Video of the Hasbro Pulse panel at MegaCon:
Sounds like the video missed the Liokaiser reveal part of the panel as the beginning of the video sees them talking about Liokaiser like they've already shown it off. They also keep mispronouncing his name as "Leokaiser" instead of "Liokaiser".
Sky-Byte is very articulated in shark mode, they wanted to replicate his cartoony "Muppet" qualities from the cartoon.
Heatwave is a "partial" of Legacy Bulkhead. The fact that the mold looks like it was intended for Heatwave all along was not intentional and was a happy accident. Comes with his axe and fire hose blaster.
Timelines: Hearts of Steel - 2-pack of Optimus Prime and Starscream
Second 2-pack consisting of Megatron and Bumblebee
"Transformers: Timelines" will be a new Pulse-exclusive line in which the same four characters will be released every year, but with a different theme centered around different time periods with different altmodes. So next year we'll get another different set of Optimus, Megatron, Starscream, and Bumblebee, and next year's theme for 2026 has already been picked, but they won't tell us what it is yet. This year the theme is the "Hearts of Steel" comic mini-series from 2006.
They hope to eventually get a fan vote going for what the theme for 2027 will be, so fan could pick what time period the same four characters will be in.
The goal is at least two releases each year, but it will always be the same four characters of Optimus, Megs, Screamer, and Bee each year. "But, if it does well, there's no reason that you couldn't see the rest of the Seekers in Legacy or anything like that." All Deluxe scale, too.
Space Bridge teases - all preexisting art, no actual toy pics all will be on display in physical reveals next month at New York Toy Fair:
- Target-exclusive Studio Series 86 3-pack of Perceptor, Ramhorn, and Ratbat - Ramhorn is all new, Ratbat will have boosters, Perceptor will have some extra tooling to bulk him up to better match his animation design.
- Devastation Troop-Builder pack - Elite Decepticon Ground Unit and Seeker, "partials" of Earthrise Runabout/Runamuck and the Earthrise Seeker mold, com with new weapons and heads.
- Carnivac VS "Fistiron" - Got around the "Ironfist" trademark issues by just inverting his name, "we know what his name is supposed to be", no talk of what molds they use.
- Sandstorm VS Slugslinger - "Handsome Face Sandstorm" is what they call him internally, it's the cartoon face with no mouthplate, did not talk about if Slugslinger is still a Headmaster or not
- Cybertron Sideways - Got a big reaction from the audience, no real details given.
- Cybertron Excellion - redeco of Cybertron Hot Shot.
Q&A session:
Liokaiser does have ankle hinges for enhanced posing.
When Polar Claw?!! "Eventually". He comes up every once in a while. It's always hard when they're not a mainstay character who showed up in a show. But Polar Claw is a definite possibility.
Evan confirmed that Carnivac will not have his Pretender shell, is a "partial" of TR Wolfwire, and
will retain the Headmaster gimmick instead of the shell gimmick. He also "100% confirmed" that they fixed the major breakage issue the Wolfwire mold had.
General question about the design process for figures. A complex but interesting answer is given (watch the video at around 14:50). It's a case-by-case thing, but the whole process takes about 18 months.
Marauder Megatron is definitely possible. They did Wasp, after all. They did look at Marauder Megatron for inspiration when designing the Studio Series Bumblebee Movie Concept Megatron. They're always looking at that stuff that never made it to market and it's definitely possible.
No Centurion version of Hearts of Steel Bumblebee, but... "folks out on the internet will probably have you covered."
Steamboat Shockwave has a chance because it's something Mark wanted to make "really badly". At one point, he was trying to get it into mainline, but it didn't make sense with everything he had going on. What Timelines is right now is almost like a test, and if any of these segments do well enough, you can definitely see them dipping a toe back into those universes and timelines, and maybe then they'll start showing up more in mainline. There was a Prowl, there was a Ratchet, there were many great designs in Hearts of Steel that could show up again.
Question about Gamer Edition pulling from other games besides Devastation and the WFC/FOC games. Evan says it's possible and has been asked before about a Titan-sized Thunderwing from the Prime game, to which he both laughs but also thinks is a possibility. He also brings up the games based on the live-action movies and the unique characters those games had, like the movie games' version of Shockwave and Warpath. He even jokes about the old Commodore 64 game or the giant floating Decepticon shield boss from the Mystery of Convoy game.
Question about having to cut anything out of lines when creating them. Evan says he can't think of any specifics off the top of his head but does state that that has definitely happened. He does cite an instance where a character had to be cut once or twice because they couldn't get it to fit into the scale that they had thought was appropriate. Like something that was meant to be a Deluxe and couldn't fit as a Deluxe and so had to be a Voyager instead, but still had to wait until later because all the Voyager slots were filled up at the time. It happens pretty constantly. But there's usually a rough idea going into it, and it's when you think it can fit only for it to later be proven wrong that it ends up not fitting at all. But most things do usually see the light of day a little bit later.
Question asked about a rumor that Hasbro will be doing a Leader-scaled version of IDW Fort Max, possibly from the Armada Megatron mold. Evan confirms that that's just a rumor and doesn't know where it came from, but he thinks the idea would be great. They'd also have to do a Rung, though, since "everybody needs their therapist". But he'd like to dig into more of those IDW designs, "they're definitely on the table".
Joked about the DJD: "It's a little hard to sell into marketing about a character that turns into an electric chair, OKAY?! Just a little difficult!" Nickel's probably as close as they can get to doing another DJD character besides Tarn.
Question about a Studio Series Dispensor. "The Mountain Dew robot?! Ah, that's a licensing nightmare." LOL Definitely possible, definitely on the table. There's also some anniversaries coming up, and some earlier Studio Series movie characters might get redos since "they weren't done as well back then when they should have been."
Question about the Timelines fan vote, if it might add one more Autobot and one more Decepticon to the lineup. Evan thinks at some point in the future that's definitely the plan. He stans Ironhide.
Jokes made by audience and Evan about a Broadside that turns into a U.S.S. Flagg. "Oh, sure, it fit in a garage." Totally non-serious.
Question about making figures more customizable. Selects Antagony with the Scavenger head mentioned as an example, but they asked if figures could be more largely disassemble-able, like with less pins and more screws, to allow fans to color-swap parts between redecoed figures of the same mold. Evan says they don't really think too much about the customization market but takes it into consideration as something maybe can think about going forward. But he's pretty sure they wouldn't release something that is just "matte gray, primered, ready to go", but maybe that's something they'll look into. He's pretty intrigued by this question.
"More Mini-Cons, please?" Yes. "As we keep diving deeper into Armada, I think we owe you all more Mini-Cons." He thinks that's something they'll definitely get out to us. "Gotta get the Combiner Mini-Cons out there, at least."
If there was to be another new release of Cybertron Optimus Prime, it would probably be a new one instead of a rerelease of Siege Galaxy Upgrade. That's something that both Hasbro and Takara are pushing for, as they want to recreate the combining limb gimmick and the backpack gimmick. But it's not something to expect this year, but maybe some point in the future.
Question about the Thirteen toys, their designs and altmodes. Evan says Mark's handling the Thirteen and always starts with the Covenant of Primus book as it's his favorite lore book, but he also digs deep into the other versions of the Thirteen out there. There is a cohesive vision behind them. We'll get some this year and the rest next year. There's a lot of deep cuts for them.
Sky-Byte's gun only stores inside his mouth in shark mode. When not in his mouth, there's nowhere else to store it.
End of panel.
