Saw Ben Yee post this on Twitter - while he was at Toyfair, he got an interview with Jerry Jivoin and Joshua Lamb of the Transformers brand team.

Events: Hasbro Toy Fair 2014 Fan Media Day Interview | BWTF

 

Very interesting. Thanks for the read.

I love to see what they have to say about 'reimagining' old characters instead of just taking them and putting them in a new setting.

 

I also really like the talk about specifically going after different demographics, AS WELL as how collector sales are indeed what's buoying the Generations line.

Those one-step transformation figures look like the sort of thing the target age group will really enjoy for the most part.

 

It's nice to know that they're going to be getting Swerve, Tailgate, and the other Legends out there alongside the newly revealed ones.

 

"Cybertron Monday" Oh, I get it. I really like that actually. Sort of a tacit acknowledgment that the brick-and-mortar experience is...iffy for a lot of us.

Hasbro team can't make retailers buy stuff, but they can tweak the wave assortments! Awesome.

 

Nice that they addressed the "cancelled" rumors by telling it as it is. Those waves were underordered and while the BH figures might get a limited shelf life, it was good to see that the plan with the Generations figures is "Yeah, we will just put them in later waves."

 

Those also explain where the cancelled rumors came from.

So the people who said the toys were cancelled were actually technically correct (the best kind of correct). As how were they to know Hasbro would resolicit them all?

 

"Reimagining" a character is not changing everything but the alt-mode. That's a new character to any other brand in the world.

Other than that, they always sound like they are getting it, but actions speak louder than words. We've heard the "we'll get it to retail thing" many times before. Hopefully that stuff does get out in good quantities, but I'll believe it when I see it.

 

Yeah I really think that rumor was neither malicious nor implausible. C'est la vie.

"Generations" has done that 0.0 times. That's the line he's clearly talking about there.

As far as movieverse and A/E/C, yeah I don't like rampant nameslapping either.

 

I like how Beast Hunters got the short-end of the stick instead of Generations.

This worked out in collectors' favor. I prefer Generations!

 

I still hope the last of the Beast Hunters stuff makes it to stores in my area. If not the oversized stuff, at the very least the Cyberverse stuff. I just need a Bludgeon and that jet Vehicon repaint.

 

Yeah; the wordiing was VERY suspicious.

I suspect an SDCC Metrotitan in the near future, myself.

 

sweet. Maybe I'll just pre-order online

 

Honestly what they had plan for 2014 wasn't that good. I'm glad they did, and I did like the series.

 

I would like a Metrotitan and perhaps a gold Metroplex / Knight of Cybertron repaint sometime.

They could try a few remoulds though like a ramp that reaches the ground and does not block the garage interior.
Or maybe guns that actually make 6-Gun. (and a pair of main rifles not just one) - You'd not need new guns maybe just a torso to plug them on too. and a new sound chip - if they gut the sound chip and use the Euro-Canadian non speaking one they can at least and I mean least give you two guns to compensate on a Metro-Titan release.

It would be fun to mock the Metroplex speech clips with Metro-Titan speech though.

 

Great back and forth with these two! Loved reading the article. And thanks for the question about the MIA Generations Legends Swerve/Cosmos. Wish I'd known the rumor was simply that before I ordered and paid quite a bit more than retail from an eBay seller, but what's done is done. At least hopefully I can get Tailgate, Gears, et. al. at a decent price. If so all will be forgiven.  

 

I thought this was kinda funny ONLY because they just released Whirl which is probably the most slavish recreation (almost to a fault given the hands) ever done in various Classics lines.

 

This is also what they said about those later waves of Movie Joes after that 3-d delay, but then re-released all the wave 1 and 2 stuff and the 3,4,5 never got to anywhere but Wallgreen's.

 

Ben Yee does terrific work, this interview has some good info.