Gen1 thanks for your response! I really appreciate it.

However, to keep your response confidential, I copy & pasted your response into a Private Message and sent it to myself. I then deleted the message you left on my visitor page so other board members could not view it.

Since you are new here and don't yet fully understand all the user options on the board, I STRONGLY SUGGEST if you wish to keep the info around and make it only viewable to you, you do what I did (copy & paste my and your responses into a Private Message and sent it to yourself-you'll have to break them up into 2 or 3 seperate messages because there is a character count limit of 6000). Then click the little white checkmark boxes next to your posts on this page that contain sensitive info and at the bottom of this page, choose the "delete" option from the dropdown box. This way you can still have our resposes around in your Private Message box to read privately, and not let others view them publicly on THIS page.

Please act on this precautionary measure so that you do not get in trouble for disucssing these items with me. I don't want you to get in trouble over something like this. Please understand. If you do want to talk further, private messaging would be the safest option.

And once again, thank you for your insight and I wish you and your team of friends well! You guys have been doing great work, I really appreciate the neat little things you conjure up!

P.S. For safety's sake, delete this message too when you are done.:thumb

Hey Netkid,

The first part of the message got left out from the previous message. Sorry... Below is how it started off!

Thank you for the quick response and acknowledgement on the post. Sorry to be so vague but can answer some of the questions. BTW, let the two other designers in on our exchange and got a good laugh out of it. =D

Yes, great minds do think alike. Louis' concept looks almost identical to our concept but unfortunately never meet him. This was a challenge after working on the first two TF movie promotions for BK. The first two promotions involved a "loose" interpretation of transformations since the partners would not "allow" us to do "actual" transformation unfortunately. The Super-D approach is something we always wanted to do for TF but due to the Star Trek, Spidey 3 and Star Wars Super-D promos, we needed some time to pass and after the Star Trek promotion, a year later we pushed for another Super-D program. We had to go out with a bang since this was the last TF movie and the biggest.

We started working on the project back in March 2010. Yes, Louis credits his work in 2009 but I assure you that we have never seen his work prior to your posting. This goes for my team as well. The concept came internally and was the only way for the TF movie promotion to "GO OUT WITH A BANG!" We definitely spent more pennies on this program since it's a blockbuster movie and thank GOD! Although wish we had more deco on the figures.

We believed that this is what the fans would want. This style is what we want as designers! Can't talk about the functions just yet but the BB and Starscream is like nothing we've ever done functionally. I am aware of the other promotions done by McD's domestically and internationally. Great stuff but these toys are SO, SO cool!

The characters we decided internally, keeping with the original and most recognizable characters, Shockwave and Soundwave. We were limited on reference and character reveal from Bay's camp. Go figure right? Wish we could have done more characters (per the one's you mentioned) if we knew about them a year ago.

Think that's all for now and please keep this to yourself. This team never post or talk about our work since there are sensitivities to leaks etc. BTW, this is the team has executed creative on almost all the global BK toys for the past 14 years. Manufacturing is done by another agency who do an excellent job. Thanks

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Hey Netkid,

Saw your posting on the TF3 toys for BK. Just wanted to set the record straight. You credited Louis for the TF "Flip-Out" Super-D concepts but he was not the designer for the toys.

The folks that came up with the creative for the toys are a crew of three people including myself. We do not know Louis but the concept is pretty much the same although the functions are going to blow your mind! BTW, Louis is a talented guy. Cannot post images or talk about the promotion until it launches at BK.

Thanks
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Wow, that's surprising! Thank You very much for your response! I thought your information was very insightful and it also helped to clarify the situation regarding these toys. Louis's concept (http://cdn.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/attach/3/9/4/0/7/burger-king-optimus-prime-kids-meal_1307121614.jpg) looks just like the toy. Great minds think alike I guess. Unless, if he was not the designer of the toys then was he the Artist on the toys? Then again, the actual toys almost look like bobble-heads (http://cdn.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/attach/3/9/4/0/7/burger-king-transformers-dark-of-the-moon-display-1_1307121622.jpg), and my gut feeling is telling me "I wonder if they each have an electronic sound feature? Movie dialogue or blaster sounds perhaps?" Excellent work BTW from you and your design team.

I myself have always wanted to design toys, even if they are simple ones made for fast-food chains or cereal box promotions. I find their simplicity to be very interesting and a great challenge in "keeping things simple, yet fun."

I understand that you cannot answer any questions until after the promotion begins, so I'll just leave these here:

When did you guys begin work on the concept? Louis credits his work 2009, which is why I initially thought his concept may have originally been made for the second live-action film, "Revenge of the Fallen."
Was this "super-deformed" idea for Movie #3 fast-food toys floating around for a while? Were Burger King or Hasbro offering it to designers for outside work or was this done in-house?

I've always been interested in what thought goes into the making of fast-food toys. I would imagine that cost, play value, safety standards, and overall appeal are large factors in determining how these products eventually turn out, Why was the decision made to utilize "super-deformed" styling? Was it chosen to follow Burger King's recent trend of making "super-deformed" stylized toys for their big summer blockbuster promotions (Spider-Man 3, Star Wars, Star Trek)? Why was the choice made to deviate from the previous two film's approach of a variety of different looking toys, all based on characters, each with their own unique play feature? Did Burger King want to abandon the idea of toys that all looked different and each did something unique? In regards to toys for this third film, did they ask for an overall "look" or specific design "theme" that would be found in each toy?

There have been many different approaches to the Transformers movie toys in fast-food promotions, Burger King's work on the first two films gave us a variety of different looking toys, all based on characters, each with their own unique play feature (none of them did the same thing), McDonald's recently gave us more of a centralized "action figure" type of line, each toy fit in with one another in appearance, but they all had their own unique play feature(firing missiles, punching action, flying copter blades, light-piped eyes, launching disks, flip out weapons, and light-up guns). Other fast-food chains outside the United States have adopted simplified toy versions of Hasbro's Legends-class movie toys, while recently KFC has also created an "action-figure" type line of their own for their promotion in Singapore.

Whatever(if any) the action feature of these toys may turn out to be (which I'll know once they are released), why was the decision made for said feature? Were other features considered (Louis's body-flipping-into-head idea, electronic sounds, bobble heads, light-up feature, etc.)?

How was the roster of 8 decided? (Optimus Prime, Megatron, BumbleBee, Starscream, Ironhide, Shockwave, Ratchet, & Soundwave-http://cdn.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/attach/3/9/4/0/7/burger-king-transformers-dark-of-the-moon-display-2_1307121691.jpg) Was it based on using the most well-known characters in Transformers or the most well know live-action characters?

Usually when Burger King did promotions with Movie "super-deformed" styled toys, they had a substantial lineup. Why was this limited to only 8? Why weren't other live-action characters included/used like the new Ferrari, the new blue Mercedes, the 3 new Nascar robots, Laserbeak (or any other live-action Transformers character for the matter. There are so many to choose from)?

That's all I can think up for questions. I'm sure in a few weeks, many of us here will be enjoying all the work you and your team put in to making these toys.

Again, Thank You very much for your response! I never expected to be contacted on this, especially from someone who had a direct hand in making these products. I really appreciate you going out of your way just to inform us here on the real matter, which, with your permission (I don't want to tell any info I'm not supposed to and possibly risk getting you in trouble), I will point out in the forum thread regarding this topic. Be well and have a great Summer!