Update by Sol Fury, 14:10 - Official TFW2005 panel coverage: - You'll see a lot more Decepticons in the newer shows as they're the core of the story. - Sentinel Prime was designed after Townsend Coleman was cast in the role, so he was designed with The Tick partially in mind. - Blitzwing's Austrian accent was entirely Bumper Robinson's idea. The team loved it and it stuck. - Some of the Sari theories on the net are getting close, some are not near the mark. Marty Isenberg says keep on theorising, they are getting a kick out of reading them all. She's got a clear endgame. - Three of these four will appear - Ratbat, Swindle, Waspinator and Galvatron. - Hand drawn animation was "always part of the plan", the style was simply what Derrick Wyatt was used to and comfortable with. They're all fans of Mighty Orbots, hence that vibe. - Angry Archer and Nanosec will return - Wreck Gar, they wanted Eric Idol, he was unavailable as he was doing Spamalot in Vegas so they asked Weird Al. - Frank Willard will be doing a character. - The show is made in HD, and broadcast in 4/3. DVDs may be in HD. - All the main cast will eventually get flashback / history episodes. - lots of ad libbing, Season 2's last scene is completely ad libbed, as is a scene in Rise of the Constructicons - Season 3 is in planning, toys are planned. Season 4 is planned by the writers, if it gets the go-ahead. - The Ultra Magnus toy is amazing, even cooler than he is on the show - and he gets an amaing scene in episode 19. - Lugnut's fan-named "Punch of Kill Everything" may be named that in the show, if the writers can work it in somehow (and if they can say kill) - Oil Slick is a non-show character for now, he may be worked into season 3 or up. He'll be in the comic, issue #3. - There are other Primes out there, we may see Rodimus Prime down the line in season 3 or later. - Other groups of Decepticons, and events / locations referenced in the first two seasons, will be shown in later episodes. - No plans for more Dinobots. - Arcee may return in the future, but not in season 2. - Goldbug = no. - Unicron = NO. - Sky Byte is always possible, but no real plans to do him. - All the beasts are different characters, who become beasts / change somehow. - Waspinator is not in Black Friday. - "if they are doing" Waspintor "they would try" to get Scott McNeil, but "he will probably not be available" (phrased in such a way not to confirm or deny, but it's fairly clear we're not getting Scott, unfortunately) - Omega not confirmed, certainly not in the Sari centric episode. - No plans for soundtrack CDs yet. - Sentinel Prime was originally planned as Rodimus Prime, but Hasbro overruled this because they did not wanted Rodimus "tainted" - Don't expect guys who used to be combiners to be combiners. They have talked about doing combiners but there are no plans. - sometimes, lines get cut because of the content, one such line from the Constructicons episode was "What the forklift was that?". At first, they couldn't say things like "What the Spark?" or "Slag!" but that's cleared now more or less. They're testing it as far as they can and can pretty much do all they want to, within reason. - They want a sense of scale, so no rampant mass shifting is going to take place. - They've talked about Optimus Primal, but no specific plans, and nowhere to fit him in yet. - Laserbeak was a Hasbro design, hence why he didn't show up in Sound and Fury - the writers did not know about him. There are plans for more from Soundwave in Season 3, with Laserbeak. Other cassettes? The answer was a knowing but not telling "maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe....."
I don't know what to make of this...Maybe Red Alert, who was going to be a femmebot medic in the show, but was replaced by Ratchet, is going to be a dude now? again?
Lots of good information there. Hope they get to season 3 & 4 as I've wanted to see Shockwave and I'd be all for a Rodimus. Interesting that Oil Slick is a toy only character. Explains why we haven't heard anything from him in the series yet huh? And, as for the part about someone not being a girl... sound like Sari is a robot after all... Omega Supreme... of course they can't deny it if he is there. They won't confirm it yet either though... Oh, and whoever mentioned that they were supposed to do a Red Alert as a femmebot medic before she was replaced with Ratchet... where did that information come from because I must have missed it?
I was at the panel as well, I'll update the first post with my own notes from there. I didn't have a laptop to do "live" coverage so this is done the tried and tested low tech way.
I few things I'd like to comment on directly: Well, it's better than Galvatron. Damn, that would've been awesome. Who? Yes! This is good news. Awesome, I love ad lib, it makes the conversations more convincing most of the time. Yes please! As I expected. I'm glad. I like the idea of a trio of robo-dinos. Figures. OH PLEASE LET IT HAPPEN!!!! And if so, please try and bring back Peter Spellos, he and his voice made Sky-Byte Sky-byte. The plot thickens! Hells yes. A little late for Rodimus. HELLS YES! Please!
Oh, cool. Definently missed that one. Think it would have been cool to get a female Red Alert character out the series though... Not that I don't love crotchety old Ratchet mind you!
Big plans for Soundwave? How about a drumset, a bass guitar, and maybe a keyboard that all transform into his minions!
wow I am so glad there is no unicron. I'm really freaking bummed out about the lack of combiners. And i'm not sure If I liked the fact that laserbeak was an afterthought. Although it seems that these people have their crap together, I'm sure the third season will be a great one.
oh yes oh hell yes im going nuts with excitement i love animated and it gets better and better. I hope it gets darker like in season 3 of G1.
