The preview Breakfast was noted by Deltaprime in the WFC reveals topic, but they had a number of other items on display, including our first look at some US Target exclusives.
Seibertron's WFC gallery & Reissues gallery & Target exclusives - TFW's gallery
Items on display...
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War for Cybertron:
- Ultra Magnus
- Hound
- Optimus Prime
- Chromia
- Ironhide
- Sideswipe
- Micro/Targetmasters
- Cog
Generation 1 Reissues:
- Constructicons
- Hot Rod
- Bumblebee
- Tailgate
- Swerve
- Outback
- Starscream
Bee Movie:
- (Target excl) Bumblebee (redeco TF4 Drift) & 3 Cassettes pack
- (Target excl) Soundwave and Doombox (Titans Return molds)
- (Target excl) Music FX Bumblebee
- Bee Vision Helmet
- Bumblebee Stinger Blaster
- Power Charge Bumblebee
- Legion Bumblebee
- Legion Barricade
- Hot Rod
- Camaro Bumblebee
- Dropkick
- Megatron (ROTF tank)
- Bluetooth Bee Helmet
- Energon Igniters Bumblebee
- Energon Igniters Optimus Prime
- Engergon Igniters Barricade
- DJ Bumblebee
The Target exclusives are an odd bunch, and between these cassette themed toys and the two Studio Series sets with Dino Cassettes, it makes you wonder if the Bumblebee Movie will have some transforming cassette-bots/cons in it... as it would be the right era for it, being set in the 80s.
Soundwave is barely different to its regular release deco, and only really features fancy packaging as it's "exclusive" element. On the plus side, in the Bumblebee pack we finally get an officially released Titans Return Frenzy (blue Decepticon) to complete the set of Decepticon cassettes.
Hasbro Presentation Panel - Seibertron's report - TFW's report
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- Panelists are Ben Montano (Marketing), John Frazier (Marketing), Matt Clarke (Story Writing), John Warden, Sean Izabella (TF design team), and Mickiel Hourser (Hasbro Studio)
- Talking about new movie
- #jointhebuzz marketing campaign
- Enter to win $500 prize
- Including exclusives from SDCC
- Razor scooter
- T-shirts available on Amazon
- Alpha duel-sided bomber jacket (other side is Generations themed)
- Bumblebee Overdrive game (showing video of game)
- Mobile game by Budge studios
- Publishing, talking about Bee comics again
- Coldwar spy story
- Junior novel
- Art by Guido Guidi
- Onto Bee movie toys
- Energon Igniters
- DJ Bumblebee
- Power Charge Bumblebee
- Showing TV commercial w/ custom animation not in film
- Energon cube makes car go
- DJ Bee plays back music
- Power Charge Bee has lights and sounds
- Spin spark (?) to activate electronics
- Exclusive Programs
- Go back to the 80’s
- Showing G1 clips and toys
- Kid is Sean Izabella
- Walmart bringing back G1 in original packaging
- Assortment of 4 minibots, Hot Rod, Starscream, and Devastator
- Music exclusive Bumblebee Greatest Hits
- Reissue of TR Soundwave
- Target exclusive Doombox, Soundwave remolded to look more G1
- Bumblebee helmets
- Bluetooth connectivity
- Play music from helmet also
- Available on Target.com right now
- Generations line now!
- War for Cybertron trilogy
- Siege is going back in time on Cybertron
- “Gritty”
- Putting them in gritty war torn environment
- Talking about toys now
- Footage about trilogy
- Battlemasters and Micromasters
- Weaponizers
- People from Takara at panel
- Deluxe wave 1 Hound with Lionizer (battlemaster), comes with clear effect part
- Optimus Prime with Firedrive
- Micromasters Flask and Bigshot, turn into vehicle and weapon
- Race Patrol Swindler and Road Handler
- Rescue Patrol Stakeout and Red Heat
- Deluxe wave 1 Sideswipe
- Bot has battle damage but not alt mode
- Focusing on wheels
- Some vehicles will have hover wheels
- Deluxe wave 1 Cog
- Missing piece from Fort Max, can be separated into weapons
- Ironhide and Chromia wave 2
- Chromia has removable grenades (does not combine)
- Voyager Optimus wave 1, “most highly articulated”
- Leader class wave 1 Ultra Magnus, 80’s scifi hauler/RID-inspired, wheels can fold in for hover mode
- Trailer parts form armor
- Showing 3 Prime Wars exclusives, Blast Off, Repugnus, and Punch/Counterpunch
- POTP Punch/Counterpunch DOES NOT COMBINE
- Studio Series now
- Deluxe wave 3 and 4
- TFBB Bumblebee
- DROPKICK CONFIRMED FOR TRIPLE CHANGER IN THE MOVIE??
- KSI Drones
- Voyagers Ironhide and ROTF Starscream
- Onto Cyberverse
- Animation studio in Burbank, working since Jan ’17
- Showing trailer
- Writer’s room for project
- Showing clip
- S1 to have over 90 bots
- Windblade helping Bee with memories
- Onto toys
- Action Attacker feature
- Scout, 1-step, Warrior, Ultra, and Ultimate
- Showing other characters
- Shadowstriker is a sniper
- Comparing G1 and Cyberverse
- Talking SDCC exclusives now
- HOF now
- Blackarachnia and Battletrap are winners
- John Barber inducted into HOF
- Bumblebee in costumes
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BUMBLEBEE MOVIE
Marketing team presenting the #JoinTheBuzz hashtag, promoting new material and products, from personal photos and selfies from the convention floor, and the products themselves:
Razor scooter, Amazon merch t-shirts, Alpah dual sided bomber jacket with Generations theme too.
Consumer products in 2018, from Monopoly to Jada, Herocross, Super Cyborg etc
New retro 80s game Bumblebee Overdrive mobile game (with Budge) - brief video shown in panel
PUBLISHING for Bumblebee, see IDW Publishing panel here.
Actual products being shown, as seen in the Breakfast event story - Energon Igniters, DJ Bumblebee and Power Charge Bumblebee.
Going back to the 19080s with a recollection of G1 cartoon series and toys series. Introducing...
Reissue Series - exclusive to Walmart, due out in Fall 2018 - in G1 packaging, featuring Devastator, Hot Rod, Mini Bots, Starscream.
Target exclusive Soundwave remold with Titan Master Doombox and Bumblebee Showcase Helmet
GENERATIONS LINE
War for Cybertron: SIEGE
Decepticons as revolutionaries, and Autobots as counter faction, taking over Cybertron - gritty, intense, taking the G1 characters like Hound, Chromia, Prowl, and add lots of firepower.
Close work with Takara Tomy on the line, still quite one sided for the Autobots. For images, see the Siege story from Breaksfast event here!
Hound, weapons specialist, wielding Battle Master Lionizer.
Firedrive Battlemaster with voyager Optimus Prime.
Micromasters confirmed as two packs, weaponized accesories as combination, plus articulation: Battle Patrol, Race Patrol, Rescue Patrol.
Deluxe - Sideswipe.
Removing the gimmick element Prime Wars moved into paying attention to the characters, in terms of posability, articulation and more in the engineering, as the weaponising element of Micro and Battle Masters allow for playability.
COG - Weaponizer: partsforming
Wave 2- Ironhide and Chromia
Voyager Optimus Prime, weapon turns into shield, too
Leader class Ultra Magnus - White Prime cab with armor! RID 2001 inspired vehicle mode.
STUDIO SERIES
VW Bumblebee
Shadow Raider, TF3 Ratchet, KSI Sentry, Dropkick from Bumblebee Movie
CYBERVERSE
Writers room containing all fans from multiple areas of the franchise: Bumblebee has lost his memory, Windblade helping him recover, over 90 bots designed for the first season alone.
Designs worked closely with Sean Carmine Isabella for look that pays homage to oriignal animated series.
Toys: new classes with Action Attack feature across all line, Ultimate class can do gimmick in both modes.
New: Windblade, Acid Storm, Slipstream, Shadow Striker.
EXCLUSIVES
BUMBLEBEE vol 2 Retro Pop Highway
HALL OF FAME
Favourite Character - BLACKARACHNIA
Toy of the Year - ROADTRAO AND BATTLESLASH
Hall of Fame inductee 2018 - JOHN BARBER
IDW panel - Seibertron's coverage - TFW's coverage
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- Panel start
- Mag’s TF vs. Visionaries
- SDCC exclusive cover available at convention for $10
- Capping off 13 years of Transformers stories
- Ideas formed around Combiner Wars with All Hail Optimus and Optimus Prime
- Talked about the idea with James Roberts
- Came close to introducing Unicron earlier in the story
- Unicron wrapping up what Simon Furman and EJ Su started
- Transformers comics unique with stories with metal people and spectacles
- Describing Alex’s detailed art on 2 page spread
- Describing Alex’s detail in thinking about environment and atmosphere around Unicron
- Describing Retailer Incentive covers
- Describing connecting covers by James Raiz (form one big artwork)
- Issue 2 will have G.I. Joe, issue 3 Micronauts, issue 4 Visionaries
- Michael Kelly talking to IDW about how the story will end
- David Hedgecock describing it as a big party
- Optimus Prime Unicron issue 1 just came out
- Talking about Shockwave coming back
- Story in issue 18
- Optimus Prime 22, Rom will make an appearance
- 23 Pricilla
- 24 Griffith
- Optimus Prime 22 takes place between and around Unicron 0 and 1
- 23 focuses on colonies while Prime is away
- 24 brings everyone back
- 25 is cap stone of Optimus Prime
- Talking about Lost Light now
- Wrapping up in October
- Last 7 issues will be James Roberts’s wrap up
- All hints will be explained?
- Nick and other artists doing covers
- Collections of TF vs. Visionaries, Wreckers, and Rom
- Talking about ideas on Visionaries
- Making them Shakespearean characters
- Fico put more human-like faces on Transformers
- Bumblebee Comics now
- Original graphic novel
- Aimed at kids, fun
- Can share the book with younger audience as well as collectors
- Michael Kelly’s passion project
- Bee racing around in a small town dealing with Decepticons
- Prequel to Bee movie
- Fun spy story set in the 60s
- Bumblebee working with 2nd best spy
- Forging another friendship we haven’t seen before
- Passion project for Andrew Griffith
- Talking about Star Trek vs. TF
- Art looks like G1 cartoon and Star Trek animated series
- Prime directive vs. Optimus Prime’s actions
- Mike Johnson talking about which versions of TF and ST should cross over
- Showing different covers
- Barber and Johnson co-writing
- Talking G.I. Joe comics now
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Currently from the panel room 29AB at San Diego Comic Con 2018, yours truly is attending the IDW Publishing Transformers comics Unicron and Beyond panel, with David Mariotte, John Barber, Michael Kelly from Hasbro, Livio Ramondelli, Fico Ossio, Mike Johnson, Mags Visaggio, David Hedgecock, and Tom Waltz!
Mariotte introduces the event, and John Barber goes into the idea that eventually lead to Unicron happening - with Shockwave's big twist presence in the Optimus Prime comics series. Talking about the ideas that led to the creation of the event, with personal stories about his life events atthe time that the idea came, and his brainstorming with James Roberts and Mairghread Scott, Nick Roche and others.
The integral work of Alex Milne on the Unicron series, and the amount of detail he goes into, celebrated and taking editors by surprise too, creating the ecology / ecosystem of Unicron.
Mariotte brings in all the names that have been working on Transformers comics until now, doing variant covers. And reintroduces the James Raiz multi-part crossover interlocking cover.
Micahel Kelly and Tom Waltz talking about initial difficulties in deciding on the ending of a continuity that agreed both Hasbro and IDW, writers and creator, with Livio commenting on the importance of fans reading the books for past 13 years.
OPTIMUS PRIME
Issue #22 is going into the ending , leading to Unicron, with ROM the Spaceknight showing up, bridging the gap between Optimus ongoing and the Unicron #0 FCBD comic.
Three part story, caled the Last Empire, dealing with colonists and characters dealing with the shadow and influence of Optimus Prime. 24 and 25 are the capstone in the series, Kei Zama on art, some of the best pages seen so far in the series.
LOST LIGHT
Actual ending for James roberts story, with Jack Lawrence, Brendan Cahill on art, all answers given to all clues dropped in past however many years. We Will Have Achieved Something.
OTHER COLLECTIONS
Mags Visaggio and Fico Ossio talking about TF vs Visionaries, the idea behind Virulina as villain, witha 'comprehensible' murders. Visaggio on how Ossio's art was useful to understand how to write Transformers.
BUMBLEBEE
Michael Kelly talking about the young adult Original Graphic Novel coming out with the movie. How his daughter has been getting into graphic storytelling, so personal stake in the book, and how IDW is working with younger readers with their own books.
From Cybertron with Love with John Barber, 60s setting, something new and unusual, trying to get excitement for the movie into the comics - passion project for Andrew Grifftih too, trying to get a spy story in Transformers for a long time, getting band back together, with Pirscilla Tramontano.
STAR TREK vs TRANSFORMERS
Idea behind series on Prime Directive, and how Optimus Prime doesn't really necessarily follow it. Micheal Kelly talking about how long this project has been in the works. Loooks really good, very animeted styles for both franchises.
GI JOE
Creating new Special Missions one shots with Larry Hama, plus developing a new arc with Helix in Real American Hero and new Snake Eyes character (Silent Option).
Q & A
Why was everything Shockwave's fault? Not everything was, decisions were all the ones of the Cybertronians that actually made the decisions.
Are we to see some Shattered Glass stories if Star Trek mini-series? Not a bad idea!
Super 7 Licensed decoys and Super Cyborg figures display at SDCC.
