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We started our interview with Marketing Director Ben Montano, with some input on design details later on from Design Director John Warden.
One of the questions was surrounding Swoop so the render shows red chest but the display shows blue so guys wanted to know…
Sure, the production toy will be blue, the package rendering red. As most fans know, packages say that colors may vary. So the toy version is based on the G1 animated version, which from speaking to fans at conventions like this and BotCon, we know that the animated version is the most desirable.
So as a followup on that, so … does that mean that Rumble is purple and Frenzy is red?
[Laughter] No no no, wow, we’re just saying that the cartoon is the most important thing…. [more laughter] [cross-talk]
Speaking of partners, we’ve been getting some of the former cassette modes in Titans Return with Crashbash and Ramhorn, but we’re still missing Rumble, or Frenzy, and Eject. Are there any plans?
I wish I could speak more about that. Yeah, I know we share a love for the cassettes as well, so look out in ’18 for some cassettes, um, who they are is a good question and we can’t say, but I think you guys will be super excited.
Dealing with combiners, Combiner Wars gave us a plethora of combiners. While we’re still missing that G2 Defensor (hint hint) we have most of the rest. We’re thrilled that we’ll have even more coming up, but Titans Return gave us boxsets, exclusives like the Siege set and the Velocitron one. Are there any more boxes planned for Power fo the Primes?
Not at this time, but I think it’s a little too early to say. But I think that hopefully that we’ll be revisiting a lot of the things from [Combiner] Wars or Titans Return for Power of the Primes. So as we look forward, that doesn’t mean we’re going to stay true to a certain era, or you know, cinematic or animated universe – we can revisit. So regardless of what happens after Power of the Primes, that doesn’t mean we can’t go back and do something we haven’t done before. And a lot of it is where online polls, they really help inform where we’re going, so we have no problem like bringing Optimus Primal into Power of the Primes, that’s fun right? A story twist. Keep telling us what you want. We just have to figure out when is it the right time, because it may not make sense necessarily with what we’re doing. I don’t want to be deliberately vague but that’s like the best way to answer that.
So it seems like you can revisit even Combiner Wars a couple years ago, we can revisit it again.
I think we can safely say that where we looked at the combiners with Power of the Primes, we’re doing something a little different, so like the Dinobots cop the combiner feature from Combiner Wars, but it was the deep sculpted details (that are new). So you could be assured that like in the future, if we were to revisit those characters like Snapdragon.
So with Dinobot Slash some fans are wondering is she female, is it a male, some people are saying they’ve heard both answers?
It’s a female. Yep, yep. When we decided to expand the Dinobots, this is one of those things that the entire marketing team is trying to do, it’s not just G1, it’s looking at G1 in a lens like, what if there was another Dinobot? What would it look like? How would we do it? So when we started to design that character we looked at the aesthetics of the silver lines, the molding, the amber classics, the cool reds, we tried to pull them out in a way that looked like a genuine G1 format and that’s what our designers put together.
We have a lot of respect for G1 and Beast Wars and the original stories told with the beasts, as we grew up in that world, and we have the opportunity now to put in that new twist, to add some new character not just in the toyline, but with our orders through our apps and Space Ape Games that lets us kind of push and pull characters and frame gender. IDW’s really pushing the limits on that too, that’s the fun of this, we can dive into those in different ways. For us, yes, there’s a respect for the original where a lot of your fans want to uphold that, so the brand can continue to grow and to be here to appreciate. We want to bring people who have moved on to other phases of their life and bring them back into the brand, and a lot of that would be through new ideas, and they bring their kids in, and that’s the fun for us. We also have kids, and now my daughters appreciate Transformers. I share with them them the ’80s characters and [they] say that was like 30 years ago, but I’m like yeah but look at this new character and there’s a new appreciation. So that’s what John and I are charged to forward this brand, we want to honor you guys and what you want, too. How do we kind of get a little bit of everything to bring the next generation of fans in.
Or even deliver on things that fans always wanted, and try to do it a different way. So it’s like the Dinobot combiner, or Orion Pax turns into Optimus Prime, or Hot Rod changing into Rodimus Prime. Like when you were a kid and you had Rodimus Prime, you had to use your imagination to make that happen.
And I think what I see is like the guys after they left last night, not sleeping but reading a lot, and I think the magic of that Leader class figure is still unknown until you put it in your hand and you can break it down. I know there’s a curiosity of the trailer and why it looks like it does and how it really works, but as John and the design team have created that one, there’s just so much fulfillment and John you can talk a little bit just about the level of how you get to – even the chest, how many chests there are – things you won’t see in the pictures that I think that will blow peoples minds when they get in their hands. So the appreciation, in a static picture, you just can’t get it. John maybe you can elaborate on that a little bit.
The transformation on that guy is pretty neat, because you’ve got the Orion Pax chest, which has one window, you’ve got the window on the actual truck vehicle, and you’ve got the window on the large scale Optimus Prime, 3 different windows. And we were lucky to work with a guy at TakaraTomy (Takashi Kunihiro) who actually designed the original G1 Star Saber, so that dude is a master, so he was able to actually figure out a way to have all those pieces connect together and all the doors open up perfectly.
Is Japanese Generation 1 an influence in Power of the Primes?
You know, there were times, I can’t speak for what their plans were, but that was an interesting time. The Japanese animated series was really cool, you had the death and rebirth of Optimus Prime, a lot of awesome storytelling, it was a little different than what we got here in the United States. The character Star Saber really delivered on a promise that I think honestly inspired us on Power of the Primes in the idea of these layered transformations, and not just the imagination you can have while you’re playing, but also the satisfaction of transforming one character, transforming the other part of the character and the resounding snap when you snap those pieces together is a different kind of experience, and I think being able to bring that to life in Power of the Primes is pretty cool.
And I think it’s cool to be able to bring out these little pieces that are from, like, the nether regions of Transformers like something from the Japaneses series, and bring it to a mass audience, because all of these are great story gimmicks, and working through Generations gives us an opportunity to bring some of these toy gimmicks to the main stage.
That’s how it is with Generations so it’s like, each bot’s a Dinobot, yeah, they’re like G1 style, but they’re easy enough to play with for a kid, and they’re accessible, go to a store and buy it. You don’t have to drop a bunch of money on a Masterpiece, like, you could buy a couple DInobots and play with your kid.
I’m not much of a Masterpiece collector, I get some here and there, but it’s Generations. It’s fun!
A brand team member, she mentioned that Hasbro and Takara are starting to collaborate again on new Masterpiece stuff.
Yeah, I think it’s been great to turn around and have the privilege of working with them for at least five or seven years, and over that time begin a lot of what isn’t in Masterpiece collections, 30 years in on the brand and we’ve got a great respect for one another. The Movie Masterpiece line was totally co-created, John and the team we built those, designed them, architected them together as partners. And you guys know as Masterpiece collectors, in the past, they kind of told me they had their own thing, their collections, and we’re evolving that and we’re part of the fore-planning of the TakaraTomy Masterpiece line. And I think while we rely on their expertise and they’re the masters, they figure out the transformations, there’s definitely a renewed partnership in that line as well, and I think with respect to what we’re doing with Generations that has trickled over into Masterpiece. I mean you see the shared holder marks on our Movie Masterpiece line, that’s just a sign of this new partnership that we’ve forged and we fully expect that to continue.
Is that partnership a force in the fiction as well?
Yeah, I think we definitely bring them into the conversation as we develop new storylines, our Japanese fans they’re always part of our team in the conversation as we create stories together.
The Dinobots the fanboys are buzzing about Volcanicus and the rest of the Dinobot reveals, I’ll skip the Slash question since that got answered … now since we heard about the Generations Dinobots, how do you plan to take advantage of the molds going forward? G2 recolors? Dinoking? Possible remold of Sludge into Paddles?
Oh I love Paddles. I think these are all awesome ideas, it’s still too early to say. But knowing that we’re always built in gamers, enthusiasts in our hearts, and it’s…we’ll just have to wait and see if there’s opportunity to do these guys but it’s still far too early to say right now.
Is it possible there might be another Star Saber figure in Takashi Kunihiro’s future?
Oh boy, you know, the designer told me that he’s expressed interest in doing another Star Saber figure. I know that Star Saber was part of the fan vote poll, and he did get pretty far, however, did not win. So part of us doing that was to have a vote to give the consumer and the fan-aged voice the same, and they chose Optimus Primal. My vote truthfully was on Ultra Magnus, I’m a big Ultra Magnus fan, I think it would have been cool to see white Optimus Ultra Magnus turn into that, but I think fans are going to be very pleasantly surprised by Ultra Primal and how that’s turning out. It’s very cool.
Speaking of Ultra Magnus, with the box set that has Magnus Prime, is that intended to be a Prime version of Ultra Magnus or a totally new character – the retooled Optimus Prime from the box set? Was he supposed to be Ultra Magnus since his name is Magnus or Optimus Prime?
No he’s not Ultra Magnus. That was when we were going to naming the characters and we couldn’t call him Ginrai, so I wanted to make sure that when we worked with the copyright team, that we chose a name that was accessible to maybe a casual fan? So using a name like Magnus Prime it kind of feels like it’s a step up from Optimus Prime? Our intention was that is essentially Ginrai but without saying it.
Cool, yeah, just a lot of disinformation, especially when it comes to the Wiki because it’s like, they tend to “it’s Magnus Prime put him with Ultra Magnus, put it on his page.”
No it’s not Ultra Magnus. No I would say put him with Optimus Prime, or the Combiner Wars Optimus, like it’s in that zone, or the 2000’s Armada.
So as a followup there definitely was a retool of that earlier base for Optimus Prime, so like he was retooled to combine with the Japanese God Ginrai. Would you recommend that people just order the Japanese God Ginrai, or just hang on? In that set that in Japan had the God Bomber, the one that combines with it. Order the Japanese one or just hold tight?
We’re hoping for later. We’ll get back you.
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Seibertron.com was able to speak with Ben Montano (Head of the Transformers Brand) and John Warden (Transformers Design Manager) from Hasbro's Transformers brand team at HASCON. The interview was done by our very own Megatronus and it includes Hasbro staff using "CHUG" as an actual term and them speaking of Machinima as a source of inspiration for their continued stories within the brand, among other neat tidbits.
Megatronus: A few years ago you guys released news of a design bible, or the brand bible I should say, that kind of guides the entire Transformers Universe. And I know you guys have a very long road map, so can you tell us about any changes that have been made in this brand bible recently or any other content in that repository that you are thinking of using for the road map 3 to 5 years out?
Ben: There's things, there's characters designs, there's stories, continuity that we have mapped out in this bible, but it is an ever living document. There are certain constants that will be there; like certain characters, what they stand for and their roles they play as they get introduced into content. But 100%, as we look into the Bumblebee film, there's new additions to that, and twists to that, that will have a ripple effect on the brand and we are fortunate enough to be part of those and those ripples in our continuity. Some of the fun is we give creative license to Machinima and the great writers there and on the new and upcoming Cyberverse series that we want to bring freshness to the story so we want to bring freshness to the story so we create the canon but the canon flexes and constricts when it's needed but the constants are there and John is one of the stewards as we go forward.
John: Yah, trying to align the continuity as much as we can in a natural feeling way has always been a challenge on Transformers going way back even before my tenure on the brand. It's kind of a rolling stone and as new toys come out and as the spotlight shifts, we adjust accordingly. And honestly, the brand does too as it's affected by pop-culture and things in the world.
Ben: And the fans are helping us write this book too, like with the fan polls.
Megatronus: When can we expect the next fan vote and can we expect anything to happen with the runner-ups to those fan-votes like Omega Supreme, Scorponok, Deathsaurus, etc?
John: Oh, absolutely. I mean, as you guys have witnessed with a lot of the previous fan-votes, I think it's an opportunity for us to kind of just get a consensus from the fan community. Honestly, it's too early at this time to speak in any kind of definites, but we reach out to the fan community, it's a great opportunity to gauge the excitement level. Also kind of test out, you know, is Beast Wars becoming more popular? Like when we put Deathsaurus and Star Saber in a fan-poll, for example, it was actually an opportunity for us to understand the depth of exposure that people had to the Japanese Headmaster series. Like, is that too deep or as it turns out a lot of people know about Deathsaurus and are asking about it. So a lot of times I say "stay tuned", but in this case really we've got some things on the horizon that will make fans happy.
Megatronus: So you're saying we can definitely expect another one in the future sometime soon?
John: Yah, I think we can safely say that.
Ben: For sure. When? To be seen. But yah.
John: Can't say which one or ones.
Megatronus: We can't probe too deeply here, we can just give crumbs and hope for more. After you exhaust the nostalgic G1 type gimmicks, I mean we're getting to Pretenders even, how do you see the brand moving forward? Do you think that we will be looking at brand new concepts and new characters, adding them to the fold in the vein of Windblade, or do you think that you might integrate other Transformers continuities like Unicron Trilogy, Animated or RID, into the Generations line?
Ben: Can we say all of the above?
John: No absolutely, all of the above. And, you know, one of the things is too if you think of the CHUG characters and things like that, its possible to go back and do figures of again and again and again. Once you get removed from Combiner Wars, you could hypothetically do Combiners again in a couple of years. It's about how do you bring that innovation and freshness back while not corrupting the original intent or awesomeness of the character in the first place. I think we've really tried our best to take the essence of the what made the characters cool in the first place and add detail, add articulation, and take the spirit of somebody like Skullcruncher or Highbrow, and do the ultimate version of it. I think as we look to the future, there's a lot more that we haven't even thought about, a lot of awesome anniversaries on the horizon and things like that, so I think fans can rest assure that even though the Prime Wars Trilogy is coming to an end, there's lots of awesome stuff on the horizon.
Megatronus: That's good to hear. Speaking of Prime Wars and Power of the Primes, you mentioned Combiners, can you tell us what inspired you guys to come back to the Combiners concept after Titans Return?
John: Honestly, it's you guys, it's fans. It's coming to events like this, we talk to fans, we listen, we read online, and we just have to kind of always be cognizant of what people are talking about and thinking about. We heard loud and clear that fans wanted the Dinobots, and we wanted to take it to the next level and make it a Combiner. We've heard loud and clear that fans want Terrorcons and things like that and there's lots of things that we're listening to and even Pretenders, we heard, Pretends are on the horizon. There's things out there that fans want. We're always listening and kind of being aware of it, and what the future holds we can't really say but know that there's always excitement to kind of bring back things so if fans of Titans Return are like "Oh man, I didn't get my Apeface or somebody that I really wanted" don't feel like it's the end-all-be-all at the end because as stewards of the toy franchise we are able to weave these things in where they make sense.
Megatronus: So I know there are a couple of people very high up at Seibertron.com that are quite obsessed with Pretenders, so I'm glad to see that some of them are here.
John: Oh, really? [Laughs]
Megatronus: In Power of the Primes, you have both combiners and Titan Masters present so those are both very independent stand-alone concepts. So what kind of play patterns are you looking to inspire by having them included in a single line?
John: [Laughs] Well, Ben and I, early on, when we were talking about this thing, it's kind of like the last act at a really awesome rock-and-roll show so you've got like the first band comes on stage they do an awesome job and the second band, maybe a different music style ...
Ben: Maybe acoustic.
John: Yah, and then in that final act, it's both of those guys with an encore, they come on stage together. In Power of the Primes, we've got Primes Masters which are the physical embodiment of the Power of the Primes, some of them deceased, some of them missing in action, but it's the power and essence that they carry. So in a sense, those guys still fit backwards compatible with Titans Return. We also wanted to bring to life all of those great things or tidbits with Combiners. There's lots of cool things that we can still do, that we can still explore, so if you combine those two things together, I think it's a great final act and it's a great final act in our rock show which is the Prime Wars Trilogy.
Ben: Right, I think a lot of what inspired and motivated us too, to be honest with you, was Machinima and their writers there in the storytelling too, when we really started Combiner Wars, it was totally rooted in G1 and G2 kind of lore, it was character first. But as we progressed with this toy line and the stories, we started to introduce new spins, new twists, bring new characters together and stories that hadn't been told and a lot of it for us was "Hey, wait a second, we didn't see this character and that character back in the 80s but there's a story that wasn't told" so we're gonna show that to them in Titans Return or the Power of the Primes series with Machinima. And that for us, it was a creative license and we can do something that didn't happen exactly as it did in 84 through 87. We have a new story universe, we have a new fan community that are going to be engaged in this new idea. So I think that part of it, I don't want to say that the shackles are off, but if we did we looked at it and said we're creating new continuity and extension of continuity. Let's have some fun with it and not be as precious with exactly what may have been celebrated back in the 80s. So that was kind of the fun we had.
John: Absolutely.
Ben: So having writers in the new series expanded our minds and hopefully will blow yours.
John: And honestly, the same can be said with our great partners at Space Ape and all of our other aligned partners across the franchise. And I'll be speaking to this at the Prime Wars Trilogy panel on Sunday. We actually feed off each other when you think about all of the different stories that are happening at the games and the animation and it gives us, like Ben said, a license to try awesome new stuff.
Megatronus: That's great! I am very excited for Power of the Primes. It sounds like you are really excited about Power of the Primes as a highlights reel of kind of the last couple of years, which is awesome to think about in that way, so we've seen two Autobots leaders. Are we gonna see some Decepticon leaders soon in the Powers of the Primes line?
John: Uh ... hmm ... [Rubs chin] Leader class right? unfortunately I can't comment at this time, I don't want to break any hearts or anything.
Megatronus: So, that's fine, we'll ask about a different product. Since we are at HASCON, what's the potential for future crossover products? Because we are in the Transformers booth right now, Marvel's over there, Star Wars is just a skip away, and there's a huge Nerf play center over there. Do you see a lot of potential future crossover products like a new Transformers Nerf gun, a Transformers My Little Pony, something like that?
Ben: We are always looking at that and the Comic-Con Revolution is one step in that direction. There is a really awesome Rubik's Cube mash up we just did which is super cool which I have not ...
Megatronus: Rubik's Cube!?
Ben: Yah, it's like an 8 piece Optimus' head, and I have not yet solved it. It's absolutely insane. So, that one might be obscure, but that's kind of the fun we're having. As long as it's brand right, brand relevant, then we're open to those types of plays. But I would say we have a lot of great stories that we're telling on our own right now, so we'll be pumping out a lot of toys to support those.
Megatronus: That sounds great. Well, I think I have one last question. One of the big reveals of recent days has been Predaking, Titan Class, so ...
John: Sort of. I'm not sure what was that silhouette? I have no idea what that was.
Ben: Well, there was a really cool silhouette.
Megatronus: I've seen some interesting art that would indicate that there might be a large Predaking on the way.
Seibertron: You meant that's not Elita-One?
Ben: It could have been a winged Optimus Prime.
John: Yah, I think it's Winged Optimus Prime.
Megatronus: So that's all we're going to say about that. For now. Okay, so I'll let you guys off the hook. Well, I really appreciate you guys talking to us over at Seibertron.com. We're big fans of the work you do, we look forward to seeing more at the panels this weekend. And HASCON has been amazing!
John: Thank you. I can say one thing about that crazy silhouette. It's big. It's bad. And it's the most awesome thing Hasui and I have worked on since Devastator.
Megatronus: So, since Devastator, so ... so that silhouette is Titan Class, no?
John: No, I can't say that. I'm just saying he's big, he's bad, and uh ...
Ben: Except for those who made it to the Villains panel, any Villain is big and bad, right, especially in the Transformers universe.
[Banter continues ...]
John: Honestly, it's been an honor to have a chance to meet you guys, to talk to you again, and honestly I hope you have fun here at HASCON. We're having a lot of fun. It's crazy!
Ben: Yah, we're psyched and we've seen you guys and a lot of your fans and a lot of past events, whether it's Botcon, and this is special for us, a chance to share this. What I think is really great is that we're having a lot of fun in this conversation and that we can joke about things and what excites me the most is that we can talk about or not talk about things in the future. The fact that we're able to do that is because you guys share the love for our brand, what we're doing, and people keep asking for more. So we want to do this at the next convention and the next HASCON, and so the more everyone can support our brand and property and have fun like this the more we can share in news.
Megatronus: That's amazing. You know. the last BotCon was my first BotCon. So I got to go to the last BotCon, which was great, it was a cool honor to be there. It's an even more interesting journey to see how that's transitioned to this HASCON.
Seibertron: [directed at Hasbro] Are you accidentally inadvertently confirming a HASCON 2018?
Ben: No, I think, like I said, there's a lot of conventions we'll be part of. You'll see us at New York, hopefully I'll be able to drag this fine gentleman there as well.
Megatronus: Coming to my home turf!
John: It's just a train ride away!
Ben: Plenty of conventions to get to hang with you guys at.
Megatronus: We're very much looking forward to it.
John: Awesome.
Megatronus: Thanks so much guys, really appreciate it.
John: Thanks a lot.
Megatronus: John, Ben [shakes hands] Be good, enjoy the rest of HASCON!
John: Same to you.
