SG Cybertron Convention coverage

[Tober]

Got back to the hotel tonight and the manager asked "I seen this picture in the paper and it looked like you? Is this you at some convention?".

Yes that is Roller and no he isn't being arrested for stalking Yoke-san.....not yet anyway

You have to get that picture home, block-mounted and framed.

[griffin]

That is pretty awesome... the face of the feature article on the Convention in their (main?) newspaper, is a dedicated Australian fan. Of the 15,000 odd fans attending day one, he is like "number 1".
There is not much else you can say about that.
Aside from a staring role in the next Transformers movie, how could you top it.

[griffin]

Added two new items to the first post:

TFPrime Voyager class Breakdown prototype revealed. (It is supposed to have a July release in Japan... so I would have thought the figure would be in production by now, but they are showing us an uncoloured prototype instead)

Images of the new Evac toys, both Legion and Deluxe, to be released at Universal Studios in May. (Legion Evac is in Wave 2 of TFPrime, but no idea yet if they are the exact same colour)

[Hursticon]

Got back to the hotel tonight and the manager asked "I seen this picture in the paper and it looked like you? Is this you at some convention?".

Yes that is Roller and no he isn't being arrested for stalking Yoke-san.....not yet anyway

*snip*

Congratulations man! - That's pretty damn awesome!

[kup]

More from Roller live at the con:

Day 2


Arrived in late afternoon as the stuff on in the morning was nothing exciting, drawing tables and transforming the Prime toys comp.

Arrived for the last few minutes of the TF PRime cartoon panel, made up of Jeff Kline the Executive producer, Shuzo John Shiota-President of Polygon Pictures and Kathy Page - Production management.

I no nothing about PRIME, but I got a snap with them. Mr Kline is very fun. Page was shy and feck and Shiota wanted to bugger off.

Then the Takarat panel began. Takara Q and A panel was made up of Yoketron, Kikuchikara Takashi- the Deputy manager of Takara and Rei ikizawa - Marketing team (you can tell she learnt English from the hated British)

So they said that 30th Anniv. we may see a G1 Fortress Maximus reissue


Then later on at the Design talk, Archer,Yoketron, Takashi and Ikizawa , which was in the enclosed theatre they told the 40 people who were allowed in how the TF toys are constructed.

It was said that only certain people were allowed to handle the prototype models, less then 5 people.

Archer said In recent years the 2 companies have had alot more communication in the design stages. Approximately 15 years ago they began sending teams over to America or Japan for 6 weeks of exchange. Archer said he was one of the first. There are now 2 teams that are in regular communication.

Archer said the two teams have fun and are friends family and colleagues now. He then showed us photos of past meets on the powerpoint.

The talk then went over to Takashi and his gong http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mRG2oAQhso

He spoke about , in his limited English the steps they went through to make MP10.

here is a very brief outline.

1. So initiallly Takara sat down and thought about possible characters to do. Soundwave and Devastator were considered.

2.They wanted to give some more playability to the toy, so Spike was included, initially they thought about including a mini Huffer toy, that could pull Primes trailer, like in Heavy metal war. But the cost would have been too high and the huffer toy tiny. So Spike was used as he shows the alliance between man and robot.

3. the next stage is seeing how difficult it is to Transform the toy on the then newest design.

4. They then check the design

5. Then once a design is chosen, it will usually take 1 month for the design to be checked and finalized.

A 3d Model was shown of Prime, the takara people check it very closely by doing cut aways and seeing inside the toy to see if the parts that will be used are strong enough and the thickness of parts.

I also noticed Yoketron nods alot to what people say, he reminds me of one of them water bird toys that drink the water up. He smiles alot for a jap.


Then there was some Q & A

Some1 asked about the Prime Line, why were the fist editions not released in the US. Archer said the US market caters to younger fans so the difficulty would be too high, the simplicity of RID would make it easier and more fun.

Someone asked the Takara panel what they found the most complex body part of a tf toy there was to remould. They said the face, the MC Edmond Khoo (he has been Mcing the whole event) said it was probably due to the facial expressions.

Another hasbro Q, What problems usually occur regarding vehicle licencing? He said some car companies want the car mode to look as authentic as possible.

For Animated fans, someone asked why there was no SLipstream toy. Archer said that in some markets it was difficult to market and flog female characters. Though Arcee from Prime is selling well.

Apparently the plastic for Has and TAk are the same, but Takara uses metal pins, archer said he wished Hasbro could, but i think he also said that safety laws prohibited this.

3rd party stuff was asked again, Archer said that only HASTAK made real TFS, he said he wishes the 3rd party groups were more creative so they could stop stealing their ideas.

Takara was asked if MP10 was designed with Ultramagnus in mind, answer is No.

That was the end of the panel.


The next panel was the learning to draw Transformers, it was hosted by Jose Lopez- Prinicipal designer for TF PRIME. Only 40 people were allowed in.

Valkyrie didnt come to this, so i went alone. I only knew 1 other fan in there , a Singaporean Indian but he was sitting on another table. We sat down and there were papers and pencils. It was difficult to hear Lopez for the first 15 mins, as he had no mic and there was noise from trailers they were playing and general Con noise.

He then told us that he worked on the Men in Black cartoon and some others.

Then he said that in meetings for Prime they were wondering what vehicles the characters should turn into, eg: optimus a car or truck this time around?

He said designing a charater for him was based on the script, He reads scripts before deciding what they look like.
ONce designed they decide on paints, they compare to real life paints.

When drawing TFs, start with a siloquette , ya know, the shadow, i cant spell it. So heroic guys have big shoulders, small head and small waist.
Autobot eyes more like humans with pupils, Cons more sharp.

For some character called Knockout they orignally wanted to have a fender on the waist front, but they couldnt as the character then couldnt move.
When designing , problem solving is neccessary, so they cheated for Prime Arcee regarding the scale of the toy.

He then asked the audience if they had any q's. No 1 said anything, so i jumped up and came right up to him, he was given a mic by now. And asked if i could have his autograph on one of the drawing he was making, he said yeah, but asked in a somber tone if i had any design q's. So i quickly came up with , whats yer fave design, he said Soundwave.

Jose speaks slow and as it was the end of the day and early evening, im sure he was very tired.
The rest of the talk was him instructing us on how to draw BB, then at the end he drew a wicked PRIME Megatron, then the PR lady said no one could have the previous sketches he had made. But he said I could have 1, so i got BB, i think some other people he gave them some as well. But the cool megatron drawing, the only 1 with any colour is for the Con.

I shook his hand and left.

That night i had dinner with very distant relatives. Had sugar cane juice, mmm yummy, cant get in WA

[kup]

Also forgot to mention in Day 2 report, some interesting news, I asked at the Takara panel what Yoketron thought of the Animated character based on him, big laugh from crowd and Yoketron looked happy. THe MC said it was a very cool question. Yoke said that he was happy that it was based on him. Even though the character had a short life, he was sure he would be back as a cool Jedi spirit ghost. He also said the Dojo in the show is based on his own house. The video of me asking should be up on youtube



Day 3


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm-o8QkCoVk

Didnt go to the Con till nearly evening, Valk and I went to Univeral studios all day.


We began in the Shrek zone and it was like a movie with moving chairs, very cool.

Then a Live Donkey show..... no not that kind you perves It was a 3d version of Donkey from Shrek in his own nightclub, so I was chosen to get up and speak to Donkey. Mcing this thing was a guy in period costume, or movie costume called Raol. He did a great job in trying to get the audiecne to participate.

omeone was doing the voice and asking questions while on the screen Donkey moved in sync

Very funny, he told me to recite an ogre plede of allieance , by sniffing my armpit. Then he made a fart noise, it was all so much fun.

Next was Jurrassic park, cool water ride, not enough dinos though. I got very wet but it was ok.


Then we went on the Mummy returns ride, kinda like Segaworlds old rides, half video half minirollercoaster

Then onto the scariest rides of the day, the Battlestar Galactica twin rollercoaster, human 1 was fast, the cylon 1 was upside down and topsy turvy, im surprised i had the balls to do it. I didnt throw up luckily

Then watched a WATERWORLD show, lots of explosions and water shooting, so cool! reminded me of Wonderland shows .

Then onto Transformers Ride woooooo !! So cool, just before the entrance is a statue of EVAC the characetr in the ride.

And a bB statue

Valk and I went seperately as if we had gone on together the wait would have been 50mins,

SO DAMN GOOD!!! The best use of 3D I have ever seen, better then the movies. Made you feel like u were falling and stuff. The EVAC car you were in helped with that too

So the story is EVAC a rookie Autobot, is helping transport a all spark shard to a new base. The humans inside the ride are his NEST helpers, also rookies. A video while waiting in the que has General moreshower, Wheelie and some other human briefing u. The cons attack while ur on route and EVAC must run from Megatron etc. You end up on building tops, falling off them, Going though street chases, so cool!!

You get eaten by Devastator and pretty much smash megatron. At the end PRime tells you that you are a hero, it felt so damn real that I swelled up with Cyberpride.

as the car returns to the entrance, a cool broken megatron and volkwagon are on the side walls.

Went on the ride 3 times, i thoroughly recommend it. Just wish EVAC toy was out now.

Went to the Con, we had a look at the Merchandise zone, which is thoroughly picked clean of all vintage stuff now. No more Prime Ratchets either.

I jumped onto the stage with the dancing 3d bumblebee, will explain it tomoz. so tired.

[UltraMagnus]

I am really really glad that the Singapore convention has been a success.

A few things people should note here because of the positives for Australia:

• Collectors market is always Asia - US audience is primarily younger kids
• 15,000 turn up on one day to a convention in Singapore, they cant manage 5,000 in US not matter how much publicity it gets
• Third parties are clearly on their nerves "i wish they came up with new ideas and stop pinching ours"
• Fortress Maximus reissue announcement is 6 months after I told you all
• Wait for a scorponok announcement to correspond
• Wait till they host it in Hong Kong - guarantee 30-40k people

[Tober]

He spoke about , in his limited English the steps they went through to make MP10.

3rd party stuff was asked again, Archer said that only HASTAK made real TFS, he said he wishes the 3rd party groups were more creative so they could stop stealing their ideas.

Takara was asked if MP10 was designed with Ultramagnus in mind, answer is No.

Hey HasTak, you can see where this is heading.., right?

[Lord_Zed]

Got back to the hotel tonight and the manager asked "I seen this picture in the paper and it looked like you? Is this you at some convention?".

Yes that is Roller and no he isn't being arrested for stalking Yoke-san.....not yet anyway

Nice work Roller!

[kup]

I am really really glad that the Singapore convention has been a success.

A few things people should note here because of the positives for Australia:

• Collectors market is always Asia - US audience is primarily younger kids
• 15,000 turn up on one day to a convention in Singapore, they cant manage 5,000 in US not matter how much publicity it gets
  
• Third parties are clearly on their nerves "i wish they came up with new ideas and stop pinching ours"
• Fortress Maximus reissue announcement is 6 months after I told you all
• Wait for a scorponok announcement to correspond
• Wait till they host it in Hong Kong - guarantee 30-40k people

I find that odd since one of the reasons that 3rd parties have been so successful is because they offer things Hasbro does not.

I have always said this and stand by it: The 3rd parties exist because Hasbro neglects the clearly profitable and significant collector side of the market. If Hasbro ever starts catering to that demographic with matching products, it would mean the end of the 3rd party movement.