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Hasbro 2015 Fan-Built Combiner Poll

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 11:40 pm
by Sparky Prime
I was expecting Jedi to post something about this since he seems to get a heads up on this sort of stuff, but I guess I'll kick things off. Like the Fan Built Transformers poll in 2013 that gave us Windblade, Hasbro is doing another poll for the fans to decide on a new Combiner Team for the Combiner Wars toyline.
From TFW2005
HASBRO INVITES TRANSFORMERS FANS TO CREATE MASSIVE TRANSFORMERS CHARACTER TO ENLIST IN THE COMBINER WARS

Fans Can Soon Create an All New Transformers Character in “Fan Built Combiner Poll”

Pawtucket, R.I. (January 15, 2015) —TRANSFOMERS fans around the world are invited to help create a new character for the popular TRANSFORMERS brand — but not just any character. Following on the heels of the 30th anniversary “Fan Built Bot” poll, which led to the fan-assisted creation of the popular new AUTOBOT character, WINDBLADE, Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) is launching the new “Fan Built Combiner” poll. This crowdsourcing project seeks fan input to create a new team of TRANSFORMERS robots that combine into one giant new character in celebration of the theme of the 2015 TRANSFORMERS GENERATIONS line, COMBINER WARS!

Starting soon, with exact dates to be announced, the official TRANSFORMERS brand app (formerly the official TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION app) will be updated and fans will be able to log-in and answer a round of questions to help shape the identity of the new Combiner characters. The Fan Built Combiner poll will allow fans to determine everything from the types of vehicles involved, to whether the characters will be AUTOBOTS or DECEPTICONS, and eventually the name of the new character.

Voting for each round will be open for one week, after which the results will be announced and a new round of voting will begin the following week, with three rounds of questions in all. A full reveal of the new Fan Built Combiner is expected later this year, with the character available as a toy in 2016.

“The first ‘Fan Built Bot’ effort was massive, resulting in the creation of WINDBLADE who has her own widely popular comic series from IDW Publishing and toy product,” said Tom Warner, senior vice president of the TRANSFORMERS franchise at Hasbro. “With the TRANSFORMERS GENERATIONS: COMBINER WARS line celebrating the venerable COMBINER characters from throughout TRANSFORMERS history this year, this is the perfect time to let fans help create something even bigger than a new TRANSFORMERS character — a Combiner team that will become part of TRANSFORMERS lore.”

The new “Fan Built Combiner” character will be part of the TRANSFORMERS GENERATIONS: COMBINER WARS toy line. Like all the toys in the line, which debut in stores this month, the new Combiner figure will be able to mix-and-match limbs with other figures in the line so kids and fans can create their own custom TRANSFORMERS COMBINERS figures.

To participate in the vote, fans will need to download the free official TRANSFORMERS brand app on iOS (Transformers: Age of Extinction Movie: Official App on the App Store on iTunes) and Android (Transformers:Age Of Extinction - Android Apps on Google Play). Starting with the Fan Built Combiner update, launching soon, the refreshed app will become the premiere destination for TRANSFORMERS fans and will feature first-look and behind-the-scenes images and information on new TRANSFORMERS: GENERATIONS toys. Additional information will be available at TRANSFORMERS.COM as well as the official TRANSFORMERS Facebook page at Facebook.com/Transformers.

Re: Hasbro 2015 Fan-Built Combiner Poll

Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2015 5:26 am
by Onslaught Six
This is...weird.

Like, okay. As a marketing tactic, this is fine. Hasbro is obviously confident enough in their new combiner engineering that they're doing more than just Superion, Menasor and (unconfirmed) Devastator. (I don't own any of the figures yet, but everything I've heard is positive.) And Windblade is undeniably a success; I've had plenty of fans who don't normally buy the toys who are all over Windblade, her comic, and even her toy. (It's a shame it's not one of the best examples of a TF, but it's the thought that's there.) I've even bought one to hand to a friend at the upcoming MAGFest.

From a timing standpoint, though? This leaves a LOT of unanswered questions. Like, just how long is Combiner Wars planned to run?! The Windblade poll started in something like May 2013 (I seem to remember the final results premiering at Botcon or SDCC that year) and it took us about a year and a half for Windblade to hit shelves from that. Even if we assume all voting is done by the end of February, it'll still be well into 2016 by the time these guys would hit shelves. Is Hasbro really planning on doing nothing but combiners in the mainline until then?! (Maybe these guys will be the last released before the TF5 toyline.)

Also, it's clear from the press release that this will be an entirely new "team," but there's nothing that says these can't be a "replacement" team. Maybe the Technobots or Predacons will be replaced with an all-new team of Predacons or Technobots. Maybe that'll be up to us to decide. Maybe they'll be fucking morons and put Dinobots on the list and every idiot on the planet will vote for that for some Godforsaken reason.

And on top of this, we all know that Combiner Wars in the comics is going to start very, VERY soon, making it virtually impossible for this guy to be worked into the comics themselves--Windblade being a major part of IDW's push post-Dark Cybertron was a huge thing, and to see that element kind of washed by the wayside (especially when Combiner Wars is such a huge thing on its own) is...weird.

I mean, I'm excited, don't get me wrong! Combiners are a huge part of the TF mythos and I'm glad to see them finally get some love, including a brand new team, something we haven't properly seen since, what, Car Robots in 2000? (And the Build Team is still kinda-sorta stretching it, since "construction vehicle team" isn't exactly a new concept.)

If nothing else, I think this is Hasbro's way of saying "fuck you" to the third party companies. They can make all the $600 combiners they want, but the fact is, at the end of the day, they'll never ever make anything truly new to the brand like Hasbro can. (I think one company actually did try to make an "original" character but it flopped on its ass.)

Re: Hasbro 2015 Fan-Built Combiner Poll

Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2015 12:49 pm
by Dominic
The new character will probably be implied in "Combiners Wars".

I just hope it is not some kind of cosmic Mary/Marty Su/Stu.

Maybe the uncomfirmed combiner is a place-holder for this one?

Re: Hasbro 2015 Fan-Built Combiner Poll

Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 2:56 pm
by Almighty Unicron
I would not be surprised if this combiner's figure is not a new mold, unlike windblade. It'll probably be repaints or remolds of existing combiner wars figures and they or the combiner itself would be a new character.

Re: Hasbro 2015 Fan-Built Combiner Poll

Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 10:41 pm
by Tigermegatron
I'd like to see the Autobots gets a animals-bots combiner. The animals I'd pick is as follows, Bear as the team leader torso. As the limbs-bots, I'd chose a Wolf, Tiger, American bald Eagle and a Wild Boar.

Re: Hasbro 2015 Fan-Built Combiner Poll

Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2015 4:35 am
by Shockwave
Almighty Unicron wrote:I would not be surprised if this combiner's figure is not a new mold, unlike windblade. It'll probably be repaints or remolds of existing combiner wars figures and they or the combiner itself would be a new character.
That depends. If Hasbro offers a choice of alt modes and everyone does what O6 said and chooses Dinobots then they would probably be all new modes. Or if there is some sort of nautical themed alt modes or what have you.

Re: Hasbro 2015 Fan-Built Combiner Poll

Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2015 9:08 am
by BWprowl
Onslaught Six wrote:Hasbro is obviously confident enough in their new combiner engineering that they're doing more than just Superion, Menasor and (unconfirmed) Devastator.
The Protectobots are also all but confirmed, and a lot of people are speculating on a new Bruticus, on account of Alpha Bravo pretty clearly being designed to be recolored/retooled into Vortex.
a brand new team, something we haven't properly seen since, what, Car Robots in 2000? (And the Build Team is still kinda-sorta stretching it, since "construction vehicle team" isn't exactly a new concept.)
Well there was also JRX there too, but 'train team' is arguably less original than 'construction vehicle team'.

We also had two different iterations of the Perceptor (why was it called that?) Mini-Con team in Armada and Energon. Along with roughly 50% of Energon as a line being Combiners.
Almighty Unicron wrote:I would not be surprised if this combiner's figure is not a new mold, unlike windblade. It'll probably be repaints or remolds of existing combiner wars figures and they or the combiner itself would be a new character.
This is my thinking. Hasbro'll have enough of a variety of (vehicular) altmodes by the time CW has run its first year or so that they'll be able to have options on the poll for "heavy ground vehicle" or "air vehicle" or "race car" or what-have-you and have all their bases covered. We'll likely get retooled heads and maybe weapons out of the deal. Could still work well, and it might be fun to see all the 'new' component characters (Alpha Bravo, Offroad, etc) get turned into *even newer* characters.

Re: Hasbro 2015 Fan-Built Combiner Poll

Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2015 7:37 pm
by JediTricks
Yeah, sorry, I was sick this last week when it came in on the 15th.

Honestly though, I just don't feel terribly enthused by this after seeing the first wave of Combiner Wars deluxe and voyager figure in-hand pics, it's not like making the same simple bot over and over for $15 a pop is a stretch.

Re: Hasbro 2015 Fan-Built Combiner Poll

Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2015 11:42 am
by Onslaught Six
BWprowl wrote:Well there was also JRX there too, but 'train team' is arguably less original than 'construction vehicle team'.

We also had two different iterations of the Perceptor (why was it called that?) Mini-Con team in Armada and Energon. Along with roughly 50% of Energon as a line being Combiners.
I was mostly using "combiners" to refer to any robot formed of at least 4 other robots. Which, naturally, excludes guys like JRX, the Minicon teams, and Energon.

He was probably named Perceptor to keep a trademark active. Remember, this is the age of Minicons named "Mirage" and shit. Man, can you believe that was actually a thing that happened?

Anyway, I still don't see the negativity some (JT, Dom) share about these toys, but then again, maybe you guys need to actually have some. I'm reserving judgement but excited, if that makes sense.

Re: Hasbro 2015 Fan-Built Combiner Poll

Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2015 5:16 pm
by Sparky Prime
Onslaught Six wrote:Anyway, I still don't see the negativity some (JT, Dom) share about these toys, but then again, maybe you guys need to actually have some. I'm reserving judgement but excited, if that makes sense.
Yeah, I'd have to agree. I'm reserving judgement, but I'm still looking forward to these combiners. I like what I've seen so far.