Indianapolis Children's Museum Transformers display

[griffin]

Over in America, in the capital of Indiana, a Children's Museum is having a 30th Anniversary interactive display of Transformers, from March 7th to July 26th this year.

In case anyone here will be in America, near Indianapolis during that time, some preliminary images and details of what the exhibit should look like have been posted up here.

in partnership with Hasbro, and will feature a selection of vintage toys from the line's 30 year history, including a 10 foot tall Age of Extinction Optimus Prime statue, an exhibition of full-size Transformers fan costumes, and a toy design area showcasing the key phases of the toy design process.

With some of these anniversary exhibits in Asia (Singapore, Macau, Japan) and now in America.... where's ours?

[5FDP]

With some of these anniversary exhibits in Asia (Singapore, Macau, Japan) and now in America.... where's ours?

+ 1!

[Tfiguy]

Wow! Just wow!!

[zzyss]

I felt the one in Singapore was a bit disappointing. They really tried a bit too hard to integrate it in with the Science Museum host's displays (e.g. "Worms: nature's transformers")

Was expecting to see a huge collection of toys like some pictures of Taiwan(?) that I saw but it ended up being just a couple of fan collections. There was seriously better displays at the shops in China Square.

[Lord_Zed]

If only it was in August and synced up with Gencon in August, not that I'll probably go this year anyway.

[UltraMarginal]

Maybe we need to have a chat with the powerhouse museum...

[griffin]

Now that it is open, there are photos and videos being posted on fansites of the exhibit, including this gallery here and another one here with bigger photos.

It isn't surprising to see that the Hartman Brothers contributed to the display, as they are iconic collectors in the fandom who started BotCon, and live in Indiana (the US State of this exhibit).

It is quite impressive, as there are some pre-production toys on display to show the design process, plus some unreleased toys that must have been cancelled before production.
If I go to BotCon this year, I might actually see what it would cost to do an over-night trip in Indiana on the way to Chicago to see this first hand.
(it's in a neighbouring state, so would only take a 3 hour drive if anyone going to both was thinking of a road-trip to Chicago)


I think it is funny that there is one photo of a golden Optimus (possibly a Lucky Draw toy) with a sign saying that the way to spot a Mega Collector is to look for their Golden Optimus (as they are ultra rare and super expensive).
I guess that means I'm not a Mega Collector...

[GoktimusPrime]

With some of these anniversary exhibits in Asia (Singapore, Macau, Japan) and now in America.... where's ours?

At your place?

[griffin]

This show only has a week left (closes 26th July), so probably too late for any Australians to visit if you aren't already over there.

I would have loved to have posted this up soon after being over there (five weeks ago), but with two weeks spent over in America, and then three
weeks of going through all my photos and posting up reports on things by order of priority (BotCon had to be done first), I FINALLY got this finished up last night.
And I think you should be quite happy with the result, as there was enough photos and info for three separate pages for the Museum (281 photos),
with two of the pages just covering the Transformers Exhibit.

A shame that this wasn't closer, or easy to get to, as I would recommend it to any fan, despite it looking like it was aimed at young kids.
Sure, there were interactive elements aimed at young kids, but all the displays and most of the interactive elements would have been aimed at or
enjoyed by adult collectors as well.
Especially the whole wall section devoted to the design process of Transformers, which has changed a lot from when it was detailed to fans on the 2007 Hasbro tour.

So these are the three pages, and below are some of the more interesting images for those who don't have the time or downloads to look at the pages yet.

Page 1 - Museum Entrance, Gift-shop with heaps of Transformers toys, All but the Design section of the Transformers Exhibit.

Page 2 - Designing Transformers, and the Hot Wheels Exhibit.

Page 3 - Dinosaurs, Hollywood Movie Magic and props, Chinese Cultural Exhibit, Archaeology, and Trains.

I was in there for three hours, but it took me over 3 days to go through photos and do up those three pages.

A "life size" Bumblebee in the main foyer of the Museum.


Choose your allegiance...


A random assortment of eras and countries.


The main room... so pretty.


Beast Wars was the only non-current series to be featured in the Exhibit, which was surprising... not even Generation One was featured in any way, and it's their anniversary.


So much bling... yes son, that's real gold.


What about his jet alt-mode?


Karl Hartman's toughest Transformers toy - RID-2000 Landfill.


An interactive game, where you become Bumblebee on the screen (it moves when you move)... who wouldn't want one at home (with a
selection of characters of course).


I could have spent all day in here... if I was a lot younger to blend in.


All Soundwaves... why Soundwave? (I know someone who'd say that there is no better character to use as a display. )


This was my favourite part of the Exhibit, the Toy Design area, which had interactive screens, concept drawings on the walls, and an assortment of
pre-production toys on display... including some that have never been released as toys (some of which will never be released as toys).




Most of this section featured the RID Warrior Strongarm toy, which might seem a bit boring but it gives you the entire design process of one figure
to eliminate confusion from the variables that would come from using different toys at each stage.

This was for kids to identify robot parts, based on what the vehicle mode looks like.


Hasbro Designer Sean goes into a little detail about the design process of the toys, which I have included most of it on the page of photos.


Sketching...


Engineering of the parts and joints.



Now going Digital with the drawings and colourings...


3D rendering...


3D printing of test models...

.


Using something like this to print out the pre-production prototypes...


And finally, some pre-production prototypes that were on display...

Titanium 12-inch Cosmos, previously seen at the 2007 Hasbro HQ Tour.


Three pre-production BotShots toys that don't match any released figure, or any of the 20 toys that were revealed but never got released (in 2013).
The one on the left is a beast and has wing details like Beast Hunters Skystalker, while the one on the right looks a little like the Beast Hunters
version of Starsceam who had the same tail fin and wings that swept a little forward. The one in the middle facing to the back is a mystery, as it
is a six-wheeler with a cannon on the top... a bit like the Trailer that came with the first BotShots Megatron.


RID Drift and Generations Rhinox


Titan Guardian Sunstorm (actually looks like a factory toy, but it was first revealed 10 months ago and is still yet to be seen)... with the Starscream
toy that Americans got all excited about until someone realised that it was just a mis-transformed Cyber Battalion Starsream toy.


Human Alliance Soundwave and Alternators Mirage.


Plus a few others that on the full page of photos... including a Police version of the 2014 Deluxe Beast Hunters Smokescreen (the enlarged
Legion toy), which suggests that more off the simplified Beast Hunters toys were possible in 2014 if they line hadn't been wrapped up so quickly that
most of the 2014 toys didn't even show up in most countries.


And now for something completely different...

The Hot Wheels exhibit, from the Rival toy company to Hasbro. (Mattel)
Either it was a joint promotion with the Indy 500 raceway, or Mattel were
using the Indy 500 to help promote their toy cars.


The whole exhibit felt very propaganda-ish, with signage everywhere saying how fun Hot Wheels toys are, and how Racing fans should be Hot Wheels fans.
At least the Transformers exhibit was informative and fun, instead of trying to sell the product to the kids.


The Racecar info and displays were good though, but I mostly took photos of the toys... except this big toy.


Dinosaurs.


Remember when Grimlock used to stand upright...


Now current thinking has the T-Rex being more horizontal... and so Beast Wars Megatron and Movie Grimlock were made to look that way as well.


(see, even with the non-Transformers exhibits I can relate it back to Transformers... just like any obsessed fan. )

In the Movie Magic exhibit...

Props for hunting down aliens that are NOT Transformers.


The Archaeology wing... to show us how best to dig up all those ancient Transformers artefacts that have been crashing to Earth for the last 4 million years...


And the land that made most of the Transformers toys you probably have in your collection right now... China.

.


An early ancestor of Astrotrain perhaps, or someone from Heats of Steel?