TFW2005 was able to sit down briefly with the Transformers Team at Botcon 2016 and ask some questions to further refine what we heard during the panel. Topics included current color choices, touching on RID 2001 and Beast Wars anniversaries, the future of Combiner Wars, Fortress Maximus reuses, SDCC plans, fan based polls, the future of RID20xx, the next TF show, and more. Read on to check out what was said courtesy of our man on the floor Bruticon!
TFW2005 interview with the Hasbro Team at Botcon 2016.
Please note, the below is paraphrased from an audio recording after the fact. We believe all information is correct and relays the team’s intent.
TFW2005: Why are Astrotrain & other recent figures the colors they are?
Comes down to the designer. Try to tie it to G1, modernize it for today. There is a lot of look back, but it is new storytelling, new interpretations. Characters may look, act differently at different points in time. IE Prime War Trilogy, may look different than before. Also, may already have a lot of purple characters recently, try to mix up decos so the line is not heavily one color or another at same time.
TFW2005: Any plans to celebrate the 15th anniversary of (2001) RID?
Nothing’s off the table, but nothing planned.
TFW2005: When is a Brave Max repaint coming. Not if, when.
– (Note: was a half-joke question passed in by me (Tony_B), lost in translation)
Stay tuned on any Fort Max reuses.
TFW2005: CW Predaking?
Trilogy isn’t over, so nothing’s off the table, but nothing official until it’s on the shelf.
TFW2005: Titan Fort Max – will he have a weapon like a sword or gun?
Same – stay tuned, nothing’s off the table, but nothing official…
TFW2005: SDCC – Fort Max special edition?
Good possibility there will be additional Comic Con items revealed later. (Well done)
TFW2005: Another season of Robots in Disguise?
Beyond this fall, have to wait and see.
TFW2005: Generations beyond 2018?
Definately through 2018 as they’ve announced and committed to the Trilogy.
TFW2005: When you do fan polls, do you already have mock ups of the characters ready to go?
Varies, sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. Depends on the mold. Example, Titan Class vote, really didn’t. With Windblade, started with nothing. Victorion, different. Had some design and foundation ready to go. Sometimes it’s a pure want to reach out to fans, other times there is an internal split and they need a deciding factor.
TFW2005: In future, expect more fan based polls?
Yes, something they’d like to continue to do.
TFW2005: In relation to fan polls, any plans to break down the vote to be more specific, in phases. First pick alt mode, then gender, then colors, etc.
Did that with Windblade. May go back to that in future.
TFW2005: RID vs Combiner Wars/Generations – how do the two compare with sales at retail. Does non-media supported CW hold it’s own with RID?
Different in different parts of the world. Where the show is present will have a larger footprint for RID. Both are growing, doing well. Lots of SKUs working. Generations is a sizable part of the business now.
TFW2005: In next show, whenever RID is done, thoughts on using more realistic alt modes, more generations style figures/characters rather than the cartoonish style of RID.
Nothing off the table, always thinking about ways to reinvent and modernize the brand.
TFW2005: Beast Wars – any plans for special line or celebration?
This year, nothing planned domestically. Instead of fully celebrating anniversaries, looking to roll characters from the past into modern stories. Example – beasts in RID. Connecting the universe as a whole with themes (heavily paraphrased to emphasize point).
TFW2005 would like to thank Hasbro and the team for giving us the time, hopefully we were able to get some useful info for you guys! Feel free to discuss on the forums!
ZapRowsdower
Make sure you have at least three women around to notice your heroic thwarting of my statement, or you're just wasting your heroism, right?
I might feel more "misogynistic" if you had a good story of ACTUALLY TALKING TO THE FEMALE REPS. But considering how you did not talk to them, can you really say my point is sexist and not accurate? We're talking statistics, and you seem to have missed the line about "boys toys". That's a HASBRO TERM. So if Hasbro says Transformers are for boys (and historically they have, which you would know as a fan), then can you really sit there and defend all women from the horrors of being accused of playing with "girl" toys?
Look above! Also, women everywhere thank you for defending their TF knowledge! How dare I claim most women know little-to-nothing about TFs! The indecency!
For the record: it's sexist to say women don't belong at Botcon, sure. I did NOT say that. I said the a female Hasbro rep might not be the best representation of the brand, considering her knowledge base may not be impressive enough to… well, impress a potential customer. But we can avoid this entire stupidity by simply stating that women can lie and mislead just as well (better?) than males, and since Hasbro reps generally do NOT tell you facts and future plans, it doesn't really matter what gender the rep takes. However, I was simply musing about how impressive it might be to actually hear a Hasbro rep know more about the brand than one of us – it might show some actual interest in the con, rather than Hasbro simply shilling whatever unlucky employee drew the short straw that day!
Raiyuki
I can't quite find a source but it's been mentioned that someone did ask about MP Sideswipe and got an answer about licensing difficulties; apparently it's not this interview.
I wanted to ask them about this myself but the guy I was pointed to was being interviewed (possibly this very interview) and at the end had no more time and left unfortunately.
knoted
I think one might still be able to elicit better answers.
For example:
Q. "When and why did you deem the market ready for a comeback of the Headmaster concept and did development of the Titans Return headmaster engineering yield potential spin-off ( gimmick techniques ) for future lines ?"
or
Q. "How do you assess character color schemes in Titans Return – knowing or estimating – what Takara does/might do for their TR versions ?"
Thundershot
The problem is, asking the future direction of anything usually results in "no plans at this time" or "it's something we may look at in the future".
knoted
Not really.
Question 3 is the self-confessed joke question.
Question 5 and 6 hammers on about Fort Max. Could have been compressed into one question.
Question 9, 10 and 11 about fan voted content ; could also be compressed into one single question ; "fan voted content, When, How and Results Analysis so Far"
Questions 12 and 13 could have been moreso about how Hasbro projects the current and future consumer demographics and if / how they'll cnahge up lines accordingly.
They could have asked a lot more about future direction of :
– Gimmicks
– Aesthetics
– Demographics
– Manufacturing restrictions and consequences
– etc.
I'm sure those kind of subjects would yield more interesting answers.
Lord Black Cat
The part where he claims that women can't be involved with Transformers toys so he skips them to go to non enthusiastic Hasbro male workers.
Murasame
Where was he misogynistic? Did we read the same post?
Thelonicon
You realize you could have made your point without resorting to misogynistic attacks on the female reps.
That said, my friends and I make fun of the super corporate speak whenever the Hasbro reps say "Transformers brand products" rather than just "Transformers" or even "Transformers product." I actually asked the reps if they ever get tired of saying that and they responded "That is just how we see it."
Haywired
Big robots turning (or not) into anything are realistic!?
Since when?
BTW, if not for this "worst part ot TF history" the franchise by now could be as dead as few other contemporary franchises.
And that's coming from someone who never gave any **** about Beast Wars, save for watching the show when it was aired.
Murasame
Robots turning to cars is realistic?
Smitty.1981
This is very true. And kind of funny coming from a person with so many Bumblebee toys.
prowl66
yes, I'm one of those that dislikes the Beast Wars pretty much completely…robot animals than transform into robots….not very realistic. Of course it wasn't meant to be I suppose. Worst part of Transformers history for me….to each their own
Hollywood Hoist
Kids may not know who X character is, but their parents who grew up with Transformers might. If the parent connected with a character when they were a kid, they may encourage their child to pick that character.
ZapRowsdower
Groovy! But which were the "good questions"?
Let me break it down to you: MAYBE.
No? How about, NOT SET IN STONE.
Ask me anything, I'll be a Hasbro rep.
"Will we see a Fort Max remix?" MAYBE.
"Is SDCC doing a special edition of Fort Max?" NOT SET IN STONE.
"Do you need to pee right now?" We may have plans for my bathroom break but I can't definitively say I urinate at all.
"Does Hasbro have plans for BW?" Not set in stone, maybe.
"I have this rash and I keep itching it but it only seems to get worse. Should I see a doctor?" I want to say YES, but nothing is set in stone, so could be NO.
I actually wish I had thought of asking some of this stuff, just to check if that 10 second pause would still be in effect before every answer!
Incidentally, I'm still having a hard time with this lawyer ball – how does saying you plan to make a toy put you in legal hot water? Or is it that Hasbro doesn't like breaking hearts? (cause they broke plenty with the advent of 1-steps and their proliferation). I don't see why we can't hear about concepts they're working on, as sooner or later, they get leaked anyway. And no one exactly sues or hates on Hasbro for, say, planning to release a Unicron toy back in 1986, right? So what's the big deal in talking about your future plans and then explaining that while you intend to put the best products out there, sometimes some cool items may slip through the cracks and get cancelled. We're all adults, and we understand.
If they actually showed us some concepts or ideas, for example, they could get some reaction to the GOOD ideas and scrap the BAD ones. No, this is the case of a company that actually wants to do what it wants more than listen to a fan majority. Yes, all fans disagree on minutia, but you can also say that fans agree on the big things (i.e. they love Optimus Primal most out of BW, or Optimus is the best thing since sliced bread – i.e. "please re-re-re-re-re-re-release MP-10, because I have a fetish!" ).
Bruticon
To paraphrase the wording that was used was that Season 2 RID is going to have a break and when it returns after that break (this fall?) it's going to have a Season 3 feel as in something big/different is going to happen when season 2 picks back up. As far as a true season 3 is concerned the answer was more or less a wait and see.
Probe
Nothing was ever confirmed. A TFW2005 news staff member declared RID2015 cancelled based on brief season length descriptions from pamphlets meant for advertising to foreign tv distrubtors.
We basically know nothing and won't until we get official confirmation from Hasbro or Cartoon network of cancellation/renewal.
GizmoTron
The actual good questions received real answers, but when people keep asking about stuff like a surprise Beast Wars anniversary line when they already told you there wasn't any plans for one, you aren't suddenly going to get them to say "oh forget what we said at ToyFair, and NYCC, and an hour ago at the panel, we actually do have all of these Beast Wars toys ready to be released!"
ZapRowsdower
This interview was an embarrassment. The questions? Solid. The answers? Just tell us to "f*ck off!" Wouldn't that be faster than a bunch of vague maybe's?
Look, this is what happens when you talk to a team of lawyers. I get Hasbro's overly paranoid, but paranoia and neighbor go like sh*t and sandwiches! You really can't be friendly AND act like a lawyers with your answers. So overall, unless you like toilet sandwiches, the whole experience of talking to Hasbro reps is offensively grating.
Plus, the lies and misdirection. "No, nothing is fully planned and we listen to plans." vs. (everything is clearly planned in advance with little fan influence – i.e. Windblade and Victorion, specific toys that were supposed to be more fan-based! ).
At one point in the show, I saw a couple of female Hasbro reps manning the displays. No, I didn't have a chance to talk to them, but if I were a betting man, I'd say their involvement with the toys is minimal, at best (saying nothing of their actual interest in "boy toys"). Equally frustrating is non-enthused male reps. In essence, I'm saying it'd be nice to see some reps who are REALLY EXCITED to be there. Instead, you get the creeping sense that they are nervous to talk to you and say something that will get Hasbro or themselves in hot water. Literally, every question you ask a Hasbro rep is met with 10 seconds of pause.
The only person who has to pause before every answer? Yeah, that's the guy you tend NOT to trust!
You know, they could have encouraged us to buy more in order to fund some of our want lists, no? Obviously good sales = expanded toy roster, so… what happened there? I keep expecting SOMEONE to say something like, "we'll look at sales of Astrotrain to determine if we'll make his variant, 'Agent Caboose'." That's a bad example, though, as repaints are released pretty regularly. But… well, how about, "If Alpha Trion sells well, and there's an interest in beast modes, then Predaking is definitely on the table!"
Haywired
TBH, Takara's toys are also made for both children and collectors. It's just that Japanese market for action figures is more demanding. Cut too many corners and it won't sell.
Saved the franchise from oblivion, even if toys weren't my cup of tea.
Engineering-wise it set some trends for the future in regards of what is an acceptable level of articulation.
BW might not be a behemoth G1 is, but it was important nonetheless.