‘ToyFare’ talks Transformers with Hasbro and gives you the first look at the movie Optimus Prime toy!
By Zach Oat |
Posted February 9, 2007 10:30 AM |
July 4, 2007. A day that will always be remembered. Not as the 231st anniversary of the day the U.S. gained its independence, though—it will be remembered because that’s the day the robots came.
The live-action Transformers movie is highly anticipated by fans of the 1980s cartoon, fans of Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg’s films, conspiracy theorists and auto mechanics everywhere, but the hardest of the hardcore are the Transformers toy collectors. Not only does this film represent the culmination of a lifetime of fandom (and a significant monetary investment), it represents the opportunity to get even more awesome Transformers collectibles—in this case, some of the most detailed and unique Transformers ever.
Dying to know what’s coming out from Hasbro for the film, we talked to Director of Marketing Greg Lombardo to find out what went in to creating the movie toy line…and what came out.
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 ToyFare: What was the process like in designing the Transformers movie toys? Did you work closely with the movie studio?
Greg Lombardo: Hasbro, Paramount and Michael Bay all had the same goal: create a true Transformers movie. What would it really look like if actual cars really turned into giant robots? They wouldn’t be blocky like Generation 1 Transformers…they would be more alien. Our design team, led by Aaron Archer, worked in Los Angeles for two months late in 2005 and early 2006 in an effort to match the movie concept with the rich heritage of the brand. The guys in the studio’s art department are some of the top guys in the business, so yes, there was a very collaborative exchange throughout the entire design process.
Was it difficult to capture the extremely detailed and technical look of the movie Transformers in toy form?
Our movie toys set a new standard for designing Transformers. The biggest opportunity was to take the Transformers toy style in a new direction for the film, and it was a challenge that Hasbro and Takara were eager to tackle. In the end, we were able to get very close to the intense-detail style of movie.
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 Will all 13 Transformers identified as being in the movie get toys? Will any get more than one?
Yes, all 13 will be made in some capacity. And many will have multiple versions.
Who will be in the first regular assortment of figures from the movie, and when will they hit stores?
The on-shelf date for most movie product is June 2. There are a few assortments that will come a few months later for fall. As for the first wave, it depends on the assortment. In the “core” line, we’ll have the Deluxe class (Bumblebee, Autobot Jazz, Scorponok, Barricade, Decepticon Brawl and Wreckage), the Voyager class (Blackout, Autobot Ratchet) and the Leader class (Optimus Prime, with Megatron soon after).
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 Will all of the movie toys be in scale to one another? How do you decide what figure goes in what assortment?
We continue to have a separation in size between Deluxe and Voyager scales (smaller characters in Deluxe, larger in Voyager). What’s different about the Leader class for the movie line is that the characters in the Leader line will also be available in either the Deluxe or Voyager class at some point in the year. We didn’t want to limit our key characters to only being available at the higher price point.
Would Hasbro consider doing characters that aren’t in the movie in the “movie style”?
Definitely. You’ll see some characters that were originally created for the movie but later dropped, as well as other characters inspired by the movie style.
Will there be higher-end, collector-targeted toys for this movie in addition to the all-ages product?
We definitely had the Transformers fan in mind when creating our movie product line. There will be a couple of “Unleashed” Transformers figures throughout the year, retailer exclusives, as well as a few other nuggets in the main line…
What is the biggest toy in the movie line? What’s the smallest?
We are making an “Ultimate Bumblebee” that will be on shelf in August that is 13-14 inches tall—that will be the largest. Smallest is hard to say, since we will also have the [2-inch] Legends scale for the movie.
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 Are you going to do any toy versions of the humans in the film? Perhaps even as tiny, in-scale mini-figures?
We certainly considered including human figures, and haven’t ruled it out as a possibility somewhere down the road. However, our goal was to focus on creating the best Transformers action figures ever and delivering the ultimate Transformer experience to all of our fans.
Does Optimus Prime have a trailer in the movie? If not, any chance Hasbro could give him one?
Sorry, can’t comment on that. But we do want to be as accurate as possible to the movie in 2007.
How did you decide to do the Protoform versions of Optimus Prime and Starscream as the preview figures [due out May 1] for the movie line?
The Protoform—or pre-Earth-scan—robots never get much time in animation or in the animated film but Hasbro felt that the Protoform concept could make unique toys. We chose two of the most popular characters from the Transformers lore and based the Protoform designs on early work done by the movie art department.
Will we actually see these Protoform modes in the movie?
There will be Protoforms for some characters seen in the movie. You’ll have to wait until July 4th to find out which ones!
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