Breaking the silence, Hasbro VP of Global Publishing, Michael Kelly spoke to Nerd Reactor on the new license for G.I. Joe and Transformers comic books.
Mr. Kelly confirmed that IDW would indeed lose the rights by the end of 2022. However, he declined to divulge the name of the new license holder.
“Actually, we’re in a bit of a transition at the moment, as you might have heard,” Kelly tells Nerd Reactor. “So we’ve been with IDW on the comic book front, with Transformers and Joe, and that’s going to be ending at the end of this year. We’re not ready yet to announce who our new partner is, but we’ve already begun some creative discussions.”
Both brands will step into a new direction after the transition.
“Certainly there’ll be plenty of things that they’ll be familiar with,” Kelly continued. “Because again, we’re not going to completely reinvent the brands, but I think what they’ll find is a fresh take on the storytelling and the characters. Probably develop a little bit more slowly to try and bring some new fans in as well as by starting out focusing on two or three main characters and really giving them a lot of depth and a lot of personalities and then building out the team of characters as we go along. So yeah, that’s usually what we do.”
Regarding creative decision-making from Hasbro’s side:
“In some regards, we will do adaptations of TV or movies, obviously, but a lot of what we’re doing is actually original storytelling,” Kelly explained. “As far as toys are concerned, we at times will try to incorporate some of the artistic designs of toys. But it’s important to us that the integrity of the storytelling always be what’s driving the narrative. So we’re never going to just say, ‘Oh, well, you know, Hasbro is releasing a new toy, so we’ll put it in this comic, like an advertisement.’ We don’t do that.”
Tie-in comics with Transformers: EarthSpark will also take place.
“When it comes to the kids’ properties, we tend to try and use the main characters that fans are familiar with,” Kelly said. “If there’s anything that we would do, we would focus more on the heroism or on the adventure of it – less on the violence side. So we really want to craft that message so that kids are reading the stories that they’re ready for, and that their parents are going to be happy that they’re reading as well. What it is about is just making sure that it’s accessible. So certainly, you know, Bumblebee would be a character that we would focus on for a younger audience, because he’s everybody’s best friend, and it tends to resonate well with kids. If we do bring in Decepticons like Starscream and Megatron, we might play them a little bit more, sort of over the top – not humorous necessarily, but scary.”
Shin Densetsu
Closed until next update maybe
T-Hybrid
Wait, do you mean to tell me yet another person in this thread was critical of the comic but hadn't actually read it?
I hate political comics like Transformers. No wonder they fail where non-political comics, like X-Men, thrive.
grindcore138
Oh, hey, I remember that issue, Deadpool (2013) #40.
That's the one where Roxxon, the shady oil company of the Marvel universe, tries to lobby Deadpool to promote gracking (gamma fracking) as a 100% safe and ethical source of energy despite all the horrible environmental and human consequences it causes, in which Deadpool quite notably does not kill any oil executives (although that would be absolutely based if he did), the only murdering in the issue is actually done by the oil executive/evil minotaur, Dario Agger, the CEO of Roxxon.
Tetratron
jackgaughan
Or getting mad at social issues being brought up in a manga, now if you excuse me I'm gonna read non-political stories like, Full Metal Alchemist, Gundam, Psycho Pass and many other non-political stories because Japan doesn't have politics like the West does!
T-Hybrid
Imagine being that sensitive that you get mad at *Deadpool* for being self aware.
The dude celebrated International Women's Day by letting his girlfriend…well… we can't get in to that here.
jackgaughan
What are you pro frakking?
AcademyofDrX
Lol per a Bloomberg media newsletter today, Hasbro may have already decided they can't be a media company, and may announce as soon as October that they want to sell off some of the eOne assets. So my quoted post was about half right.
Hasbro To Reevaluate Its Entertainment Plans – Transformers News – TFW2005
AcademyofDrX
I don't want to pick on any one response here, but the recent discussion in this thread is so comically narrow. I guarantee that Hasbro does not measure the success of the ancillary media by interest in a particular character design or even in a specific character. I'm sure there are fans that came to the franchise via a toyline only, but for the vast majority of us, we fell for the characters and stories in media. Even if few of us discovered Transformers through IDW, I know at least for me it helped me rediscover the property, even more so than the feature films. Not to go all brand manager on everybody, but the best way for the media to sell toys isn't as an advertisement only, but to help people have a relationship with the property, to not just be collectors but also fans.
I can't tell you how many people bought, I don't know, Generations Trailcutter because of MTMTE, I don't know that there's any evidence for that at all. But it's verifiable that even today fans are building their Lost Light crew shelves or Wreckers shelves. And I'm sure there's some demand for Flamewar because of the simple rarity of the original figures, but how many people are excited to pick her up because she's a perfect little chaos goblin? How many collectors stay collectors because they can't quit these stories and characters? Those are better questions.
I'm sure the limited reach of the IDW comics in recent years was a factor in Hasbro looking for another publisher, but it doesn't come down to merely putting eyeballs for the latest toys. It's about making people excited to get the toys, and for almost forty years now, that's been through storytelling across a range of media.
DrTraveler
I definitely think that’s the case for T30 Springer and CW Ultra Magnus. Like I said, in many cases the IDW inspired toy was also the first modern toy that character had in a long time.
Maybe that’s the impact IDW had on the toys. By raising the profile on Springer maybe it convinced Hasbro to finally release a true triple changing Springer? Skids has been relegated to the trash heap of the fandom, but maybe his prominence in MTMtE convinced them to finally take a shot at giving him a toy in T30?
I think that’s the strongest case you can make in terms of impact that IDW had on the toyline:
misfire19d
It worked so well for Marvel because all the characters were brand new. Furthermore, the story crafted by Budiansky allowed for him to introduce new characters which seemed organic to the story. Unfortunately, it seems like Hasbro is currently just reacting to social media engagement and what people say on forums. A lot of which can be faked with bots and sock puppet accounts. 1 person can create 50 accounts and amplify whatever narrative they want. Tracking online buzz is inexpensive (cheap) but unreliable.
Edit: Would the 2 books be in the same continuity? Like spotlight books? Some of those were really good. It has worked before so if there’s a publisher with the talent and vision, then they should go for it.
misfire19d
I think it still is. I saw the first book at Walmart and picked it up. Wasn’t bad. The second book is there now. I just haven’t bought it yet. It’s probably on Amazon too.
misfire19d
That’s fair. I think people buying those Velicitron toys were going to buy them no matter who designed them.
DrTraveler
I'm not sure it's provable one way or another. I know I personally plan to pick up Velocitron Blurr because it's the IDW incarnation. But I can't say that it will have a significant impact on the bottom line or now. I don't have that data and anything I look at will be anecdotal. Further clouding the issue is that IDW Skids, T30 Springer, CW Ultra Magnus were IDW inspired for sure, but they're also often the first release of that named character in a while. So who knows there?
I think we can say that IDW clearly impacted design. Did it impact sales? Dunno
Strife
Yup.
This is exactly why Studio Series came to exists.
In 2017, Hasbro realized that everyone who was 12 and 14 years old in 2007 was now 22 and 24, and not relying on parent's money anymore to buy things, and would only make more money over the next 5 years. Those same 12 and 14 year olds are now 27 and 29.
Studio Series came to exists because Bayverse stuff sells well, Takara was doing Movie the Best, and Target (particularly) was interested in a movieverse line at regular intervals even if there wasn't a movie release. And a lot of that all works because a LOT of people's first exposure to Transformers was the Bayverse films as kids, and they're all grown up now.
Sure some of them may have come to appreciate G1 and the Unicron trilogy and beast wars over time. But for us old time G1ers, it was weird for a while seeing maskess, bug-armor, a lot of blue and grey Optimus Prime from the 2007 movie as 'Optimus' for a long time. And now from a marketing and public mindset and probably fandom standpoint too, he's as much of an Optimus as 1984 G1 red-flatnosed Truck Optimus. He exists in parallel. They two Optimus primes are marketing peers more or less – retro and kids stuff on one hand, and cinematic Transformers on the other.
FWIW I think a reason that so many of us came to accept it over time, besides just being deluged with Bayverse stuff (and coming to like it), is that Peter Cullen voiced both Primes. It legitimized the character as "peer-level" in a sense, to us super-old school fans, in a way I don't think it would have happened if they had some Hollywood A-Lister do it like was rumored at the time.
Dire 51
I agree… the toys are getting really good. How about this…
Remember the 80's when Marvel was like "now, Omega Supreme!" or "Aerialbots!" … the comic was blatantly an advertisement for a new toy. And that's okay. Because we need *some* sort of emotional attachment to the characters to sell the toys. Toys which look dope but need a push… (I often pass on good looking toys because I know nothing about the character)
What if there's two books? One that's selling the current toy line (a monthly one-and-done), and something akin to MtMtE, a long-form narrative?
MagnusPrimal
This was actually a thing?
FlutterPrime
Most comics I`ve bought were based off MLP, I`ve bought a few TF Comics though, mainly the crossover between the two and the The Arrival from Transformers Animated
misfire19d
Go back and read what I said. There’s a distinct difference between what I wrote and what they’re saying I wrote. It’s shameless strawmanning. They can’t tell me a comic with 6k-8k orders, not sales, orders, is making any kind of significant impact on people buying the toys. They’re taking a reasonable thought I had and spinning into something else with the hope no one will scroll up to read the original post.
DrTraveler
Yeah I don’t get that argument at all. Bay’s films and IDW will be an influence going forward same as the Beast Wars, Unicron Trilogy, G2, and Animated. Hell even the action masters toylike has an impact on the current lines. The good parts will stick, what didn’t work won’t.