Hasbro Pulse Fan Fest took place last Friday, showing off some upcoming goodies later this year. Today we were able to sit down (on Zoom) with members of the Transformers brand team and some other fans to chat about it and the brand overall. Read on to check out what was said after the break!
Transformers Brand Rountable
Transformers team members included Lenny Panzica and Ran Sun. Fans included TFW2005, Cybertron.ca, The Allspark, Tformers and Kastor’s Korner.
Some primer tidbits – all of the below is paraphrased and reduced for brevity. We believe what’s below relays the intent of the questioner and Hasbro’s answers.
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The Amazon exclusive Coneheads have been on backorder since last year, no one in Canada received any for example. Is there a 2nd production run of this being done? – Cybertron.ca
Hasbro was not aware of the issue Amazon was having fulfilling the exclusive seeker 2 pack. They are going to look at the possibility of doing a 2nd production run or a rerelease in the future, however.
Transmetals / Fuzors, non basic BW & other characters? – Allspark
As it fits within theme of year.
Trilogies – move to new scale / style or carry on with now? – Kastors Korner
Goal is to keep aesthetic and scale.
Should keep building on it, even though there will be changes.
Just brought Beast Wars in, would be hurting themselves if they changed scale.
Story wise, toy story wise, keeping in scale helps tell the story.
Will Hasbro commit to finishing G1 on-screen characters in future lines? – TFW2005
(I drilled *nicely* they need to stick the landing – 19 more non-combiner, pre-movie characters to go, etc)
We are aware of them. We’ll probably get there eventually. Design philosophy is micro collections. It’s a long game but that’s the goal.
Segments and marketing – Cyclonus, Arcee in Kingdom, should be in SS86 – etc – why? – Allspark
Wasn’t sure at first if SS86 would be welcomed into the SS line, but they tried it and it’s worked, will look at deeper characters going forward.
The Ark is the last Titan? – Tformers
Lenny – Come on. (laughs). Who told you that.
Can’t confirm or deny officially.
The Ark – was it inspired by the Last Autobot in the comics? – TFW2005
Started with John Warden, finished with Lenny.
Has a touch of the Last Autobot, then Generations styling, and the G1 aspect with Teletraan-1. Touch of everything.
Packaging – Retro releases, modern figs in retro packaging – plans to continue? – Allspark
Lots of positive feedback. Lots of potential there.
Nothing is one and done. If it does well, will continue with more or similar items.
What and how do you decide will be a store exclusive and why? – Tformers
Unique to each retailer and what’s going on in mainline. They have requests, Hasbro has plans. They have discussions from there.
Hard to get things like G1 Soundwave with retro alt mode to be picked up by Walmart? – Cyberttron.ca
Not a hard sell there at all. Netflix partnership worked overall. If it works within messaging, drives people to store, shouldn’t be a problem. They’ll mention concerns with morality or QC issues occasionally. Great partners.
RED line – Is it continuing, will it still be exclusive? – Kastors Korner
It’s done well, have future plans. Can’t say more right now.
Follow up – Super 7 line – any discussion for no overlap?
They are different figures, different sizes. Articulation style different. They are more focused on old-school retro vibe where as Hasbro is more poseability and detail. Not a big concern about overlap.
Teams – still have goal to complete them once one comes out (Dinobots, Insecticons, etc)? – Allspark
100%. Losing opportunities if they didn’t. Yes.
Beast Wars – are there plans to continue past Kingdom to get all of Season 1, 2, one of each character, etc. ? – TFW2005
John Warden’s goal with Kingdom was cracking the surface so they can get more characters into Generations going forward. Used to do that. Generations is now the way to tell the future story, drive forward. Now the chains are off, so they can work things in.
Takara Tomy – Armada Optimus Prime – what’s up? – Allspark
No comment at this point on that one, but more to come.
Will they go back to an all new series with new characters, other than Generations? – Tformers
Can’t confirm right now, sorry.
Shattered Glass – plans to use molds that are not currently active? – TFW2005
Yes. Need to balance state of mold, costs, and what works for different characters. Who fits best.
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That was about it. Again, this was a casual back and forth with a lot of banter, so the above is paraphrased and reduced. We’d like to thank the Hasbro and PR teams for hooking this up!
And, here’s my list of needed WFC scale/style bots needed to complete on-screen, pre-movie guys. In case anyone over there needs it to “stick the landing” 🙂
G1 S1
Brawn
Gears
Windcharger
Slag
Snarl
Sludge
Swoop
Buzzsaw
Shrapnel
Bombshell
Kickback
G1 S2
Seaspray
Cosmos
Beachcomber
Powerglide
Blaster
Perceptor
Skids
Blitzwing
Combiners – Redo. Devastator ok :).
86 Movie forward – as you guys see fit 🙂
IronWaveJRG
This gives me hope that they at least improve the production quantities of the upcoming Kingdom exclusives to meet the demand. People are gonna slay each other for Terrorsaur
TFXProtector
I hope the instructions for Mark's combiner are somewhere on Wingfinger's sheet, or a link becomes publicly and easily available…
BlaminisPrime
Ch3aracgers got shifted to Studio Series 86 for either having designs that didn't mix well with the 5mm ports or didnt fit the narrative of Kingdom. I can only guess Hot Rod was moved cause SS86 needed a figurehead
But like think about it for 5 seconds man
BlaminisPrime
This makes no sense to me lmao, even if this made sense then the answer is that arcee is simply just the bad egg of thr group. They're not gonna go into ss86 and efc with different philosophies of designs since ss86 was meant to be Wfc.
orangeitis
But not the individual Constructicons, at least IMHO.
roguesaint
i Guess I’m in the minority here with this opinion. But I think I’m fine with not paying $20 for a slightly retooled bot compared to the $10 I paid for brawn, windcharger, seaspray and beachcomber. Deluxe sized insecticons? Sure. Non TR versions of Blitzwing, and Perceptor? Yeah, I could easily be suckered into those. Are the CW molds perfect? No, but they seem close enough to satisfy me for a long while. I don’t see myself wanting to replace the on screen G1 combiners anytime soon.
i am hopeful all the Dinobots make it into the leader class line of SS 86
i think there are still a wealth of great post 86 movie G1 characters (admittedly offscreen) that could use the modern generations treatment (looking at you especially yet to be updated target masters and power masters).
But, like I said, I might be in the minority on most of this (shrug).
Snakeguy
View attachment 29044749 little update about the TFwiki Qna, looks like they definetely are considering a rerun for the amazong packs at least…now for ratchet and lifeline
John TL
This is the reason I started collecting the WFC line. I only had G1 Shockwave as a kid, but the Transformers lines never appealed to me until now. Scale, the complexity, is all fun to me. This toy line is my version of the Rubik’s Cube.
drmick
I wish they would design a deluxe jet mold that from the concept phase is meant to be remoldable between being able to deluxe seekers AND all the non-seeker jets. I don't think it would be that difficult if they resort to faux chest pieces for the seekers.
Mind you, we know Needlenose has a mold designed sitting on their computers……
Optimalprimal
I could go for a strongarm, a bulkhead, a prowl, and a blackout…
Spekkio
All this talk of Armada makes me think about the non-G1/BW/IDW characters I'd love to see revisited. We've had a couple in CHUG (or CHUG-adjacent) lines (not counting reprints), e.g. Hot Shot, Lockdown, Lugnut, and Barricade.
We've never seen Demolishor, Bulkhead (Animated/Prime), Prowl (Animated; open to a new name), Ransack & Crumplezone, Override, Scourge (Cybertron; open to a new name), Blackout (Bay), Dirt Boss (Cybertron AND Animated; new names?), Strongarm (RID 2), Knock Out…hell, maybe toss in the Rescue Bots?
Oh, and I forgot about Energon Ironhide. Oops.
Tony_Bacala
Haha, I did not. I do think they'll finish G1 WFC style. I am not however, insane.
Cadeho
Those may have shelfwarmed in your area. I NEVER saw ER Megatron in any store, nor the Quintesson Judge. The only shelfwarmers in my area were Grapple and Shockwave. It appears Dinobot is starting to pile up now. Like when Protoman says the reissues shelfwarmed and go on clearance… here, the only one I saw go on clearance was Hot Rod. The rest I barely saw and only in one or two particular Walmarts, not all of them. I still have not seen but Hardhead of the TR reissues and that was just once. Right now it's super dry.
As far as Prime Wars, I think the complaint was more about how they made EVERYONE a repaint of like 7 molds. You expect Prowl and Starscream with their repaints. I came onboard in 2018 and I was happy just getting figures of characters I knew, no matter what and who else they looked like. But since they've done magic with WFC, of course we'd want to get the rest updated in that style. Not everyone was around for Thrilling 30 and older lines, they are not in the style we want anyway. It was good for then and what they were doing, then. Now is a completely different era trying to capture the cartoon. So we may have just gotten so-and-so, ok… they look out of place now. If the old ones work for you, great! There's more than enough of us who'd buy to justify their release. So yes we'd want the mini bots to be on the new deluxe scale and look like the cartoon. Yes, I'd love to see them finish the 1988 catalog and give us the Omnibots, at least, just as much as I'd love to see Skids get some love. They can give us both while updating the smallest Prime Wars figures. But you know, whatever is next, expect another Optimus, Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, Bumblebee, and Grimlock. They will be there somehow in every line where the cast will revolve around them from other continuities. You don't have to buy them, let the kids and new collectors discover the newer versions. Bones will be tossed to all!
Shin Densetsu
Yes please! Those 2 ought to be redone, I want something as fun to play with and as detailed as the originals(neighbor had 1 back in the day, the POTP ones are really simplified and not as fun to play with IMO). I hope POTP isn’t the last we see for those 2, they deserved better.
D307
Once I thought that the Power of the Primes versions of Darkwing and Dreadwind would be sufficient, but man was I wrong! I would be completely happy with all the Powermasters getting done correctly.
Ramberk Magnus
Yes to all of the above
Someone should totally have asked if Hasbro thought the Commander Class was successful enough to warrant two per year and an increase in price. I’m down for that.
faciov42
WishfulThinking
I full on thought Power of the Primes was going to be a Pretender/Powermaster hybrid line. Which we did in a weaksauce way. Then we got combiners and I was like…huh? Total kitchen sink…
So yeah, I think doing the Powermasters justice would be neat. And I think Breastmasters and Brainmasters could be rolled in without too much complaint.
The fantasy line where I'd think I'd died and awoke in Transformers paradise:
Titan class
Star Saber + Victory Leo
Commander class
Powermaster Optimus Prime
Overlord
Leader class
Star Convoy
Deathsaurus
Quickswitch
Voyagers
Laster
Braver
Blacker
Darkwing
Dreadwind
Deluxes
Getaway
Joyride
Slapdash
Nightbeat
Minerva
Fangry
Horri-Bull
Squeeze-Play
faciov42
Need…..new…Powermasters…..for..replicate..this:
Shin Densetsu
Hey boss man @Tony_Bacala did you ask about an MP RID Scourge?