By JediTricks
Published: June 1, 2009
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With the previous panel running long, Hasbro takes an extra 15 minutes to get set up and started. Welcoming fans, Hasbro notes what a great turnout it is, even with these economic times, it shows there is passion in the brand, and they didn't want that to go unnoticed. It proves that the fans will be there through thick and thin. Hasbro then requests no photos or video, if any of this stuff turns up on the web, they'll have to stop doing these panels, but so far, it's not happened.

4 minutes in at 1:19pm, the slideshow gives fans a sneak peek at what's coming for Transformers for the next year or so.

EXCLUSIVES:
- Titanium Series 6" figures. The War Within Prime redeco, Thrust (repainted Starscream), and Hotzone (Hotspot with a new name, repainted RID Prime) that are already in the booth. They will be Target exclusives.
- Hasbro is trying G1 reissues again, including these next 2...
- TRU G1 Insecticons. There's an insect robot character in the movie, so it fits with that. Designers endeavored to include their vac metal from the originals.
- TRU Perceptor. The character is in Animated, so it made sense. Also will sport the vac-metal, but no missile launcher (clarified in the Sunday panel as the launcher will be there but not fire).
- Wal-mart Masterpiece Skywarp. This will be different from the Takara version, a little more faithful to the toy's coloring than realistic.
- Target The Fallen (Voyager-class, red repaint). The red coloring gives the idea of being on fire, "that's hot" from the panel.

Next up at 1:24pm, a slide was supposed to be included of Human Alliance Mikela with Skids & Arcee, but technical difficulties showed no images. (Corrected on the Sunday panel.)

TF ANIMATED:
Big applause. These next figures will come out at some point in the near future. They may be mainline figures or exclusives, but Hasbro will make every effort to get them out. Hasbro knows there's a lot of excitement out there for them. The timing is still to be determined, but they will find their way to market. The line will run through 2009 into maybe 2010.

Deluxes.
- Electrostatic Soundwave with Ratbat keytar. Designer wanted to design extra cheesy as a child of '80s hairmetal.
- Arcee. They are just as excited to get this out. It's been a long time coming. Ever since re-introduction in TF:Energon, there's always been levels of design they wanted to use to throw homage back to, and this turned out to do something so close to G1. They want to thank Derrick Wyatt (head designer of the TF:Animated cartoon) for his help in visualizing this.
- Rodimus Minor. Hot Rod sports car. Figure holds a dual-arrow bow.
- Cybertron Ratchet. They wanted to do a cool design from his younger days. He's sporting hand devices in the photo like defibrilator paddles.
- Cybertron Ironhide prototype showed, based on Ratchet mold but head is new sculpt. Hasbro hoped to do this redeco, so they planned it in advance with Takara.
- Fugitive Waspinator. Green repaint of regular Bumblebee figure. Hasbro explains it didn't get the new sculpt head because of budget issues, the bio is written around flaw in that design, basically Waspinator steals Bumblebee's helmet and has malfunctioning electro-camoflauge. They know there will be comments about the Bumblebee head.

Voyagers.
- Goldfire Grimlock (repaint). Grim is one of their favorite dinobots, and they felt this was a good color to go into. The bio helps make sense of it.
- Hydrodive Bumblebee (all new). This is a fun one. Bumblebee removes from scuba pack and is a new smaller design so as to scale better with the other Autobots.
- Blackout. Huge audience reaction. Helicopter similar to movie design. This is not the alien form vehicle mode, they decided on an Earth mode in hope of future character experience in later seasons, but that didn't pan out. The left arm is the tail rotor and is a disk-shooter.
- Wingblade Optimus Prime. Not repaint of the existing Voyager figure, this is the Deluxe Optimus Prime with a bunch of parts that attach. They promise to talk about the design tomorrow, and an extra feature.
- Thundercracker. They did Skywarp so they had to do Thundercracker too. "'Nuff said."

Next up at 1:33pm.

2010 MOVIE LINE SNEAK PEEK:
Legends.
- Wheelie.
- Soundwave. Hasbro says Movie Soundwave is big and beefy for a Legends-class.

Scout class figures.
- Brakedown. Sportscar, homage to G1.
- Skystalker. This is a drone jet in the movie, so they made him into an offscreen Transformer character. They changed the silhouette.
- Scattorshot. Minesweeper truck. An "offscreen" design not in the movie. Pistols end up in hands during transformation. They are starting to pair character releases together so they come out at the same time as their arch enemy, and writing bios to work with that. Scattorshot comes out at the same time as Skystalker, they are meant to fight each other, Hasbro guiding play a little.

Deluxes.
- Lockdown. Gets a huge audience reaction. He's very thin, lanky, even moreso than the Animated figure he's based on. Hasbro says Animated is so great, has some special characters, so they took some and popped them into a realistic expression. They tried to change up Lockdown, make him real but true to the character. They expect to show off the deco on Sunday (and they do).
- Movie Ratchet. Ratchet done as a deluxe for the first time. They had to play with the vehicle mode a bit to get it to fit the deluxe scale. Had to make it compact in the back to make it affordable, visually it's a small change, it's still a Hummer. Has a spring-loaded gun that they're calling his EMP blaster despite it being quite different from Animated version (and that ramscoop coming with Lockdown), it fires a missile. Both Ratchet and Lockdown have Mech-Alive features.
- Dirge. All new design, Harrier-style jet. The conehead. Hasbro says he has a cool turbine-spinning Mech-Alive feature, 2 small turbines on his chest. Sports 2 projectile launchers. It was important to have the right design cues.

Voyagers.
- Jungle Attack Ironhide. Revisits the Ironhide mold but with significant mold changes, as well as deco. New pieces include a bumper that turns into a crossbow. Cool new armored door panels. They're working out a mini-system with Takara for the accessories here, all have C-clamps (sic, they're really C-clips -JT), there's a sniper rifle, gatling gun, blades, they clip to the truck bars over the bed, and also combine together.
They're going to do more mission specific stuff. Hasbro starts to explain in a specific way the tale of Jungle Attack Ironhide, but accidentally jumps to the next slide too early. Laughingly, Rick Alverez is blamed for ruining the big surprise. The idea is that Jungle Attack Ironhide goes on a mission in the deep jungle to go after a rumored evil jungle tank, which Hasbro then wanted to reveal in the panel as the next figure...
- Bludgeon. Movie-style tank in jungle colors, green and orange. Bot mode has robotic skull chest and evil Samurai theme like he should. Samurai sword comes out of the main turret's cannon. The smaller sword has a Mech-Alive reveal where it comes out over his shoulder.
- Human Alliance Barricade with Frenzy. All new designs. Frenzy can be the driver or fold into a cube shape and store in the front of the vehicle or bot chest where he can pop out and man twin guns. Like other Human Alliance sets, Frenzy has multiple snap-on points.

Because of the aforementioned problem with the Mikela/Skids/Arcee slide, that ends the presentation at 1:40pm PST. Up next is Q&A, which runs for an hour and 15 minutes until 2:55pm. Here are highlighted answers.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS.
- Future of TF:Universe? The movie line extends through Spring 2010. Then in Fall of 2010, another Universe-inspired line (name still TBD) will be kickstarted again in Deluxe scale at least.
- In the movie, there were 3 bikes originally shown, but the toy line has only seen 2, will there be a next one? Yes, a redeco but different enough for all 3.
- What about "Susan" (Animated female Starscream) and IDW Drift toys? Susan's name is actually Slipstream, sadly not going to do a toy of her. Drift, come back Sunday to get answer.
- When asked for comment about the ending of TF:Animated, Hasbro pointed to the recent press release of a joint venture with Discovery Kids for their own network, but clearly they can't get into a lot of details here. Based on where TF had been and movie, they really wanted to drive the TF universe, so because there's expectation on a new network for a new series, it makes it difficult to have 2 series at once. Everybody at Hasbro was happy with Animated from all aspects, happy with characters and G1 references. A lot of what you saw there you'll see here, but way too early to talk. They address that Animated has set a new standard.
- What about a Paradron Medic Arcee? No plans. Cool character so in the future redecos give chances.
- Future TF:Animated releases in Universe packaging? No, stick with TF:A style for what's discussed today.
- Will there be another line of pure repaints? Hasbro is always looking for opportunities to make sense of a character, not just repaints for the sake of a repaint. They will continue to sprinkle in repaints, but they don't anticipate a whole line of them.
- What about a US release of Masterpiece Grimlock? What Hasbro can say, they've had great successes with the Masterpieces they have done, and will certainly look for those opportunities to continue in years to offer those to us. Then a brief discussion on stage, followed by an update to the answer: "Yes." They can't say when yet, but they do anticipate it sometime in the next year to year and a half.
- Why aren't the G1 Robot Heroes continuing? As far as Robot Heroes go, it's a great new expression of the TF brand. Bringing all different versions together in 1 line though is a difficult task, so it's not a part of the immediate plan.
- For TF:Animated, what specific characters was the team anticipating that they didn't get to. Eric wanted to do Omega Supreme. There was the Constructicons. But Various things happened and they decided it wasn't the best time to launch those characters.
- Why no Slipstream? In planning of the toyline, so many characters appeared, they just didn't have room to fit her in the line.
- Devastator, why no robot modes? Aaron Archer answers this saying that the extra parts needed to combine, the figures scales got unruly, so they put them in other assortments to let them look as good as possible but without the combiner parts. And then for a "playable" Devastator that is the most fun and holds together, they had to sacrifice bot modes.
- What about making the rest of the Animated characters in Universe? They don't think there are current plans, but they continue to add TF:Animated into the line, that's where they'd fit in the future. But again, no plans right now.
- Why no TF:Animated Cliffjumper repainted from dlx Bumblebee despite using that deluxe Bumblebee mold 3 times now? They didn't know how many redecos they were doing with that mold originally when they planned the line. They did the Activator, but it's such a minor character that Activators seems like the best fit.
- Transformers Bases? No immediate plans to go back to base-figures, maybe in longterm.
- Packaging, reduce twist-ties? Hasbro is looking at ways, moving away from twist-ties, alternative materials, easier to cut and more environmentally friendly. There's a huge "green" initiative going on at Hasbro's packaging department. Next year, packs get smaller, interior blisters reduce a lot, and twist-ties get changed to rattan which won't scar or distort plastic and are much more environmentally friendly.
- Lately, the bios are hard to keep intact while opening packages, any plan to let customers better save those bios? Hasbro says it's good to hear feedback like this, it will influence the next round of design, and they will look at ways to accomplish that now that they know there's that fan concern.
- What about a Hardhead figure? Already in the booth, it's a redeco of Universe Ultra Onslaught (it's an exclusive). Deco is based on IDW. No new sculpt, but head is already similar to cartoon model, though not the toy design which never matched the cartoon.
- What about the overseas Legends movie Devastator set? Yes, there are plans to get this into the US. It's a great item, different expression. They plan on getting it out there as a Spring 2010 exclusive.
- Rerelease the Universe Legends that were hard to find? Big audience agreement. Hasbro's answer is that the Legends scale distribution is different in the US than outside the US. Globally, European countries prices of products are much higher so Legendsare a very bigger part of TF marketing in other countries. While in the US, a lot of retailer accounts use them as sidekicks and extras, harder to have a more fluid distribution when it's not on the planograms. So there are no plans, but it's good feedback to hear. Maybe in the future as exclusives or on HasbroToyShop.
- How about a movie Blackout Leader-class? There are plans for a new Leader-class in Fall of 2010, but not Blackout. Questioner asks if that means Starscream, Hasbro response is "can't hear you, sorry."
- Alternity in the US? Archer says no, it's a Takara thing, an exclusive deal with Nissan. Not an easy one, it's not in any of their scales, not in cost structures.
- What happens to the 3rd wave of Mighty Muggs? Plan is to stick with the existing 2 waves, 3rd no. They will look to find an exclusive outlet for them though (later, they explain that nothing gets "dropped" when it's not produced, they look for other ways to release stuff through alternate outlets, exclusives).
- After Legends Springer and Robt Heroes, no more of him? He's not in the movie, not gonna see more of him, that's all Hasbro did.
- How about a bigger Cosmos that we've seen the molds of? Greg and Bill at Hasbro battled over that, jokingly, Bill is secretly working on it on his own. But no, no plans for the Titanium Series stuff.
- The economy's troubles affecting Hasbro on pricing? Hasbro has no influence on retail price, but it has been causing cost increases in general. Driven by increases in oil prices and labor. Unfortunately, some cost increasess have to be passed on. They had 2 choices, either raise prices or cost-reduce. Deluxe is a good scale and establishes certain sizes, so it's better to keep size for consistent collections than try to reduce costs by shrinking the new products.
- How did Shadowblade Megatron's colors come about? They didn't want to do a Galvatron redeco, and looking back at Animated's pilot, every Decepticon in the beginning was really dark with purple backlights, so they applied that theme to Megatron as a toy.
- With the upcoming Target redeco sets of Superion and Bruticus Maximus, what's with their coloring? The team answers for not-at-the-show Jared Wade, he mostly took the G1 colors and did variations on them, experimenting on realistic versions of those.
- How about more CGI animation on the website? They wanted to see what it'd look like from an artist they were hiring, so they purposed it in a way to share with the fans, but it wasn't intentionally done to be publically shared, they worked it into that. Anser is "no."
- What about a Resolute-quality show for Transformers? GI Joe is in a different place than the TF fanbase right now. Resolute was a way to get Joe fans re-engaged. It gives everyone the ep they THOUGHT they saw back in the day. TF is in a different place, fans are driving the same kinds of ideas that are working now. That's similar to the philosophy the team is working from.
- Asked about the lack of Star Wars and Marvel TF Crossovers, the question was lost in the shuffle.
- What's with the Ice Cream Truck guys in the movie? The movie production team's concept art made the Hasbro TF team think they were goofy, but the more they saw, the more they thought it was so corny they had to do it, like Dispensor. At first glance, theyd' never do it. But like the Toaster Bot (Ejector), they're trying to find little things here and there that are fun to do.
- Is movie 2 Megatron a Triple-changer? When working with the art department, how does one retain the first version for this film? Some concept designs had him fly or partly fly, even a flying heavy hovertank. You'll see those rocket thrusters in the film, it's best represented on Voyager Megatron with fold up wings, but they're not sure the concept made it into the final film. Flying is not what makes Megs cool, and they're happy it went away. The Voyager-class is the best place to find what's left of the flying mode.
- What about producing Cybertronian modes for Wheeljack and Bumblebee a la G1? As they look to continuity now, you might see those designs or reimaginings of those designs in the format, but making it to a toy is a different thing. (This is expanded upon later.)
- Hasbro to next questioner: "Hi Matt." He asks the team, what's the deal with TF:Animated Dirge but no Ramjet? Bill on the Hasbro team just kinda picked him. Joe on the team said he looked at the wave and decided based on what colors would look nice together on the store shelf.
- About the Takara Devastator, theirs has 7 guys while Hasbro's ultimate version only has 6 guys, why? (WARNING: THIS IS A SPOILER -JT) Hasbro responds, in the film, without saying too much, Devastator can combine with a lot of things, a lot of Constructicons. As some get knocked out, the team can still combine without them. It's a different concept for the Bay vision than the original, more them means a bigger combined bot. Could be 15 Constructions or 6 in the movie universe and they'd still make the combiner, just a different size.
- More Action Blast webisodes? If Hasbro does them, they will be MUCH MUCH MUCH better (emphasis theirs). That sort of thing is now how Archer spends his days, making sure that sort of thing gets done right.
- Taking the Botcon '07 Seekers into mind, 4 of the 6 Seekers have been done, why not alternate movie Thrust and Dirge or Titanium? Titaniums, no plans. The movie line, depends a lot on how successful they are, if retailers like how they do.
- For offscreen characters, what about more altmodes? Dealing with the licenses for the vehicles is difficult, stylized vehicle modes difficult to get done. No plans for the future. Plans like that are to see how they might do. But there are other surprises in Robot Heroes coming.
- A lot of Fansproject-type stuff, do you see how much people want them, how they could be cheaper if they were mass-produced? Greg answers for this in a serious tone. These are things Hasbro wouldn't do because there's no mass appeal, not to say they aren'g good ideas. But it's becoming blatant infringement on Hasbro's Transformers intellectual property, and that's serious stuff. They had to work on correcting the fans' takes on knockoffs last year. Some of these fans project-type stuff have GONE TOO FAR. It's opening Hasbro's eyes to the reality of what used to be a fun fan sharing exeperience now becoming counterfeits, infringement on their I.P.. They don't like it, it's gone too far, and they're looking hard at it.
- Why is Hasbro starting to package in bot mode? It depends on characters, they will find for the most part that they try to keep similar by class, but in instances where the robot may be more reocgnizable, they'll go to that. Preview Soundwave is what they feel is a good example, more recognizable than his satellite mode, so the robot mode is best presented on the shelf.
- Animated Cyclonus? Half the team wanted to do one, but the other half was doing the Classics version, so it didn't make sense to do another, similar design on the shelf. Literally, it was a choice between them, and the Classics one was 2 weeks ahead on design so they had to make the choice.
- The unmade Titanium Series 6" figure prototypes we've seen, are you going to try to pepper that into other areas, more Cybertronian modes? Going to see a big more renewed focus on the broader scale of the story of Trnasformers. No promises, but likely over the next few years. The brand keeps getting bigger, new people coming in, so its the Hasbro team's feeling to restate the TF chronology since the movie universe doesn't, it goes a different way. It needs to be retold for a new audience, new fans need to know too.
- What about a figure for movie Constructicons that don't have any yet, Hightower and Scrapper? We won't necessarily see every character as an individual figure.
- Did Hasbro really come up with the name "Nexus Maximus" (the combined mode of the 5 Transforemrs Collectors Club exclusive separate combiner figures)? Yes. Are you guys going to get internet filtering turned off at work because of this? Corporately, it's not possible, but yeah. (Ed note: Hasbro suggested the name to the Club after their suggestions had "Prime" in them, not realizing that the name they chose was already used for an... um, "adult marital aid".)
- Classics, more beasts, more RID? Hasbro's always looking to get back and find those characters. They can't comment on specific ones but Universe look lets them incorporate a number of TF generations, so "maybe." Questioner asks, how about Shattered? Hasbro responds that feedback in panels like this is incorporated. For Shattered, what's important there is a separation so that the idea that it's special is important, so they don't want to put that into the main line only to have it get muddled. But any Skybyte package that comes their way, Forrest will work to have every bit of the bio be in haiku if he can.
- For the new movie line's Starscream, the packaging mentions and shows pop out missile launchers, but the production version of the toy doesn't have them movable, why? Budget. There's also a blade that looks like it spins but doesn't, originally planned to have a trigger-spin mechanism but got costed out. Normally that stuff wouldn't be on the packaging, but that was an oversight this time and they try to be the most accurate as possible on packaging.
- For TF:A Fugitive Waspinator, no changes at all, even stingers? Any tooling changes hit the budget hard. The figure was also a late addition, they had already used up tooling budget. It's either release the figure as-is or not at all because steel cuts cost a lot in the budget.
- Universe deluxe Sunstorm from the Classics mold? Team member Joe never has a problem with Sunstorm, always possible. And they love that mold. Stay tuned, it's not planned but on a short list.
- Why use so many twist-ties? It's about shipping, no wobble in the packaging. Best standards of presentation so no returns, no broken product. It's a necessary evil since they're on a boat and in transit for so long. And they are looking to do better. But especially with so many moving parts, it's the nature of the beast.
- What about alternate, OEM-style packaging for collectors, bags with just the toy instead of cards and bubble trays? They'd need to display a small parts warning, the bag itself may also become a safety issue. It's a good idea but needs a lot of thought, what about instructions, explaining who the guy is. Questioner suggests internet instructions, response is that not everybody has the internet around the world.
- When Universe comes back, will it stay around a long time? The great thing about the Universe line is that it provieds flexibility. They don't think it's something they say "well, let's do from this period to this period", it's a platform for flexibility. The concept of the Universe line keeps a lot of options open. The team really likes Universe. When they create lines that are more adult-fan targeted, it's harder to keep going with retailers. When it goes away, it's not because of poor sales, but because Universe has to make way for other lines.
- Being aware of online video reviewer community like on Youtube, any thoughts in investing in similar online videos? Cool idea, but haven't thought of it, no. Interesting.
- Could you collaborate with Fansproject, as it'd save a lot of people costs of kitbashing and tools? Another reference to "they've gone too far" by making money off Hasbro's IP. To the team's knowledge, those guys have never come to Hasbro and asked for a TF license.
- Any other characters in line for Universe treatment? Yes, a list of names, but they're not going to toss it out because of future questions, why didn't you make this guy, when are you doing that guy?
- How about ROTF Sideswipe as Tracks? They are well aware of the Corvette in Transformers. Swerve (repaint of Sideswipe with a new head) is already in their display case. Tracks makes a lot of sense, it's a great mold. They imagine we'll see it. Lot of potential for Corvette potential in the brand.
- Henkei Red Alert released in the US? No plans at this moment.
- Universe is great, but what's up with Hot Shot's shoulders, more panels to pull off, other designs that need fixing? They didn't know about the shoulder problem until a test shot, then they did see it. A sheepish "I'm sorry." There are other parts shown for Hot Shot that got costed out but the possibility of seeing them later on.
- With what's been said about Fansproject type things, what's Hasbro's official policy on individual fans' infringement of IP, customs and costumes and whatnot? They don't want to get into an "official" stance, as each one would require an indvidual stance, but in general when it's done in fun for personal use, that's what keeps the brand going, fun with the brand. When it becomes someone's business to make money off someone else's IP, that's where it gets into area that's not good. Hopefully this answers the question, there's been latitude over the years and it's been taken advantage of. Another utterance of "goes too far" to close the answer.
- Hasbro: "Hey Matt" (he got back in line). Questioner, with the history of Animated what was produced (story-wise) in comparison to previous lines such as leadership roles, how will that influence future ideas? Stuff like Sentinel Prime, other formats than just 1 leader, 1 Optimus Prime? By changing up the hierarchy of Primes and Magnuses, and adding Minors, it was a fun way to shake things up and look at things a different way, and it worked really well. Moving forward it's really hard to say how to treat the same concept, but since done before it'll definitely remain on the table.
- Brian Wilk, formerly of Hasbro Star Wars, is the last questioner in line, and asks the team to sing the Transformers theme song. Greg will sing it if Brian will dance. Turns out that Brian has taken over the job that Archer had. The team on the stage then demands Brian prove his worth by singing the TF theme solo, hazing him and twisting his joke back on him, he sang one word and jokingly slunk off.

At 2:54pm, Hasbro closed the panel by mentioning that the swine flu knocked out travel from Japan, that the Takara team was supposed to be there as well but couldn't fly out, they wished them well and were sad to not have them there as Takara is a part of the bigger team. Yoka was even going to wear a special helmet. Then they thank us for 25 great years of Transformers.

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