BotCon may have wrapped up last Sunday, but that doesn’t mean the news from the con has to stop. TFW2005 was fortunate enough to sit down with Jerry Jivoin and Ben Montano of Hasbro for a brief discussion of the future of the toy line from the show floor. Read on to discover what the team revealed in this enlightening interview!
The audio interview is also available as WTF@TFW supplemental. You can download and comment on it here: WTF@TFW Botcon Supplemental 2
Also, please check out the first Botcon 2015 supplemental “The Ichabotcon Chronicles” here: WTF@TFW Botcon Supplemental 1
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TFW2005: So let’s start with… Combiner Wars has dipped heavily into 80s source material for inspiration, from the standard combiners to more obscure concepts like Masquerade. It’s also dipped into the new fiction options as seen with Victorion and now the new Sky Lynx combiner. Where can we expect to see future combiners draw inspiration from — old fiction, new fiction, or a combination of both?
Jerry: I think it’s a combination of both. What we want to do is offer up the best combiners from the past that are out there from a popularity, and then are there new ones that we can do? I think when you start looking at all the tooling that we have that we’ve created and everything that we have available where we can go from there. But we definitely want to celebrate the combiners that people want to see; you know from the fans and bring those out to the fan community.
TFW2005: Okay, so obviously you guys have a Titan class price point, but to date we’ve only seen Metroplex and Devastator at that price point. But Devastator in the fictional sense is not a titan. Would you foresee additional Decepticons Titans as part of future plans you guys might have? How do you go about balancing Autobot and Decepticon Titans?
Jerry: The Titan, we love the bigger scale characters, granted Devastator is not in the same class level of like a Metroplex type of character from a scale and the IP, but we felt he was… we wanted to do that character, it made sense with the Combiner Wars that we did, the six voyagers, scaled characters made Devastator and filled… almost got from a price point perspective, a similar price point. We like what we’ve done with Metroplex, with Devastator. We feel the success we’ve had with Metroplex has led to Devastator. We think Devastator is going to do well. And so we’re excited and we want to do more and so I think now is what is the selection of the next Titan class characters? Which ones? We look at the fan boards of who people want to see kind of reimagined today and we look at what’s the right character due for storytelling and so we’re… as far as mixing Autobot or Decepticon and you can see we’ve done one of each now so I don’t know if that really matters as much it’s more of it’s the character that the fan community wants to see and it makes sense with the storytelling that we’re doing for the year.
Ben: I think you started the question with “only”… we have two of them, which is a pretty big step. But a lot of it is story driven for us to be honest with you so along with IDW and other partners, that really drives… and also we see the fans or if we ask the fans to create a new character that’s what driving our decision a lot is like Jerry said is what do we hear the loudest of. So Hall of Fame vote no matter how silly it may seem that’s information for us. That feeds to us what do people care about? Who do they want to celebrate? So all that stuff really comes into play and helps us decide who’s going to come in the toy line but also… in some sense if we’re going to do something Titan class…if it’s pricey it has to be something that we know people are going to jump at.
TFW2005: Cool. Metroplex was released in 2013, Devastator will be released in 2015, and it’s looking like you may have another Titan class character in 2016. Do you expect to maintain a release schedule of one per year like that, or is the gap between Metroplex and Devastator more indicative of what you’re going to do at that price point?
Jerry: Ideally I’d like to keep it to where we’re doing one every year. The reason why we didn’t one in 14 was cause of the film. We felt we had a lot of product out there from a consumer…cause what consumers would be spending their money on and so we wanted to test Metroplex out to make sure that it worked. We had to see the results first we couldn’t commit to one in fall 14 cause of the development timeline, but we already committed to 15 but now we’re sort of seeing success with it that we can ideally that we would try to do one every year. As long as it keeps up from the success…
Ben: It all comes down to the fans. Are fans buying into what we’re putting on the shelves and if they are we’ll do more and we’ll do it more often.
Jerry: Exactly.
TFW2005: Okay let’s see. This one might be a little wordy. So Combiner Wars really focused on multi-priced point teams of characters it seemed, but it also appears from the outside that it has been a very successful line. There seems to be a shift from the traditional flatter horizontal teams of figures at the same price point to vertical teams of figures comprised of multiple price points. Can you tell me what lessons were learned from Combiner Wars from both the play and purchase patterns that would be replicated in future lines? Can we expect to see additional vertical teams of characters? Can we expect to see that play / purchase pattern extended to other size, classes like Leader or Titan?
Ben: So we’ll split it, I’ll let Jerry talk to the toy side how we kind of got to that from the insights we gained. There’s definitely value in the vertical and I think when we look at vertical we look at it’s story driven. Everything starts out with the fans, consumers, what people want… and we do a lot on insight gathering there but story universes will sell. You guys when you’re buying into Combiner Wars if you didn’t have something to connect it to if you weren’t reading the comics or some of the things we do or you know the old show. So we definitely want to bring the stories to life. I think when we’ve seen maybe not as successful lines is when we’re just throwing out disparate characters and then it becomes say fan favorite purchase and you’re not engaging with everything or with our whole offering. So we are now more in tune with telling the story whether it’s retelling or telling a new one and that gives us the luxury of bringing more characters to life that help our fans kind of commit and engage with a full range. That may be a connected system or it may be just a story universe like the Fall of Cybertron. There’s a lot of different ways we can slice it but it all starts with just a kick ass story.
Jerry: I think when you look at… what we love seeing is that when toys can work with each other so you’re building almost what we’d call an ecosystem of play. Where if you have something where the individual toy itself is fun to play with but if you’re able to combine it with another figure and another figure and all that even with it taking it outside of the system…say you’re building Superion, the way we design the joint system, oh if I bought a Drag Strip I can put Drag Strip on the arm or leg, so it makes it just more fun. Now you can make your own, fans or kids can make their own combiner, which is really cool.
Ben: I mean it’s for the kids, they can work together
Jerry: Yeah it’s just adding play value I think when you look at it and so being able to do that across different scales and so they do work together it just adds more value it makes it a more fun toy to play with and your collection you can buy deeper into it and it all works together.
TFW2005: So one thing I noticed today is the presentation it seems we’ve only accounted for five waves of Combiner Wars in 2015 with the Combaticons kicking off 2016. Will we only see five waves this year or can we expect to see the traditional six?
Ben: I think if you look closely at the slides and stuff you’ll see there’s some question marks for the future so I think we tipped our hat a little bit there and all I can say is that in the coming months just keep your eyes out, there’s more coming soon. I think the reaction today obviously was…we were very excited as it gave us goosebumps up front and reassured us that this doesn’t have to stop where we so far what we have revealed.. that you know the stuff is doing great. This outpouring of fans, kids and adults are buying Combiner Wars products. So we would like to keep it going and I think what we show today as future yet to be revealed figures and we’re looking forward to sharing them with you guys.
TFW2005: Let’s go with this one. Alright. You guys really hit it out the park with generations Rattrap and Rhinox. What can we expect to see for the Beast Wars 20th anniversary?
Ben: I think the team has done a really good job celebrating and not just creating new stories with Combiner Wars. I think the 30th anniversary line in total I think we got a lot of good feedback on, not just Rattrap and Rhinox and the others but the full collection. So we want to, where it makes sense, celebrate. We have a couple anniversaries next year we have obviously have 20th of Beast Wars, we also have 30th anniversary of the 86th movie so you know it’s really as we look at our franchise is what does that mean? Does that mean a whole toy collection or is it more of a kind of lifestyle play. I think there’s a lot of things we can do to honor and celebrate the past so hopefully you guys….
TFW2005: The fifteenth of RID. The original RID. I’m throwing that in there.
Ben: There’s a lot of anniversaries so hopefully we’ve shown that we honor and want to celebrate and… Do you want to add anything to that Jerry?
Jerry: I think it’s just picking the right toys to come out at the right time and which anniversaries we celebrate and it also comes down to consumer demand. Looking at… everybody’s looking for a new such and such figure or a re-issue of a certain figure. If we see that and it makes sense from timing with an anniversary, obviously it’s something that we’d want to celebrate with a toy release. We like the anniversaries. It kind of depends on when…
Ben: Or we can wait till thirty years and we can actually do that.
TFW2005: Okay thank you very much, appreciate it.
Ben and Jerry: Yeah.
Spin-Out
The only Titan I'd really need would be an Animated Omega Supreme, which will never happen.
Slingshot
Expect to find out more at ToyFair 2016, in February. Most of the year's first 1/2, if not 2/3, of product are revealed then. Fortress Maximus will most likely be this year's Devastator in terms of popularity and speculation.
84OptimusPrime
Cool… At least Titan Metroplex will have a scaled enemy.
I do hope at some time they will also make the T.C. Omega Supreme.
I also saw a rumor on a T.C. Fort Max?
If so a T.C. Black Zarak would also be awesome!
Any word on these?
Any E.T.A.
Thanks!
Bountyan
Yes there was a vote, yes Trypticon won, and it ended weeks ago
Steevy Maximus
Yes, it's true, yes Trypticon won, and Hasbro is probably well aware of the interest in the other options.
84OptimusPrime
Is it true there was a vote for 2016 Titan Class on Facebook between Omega Supreme, Scorponok and Trypticon… And Trypticon won?
If Hasbro is listening… I would like to put my vote in for a Titan Class Omega Supreme, Please!
SPLIT LIP
Well I mean the original literally didn't resemble him at all.
Tank Drone wasn't bad but the cannon was huge and it wasn't bulky enough.
GoldDeadEnd
Right on. And I have zero Beat Machines familiarity, but I could not think of a way Generations Tankor improved upon the original, at least from pics. I got the reissued DVD set, so my approval/disapproval is going to be much more informed soon.
Afterburner
Yes, really Generations should keep it's focus on figures they can really improve upon, give us better scaled versions of, or generally update in a positive manner. Things like Sky-Byte are totally unnecessary as the original toy is a better, more accurate version that looks much better. Not to say the new version isn't good, it just isn't needed at all and is the same scale to boot.
As much as I love TransMetals and beyond, i tend to agree there is little need for updating there. Armada has gotten several updates because those figures sucked, so that one makes sense. But once we got back into Energon most of the figures started to get pretty solid again. Basically I think the eras that most easily benefit from updates:
All of G1 including Europe and Japan
First 2 years of G2
Organic animal early Beast Wars
Beast Machines show characters
RiD Spychangers/Ruination
All of Armada
That's it, really. But it encompasses a ton of characters and figures. For the most part they have stuck to this pretty well. Beast Machines only has Tankor so far and I really hope they do more there as there is a ton of room for improvement in both scale and accuracy on almost everyone who was in the show. Tankor though could also be an example of not updating properly based on his scale. I understand their rationale here, but he absolutely needed to be a Voyager. Leader would have been amazing! But unrealistic in their eyes due to Beast Machines unpopularity.
GoldDeadEnd
I like the way you think.
Titan Wars aside, dipping into this, I have to ask something relevant to the "War of the Eras" deal. I'm mainly a G1 guy, but I do very much dig Beast Wars and appreciate elements of every other continuity besides. But I find it odd that in all these sparring matches as to what the focus of the Generations line should be that no one has brought up that perhaps G1 is partially the most desired for modern treatment because of how they fail the articulation standards we so prize these days. Like, all of them, reaching even into Japanese/European exclusive stuff. I find that incredibly relevant. I'd love to see the main Season 1 cast of Beast Wars get updates, because their molds seem poor translations of what the show depicted (and Generations Waspinator, Rhinox, and Rattrap are great), but Transmetal era and beyond? I doubt the characters would get better representations than they did previously. Making the most dated toys hold up to modern day standards is most of the point of Generations, yes?
soundwaverulls
I think this is all going to come down to personal taste. While the Unite Warriors figures look more G1 accurate, I have to agree with Bass that they look bland and underpainted. Motormaster is the only UW figure I'd take over his CW counterpart.
Rodimus
The Hasbro version has a bunch of purple all over him and I think it looks terrible with the yellow. Since you mention the mold, I'm not a fan of the face, but what really keeps me from buying it is the alterations of his race car mode colors.
This is just one small example. There are many in the Aerialbots, and in Defensor they couldn't even paint the correct section of his chest Hot Spot's blue like it should be, or use one of the established members of the team in Groove. Motormaster and Menasor look nothing like their show or established original incarnations and look bland in gray. A real injustice to what is supposed to be an intimidating couple of of characters. The black works for them and the Takara versions look a million times better with the right colors. And I'm just talking simple PAINT apps. I'm not going to pick apart the molds because I know there are flaws but they suffice to do the job if the paint is correct, which it is not, which means the release does NOT do the job of satisfaction for the characters. In other words, it's an injustice to the characters and a missed opportunity.
And as a side note, I would LOVE a Transformers: The Movie (1986) accurate color deco of a SUPER TITAN sized Unicron!
Thorhammer
Yeah I was trying to figure that one out as well. Maybe he was picturing Dinoking as sort of a War Within Dinobots kind of version of Dinokng made from the Constructicons molds? So instead of dinosaurs they're some sort of heavy machinery? Only thing I could think of, otherwise it didn't make sense.
Scaleface
So I have a theory about the upcoming Combiner Wars Legend Buzzsaw being a preview of Titan Wars interactivity.
We saw there is a Headmaster Blaster, who is rumored to have a base mode. So I'm going to assume there will be a Headmaster Soundwave too from the mold, who is also a Headmaster. The base mode would interconnect with whatever Titan class Decepticon we get as a communication tower or whatever. (Wouldn't it be great if the "communictions tower" looks like Soundwave's streetlight mode?)
With a triple changing Buzzsaw you can have his go into forklift mode while Soundwave is in base mode, and drive around the base. Why is the forklift flat? So tiny Headmaster Soundwave can sit on it!
beardy
Hasbro said in an interview that it was their intention to do one Titan a year.
They did one in 2013, skipped 2014 because of the film and then announced one for 2015 and almost definite one in 2016.
Whether they skip 2017 for Titans because of movies is open to interpretation but they definitely said they would like to do one a year
MyTea Boc
Titan Tripticon and Scorponok would be great, but I'm sure it'll take us years to get one or the other. Preferably Trypticon.
Cal
Retool Devastator as Dinoking? You'd have as much luck retooling Superion as Abominus.
Thorhammer
I was thinking on Titan Wars and how many figures they could possibly release in a year. One of the Hasboro guys already said they were hoping to release maybe 'one titan a year' or some such thing, so that makes me think the name 'Titan Wars' is just going to be a war surrounding maybe two main bots, maybe Fort Max and Scorp since there was already a rerelease of platinum Tryps. The rest of the TW line will then be the smaller bots fighting around the two titans, just like we have some non-combiners in CW.
That being said, if Devs is able to get the titan treatment besides the ones already mentioned I see no reason why Omega Supreme can't be a titan. I want a titan Omega S. Make it happen, Has/Tak.
Not knowing what this story is going to entail a few other TFs who could theoretically get the titan treatment down the line:
Primus and Unicron. Yeah, far-fetched maybe, but if anyone deserves to be titan-sized it's the two gods of the TF universe.
Wheeljack_Prime
If they do beast Combiners, I hope they get some Dinobots out of it. No, no, not THE dinobots, but the Scramble City characters they almost did as a rival to Piranacon. Think it had a Dimetrodon, Ankylosaurus, and Styracosaurus in it.
GR1ML0CK
How bout they retool devy as dinoking and give us all pretender dino shells too