The Energon Pub

That time again. To wrestle with the great minds that be and submit HASBRO questions related to our favorite toys, TRANSFORMERS.

Take a look at the HASBRO guidelines below. We only get two questions, and they are getting more specific on what should and should not be asked.

We have to submit the questions early Monday morning, so get your ideas here early on, so they can be discussed, and the best questions COULD be submitted.

Hasbro’s Transformers team greatly appreciates the collector-fan community’s continued passion and support, and is always listening to its valuable feedback – particularly with regards to the Q&A program. As we proceed into the next year of Q&A, the Transformers team wants to ensure that fans continue to get the most out of this forum by being able to provide answers to questions that are of interest to your readers. As a result, we thought it might be helpful to share some insights into what types of questions the team is able to elaborate on and what types of questions cannot be answered for various reasons.

* Unfortunately, there are some things that we cannot comment publicly on due to confidentiality, legal or competitive reasons. Examples of these types of questions are ones that relate to the upcoming TV series or movies that have not had details announced yet, “When will X toy be made/redesigned/released?”, Hypothetical scenarios or “what if questions”, Sales/Cost Data, Product Idea Submissions, Potential Design/Redesign and Future Movie/Entertainment.

* With that said, that leaves a lot of room for a whole host of other discussion points. Topics that are open for discussion are things like Deco Decisions, Current Design Choices, Design Process/Development, Character choices and Redeco/Retooling choices. Also, questions pertaining to past and current Lore/Storyline, Line Strategy and Marketing are open for discussion too.


The Transformers team certainly appreciates our fans’ continued passion and dedication to Transformers and we look forward to another great year of Q&A.

Have fun and submit your ideas for our community's questions about what to submit.

Only 2 questions?

That's kinda lame.

I'd like to know if/when Transformers Animated Season 3 will make a DVD release.

That is all.

Ok, here's one.

What prompted the decision for Hasbro to drop the Revenge of the Fallen logo from it's movie-styled-figures' packaging, what prevented Hasbro from merging that line into the Generations line, which so far seems to cover everything?

Well, I have one I've been wanting to ask for a while.

About the ROTF line, why do you make new molds of non movie characters before you finish making the actual characters? An example would be the Constructicons, only half of them are actual toys. I can see why Hightower and Overload aren't made but Scrapper was at least in the movie in robot form.

Will there be any other exclusive figures we can use NEST points for?

Will there be any new Animated toys released in America or they Takara only? IE Blackout.

I have a question about why HASBRO is avoiding the color red in its movies. Sideswipe, Ironhide, and Optimus Prime all are characters who have mainly red colors previously. Why not allow at least one to keep this main color scheme. Does it not film well? Does it look bad in robot mode?

Not a great question, but any theories feel free to respond.

1)will the Classics line continue? Classics have been one of my favorites
2)when will Animated "Jet Optimus" been released? the one with jet packs and Magnus' hammer

Why not make little articulated mini figures of the human characters to go with the classics and the rotf line of deluxe and voyager size figures? Pleaseeeeee. Similair to the human alliance line but in scale with the deluxe and voyager figures.

Why not a spike and daniel in the exo suit already? There articulated, go in and out of the tranforming exo suit and in scale with g1 figures?

Mechastrike wrote:1)will the Classics line continue? Classics have been one of my favorites

We've seen previews for the Generations line of figures, which renews the Classics style.

is G1 STAR SABER ever going to have a western release? lio covoy/leo prime managed to get 3 western releases.

My question:

Are you planning on making a Transformers Generations Devcon figure that is loyal to the way he looked in the G1 episode The Gambler?

tigertracks 24 wrote:I have a question about why HASBRO is avoiding the color red in its movies. Sideswipe, Ironhide, and Optimus Prime all are characters who have mainly red colors previously. Why not allow at least one to keep this main color scheme. Does it not film well? Does it look bad in robot mode?

Not a great question, but any theories feel free to respond.

I'm not an official source or anything, but I remember Bay saying that red cars don't "pop" on film.

Mkall wrote:Ok, here's one.

What prompted the decision for Hasbro to drop the Revenge of the Fallen logo from it's movie-styled-figures' packaging, what prevented Hasbro from merging that line into the Generations line, which so far seems to cover everything?

Again, I'm not an official source, but I read an article the said the Michael Bay gets 11% of the profits on movie themed toys (more than George Lucas gets for Star Wars toys!). I would assume that by removing the ROTF logo, they no longer legally have to pay Bay. Again, just a theory.

allspark99 wrote:is G1 STAR SABER ever going to have a western release? lio covoy/leo prime managed to get 3 western releases.

This question falls under the "won't talk about when X toy will be made or released?"

Mechastrike wrote:2)when will Animated "Jet Optimus" been released? the one with jet packs and Magnus' hammer

Same as above.

joeformer wrote:Why not make little articulated mini figures of the human characters to go with the classics and the rotf line of deluxe and voyager size figures? Pleaseeeeee. Similair to the human alliance line but in scale with the deluxe and voyager figures.

Why not a spike and daniel in the exo suit already? There articulated, go in and out of the tranforming exo suit and in scale with g1 figures?

Think this again, falls under their banner or not talking about a hypothetical X toy to be made.

Is Animated Arcee going to have a wide release outside of the United States or at least a repaint or retool?

Have you thought about the possibility of continuing the Human Alliance styled/sized figures into the Generations line? It would be awesome to get some classic characters in a larger-scale figure (somewhat of a cross between Alternators and Human Alliance), and for the "human alliance" aspect they could include classic G1 human characters, such as Spike, Sparkplug, Carly, Chip, Circuit Breaker, G.B. Blackrock, Raoul, etc...

Could we ask if the tail end of Animated has been cancelled or if it'll be released at all? Not exactly a "when" question, but an "if". I dunno how secret it could be since they already showed the figures...

Sonofa... I had a fantastic question to ask about a month ago and I even said it in another thread. For the life of me I can't remember it. Phaaaaaaaaaaak!

If the popularity of the Deluxe line of Generations continues, is there any chance we could see it grow or even shrink in class size to the likes of Scout, Voyager or even a single Leader or Supreme Class?

We all know that the Deluxe Generations line is going to sell like hotcakes at a homeless shelter with the exception of the Ravage repaint and the Arcee Bike repaint. Really take the hint here. I know it will all sell eventually, but profit and business wise it's always best to make the most money fast. ROTF repaints aren't going to propel that line to the minds and hearts of new fans. I know it's a filler line, but it's still a very good place to put some great figures.

That wasn't my great question BTW.

Down_Shift wrote:That wasn't my great question BTW.

Was it this one?

What does Hasbro look for in an animation studio? What do they compare it to? Do they consider how well the Marvel DVD/Blu-Rays do, or how well G.I. Joe Resolute went over with fans when thinking about the next possible show or Direct To Video?

Previous thread here if it wasn't.

ive got one, "Why do you continue to do store exclusives when no one but you seems to like the concept?"

I only have one question to submit. I'm content with waiting in anticipation for specific characters to be revealed but I'm just curious...

1). With the concept of Generations suggesting that all Transformers lines from the past are a possibility, does Hasbro plan to further explore European G1 characters or Japanese G1 Headmasters, Super God Masterforce, Victory, or Zone characters or even characters from both Dreamwave and IDW characters, point in case being Drift being a comic character, or even more obscure characters for inclusion in the Generations line or will the line continue to focus on the American Transformers continuities? Will it all be characters we know or will there possibly be a few surprises of little know to unknown characters making appearances in toy form?

I've got one:
We've all heard that G1 Fortress Maximus can't be re-released in the US (I still don't see why it can't if targeted for an adult collector's market), and with the Generations line supposedly covering all areas, could we possibly see a new headmaster? Or even finally doing some of the unproduced G1 combiners?

Megatron Wolf wrote:ive got one, "Why do you continue to do store exclusives when no one but you seems to like the concept?"

Because in some cases it's either "Store Exclusive" or "It's Not Released, Sorry."

Titanium Grimlock and Prowl was like that, as was Classics Devastator (heck, not even many WalMarts knew they were getting them). I suspect that it's the same with TFA Arcee and Ratchet, and possibly the rest of the TFA line.

Megatron Wolf wrote:ive got one, "Why do you continue to do store exclusives when no one but you seems to like the concept?"

Because the stores request them which in turn drives sales for said store. That keeps that certain outlet happy enough to contnue doing business with Hasbro. That's about as simple as I can make it sound without comin' off like a jerk.

What classic character is Universe Classic Voyager Heavy Load is supposed to pay homage to?