John Warden
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| The name or term "John" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see John (disambiguation). |
John William Warden is a former Senior Design Manager on the Transformers franchise at Hasbro. After working on Thrilling 30 and Age of Extinction product, he became the design lead on the Generations mega-brand from Combiner Wars all the way up through Kingdom. He was also responsible for the creation of the BotBots franchise alongside Associate Designer Aaron Gray.[1] On July 17, 2020, he announced on Twitter that he is now the Global Design Lead at Power Rangers and Ghostbusters.[2] On September 26, at Hasbro PulseCon 2020, he passed on his position to Lenny Panzica.[3]
Known design projects
- Legends
- Voyager
- Brainstorm (with Yūya Ōnishi)
- Roadbuster (with Takashi Kunihiro)
- Sky-Byte (with Tomoya Miyake)
- Whirl
- Leader
- Jetfire (with Takashi Kunihiro)
Robots in Disguise
One-Step Changers
Electronic Stomp & Chomp
Generations/Series M4
- Deluxe Class
- Voyager Class
- Autobot Drift (helicopter)
- Autobot Hound
- Evasion Mode Optimus Prime
- Galvatron
- Leader Class
Generations: Combiner Wars
- Legends Class
- Deluxe Class
- Voyager Class
- Cyclonus
- Motormaster
- Optimus Prime
- Protectobot Hot Spot (with Takashi Kunihiro)
- Silverbolt
- Leader Class
- Armada Megatron
- Megatron
- Thundercracker
- Ultra Magnus (with Takashi Kunihiro)
- Titan Class
- Devastator (with Shogo Hasui)
- Box sets
- Victorion (Pyra Magna, Jumpstream, Dust Up, Stormclash, Skyburst, Rust Dust) (with Shogo Hasui and you)[4]
Generations: Titans Return
- Titan Masters
- Legends Class
- Deluxe Class
- Autobot Breakaway & Autobot Throttle
- Autobot Hot Rod & Firedrive
- Autobot Topspin & Freezeout
- Autobot Twinferno & Daburu
- Blurr & Hyperfire
- Chromedome & Autobot Stylor
- Decepticon Krok & Gatorface
- Decepticon Quake & Chasm
- Hardhead & Furos
- Highbrow & Xort
- Mindwipe & Vorath
- Misfire & Aimless
- Perceptor & Convex
- Scourge & Fracas
- Sergeant Kup & Flintlock
- Skullsmasher & Grax
- Slugslinger & Caliburst
- Triggerhappy & Blowpipe
- Twin Twist & Flameout
- Windblade & Scorchfire
- Wolfwire & Monxo
- Voyager Class
- Leader Class
- Titan Class
The Last Knight: Premier Edition
- Deluxe Class
- Voyager Class
- Leader Class
Generations: Power of the Primes
- Prime Masters
- Alchemist Prime (w/ Submarauder decoy armor)
- Alpha Trion (w/ Landmine decoy armor)
- Liege Maximo (w/ Skullgrin decoy armor)
- Megatronus (w/ Bomb-Burst decoy armor)
- Micronus (w/ Autobot Cloudburst decoy armor)
- Quintus Prime (w/ Decepticon Bludgeon decoy armor)
- Solus Prime (w/ Octopunch decoy armor)
- Vector Prime (w/ Metalhawk decoy armor)
- Legends Class
- Deluxe Class
- Voyager Class
- Leader Class
- Evolution Optimal Optimus (w/ Optimus Primal)
- Evolution Optimus Prime (w/ Orion Pax)
- Evolution Rodimus Prime (w/ Autobot Hot Rod)
- Evolution Rodimus Unicronus (w/ Nemesis Hot Rod)
- Titan Class
- Deluxe Class
- Leader Class
- Deluxe Class
- Commander Class
- Titan Class
- Omega Supreme & Countdown (with Shogo Hasui and Takashi Kunihiro)
- Battle Masters
- Deluxe Class
- Commander Class
- Titan Class
- Core Class
- Deluxe Class
- Voyager Class
- Leader Class
- Commander Class
- Titan Class
Velocitron Speedia 500 Collection
- Origin Bumblebee
- Fangry with Brisko
Convention appearances
- BotCon 2014
- Toy Fair 2015
- BotCon 2015
- Toy Fair 2016
- BotCon 2016
- Toy Fair 2017
- HasCon 2017
- New York Comic Con 2017
- Toy Fair 2018
- San Diego Comic-Con 2018
- New York Comic Con 2018
- Toy Fair 2019
- San Diego Comic-Con 2019
- New York Comic Con 2019
- Toy Fair 2020
- Hasbro PulseCon 2020
Hasbro Pulse livestream appearances
- November 13, 2020's "Hasbro Pulse | Fan First Fridays: Transformers & Ghostbusters | Event One" on YouTube, with Rachel Fleming and Sam Smith.
Notes
- As a kid living in Ohio, John got to tour the American Greetings AmToy design studio for an elementary school career-path project. After seeing how Madballs were made, he decided he wanted to be a toy designer. (Quick, somebody press him for a Retrax update-nevermind.)
- John graduated with a degree in Industrial Design from Ohio State University, and worked in the automotive industry designing car interiors before joining Hasbro in 1999.
- Prior to Transformers, John worked on Star Wars (including Episode 1, Episode 2, and 300th Boba Fett), Shrek 2, Rave Master, and all Pokémon toys from 2000 to 2005 (and was a co-signee on a patent for toy/game convergence used on Pokémon THINKChip Plus figures).
- He is probably best known to Hasbro fans as the lead designer on all G.I. Joe figures and vehicles from 2006 to 2013: Sigma 6, 25th Anniversary, Rise of Cobra movie toys, Pursuit of Cobra (including original designs Shadow Tracker, Jungle-Viper, Zombie-Viper, and Data-Viper), 30th Anniversary, and Retaliation movie figures. Some of the 50th Anniversary figures were also based on his "concept vault" work.
- At JoeCon 2011, Warden and Rik Alvarez participated in a "Treasures from the Hasbro Archives" panel, which revealed that a robot panther modeled on Ravage was intended for release with an unproduced Rise of Cobra "Arctic Baroness" figure. While Warden consistently denied that it was going to actually be Ravage, the use of Ravage design cues was intentional. Neither the Baroness nor the robot panther were tooled, with the panther in the photo being the only one in existence.
- His favorite Transformers are Roadbuster, Whirl, Sky Lynx, and Jetfire. He must be quite impressed with himself!
- Warden even expressed interest for a potential crossover with Power Rangers. Yes, he's serious about this.[12]
- Warden's favorite Transformers toys that he has designed are Combiner Wars Devastator and HasLab Unicron, but neither holds the same special place in his heart as a Shrek 2 action figure that "toots" when you squeeze it. Yes, really.[13]
References
- ↑ Botbots design notes from Hasbro designer Aaron Gray on ArtStation
- ↑ "Excited to share that I have taken on the global design lead role at Hasbro for Power Rangers and Ghostbusters! I am honored/excited to work on these iconic brands and can't wait for fans to see what's in store for them!!⚡️👻"—John Warden, Twitter, 2020/07/17
- ↑ Archive of the Hasbro Pulse Con 2020 stream
- ↑ "Designer Desk" feature on Combiner Wars Victorion at the official Transformers YouTube channel.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Glad to hear you like these guys. Fun fact: when I was doing the deco I actually ordered touch up paint for the actual vehicles these guys were based on to get that tone just right."—John Warden, Twitter, 2022/04/28
- ↑ "Leaked from Cybertron" presentation on Studio Series Grimlock at the official Transformers Instagram
- ↑ Toy Fair 2019
- ↑ "a cool little doodle I found when I designed the concept for the snake-shield/roadway transformer (which later became #slitherfangtransformers ) this sort of this was pretty normal, we would have an idea, I would sketch it out on scrap paper, snap a photo and send it to an artist like @santalux75 to drive home and bring it to life." --John Warden on Instagram
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 *July 17, 2020's livestream on Facebook, with Rachel Fleming and Mark Maher.
- ↑ "One of my favorite projects I've worked on in my career - glad you love all the extra detail we put in!"—John Warden, Twitter, 2022/06/10
- ↑ Transformers panel at New York Comic Con 2019
- ↑ Hasbro Transformers Designer On Possibility of Power Rangers Crossover
- ↑ Get to Know John Warden – Our Interview with the Global Design Lead for Power Rangers
External links
- Interview with John Warden at Bleeding Cool
- Podcast interview with Warden and Lynsey Urban at Slate
- Interview with Warden about the development of Siege Omega Supreme on the Hasbro Pulse blog:
