Hasbro Investor Day 2021 Reveals Two New Cartoons

Today was Hasbro Investor Day event where they announce their results from previous quarter while also providing some info on their future plans. On the Transformers front that includes 2 new cartoons series. Allspark has provided a nice summary of the entire event but here is the Transformers specific parts. If could sum up future plans for Transformers, it really comes out seeming like a whole lot of "Beast Wars" inspired content. 

Transformers 

- Feature film in partnership with Paramount slated for summer 2022. 

- New animated full-length feature film in development. 

- War for Cybertron: Kingdom to be released July 2021 on Netflix

- Transformers: BotBots, a new 20-episode animated comedy series at Netflix. 

- New 26-episode cartoon series on Nickelodeon.

The feature film refers to Transformers 7 that may or may not be called Transformers: Beast Alliance that will be directed Steven Caple Jr (Creed II) and could be a heist type film. The animated film has long been rumored to be an origin story of the Transformers civil war which has been touched on in War for Cybertron and sorta being told sorta in the current IDW reboot Transformers story. Considering how heavy War for Cybertron: Kingdom toy line is with Beast Wars characters, I assume its going to act as a kind of reintroduction of those characters, useful if the live action movie plans on using them too. 

 As for the Nickelodeon cartoon series, it sounds like its their plan to replace the Cyberverse line of toys. The series is being described as about found family but for Transformers' fans the key bit is "a new species of Transformers must find their place and purpose among Autobots, Decepticons, and the human family that adopts them". Again this sounds a whole lot like "Beast Wars" type characters since likely have to be human size or smaller and not part of the traditional 2 factions. 

 Portion of Nickelodeon Cartoon Press Release:

Nickelodeon, the number-one network for kids, and Hasbro’s Entertainment One (eOne) have partnered to co-produce an original animated Transformers series (26 half-hour episodes), based on the iconic global property. In the action-comedy series, a new species of Transformers must find their place and purpose among Autobots, Decepticons, and the human family that adopts them. The series will premiere exclusively on Nickelodeon in the U.S. before rolling out internationally.

“As soon as I read the creative concept, which at its core is about family, I knew we absolutely had to tell this story with our good friends at eOne and Hasbro,” said Ramsey Naito, President, Nickelodeon Animation. “The series will tell a reimagined story featuring both original characters and fan-favorites for a whole new generation of kids and families. The creative team at Nick, overseen by Claudia Spinelli, SVP of Animation Development, can’t wait to get started on building this new world.”

“We’re thrilled to be working with Nickelodeon to expand the Transformers animated universe and bring an all-new more than meets the eye story to life,” said Olivier Dumont, eOne’s President of Family Brands. “This new series is a fresh creative take on the brand, which will excite longtime fans around the world and soon to be fans alike, all being introduced to the robots in disguise by an A list creative team led by eOne’s Mikiel Houser .”

The all-new animated Transformers series is executive produced by Ant Ward (Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), and Nicole Dubuc (Transformers: Rescue Bots) and developed and co-executive produced by Dale Malinowski (Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). Produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio, the series is developed for television by Spinelli and Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt, Senior Director, Current Series and Development, Animation. Production will be overseen for Nickelodeon by Conrad Montgomery, Vice President, Current Series, Animation and for eOne by Mikiel Houser, Director of TV Development.

Portion of Netflix BotBots Press Release:

● Netflix and Entertainment One (eOne), Hasbro’s entertainment studio, announce Transformers: BotBots, a new 20-episode animated comedy series following the mischievous little Transformers robots, otherwise known as BotBots.

● Kevin Burke and Chris “Doc” Wyatt (Spider-Man, Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy, Stretch Armstrong & the Flex Fighters) will serve as executive producers and showrunners.

● Logline: BotBots are Transformers robots that disguise themselves as everyday mall objects. By day, these BotBots hide quietly on store shelves but at night, they jump into adventure until a group of BotBots called ‘The Lost Bots’ run into the mall security guard and put all the bots in danger. Will these misfits be able to overcome their differences, defeat the security guard and gain acceptance in the eyes of the other bots?

● Olivier Dumont, eOne’s President of Family Brands: “We are delighted to partner with Netflix to bring an all-new Transformers story to life and explore a whole new universe with BotBots. Transformers storytelling has expanded into so many new avenues and we can’t wait to surprise both existing fans and new fans coming to the franchise for the first time with these fun bots who are definitely more than meets the eye!"

● The series takes inspiration from Hasbro’s popular Transformers: BotBots toy line, released in late 2018. BotBots are 1-inch collectible characters that can change from an ordinary object into a little robot in just 3-5 easy steps.

Tranformers: Fall of Cybertron Re-Release Trailer

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is now available for download on the Xbox One and Playstation 4. It doesn't appear that anything was done to change the games from their Xbox 360 and PS3 release, it is simply the same game for the current gen consoles.

Linkfest - Beast Hunters

The new year is now here and that means more new Transformers. The first wave of deluxe toys for Transformers Prime Beast Hunters have hit Toys R Us with links to their reviews below. Their are also links to around a dozen different Beast Hunters toys in various classes. Takara has a few exclusives that are about to come out so get a peak at those while third party vendor have their own slate of toys. Basically if you are a die hard collector, its going to be another expensive year.

Beast Hunter's Galleries - deluxe Wave 1 | deluxe Wave 2 | wave 1 Legion | deluxe Bulkhead | Voyager Optimus Prime | Voyager Predaking | deluxe Smokescreen |
It seems the floodgates have opened as a bunch of new images have popped up for the first few waves of legion, deluxe, and voyager class toys. The toys should be coming out over the next few months as get closer to the premiere of Transformers Prime Season Three which is not Feb. 15 as previously reported, actually date unknown.

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron VGA Trailer

Tonight Spike's Video Game Awards were held with a bunch of world premieres for trailers for games coming out in 2012 including Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, the sequel to Transformers: War for Cybertron video game. The trailer (below) appears to be a portion of the game's opening cinematic with an interesting choice in music (The Humbling River by Puscifier). Many other game trailer also premiered including Hitman Absolution, Diablo III, and BioShock Infinte. Click here to view those. My guess is the combiner is Bruticus (Combaticons).

Transformers: Exiles Cover

Amazon has posted the cover to Transformers: Exiles, the sequel to Transformers: Exodus that kicked off the War for Cybertron continuity that informs Transformers: Prime and used concepts from the movies. The paperback novel by Alex Irvine is set for release on September 27, 2011. Below is the Amazon description of the novel.

The epic battles between Optimus Prime and Megatron have long thrilled Transformers fans. But these two giants weren’t always great leaders and bitter foes. This new novel continues the electrifying saga that started with Transformers: Exodus, unveiling the origins of the conflict—the explosive events that unfolded before Optimus and Megatron arrived Earthside, forever altering the destiny of their kind.

Transformers: Exiles Book Announced

Author Alex Irvine, who wrote Transformers: Exodus, recently tweeted the release date and title for the sequel, “Hey #Transformers fans: the new book will be called EXILES, and it's due out on September 27." Exodus was a Hasbro sanctioned book that is considered part of their new canon for Transformers history so likely this one will be too. An Amazon listing is now up with a paperback price of $7.99. Below is their description of the novel.

Hasbro Confirms Prime, War for Cybertron Continuity

A statement from Hasbro US has provided new insight on Transformers: Prime and War for Cybertron as it turns out these two stories are actually part of the same continuity. From AllSpark:

A question was recently posed to Hasbro’s UK office asking if the Transformers Prime television series and the Transformers War for Cybertron video game were in a connected continuity. Unfortunately the wrong answer was delivered and that answer has made its way to the fan community. The TRANSFORMERS brand team would like to confirm that Transformers War for Cybertron video game, Transformers Exodus novel, and the Transformers Prime television show are in the same aligned continuity. Hasbro is creating a single continuity to tell the bulk of our TRANSFORMERS stories going forward.

Please look for further details about the continuity plan and new projects over the next year.

I am not sure how the movies tie into this but I suspect they don't, instead providing inspiration for this new Hasbro driven continuity. Transfans will have their own interpretation but below is my summary of the main official Transformers universes created over the last 25 years.

TF G1 - 1984 cartoon series, Transformers: The Movie, comics (Marvel, Dreamwave, IDW), Beast Wars, and Beast Machines
TF G2 - Short lived Generation 2 toys
TF UK - TF G1 plus UK comic books (most by Simon Furman)
TF Japan - TF G1 1984 plus the many Japan cartoons that continued after US production stopped like The Headmasters, Super-God Masterforce, Beast Wars Neo, etc
TF RID - Robots in Disguise series
TF Unicron - Transformers: Armada, Energon and Cybertron series
TF MB - Michael Bay films of Transformers, Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon.
TF G3 - Hasbro supported continuity currently derived of War for Cybertron, W4C Prequel Exodus book, and Transformers: Prime. Inspired by TF G1 and TF MB concepts.

War for Cybertron DLC #2 Released

For owners of Transformers: War for Cybertron on the XBox 360 and Playstation 3, if you have around $10 to spend then the second DLC pack for the game is officially out. The games adds two new characters with Zeta Prime and Dead End as playable characters for multi-player Escalation mode. Also five new multiplayer maps have been added. Press Release with details after the break. A gallery of images from the pack can be found here.

War for Cybertron DLC #2 Dated

It seems the DLC packs for War for Cybertron are going to continue as the ticker in Multiplayer and Escalation mode has revealed the 2nd pack will be coming on September 7th. According to Seibertron.com, they figure the pack will follow the same format as the 1st with at least five new characters, 2 new Multiplayer maps and 2 Escalation maps. However, that is speculation so hopefully Activision will reveal something official soon. Not sure what the image the site posted is one of the new characters but it looks cool so used it to.

War for Cybertron DLC Preview

While most gamers are probably getting Starcraft II, if that isn't for you then at least you can get the DLC pack for Transformers: War for Cybertron. The game includes 5 characters (3 pre-order ones, two new), maps Havok, Fortress, District and Forsaken. The price is $10 or 800 MS points. Below is a video from Inside XBox that shows off the new additions that the pack will bring to the game.

Transformers Linkfest

Another linkfest, this time with a brief look at a life size Optimus Prime statue, more toy galleries, confirmation that the Takara Movie Masterpiece Starscream is the Hasbro leader class toy, a Pawn Star's Transformers collection, and a new toy video review.

Life Size Optimus Prime
A few weeks ago China showed off its Transformers love with an impressive 33 foot tall statue of Optimus Prime that was constructed with junk car parts. For comparison, the movie version is 32 feet tall. The statue was placed at the Bird's Nest at the Beijing Olympic Park. Thanks to TheChief for the link.

Masterpiece Movie Starscream
Click the link for a gallery that shows off the Masterpiece Movie Starscream that Takara is releasing. The gallery has the Masterpiece version photographed with the Hasbro's Leader class Starscream that started hitting store shelves. Based on the images, it is conclusive that these are identical molds with the only difference being the paint job and weapon accessory.

War for Cybertron DLC Dated

IGN is reporting that the DLC pack for Transformers: War for Cybertron will hit the PS3 and XBox stores on July 27th for $10 or 800 MS points. As leaked previousily, the pack will include all three pre-order exclusive characters of Shockwave, Jazz and Demolisher. Onslaught and Scattershot also join the game cast. It will include four new multiplayer maps, two of which are for Escalation mode.

Peter Cullen Talks Prime, War for Cybertron

In a new interview with Techland Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime, talks about doing the voice in the movies, War for Cybertron, and the upcoming Transformers: Prime cartoon. Below are a few snippets, the rest of the interview is here.

How is the Optimus Prime in War for Cyberton different than other Optimus Primes?
In the game it's perhaps a little different in that he jumps around saying things that are activated by the actions of the player. There will be a consistency in his character but you won't be able to find the same significant emotions he would have with a written script in the movies or cartoons. From what I've heard and what I've seen of the game it's a very interesting combination to have an individual play into, let's say a cartoon, he's now in the cartoon with Optimus Prime and I think that's a very special ingredient to have.

You've said in the past that you were able to improvise while shooting the movies. Were you able to do that in the game?
Somewhat. There were opportunities to perhaps change an attitude that wouldn't be consistent with Optimus as he would be in the series or the motion picture but they were rare. The character was pretty much “spot on” as the Brits would say. Outside of a couple of changes whether he would say something or not and or according to the powers that be what could be said and what couldn't be said in terms of verbal selections or something a little less violent. But they stuck pretty close to the original fabric of Optimus.

Is there any connection between War for Cybertron and Transformers: Prime?

War For Cybertron DLC in Works

For weeks now Game Director Matt Tieger danced around the question of whether Transformers: War for Cybertron would have a DLC pack. The most he would say that the studio is considering it. It looks like XBox Marketplace didn't get the memo that the DLC was secret as they have revealed that High Moon Studios was doing more than just considering it but actually already working on it as Cybertron will get a "Map and Character Pack #1" at an undetermined date.

Become the ultimate weapon and wage war in four new maps - engage in multiplayer combat in HAVOC and FORTRESS or fend off waves of Autobots in DISTRICT, and Decepticons in FORSAKEN, two new Escalation mode maps. Also gain access to 5 characters and their chassis for use in Escalation mode and Multiplayer character creation; SCATTERSHOT™, ONSLAUGHT™, DEMOLISHOR™, SHOCKWAVE™ and JAZZ™ are ready for battle. Fight to the end in the war that started it all! There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.

The only reason I can think of for Tieger's unwilliness to admit they were working on a DLC is due to the addition of the pre-order characters of Demolisher, Shockwave, and Jazz (their eBay value is about to take a nosedive). Admitting its existence might have led to people deciding not to bother with a pre-order since it’s common now for the initial "bonus" characters, etc to become available at a later date in a DLC pack.

War for Cybertron Pre-order Characters Worth Money

It seems that if you need to pay off that Transformers: War for Cybertron game you pre-ordered, you might be able to thanks to eBay. It seems the pre-order character codes for Demolisher, Shockwave, and Jazz are going for an average of around $50 on the website. There were even a few codes that sold for as high as $100. Sadly, if you already entered the code, you can kiss that cash infusion good bye. Considering the characters have limitations on their use it doesn't seem worth it to me. (via Consumerist)

Transformers: War for Cybertron Walkthrough

Thanks to RolandGamingHD here is a video walkthrough for Transformers: War for Cybertron that shows off the single player game. There are plenty of spoilers but if are on the fence about buying the game then watching a few random videos might just be what you need to pull the trigger as they show a fun action filled game.

The walkthrough is broken into two segments, one for the Autobot campaign and another for the Decepticon campaign with 6 plus hours of footage, across 45 videos of around 11 minutes each. One of YouTube's best features is its playlist so can check it out after the break or use the links to look at the individual videos to "like" the videos and comment (to bad YouTube doesn't allow the same for playlists).

A final note, High Moon Studios is offering double experience points this weekend for anyone playing the multiplayer matches online via PC, 360 or PS3. The Double XP starts at 9:00PM and ends whenever they feel like it (but probably after the 4th).

Botcon 2010 Panel News

Botcon 2010, the official Transformers convention, was held this weekend at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. Hasbro, Activision, IDW, Peter Cullen and more held panels that provided updates on the toys, new cartoon, and more. One of these years I will get to attend but thankfully the other Transformers websites did and reported back. This post is for the panel news and the other for the toy galleries.

Transformers Hall of Fame - Trophy | Display | Dinobot Case
This year's Botcon is also the first year for the Transformers Hall of Fame the inaugural class including is Bob Budiansky (more or less father of much of the Generation One mythology and character personalities), Peter Cullen (needs no introduction), Hideaki Yoke (engineered the transformation concept in toys, TF designer), Kojin Ohno (designer of many Transformers), Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron, Starcream and Beast Wars' Dinobot (chosen by the fans). If you are not sure why Dinobot won, you should watch the last two seasons of Beast Wars.

Botcon 2011 Location
Botcon 2011 will be held at the California Pasadena Convention Center on June 2nd to 5th, perfect for taking advantage of any promotional efforts from Paramount and Hasbro for the release of Transformers 3 later that month.

Transformers Toy Panel
Attended by a few Hasbro employees, this covered Hasbro's toy release plans for the remainder of the year, including a list of all the toys and classes they plan to release (at the link). No new Robot Heroes are planned. Hasbro aware of quality control issues and working with manufacturers to fix it (not sure what this was exactly in reference too).

War for Cybertron Reviews and Accolades Trailer

Transformers: War for Cybertron has been out for a few days now and most of the reviews are in. Overall, the average score is more or less a B with an average numerical score of 80. Activision has out together an "Accolades" trailer (below) to highlight some of the positive reviews for the game. Below are few of the reviews with a few sentences grabbed from each that summarizes the site's view on the game.

1Up.com (B+)
A couple of cool set pieces, cut-scenes, and well produced dialog between the characters help (Peter Cullen is Optimus Prime), but it's the art and character models that do an admirable job of masking the repetitive level design. But even if the levels themselves are generic, there are a host of features in place to save the game from spiraling into mediocrity. ...the multiplayer aspects also add a lot of value to this package. War for Cybertron is an entertaining game that's just as enjoyable as it is playable.

Transformers Linkfest

Time for another "linkfest". More galleries of upcoming toys from Hasbro and Takara including Generations, Buzz Lightyear and Ghost Starscream. Also videos of the War for Cybertron credits and Hound fan art.

Official Transformers Generations Gallery
Click the link to view a gallery that shows off the 3rd wave of Transformers Generations toys. This wave, due on stores more or less now, is W4C Megatron, W4C Soundwave, Classic Red Alert and Darkmount (based on G1 Straxus).

Dreadwing and Smokescreen Gallery
A look at new additions to the Transformers (minus ROTF) line that is hitting stores soon. Dreadwing is voyager sized and based on the Generation 2 toy. Smokescreen is a shuttle that can attack to Dreadwing's ship mode. Mostly I just like the shade of blue but beyond that think will wait for a review before determine if worth buying.

Transformers Exodus Four Chapters and Review

The novel Transformers: Exodus, the "official history of the war for Cybertron", is now out and Hasbro has posted the first four chapters of the novel here. Hasbro description of the novel:

TRANSFORMERS: EXODUS written by Alex Irvine takes fans deep into the secret lore of the TRANSFORMERS universe, charting the creation of the DECEPTICONS and the AUTOBOTS—and chronicling the civil war that divided them. At the center of this thrilling history are OPTIMUS PRIME and MEGATRON, the ultimate hero and the ultimate villain, whose destinies are entwined with that of their home planet, CYBERTRON. Developed in close partnership with Hasbro, this is a canonical TRANSFORMERS tale that also relates to, and expands on, the story being told in the newly released video game, TRANSFORMERS: War for Cybertron, from Activision. Fans will not want to miss all of the details that can only be told in novel form, the moment OPTIMUS gains “PRIME” status, MEGATRON becomes his arch enemy and leader of the DECEPTICONS and their great civil war begins.

AllSpark.com has posted their review of the book. The result is lackluster, about on par with previous Transformers books. "Transformers: Exodus" is not a great book. It is however, an important book. It is not so much a novel as it is a foundation - a foundation for what, is yet to be fully revealed by Hasbro. But it is safe to say that though "Exodus", all facets of the Transformers multiverse has been tied together in a way no Transformers fiction has tackled before."

It seems the book is probably something fans will want to read, if only to know what the new Hasbro sanctioned history of the Transformers universe is now that the inspiration of Generation One has been combined with the movie universe additions to create a new official continuity. A continuity that will continue to likely evolve with Transformers 3 and the Transformers: Prime cartoon series. Of course how important this novel will be in the grand scheme has yet to be determined as it will mostly depend on how future writers use or discard elements from it in their own stories. To get the full review details, click here.