With all the Transformers Live Action Movie news these days and with the recently concluded Toy Fair, there had been another event which had gone unnoticed last week.
Hasbro (specifically the Transformers Franchise) has generated a huge presence in South Africa recently and to celebrate, a team of organizers has initiated a traveling Transformers Exhibition project to gather up fellow fans from SA. The event will take place from March 2017 to January 2018.
Named as Transformers: Animatronics – The Exhibition, the official description for the first location is as follows:
“From March to May 2017 Optimus Prime, Megatron, Bumblebee and the Rescue Bots will invade the African continent for the first time in Transformers Animatronics at Emperors Palace. Following a massively successful Latin American tour, visitors can look forward to breath-taking sculptures, made from wrecked cars, on display against the scenery of the legendary planet, Cybertron, that will be brought to life through eye-popping performance technology.
Transformers Animatronics is a unique event based on the popular Hasbro saga that has broken box office records for both movies and television. And now it will head to Emperors Palace with a spectacular display that has been enjoyed by millions of people on tour across the globe. This travelling exhibition of international standards will feature 12 animated Transformers, 9 sculptures scaled between and 2m and 11m made from car parts, and a further 20 statues varying in size. In addition, an impressive arsenal of weapons used by the Transformers characters will also be showcased. Young and old will immerse themselves in the incredible universe of Optimus Prime and his companions, from its origins in the world of comics to the television series and blockbuster movies. Autobots and Decepticons will also feature prominently, accompanied by the latest Dino Bots and famous Rescue Bots, the famed pre-school series that has expanded the Transformers fan base.”
Check out exhibition dates, videos and images, after the jump.
Johannesburg – 11th March 2017 to 28th May 2017 @ Emperors Palace
Centurion – 10th June 2017 to 15th Octomer 2017 @ Centurion Mall
Cape Town – 10th November 2017 to 21st January 2018 @ Sun International Grand West
TheTFReview
The "animatronics" look horrible. You couldn't pay me to go to this.
BB Shockwave
Hate to say, these look terribly shoddy. The G1 and Rescue bots ones are OK but barely move, while the movie ones look more like they were cobbled together in a scrapyard… and that\'s not just because they are Bayformers.
Deadend
Never said it was official. I was saying it was nice to see respect paid in an exhibit like this that's celebrating transformers. Which fans including them in the displays is still respect paid to celebrate the brand and intellectual property as a whole.
Nemisispath
I think I found that Bumblebee guy's friends!
Napalm
And that's what it's all about, keeping the hobby going – they're it's lifeblood and if they're happy then something's being done right. Though to think some of those kids might grow up to sound like people on these forums, eh..? Ah well.
Lady Slipstream
Actually the figure exhibition is mostly made up from collections from people, not from Hasbro.
So I don't think that in these types of countries like Chile, Perú or South Africa Hasbro would even notice that they have some unofficial figures (for example, when I went they had on display TFC Hercules, Quakewave (Strangely both in the same display), Dr Wu Star Saber, Maniaking, and others I can't remember.
Deadend
That's awesome! Love seeing the respect paid to third party makers in the displays too (Huffer and the allicons among others).
It's really neat seeing how Transformers has grown. From toon and toys to the evolutions of those, to the first conventions to botcon, to the eventual hasbro HasCon. And now even exhibitions and experiences like this and amusement park rides. We've come a long way, and it's amazing to see.
Feralstorm
Interesting, looks like a cross between that Transformers exhibition that was in the Indianapolis Children's' museum a few years back, and a 'junk art' showcase. (using the term as a category description and not an opinion statement. )
Brave Magnus
I really dont care some of those statues look kinda chiby-ish. They are still very cool and they took their time and effort! Aww, I wanna see something like that here.
Black Convoy
Yeah, it was cool, but many people here hated it because was not only about G1, or the Transformers were not real he he he. Perfect to go with your family and kids and share the magic of old toys and modern movie characters.
As usual, kids were the real winners, it was so great to see those happy faces.
Seth Sunthay
Holy Cow what a beautiful expo.
Yesterday in Mexico in La Mole Comic-Con i only saw the voyager prime and megs, and the pack of the optimus ths02 platinum.(so happy he will coming here)
Black Convoy
As an extra bonus, as part of the promotion of the event, a Transformers Sticker album was released. Half RID, half Combiner Wars.
Lady Slipstream
Yeah… when I went to the exhibition it was shit… The only worth thing there were the toys that where in displays shaped like G1 Boxes.
Edit: Also, the building in this image from behind is Centro Cultural Estacion Mapocho (The place where the exhibition was held on Santiago de Chile)
Black Convoy
THe event was also held in Peru last year, and Transformers Peru was invited to show toys in the museum section, and some of our members worked as guides.
Family-oriented show, a museum section with G1 toys mainly. There were some cool sculptures of movie characters made with car parts, and big G1 and Rescue Bots statues with light and sounds (which we decorated with a Masterpiece pr generations incarnation at the base), giant Animatronics with the Dinobots and some cool decorations.
They even had a Camaro BB and a custom AOE Optimus Prime.
Nice to spend with kids and family. We had a great time during more than one month. Some key pictures here:
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Seth Sunthay
They are based on the toy
Shocker
Lol half this stuff I can see better versions of at Universal Studios and the other half I can buy online.
Purple Heart
So it's just a menagerie of horribly inaccurate "art" statues and a few animatronics? Thats it?