

• "Arrow" showcased Premier Edition deluxe class Hot Rod with his licensed Lamborghini alt-mode. Hot Rod was mentioned as part of an initiate to bring story-elements and older lore forward into the movie universe. He is a Walmart exclusive and part of the "Autobots Unite" exclusive program.
• Premier Edition deluxe "knight of Cybertron" Skullitron was up next. The team considers his rusty deco and "insane broken down skull face" to be his highlights. The rust was said to be pearlescent and functioned like a paint-wash. He is a Toys R Us exclusive and part of its "Mission to Cybertron" series.

Nyeh! Skullitron!

• Combiner Infernocus was called out as being in some of the television commercials - or "versions of him," anyway. The fit of the combination was improved over previous versions of the molds. Infernocus comes with a tiny clear representation of the mysterious alien sorceress Quintessa. He (they) is (are) also a Toys R Us "Mission to Cybertron" exclusive.

Sufficiently advanced alien magic is indistinguishable from science.

• John Warden's favorite is Premier Edition deluxe Cogman, a Headmaster! Cogman's converting head has the same type of connections as the concurrent Titans Return toys and is entirely compatible with them, as is his larger body - which was specifically mentioned as a Transtector! Cogman's body turns into a licensed Aston Martin DB-11 that seats two.
  • As part of an Easter egg, Cogman's Titan Master has cross-compatibility with the voyager class Decepticon called Nitro. Nitro's head is removable (but does not become a little robot), which enables the tiny Cogman to take over Nitro's body. Nitro's jet mode also has an opening cockpit that Cogman can ride in!

Cogtro? Nitman?

• Premier Edition leader class Dragonstorm was called out as a Duocon made up of Dragonicus (dra-GONE-icus, guy with wings) and Stormreign (guy with mace)! Warden related that Hasbro has been working more closely with Paramount to get the CGI model files from the filmmakers in order to make the toys even more accurate, with Dragonstorm's beast heads based on data from the film FX.
  • Each half of Dragonstorm is larger than a deluxe, but not quite the size of a voyager class toy. They're sort of in a class of their own.
  • Dragonstorm's wings have a "metal thorn" look and deco to make them look ancient.
• All exclusive items are planned to be available in overseas markets as well, though it is possible they'll be at different region-specific retailers.