TFW2005 was able to capture several Hasbro employees, tie them up, and interrogate them under a harsh incandescent light swinging wildly from the ceiling. We have since learned several interesting tidbits about the future of the toy line. The full interview is here:

https://news.tfw2005.com/2023/07/28/sdcc-2023-hasbro-show-floor-qa-legacy-studio-series-video-games-more-488215

Sme interesting tidbits:

Adding video game characters to Studio Series means they will potentially consider anything that has existed in a video game. (They even suggested, not entirely seriously, doing a Famicom "Mystery of Convoy" toy with some kind of pixelated deco.) Nintendo 64 Transmetals were also mentioned as an outside possibility.

Comic book characters could also be added to Studio Series. The thought process is "screen to toy," and a lot of fans are reading comic books on their phone or computer now.

They are aware that the 40th anniversary of the Transformers brand is right around the corner, and they want to celebrate all aspects of it.

Legacy will have a third chapter. They hinted that there will be some announcements coming in the fall, during PulseCon.

Army builder characters are something that they recognize Transformers sort of lacks, compared to other toy lines. They're aware that people were buying multiple Studio Series Sharkticons and Pit of Judgment sets, for example. Additional Seekers were mentioned as a possibility.

They suggested that the 40th anniversary might be a good time to release a full G1 cartoon soundtrack and not just a handful of tracks.

There might be a Studio Series version of Astrotrain on the way, without the Siege battle damage and more accurate to his cartoon colors.

They are thinking about revisting Arcee as a Voyager-class figure, and the higher price point would include additional engineering that might allow them to make her massive backpack fold up a little bit smaller.

Liokaiser and Road Ceasar were both mentioned as possible characters who might be joining Star Saber and Deathsaurus some day.

Apparently the Hasbro team talks about Pretender updates quite a bit, and they're pretty happy with their current approach. Thunderwing's name was floated as a character they want to address.

The possibility of Beast Wars Transmetals came up, but they would likely be using metallic paint instead of vac-metal chrome.

Velocitron Cosmos is on the road map for a reissue eventually. It sounds like his exclusivity to Walmart has expired, so they are definitely going to put him back out there.

Machine Wars was mentioned as an idea for a future capsule toy line. Evan Brooks said something about how some existing molds already have the right characteristics, which I take to mean toys like Skyquake and RiD 2000 Tow-Line.

When asked about a Power of the Primes Predaking reissue (with swords and guns), they said they would likely re-engineer him rather than do a straight rerelease.

When asked about which characters he'd like to see in Legacy, Evan mentioned the G1 Omnibots, as "everyone's waiting for that trio." Really, they're like the only 1984 characters left.

It was suggested that if they ever did a Starscream's ghost toy, made of translucent parts, that it would probably be part of Legacy and not Studio Series.

Evan mentioned that "we definitely need to do" a red Diaclone version of Mirage at some point. Powered Convoy was also mentioned, but isn't that just Delta Magnus?

The next Transformers toy campaign for HasLab will start this coming fall.

When asked about doing more weapons for Titan-class toys to carry, Evan mentioned it might be time to do a new Metroplex to give him the modern ankle articulation. (Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in...)

Zob (was that the sound of my wallet screaming in pain...?)

On Saturday, July 29, 2023 at 5:30:53 PM UTC+1, Zobovor wrote:
>
> They are aware that the 40th anniversary of the Transformers brand is right around the corner, and they want to celebrate all aspects of it.

Somehow, this hadn't occurred to me until now. It's ever so slightly terrifying, but also pretty danged awesome. I'm not quite sure what I want to see that hasn't already been done at some point. Maybe some nicely bound book of G1 cartoon art, since there were some lovely bits and pieces in among the animation errors. Even the Akom episodes had some good backgrounds!

> They suggested that the 40th anniversary might be a good time to release a full G1 cartoon soundtrack and not just a handful of tracks.

Eh. I read this more as they were asked about a full soundtrack, gave a glib answer and will probably not think about it again. But hopefully I'm wrong. It would be pretty fun.
> There might be a Studio Series version of Astrotrain on the way, without the Siege battle damage and more accurate to his cartoon colors.
>
> They are thinking about revisting Arcee as a Voyager-class figure, and the higher price point would include additional engineering that might allow them to make her massive backpack fold up a little bit smaller.

Hey, remember those decades when we thought they would never ever do G1 Arcee and now she gets a new toy every couple of years? Just to check... doesn't Voyager Class mean she'd be a bigger figure so she wouldn't be in scale?

The Studio Series 86 line is the thing that's seriously tempting me to collect the toys, just because they look so damn close to the cartoon versions, even down to the scale (more or less?). I've decided to treat myself to Arcee, and whenever they get round to doing Springer, I'll splurge on him. Just to satisfy my mushy inner fangirl, you know. And then that'll be it. I'll stop there. Right?

Velvet Glove (Perceptor looks stunning, but I'm not sure he's worth hurling myself down a slippery slope for)

On Sunday, July 30, 2023 at 4:43:47 PM UTC-6, Velvet Glove wrote:

> Hey, remember those decades when we thought they would never ever do G1 Arcee and now she gets a new toy every couple of years?

It's honestly amazing. Like, the current Hasbro team has been really committed to doing toys for characters like the Quintessons and Unicron and Alpha Trion and Devcon and a bunch of guys that I just never thought we'd see. They're even doing Cybertronic vehicle versions of guys like Bumblebee and Jazz. This is truly the golden age if you're a collector and a G1 fan.

> Just to check... doesn't Voyager Class mean she'd be a bigger figure so she wouldn't be in scale?

Lately they've been treating the different classes more like price points instead of size classes. Leader-class, for example, no longer means "really big $50 toy," now a lot of the time it means "a Voyager-sized toy with extra engineering or more parts thrown in." So they're still paying attention to scale, but some toys (like Triple Changers) require a lot more engineering than a normal release, which is why they often get bumped up to the next price point.

So, a Voyager-class Arcee would still be the right height, but that extra money would get poured into additional engineering, so she'd have more complexity than just popping off half her car mode and letting her ride it like a surfboard.
> The Studio Series 86 line is the thing that's seriously tempting me to collect the toys, just because they look so damn close to the cartoon versions, even down to the scale (more or less?). I've decided to treat myself to Arcee, and whenever they get round to doing Springer, I'll splurge on him. Just to satisfy my mushy inner fangirl, you know. And then that'll be it. I'll stop there. Right?

No. It's like Pringles. Once you pop, you can't stop.

So, I would say that the best Arcee toy out there right now is the Studio Series '86 version. She's like a mish-mash of the failed Earthrise toy and the superior 2014 Generations release. They kind of Frankensteined them together and ended up with a really good toy. It's not that the Earthrise version is a bad likeness of Arcee. The robot mode is great. But she fails as a transforming toy because you just pop off half the car mode. It feels like they cheated.

The Siege version of Springer from 2019 is quite excellent. There's also a Wreckers-themed redeco of it in slightly less cartoony colors. It's an incredibly complex piece of engineering, but if you're going to put him on a shelf so he can look pretty, then it might be a good choice. But, there's a mysterious Leader-class Springer coming eventually, too, so I'm not sure if it's a larger toy, or the Siege toy with updated engineering, or something else entirely.

Zob (and have you seen pictures of the Commander-class Ultra Magnus? I drooled all over my keyboard!)

On Monday, July 31, 2023 at 2:09:44 AM UTC+1, Zobovor wrote:
>
> So, a Voyager-class Arcee would still be the right height, but that extra money would get poured into additional engineering, so she'd have more complexity than just popping off half her car mode and letting her ride it like a surfboard.

Got it. I think there's only so much engineering can do, if they're trying to be cartoon accurate. She just doesn't have enough pink in her robot mode to distribute the car parts around. That said, a G1 Arcee design with some car kibble on her legs (i.e. pink boots or bracers? And straight planes on her thighs instead of curves) could probably look very cool, and I kind of wish the Earthrise version (including War for Cybertron cartoon model) had gone that route.

> The Siege version of Springer from 2019 is quite excellent. There's also a Wreckers-themed redeco of it in slightly less cartoony colors. It's an incredibly complex piece of engineering, but if you're going to put him on a shelf so he can look pretty, then it might be a good choice. But, there's a mysterious Leader-class Springer coming eventually, too, so I'm not sure if it's a larger toy, or the Siege toy with updated engineering, or something else entirely.

From what I can tell, Springer is the only one of the main movie cast (with the debatable exception of Rodimus?) who they haven't released in the Studio Series 86 line, so I figure he'll come along in the next year or two. I'll hold out for that.

> Zob (and have you seen pictures of the Commander-class Ultra Magnus? I drooled all over my keyboard!)

I have, but the price is a bit of an issue! Along with the size! The ones that are really tempting me are ones like Kup, Blurr and Perceptor, where they're £20-£25. I could absolutely justify buying one of those toys on a monthly basis.... and that's how the madness will start. That said, one of my main drives for buying the toys is to have tangible representations of the characters I've written in fanfic, and if I go with my 'core cast', that's going to include Ultra Magnus (along with Kup and Hot Rod).

Velvet Glove (Toy resisting was a lot easier when Hasbro didn't worry about scale or cartoon accuracy)

Accidentally posted under the wrong account, deleted but didn't have time to repost then and there... so depending on how you read this group, you may get this post twice with slightly different phrasing. Sorry.

On Monday, July 31, 2023 at 2:09:44 AM UTC+1, Zobovor wrote:
>
> So, a Voyager-class Arcee would still be the right height, but that extra money would get poured into additional engineering, so she'd have more complexity than just popping off half her car mode and letting her ride it like a surfboard.

Got it. I don't honestly know how much engineering can do if they're trying to maintain cartoon accuracy because there simply isn't enough pink in her robot mode to account for an entire car. That said, you could probably do a very cool G1-style Arcee with more car kibble distributed across her body, i.e. pink boots/bracers and straight-planes on her thighs instead of completely rounded. I'd rather they'd gone that route with the Earthrise version (and WfC cartoon model.)

>
> The Siege version of Springer from 2019 is quite excellent. There's also a Wreckers-themed redeco of it in slightly less cartoony colors. It's an incredibly complex piece of engineering, but if you're going to put him on a shelf so he can look pretty, then it might be a good choice. But, there's a mysterious Leader-class Springer coming eventually, too, so I'm not sure if it's a larger toy, or the Siege toy with updated engineering, or something else entirely.

I believe I'm right in saying Springer's the only one of the main movie cast not to get a Studio Series 86 version yet, so I figure they'll get him done in the next year or two. I'm going to hold out for that, since the rest of the line is so pretty, even though I know he won't be one of the cheaper ones.

> Zob (and have you seen pictures of the Commander-class Ultra Magnus? I drooled all over my keyboard!)

Yes but the price and the size put me off! The ones that really tempt me are the smaller ones, like Kup, Blurr, Perceptor.... So pretty and I can pick them for £25 or less. I could absolutely justify buying one of those on a monthly basis. And that's how the madness starts!! I'm mostly driven by an urge to collect tangible versions of the characters I've written fanfic for, but that would still end up being a hell of a lot of toys.

Velvet Glove (toy-resisting was a lot easier when Hasbro didn't worry about scale and cartoon accuracy)

On Monday, July 31, 2023 at 8:57:52 AM UTC-6, Velvet Glove wrote:
> Got it. I don't honestly know how much engineering can do if they're trying to maintain cartoon accuracy because there simply isn't enough pink in her robot mode to account for an entire car.

The solution that Takara seems to have found for the Masterpiece line is to stuff as many parts into a backpack shape as possible. They've done it for Hot Rod and Arcee and Sunstreaker, and Hasbro seems to be copying that idea at a smaller and less expensive scale. You're right that Arcee's transformation is enormously cheatsy. A lot of the movie designs are like that—parts are required to magically grow or shrink or drastically change shape or color. Floro Dery was a great visual designer, but not much of a toy engineer!

I think that's why they took the approach they did with Earthrise Arcee—just yank off the car parts that couldn't be incorporated into her robot mode, and you end up with a very authentic-looking robot design. But fans cried foul, because the unspoken rule is you could be able to transform the entire robot into the entire vehicle, not just part of it.

> I believe I'm right in saying Springer's the only one of the main movie cast not to get a Studio Series 86 version yet, so I figure they'll get him done in the next year or two. I'm going to hold out for that, since the rest of the line is so pretty, even though I know he won't be one of the cheaper ones.

They have done such an amazing job with Studio Series that I am guessing Springer is going to be amazing.

> I'm mostly driven by an urge to collect tangible versions of the characters I've written fanfic for, but that would still end up being a hell of a lot of toys.

So what does your list look like? You seem to be mostly talking about characters from The Transformers: the Movie, but are there others?

Zob (oh, and there's a really cool Core-class toy of Spike in his exo-suit)