Hasbro Answers to TFviews Questions #8

hasbro-brand-tfOur readers came up with these 3 great questions to send in on November 30th, and after a little delay, Hasbro was generous enough to supply us all 3 answers.

TFviews.com: Not that the ROTF Swerve redeco isn’t great (because it is) and a good way to somewhat rectify some early fan complaints that “Sideswipe is supposed to be red!” but considering ROTF Sideswipe turns into a Corvette concept car, was there ever a dark blue redeco considered under the name of Tracks? After all, G1 Tracks was a dark blue Corvette – it basically writes itself.
Hasbro: Once we knew that a Corvette was in the Revenge of the Fallen, Tracks has always been a potential product opportunity. We certainly continue to look at this as a potential opportunity to release in the near future.

TFviews.com: Several Constructicon characters in ROTF have multiples throughout the film – multiple Mixmasters, Rampages and Long Hauls are running around, and Scavenger and Demolishor share a body type, if not deco. Early in the film, several Constructicons, along with Ravage and Scalpel, head down the Laurentian Abyss to revive Megatron. The other Decepticons cannibalize one of the Constructicons, which fans have nicknamed “Ze Little One” after Scalpel’s line. Our question is, which of the existing Constructicon designs (most say it’s Rampage or Scrapper), if any, is Ze Little One supposed to be?
Hasbro: First off, thanks for the laugh. We had no idea that the “sacrificial lamb” had taken on a following and earned a nickname. On our side, we like to call “Ze Little One” Scrapmetal and it was the bulldozer. Maybe, just maybe, we might decide to include this in an upcoming exclusive.

TFviews.com: What is Hasbro’s point of view on how IDW comics have approached the Transformers brand? How much input do they have on characters and storylines, and are they happy with the end result when it comes to the treatment of character and mythology? How does this compare to how Dreamwave approached the same material?
Hasbro: We are very involved throughout the entire process with IDW. We discuss characters selection, character’s personalities, storylines, tonality, etc. all of which is a very time consuming process. Needless to say, we are closely connected to all projects with the projects that IDW works on!
As for the second part of your question, without drawing direct comparisons, we have been extremely pleased with the results of IDW’s hard work and dedication to the brand.

– Well, that’s it for this round, this is a bi-monthly Q&A series so we’ll have more great questions ready to go in early 2010. Thanks to all the readers who participated by coming up with these questions, and thanks to Hasbro for making this Q&A possible.

If you’d like to discuss these answers with other fans, or you’d like to submit a question of your own, join us in the Transformers Q&A thread in our forums!