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BotCon Report

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Steve-o Stonebraker

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Oct 9, 2005, 8:01:10 PM10/9/05
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I've finally found the time to finish preparing my BotCon report material.
It is split pretty cleanly into two parts. In this post I am including my
notes from the convention, mainly covering information that was presented
during panels. There is only minor subjective commentary from me, and
almost no effort spent evaluating the "quality" of the convention.

Also available for those who are interested is my photos and a travelogue,
with an account of how I spent some of my time, what I liked and didn't
like, etc.. There are photos of some of the upcoming toys included,
although by now if you care about seeing those you've probably already
seen them on the news sites. My pictures and travelogue are located here:

http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~sstoneb/photos/botcon2005.html

And now, my panel notes...

======

Steve-o Stonebraker's BotCon 2005 Notes

This is a record of all the notes I took at BotCon 2005. It is not a
travalogue, it does not say who I hung out with, what I ate for dinner, or
how sleepy I was. It is basically just Transformers information. There
is a small amount of personal reaction to the panels and events that I
attended, but as a whole, this is *not* a record of how well I think Fun
Publications did at running the convention.

The items are in roughly chronological order. I considered re-organizing
all the points based on their topic, but, there are too many of them for
it to be worth my while. Note that there were *three* Hasbro panels at
this year's convention instead of just one, so there is a lot of
information, and it's spread out throughout this list. This is probably
as thorough a list of the stuff that was said/revealed at the convention
as is likely to be posted by anybody, so if you want all the scoops, read
on.


"TF Rarities" panel by Rik Alverez
o Alverez is one of the members of the "fan advisory council" put together
by Fun Publications to serve as liasons between Fun Pub. and the
Transformers fandom. The purpose of this panel was to present pictures
of and information about rare TF toys that many fans would not have seen
before.
o The French-Canadian release of G1 Springer was named "Ricochet". I
hadn't realized the name had appeared at all in Transformers history
until it was applied to the US Stepper reissue.
o Black Fire Convoy is really pretty.
o He showed some Beast Machines packaging mockups that included
invidualized character artwork.
o Pics of an earlier Megabolt Megatron design. The head mode was more
show-accurate and didn't have the scuttling legs or the red "box"
doohickey they connect to. The robot mode was noticeably different (and
not as nice). Apparently this design was scrapped because it wasn't fun
enough in head mode, hence the addition of legs.
o "Toxitron", a pea soup colored Laser Prime, amazingly ugly.
o He was surpsingly uncertain about a lot of the details for his panel,
including things that should be easy to figure out like the origins of
some of the limited-run contest prize toys of which he's showing
pictures.
o I went to this panel's first instance (like a few other panels, it was
offered twice during the weekend), during which somebody in the audience
asked whether a certain clear plastic item was a "lunchtime special".
Alverez took the time to say that he dislikes that term, saying that
these toys are produced by Takara "for reference", claiming that they
keep a handful of translucent and chromed copies of *every* TF they
produce in storage somewhere so they can have something to look at if
they ever decide to do an exclusive version of it. This story strikes
me as highly unlikely. He went on to say that sometimes these pieces
"find their way out" of Takara's hands *as part of his argument that
they are not stolen*. He also made very specific claims about some of
the clear G1 figures he showed pictures of, such as that there are
exactly five clear Skids toys. (All of which, supposedly, except for
the ones he has pictures of I guess, are kept by Takara.) It seems
unlikely to me that he would have any way of knowing this sort of thing.
o Despite not believing half of what he said about them, I did think the
clear G1 toys he showed pics of were very pretty. I usually think
transparent variants are silly, but these toys were very, very clear.
Like... CD jewel case clear. Pretty.
o Also, strangely, Alverez asked that there be no photos taken during the
panel. His reasoning for this is that some of the collectors who
provided pictures for the panel were very private. Which... well, I
guess that might be true, but it seems really ridiculous. Like, what,
if the pictures are posted online the "owners" won't get as much
enjoyment out of their secret toys anymore? Disgusting.


"Hasbro / Takara: Working Together"
o Up at the table were Aaron Archer and the lead Takara deisgner, Hikeaki
YOKE. Eric Siebenaler (Hasbro's lead designer) and Greg Lombardo
(Hasbro's TF marketer) were also present, although they didn't sit at
the table for most of the panel. Also in the audience was a second,
younger Takara desinger, named Syogo HASUI (or perhaps Shogo HASUI? Doug
Dlin says it's a matter of choice of romanization scheme).
o With Aaron's promotion late in 2004, Eric Siebenaler is now Hasbro's
lead designer, and Aaron is in a higher brand-management sort of
position (called "design director", at least as of a few months ago).
o The panel began with a slide presentation that included a lot of photos
of the two teams working together, as well as them relaxing together
after hours.
o Hasbro's and Takara's TF teams are in daily contact with each other by
email and phone. They have business meetings in person three or four
times a year, alternating between meeting in Japan and Rhode Island.
o One of the main themes of this presentation was that the two companies
have different market needs, and how they frequently compromise on these
differences for the greater good.
o When the two companies' partnership began back in the 80s, Yoke-san
actually moved to Rhode Island for six months. He had worked as a
designer on Microman and Diaclone, and has continued to work on
Transformers all these years.
o At Hasbro/Takara meetings, they discuss plans for the line, review
models, discuss timing and market adjustments, and "co-plan the future".
o Not a big surprise, but the marketing and design teams are often in
opposition to each other. They showed some funny photos of a meeting in
Tokyo where in one Yoke was happy and his marketer sad, and in the other
their moods reversed.
o Aaron: "We're really one big group... we work together every day." Yoke
nods.
o Aaron sends as many as 30 emails to Takara in a day.
o One of the slides had an interesting looking production chart, laid out
on a grid with some diagrams of the Energon powerlinking gimmick, but,
the print was too small and I couldn't decipher what the chart really
signified in the few seconds it was up on the screen.
o Some storyboards for story planning were shown for Energon. As has been
stated before, it was said here that (for these last few jointly-
produced lines at least) Hasbro initiates the story ideas, which are
then "massaged" in Japan by the animation producers. The word massaged
was said in a slightly ironic tone by Aaron, perhaps showing some of his
frustration at how drastically the stories have been changed for some of
these lines from his initial plans.
o In the early Energon story plans, the Quintessons were responsible for
giving the Decepticons their hyper-power gimmick, and were intending to
invade Earth.
o Yoke showed some old Takara design sketches, including an early
Metroplex concept with a slightly different look (such as long black
feet that folded down from his shins instead of the static feet of the
final toy).
o Even earlier than that, though, the supposed genesis of the idea for
Metroplex comes from a drawing Yoke-san said they did very late one
night. It was an island complete with an airstrip, radio dish, and even
a moai head, that transformed into a robot. The island had grass, sandy
beaches, etc., even in robot mode. (You would think the sand would all
fall of him when he stood up, but, oh well.) Also: the moai detached
and transformed into a little robot companion. I think they said this
drawing was done at some time in the 70s, but I couldn't hear very
clearly, so that may be inaccurate.
o Yoke also showed early ideas for the Diaclone Z and Porsche toys
(destined to become Bluestreak and Jazz).
o At Aaron's prompting, Yoke told a short story about the creation of the
original Convoy/OP toy. Yoke's telling was short and difficult to
understand, though, so Aaron retold it: basically, Convoy had originally
been assigned to one particular worker, and was supposed to be his work
alone. However, that designer fell behind and wasn't able to complete
the Convoy design in time, so the toy ended up being completed through a
collaboration of several Diaclone designers. It is interesting to
consider that such a central character to Transformers might have been
very different if the original guy assigned to create him hadn't gotten
behind. (Assuming, of course, that the toy even would have been chosen
as the leader of the Autobots with its other design.)
o Before switching the panel over to Q&A, Aaron explained that although we
were probably curious about the Takara/TOMY merger, Yoke "doesn't want
to discuss" it. It wasn't clear whether this meant that he wasn't
allowed to, or that he didn't know anything substantive himself, or if
he simply wanted to keep the questions on the topic of how Hasbro and
Takara work together.
o It was reiterated that the tooling for G1 Mirage and G1 Wheeljack are
"gone". Aaron further described them as "long-since depleted", which
would indicate that they wore out and were possibly disposed of, rather
than having simply disappeared like some tools seem to do.
o Somebody asked about uneven distribution and hard-to-find toys.
Normally this sort of question gets a dry non-answer from Hasbro
(amounting basically to, "we send retailers what they order, and once it
leaves our dock, it's in their warehouses and trucks, and it's not our
fault"), but this time Greg gave a rather thorough and interesting
reply. Regarding scarce Energon toys, he said that certain assortments
ended up not being well-distributed because of overflow/backlog at the
"accounts" (ie. retailers) for some of the large items, and a shortage
as provided by Hasbro on some of the small items. Also, many of the
items that ended up being rare were near the end of the line; this
happens because retailers are reluctant to heavily order new items at
the tail end of a line when they know a new line is starting in a few
months.
o Regarding spotty Alternators distribution, Greg said that they wanted to
try to divirsify the characters in the assortments to prevent gluts of a
single toy like they had at the beginning (huge piles of Smokescreen and
Sideswipe), but went a little too far with it, allowing some characters
to be spread too thin. He was optimistic that the new assortments that
are on the horizon with a new (third) package design will alleviate the
problem.
o The mold plans or mold breakdowns for a toy -- that is, which pieces are
going to be molded together out of the same color of plastic -- come
after a toy has already been brought to the model stage. Eric does a
rough color scheme for the model, and then based on those colors and
needed plastic hardnesses they do the mold plan.
o When securing licenses from car companies for Alternators, sometimes
Hasbro goes to them, and sometimes the car companies come to Hasbro.
o Astrotrain is Hasbro's last planned G1 reissue. Toys R Us has lost
interest in the line. (And, as noted later in these notes, Astrotrain
will be a HasbroToyShop.com item, and will not be in stores.)
o The "Car Brothers" mods from Car Robots / RID are totally worn out, and
will likely never be used again.
o They are not yet developing any non-car Alternators, although they still
hope to do so. At some point in the convention -- perhaps a later panel
-- Aaron said that he hoped to come to a decision about them with Takara
at their next meeting.
o A member of the audience asked Yoke-san how he and the other Takara
designers felt about Marvel's new story for the Transformers line when
they first heard it, as compared to the stories they already had for
Diaclone and Microman. Yoke said that quite a few of them were upset
with the story when they heard it, but later on when they saw that the
toys were becoming popular with that story, it became popular with them
too. ^_^
o Aaron talked a little bit about the development of toys that Hasbro
releases but Takara does not. Fans have sometimes wondered whether,
say, the Energon Mega-Dinobot toy had any help at all from Takara, or if
*everthing* in those designs was done at Hasbro. The answer he gave was
a little vague, but he essentially said that Takara still contributes
their "technique" to those toys, but not as much "heart". It sort of
sounded like the workload on those toys is more heavily Hasbro, but
Takara still plays a role in them.
o The story for the live-action movie is not being dictated by Hasbro.
The screenwriters are doing it themselves.
o They haven't really started planning the next main TF line. Talk here,
and at a later Hasbro panel, idicated that after Cybertron there will be
a filler line of some sort (probably the G1 updates that were shown
briefly later in the weekend), then the movie, and then the next main
line. The next main line may overlap with the movie stuff. Not clear.
o Hasbro will probably not do Worlds Smallest TFs because of safety
concerns. This struck me as a little odd, as I imagine most of the
pieces are plenty small enough to be swallowed safely. Perhaps some of
the whole toys are too big. Or perhaps its a safety issue other than
choke gates, such as break patterns or something.
o Aaron, joking after yet another discussion of looking for certain tools
to do reissues or redecos: "I don't know where these molds are and who
does the searching, but it sounds like a full-time job."
o Aaron determines all the tech specs (numbers). He would personally
prefer to get a little more variety in the numbers, but kids don't want
to buy wimpy toys, so they have to be inflated somewhat. Forest Lee,
their (sorta) new copy writer, does the bios now.


IDW panel
o Aaron Myers, the IDW TF expert. Aaron Archer. Dan Taylor, editor.
o Not exactly news, but the main series creative team is... Writer: Simon
Furman, Artist: EJ Su, Colorist: John Rauch, EIC: Chris Ryall.
o "Beast Wars: The Gathering", 4-issue mini starts February 2006, by
Furman / Figueroa.
o "Transformers Generations", reprinting selected issues of the original
Marvel series at a low price point ($1.99). They will not be reprinting
issues that contain Marvel-owned characters such as Circuit Breaker, the
Neo-Knights, etc..
o "Transformers Evolution", an anthology series with rotating creative
teams who do "elseworlds" sorts of TF tales. The first story arc is
"Hearts of Steel", set in the United States of the late-19th/early-20th
centuries. ("The time of Mark Twain...")
o IDW would like to finish off the DW stories that were cut off, but that
is something for the future, if ever.


"Hasbro New Product Unveiling" panel
o Aaron and Greg on stage.
o Later in Cybertron, a red and orange Crumplezone, a Decepticon version
of Jetfire, and a CYB Hot Shot done up like G1 Hot Rod and named...
Excellion. Similar at first glance to the DVD-exclusive Red Excellion,
but, it's a new deco.
o Mini-con pegs will make their long-awaited return with the Giant Planet
toys.
o Regarding CYB Metroplex, "We were so focused on the robot that we took
some liberties with the vehicle..."
o The Primus toy: during transformation to robot mode, insert the Omega
Lock to make his head pop up.
o Also, the US release of Primus will have some special added something-
or-other that Aaron says we'll really like, and that we might want two
of. Some fans have speculated based on this that he may come with a
moon.
o There will be a new Unicron toy at the end of Cybertron. It is a deluxe
pricepoint figure and transforms into a sort of creepy parasite-like
futuristic tank.
o Aaron refers to Armada-Energon-Cybertron as "The Unicron Trilogy". He
clearly hoped fans would start using this term, and even sort of mumbled
something to that effect at one point during the weekend. It's a fine
name, IMO. The only reason I was sticking with "AEC" until now was that
we didn't know whether there would be more lines set in the same
universe, and whether they would all heavily involve Unicron or not.
But, from now on, I will use Unicron Trilogy (or UT, I guess) to refer
to this universe.
o Legends of Cybertron - This line has been a big hit! It was created as
something to send to their "market six" accounts (food and drug stores,
mainly, the same accounts that Heroes of Cybertron was sent to). There
will be 4 waves. 12 molds, 4 redecos, and 2 convention redecos (the
Skywarp and Ramjet toys).
o Alternators will get six new cars in 2006, and also four redecos. One
of these redecos will be the Suburu mold (Smokescreen/Silverstreak) as
Stepper/Ricochet, and another is an orange version of the Jeep called
Rollbar. One of the new molds is a Ford GT that will be called Mirage.
The mold even manages to give the robot Mirage's distinctive upper torso
shape, even without an F-1 car altmode.
o Another new mold Alternator is a Dodge Ram SRT10 called... Optimus
Prime. This toy was chosen to be Prime as a compromise with Takara --
pickups trucks are rare / unpopular in Japan, so they didn't expect that
it would sell very well over there. Hence, choosing Convoy as the
character to improve its Japanese sales. Since Prime is in the same
scale as the other Alternators, he will be big, but still at the same
price point. (Aaron did note that it will cost *him* more, but it will
cost us the same amount.)
o Beast Wars Anniversary subline - $15 items include a deluxe sized toy, a
DVD with an episode of the BW show featuring that character, and one of
six pieces to build a (nontransforming) toy of Transmutate. The toys
are redecoed to be more show-accurate and have shinier plastic. The
first wave of six toys is Dinobot, Cheetor, TM Rattrap, Waspinator,
Rhinox, and Tarantulas.
o After the first BW Anniversary wave, another wave with new-mold versions
of Megatron and Primal. Megatron is a souped up season-one Megs. His
tail-hand is detachable with a real hand underneath, like in the show.
The Primal design borrows elements from several versions of Primal,
including his Beast Machines look. These two toys will have Cyber Planet
Key gimmicks (with Jungle Planet keys, natch).
o The Astrotrain reissue will appear on HasbroToyShop.com, not in TRU.
The Universe Constructicons will probably go to Target.
o The Seacons/Piranhacons still do not have a home, but they are trying to
find a place for them. Jerry Jivoin spends at least an hour every week
trying to get them out.
o Lots of licensed stuff from outside the main line is coming out, too!
TF Attacktix, which are compatible with the other Attacktix figures,
will come out featuring Energon and Cybertron characters. G1 Attacktix
are a possibility if the first sets seem to do well. "Tataniums" die-
cast statues which have limited articulation (War Within Optimus is one
of their items). And, of course...
o STAR WARS TRANSFORMERS. Star Wars vehicles that Transform into
likenesses of their pilots. Vader's TIE fighter, Grievous' wheel bike,
Obi-Wan's Jedi starfighter (EpIII design), Boba Fett's Slave-1, and
Luke's X-Wing. Fun! Their "robot" modes are of varying goodness, but
the Grievous toy definitely looks *great*.
o At this panel they also showed the "sizzle" for the new movie that was
played at SanDiego ComicCon. It was really, relly lame. It consisted
of young adults half-remembering how kewl G1 was in on-the-street type
interviews, a clip of Spielberg saying how excited he is to be bringing
Transformers to the movies *for the first time*, and clips from
commercials and other movies of transforming robots.
o Hasbro collaborates with TOMY on a number of products already, working
with them as much as they do with Takara, so the merger will probably
not hurt things in that respect, at least.
o They are looking for the X-9 Ravage mold, and may use it sometime in the
future.


"TF G1 Voices: Michael Chain and Wally Burr"
o The voicework comprises 3.5-4% of the budget for an animated TV series.
Burr remarked that he thought it was strange that a part of the process
which accounts for for so little of the money always ends up being the
part that is most beloved by fans.
o In answers, and in rapport with Chain, Wally is charmingly brusque in a
sarcastic way. Chain was also funny, good-natured, and a little
sarcastic.
o Chain: "Voiceover actors don't eat their young."
o Wally Burr told a couple of nice stories about his brief collaboration
with Orson Welles on TF:TM, including the story from Rik Bakke's
interview about Welles sending the limo ahead with his wheelchair, and
showing up behind it in his own car.
o Burr: "I kept my mouth shut for the rest of the session, and that's how
I directed Orson Welles."
o While reflecting on that experience, and the hour afterwards during
which everyone at the studio stood around Welles as he "held court",
Wally choked up and started to cry a little. It was really touching.
It was only one recording session, but it clearly meant a lot to Wally
to have had the chance to work with Welles. (This incident is the
origin of the "Hooper_X made Wally Burr cry!" joke that you might see
some people mentioning, as this anecdote came up during an answer to a
question that Hoop had asked.)
o Chain told us the inspirations for his G1 characters' voices, all of
which, I believe, were also revealed in his interview with Rik.
Powerglide: Ralph Cramden from "The Honymooners". Hoist: John Houseman.
Red Alert: Richard Nixon.


"Transformers Club Roundtable" (ie. the organizer's panel)
o Ben Yee. Rik Alverez. Brian Savage. Lanny Lathem. Pete Sinclair.
Savage and Lathem are from Fun Publications (Savage is the owner), while
Yee, Alverez, and Sinclair are members of the fan advisory board.
o Some of my friends found this panel very frustrating, and even
offensive. At least one of them walked out in the middle of it. While
Savage said several things that bothered me, I thought that overall he
came across pretty well, and honestly, hearing him talk at this panel
erased most of the cynicism that I held about his handling of the
Transformers license.
o The club is planning to release 2 club-exclusive figures each year.
o Hasbro offered Savage the club/convention one day before OTFCC 2004 was
held. They flew him in to Chicago to observe that convention so he
could get a feel for it. This "offer" might not have been completely
official, as it was at least a few weeks after the convention until Glen
seemed to know for sure that 3H was out. Or, perhaps it was official,
and it's just one more way that Hasbro treated Glen unfairly in their
efforts to get rid of him. (And yes, Glen treated the Hartmans unfairly
as well. I'm not saying that he was perfect.)
o The decos for the 11 exclusives span 150 photoshop documents.
o Takara doesn't like doing little projects like this. (Something else we
already knew from Glen's days, but always worth repeating.)
o Fun Publications was going to hold their Joe convention in New Orleans
next year, which is now naturally not in the cards. That was another
distraction they had to take care of while getting ready for BotCon.
o Savage is against holding BotCon in the summer. He says that because
schools in various parts of the country start and stop at different
times, the window in which nobody is in school is too short because
there are other obstacles such as holidays, ComicCon, and their
newsletter publishing deadline. And also, of course, he has a family of
his own and wants to have time for a vacation with them.
o That sort of make sense, I guess... although the part about different
schools' schedules seems a little weak. Summer has always worked in the
past for BotCon, despite it being a tight fit, so it's hard to believe
that it really can't work anymore when the only thing that has changed
is the management. This answer is one of the prime examples that some
people are citing when they say that Savage still doesn't seem to know
who the people in his audience -- Transfans -- are. He dismissed a
question about the convention conflicting with school by talking about
the conflicts above, and saying that it's not that big a deal for us to
take our kids out of school for a couple days and bring them with us.
Seemingly not understanding that the question was about OUR school.
Most BotCon attendees don't have kids. Many of us are, ourselves, in
college or grad school, and/or employed as teachers.
o Apparently, Hasbro initially suggested that Savage combine the TF and
Joe conventions into a single event. (This would certainly make sense
from Hasbro corporate's point of view.) Savage was unsure about this,
and asked around the involved fandoms. TF fans and 12-inch Joe fans
were opposed to the idea, 3.75-inch Joe fans were okay with it. He
decided not to do it.
o The above answer is the other major complaint my friends had with this
panel -- not the answer itself, but the delivery. Savage did impromptu
impressions of the three groups when giving their answers, and in his
impressions his Transfans subjectively sounded whiney or closed-minded,
while the 12-inch Joe fans sounded sophisticated, and the 3.75-inch Joe
fans were cheerfully accepting. So... some of my friends took great
offense at this, thinking that it shows a lack of respect for us. I
don't really agree. I didn't take the "Transfans voice" as being
condescending because I don't think he meant it that way. Honestly it
felt more to me like he started out being goofy, and then stopped being
goofy without any real intent to it, and I think that most of the rest
of what he said in the panel does not jive with the idea that he has no
respect for us, or doesn't care what we want, or any of that. I think
he doesn't *know* what we want yet, but I think he is sincere when he
says that he wants to know.
o The size of convention exclusive sets will vary. They will probably
never be larger than this year's was, if for no other reason than that
Fun Publications can't manage more toys than this at a time.
o The problem Savage has with offering toys "a la carte" like Glen used to
is that, as Savage said, "when I zig, you zag". It's too hard to
predict which toys are going to be popular and which not, such that they
could end up producing too many of the wrong toy and not enough of
another. An all-or-nothing set (with a few add-ons) saves them from
taking that risk. Of course, it just pushes the risk onto us instead,
as we have to decide whether to buy a large, expensive set that we may
or may not end up liking.
o Savage made a disparaging remark about stuff being stolen from the
factories in China, which made me smile because he was sitting right
next to Alverez at the time. Funny how Alverez didn't leap to the
defense of "prototype dealers" in this panel the way he did in his own.
Hehehehe...
o Savage seems very concerned -- overly concerned, I think -- with the
collectors value of our convention sets. He went out of his way to
assure his audience that, for example, if they are left with unsold
stock, those units will sit in his warehouse and never leave. He won't
sell them at a reduced price to get rid of them, because doing that
would devalue our sets. This was the time that I, personally, felt most
like he didn't know who he was talking to. I know there are
Transformers fans out there that think like that (Alverez seems to be
one of them), and even that there are probably more of those fans than I
think there are, but there is a very large component of Transformers
fans that scoff at such things. I think the idea of somebody worrying
about their set being devalued is LAUGHABLE, but here was Brian Savage,
sincerely telling us how he will never allow that to happen to us.
o When they posted their preview of Skyfall, the first club-exclusive
figure, they were surprised by the fans' reaction: "Okay, it's a clear
jet... and...?" They quickly realized that the toy by itself didn't
mean much to us, and they added his bio to the preview, and suddenly it
seemed like we got excited about him. "Lesson learned," Savage said.
He now understands that the story and its connection to the toys is
important to us, and he says he won't make that mistake again.
o The Chromia toy was indeed supposed to be Moonracer, but her name was
changed at the last minute to a different female Autobot because
Moonracer wasn't passing the trademark search. Savage asked us if,
should this happen again, would we prefer that they assign a different
name from a related but different character (like Moonracer->Chromia),
or a new name that has some element of the old name (like Outback->
Fallback, or the example Moonracer->Moonbeam that Savage suggested
then), and the response from the audience seemed to be strongly for the
second option.
o They air-freighted the exclusive toys over from Japan. Expensive. I'm
pretty sure 3H always put them on the boat.
o Savage talked a little bit about "finding" tools that are "missing". I
assume that his statements are more or less correct, as they are
presumably based on things he was told by Hasbro collaborators. I've
heard statements in the fandom -- unsubstantiated as far I know -- that
there are basically two factories in China that produce all the
Transformers toys, one which Takara favors, and one which Hasbro favors.
Savage's statements seem to contradict this. He said that tooling for
various TFs are scattered across several factories. Extrapolating a
little bit from what Savage said, I got the impression that when a
factory is hired to produce a toy, the tooling for that toy stays at the
factory after the job is completed. Although Takara and/or Hasbro still
owns the tooling, the molds are impractical to move around because they
are gigantic blocks of steel. So basically, "finding" a tool may be a
matter of figuring out which factory had it last and trying to get the
people there to locate it. Records-keeping for this sort of thing is,
apparently, not very accurate, possibly because -- as Savage mentioned
-- TFs (and GI Joe) are sort of unusual among toylines in keeping the
tools around in the first place. Most toys are produced until the tools
wear out, and then the tools are dumped/destroyed.
o The Ratchet toy in the exclusives set has a new light bar and siren
weapon instead of the normal Tow-Line-mold weapon. In Tow-Line, the
weapon is made of the same plastic as his windows, and presumably is on
the same mold. So, somebody asked if the new Ratchet weapon meant that
they disposed of a bunch of old Towline weapons since they still needed
windows from that mold. Savage said that, no, they didn't have to make
the old weapon, because the molds are "gated", allowing them to just
choose not to make certain parts. This certainly seems like a good
idea, but it brings into question some of the things we thought we knew
about the toy production process. That is, we (and here "we" shouldn't
be taken to mean anything more colective than my personal social group
within the fandom, which is rather well-connected and informed) thought
that this "gating" wasn't really possible, and that producing only part
of a mold required you to, basically, "break" the mold in two
permanently. The term "gang molding" has also been tossed around at
times to refer to toys like the Go-Bots (aka Spychangers) which have
parts for more than one toy in a single mold, and are therefore always
produced in sets. If the molds can be "gated", then releasing them in
sets like this would not be necessary. So, not sure what to think about
this.
o Savage is looking for weird ideas for TF-related events to do at future
conventions, like the parachute-drops they do at the GI Joe convention.
Perhaps its time for us to import Nederbotcon's Trypticon races. ^_^
o Somebody in the audience asked about the "early bird" access to the
dealer room, and why they had offered it. Savage's response was great:
"That's because some people are stupid enough to give us $50 just to
come in an hour early, and I'm stupid enough to take it."


"The Making of the Transformers Animated Movie", by Paul Hitchens
o Going into this panel, I had no idea who Hitchens was and what qualified
him to run a panel about the production of TF:TM. He has never
scrounged around in Sunbow's closet like Tim Finn has, but like CJ
Stankiewicz he has simply managed to amass a large amount of information
about the film by being interested and seeking it out.
o He also has put together a large collection of TF:TM production
materials, like a complete set of the film storyboards (from some
particular point in pre-production, at least -- not all the storyboards
that were ever made for it, but everything for some particular
revision).
o He also has a copy of the script, which is much easier to come by, as it
seems to have been the same revision that is well-circulated online and
which originally came from one of those "Script City" stores or
someplace in Hollywood. However, I'm pretty sure Hitchens' copy has
handwritten notes in it from somebody involved with the production, so
it's a little more interesting than the online version.
o The vast majority of information presented in this panel is stuff I
already knew from the script, and from Tim Finn's panel a few years ago.
However, it was all nicely presented, and I'm sure the info was new to
most of tha audience, so I must say that my opinion of the panel is
quite positive. I think Hitchens did a great thing for the fans there.
o A cut line he pointed out in the script is this one from Dirge, from the
fight for leadership aboard Astrotrain: "Death comes to anyone who
crosses me." A bit melodramatic, but I like it.
o As has been mentioned before -- from sources I can't recall -- Spike's
"oh shit" was not in the script until it was dropped in with the aim of
pushing the movie from a G rating to PG. This was done to make sure
theaters wouldn't screen it exclusively as a matinee, making it more
likely for older kids to be willing to go see it.
o Hitchens suggested, as some other fans have, that the quartering of
Magnus was probably animated and then changed to the existing death
scene, based upon the audio. Of course, the audio would have been
recorded before the animation anyway, but I do agree that the groans
from Magnus and Galvatron's "Die... die..." would fit very well with a
quartering. Still, that doesn't mean it was animated -- the change
could have come any time after the dialogue was recorded. At times,
fans have pointed to the fact that, when Galvatron catches the Matrix,
it seems to be falling out of the sky, and that in the previous shot of
Magnus, he sort of tosses it up in the air as he dies, which, granted,
is a little weird. Thing is, the shot of Galvatron catching the Matrix
as it falls *also* has Magnus in the foreground, still in one piece,
falling over, and then exploding into arms and legs. So, that shot
definitely was not part of an animated quartering sequence. Now,
*maybe* it was only the cels with Magnus that were changed, and the
Galvatron and Matrix cels were indeed drawn for a quartering sequence.
Toei then would have had to reshoot the new shot using their pre-
existing Galvatron/Matrix cels but with new Magnus cels on top. That
would have been less work than animating Galvatron from scratch. But the
shot as it exists in the finished movie can't be a relic of the old
scene because Magnus isn't already dismembered when it starts.
o Snarl's appearance in the film was limited to three shots, right? A
note written in Hitchens' script says "model sheet missing" in reference
to him. So... apparently that is why he wasn't in more shots. But it
doesn't make a lot of sense to me, as the film was animated at Toei, who
did most of seasons one and two of the cartoon. Even though the film
was surely done by different teams of animators, you would think they
would have been able to lend the TV models out, or even send over some
of their completed work of the character. Additionally, the script
repeatedly describes what the Dinobots are up to, naming them each in
turn, but never including Snarl in these descriptions. At one point it
even explicitly mentions "the four Dinobots". This implies, IMO, that
the mistake may have originated before a model sheet could even have
been at issue when somebody on the writing staff miscounted how many
there were supposed to be. On the other hand, possibly this version of
the script dates from after it was discovered that Snarl's model was
missing, and somebody decided to omit him from that revision of the
script as a result.
o The neatest part of this panel was that Hitchens had taken pictures of
the storyboards and created primitive animatics (basically "storyboard
movies") of several scenes by synching the storyboards to audio from the
finished film, or in the cases of cut scenes, to music from DiCola's
score. They were quite well done, and would be a great bonus feature on
some future DVD of the movie.
o He also showed the trade trailer for the movie (sometimes called the
"Japanese trailer", which is sort of a misnomer), and identified the
non-TF music in the background as coming from Star Trek 3.
o Hitchens confirmed, I believe after consulting with Wally Burr, that
Orson Welles did indeed record ten lines of dialogue specifically to be
included in the Unicron toy voice chip. He had a list of the phrases,
but unfortunately I didn't get a chance to write them down. Some were
from the film, and some were not.


The Dobson Brothers' Panel
o This panel was a lot of fun. The Dobsons were great to listen to. They
were lively, funny, and full of stories. I attended the second instance
of this panel, having slept through the first one in the morning of two
days previous.
o Paul Dobson claims that the voice in the Armada Red Alert toy (the one
that says "RED ALERT WOO WOO WOO WOO") is him. Or, at least, the "Red
Alert" part is. I never thought it sounded much like him, and the other
first-wave Armada toy that talked (Megatron, as I'm discounting the
disembodied "countdown" Jetfire had) definitely wasn't his regular
voice. So I'm a little skeptical... on the other hand, he's probably a
better judge of what's his voice than I am. It just seems like the
timing on getting a recording of him into the toy would be tricky.
Plus, and more to the point, he complained (somewhat good-naturedly)
that Hasbro had used his voice in the toy without his permission and
without payment. This, too, makes me skeptical that it's him... on the
other hand, one of his brothers apparently had the same experience with
some other cartoon and toyline.
o When they were growing up, their father was an airplane mechanic. He
once brought home, for them to play with, a starter generator used for
small planes. The generator came with a hand-crank. They were able to
fire off arcs of electricity several inches long with this thing, and
apparently used it to wreak quite a bit of destruction.
o In another electricity story, they talked about trying to turn on a
light bulb with wires they had stripped from an old tape recorder's
power cord. The cord was plugged in, and they touched the bare ends to
the bulb, and whichever brother was doing this reportedly flew across
the room.
o (As a physics teacher, I was a little sad at the phrasing they used to
deliver the punchline, saying something akin to "and boy did it light
up!" You see, the way it was being pantomimed, the bulb definitely
would NOT have lit up when the wires were attached that way. It's gotta
be one on the bottom, one on the side, not both on the sides.)
o They talked for a few minutes about their roles on DragonBall Z, in
particular about doing the very long "powering up" yells. Jokes about
veins popping and the like. They demonstrated a few.
o They gave their own telling of the infamous "Gary Chalk Coca-Cola
story".
o As many other V.O. actors have, they expressed disappointment with the
way big-budget animated movies tend to hire "real" actors for their star
power instead of V.O. actors who are more experienced at defining a
character using only their vocal characterization.
o The old BotCon staple of, "please perform your characters ordering fast
food at the drive-through" was trotted out. I get more tired of that
every year.
o When recording Energon, they were less than two weeks (re: two episodes)
ahead of the episodes' airing when they did their lines. With Cybertron
so far it has been more like a month, which makes them feel much more
comfortable.


"Designing Transformers" panel
o This was a double-length panel, lasting nearly two hours.
o Aaron Archer and Eric Siebenaler started out this panel with a
presentation that lasted, I would guess, half an hour at the most. Then
Greg Lombardo joined them at the table for the Q&A portion, which ran
for the rest of the alotted time. Also, as in the other Hasbro panels
that weekend, a 12-inch GI Joe representing Jerry Jivoin (who couldn't
attend) manned one of the microphones. (They called him "Little Jerry".
It wasn't a special Jerry figure or anything; it was merely symbolic.)
o The beginning presentation was basically answers to a bunch of common
questions, which was pretty nice.
o When a toy is being developed, sometimes a sketch for the general
appearance of the toy comes first, and sometimes the idea for a gimmick
comes first. The order of those earliest steps is not set in stone.
o Cybertron EVAC's original design had two tails in helicopter mode, but
they were combined into a single tail to prevent him from looking quite
so sci-fi-ish. (He is supposed to be a contemporary Earth vehicle,
after all, not some futuristic thing like the Speed Planet TFs.)
o Exactly how much input Hasbro's team has on the transformation of a toy
varies. In some cases they'll basically leave it up to Takara, and in
other cases they will provide a silhouette or specify certain details.
Using EVAC again as an example, the Hasbro team didn't want yet another
helicopter toy where the copter's tail just ends up hanging down the
robot's back, so they specifically asked for the tail to split and end
up going out to the sides on the back.
o When designing altmodes, they refer to books and the internet for photo
reference.
o Aaron's original story idea for Cybertron was called "Supercross", and
featured "all the past planets" from the Transformers universe. This
concept was hastily sketched out on a Taco Bell napkin which Aaron now
keeps under the glass of his desk at work. He did have the napkin with
him, however, and I took a few pictures of it later (to be posted with
my other BC pictures).
o In "Supercross", the role of Vector Prime was to be filled by Alpha
Trion. The characters would be scouring the galaxy not for Cyber Planet
Keys, but for pieces of Primus.
o A concept storyboard for Speed Planet was shown. The only detail I
wrote down / remember was that one of the characters on it was a
centaur. They said that some of the gimmicks they considered for Speed
Planet toys were "flip changing" (ie. spring-loaded auto-
transformations) and pull-back motors (which would have been AWESOME in
my opinion).
o In the early concepts for Giant Planet, the planet itself was being
dismantled for raw materials to construct a warp gate. The drawing made
it look like Gobotron!
o The early ideas for TF:Cybertron also included an "Apocalypse Planet"
full of giant military hardware and was mired in a very long all-out
war, and a "Planet X", which appropriately enough, I don't know anything
about.
o Aaron also showed some story concepts for Energon, which included the
idea of Unicron being slowly reactivated in six "quadrants". Seemingly,
the Autobots were going to be struggling to reactivate these pieces of
Unicron so they could somehow save something-or-other once he was all
turned on again. ...? Yeah, I didn't really follow. It's hard to get
a good feel for these really early ideas, especially when you are only
looking at them for about ten seconds.
o Eric joined the TF team three years ago. In conversation with Eric
earlier, he told me his first design was Armada Laserbeak. He'd been
sad to see so many negative reactions to that from the fans online, as
he sort of liked it. I like it too!
o An upcoming "spider tank" toy in Cybertron was designed by Don Figueroa,
based on a loose idea that had been floating around the TF team for
years. Vector Prime was designed by somebody who previously did designs
in Beast Machines. Sadly, I missed the guy's name.
o To sort of re-describe the Hasbro/Takara work-sharing that was mentioned
above, in this panel the description was along the lines of Hasbro doing
mainly design styling and Takara doing mainly "functional" stuff like
working out the transformation.
o A Prime design concept was shown -- I forget for which toyline, but I'm
pretty sure it was either Energon or Cybertron -- where the trailer
opened up into a cache of hand-held weapons for Prime to use including a
small missile rack and an axe. My friend SwiftEagle says that the trailer
also held bandoliers.
o The grey prototype models you sometimes see photos of are later hand-
painted for packaging photos and such by a modelmaker/painter named Jen
Manning. (At least, for the Hasbro packaging, I guess.)
o Aaron gave some terminology for us to use when talking about modified
toys. A lot of us will already know these terms, but it was nice to
hear clear definitions directly from an expert.
- Retool: using the same molds and adding detail by grinding it into the
steel; only small changes can be done this way, and they are
irreversible.
- New Parts: swap out a mold for a new one; new head, new weapon, etc.
- New Tools: Energon Starscream was the example here, with his
similarity to G2 Smokescreen (from Dreadwing and Smokescreen); a rule
of thumb was given that if a toy is more than 15% different, it will
be a new tool instead of a retool; also, of course, if it's a
different size, it's a new tool
- Redeco: a change in plastic colors, paint colors, or paint masks
o Regarding redecos, Aaron said -- as has been heard before -- that they
are basically used to replenish a line and keep it looking fresh. When
planning the line out, they do not expect everyone to buy every single
piece that is released, and that is why the number of redecos -- which
sometimes frustrates collectors -- is not generally a problem for the
line as a whole.
o Eric talked a little bit about "color guides" (the name they use for the
drawings where color schemes are planned out). Basically, he says that
when he is doing a color guide he starts with more or less random color
choices for the plastics, and then starts making adjustments to one
mold/sprue at a time, gradually moving towards something he likes.
Thinking about the paint comes after all the plastic colors are picked.
Early versions of these guides go out to Takara and the animation
producers (currently Gonzo), but then if Hasbro changes a color (and
there are a variety of reasons that they may do this) it's sometimes too
late to change the animation.
o As a specific example of color differences between the US and Japanese
versions of a toy, Eric talked about Vector Prime. The US version has
more contrast between his plastic colors. Eric attributed this to
different preferences between the two markets, with American consumers
generally liking their toys to have more contrast than is seen in
Takara's Vector Prime. This statement about Americans' preference is
presumably based on focus groups, suveys, and sales data, but he didn't
go into how such things are determined.
o The Hasbro TF team currently consists of three full-time members, three
more people who spend about 30% of their time on TFs, and a small group
of outside designers who are sometimes called upon to do artwork. Aaron
named three of these designers (and may have said they were sort of the
"main" or only outside guys right now): Don Figueroa, Marcelo Matare,
and Tim Bradley.
o Aaron was surprised at the popularity -- among collectors -- of
Slugslinger and Sharkticon in the Energon line. He wasn't all that fond
of them, himself. :)
o CYB Override was originally intended to be male, just like her Japanese
counterpart, Nitro Convoy. The character was male when designed, and
when briefed to Gonzo for inclusion in the animation. The change came
later when Cartoon Network expressed some concern over the lack of
female characters in the show. Hasbro decided to give one of the men a
sex change, and thought Override was the most likely candidate.
o Aaron would love to create a Mini-Con base playset sometime.
o Greg talked a little about "age compression", or "kids getting older
younger". The biggest segment of the action figure market is 3-5 year
old boys. THREE TO FIVE! That's SO YOUNG. Man. I don't even know if I
had any action figures at all when I was that age. I don't think
Playmobil counts. Greg said that he thinks of Transformers as being the
last toys a boy will keep playing with as they age and move on to other
things like video games.
o So, next time you hear a fan complain that the TF toys or story are
being "dumbed down", keep the above datum in mind! That is their
largest potential market. One of the Hasbro people -- possibly still
Greg -- said that forays into the Go-Go-Go-Bots and such were attempts
to draw more of those younger kids into the Transformers brand.
o The Soundwave reissue from Takara was created by re-casting a brand new
mold from an existing toy, just like the die-cast parts of the Prime
reissue. The old tools were not used. (Presumably they were lost/worn
out, as previously reported.) They said that in comparing an original
and reissue, some variation or "shrink" can be seen. I don't offhand
remember hearing anybody report these differences, but that doesn't mean
they haven't been noticed. Just that I haven't heard about it.
o Hasbro and Takara have way more ideas for toys than they ever get around
to using, so although they do accept submissions, they're not really
looking for them.
o For now at least, it's easier to advertise a line-wide gimmick than to
advertise individual toys based on their character or personality. So
it's likely that the "defining" gimmicks for each line will stick around
for a while.
o The toys for the movie-based line will likely aim for an Alternators-
like aesthetic but with play features and gimmicks more along the lines
of Cybertron.
o Takara's early ideas for EN Omega Supreme had a rocket-arm like the G1
version. Either Aaron or Eric, I forget which, said they decided to
change Omega from a rocket to a train because they thought it was more
interesting, or possibly they used the word "exciting". Which... seems
like an atypical preference to me, but, hey, I like trains, so I don't
mind.
o The planning of price points for a line, as in "how many ultras will we
make this year?" is based on analysis of historical sales data.
o Aaron was surprised to hear, during the panel, that Sideswipe had been
reissued in Japan but never made it out in the US. (Recall that until
his promotion, Aaron was not generally directly involved in exclusives
or reissues.) He said that they would put that on Jerry's list of
things to try to take care of. On the other hand, recall previous
statements that the G1 Reissue line was ending. So, if Sideswipe comes
out here at all, I would guess it will be as a website exclusive.
o Aaron: "Takara is taking somewhat of a rest with Transformers, the
development of new shows." Hence, Hasbro is looking at the possibility
of doing US-based production again when it comes time for the next
animated series (post-movie).
o Because they do not have "2D rights" on the Alternators cars, doing
media support like comics is difficult because they can't draw the
trademarked car designs into their stories. So, it remains unlikely
that support of that kind will pop up soon.
o Episodes 1 and 2 of "Galaxy Force" were smashed into a single episode of
"Cybertron" in order to pick up the pacing and make the debut a little
more exciting.
o There are some more subtle differences between the GF and CYB stories
than the whole continuation vs. new-continuity thing. For example, in
GF, Seibertron has been pulled through the black hole, and the
Transformers are racing to get it back. In CYB, Cybertron is
*approaching* the black hole and is in danger of being sucked in if the
Autobots don't work fast to save it. Assuming the viewer is aware of
this, it adds an extra sense of urgency to the events of the series.
o Before showing a preview of a "gap" line to go between Cybertron and the
Movie, they called up Jerry Jivoin on the phone so he could hear our
reaction.
o The filler line currently has no name, and they are not sure how or even
quite when they are going to use it. The toys will be at mega and
deluxe price points. They combine ALT-like realism with CYB-like play
features (like the movie toys are hoped to be).
o However, later in the panel Aaron gave a rough timeline saying that
after Cybertron is this gap line, then the movie stuff in the "back
half" of 2007, and a new animation line starting up after that, or
perhaps slightly in parallel.
o They then showed a slide of the first toy: a very detailed and very
poseable incarnation of G1 Starscream. The second toy was a very
exaggerated-looking blaster gun with a very thick barrel, almost like an
oversized revolver chamber. The gun clearly had seams indicating that
it transformers. From the context, it was clearly an all-new gun-mode
Megatron. Both toys were shown in their grey model proto stage.
o STEVE-O'S NOTE: Nothing has changed about reissuing G1 Megatron in the
USA. That toy cannot be sold here anymore. This new Megatron is
allowed to exist, like the roleplay toy of Prime's blaster, because it
is not shaped anything like a real-world firearm. And despite this, you
can still count on it not being silver or grey in color.
o Regarding home video licensees Rhino and Paramount: apparently, despite
the press release that seemed to say ALL TF videos were now going to
come from Paramount, Rhino still has the rights to G1 and the Beast
series, and I would presume Armada as well. Paramount is the rights
holder for Energon and Cybertron. They said that Greg would try to
figure out the rights issues on RID for us. (Recall, that show was
localised by Saban for Fox Kids, and then Saban was purchased by Disney.
So, presumably, the rights for RID are in a big tangle related to that
merger, and the fact that Disney is a gigantic company with probably a
lot of beauracracy.)
o When Aaron first found out that Takara had decided NOT to make Galaxy
Force a continuation of Superlink, he was surprised. Apparently they
just wanted a fresh break.
o The "Universe" line will continue to exist in the sense that store
exclusives will be branded with the name, but the "main" Universe line
is dead.
o Universe was "opportunistic", according to Greg, in that there was
demand for more product. But, as the main lines grew, they didn't need
it anymore.
o Part of the justification for the different case assortments in Japan
and the US is the relative prominance of big corporate stores vs
independently owned "mom and pop" stores. In Japan, the small stores
are a much, much more significant part of the retail market than they
are in the US. Those small stores find it useful to be able to order a
case with is solid-packed with a specific item. The large retailers in
the US prefer a simpler approach where they can just order assortments
based on price point and not have to worry about keeping track of how
many of each particular variety they have.
o The new mold toys for the Beast Wars anniversary line are at the deluxe
pricepoint.
o Mini-Cons that have beast modes instead of vehicle modes are being
considered.
o Also under consideration: putting tech specs on Alternators packaging.
(Perhaps not bios, though. Aaron has, for years, consistently
differentiated between tech specs and bios, using "tech specs" to refer
specifically to the stats/numbers.)
o In discussing gimmicks they don't plan to use again, they said that they
don't want to do glow-in-the-dark toys. :( Also, Aaron semi-
sarcastically said that he'd rather try to release another gun than to
release new spark-shooters.
o Aaron and Eric were asked which of their designs were they most happy
with, and most disappointed with. Aaron's biggest disappointment in his
five years is Armada Smokescreen. He said that he was very pleased with
Energon Mirage. Eric mentioned Laserbeak at this point as a toy he'd
liked (the previous mention of him in my notes was from a conversation I
had with Eric earlier in the weekend). He said he designed Laserbeak
while he was still in college, but, again, was then sad to see the fans
didn't seem to like the toy very much.
o If G1 reissues ever start up again, Artfire is on Aaron's short list of
toys to try.
o The Astrotrain reissue is coming out *only* because it was already done,
with packaging designed and everything, AND because they also needed
product for the web store. That's how dead the reissue line is now that
TRU has lost interest.
o As has been reported in the past, the TF teams at Hasbro and Takara
don't use 3D modeling or drafting software in their design work. It's
all done on paper and with physical models.
o Vector Prime's Q&A on the website is done by somebody named Kim Locey(?).
o When asked about Robot Masters, Aaron said that he was involved a little
bit in the early stages of its planning, but the Hasbro side lost
interest in them. They don't really fit Hasbro's pricepoint scheme, and
Aaron didn't find them all that compelling (as some fans have said as
well, even regarding the new-mold toys), and further, all the collectors
who want them have alraedy bought them from Japan. So, there isn't much
reason for Hasbro to do anything with them. Especially with the G1-based
"gap" line and BW Anniversary figures coming up.
o HasbroToyShop.com "may" offer Takara items at some point, like
HasbroCollectors.com used to. They are "looking into it". (Which, like
anything they are "considering", should be taken as highly
noncommittal.)


Misc. Other Notes (mainly from conversations)
o The Giant Planet toys are supposed to all have a gimmick where they
"transform" from a smaller robot to a taller robot. The implementation
of this, however, is fully successful only in Metroplex.
o When my friends told Aaron that Takara has not, so far, shown any sign
of intending to release the Primus toy (in the form of publicity for it
in magazines, toy shows, etc.), Aaron was surprised. He told my friends
that Takara had shared the cost of the tooling for the toy, so he
assumed that they planned to release it.
o I find the above point interesting because, even though this would have
been obvious had I ever thought about it, it provides direct
confirmation that the two companies share the cost of creating the molds
for the toys that they are going to jointly release. So, it's not like
one or the other outright "owns" the tools.
o I talked to Greg Lombardo for a few minutes about tri-lingual packaging,
and how Transformers managed to finally go back to mono-lingual. For
years, the TF team kept saying, basically, "we are going to use tri-
lingual packaging to save money, so stop asking about getting bios on
the package". I was always curious about where that decision had been
made in the corporate hierarchy. The TF people always sounded like they
were frustrated by it, but they never said anything to outright indicate
that it was being forced on them from above. Greg explained that the
tri-lingual thing had indeed been a corporate directive, and that the
reason for it was indeed to save money on package design/printing.
However, each line was seemingly able to negotiate out of it, or stall
in implementing it, based on the details of their management, politics,
etc.. The TF team was finally able to switch back to one language after
convincing their higher-ups that the savings they made in package
production were outweighed by losses they suffered based on the
packaging being cluttered, unclear, and uninteresting because of the
small amount of information they could fit into it. (In other words,
lost sales, present or future.) Part of their campaign on this issue was
that the guys who do their packaging mockups would often do two versions
-- a tri-lingual one, and another mono-lingual version which always
looked way better. The comparisons of these mockup packages helped to
convince the management to let them switch back.

======

That's all, folks!

--Steve-o
--
Steve Stonebraker | http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~sstoneb/
sst...@gmail.com | Transformers, astrophysics, comics, games, cartoons.

Kil - Michael McCarthy

unread,
Oct 10, 2005, 1:39:11 AM10/10/05
to
Steve-o Stonebraker wrote...

> o The French-Canadian release of G1 Springer was named "Ricochet". I
> hadn't realized the name had appeared at all in Transformers history
> until it was applied to the US Stepper reissue.

Ricochet was also one of Quickmix's Targetmaster partners.

-Kil

Thunder, Agent '005

unread,
Oct 10, 2005, 2:24:18 AM10/10/05
to
Steve-o Stonebraker wrote many things:

<snip>

Thanks for the notes and report... it's funny. I saw my roommate in the
background in one of your dinner pics. :)

t.k.

Nevermore

unread,
Oct 10, 2005, 7:08:09 AM10/10/05
to

Steve-o Stonebraker wrote:
> o He was surpsingly uncertain about a lot of the details for his panel,
> including things that should be easy to figure out like the origins of
> some of the limited-run contest prize toys of which he's showing
> pictures.

Didn't he also claim the European red Tracks was a "rumor", despite
Maz's article being up at TFSource for over a year?

http://www.tfsource.com/articles/MB.html

--
The ultimate Binaltech/Alternators resource page
http://www.binalternators.de/

Krypto

unread,
Oct 10, 2005, 7:36:43 AM10/10/05
to
Not that I heard. I think he might've even shown a picture of one.

Don't have a great memory though. I thought I heard that the "Fan
advisory Council" was originally assembled by Hasbro and not fun
publications.

Steve-o Stonebraker

unread,
Oct 10, 2005, 10:09:12 AM10/10/05
to
On 10 Oct 2005 04:08:09 -0700, Nevermore wrote:
> [re: Alverez]

> Didn't he also claim the European red Tracks was a "rumor", despite
> Maz's article being up at TFSource for over a year?
>
> http://www.tfsource.com/articles/MB.html

I don't think so, actually. I know the red Tracks is real, so if he'd
said otherwise, that probably would have stuck out to me. I'm pretty sure
he did mention it, but since my memory of what he said isn't real clear, I
would guess he said "yes, it exists" which wouldn't have been noteable to
me.

Steve-o Stonebraker

unread,
Oct 10, 2005, 10:10:30 AM10/10/05
to
On 10 Oct 2005 04:36:43 -0700, Krypto wrote:
> I thought I heard that the "Fan advisory Council" was originally
> assembled by Hasbro and not fun publications.

As I recall, it was Hasbro's suggestion that they have one, and Hasbro
probably suggested who to put on it. I don't know how draconian they were
about it, though, and it's an idea that Savage certainly seems to have
embraced, even if he is (so far) not listening to them quite as much as
some of us might wish.

Aaron F. Bourque

unread,
Oct 10, 2005, 1:52:12 PM10/10/05
to
Steve-o Stonebraker wrote:

<realy long, really informative post about Botcon, Hasbro, upcoming
lines, and stuff>

I had a reply to this ready to send, and Google ate it!

Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; that's the first time I ever had any
problems with Google Groups. However, I have to say: Giant Planet has
robots that transform into bigger robots. Another of my predications
comes true!

http://tinyurl.com/e4pkv

"I've been saying it for a while, robots that transform into bigger,
badder robots!"

I WIN AGAIN, LEWS THERIN!

Phillip Thorne

unread,
Oct 10, 2005, 10:17:40 PM10/10/05
to
On 10 Oct 2005, Steve-o Stonebraker <sst...@fox.mps.ohio-state.edu>
wrote:
[A thousand lines of con commentary]

Whoa. I haven't attended a BotCon since 2001, and that report was
immensely informative -- now I'll have lots of juicy, meaty specifics
to report amongst my local casual-TF friends, and at Philcon this
December. Thanks muchly for writing that, Steve.

*** Insert obligatory blurb for Philcon here. In December! In
Philadelphia! Children's and LEGO programs run by yours truly.
www.philcon.org ***

If the target market for TFs is ages 3-5, there's a good chance there
will be recent viewers among the 6-12-year olds in my Children's
Program. Good reason to include the TF TV theme in my "Theme Song
Singalong" event.

/- Phillip Thorne ----------- The Non-Sequitur Express --------------------\
| org underbase ta thorne www.underbase.org It's the boundary |
| net comcast ta pethorne site, newsletter, blog conditions that |
\------------------------------------------------------- get you ----------/

The Phazer

unread,
Oct 11, 2005, 7:08:27 AM10/11/05
to
Apologies for the snippage, but it's a long post and there's only a few
things I wanted to comment on

Steve-o Stonebraker wrote:
> o In the early Energon story plans, the Quintessons were responsible for
> giving the Decepticons their hyper-power gimmick, and were intending to
> invade Earth.

Shame this never worked out, because it sounds cool. It would have
explained why Demolishor turned into a rubbish truck anyway...

> o It was reiterated that the tooling for G1 Mirage and G1 Wheeljack are
> "gone". Aaron further described them as "long-since depleted", which
> would indicate that they wore out and were possibly disposed of, rather
> than having simply disappeared like some tools seem to do.

Interesting. I'd always assumed that it may have been that Hasbro UK
broke them like the did the Breastforce molds.

> o Hasbro will probably not do Worlds Smallest TFs because of safety
> concerns. This struck me as a little odd, as I imagine most of the
> pieces are plenty small enough to be swallowed safely. Perhaps some of
> the whole toys are too big. Or perhaps its a safety issue other than
> choke gates, such as break patterns or something.

I think you're probably right that the whole toy is too big. I think
there are a few bits on Starscream that are a problem too (the legs and
the wings, because of the shape).

> o Aaron, joking after yet another discussion of looking for certain tools
> to do reissues or redecos: "I don't know where these molds are and who
> does the searching, but it sounds like a full-time job."

Even with the explanation given, I still think it's a little odd that
Hasbro don't keep better track given just how expensive molds are. I
mean, most companies will have a database of exactly where all their IT
is and the average PC costs only a hundredth of a steel injection mold.


>
> "Hasbro New Product Unveiling" panel

> o Later in Cybertron, a red and orange Crumplezone, a Decepticon version
> of Jetfire, and a CYB Hot Shot done up like G1 Hot Rod and named...
> Excellion. Similar at first glance to the DVD-exclusive Red Excellion,
> but, it's a new deco.

Really? That's the first time anyone's mentioned this red and orange
Crumplezone. Is this in addition to the retooled black Dark Crumplezone
toy? Seems odd they'd repaint him twice (especially when they could get
obvious seeker repaints out of mega Starscream).

> o Hasbro collaborates with TOMY on a number of products already, working
> with them as much as they do with Takara, so the merger will probably
> not hurt things in that respect, at least.

That's good news.

> o They are looking for the X-9 Ravage mold, and may use it sometime in the
> future.

As is this.

> o The problem Savage has with offering toys "a la carte" like Glen used to
> is that, as Savage said, "when I zig, you zag". It's too hard to
> predict which toys are going to be popular and which not, such that they
> could end up producing too many of the wrong toy and not enough of
> another. An all-or-nothing set (with a few add-ons) saves them from
> taking that risk. Of course, it just pushes the risk onto us instead,
> as we have to decide whether to buy a large, expensive set that we may
> or may not end up liking.

I still think FP should bite the bullet and accept that every company
in the world has to deal with that, but they don't make you buy
everything. And heck, even with the sets they still managed to have the
same problems, obviously making not enough Ratchet/Firestar sets and
too many 7 packs.

I really do think that if everything was available seperately they'd
sell out quite easily. All of them. Instead they're stuck with a lot of
complete sets, which really doesn't seem to be smart.

> o The Ratchet toy in the exclusives set has a new light bar and siren
> weapon instead of the normal Tow-Line-mold weapon. In Tow-Line, the
> weapon is made of the same plastic as his windows, and presumably is on
> the same mold. So, somebody asked if the new Ratchet weapon meant that
> they disposed of a bunch of old Towline weapons since they still needed
> windows from that mold. Savage said that, no, they didn't have to make
> the old weapon, because the molds are "gated", allowing them to just
> choose not to make certain parts. This certainly seems like a good
> idea, but it brings into question some of the things we thought we knew
> about the toy production process. That is, we (and here "we" shouldn't
> be taken to mean anything more colective than my personal social group
> within the fandom, which is rather well-connected and informed) thought
> that this "gating" wasn't really possible, and that producing only part
> of a mold required you to, basically, "break" the mold in two
> permanently. The term "gang molding" has also been tossed around at
> times to refer to toys like the Go-Bots (aka Spychangers) which have
> parts for more than one toy in a single mold, and are therefore always
> produced in sets. If the molds can be "gated", then releasing them in
> sets like this would not be necessary. So, not sure what to think about
> this.

Gating is complicated - while it is possible, it's a lot easier (and
cheaper) if the mold was designed with gating in mind. It may be Hasbro
do this a lot more often now than they did in the 90's (molding
technology has moved on and, given the costcutting at the time, they
may have decided spending money on making molds for the Spychangers
easily gateable was a waste of time).

There are lots of issues it brings up - mold design is pretty careful
to keep the tolerances in certain levels - too low and you end up with
more mismolded parts and weak ball joints, too high and you wear the
mold out faster and increase the danger of the whole thing blowing up.
Gating pieces off changes the tolerances and pressure required, and
it's a fair amount of work for little practical return in most cases.
On molds that weren't designed with this in mind, these issues are much
greater.

I'm actually really surprised Takara were willing to do it for such a
small run of convention exclusives - especially given that it's quite
easy to give away extra energon weapons as prizes and the like. I can
only think they've maybe made some recent technical advances in this
area that makes it much easier that it used to be on newer molds.
Still, I would have thought FP would have to pay for it, and surely
they wouldn't have had to pay much of a premium to get an extra Energon
weapon that they could have sold or used as another exclusive item.

Very odd.

> "Designing Transformers" panel


> o Cybertron EVAC's original design had two tails in helicopter mode, but
> they were combined into a single tail to prevent him from looking quite
> so sci-fi-ish. (He is supposed to be a contemporary Earth vehicle,
> after all, not some futuristic thing like the Speed Planet TFs.)

I'm very glad that got changed.

> o Aaron's original story idea for Cybertron was called "Supercross", and
> featured "all the past planets" from the Transformers universe. This
> concept was hastily sketched out on a Taco Bell napkin which Aaron now
> keeps under the glass of his desk at work. He did have the napkin with
> him, however, and I took a few pictures of it later (to be posted with
> my other BC pictures).

Not sure how they'd have fitted ALL of them in. That's maybe why the
idea got abandoned. I mean heck, there must be 15 from Furman's US G1
comic run alone...

> o In "Supercross", the role of Vector Prime was to be filled by Alpha
> Trion. The characters would be scouring the galaxy not for Cyber Planet
> Keys, but for pieces of Primus.

No big surprise. I wonder if they couldn't pass Alpha Trion for
trademarks? I'm still surprised there doesn't seem to be an Alpha Trion
repaint planned.

> o A concept storyboard for Speed Planet was shown. The only detail I
> wrote down / remember was that one of the characters on it was a
> centaur. They said that some of the gimmicks they considered for Speed
> Planet toys were "flip changing" (ie. spring-loaded auto-
> transformations) and pull-back motors (which would have been AWESOME in
> my opinion).

Hmm. A centaur could have been really good or really sucked. I'm glad
there weren't too many flip changers, and can't stand pull back motors,
so it's worked out pretty well.

> o In the early concepts for Giant Planet, the planet itself was being
> dismantled for raw materials to construct a warp gate. The drawing made
> it look like Gobotron!

Ahh, that would have been a nice touch.

> o The early ideas for TF:Cybertron also included an "Apocalypse Planet"
> full of giant military hardware and was mired in a very long all-out
> war, and a "Planet X", which appropriately enough, I don't know anything
> about.

I'd have thought the Vanguard team may well have originally been
intended to be Apocalypse Planet toys and were reworked. Planet X is
still there - without wanting to give too much away it's in the show
and Sideways' Cybertron packaging marks him as a resident of it.

> o Aaron also showed some story concepts for Energon, which included the
> idea of Unicron being slowly reactivated in six "quadrants". Seemingly,
> the Autobots were going to be struggling to reactivate these pieces of
> Unicron so they could somehow save something-or-other once he was all
> turned on again. ...? Yeah, I didn't really follow. It's hard to get
> a good feel for these really early ideas, especially when you are only
> looking at them for about ten seconds.

Hmm. That suggests that the odd "restoring Unicron to recreate Alpha
Q's destroyed planet" plotline sort of originates from Hasbro. Odd,
because it really felt like something the show mangled in. Badly.

> o An upcoming "spider tank" toy in Cybertron was designed by Don Figueroa,
> based on a loose idea that had been floating around the TF team for
> years. Vector Prime was designed by somebody who previously did designs
> in Beast Machines. Sadly, I missed the guy's name.

Maybe the Rumble drones? Cool.

> o A Prime design concept was shown -- I forget for which toyline, but I'm
> pretty sure it was either Energon or Cybertron -- where the trailer
> opened up into a cache of hand-held weapons for Prime to use including a
> small missile rack and an axe. My friend SwiftEagle says that the trailer
> also held bandoliers.

If it was for Energon that would have been so much better than what we
actually got, and fit the line better too.

> o The grey prototype models you sometimes see photos of are later hand-
> painted for packaging photos and such by a modelmaker/painter named Jen
> Manning. (At least, for the Hasbro packaging, I guess.)

Did they mention anything at why their official photographers are so
bad at it, with poor poses, weak angles and occasionally bizare
mistransformations?

> o So, next time you hear a fan complain that the TF toys or story are
> being "dumbed down", keep the above datum in mind! That is their
> largest potential market. One of the Hasbro people -- possibly still
> Greg -- said that forays into the Go-Go-Go-Bots and such were attempts
> to draw more of those younger kids into the Transformers brand.

I was plenty aware of the age thing already, which is why I'm so
surprised at the apparent death of the Go-Bots line. I wouldn't be
surprised if they reappear for the movie.

> o The Soundwave reissue from Takara was created by re-casting a brand new
> mold from an existing toy, just like the die-cast parts of the Prime
> reissue. The old tools were not used. (Presumably they were lost/worn
> out, as previously reported.) They said that in comparing an original
> and reissue, some variation or "shrink" can be seen. I don't offhand
> remember hearing anybody report these differences, but that doesn't mean
> they haven't been noticed. Just that I haven't heard about it.

Well, that's interesting - we'd previously heard that it was just some
of the mold that needed recreating, not all of it. I suppose that makes
the eventual appearance of Wheeljack and Mirage much more likely.

> o Takara's early ideas for EN Omega Supreme had a rocket-arm like the G1
> version. Either Aaron or Eric, I forget which, said they decided to
> change Omega from a rocket to a train because they thought it was more
> interesting, or possibly they used the word "exciting". Which... seems
> like an atypical preference to me, but, hey, I like trains, so I don't
> mind.

Given Hasbro's insistence over 20 years that kids don't like trains, I
find this very odd indeed (particularily halfassed sort of train/crane
things). And as we know, boys are famous in hating spaceship toys...:-/

No, really. This is weird, and silly.

> o Because they do not have "2D rights" on the Alternators cars, doing
> media support like comics is difficult because they can't draw the
> trademarked car designs into their stories. So, it remains unlikely
> that support of that kind will pop up soon.

I really don't think this is the sort of thing that would be that hard
to clear. There's only half a dozen companies to agree with.

> o Episodes 1 and 2 of "Galaxy Force" were smashed into a single episode of
> "Cybertron" in order to pick up the pacing and make the debut a little
> more exciting.

But instead just didn't get aired... So that didn't exactly work well.
That was a really big mistake, and I'm amazed that Hasbro don't seem
more pissed off about it.

> o STEVE-O'S NOTE: Nothing has changed about reissuing G1 Megatron in the
> USA. That toy cannot be sold here anymore. This new Megatron is
> allowed to exist, like the roleplay toy of Prime's blaster, because it
> is not shaped anything like a real-world firearm. And despite this, you
> can still count on it not being silver or grey in color.

True enough - but it does seem odd given Aaron Archer's previous
insistence that they couldn't even reissue Sixshot because of his his
(frankly vague) space gun mode.

> o When asked about Robot Masters, Aaron said that he was involved a little
> bit in the early stages of its planning, but the Hasbro side lost
> interest in them. They don't really fit Hasbro's pricepoint scheme, and
> Aaron didn't find them all that compelling (as some fans have said as
> well, even regarding the new-mold toys), and further, all the collectors
> who want them have alraedy bought them from Japan. So, there isn't much
> reason for Hasbro to do anything with them. Especially with the G1-based
> "gap" line and BW Anniversary figures coming up.

I think that's fair enough.

> Misc. Other Notes (mainly from conversations)
> o The Giant Planet toys are supposed to all have a gimmick where they
> "transform" from a smaller robot to a taller robot. The implementation
> of this, however, is fully successful only in Metroplex.

Well, I guess we'll all have to figure the others out, but frankly I
think the giant planet toys are a bit of a design fudge all round
(except Blender - he's great).

> o When my friends told Aaron that Takara has not, so far, shown any sign
> of intending to release the Primus toy (in the form of publicity for it
> in magazines, toy shows, etc.), Aaron was surprised. He told my friends
> that Takara had shared the cost of the tooling for the toy, so he
> assumed that they planned to release it.

I still think Takara will be releasing it in the new year. It's already
been stated that they're going to be releasing Moledive and Blender
then, and I can't believe TRU Japan would have taken big exclusives
like the Sonic Convoy set over Primus if Takara have already paid it
and have it ready to go unless it was going to see a mass release.

Phazer

Steve-o Stonebraker

unread,
Oct 11, 2005, 10:53:47 AM10/11/05
to
On 11 Oct 2005 04:08:27 -0700, The Phazer wrote:
>> o Aaron, joking after yet another discussion of looking for certain tools
>> to do reissues or redecos: "I don't know where these molds are and who
>> does the searching, but it sounds like a full-time job."
>
> Even with the explanation given, I still think it's a little odd that
> Hasbro don't keep better track given just how expensive molds are. I
> mean, most companies will have a database of exactly where all their IT
> is and the average PC costs only a hundredth of a steel injection mold.

Assuming you mean the explanation that was half-given by Brian Savage
later, yes, it seemed strange to me as well. It sort of makes the
factories out to be completely backwater and careless, which I think is a
little farfetched. But, it's still the best explanation I've heard.

>> o Later in Cybertron, a red and orange Crumplezone, a Decepticon version
>> of Jetfire, and a CYB Hot Shot done up like G1 Hot Rod and named...
>> Excellion. Similar at first glance to the DVD-exclusive Red Excellion,
>> but, it's a new deco.
>
> Really? That's the first time anyone's mentioned this red and orange
> Crumplezone. Is this in addition to the retooled black Dark Crumplezone
> toy? Seems odd they'd repaint him twice (especially when they could get
> obvious seeker repaints out of mega Starscream).

Nah, it's the same one. I guess I focused on different parts. He didn't
strike me as predominantly black.

> [re: Ratchet's new weapon]


> Gating is complicated - while it is possible, it's a lot easier (and
> cheaper) if the mold was designed with gating in mind. It may be Hasbro
> do this a lot more often now than they did in the 90's (molding
> technology has moved on and, given the costcutting at the time, they
> may have decided spending money on making molds for the Spychangers
> easily gateable was a waste of time).

Can you point me to any resources that discuss this sort of thing? I'd
like to learn more about it.

>> o Aaron's original story idea for Cybertron was called "Supercross", and
>> featured "all the past planets" from the Transformers universe. This
>> concept was hastily sketched out on a Taco Bell napkin which Aaron now
>> keeps under the glass of his desk at work. He did have the napkin with
>> him, however, and I took a few pictures of it later (to be posted with
>> my other BC pictures).
>
> Not sure how they'd have fitted ALL of them in. That's maybe why the
> idea got abandoned. I mean heck, there must be 15 from Furman's US G1
> comic run alone...

The "all" part was perheps just a passing idea he had. Even the napkin
drawing only shows five planets on it. I'm pretty confident that he did
use the phrase "all the past planets" when describing it, though. I have
it in quotes in my notes.

>> o The early ideas for TF:Cybertron also included an "Apocalypse Planet"
>> full of giant military hardware and was mired in a very long all-out
>> war, and a "Planet X", which appropriately enough, I don't know anything
>> about.
>
> I'd have thought the Vanguard team may well have originally been
> intended to be Apocalypse Planet toys and were reworked. Planet X is
> still there - without wanting to give too much away it's in the show
> and Sideways' Cybertron packaging marks him as a resident of it.

Ahh. I've payed no attention to GF spoilers, so, I had no idea Planet X
was still there. And yes, those military upgrades may have originally
been intended to happen Apocalypse Planet.

>> o The Soundwave reissue from Takara was created by re-casting a brand new
>> mold from an existing toy, just like the die-cast parts of the Prime
>> reissue. The old tools were not used. (Presumably they were lost/worn
>> out, as previously reported.) They said that in comparing an original
>> and reissue, some variation or "shrink" can be seen. I don't offhand
>> remember hearing anybody report these differences, but that doesn't mean
>> they haven't been noticed. Just that I haven't heard about it.
>
> Well, that's interesting - we'd previously heard that it was just some
> of the mold that needed recreating, not all of it. I suppose that makes
> the eventual appearance of Wheeljack and Mirage much more likely.

Well, the way it was said at the convention doesn't rule out the
possibility that it was only part of him. What you're saying sounds
vaguely familiar to me. Was it something like only the casette door
supposedly needed to be re-cast? That seems ridiculous... The comment
about "shrinkage", though, makes it sound like it was at least a
significant portion of the tooling.

>> o Takara's early ideas for EN Omega Supreme had a rocket-arm like the G1
>> version. Either Aaron or Eric, I forget which, said they decided to
>> change Omega from a rocket to a train because they thought it was more
>> interesting, or possibly they used the word "exciting". Which... seems
>> like an atypical preference to me, but, hey, I like trains, so I don't
>> mind.
>
> Given Hasbro's insistence over 20 years that kids don't like trains, I
> find this very odd indeed (particularily halfassed sort of train/crane
> things). And as we know, boys are famous in hating spaceship toys...:-/
>
> No, really. This is weird, and silly.

I was corrected by LiquidVelcro! on this, that Hasbro were talking about
the boat half, not the train half. Which in some ways is even stranger.

>> o STEVE-O'S NOTE: Nothing has changed about reissuing G1 Megatron in the
>> USA. That toy cannot be sold here anymore. This new Megatron is
>> allowed to exist, like the roleplay toy of Prime's blaster, because it
>> is not shaped anything like a real-world firearm. And despite this, you
>> can still count on it not being silver or grey in color.
>
> True enough - but it does seem odd given Aaron Archer's previous
> insistence that they couldn't even reissue Sixshot because of his his
> (frankly vague) space gun mode.

Sixshot has a more realistic gun silhouette than this new Megatron does,
in my opinion. Especially from a distance, in the dark. The Megatron is
very blunt with short, fat barrel. Still, the Sixshot thing may have been
a bit of a dodge. I would guess that getting a gun toy approved is a big
hassle, and it may not have been seen as worth their while with Sixshot
even if he was likely to pass. Plus, they may have needed to recolor him
to do it.

Nevermore

unread,
Oct 11, 2005, 12:50:07 PM10/11/05
to

The Phazer wrote:
> Interesting. I'd always assumed that it may have been that Hasbro UK
> broke them like the did the Breastforce molds.

I could see that with Wheeljack and Sunstreaker (both of whom were
released as part of the European "Classic Heroes" line in 1990/91), but
not with Mirage, who was released for the last (!) time in 1986, as
part of the Japanese "Good Bye Convoy" giftset.

Darrell Cobb

unread,
Oct 14, 2005, 1:09:43 AM10/14/05
to
On 10 Oct 2005 00:01:10 GMT, Steve-o Stonebraker
<sst...@fox.mps.ohio-state.edu> wrote:
SNIP!

Great report Steve-o. Thanks!

> The TF team was finally able to switch back to one language after
> convincing their higher-ups that the savings they made in package
> production were outweighed by losses they suffered based on the
> packaging being cluttered, unclear, and uninteresting because of the
> small amount of information they could fit into it. (In other words,
> lost sales, present or future.) Part of their campaign on this issue was
> that the guys who do their packaging mockups would often do two versions
> -- a tri-lingual one, and another mono-lingual version which always
> looked way better. The comparisons of these mockup packages helped to
> convince the management to let them switch back.

SNIP!

Only had one comment on the tri-lingual packaging.

It's a shame to hear that they pushed so long to get back to doing both mono
and tri-logo, when they finally(!) got the trilingual box perfected with
Cyberton.

There is no missing text or info, things are in the exact same place on both
and nothing is 'cluttered'. The only real difference is that a slightly
smaller font is used in places.

I think if they had gotten things right the first time (ie. 3 or 4 product
lines ago), then maybe fans wouldn't have noticed it as much. In any case, I
would guess that 99% of the boxes still end-up in the trash. :-)

- Darrell

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