Hasbro Q&A/March 2010
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A question archive of, and links to the answers from, the March 2010 Hasbro Q&As, released on March the 31st or shortly thereafter.
Questions
AllSpark.com
- Fans have come up with unofficial terms to refer to certain properties of Transformers toys, such as:
- "kibble" for parts of one form that serve no function in the other form and basically just hang off or stick out (such as the robot "backpack" on Human Alliance Autobot Skids, the "wings" on Revenge of the Fallen Deluxe Class Sideswipe's back, or the visible hands on Revenge of the Fallen Voyager Class Starscream in his F-22 mode)
- "faux-parts" for elements of the robot mode that are sculpted to resemble characteristic parts of the alternate mode which end up elsewhere on the robot mode due to the conversion scheme (such as the fake wheels on Revenge of the Fallen Legends Class Sideswipe's feet, or the fake truck windows on Voyager Class Optimus Prime's chest)
- "shellformer" for Transformers toys that basically convert by hiding the robot body inside a "shell" that makes up most of the alternate mode (such as Revenge of the Fallen Human Alliance Sideswipe, or Cybertron Deluxe Class Thunderblast)
- Do these elements ever come up during the design process? And if yes, does the design team have its own terminology to refer to them?
- Does the Transformers team have any fun, humorous or heart-warming stories behind any of the Transformers names? Were any of the names chosen by a child who thought it was "a aweswome" name? Have there been any other "fan-inspired" names other than Dispensor? Did anyone in the Hasbro offices start a hunger strike after the name "Fearswoop" was chosen for the Walmart exclusive rather than "Hooligan"? That sort of thing.
ASM
- Would you be able to provide production information for the online "Cyber Mission" episodes? Who are the writers and the voice actors behind these shorts?
- Between Ratchet and Lockdown's weapon-sharing, Recon Ironhide's exchangeable 3mm peg weaponry, and the Mindwipe/Skystalker & Sea Spray/Breacher team-ups, it seems like a lot of thought was put into the interactivity of recent toys. How deeply was this cross-figure compatibility developed?
Cool Toy Review
- What are the chances of gestalts coming out that are more closely designed from the G1 sources? I've seen the Superion, Bruticus, and Devastator molds from the past couple of years, but they are the Energon molds and not G1 that most people want. The same mold used for two characters in the same set doesn't help either.
The characters that make up the gestalt could be released over the course of the year with a new gestalt each year. The characters could vary in size from deluxe to voyager to Ultra. A lot of people thought, or at least hoped, that Silverbolt was going to be like this. This would make for some awesome and high quality combiners. The time for collecting figures to build something bigger has gotten popular again over the past several years. Just look at the Marvel Legends and Star Wars build a droid stuff. - Will the masterpiece Skywarp be easier to get than the MP Starscream? I never saw one at any of the 9 Wal-marts in my area. As a matter of fact, I even inquired using the UPC code & none of them even had it in the system as orderable. Heck your own Hasbro representative even told me none of the stores in my region were going to get it. Of course she also had no idea what the currently shipping Star Wars figure packaging looked like. I'm in Carbondale, IL, by the way.
Seibertron.com
- At best, it has been really difficult to find the Toys R Us exclusive Transformers Animated Arcee and Cybertron Mode Ratchet. Rumor has it that these two figures have been cancelled after their extremely limited initial release. Can you let us know what's going on with those two toys as well as the rest of the remaining Transformers Animated figures we saw revealed last summer at BotCon 2009 such as Rodimus and Blackout?
- It seems like Hasbro's toys and IDW's comics are missing an opportunity to cross promote each other. In the past, it seemed like it was a very successful venture of promoting current toys in the current comic books (such as the G1 toys in the Marvel comic books back in the 80s). Can you explain why the current comics are not being used as a marketing device by Hasbro to directly promote a current series of Transformers toys (outside of the ROTF comics ... this is more of a reference to the Classics / Universe toys in relation to the ongoing G1-themed comics)?
TFormers.com
- During Toy Fair 2010, Hasbro's other lines including Marvel showcased Robot Heroes-like figures, but the Robot Heroes line was not included in the Transformers portion of the conference. What precipitated the decision to cancel the Robot Heroes even though there were still figures scheduled to be released?
- How often do team members of the Hasbro Transformers team peruse fan media websites and/or forums to get an idea of what fans think about a newly-released figure, recent press event (like Toy Fair, BotCon), or desires for certain characters?
TFW2005
- What is Hasbro's strategy for the release of the remaining, announced Transformers Animated figures such as Rodimus, Ironhide, Blackout, Thundercracker, etc.?
- How do you solicit and determine which stores receive exclusives? (Not answered.)
TFWiki.net
- Is the new Voyager Sea Spray a character who lives in the live-action film universe?
- At Toy Fair 2010, a yellow redeco of the Revenge of the Fallen Voyager Long Haul named "Payload" was revealed. There are two other yellow Constructicon dump trucks that exist within the extant Revenge fiction: firstly, within the movie itself, a yellow dump truck that is a different model truck from Long Haul forms Devastator's left leg with a yellow Rampage, while Long Haul himself forms the entirety of Devastator's right leg. Meanwhile, within the Revenge video games, there are the "Constructicon Warriors", generic enemies that are the Long Haul game model in yellow. Which of these concepts, if either, does Payload represent? Is Payload perhaps the unknown yellow dump truck from the film, who is in turn a Constructicon Warrior? Or is Payload not connected to either, meaning that there are three separate yellow dump truck characters within the Revenge universe?
