Global fan-forums October Hasbro Qs answered.

[kup]

I will remain skeptical until I see further confirmation that the packaged shots are not 'final'. Based on Hasbro's track record, I have every right to remain a skeptic until I see evidence to the contrary.

[Heero]

Heh heh, I can see the completists trying to somehow track down the different coloured faced Ironhides, since they are packaged in vehicle mode.
Or more importantly, those of us who prefer one coloured face over the other, trying desperately to find the 'correct' silver face...

If they're really doing a "running change", then blue face is gonna be a rare item~

[iceburn]

If they're really doing a "running change", then blue face is gonna be a rare item~

shhh..dont go spreading

[MV75]

TFW2005: Will there ever be GI Joe styled 3.75 inch figures for human characters (any generation)?

Hasbro: There are currently no plans for a 3.75" scale human figure in any Transformers line, but we do have an awesome concept for Fall 2009 in support of the movie that I think you will find very cool! Stay tuned

Uh-oh. Stinks of pretender to me.

Even reverse pretender...... that might work though.

[Zippo]

Some very good answers in there..

[Golden Phoenix]

You know what I thought of when I read this? Some sort of line gimmick like Head/Target/Powermasters.

Well they have already done one target master

Good questions and responses too. Good to see them appearing to be honest anyway. We will just have to see as the figures come out if they have been true to their word or not

[dirge]

so as long as Animated doesn't come to a sudden axing

Oh, I live in hope....

OTOH, one of the answers up there was that Activators aren't planned for other lines. I love the Activators, I hope that concept continues.

Great response from Hasbro, overall.

<stands and applauds>

[jaydisc]

Cyclonus has already been confirmed to have that dodgy 'missing paint' finish in the final product.

Confirmed? Like the packaging mock-up?

Yes as Griffin says about Cyclonus... where was the confirmation of "that dodgy 'missing paint' finish in the final product"?

+3

What confirmation of what final product when and where?

[kup]

The packaged figures are my confirmation. I have noticed that very rarely is there a significant change in detailing once a package figure pic is leaked.

I could be wrong of course but Hasbro's track record forces me to expect what we saw in the packaged shot.

[griffin]

Two more fan-sites with Hasbro Q&As have appeared as well (and like tfviews, these two are a bit obscure, to TF fans at least - but it's who you know, not what you know).

From 16bit's main page (no obvious article link) - http://16bit.com/

A month ago, Hasbro afforded us the opportunity for our community to ask questions of their Transformers team. We decided we didn't want to take the time to ask someone to ask questions, so we asked five of our own-- and here's what Hasbro replied with. Oh, and we asked these questions about a month ago, so obviously we've had a few of them answered since then.
1. The Transformers Legends class toys seems to be going along swimmingly-- the new G1-style Beachcomber and Bumblebee look like a lot of fun, and so does Brawn. Can we expect to see additional minibots from the old days-- specifically the Go-Bots style repaints sold in Japan by eHobby a few years ago? A tiny white Bug Bite and a blue Path Finder?
I don't currently have any plans for Go-Bots repaints but I would love to continue blowing out classic characters in our Legends scale. I'd personally try to stick to smaller bots as they look more in scale with my Deluxe when they're posed out on my shelf. But scale isn't something we concentrate on.
2. The Transformers Animated line is stunning, with toys that are nearly spot-on with the exception of their faction logos. Sentinel Prime and Jazz both have the red Autobot symbols, but the rest of the line sport silver or gold faction sigils. Why was this colorful feature ignored?
I wouldn't say it was ignored, we were trying to keep the characters as true to the show as possible. Many characters don't have their faction symbols in their vehicle modes, but it's impossible to have them magically appear in the toy execution once the character is converted to robot. So we used a less-obtrusive color. We also were using only 1 deco operation on the faction symbols in Animated in many cases so we could "spend the money" elsewhere on the toy, and the silver/gold versions looked better than the red/purple versions. So it ended up being a combination of all of the above. At the end of the day, Eric tries to manage cost with show accuracy and chooses what to do to make the coolest toy possible.
3. Star Wars and GI Joe have seen incredible business with repainting certain "army builder" figures over the years-- Cobra Vipers, Cobra Officers, Clones, Stormtroopers, and so forth. It seems there's a little bit of opportunity in Transformers with the wonderful Classics Starscream mold. After getting the six "seekers" from the old days and a new Acid Rain, when can we expect deco opportunities like G2 Ramjet, Sunstorm, or maybe even a "Ghost" Starscream?
We are glad you like that mold too - we really like it and are hoping to be able to do exactly what you are talking about. We would love to be able to do all the Seekers over time. We have to phase them out over time though because we don't want a whole shelf full of jets. So hopefully we will be able to continue to put a couple versions out a year to help you complete the set.
4. In Japan for Transformers SuperLink (Energon), Takara offered scores of bonus Energon Weapon toys. This was great-- many Transformers have similarly sized hands, and are lacking in awesome weapons. We see you're bringing back Targetmaster partners with Cyclonus and Nightstick soon. Will we be seeing packs of Targetmaster guns some day soon, or additional Targetmaster figures to outfit our collections?
There are no plans to offer weapons separately. We do our best to add them to figures as it makes sense.
5. I've seen pictures of the new Transformers Universe Legends Brawn with green wheels (which look weird) and black wheels (which look fantastic). Which color will be on the final product?
The final will have black wheels. This is an example of a testshot image being released that is incorrect. You'll get your black wheels and you'll like it!

That last answer points out that packaging mock-ups don't necessarily have the final production-run version in them, so Cyclonus could still look like either colour version yet.

And from collectiondx - http://collectiondx.com/node/3017

The Transfromers Brand team at Hasbro gave us (and other media outlets) the opportunity to ask 5 questions to the team. Here then, are the results of the oct 2008 Transformers Brand Q&A. IF you want to ask questions to Hasbro about transformers - leave them in the comments here and we will pick some for next time.
What's the future of the G1 reissues? Will the "Encore" line contain the Dinobots?
We are looking at doing a couple more G1 re-issues in Fall 2009, but no specific plans yet to announce - they will likely be retailer exclusives if they do make it out. As for the Encore series, that is a series that TakaraTomy does in Japan and I can't really comment on their future plans.
What's the future of the Masterpiece line? Will we see a Masterpiece Grimlock that transforms into an anatomically realistic T-Rex?
We are looking at a few options of existing Masterpiece products to bring over to the US. Also we have been in discussions with TakaraTomy on a new character for Masterpiece… so hopefully you can wait patiently for an announcement!
Will there be more Alternators?
At this time we have no plans for Alternators. We can only focus on so many things at a time and our plate is full in 2009 with Animated, Universe, and Movie.
How about the new Alternity line - will that make it to the states?
There are no plans to bring the Alternity line to the US in 2009 as there are already a lot of projects the Hasbro Transformers team are working on supporting Universe, Animated, and the new Movie.
Will classics Jetfire get reissued?
We typically won't re-issue the exact version if we do bring a character out again in Classics (see example of the new Starscream). But there are no current plans for a another Jetfire in Universe in 2009.

A lot of repeat questions in there, but some good answers in there as well.
I'm wondering if that is all of the involved fansites now. I think there were some non-American ones (like ours), but they may have longer to wait, as the answers would have to be routed through the branch office from the main Hasbro office.