The Energon Pub

We were pointed in the direction of a Gizmodo article, a very interesting look into how Transformers are made. It's a bit of a long read, but well worth it.

There are many interesting things to note, but we'll give you just this tidbit, a video and a picture to tide you over until you read the entire article.

http://vimeo.com/64266725

It's a little like a Willy Wonka's Toy Factory hidden away in the middle of New England, right down to the litigiousness. "What happens if a kid signs the thing and then tells someone?" a student asked a Hasbro PR representative at a recent career day. (Hasbro employees are always a hit, shockingly.) "We'd sue them," the rep deadpanned to me. That sounds extreme, but when you consider that basically every planned product the company is working on is being paraded in front of and prodded by a bunch of kids sipping on Capri Suns, you sort of get it.




We weren't allowed on-site at the Fun Lab when we visited because they hadn't been prepped for our arrival. We asked if we could ditch the cameras and just pop our heads in, but no dice. It's that secretive. "Stuff being tested in there won't be out until 2015, 2016," a PR rep told me. Still, it's crucial step for Transformers in particular.

"And here, you can see how we decided to put a tiny head on this gigantic Optimus body."

AutobotTrainer wrote:You guys are FAST. I was just about to post this in the thread on "build a bot" and poof...here it is.

This is why I love seibertron.com!

Thank you! We try!

GuyIncognito wrote:"And here, you can see how we decided to put a tiny head on this gigantic Optimus body."

That was a great article. Nice find guys!

Secretive testing for figures that won't be released until 2015-16?

What is this, Area 51 for Transformers?

Nobody say Sector 7... we all know they don't exist.

I was hoping that at the end of the video we'd see him handling the robot mode whilst cursing and swearing because the crappy claw hands keep dropping the "cool melee weapon" tail section, lol.

neat article!

So after the CAD part those grey protoypes are 3d printed? Wow I never knew that, I always thought they were hand sculpted or something....

warzon3 wrote:neat article!

So after the CAD part those grey protoypes are 3d printed? Wow I never knew that, I always thought they were hand sculpted or something....

Well, they're 3D printed now. They used to be crafted by hand. 3D printing, isn't nearly as prevalent as people think. I was one of those people.

I tried CAD once, I didn't like it. I'm use to 3dsMax

Also tried 3d printing, but here in Holland we only have layer printers, which
aren't really 3d printers in my view.

Hopefully we'll get real 3d printers in the future. It's not that complicated to
make a 3d model, and very cool to have your own action figure

Always amazed by how they design Transformers.

I took (or, rather, TRIED to take) a class in 3dsMax at the local community college and gave up. It wasn't that it was too hard, but it takes way more time and patience than I have.

I'm a bit concerned about that comment in the article regarding metallic paints and plastic. Does that mean some of us now have a boatload of figures we shelled out extra money for sitting around waiting to develop their own version of GPS?

morphobots wrote:I'm a bit concerned about that comment in the article regarding metallic paints and plastic. Does that mean some of us now have a boatload of figures we shelled out extra money for sitting around waiting to develop their own version of GPS?

These are cheap plastic toys made for kids. They're not made to last, like the olden days when toys were hand-made with wood and metal. EVERY figure has a potential to fade or disintegrate over time. That's one reason why I don't waste money on imported figures just because they have a special paint job.

GuyIncognito wrote:

morphobots wrote:I'm a bit concerned about that comment in the article regarding metallic paints and plastic. Does that mean some of us now have a boatload of figures we shelled out extra money for sitting around waiting to develop their own version of GPS?

These are cheap plastic toys made for kids. They're not made to last, like the olden days when toys were hand-made with wood and metal. EVERY figure has a potential to fade or disintegrate over time. That's one reason why I don't waste money on imported figures just because they have a special paint job.

I understand that these toys won't last forever, and I also don't spend the money just for a different paint job. I simply thought it odd that with as much R & D as appears to go into this process that Takara would knowingly use paints that weaken the plastic, unless they've only recently learned that.

I thought he meant mixing paint into plastics would weaken them, which is why they are prototyped in grey then painted. He did mention that a guy paints all the protos, as they are usually the figure in the box art pics. Sorry if that's a stupid idea and I totally got the wrong end of the stick with what he said in the video.

SkyWarpsGhost wrote:I thought he meant mixing paint into plastics would weaken them, which is why they are prototyped in grey then painted. He did mention that a guy paints all the protos, as they are usually the figure in the box art pics. Sorry if that's a stupid idea and I totally got the wrong end of the stick with what he said in the video.

That's an interesting thought, but I don't think that's it. I don't see a reference to mixing, and the key phrase in the article which catches my eye is "was making". As in: "Hey, that looks aweso - oh, snap! We screwed up. No more metal paint, guys." I'm now curious as to what will become of my Senator Ratbat in 5 years or so, as that's going to be my sole example from Takara.

Gizmodo has posted their second "Inside Hasbro" article, this time we get a look at modeling, prototyping, painting, and more. The full article can be found by clicking here. We've embedded the accompanying video below, keep your eyes peeled for quick glimpse of Generations Metroplex!

Designing toys takes sketching and planning and imagining, sure. But what's even more impressive is the actual making—still a much more industrial and craftsmanlike process than you'd imagine. It requires, essentially, a whole factory condensed into a few rooms of Hasbro's headquarters outside of Providence, Rhode Island.

We were recently able to get an in-depth look at the workshop. It's a huge place, but we're going to focus on a few of the highlights of how your favorite toys evolve from half-ideas to fully functional, kung-fu-gripping friends.

I really like these videos! It's always fun to see the behind the scenes videos of toy development.

Also, anyone know what the deal is with the Garruk figure/statue?

Thanks for postin the vids. The second finally answered a q I had re the official photos we see... Always wondered if they were hand painted or pshopped. I'm sure pshop is still used esp for the final prints but nowhere to the extent I had imagined.

So now we know who's responsible for giving us blue versions of black figures and green versions of silver figures.

That BH Optimus is freakin' huge. I can't wait to add him to my collection!

It's so good to see behind the scenes, even withall the technological advances it's still takes a great mind to work out how a ransformation will work, especialy in the actual transformation, seeing in your head how parts move an dthere relation to one another.
I noticed they were using 3d printers, I was shockwd when I saw 3d printers could do objects with seperate moving parts, and when I saw an object with a ball socket I was impressed as the surfaces literaly rub against eachother so to make that together without them sticking is amasing.
I read how cheap 3d printers are becoming, and how it's possible and eventualy will be the norm, for the general public to have them.
Imagine what it will be like when we can print our own transformers at home. Instead of KOs there will be people distrabuting code that they have made to be as close to the original as possible so the quality won't beas good, due to measurments, but like the factories in china when molds get left behind, there will be the real accurate coding that someone will have stolen and like pirated mp3s, 3d code to print exact copies will be available and a new age of piracy will emerge. But as a more legit and creative way of distrabution, imagine what it will be like, when a person makes a custom figure, but shares the code so that we all can print out our own version. The possabilities are endless. We will be able to alter the designs to our own liking or download a design that someone else has altered, as some of us will have the skills and some will not. But piracy is inevitable the only way is for companies not to sell there products available as a 3d print out. But people will reverse engineer and make almost identical copies as code to make at home. But this will mean less money for companies and less money for the designers who make them in the first place, but wilh so many fan designers doing it for free, I'm sure there wont be a shortage.