Toy Fair 2014
From MediaWiki
| |||||||
 Not pictured: weather that was only mildly inconveniencing. | |||||||
| Date | February 16–19, 2013 | ||||||
| City | New York, NY | ||||||
| Venue | The Times Center | ||||||
Toy Fair 2014, hosted in New York City from February 16–19, boasts "over 25,000 attendees, 345,500 square feet of exhibit space, 100,000 products with over 7,000 never before seen in the world, 1200+ exhibitors, [and] 1000 global media representatives."
MediaWiki was invited to Hasbro's 2014 Collector-Fan Media Day at The Times Center on Saturday, February 15, and wiki contributors Matt Karpowich and David Willis attended. Following a presentation starting at 1pm, fan representatives were allowed into Hasbro's product showroom.
Coverage
Venue and showroom
Transformers: Age of Extinction
Generations: Deluxe Class
-
Bumblebee and Drift! -
Crosshairs! -
Slash and Scorn! -
Slash! -
Slug! -
Slug and Strafe! -
Strafe's bio!
Notes
- Wave 1 will consist of High Octane Bumblebee, Crosshairs, Dinobot Slug (Triceratops), and Dinobot Scorn (Spinosaurus). Wave 2 will consist of Autobot Drift, Dinobot Strafe (two-headed Pteranodon), and Dinobot Slash (Velociraptor).
- Hasbro intends to package the Dinobots in their beast modes to help distinguish them from Autobots and Decepticons. However, because Strafe looked particularly inelegant packaged this way, the final product will instead have him packaged in robot mode.
Generations: Voyager Class
Notes
- Wave 1 will consist of Optimus Prime Evasion Mode and Grimlock. Wave 2 will consist of Autobot Hound and Galvatron.
- Hound will come with seven separate weapons that can be plugged into either his robot or vehicle mode. This particular figure and feature combination was noted as the handiwork of former G.I. Joe design team member John Warden.
Generations: Leader Class
Notes
Robots in Disguise
Notes
- The Robots in Disguise segment of the Age of Extinction line was developed because studies showed that children below the age of 8 had difficulty changing mainline Transformers toys. Hasbro thus developed a product line aimed primarily at the 5-6 year old demographic (above the suggested 2-4 age of Rescue Bots) that would be easy to transform, but still maintain the more "mature, heroic" aesthetics of traditional Transformers.
- It will be possible to tell Robots in Disguise and Generations versions of Age of Extinction toys apart because the Generations toys feature sparkly stickers that mark them as "Generations Collector Series".
Generations
Legends Class
Notes
- Wave 3 of Generations Legends will consist of Autobot Gears (retool of Swerve) & Autobot Eclipse (redeco of Flanker, seemingly based on Micromaster Eagle Eye) and Acid Storm (redeco of Starscream) & Venin (redeco of Waspinator).
- According to Transformers Manager of Global Brand Development Mark Weber, Acid Storm was originally intended to be Thundercracker, but the character was changed when Thundercracker's blue was judged to be too similar to Gears'. Weber understands fans' desires for a complete set of Decepticon Jets, however, so who knows what the future might bring.
Deluxe Class
-
Crosscut! -
Jhiaxus! -
Rattrap! -
Tankor! -
Windblade! -
Windblade jet mode!
Notes
- Windblade was noted as being the handiwork of designer Lenny Panzica, who put "probably five times as much energy" into her than the rest of his workload. The presenters also said there are more plans for her in the future.
Voyager Class
Notes
- Roadbuster will come with a sticker sheet, mirroring Generations Whirl.
Leader Class
Notes
- The "Classics Generations" Leader scale will premiere in Fall of 2014 and continue into 2015. Its suggested retail price is $44.99.
Platinum Edition
Notes
Masterpiece
Notes
Construct-Bots
-
Dinofire Grimlock! -
Optimus Prime & Gnaw!
Notes
Rescue Bots
Notes
Kre-O
Micro-Changers
Notes
- The first wave of Age of Extinction Micro Changers is made of Mindswipe (based on Generation 1 Mindwipe), Nightbeat (inexplicably based on G1 Punch), Highbrow, Misfire, Trypticon, Fangwolf (based on Cybertron Snarl), Jetwash (inexplicably a renamed G1 Jetfire), Silversnout, Skrapnel (sort of based on G1 Shrapnel), Jarugar (based on G1 Jallguar, what), Wingspan Hawk (based on G1 Wingspan), and Torosaur.
- According to Hasbro's Kre-O press release, there will be 24 Age of Extinction Micro Changers to collect, including four Dinobots. Presumably that means two assortments of 12, with Silversnout and Torosaur being the first two of the four Dinobots.
Custom Kreons
Notes
- According to Hasbro's Kre-O press release, there will be 12 Age of Extinction Custom Kreons to collect. As only four (Drift, Lockdown, Ratchet, and Optimus Prime) were revealed at Toy Fair, presumably that means there will be three waves of 4.
Micro-Changers Combiners
-
Grimstone! -
Lazerbolt! -
Obsidian! -
Volcanicon!
Notes
- Grimstone is made of Crackback, Iguanox, Ironeye, and Mollox. Lazerbolt is made of Bullhorn, Floodgate, Freezeout, and Roadhound. Obsidian is made of Bullwark[sic], Freefall, Hemocron, and Stronghorn. Volcanicon is made up of Farside, Liftoff, Lugmutt, and Power Surge.
- All four combiner teams are said to be "Dinobot-inspired".
Sets
Notes
- Beginning with Age of Extinction product, the Kre-O Transformers series will become exclusive to Toys "R" Us in the United States. However, the line will still be carried at general retail internationally.
- All Age of Extinction Kre-O sets will feature "Dinoforce" technology, utilizing magnets to increase interact between the buildable Dinobots and Kreons.
- Sets include...
- Dinobot Charge (66 pieces, buildable Dinobot Slug) w/ Decepticon Vehicon and Autobot Drift Kreons
- Scorn Street Chase (106 pieces, buildable Dinobot Scorn) w/ two Decepticon Vehicons and Autobot Crosshairs Kreons
- Cell Block Breakout (135 pieces, buildable Dinobot Strafe) w/ Decepticon Vehicon, Optimus Prime and Bumblebee Kreons
- Grimlock Street Attack (196 pieces, buildable Dinobot Grimlock) w/ two Decepticon Vehicons and Gold Knight Optimus Prime Kreons
- Lockdown Air Raid (203 pieces, buildable Dinobot Velociraptor) w/ Lockdown, Hound and Sideswipe (inexplicably based on Dark of the Moon Leadfoot) Kreons
- The Kre-O presentation referred to the above set as "Lockdown Air Assault". Lockdown will come with two helmets.
- Optimus Prime Dino Hauler (275 pieces, buildable Dinobot Ankylosaurus) w/ two Decepticon Vehicons and Autobot Ratchet Kreons, plus Autobot Driver human Mini-Kreon
- Galvatron Factory Battle (388 pieces, buildable Dinobot Velociraptor) w/ buildable "large-scale Galvatron Kreon", Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, and Vehicon Kreons, plus Dr. Littleman, KSI worker, and SWAT human Mini-Kreons
Hero Mashers
Notes
Mr. Potato Head
Notes
- In a departure from prior Mr. Potato Head-themed offerings, these products are packaged as "Mr. Potato Head as...", suggesting each toy is Mr. Potato Head himself in a costume, as opposed to being (presumably) new characters who use the Mr. Potato Head play pattern.
Notes
- Presenting for the Transformers team were Jerry Jivoin and Joshua Lamb; presenting for the Kre-O team was Kristin Hamilton. Also at the event was current Transformers team member Mark Weber (in charge of the Generations segment), and former Transformers team member Bill Rawley presented for the design side of the Star Wars team.
- According to the presentation...
- No molds from previous movie-based lines will be in Age of Extinction.
- All the Dinobots turn into robots in the film, and all the Dinobots in the film will receive toy representation.
- Between Age of Extinction and "Classics"-styled Generations, there will be 73 fan-focused mainline retail products in 2014.
- 20 figures will be "movie Generations" (12 Deluxes, 6 Voyagers, 2 Leaders). As of this event, Hasbro revealed 7 Deluxes, 4 Voyagers, and 2 Leaders. Confusingly, the Generations press release states there will be only 10 "movie Generations" Deluxes released in 2014.
- 30 figures will be "Classics Generations" (8 Legends, 16 Deluxes, and 6 Voyagers). As of this event, Hasbro officially revealed 6 Legends, 14 Deluxes, and 5 Voyagers... but the existence of the seventh Legend, fifteenth Deluxe, and sixth Voyager were actually revealed by the Generations press release, respectively, as Cliffjumper, Arcee, and Brainstorm. Triple oops?
- There are plans for more Fan's Choice events (such as the one that led to the creation of Windblade) in the future.
- Age of Extinction product is scheduled for release in May of 2014.
- In order to both streamline the packaging and make it easier to translate into other languages, the Robots in Disguise Age of Extinction toys will not feature on-package character bios. However, character bios will be available on Transformers.com, and the Generations toyline releases will still have them as well.
- The Beast Hunters-themed Construct-Bots will likely not come out in the United States. They will apparently hit some international markets in the Spring, just before the launch of Age of Extinction product.
- The "5-step" Beast Hunters Deluxes and Voyagers are still supposed to come out in the United States, but might only be available in limited quantities.
- When asked whether the dragons of Beast Hunters influenced the Dinobots appearing in Age of Extinction, designer Joshua Lamb revealed that they did not, but offered origins for both. The Beast Hunters dragons originated from a development session where members of the Transformers team tore up a bunch of old Zoids and kitbashed them together with various TFs in ridiculous meched-out combinations; while they couldn't base original animation on that premise, they could use it to influence Transformers Prime, and it eventually evolved into the dragons of Beast Hunters and Predacons Rising. At the same time that was going on, Hasbro was in talks with Michael Bay on new ideas for the fourth Transformers movie, including ways to feature Grimlock in a fun, exciting way. Eventually, a development board was created that showed Optimus Prime riding Grimlock in beast mode into battle; this art got both Bay and the writers excited about using him, which in turn spiraled into a full-blown Dinobots revival.
- According to Mark Weber, the reason the Age of Extinction pteranodon is Strafe and not Swoop is because the two-headed design was deemed to be too much of a departure from traditional depictions of Swoop.
