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griffin
28th April 2008, 09:46 PM
Sunday 1pm - Hasbro Design Team.

Designers - Aaron Archer, Jared, Steve, Joe, Bill.

This panel was to mostly explain certain design decisions or 'injoke paint apps).

Slides shown:

Animated.
ANimated Seekers in three colour versions, dated 2005.
ANimated Prowl colour guide with the stoplight weapon planned from beginning.
SOundwave Animation sheet.
Soundwave Colour guide
Blitzwing Bio and head concept sketches from April 2005.
Angry Archer animation sheet - it was a Cartoon network in joke that Aaron didn't know about until after it was included in the cartoon.

Transformers Movie.
Wreckage/Stryker - originally coloured green but changed to snow camo for more variety in product line colours.
Realgear Midnighter XR-4 - Designer Jared chose numbers on watch face to reflect his brother Seth's name and birthday.
Longarm - Orson on side was Aaron's screen name years ago.
Salvage - Sparkplug and Son on door was inspired by Samford and Son pickup.
Steve was responsible for all the Alternator Numberplates, including the unused Megatron one that would have been on a Cadillac Alternator.

Armada Jetfire done by Aaron, was coincedentally inspired by Michael Bay's Armageddon Movie Shuttle, years before the TFs movie was even being considered.
Armada Hoist - SD74 refers to an unspeakable incident by Hasbro people at a construction site during a Comic Con weekend. SOmething about playing with a construction vehicle, and maybe causing a lot of damage.
New Universe Silverbolt and Galvatron have '25' on them for the 25th anniversary.
New Stormcloud has 'MM-89' for the year of Micromasters.
**New Powerglide (and by default, Stormcloud) has inside the chest cavity, a moulded Heart outline, as a nod to the Gen1 episode.

(other small examples were shown to explain the meaning behind various number and letter paint apps, but nothing else too significant).

New Universe Deluxe Acid Storm (green recolour of Classics Starscream) was first intended to be Rainmaker, then Acid Rain, but neither of those names cleared, so got their third choice, Acid Storm.
Similar trouble with the Walmart exclusive Fracture (recolour of Classics Mirage), as the colour designer Joe was inspired by Gobots/Machine Men Crasher, but couldn't get the name. Also tried Catalyst, which also didn't clear, but were successful with Fracture.

Showed New Universe SIlverstreak colour guide sheet to show their initial intention of having the Prowl mould used with the roof lights removed.

Couple more Sneak Peeks.
- Animated Perceptor Robot mode concept drawing shown, which is so new, it was dated April 1st 2008.
- 25th Anniversary Amada Hot Shot with Jolt, uncoloured pre-prototype models, in both modes.

And Universe Ironhide will have snap on hand weapons to reflect the Gen1 cartoon character having tools coming out of the wrists.

Borgeman
28th April 2008, 09:54 PM
And Universe Ironhide will have snap on hand weapons to reflect the Gen1 cartoon character having tools coming out of the wrists.

see stuff like this shows at least some people in hasbro care :)

George

dirge
28th April 2008, 09:58 PM
Armada Jetfire done by Aaron, was coincedentally inspired by Michael Bay's Armageddon Movie Shuttle, years before the TFs movie was even being considered.


You know, this seems so obvious now that you mention it. I love Armageddon (forced love scenes aside) as a "big" movie... so as soon as I read this, I thought "Of course!"

Paulbot
28th April 2008, 10:18 PM
25th anniversary Hot Shot and Jolt? They really are going for a 25 years of Transformers if they are doing a new version (hopefully an improved version).

griffin
28th April 2008, 10:39 PM
Hotshot and jolt are indeed a completely new toy, with better articulation and no head cannon.

i_amtrunks
29th April 2008, 10:11 AM
So we get Cheetor as the token BW figure, Hot Shot as the token Armada toy... so what yellow figures will get the token treatment from RID, BM and Energon? :p

sifun
29th April 2008, 10:17 AM
hopefully he'll have the air defence team minicon star saber blade thing too

Gutsman Heavy
29th April 2008, 11:40 AM
I'm glad there's a new hot shot, I first saw Armada from the Ps2 game, I thought hot shot was alright, based on design, imagine my shock when I got my hands on the figure :(

Bartrim
29th April 2008, 05:31 PM
You know, this seems so obvious now that you mention it. I love Armageddon (forced love scenes aside) as a "big" movie... so as soon as I read this, I thought "Of course!"

Ditto

Tetsuwan Convoy
29th April 2008, 11:16 PM
So we get Cheetor as the token BW figure, Hot Shot as the token Armada toy... so what yellow figures will get the token treatment from RID, BM and Energon? :p
Yellow figures or inexperienced?

Going with the "young inexperiened theme" my guess would be RID=Sideburn, BM=Nightscream, Energon=Ironhide.

Going with yellow theme? I don't care to be honest...:D

dirge
30th April 2008, 06:28 AM
Going with the "young inexperiened theme" my guess would be BM=Nightscream, Energon=Ironhide.


Now there are two concepts that don't need revisiting! :rolleyes:

Paulbot
30th April 2008, 08:58 AM
A better toy for both of those two would be nice... but how could you improve Sideburn???

i_amtrunks
30th April 2008, 09:02 AM
I'd love an Energon Ironhide who's head doesnt show through in Alt mode.

If he could still powerlinx with Jetfire that would just be a bonus.

griffin
30th April 2008, 11:03 AM
So we get Cheetor as the token BW figure, Hot Shot as the token Armada toy... so what yellow figures will get the token treatment from RID, BM and Energon? :p

Someone in the audience actually questioned this same thing as well. The Hasbro people responded to say that the Hotshot toy was to be released about 6 months after Cheetor, so wouldn't be looking like an assortment of yellow.
They also mentioned that the characters chosen were ones that were most well known, or most reflected the identity of that particular series.
Cheetor and Hotshot are key identities for their respective series, hence their inclusion in the anniversary line.

i_amtrunks
30th April 2008, 11:34 AM
Someone in the audience actually questioned this same thing as well. The Hasbro people responded to say that the Hotshot toy was to be released about 6 months after Cheetor, so wouldn't be looking like an assortment of yellow.
They also mentioned that the characters chosen were ones that were most well known, or most reflected the identity of that particular series.
Cheetor and Hotshot are key identities for their respective series, hence their inclusion in the anniversary line.

It's a decent idea.

But it does mean that if Energon gets the 25 year treatment, Ironhide is the bot of choice...