Simple enough premise - take us from here to 2019. What steps do you take to ensure the continuing popularity of Transformers? What deals do you make? What lines do you launch? What comics/movies/tv shows will happen under your watch?

 

Step 1: Not use the term 5 year plan because that might imply very bad things.

Step 2: hire script writers who actually understand the medium and build up from there. Preferably the team from Animated. Or Roberts.

Step 3: make the packaging not look like freakin' 50's era shoeboxes!

 

I'd move transformers away from being aimed primarily at boys and opt for a broader audience. I'd push for shows and comics that are funny, educational, gripping and that expand the horizons of their medium. Lots of heart and creativity.

I'd want one show where there aren't any autobots or decepticons, just refugees from a civil war that crashed and scattered all over earth and now live hidden. The episodes would be about the transformers meeting new lifeforms and cultures, dealing with their traumatic experiences and maybe trying to find each other. Not much in the way of action but a lot of character. This would be a serious and honest portrayal of life on our planet with all that entails. The overall message would be one of cooperation and living together with different heritages.

I'd also want a Transformers: Generations show, which would be a sketch-based comedy where each transformer is drawn to look like their toy. Balljoints and screwholes and all.


For toys in general I'd want to revise the way accessories are handled. Instead of always being a gun or other form of weapon I'd want more general tools or other items that tell you something about the character. There really should be an artist with a paint brush and palette.

 

Getting any of the shows out that have never had a Region 1 DVD release would be high priority. (RID, Japanese Beast Wars.) In fact, I'd love to see shows dubbed and shown on TV for the first time. I've been saying for years, if the Japanese G1 shows (particularly Victory) were dubbed and marketed to children today with new toylines, I bet they'd love them. (Though now they'd have to be widescreen cropped.) If they were shown on the Hub, I can see them becoming popular. The animated is dated, but no less detailed than what they're used to on shows today.

Essentially I'd ensure that the Generations line continued to get out new versions of G1 and classic characters.

 

Reboot the movies with an overarching continuity in place and a 5 movie plan spread over the course of a decade. Hire designers that can design workable transformers with minimal cheating and a fresh look.

First two movies would be accessible, human centric, but steadily amping things up so that by movie 3, a transformer can be the main protagonist. Hire someone like Andy Serkis and deliver a transformer that can give an actual performance to the point where we forget it's all ridiculous CGI.

Cartoon series designed by Nick Roche.

In both of these, Optimus Prime would take a back seat. Spoken of, but screen appearances would be exciting rare events. He'd become more of a legendary figure. The focus would be on other characters.

That's off the top of my head.

 

2015: I'll assume this already has the stuff we know about set in stone, so... Push RID as an actual sequel with continuity to Prime, but not in the same sense as BW / BM. More in the sense of progressing as a franchise. Bee as leader? Sure. So on. Similarly, roll out a Jagex game / Rise of the Dark Spark paired video game line in Generations to pad out the subline product, since people seem to like the Jagex designs and there presumably would be plenty of demand for things like WFC / FoC Ratchet, Ironhide, and Hound (some of which would also be easy retools).

2016: Year of the Beasts. Beast Wars everything. New BW-based show either in the future or set in the wake of a Predacon / Maximal conflict starting up at the end of RID, with a tie-in line that functions as giving us pre-Earth BW figures of BotCon 2006 characters (yes, I hate how costly they are), as well as fresh designs with the same archetype. Additionally fold Generations BW product in such that a Generations Blackarachnia or something can be produced with relative ease. Push TF5 after the new BW product, but with an emphasis toward the later half of the year. Additionally announce Predacons Rising-esque direct to TV/DVD movies.

2017: This is when I actually want TF5 to happen. Plenty of TF5 product abounds. Generations takes a focus on "little known" characters, such as the Japanese guys like Star Saber and Deszaras, as well as the few remaining gaps in G1. First direct to DVD film produced, which would be the first adaptation of More Than Meets The Eye in animation. Keep pushing the idea of constant development of the franchise rather than stagnation.

2018: This is the tough year. I would suggest something radical needs to take place because TF5 wouldn't necessarily be enough due to burnout alone to keep people going to see these movies. Another MTMTE movie drops. To help bolster the line, Generations begins a fresh and unique set of remakes: G1 figures in proper scale (so things like Voyager Seekers to go with Megatron, for example) and at the same time, a special "Unicron Trilogy" style subline designed to push articulated and more show-accurate where possible versions of the Armada figures. Why 2018? Because TF5 in 2017, that's why. In addition, TransTech is announced as a series set in the future.

2019: TF6 and the finale of the mainline trilogy, resulting in not a reboot, but an offshoot attempt first: the first and only Beast Wars film planned, not designed to take much of the existing lore, but more focused on being its own thing. Set in the future much the same as the show, such that no continuity is technically needed. A total balance in this line (literally figure for figure) of robot, vehicle, and beast, preferably. To coincide with the seeming future of Transformers, the TransTech line arrives in the latter half of the year and the toys are pushed for that.

 

The new fan base the Movies gained are going to be growing up any time soon. This could have all sorts of implications like them potentially taking things more seriously and wanting to impress someone of the opposite or same sex with their sophisticated taste in movies. shifting their tone away from the sexist and unfunny slap-stick humour of the current ones and upping their quality might be a good idea to potentially push them into spectacle movies with heart you could take a date on.

In terms of what tone to shift to I would say get James Roberts to write it, his sense of humour could potentially keep the very young audience in and his way with heartbreak and character depth could give the new movies some re-watch value that the current ones lack. In terms of visuals think Gullermo Del Toro taking low brow trashy stuff seriously enough and adding beautiful visuals and world building with Pacific Rim or the way marvel studios manages to keep things true to their pulpy primary coloured source material but makes credible films in their own right.

 

This.

Also I'd give my job to the first person I see because chances are I'll muck it up

 

So many goddamn bumblebees.

 

Like most fans, make what I think is best with my stunningly limited expertise and then subsequently drive the brand into the ground.

 

accidentally drive the brand into the ground within two weeks, change name, flee to cuba, become fried banana salesman for the next 4 years and 50 weeks.

 

This - 5 years of non stop Bumblebee on Bumblebee action including a new trilogy focusing on Bumblebee's struggle to defend Bumblebee from Bumblebee as Bumblebee Bumblebee Bumblebee BumbleBUZZBUZZBUZZBUZZ

BUZZ
BUZZ
BUZZ
BUZZ
*sting*
*sting*
*pollinate*
BUZZ
BUZZ

 

Commit lots of fraud then bail out before i'm caught. Make a push for figures only I want and no one else does, along with drastically raising prices through the roof.

 

Okay, I'm gonna sum this up quick.
2015 - MORE BEAST WARS
2016 - More fembots. More movie toys. More Decepticons. Better Movie Prime.
2017 - More combiners. Deluxes as limbs, Voyagers as torsos.
2018 - Machine Wars throwback. New Scorponok. Mayber Leader Class Fort Max
2019 - Generations Leader Galaxy Master Optimus Prime(aka Star Convoy). Maybe Titan class. Depend on whether or not we can do the base mode. Generation Leader Class Dai Atlas.

That's all I got for now. Will update if I think of any more.

Huh. So, 2015 is all combiners, and the new Voyager Prime looks to be part of one. What do you know!

 

Cut all ties with the major retailers and sit on warehouses full of figures so I can create artificial "rarity" by releasing them on ebay 1 case at a time through dozens of sockpuppet accounts. At the same time I'd whip up a frenzy in the fandom by explaining that everyone who wasnt supporting the brand through spending outrageous sums of money on these secret underground Transformers wasn't a True Fan.

 

Oh first order of business: Any toy I personally don't care for will have it's mold destroyed. Second: Get some lunch maybe take a nap. Thir... I've been fired.

 

Step 1: Fire Michael Bay and Eren Kruger. then give the movies to Guillermo del Toro and james Roberts.

step 2: Quarterly direct to dvd animated features like what DC does. adapt stories from the comic books like Infestation, last Stand of the Wreckers, and Hearts of Steel. tie Generations into these films, a wave or two of each size class per film.

step 3:take full advantage of the Collector's club and HTS, use them as a means of getting product to market directly. maybe even open HasbroToyShop storefronts. hell if lego can have its own store, why not Hasbro?

step 4: focus the brand. fewer offshot lines like power attackers and construct bots. and stay the course with the line that got us here.

step 5: more Kreo support. look at what lego does with their brick brand, display cases, unique promotional items, creative kits. and copy the hell outta that. maybe even, dare I say it, kreo original characters.

step 6: negotiate with cable providers to get the hub network on basic packages. in an effort to widen the audience.

and finally: Take the Masterpiece line away from Toys R Us and make it a mass retail line again.

 

Aeranoth is not only a genius. He's an evil genius.  

In a perfect world, I'd definitely go for DTV or maybe even Netflix animated films in the style of DC. I wouldn't cater to any audience in particular. I think the current attempt to have simple and complex figures is a good idea, but I wouldn't give kids pieces of shit for toys like those hideous blocks that can "transform", like Drift. I'd have another Cybertron game made, with clear effort and love put into it. I would also definitely explore the possibilities when it comes to new Animated material.

 

I would sell Hasbro to Disney, run with the money and retire early knowing that I and my children would be set for life. Fuck you whiny fanbois!

 

Knowing what I know currently? I would troll the fuck out of this fandom. SO.VERY.MUCH

Nothing but Bayformers. ALL.THE.THE.TIME.

I would also compile the most whinny online statements and release them in a book.