TFCon Hasbro Panel Q&A

[The Doctor]

Alas, Hasbro respond in bland and generic corporate speak, but kudos to TFCon for the effort.

www.cybertron.ca/boards/showthread.php?p=128239#post128239

-Ralph

[Andy Turnbull]

To be expected really. The answer for only supporting one convention made me laugh out loud.

Andy

[Bogatan]

I might use it to bitch slap someone from FP the next time they talk about being an American Convention.

Andy

[Andy Turnbull]

Yes you should!

Andy

[blueshift]

Apr 28, 2009 20:45:45 GMT Bogatan said:

I might use it to bitch slap someone from FP the next time they talk about being an American Convention.

Andy

Haha yes I did like that bit.

[dyrl]

Forest has to work through 25 years of history to ensure that we are being consistent with key story beats for all of the characters.

He does? You could'a fooled me. Unless by "be consistent with key story beats" you mean 'Optimus Prime is red....'

Then you also have Cheetor, which pretty much can only be used as Cheetor.

Yeah, no way he can be used as Tigatron or Shadow Panther. That never happened before...

while it may be surprising to hear, not every country in the world airs our entertainment. By making the web experience a bigger part of the brand, we can allow fans, no matter where they live, the opportunity to share and participate in the brand

Very critical and important and good.

First, we want to say that we could not be happier with our relationship with TakaraTomy and how it has continued to evolve over time

Yep. Given how other brands suffer due to sour partnerships (HG/Big West - I'm looking at you) - Transformers has been blessed by a completely (apparently) smooth partnership.

....

Overall - I don't think the answers were bad at all. The answer about supporting only one convention makes sense as well. Would I like to see Hasbro supporting and organizing conventions in more places? Yes. Do I understand that this is not happening because frankly there is too little demand globally for it? Yes. Don't see any reason to get fussy about it.

I liked the interview - other than the two bits I pointed out above - it seems the answers were fine.

Pete

[Andy Turnbull]

Gotta disagree with you Pete. I'm not talking about them putting the full machine of Hasbro behind every single convention as that would be daft and choosing one to support in such a massive fashion is eminently sensible and not something I disagree with. But, the fact that they are a global company it might not be too unreasonable to ask that a couple of warm bodies from their brand marketing department make their presence known at other conventions outside America for simple things like a q & a. It's good that Hasbro did something for TFcon in Canada but what about outside there. I know Paul Cannon tried like a bear to get Hasbro along to pretty much every Transforce and Sven and Simes have been doing likewise for Auto Assembly, cast that out to the TF cons in Europe and it's the same story.

Andy

[Deleted]

Apr 29, 2009 10:08:03 GMT dyrl said:

Yeah, no way he can be used as Tigatron or Shadow Panther. That never happened before...

I think they were specifically referring to the fact that the Universe Cheetor mould is so blatantly a cheetah that it would look a bit ridiculous done up as an anorexic tiger. The original Cheetor got away with acting as several different shapes and sizes of cat because it was more of a generic cat-shaped blob than anything (I still want a Tabby-tron from it damnit!). In fact I think it worked better as a tiger due to the bulk of the thing. The lithe beast mode Uni Cheets sports would be a more difficult fit, though I guess a Shadow Panther deco might work if it was pitched as a melanistic cheetah (if there is such a thing) rather than a leopard/jaguar with a severe case of worms.