New York Times bestseller and TFW2005 member Matthew Reinhart (Gigasor) released his most recent project, Transformers: The Ultimate Pop-Up Universe late last year. The book blends his acclaimed paper engineering skills with the art of fan-favorite Emiliano Santalucia, and features some of Matthew's most ambitious work to date. He recently sat down with us to discuss the project, his collection, and his love of all things Transformers.

TFW: From everything I've read not only are you an acclaimed paper engineer, but you're also a passionate Transformers fan. True?

Matthew: Yeah, I've a pretty much been a Transformers fan/collector since 1984, though I was born quite a few years before that.

TFW: How were you first introduced to Transformers?

Matthew: Strangely, it was the Minibot Gears who was my first Transformer toy, by accident, really; a friend must've left the little guy over at my house. I remember thinking he was pretty cool, if not a little simplistic. Since Star Wars was my first science-fiction and toy obsession, I could only let myself enjoy Transformers from a distance, watching the animated Sunbow Transformers series and ogling Transformers toy packaging on the toy store shelves... at when they weren't completely sold out! The original TF cartoon characters and adventures, however hokey by our current standards, really made me a fan. What kid wouldn't think giant shape-shifting alien robots weren't totally awesome? The whole concept kinda blew my mind and I never looked at a tape deck the same again! However, being the huge Star Wars figure collector (I was a pretty fastidious kid - lemme tell you), I couldn't completely give in to Transformers on my limited kid's budget until the following year when Kenner's Star Wars line was beginning to wind down. Jetfire and Grimlock were the first big additions to my new Transformers addiction, and I've been hooked ever since.

TFW: If I recall correctly, you mentioned at Botcon this past year that you do have a Transformers collection, but your New York apartment prevents you from displaying very many of your figures at a time. What do you collect? G1? Classics? Masterpiece? Other lines? All of the above? Any grails you've been able to achieve or are still pursuing?

Matthew: I've been collecting Transformers from the G1 era of toys until now... and probably will until my spark extinguishes! I'm not obsessive completest and just get TF figures I like. Unfortunately for my bank account, I like just about everything, including vintage G1 figures, Japanese exclusives, pre-Transformers, Masterpiece, Alternators, Unicron Trilogy, Beast Wars, RID, Prime/Beast Hunters, Classics/Generations and third-party, TF-inspired transforming robots. I've limited myself to buying transforming figures only, though, and media like books, comics and video. There's just too much to keep up with, and I am also still a dedicated Star Wars 3 3/4" figure collector. Thank Primus for off-site storage facilities - Manhattan isn't the cheapest place to maintain a dedicated toy display room!


Serious geek cred.

There are a LOT of favorite pieces in my vintage TF collection, including a MIB Minerva/Minelba, MIB Jetfire, MOC Action Master Elite Omega Spreem, MIB Overlord, MIB Ironfist, and all six of the Japan-exclusive Headmasters to name just a few. Pre-Transformers toys that never made it into the actual Hasbro/Takara lines are of special interest to me, like the GiG helicopter/jet Triple-changer and the Diaclone MC-11 Magnum 44 Gun Robo.

As for TF 'grails', don't all TFans have a most-wanted list? MIB Black Zarak ('cause if he's outta box, he's usually shattered into pieces) and the Japanese exclusive Pretender combiners that form Dinoking are at the top of mine. Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with my vintage collection and continue to collect most of the new lines that come out each year.

TFW: So, I do have to admit that I wasn't familiar with your work prior to hearing about this book on TFW2005 and seeing it at Botcon. I think that for the uninitiated, images of hokey greeting card style pop-ups come to mind when pop-up books are mentioned. The work you do goes well beyond that. This book is tremendous! I think the best complement I can give it is that my wife, who is not a Transformers fan, described it as "incredible". My two and a half year old daughter said "wow, wook' at 'dat", which is her highest form of praise at the moment. Tell me a bit about how you became a paper engineer and pop-up book author, as well as some information about your previous books.

Matthew: My journey to becoming a paper engineer, author and illustrator was a long twisted road. Drawing and making things out of cardboard, paper and other household items has always been my primary creative outlet, in fact I don't ever remember NOT being creative that way. When most kids leave markers, scissors, and glue behind, I just kept on, filling my high school and college notebooks up with creatures, heroes and everything in between. My parents weren't keen on me becoming a starving artist, and pushed me towards a pre-med degree. Unfortunately, my knowledge of the many creative fields out there was limited to comic illustration, feature animation and fine art, so I followed their suggestion.


Optimus Prime concept pop

A year before going to my first semester of medical school, I moved to New York City and discovered a wide range of creative (and lucrative) fields that might best suit my brand of creativity. With some convincing, my parents backed me up and I was able to go to Industrial Design school at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. I was most interested in toy design and feature production design initially, but my internship with pop-up book master Robert Sabuda helped me realize I had a talent for paper engineering pop-ups. I almost quit school early to take an internship at Kenner working on the Beast Wars Transmetals line! Thank Primus I stuck to pop-ups, since Hasbro closed Kenner doors soon after and moved the Transformers team to Rhode Island.

My career right after Pratt consisted of freelance model-making with Blue's Clues at Nickelodeon, various odd illustration jobs and helping out Robert Sabuda with his books. Soon enough, I was co-authoring books and then authoring/illustrating/paperengineering my own, including a few New York Times best-selling children's books like Cinderella: A Pop-Up Fairy Tale, Star Wars: The Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy, DC Super Heroes: The Ultimate Pop-Up Book and Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Dinosaurs (which was translated into 25 different languages - which blows my mind). My career thus far has been blessed and I am very thankful.


Optimus Prime pop reference sheet 1


Optimus Prime pop reference sheet 2

TFW: What was the genesis of this project? Did Hasbro approach you? Did you approach Hasbro? How did Emiliano Santalucia become involved?

Matthew: I like to think that I was the first to want this project to happen, but important folks like my publisher Little Brown, my editor Liza Baker, and all the folks at Hasbro like the incredible Director of Global Publishing, Michael Kelly, made the book a reality. Way back in 2006 or 2007, an editor friend introduced me to the former head of Hasbro publishing and I pitched the initial concept with simple transforming Starscream and Bumblebee pops (much, much less complicated than the ones in the finalized book). Hasbro was all for it, once the timing of the Transformers big-budget movies and my book schedule synched up. After having a couple worldwide hits like my Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Dinosaurs and Star Wars: A Pop-Up Guide To The Galaxy, the folks from Hasbro believed my passion for and knowledge of Transformers universe(s) would translate very well into an exciting book of transforming paper sculpture. I'm pretty convincing when I want to be! So, many years later in the Fall 2013, this dream project finally came to be.


Emiliano Santalucia Shockwave concept sketch

As for Emiliano's involvement, I was a fan of his work in IDW's Blaster Spotlight. He had done a good amount of in-house Hasbro inspirational art that nailed the look I wanted and I knew from the get-go that it would take me too long to mimic very detailed, technical art style used for illustrating modern Transformers. I met him during a Masters Of The Universe fan party at San Diego Comic-Con, found out his schedule was open and he was interested in trying something new. Since the talented Signor Santalucia lives in Italy, we worked together via the internet - not only an incredibly talented (and unbelievably fast) artist, Emiliano's a down-to-earth great guy.


Emiliano Santalucia Starscream concept sketch

TFW: Any special challenges to creating a Transformers pop-up book vs. say your previous Star Wars books or others?

Matthew: Transformers: The Ultimate Pop-Up Universe created challenges I'd never faced before in my work - making large three dimensional pop-up structures that also have the ability to transform with the pull of a tab. The large central pops in the book were the toughest to figure out, because there's just so many moving pieces and TFs are just so damn complicated! I become obsessed with dream projects like this, and I wanted to make a pop-up book experience beyond anything I had created before. I kind of went crazy for a month or so, engineering the first full working prototype, because I have to rebuild things multiple times to get things just right. When engineering morphing pops, an artist must also consider what is seen on both sides of pop-up pieces, making it doubly hard. Everything had to be sketched by me roughly and intricately mapped out before Emiliano Santalucia was even involved - there's just NO way he would've innate understood where robot anatomy started and vehicular details began. My life-long Transformers obsession helped immeasurably in getting all the details right before the final stage of a pop-up book, making the color artwork, happened.

TFW: What did the design process for this book look like? In particular, I can imagine it's difficult to incorporate a transformation to each of your pop-ups. On top of that, you're working with another artist to ensure proportions and what-not are correct. It seems like it would be a highly iterative process. What can you share?

Matthew: With most books, I first write a manuscript and then start mapping out what pops could be on each page. One I sort of have this pop-up outline decided, the engineering the pops (by hand, of course - no 3D animation program can do the work) begins and takes about a couple months. I toil away, just cutting and folding paper for each different mechanism. Once I'm happy with a mechanism for each pop-up, I’ll carefully take it apart, scan all of the pop pieces in the computer and trace them in Adobe Illustrator making digital die lines. These die lines allow me to reprint and rebuild the pops and analyze how the pieces work together and what needs to be changed for the finalized book. For example, Starscream versus Bumblebee pop-up on the first spread was probably rebuilt about thirty times to make sure it worked smoothly. There are A LOT of mistakes along the way, but I'm pretty fast and used to the process overall.

Creating the color artwork is the icing on the cake - typically I will also make the color artwork, but in this instance had the pleasure of working with Emiliano, a master of Transformers art. After all the pieces have been laid out separately, I'll create rough sketches and detailed guides with visual references for each pop-up. Once Emiliano finished his sketches and color art, it would be transposed onto the die lines for all the pop-up pieces. This book was about an eight month labor of love and there were a ton of little details I wanted just right! All the work needs to be completed about a year before the release date so that there's enough time for hand manufacturing and shipping.


Transforms from concept sketch to...


...completed pop!

TFW: As Transformers fans, it seems like we're always categorizing our toys and media. "That figure is in the Prime aesthetic", G1, classics, Bay-former, etc. One thing that struck me about this book was how my brain wasn't able to categorize it. It seems like it intentionally blurs the line aesthetically. You've got a very Prime-esque Bumblebee in vehicle mode, but who has a much more G1 or WFC / FoC inspired head in robot mode. There are characters like Prowl whose earth vehicle mode looks like it's straight from his classics toy, while others like Soundwave and the Combaticons look like they're straight out of the WFC or FoC video games. I saw Masterpiece influences in characters like Starscream, as well as interesting juxtapositions in the earth battle scene with what appears to be a direct representation of the G1 Beachcomber toy next to other toy or cartoon inspired art. Was this intentional on your part? Direction given by Hasbro? Emiliano's influence? They almost look how I'd imagine aligned continuity images would look.

Matthew: I primarily directed the art style for this book, with Hasbro looking over my shoulder making all final decisions. At the time the book started, the 'Aligned' continuity, pulled together elements from the TF multiverse, was coming together. My publisher and I wanted to pull in young readers, new TF fans, and older die-hard fanboys like myself, so we decided blur the lines between continuities and celebrate a G1 with an updated modern aesthetic. After getting a good long gander at the fabled 'Binder Of Revelation' at the Hasbro compound (yup, I almost blew a gasket when I looked through that thing), there were plenty of styles represented to choose. That said, War For/Fall Of Cybertron and the Transformers: Prime series had a big influence as they headlined Hasbro's primary TF media at the time. I threw in a few IDW characters when I could, including the hothead captain of the Lost Light, Rodimus, and the monocled know-it-all turned sharpshooter, Perceptor. G1 won out in a lot of the designs, for example, Arcee is pink! We all have so many different lines of figures in our collections, so many we love - why not throw a little of everything in the mix, eh?


"Earth Battle" pop

TFW: I know some fans may be wowed by your larger pop-ups -- Optimus Prime, Megatron, or your largest ever, Omega Supreme. However, I was taken by some of the smaller pop-ups, especially how some of them try to incorporate a more "true" transformation. For example, the front of Shockwave's alt-mode actually becomes his arm in robot mode. Or how the Combaticons maintained their appropriate positions when merging to form Bruticus. Did you focus on trying to do a variety of different things with your pop-ups?

Matthew: I've been transforming these toys for almost 30 years now and it was imperative to try my best to make the characters transform properly. Though I am mostly quiet in the forums, I read them often and Transformers fans are one thing if not... particular about the details. As big a fan as I am, there was no settling for less by cheating on transformations. Plus, its boring if you make the same movement for every pop-up, not only to the reader but also for me designing it. For example, the hood of alt-mode Jazz transforms into the chest piece of his robot mode, just like almost every iteration of our favorite Autobot cool cat. All five of the Combaticons (my personal favorite combiner thanks to the G1 episodes "Starscream's Brigade" & "The Revenge of Bruticus") flip up and merge into Bruticus because I don't think many fans would want it any other way!


Bruticus!

TFW: What are you most proud of with this book? Anything you'd like to change or take a second shot at?

Matthew: I'm most proud of the Optimus Prime, Omega Supreme and Cybertron/Earth Battle pop-ups for lot of different reasons. The Optimus pop just works (overall) so smoothly and oddly makes a really satisfying sound when he transforms (yes, I even like the sound a pop-up makes). The Omega Supreme pop, inspired by his cover of Marvel's Transformers #19, is just huge, cool and, to my amazement, still folds back into the book neatly. The Cybertron/Earth Battle, while it utilizes a relatively simple mechanism, was inspired by the old TF box battle murals and crammed with 50 different characters.


Omega Supreme, Reinhart's tallest pop-up ever!

As for changes, that usually is due to manufacturing difficulties out of my control - for example, the mechanism for transforming Megatron sometimes sticks. My other regret is that I wasn't able to make a bigger book with more pages of pops and more room for text. The initial manuscript I wrote had a lot more details to cover.

TFW: Give me three things most people miss when reading this book.

Matthew: 1. Take a peek inside Optimus Prime's vehicular mode and you'll see a holographic driver character inspired by the man who's voiced him for 30 years.


That driver looks oddly familiar...

2. The Japanese character Greatshot appears in the background of the 'Earth Battle' for one of my first TFan friends from Botcon, Will. I had been shy about making connections in our happy fan community, but he was the first to welcome me in.


Geratshot and others from the "Earth Battle" pop.

3. There is a very limited edition of the book with a special cloth-bound cover, slip case and additional pop-up inspired by the original animated Transformers movie form 1986. Inside, planet mode Unicron (a melding of his original G1 design and the Japanese exclusive Gaia Unicron toy) hovers over Cybertron. With the pull of a tab, he transforms to robot mode while a Matrix-wielding Rodimus Prime, Wreck-Gar, Kup, Springer and Daniel Witwicky appear beneath him. A few call-outs from the old movie poster ('Beyond good. Beyond evil. Beyond imagination.') and lines of movie dialogue ('turbo-revving young punk') appear in its accompanying text.


Art from the limited edition cover.

TFW: What's next? Any plans for a sequel to this book?

Matthew: No plans on a Transformers pop-up sequel yet - we have to make this one a big hit first! As for what's next, I've got a lot ahead, including some non-fiction and fairy tale books brewing, both in pop-up and traditional book formats. This spring I've got a 'Game Of Thrones' book releasing and another very secret, very popular, very magical project galloping ahead for next year. Most importantly with my work, I'm continually striving to create something interesting, exciting and unexpected inside the pages of a book.

TFW: Thank you very much for taking the time to answer some questions, Matthew!

Matthew can be reached on MatthewReinhart.com, "Pop-Up Books by Matthew Reinhart" on Facebook, and on Twitter account MathewReinhar1. Matthew's author page on Amazon can be found here.

Also, please check out the full TFW gallery for the book here.

 

Cool. Why are some Prime pics blacked out?

 

I got this book for Christmas and it IS awesome. By far the coolest pop-up book I've ever seen. The engineering on every page is amazing. The pictures here, while fine and good, do not begin to do the book justice, which is truly a marvel when you see it in person! Even if it wasn't about Transformers I would be very impressed with it just on a technical note, but having it be about one of my favorite things in the world makes it just that much more awesome!

 

Amazing. Omega Supreme looks TOP.

 

This looks awesome! I mean, just the amount of really cool stuff that got thrown in here... Just... Wow.  

(And a cameo by Big Red too!   )

 

does anyone know what the retail price on this is? im dying to know how much of a mark up my shop has on it lmao

 

So, so awesome! The book may only be ten pages long, but I love it! Transformers characters and pop-up books both require a balance of design and construction, so they pretty much go hand in hand. Were there any official TF pop-up books (transforming or otherwise) before this one?

And it's especially great that Reinhart has both a strong sense of pop-up design and appreciation for Transformers; he was pretty much the perfect person for this. And of course, a lot of thanks are deserved toward Santalucia for the great artwork! I'll continue to enjoy my regular version of the book,...but oh man, a limited edition with an '86 movie-inspired spread??? Dang it.

(Sorry if this post was kind of scattered - it's just that I really like the book, and reading this interview made my night!)

 

This book looks really cool. I may just have to pick this up to read/look at with my son  He really likes what you've done here, Matthew. Me too 

 

Been a fan of Matthew Reinhart's for a while. Initially his dinosaur book which I got for my Godsons and then had to get one for myself. Then found his Star wars books when they were released and they are awesome, so when I heard he was doing a Transformers book, I nearly squealed like a little girl in delight (well maybe not but you get the picture).
Got this book for Christmas and it is truly amazing. Was looking at it with my 5 yr old son last night and he found the driver in OP, took great delight in seeing it was Peter Cullen. Now I have the Song of Ice and Fire book to look forward to.

 

Doesn't appear to me that Transformers Animated got a lot of love. Anyone catch anything suggesting otherwise?

 

I have this book already and it is awesome!

 

A little G1..... A little Prime...... I like it.

 

Incredible book. And that limited edition cover looks and sounds amazing.

 

Oh, Animated got love! Bulkhead & Lugnut both appear prominently!

 

I love the artwork and look of the characters.  

 

Would the blacked out Optimus pictures on the reference page be from Age of Extinction?

 

No, not Age of Extinction art   just wanted to make sure to only show reference art that had been published. The truck and robot designs blacked out are essentially the pop-up Prime's design.

 

Awesome picture of Scrounge there.

Never heard of this book. I think I'm going to have to pick it up.

 

This looks awesome. Better than the Covenant was.