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Thread: SDCC 2017 preview and small news bits

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    Default SDCC 2017 preview and small news bits

    SDCC officially starts tomorrow in America, and when it does, the big Transformers news will end up in their own topics here, but first up we have the preview night, which only has old (officially revealed before) items on display.

    Generations Titan Returns and here (up to wave 5 on display).

    TF5 Movie and here (includes a really nice diorama, inspired by events in the movie)

    Robots in Disguise and Rescue Bots, plus here and here.

    And heaps of licensed statues - Flame Toys, 3A movie statues, Prime Studios.

    The schedule of Transformers related events at this year's SDCC...
    Thursday 10am-11am - IDW's Schick Hydrobot with John Barber.
    Thursday 11am-noon - Hasbro Transformers
    Thursday 2pm-3pm - IDW First Strike (Transformers Vs GIJoe)
    Friday noon-1pm - IDW Hasbro Comic Universe
    Saturday 10am-11am - How to create a cartoon (includes some TFs cartoon creators)
    Saturday 6pm-7pm - repeat of IDW's First Strike panel
    Sunday 11.30am-12.45pm - Cartoon voices (includes Neil Kaplan from TFs)
    Sunday noon-1pm - IDW's First Strike (probably another repeat)

    I'll post up some more links a little later.

    (when the really exciting new stuff gets revealed in the next 24 hours, feel free to start up a new news topic)
    Last edited by griffin; 20th July 2017 at 06:42 PM.

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    So if my calculations are right we should have news of Power of the Prime's when we wake in the morning? Great!

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    It's too early in the morning so I am not going to mess up a new thread but damn the Power of the Primes looks like a mixture of headmaster, powermaster, pretender and combiners. Still a little confused honestly but I do love the bots for Dreadwing. Hope we get a shot of the jet in combined mode.

    Edit: found some on seibertron.

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    Beachcomber looks great! It's about time haha. Jazz looks not as great, but I like the alt mode. At least the gimmick doesn't appear to interfere with the designs much.
    "The Decepticons keep bad company - each other!" - Jazz, G2

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    More licensed items on display in the main exhibit hall -Jada and Herocross.

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    Hasbro have released Movie toy concept and development images through their Pulse site, noting that it follows on from their SDCC presentation... which didn't feature a lot on the movie line, or reveal anything new.
    Just be aware that it is a LOT of images.

    We also have the IDW First Strike panel, for those following the comics... or watch the video taped recording of the panel here.

    John Barber: Why does Optimus Prime deserve a book now?

    JB: Leader, a Prime, he hasn't been a leader of Cybertron for a while. Revolution is sparked by forced annexation of Earth to Council of Worlds. Not everybody agrees with what he's doing, and there's a wide cast. Several important members, such as Soundwave and Pyra Magna, but it all revolves around the changes brought by Optimus.

    Mairghread Scott: What is happening now in Till All Are One?

    MS: Starscream supreme leader of Cybertron, dabbling in politics, mind control, manipulation - and getting as close to a happy ending as has ever happened.

    Carlos Guzman: What is Lost Light and why is Rodimus purple?

    CG: Continuing story of More Than Meets the Eye, with James Roberts and Jack Lawrence, we're heading back to Getaway and the Lost Light pretty soon (LL #10).

    Rom: we're getting to find out more about the Solstar Order and the Dire Wraiths as the story continues.

    Micronauts were at the heart of Revolution, and now continuing with Wrath of Karza - why are they such important characters?

    Brandon Easton on MASK: looking at the series as lynchpin for First Strike, despite the 'Crown Jewel' status of GI Joe.

    Aubrey Sitterson: What makes GI Joe The Crown Jewel of the Hasbro Universe? The energy and force they have brought to the title, to the team, to the IDWverse - Giannis Milogiannis and Lovern have created a whole new aesthetic for big action comics.

    The idea of First Strike is one of a jumping-on point for readers, with titles not only crossing over, but making it into an actual event, with lasting consequences. Mairghread Scott discusses the intricacies and complexities of managing what wanting to write versus what the Hasbro Universe might want - "You know what would be cool? Let's put G.I. Joe on Cybertron. Let's get weird." - and the editorial weight of that balance of the likes of David (both the co-writer and the editor, one assumes). She reassures on the organic way in which the stories are being allowed to merge, however (despite the rushed nature of Revolution, ndr) - "We wanted a hard emotional center to all the crazy ninjas."

    Rodriguez also praises the help and knowledge of John Barber, from the previous experience as editor for a lot of the Transformers books, and just his knowledge overall of the GI Joe and TF lore and stories.

    All writers are asked about the perspective of the various tie-ins within the core story, featuring Micronauts and Rom, MASK and GI Joe, with Transformers still at the centre. With the end of the event, new books will be set off

    According to Sitterson: "G.I. Joe: Unmasked is going to get very weird, very quickly. Army ants. Dinosaurs."

    The Visionaries series has been confirmed to come out of the event

    And the big tease: UNICRON IS COMING

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    Newsarama website has complete coverage of the IDW panel, with lots of info.

    We're here live with IDW's Transformers Versus G.I. Joe! panel at Comic-Con International.

    We're moving on to ROM, by Chris Ryall, Christos Gage and David Messina. The next arc will see ROM going up against monstrous Dire Wraiths, and he will soon learn why the Wraiths have chosen to set up shop on Earth.

    Next up Micronauts, by Cullen Bunn, Jimmy Z. Johnston, Andrew Griffith and Max Dunbar. With the Micronauts only being three inches tall, having such a large scale difference will cause a lot of sparks.

    Next up is M.A.S.K., with Brandon Easton, Tony Vargas and Juan Samu. Easton joked that he's still figuring out why "Kommando" is spelled with a "K." He said he had to look at the '80s cartoon and refine it down to tone down some of the cheesiness, and to lean into a more Fast and Furious tone.

    M.A.S.K.'s tech is reverse-engineered Cybertronian tech, thanks to IDW's current Revolution landscape.

    Next up is G.I. Joe, from Aubrey Sitterson and Giannis Milonogiannis. Sitterson praised Milonogiannis and colorist Lovern Kindzierski: "This book would have been the crown jewel even if I wasn't involved on it," he said.

    There will be a Revolution toyset from Hasbro, inspired by IDW and Hasbro's shared universe.

    "I didn't even know these were being made," Easton said. "Having this made into a toy is a dream I didn't even know I had."

    IDW's next event, First Strike, featuring the Transformers, G.I. Joe and more, will ship every two seeks starting in August. It's designed to be a jumping-on point to get lapsed readers, showing off IDW's various properties interacting with one another.

    "I really want First Strike to be a complete story, and to be a trade you wanted to pick up," Mairghread Scott said. Earth has been annexed into more of a cosmic state. "What if we did like Brexit?" she said. Certain figures are looking to separate the Hasbroverse in a particularly violent way — destroying Cybertron.

    Scott said that this story is about Scarlett reconciling the founder of the G.I. Joes, Joe Colton, meaning so much to her... but also spearheading robotic genocide with the destruction of Cybertron.

    John Barber, who has written Joe Colton's backup stories, has been critical to making sure that the story has gotten continuity correct.

    With First Strike, IDW will do one-shots featuring Micronauts and ROM one-shots by Christos Gage and Chris Panda. Their role will be a bit secondary to the main Transformers vs. G.I. Joe factions, but this will have the Micronauts discovering the Dire Wraiths trying to make themselves a virus.

    There is also G.I. Joe and MASK one-shots, by Aubrey Sitterson and Ilias Kyriazis. Sitterson promises museum heists, kung-fu fights, and giant robots with explosions and lasers in these two issues.

    With Scarlett gone, Shipwreck will have to take over the team, as Venom, a new faction of COBRA, will attack.

    Finally, there will be First Strike one-shots featuring Optimus Prime and Transformers, by John Barber and Guido Guidi. These will take place on Cybertron. Barber said that the story will deal with the Transformers having to react to the war with Earth without Optimus Prime.

    There will also be a book in December called G.I. Joe Unmasked, which has MASK's Matt Trakker joining G.I. Joe join the fight against Cobra, by Aubrey Sitterson and Nelson Daniel. Sitterson said that with the characters already established, they can go up against a wild assortment of foes, like Hasbro's Army Ants.

    There will also be a ROM and the Micronauts comic in December 2017 by Christos Gage and Paolo Villanelli, where the Micronauts help ROM right a Dire Wraight god.

    There will be a double-sized Transformers: Till All Are One annual in December, by Mairghread Scott and Sara Pitre-Durocher. The question of the series, Scott said, is who should rule Cybertron: Windblade, Starscream, or Elita? So there will be an election, filled with plenty of "dirty tricks."

    Also in December will be Visionaries by Maggs Visaggio and Fico Ossio, which will have more news coming up in the future.

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    Interview with Hasbro lead designer/ reveals Starscream is a combiner, plans to revisit Titan Master and Combiner Wars gimmicks in the future, Scorponok and Omega Supreme show strong fan interest, and other juicy tidbits
    On the lookout for MISB Headmaster Highbrow, Takara or Hasbro. I'm sure I could make you a sweet deal!

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    Quote Originally Posted by reillyd View Post
    Interview with Hasbro lead designer/ reveals Starscream is a combiner, plans to revisit Titan Master and Combiner Wars gimmicks in the future, Scorponok and Omega Supreme show strong fan interest, and other juicy tidbits
    A copy of the interview with Head Transformers Designer John Warden.

    Can you tell us about the other two Titans Return box sets which we have not seen yet?

    Sure, as fans have noticed, the sets are centered around the four different powers/tech specs and only two of those powers are getting the boxset treatment. We will not be releasing the other remaining powers as box sets of the same kinds but there will be unique offerings that will allow fans to have a representation of the two remaining powers. It will be exciting news shared later so stay tuned (Editor's note: this is probably what the recent Arcee and Ultra Magnus leaks are about and would explain why they are a different format than what we have previously seen since the remaining powers would not be done in the same way as the boxsets)


    Will there be other toys in the Slugslinger wave?

    Yes but they will all be repackaged characters. I do not remember which characters are repackaged however Slugslinger is the only new character in that wave and the final new toy from the Titans Return line (Editor’s note: this might be a response to the frequent practice of retailers not ordering/stocking the final waves of figures as was the case with Combiner Wars)


    While the Combiner Wars show got a lot of hits and downloads, the fan community still felt there was much to be desired. Can you tell us if there will be an improvement with the Titans Return show?

    We are very excited to be working with a partner like Machinima. The Combiners Wars show turned out great. Machinima has some exciting news that they shared at the panel we just had like all the new voice actor talent. They're very excited to say that Peter Cullin is back and so is Judd Nelson and Will Wheaton will be the voice of perceptor which is great. They will also be lengthening the episodes which is really really cool.

    Okay well I'm looking forward to it. Now speaking of supporting fiction, what is the plan for supporting fiction in Prime Wars and Power of the Primes? Will these core ideas of the toy line be supported in the IDW fiction?

    Um, well I mean that's a very good question. We do have a great partnership with IDW and we share with them all our plans. They're able to bring to life those characters in very interesting ways so I think that yeah I don't know specifics but yeah the plan would be to work with IDW as much as possible.


    Why release the 12 Primes as avatars instead of making toys of the Primes themselves?

    Also a really good question. So the primes really in some cases are more like spirits, you know, it would be hard to imagine some of them in toy form aside for some like Vector Prime. Also, they are lesser known to casual fans. The Prime Wars line really seems to be paying off like doing A-list characters and also mixing in some more obscure characters like the Targetmaster Decepticons that only had the G1 toy before. With the Primes, that's a lot more difficult especially when scale is a factor since some would be really big it would be a challenge to make a big version of a great Prime. So to bring them to life in an ecosystem it's better to look at it in a small and unified collectible way and introduce them that way. That's how we came up with the decoy suits, it gives a chance for younger fans to have a collectible and it helps to bring these lesser known characters into a toyline.


    Why not wait for this Prime evolution gimmick to release Power Master Prime?

    That's an excellent question. The idea we have in Power of the Primes line is that they evolve up so he would have been a good fit. But in the year Titans Return we wanted to make sure we had a big version of Optimus Prime and there's only so many big cool versions of the character so as we were looking at the Titans Return ecosystem we weren't even thinking of that evolution system yet which only came to real form a year ago and by that time Power Master Prime was already finished.


    Quick question on that on (Power of the Primes) Jazz, is he a fully new mold?

    Yes he is all new.


    Any plans for God bomber in the US?

    God Bomber, there are no plans for God Bomber to come to the US at this time. All that is planned is that Magnus Prime in the Seige of Cybertron set.

    It appears that there are combiner ports on the Power of the Prime deluxe figures and on Starscream. What can you tell us about Combiners in Power of the Primes?

    I will answer that with a very vague answer right now. So story-wise the Prime Masters had the powers of the gods and they can unlock certain powers. Now we wanted it so that these powers are not just up to kid's imaginations, the Prime Masters can literally unlock some gimmicks that are hidden in these toys as well. That is as much as we can say for now but we will reveal more at a later date for sure, fans just need to stay tuned.


    I'm assuming that Hascon is a place where this will be further revealed?

    That's right, Hascon, and Hascon fans will be the ones that will see more of the gimmicks hidden in the Power of the Primes line.


    There were some Headmaster characters that were missing in the Titans Return line so will the Titan Master gimmick have a resurgence in the power of the Prime line where Headmaster Juniors could have toys of their own?

    Not in Power of the Primes line I can say that flat out but in the future, not only were we thinking ahead when we did the Prime Wars trilogy but as we start to think about the future we actually have our course mapped all the way to 2021 which is very exciting. So when you look at Generations, the roadmap for the future is very bright and gimmicks like a Titan Master are fully engineered and there's no reason why we would not revisit that later and these are all characters we could eventually cover.


    When you guys started Combiner Wars, was the road map to Power of the Pines there or not?

    We started with Combiner Wars and we knew we wanted some sort of a sequel to it since we knew that Combiner Wars would one day end. When I started planning, I came to the table with all these characters we had not done yet. Headmasters, Fortress Maximus, Trypticon, so we decided it would just so much stuff that the higher ups decided to make it a Trilogy. And that made sense to us so it happened organically. So the idea of doing Power of the Primes was there in essence and we put a flag in the ground a long time ago knowing it would eventually lead to the Primes and the Power of the Prime (literally) since it's the most epic part of Transformers history.

    Anything with Omega Supreme or Scorponok which were also into fan vote since you know we like those guys?

    Well the fan polls are really awesome for us because they let us engage with the fans and see what they're excited about. When we look to 2021 and all the possibilities we now have with the technology, absolutely. Characters like Omega Supreme and Scorponok are some of the most memorable characters in The Transformers universe and in the spirit of imagining things that are cool and giving them a new light they are totally on the table.


    Now what about the fan favourite Dinobots, is there any possibility of G1 reissues or in the Generations line, other than Grimlock?

    One thing great about San Diego Comic-Con is speaking to people not just die hard fans like you, but also any casual fan that could be walking by. We hear loud and clear last year that Rodimus Prime was the character people really wanted to see and now we have him. We also heard loud and could people really wanted those Dinobots so nothing to reveal yet but I can say that we always listen to fans.

    Has Hasbro unveiled anything in terms of exclusives for Hascon?

    Nothing yet but stay tuned, there is definitely something. It's a very very cool something.


    Is there anything else you might want to share with us any random thought let us know?

    I don't know, I think it's just really exciting to be at an event like this because not only do you have a chance to meet fans but when you look at characters like the movie Masterpiece Optimus Prime, there was 20 year old kid and I saw a sparkle in this guy's eyes and he was thinking "that's a toy of a character I loves seeing as a kid" (when he would have been 10) and it's energizing to see the torch being passed, I think that's really what makes our franchise so cool. It's not just G1, it's not just Beast Wars, it's not just the movies, it's everything and we're all together it's one big Transformers family. It's very exciting.

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