I may get a brief official interview with Hasbro TF

[JediTricks]

At Comic-Con in a week. It'd be a 10-minute interview if we get a slot.

What would you like our site to discuss with them? General topics? Specific questions? MAJOR CONCERNS? I can't guarantee anything, but I'll give it a shot.

Be quick though in your responses, Comic-Con is just 5 days away.

[andersonh1]

Awesome, let me give it some thought and I'll see what I can come up with.

[Onslaught Six]

What's the thought behind release Bruticus in colours that aren't accurate to thahahahahaha no. Seriously, though...

1) With the recent US release of Masterforce on DVD, any thought to creating more toys in homage to characters from that era of G1--especially since some of them have recently featured in IDW's comics? Bomb-Burst, Metalhawk, Waverider, Overlord, Joyride? (This'd probably get "No'd" pretty quickly but I'm still interested in hearing someone's thoughts on Masterforce in the current climate.)

2) Clearly Hasbro has enough faith in the combiner concept to release an entirely new Bruticus--how about other types of more "unorthodox" combiners, like Rail Racer, Magnaboss, or Duocons? Since the end of the Unicron Trilogy we've seen a decrease in double or triple-character combinations; has this been a conscious decision or did it just work out that way?

3) No, for real, you guys don't seriously think people need this many Bumblebees, do you?

4) Hasbro clearly has a good working relationship with Botcon and FunPub. In the past, we've seen some figures who had previously been released as exclusives through Botcon (Thundercracker, Kup, Scourge, Banzai-Tron) given a new toy in a Hasbro mainline. Can we expect this with some other figures who might be becoming more popular with fans (Metalhawk, Overlord, Sky-Byte, etc.) or is it more of a case-by-case basis?

5) What are some of your own personal favourite Transformers--that you had a hand in creating or not--and are updates to any of those toys on your own personal "wish lists?" (The second part could easily be excluded if all they mention are very recent toys.)

Pick one, pick two, don't pick any, whatever!

[JediTricks]

What's the thought behind release Bruticus in colours that aren't accurate to thahahahahaha no. Seriously, though...

It's not off the table, but I wouldn't want to focus exclusively on it, and I'd hope they'd respond to it at the panel a few hours prior anyway.

1) With the recent US release of Masterforce on DVD, any thought to creating more toys in homage to characters from that era of G1--especially since some of them have recently featured in IDW's comics? Bomb-Burst, Metalhawk, Waverider, Overlord, Joyride? (This'd probably get "No'd" pretty quickly but I'm still interested in hearing someone's thoughts on Masterforce in the current climate.)

2) Clearly Hasbro has enough faith in the combiner concept to release an entirely new Bruticus--how about other types of more "unorthodox" combiners, like Rail Racer, Magnaboss, or Duocons? Since the end of the Unicron Trilogy we've seen a decrease in double or triple-character combinations; has this been a conscious decision or did it just work out that way?

3) No, for real, you guys don't seriously think people need this many Bumblebees, do you?

4) Hasbro clearly has a good working relationship with Botcon and FunPub. In the past, we've seen some figures who had previously been released as exclusives through Botcon (Thundercracker, Kup, Scourge, Banzai-Tron) given a new toy in a Hasbro mainline. Can we expect this with some other figures who might be becoming more popular with fans (Metalhawk, Overlord, Sky-Byte, etc.) or is it more of a case-by-case basis?

5) What are some of your own personal favourite Transformers--that you had a hand in creating or not--and are updates to any of those toys on your own personal "wish lists?" (The second part could easily be excluded if all they mention are very recent toys.)

That last one I'd leave for last just because I'd only have 10 minutes and it'd be challenge to get it right. None of these are off the table, but I haven't thought yet about how I'd prioritize such a thing. More input would be helpful.

[JediTricks]

Ok, so this is definitely on. You guys could help shape the tone and questions I bring to the show, but I am leaving in about 2 hours so it'll be more difficult to get to them the later you wait (the con starts Wednesday, the interview is Thursday).

[andersonh1]

My main interest lately when it comes to Transformers has been the Masterforce DVDs and the comics, so O6's homage question is one I had thought about, and I would "second". Carrying on from there...

1) Did Hasbro initially oppose releasing the Japanese G1 series on DVD here in the US? If so, what were the objections, and why did they agree to go ahead with the release?
2) Are there any plans to release the Japanese Beast Wars series on DVD in the US? (that might be a question better directed at Shout Factory, but there's no reason not to bring it up here.)
3) Is there any chance of getting further comic-based figures made and released in the same way that Drift was? There aren't that many comic-only characters, but someone like Turmoil, or the IDW design for Metalhawk might be interesting.

[BWprowl]

What part of Hasbro are you going to be talking to, exactly? The design team? Marketing? Archer and his secretary? The kid who keeps the coffee machine stocked?

I'd mainly be interested in knowing if they've ever considered expanding their internet-storefront capabilities beyond HTS, which as we all know isn't even strictly technically 'Hasbro'. Might be a way to deal with the problem of retailers skipping later waves so that tail-end toys that kids and fans want can get out to them.

I'm also kind of curious about, when third-party companies want the license to make stuff like Kaiyodo with their Revoltechs and CM's Corps with their Gutto-Kurus, are they primarily directed to go through Takara or Hasbro (I would imagine it's the former in the case of my examples, but who knows), and how complex/challenging is the process for obtaining a license to make those sorts of products?

Nah, on second thought, just ask them for an itemized list of every Transformers toy coming out for the next two years. I'm sure they're not tired of that sort of question at all.

[Shockwave]

I'd be more inclined to call them out on some of their business practices. Prime has been on for over a year and you're JUST NOW getting the toys out? And the Bruticus debacle with game accurate colors being exclusive. I mean, we get that Hasbro is moving from being a primarily product based company to focus more on developing the media side of their franchises, but why can't they seem to find the balance between maintaining their product along with the accompanying media? Another example is the GI Joe sequel toys which is the reverse of Prime with the toys coming out at least a full year before the supporting media. Why can't they get this right?

[JediTricks]

My main interest lately when it comes to Transformers has been the Masterforce DVDs and the comics, so O6's homage question is one I had thought about, and I would "second". Carrying on from there...

1) Did Hasbro initially oppose releasing the Japanese G1 series on DVD here in the US? If so, what were the objections, and why did they agree to go ahead with the release?
2) Are there any plans to release the Japanese Beast Wars series on DVD in the US? (that might be a question better directed at Shout Factory, but there's no reason not to bring it up here.)
3) Is there any chance of getting further comic-based figures made and released in the same way that Drift was? There aren't that many comic-only characters, but someone like Turmoil, or the IDW design for Metalhawk might be interesting.

this will be a toy discussion, not a brand discussion or a history discussion (most of the team is pretty new and not familiar with that sort of level of detail). That last question is much easier to put on the list though, especially with Darkmount/Straxus as a second call-up though.

What part of Hasbro are you going to be talking to, exactly? The design team? Marketing? Archer and his secretary? The kid who keeps the coffee machine stocked?

I'd mainly be interested in knowing if they've ever considered expanding their internet-storefront capabilities beyond HTS, which as we all know isn't even strictly technically 'Hasbro'. Might be a way to deal with the problem of retailers skipping later waves so that tail-end toys that kids and fans want can get out to them.

I'm also kind of curious about, when third-party companies want the license to make stuff like Kaiyodo with their Revoltechs and CM's Corps with their Gutto-Kurus, are they primarily directed to go through Takara or Hasbro (I would imagine it's the former in the case of my examples, but who knows), and how complex/challenging is the process for obtaining a license to make those sorts of products?

Nah, on second thought, just ask them for an itemized list of every Transformers toy coming out for the next two years. I'm sure they're not tired of that sort of question at all.

I believe we're getting someone on design, possibly brand manager for the toys (archer is now above that, VP of IP development or something along those lines).

Your questions there are both pretty good, I'd feel almost too awkward to ask about a potential licensee 3rd party after it was our site that brought it to a head in Q&A, but I won't shy away if I get the chance.

I'd be more inclined to call them out on some of their business practices. Prime has been on for over a year and you're JUST NOW getting the toys out? And the Bruticus debacle with game accurate colors being exclusive. I mean, we get that Hasbro is moving from being a primarily product based company to focus more on developing the media side of their franchises, but why can't they seem to find the balance between maintaining their product along with the accompanying media? Another example is the GI Joe sequel toys which is the reverse of Prime with the toys coming out at least a full year before the supporting media. Why can't they get this right?

Definitely will try to POLITELY ask this sort of thing (my friend Steve is interviewing GI Joe the day after, but isn't terribly familiar with the brand so I might just feed him that question, but they probably will have touched on it at their panel the day before so I might not.

[BWprowl]

Oh also, if you get the chance, I'm kind of interested in knowing who over there is responsible for photographing toys for box/promo pics, and why more effort isn't made by them to get said toys transformed/posed properly for such shots.