As we at Unicron.com continue our reports on BotCon 2013, we present to you the notations that were taken down by myself during nearly each and every single panel from Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. These panel notes contain information ranging from toy info, cartoon info, behind-the-scenes company info, merchandise info, and so much more. All of this will eventually be put into proper articles in due time, but for now, head through to space bridge to see what we learned from the BotCon 2013 experience.
Friday, June 28, 2013
TCC Comic Panel
Pete Sinclair, Benson Yee, Jesse Wittenrich, Josh Burcham
After Beast Wars Shattered Glass - 2014 will be the second year of the story arc, with a new setting, 2013 and 214 will be a two-year arc, more details tomorrow, there will be a connection between the two story arcs
Return of prose fiction
GoBots prose – Spatiotemporal Challengers
Andrew Hall - writer
Hayato Sakamoto - artist
Fall 2013 - all new website, images/story are still in concept stage, more to come.
Comics
Machine Wars Termination – They forgot the “to be continued…” at the end of the issue
Wings Universe, they kept it out of the cartoon to respect the original cartoon makers,
Wings timeline is on the Wiki,
Next year’s story will wrap up the whole Wings Universe, but is not a direct continuation of Machine Wars: Termination.
After Machine Wars Termination
The 30th anniversary almost here, the 2014 story will be set 30 years after G1 cartoon
Q&A
Who drew the Machine Wars Termination lithograph? Hidetsugu Yoshioka
Who was the fourth Seeker in the comic? And will it possibly get a toy? they don’t remember who it was, but they will Tweet name.
Will there be more toys of the remaining Machine Wars characters? Tricky question. They had other MW ideas, but there was a push back on the concept. They can’t say for sure, but they feel that they will stick with these characters, and may see more of them later on, but they're uncertain. They’ll see what they can do, we’ll see.
Will the club bios ever be packed in one MTMTE-style book, and what of fan-produced bios? Fun Pub does contract out a ton of work already, so by all means send Pete an email/Tweet/etc. if you would like to contribute, as many of the Fun Pub folks started out as fans who commissioned their works to the Club. and, they are looking into compiled profiles, would love to bind them together.
How about doing toys or a set based on preexisting fiction instead of creating all new fiction to justify the toys? They’ve done that for Beast Wars and Animated already, the Animated one was made like an actual episode even, but it is tricky to do since the existing official stuff is being handled by other people. Beast Wars was easy since it’s old, while modern stuff is still ongoing.
Will Nexus Prime ever come back to the comics? Probably not since he’s been incorporated into the Aligned continuity and is important in there, but maybe later, but he’s currently important to the Aligned stuff. We can assume he's still off doing stuff with Aquarius.
Can we see the GoBot slide again? They scrolled back to the slideshow slide of Path Finder, Treds, Small Foot, Man-O-War (Seaspray redeco), Buggyman, and Rest-Q.
How come Electro had no sword and Megaplex had no cannon? Fun Pub’s budget kept them from making new weapons, so the toys got their original weapons. New heads get a higher priority. Strika and Obsidian needed new heads.
Since the GoBots used Minibot designs, is there some collaboration with Hanna-Barbera? No, that image was just a concept.
Transformers Publishing - Hasbro Panel
Transformers: Classified – young adult novel trilogy, Movieverse, set between ROTF and DOTM, Bumblebee and Gears have adventures with another boy different from Sam. These books tell the story of the adventures Same mentioned in DOTM that Bee was off having without him.
Rescue Bots storybooks; the show is doing very well, coloring books.
International books, Polish, Greek, Asian, etc.
Digital comics and books – Monstrosity and “Transformers Story Cube” – TF Prime interactive encyclopedia, there will be an Android version, but iOS only now
Pop-up book – actual transforming pop-ups! Pull a switch and they convert/pop-up on their own, process: manuscript, prototype (3D pop ups that transform), “a multi-universe look at TF” it is both “classic and current”, both old and modern characters, even some Japanese ones (Greatshot!), Optimus transforms from truck to robot, Jazz, Ratchet, Ironhide, Megatron transforms from tank to robot stomping on Bumper, a deluxe edition will be signed and feature a transforming Unicron pop-up!
30th anniversary comics – originally selected by Jim Sorenson, published by IDW, Foreword by Aaron Archer, Afterword by Simon Furman, reprinting some of the best/most important comic stories from Marvel/Dreamwave/IDW, never-before-seen art and original art, interviews.
Retribution – new Prime novel, final part of the Exodus Trilogy, Feb 2014, Optimus et al are pursued into deep space by the Nemesis, there’s at least one massive full on dogfight between the Ark and Nemesis, the writers brought back an old enemy for the Autobots and Decepticons: The QUINTESSONS! They’re in the book, and are a big problem for the Bots and Cons, their quest for universal domination is just beginning.
The Covenant of Primus – reveals the contents from the actual Binder of Revelation, the actual Binder sits in a Vault at Hasbro HQ, will reveal the full history and mythos of the TFs, the case pulls apart manually into three pieces and triggers transforming sounds, and has a wall mount on the back, “a gift from Alpha Trion to humans”, written by Justina Robinson, the origin story of the 13 Primes, the conflict between them, the different eras of history, image of Orion Pax witnessing the first space bridge, a battle scene image, image of how the Predacons went extinct, “a mysterious image”, 60 pieces of art from the Binder, High Moon, and many more things never seen before, little things included like Ratchet’s role, the Golden Age, new characters, backstory info on things to get into.
Transformers Wars – October 2013, Barnes & Noble exclusive, paper models with wheels that fight each other, Pablo Hidalgo wrote the text, it’s set in the Prime universe, sort of Tech Specs bio style writing. The models are punch out pieces that you fold together and glue them up, Optimus, Ratchet, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Arcee, Megatron, Airachnid, Starscream, Knock Out, Predaking
Q&A
How a popup book is made? Six months to a year to create, manuscript and concepts, then engineering, 2-3 months of engineering, not designed in a computer, prototype and pieces are made, kind of like “Transformer road kill”, must be art for the front and back, 5 months to create the art, there was a Scrounge and Big Red, really obscure guys in there, the art is sent to the manufacturer, all books made by hand, really intense process, long process.
Who is the disembodied hand? You’ll see.
What font was used for the special lettering in the slideshow presentation? Cyberglyphics font.
Will the Star Seekers be in Retribution? YES, and very early on in the book. Thundertron has an agenda.
Why is Retribution not named with an “Ex” word? They wanted to do something different.
Will there be more video games for the Aligned continuity? Don’t know, as that’s handled by the Digital Media group.
Is the Covenant long enough to do an audiobook? And if yes, would George Takei be considered? “I’m gonna say’no’.” No plans for an audiobook
Release date for the covenant? December 3rd
More info on the foreign editions? It’s more of a different interpretation of the brand than new story material. More in the format than the material.
Justina Robinson did the “Quantum Gravity” book series? Yes she did, she was a great fit for Transformers.
Will we be getting more female characters in coming materials? Yes, we will see more female characters, at least two coming in new near stuff.
Japanese Transformers Generations books? It would be a good idea that they could bring them over, but they give no indication of having any plans for them.
Making novels for characters like the spotlight comics? That’s a neat idea.
Any thoughts on making multiple expressions of other Hasbro brands? Well, they kind of are doing that with My Little Pony, with the comics and Equestria Girls.
Any continuation of Unit:E? At the moment, they are “resting” that idea.
Will there be a standard edition for the Covenant? Possibly, haven’t worked anything out for it yet.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Hasbro Transformers Brand Team Panel
Transformers: The Ride – Singapore, Hollywood, Orlando
Transformers Legends – mobile card game
Transformers Universe – Fall 2013
Transformers: Prime – 3 Daytime Emmy Awards
Kre-O
Custom Kreons – packs of Kreons that come with additional parts to make your own special Kreons
Prime Beast Hunters
Legion Class 2014
Divebomb (Windrazor redeco) - Autobot defector, red and blue deco
Rot Gut (Blight redeco), acid green deco
Ace Vehicon (Air Vehicon redeco) - Jet Vehicon General deco
Bluestreak (Smokescreen redeco) – Diaclone colors with green instead of yellow
Commander class 2014
Unicron Megatron (Megatron redeco) – possessed by Unicron
Ultra Magnus (PRID Optimus remold)
Bludgeon (Shockwave remold)
Deluxe 2013
Night Shadow Bumblebee (BH Bumblebee redeco)
Prowl (Smokescreen remold)
Deluxe 2014
Bumblebee – five-step transformation, meant to make the giant instruction sheets unnecessary for quick transformations to enhance playability
New toys are BIGGER
Windrazor! – Deluxe mold based on the Legion toy
Smokescreen – new mold
Twinstrike – Deluxe based on the Legion
Voyager 2014 – HUGE sized!
Optimus Prime – new mold, Nexus Sword and Vector Shield, under 15-step transformation
Predaking – new mold, lots of clear parts, sleek same size as the Ultimate toy for half the price!
Construct-Bots (“Construct-A-Bots”)
Transformable without taking the toys apart
Customizable, you can make your own Transformer
Video – CGI, very impressive, Iron Man style assembly of the characters
The name is pronounced “Construct-A-Bots”
Scout Class
Ironhide and Starscream – combine into "Ironscream" or "Starhide"
Bumblebee and Thundercracker – "Bumblecracker" and "Thunderbee"
Cliffjumper and Dead End – "Cliffend" (no "Deadjumper")
Silverbolt and Breakdown – "Silverdown" and "Breakdown"
Yes, those combined names are just for fun and not official.
Elite Class
Wheeljack and Soundwave – Soundjack and Wheelwave
Megatron, Hound, and Optimus Prime – Houndtron,Megahound, Optimustron
Smokescreen, Drag Strap, and Shockwave - couldn't catch these joke names. 
Triple Changer Class
Blitzwing
Bumblebee
Big Set – Optimus Prime vs. Megatron
Scout class 2014: Beast Hunters
Bumblebee – Beast Hunters armor and weaponry
Starscream – brown jet
Ripclaw – same colors as the Prime BH toy
Elite Class 2014
Skystalker – same colors as the Prime BH toy, but more like BH Deluxe Dreadwing’s colors
Shockwave – very Prime BH like, comes with a whip in addition to is cannon
Optimus Prime – based on the Ultimate class toy, same dragon wheel projectile launchers
Triple Team Class
Unicron Megatron, comes with a tiny Ratbat and Barrage
Prime Beast Hunters Predacons Rising - Target exclusives
Legion 2-packs
Smokescreen vs. Cindersaur
Night Shadow Bumblebee vs. Blight
Commander 2-packs
Optimus Prime vs. Predaking
Shockwave & Bombshock
Abominus giftset – translucent redeco
Deluxe
Sky Lynx – Skystalker redeco
Nova Blast Bumblebee
Voyager
Cryofire Predaking
Dark Steel
Generations Thrilling 30
30 years and 30 special items (Platinum Edition, Comic-Con exclusives, etc.)
Legends 2014
Wave 1
Swerve and Flanker
Cosmos and Payload
Wave 2
Tailgate and Groundpounder
Sharpshot and Reflector (camera mode!)
Deluxe 2014
Wave 1
All toys will be tied to Dark Cybertron
Goldfire (Goldbug) – Bumblebee remold
Dreadwing – Megatron remold
Autobot Skids
WASPINATOR! – super show-accurate mold! Wing-flapping gimmick!
Wave 2
Skywarp, FOC mold
Scoop – with his two Targetmasters!
ARMADA STARSCREAM! – looks great!
Voyager class 2014
Wave 1
Decepticon Doubledealer! – Blitzwing remold
RHINOX! – Chaingun of Doom and his ears twist!
Wave 2
Whirl – VERY G1
SDCC exclusive
Titan Guardian five packs – nontransforming 6 inch G1 figures
Metroplex – 12 mini-figures, two guns, chrome hips and face, metallic deco
Shockwave’s Lab – Voyager Shockwave G1 deco, Commander Predaking in a prototypical deco
Hall of Fame announcement
Rodimus -15%
Arcee – 16%
Prowl – 16%
Ultra Magnus – 19%
Beast Wars Megatron - 34%
Magnus and Megatron win!
Fan Built Bot
Winner is still in development, but it’s an Autobot jet
Showed the jet silhouette, will be revealed at SDCC
Very amazing robot mode that’s started internal dialogue within the company
No time for Q&A, too many reveals took up the entire panel time.
Transformers Comics: IDW Panel
Q&A
Spoke about how John Barber went about fixing so many plot holes for the live action movies and their comics.
Where do you draw inspiration for your writings? Lots of different inspirations pulled from different media that you kind of absorb as you take it all in. Like, television shows, lots of comics they grew up with, elements taken from films, literature and classic novels, Pharma is like Mark Hamill’s Joker, for Regeneration One it’s all what came before that influences it, historical events like post-WWII Japan.
How did you come up with the personalities of the Dinobots for Rage of the Dinobots? Looked to the Fall of Cybertron game for their portrayals, and then helped to build upon those roles.
How did you “bring" the funny” for MTMTE? That was James Roberts, with Alex Milne having to interpret what James writes and make it work out in the end.
Slideshow
Regeneration One
Issue 0 – ties in with the last story arc, brings back classic TF comic artists, Geoff Senior, Jose Delbo, Andrew Wildman, Jeff Anderson, Nick Roche, Casey Coller
Guido Guidi has taken over for Wildman, but Wildman will be back for the final issue
Prime Beast Hunters
Subscription variant covers with cartoon models
Issue 2 preview, Sludge and Snarl in a CSI type investigation
Issue 3 artwork
Monstrosity
Chris Metzen, Flint Dille, Livio Ramondelli
Pre-war day setting
Trypticon
More Than Meets The Eye
Star Saber cover
Ultra Magnus’s helmet and face set aside from his body
Someone else is wearing Magnus's armor?
Robots in Disguise
Orion Pax, Hardhead, and Wheelie
RATTRAP!
Dark Cybertron!
The next big thing for IDW
Co-written by James Roberts and John Barber
Can’t say much, but the preview pics were quick, yet ominous
Bringing the casts of the two ongoings together for the first time since “The Death of Optimus Prime”
Shockwave makes his move
Dark epic story
30th Anniversary comics
Reprints of past comics from Marvel/Dreamwave/IDW compiled together
More Q&A
They really think it would have been great for the Dinobots to appear in the Prime cartoon, but because they are so limited, putting the Dinobots into the Prime Beast Hunters comics was their way of putting the Dinobots into the Prime universe. This was spoken by Mairghread Scott, who worked on both the Prime cartoon and the comics.
They really went to great lengths to make Rage of the Dinobots to work with WFC, FOC, and Prime.
Will we see ever Galvatron fight the Wreckers? Ermmmmm, maybe. How about Wreckers and Dinobots vs. Galvatron/Cyclonus/Scourge/Sweeps? Whoa whoa whoa, no. These were asked by a kid who sounded like he just wanted to see cool characters fight each other.
Any thoughts of importing and translating any Japanese Transformers manga? It’s something that’s been talked about, but isn’t easy to do given the nature of Japanese comics. But, they have been using Japanese characters like Metalhawk and Star Saber in the American comics.
Is Dark Cybertron a new series or a side story or a story arc for one or both ongoings, or what? It’s a new story arc that’s gonna be for both ongoings.
Rescue Bots Cast Q&A Panel
The opening sequence kicked off the panel.
Brian Hohlfeld
Maurice LaMarche
Jason Marsden
Shannon McKain
Elán Garfias
Diamond White
Steve Blum
Parvesh Cheena
Imari Williams
D.C. Douglas
Maurice read an impassioned apology to Wally Burr for the less than kind things he had said in an interview several years ago about Maurice’s unpleasant voice acting session for Six-Gun in a single episode of the G1 cartoon.
Steve, what Transformers show is your favorite? Rescue Bots, of course! Right now.
Can you talk about your playing the characters and how you differentiate them? On Rescue Bots, Steve plays an Autobot, which is a departure from his usual playing of bad guys. He loves filling into the leader role filled typically by Optimus Prime, with his “Roll to the rescue” line, he is truly honored to be a part of this.
How much do you think you all are like your characters? Jason joked about being nothing like Kade, but then Brian added that they all add little bit of themselves into their characters, and Imari noted that some roles just feel perfect to the actors right from the start. And, they note that they all pretty much use their real voices, that they’re acting is not cartoonish but cinematic.
They joke about how it’s Cody who tends to solve the problems, but Maurice sometimes adlibs in the recording booth “Cody, thank goodness you thought of that. We have four college-leveled adults here, but thank goodness the 11-year-old was here to solve our problems!” Of course, they don’t use those takes, but it’s still funny. Still, there is that nice relatability they have with Cody for the younger viewers.
They played the “Land of Tech” music video from the “Shake Up” episode, performed by Diamond White. Diamond also noted how she’s previously performed for the UN in Washington.
Elán recorded a new version of the "Spongebob Squarepants" theme song for the “Truth or Square” anniversary special.
Elán noted how he has more lines in this type of role than he normally does, which required more preparation of his lines.
Jason noted how much taller Elán is than he is despite Jason being the eldest of the two by several years.
Shannon had a knee injury prior to the panel, he “didn’t listen to his mom and jumped off some rocks”, and now he has a torn ACL. He’ll be having surgery on Thursday.
This is Parvesh’s, Shannon’s, and Imari’s first voice acting roles for television. They were all pretty nervous the first time they came to Hasbro Studios in Burbank. But talking to each other made each of them feel better.
Imari would accidentally have his script page turning noises on the mic.
They went on and on about the various shenanigans the four Bots’ voice actors and Maurice would get into with each other in the studio.
Parvesh isn’t that good at doing exertions and straining noises for Blades.
A looped slideshow with production stills and movie posters for all 26 episodes of season 1 played throughout the panel.
Q&A
Several thank yous and praises for the actors being there and for their voice works both on the show and in other works.
Diamond is now recording singles and albums, and currently on the X-Factor.
What does D.C.’s name stand for? “Domestically Challenged”, “Dastardly Cunning”, nah, his actual first name is “Douglas Collins” while his last name is a German one, but since no one could pronounce his German last name, he took his first two initials as his first name and then his first name as his last name.
Parvesh often got cast in Indian roles (i.e. - taxi driver, convience store owner, etc.), and is now happy to be getting roles outside of that mold.
Jason can voice match any of the cast, doing both Doc Greene and Blades.
Answering machine messages for both the Burns Family and Rescue Force Sigma-17 were played.
They did the traditional “characters ordering at the drive thru” sketch.
Steve did a meeting between Heatwave, Starscream, and Green Goblin from “The Spectacular Spider-Man” cartoon
Steve and Elán did a meeting between Starscream and Cody sketch.
Steve did a "Starscream and Heatwave argue as roommates" sketch, which was mostly just this:
Starscream: "Mine! MINE!"
Heatwave: "Mine!"
Maurice was requested to do his “inhuman noise”, which he did. It’s the 15-second burp from the Will Ferrell movie “Elf”.
They were asked if they got to work alongside Tim Curry during the Dr. Morocco recordings. They did not, but all prayers go out Mr. Curry as he recovers from his stroke.
Transformers Collectors Club Roundtable TCC Staff Panel
Strika coloration chart
Hoist coloration chart
Megaplex coloration chart
Skywarp coloration chart
Obsidian coloration chart – noted how his deco was changed mid-production
Sandstorm coloration chart
Electron coloration chart
Mirage coloration chart
Thundercracker coloration chart
Hotlink coloration chart
Sunstorm coloration chart
Bitstream coloration chart – noted that there was concern of how close it would be to Thundercracker
Starscream coloration chart – was a pleasant surprise and was what sparked the Machine Wars theme
BotCon 2013 figure graphics – meant to make the toys seem more militaristic
Sandstorm mold sheets – showed many steps in the mold deco process.
Tech spec art for the toys – Josh Burcham’s fan art led to him being selected for the art and comic. Though, Marcelo Matere did the comic cover art.
The classic Machine Wars packaging led to the design of the box set, but had several challenges for the club to overcome. The KB Toys sale sticker was Pete Sinclair’s idea.
2014 incentive figure – will have a new headsculpt, PROTFORM X!!!! From Prime First Edition Deluxe Megatron.
2014 Club exclusive figure – another Beast Wars theme, TRANSMUTATE!!! From Prime First Edition Deluxe Arcee. Heroic Maximal. Will contain a box big enough to hold both it and X in a two-pack.
2014 subscription service figures – sadly, no pictures due to the club’s wishlist being too similar to Hasbro’s release list, but they did give the names of three of them
* - Chromedome from Prime Wheeljack w/ a new head
* - Action Master Treadshot from Generations Warpath
* - Ironfist from Generations Fall of Cybertron Roadbuster
The billing for the installment subscription service for this year is in August.
The delay was due to the manufacturer thinking the FSS figures were a BotCon project instead of being released earlier.
The software for the club’s website is going to be completely overhauled and rewritten to update it to a more modern level of advancement. They’re also working on getting the forums back online, but they’re struggling with the software. They’ve already set up the templates for the forums, they just need to get the software going.
Q&A
Has the club considered releasing the club magazine in digital form? It’s a trademark issue, since anyone who gets the digital copy could just email it to anyone. And, since Transformers is a tactile thing, there’s a greater value in owning a physical copy instead of a digital copy.
Are you going to make an Animated Ramjet, Slipstream, and Thundercracker? Animated is tricky, if they knew Hasbro wasn’t going to put them in, they might, it’s there but there aren’t any immediate plans. There are toys they'd like to make, but people have to want to buy them.
Have they considered making a Diaclone colored set? Yes, they have, but there’s the issue of the names and the appeal to the fandom at large. Machines Wars this year was a gamble, so there’s no guarantee that something like Diaclone would be as successful.
With the success of the Rainmakers this year, could the club bring back the Air Warriors from the Age of Wrath comics in toy form? Again, it has to do with the amount of appeal the toys would have. The audience seemed to react positively to the possibility of more Seeker toys.
Would Transmutate have a preorder or be paid upfront? They want to make sure each member gets the chance to own each club figure.
Why make a box set when they could make more money by selling the toys individually? The box set has become a staple of BotCon, along with the souvenir sets adding on to it. They try to do a bit of everything. Even if one only wants one toy of the box set exclusives, they stick with the format they have.
Was the Club going to use Blitzwing as Doubledealer? No, it was just a generic example of the Club thinking along the same lines as Hasbro when trying to avoid doing so.
Would they ever make an Action Master Starscream from the Classics Seeker mold? Starscream would be tough since his colors are already similar to the regular G1 Starscream deco. But, there are other Starscream decos out there, and it seems there is still some demand for the Seeker mold, so… who knows?
How about a giftset of the G1 Devastator molds? The thing with the G1 molds is that they might not still be viable. No plans now, but any chance of using G1 molds wouldn’t happen until at least after next year.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Rescue Bots Crew Q&A Panel
Brian Hohlfeld
Greg Johnson
Nicole Dubuc
They kicked off the panel with the opening sequence like yesterday.
The first version of the theme song was actually a LOT longer, with tons of detail.
They wanted to have a family of heroes with personalities in addition to the Rescue Bots who have their own personalities, and with Cody that makes nine characters, plus Doc and Frankie makes eleven. They wanted to have the Bots be the physical heroes, but also have Cody be there to be the window from which the audience would see the show’s perspective.
The board artists have the challenge of fitting all the characters together when they can only fit so many characters together. They have to give each character as complete a fight or action sequence as they can. The action is less fighting and more rescue action. This keeps things from getting too controversial and free and safe for everyone to enjoy. It also permits the comedy to be played better in conjunction with the high stakes.
The Rescue Bots are Optimus’s Plan B. The reason they don’t help Team Prime in the fight with Decepticons is that they serve as a backup team of survivors for just in case all other Cybertronians get wiped out, they will serve as the ones to carry on the Cybertronian legacy.
They can’t have lethal weapons in this show, so they have to get more creative with tools that can be but aren’t used as weapons, like sonic blasters and such.
The network was initially hesitant to have two TF cartoons airing new episodes together, and the show’s creators really had to push to convince them. It helped that the two were in the same continuity, and that they were careful to not repeat previous storylines.
They showed a clip from episode 5 - the scenes where the Bots panic about the possibility of aliens, while the Burns Family investigates the power plant going critical and get trapped inside.
They say that episode was to address and spell out the extraterrestrial nature of the Rescue Bots.
They spoke of how the show has a similar feel and tone to “The Andy Griffith Show” with the small town and the main character police chief. They also made Deputy Barney as a direct callback to that show's Barney Fife character.
Griffin Rock was named after Eagle Rock in Maine.
A lot of the characters are name after people they know. Taylor, Hayley, Graham, Jerry, Mr. Bunty, etc. all based on real people close to them.
The show is written like a callback to the fun cartoons of the 1980’s.
Showed a clip from “Shake Up” where Frankie tries to get the bots to perform for her video, while Doc shows off his own dance moves. Heatwave notes how humiliating this is, Chief reiterates the importance of the covertness of their mission, while Chase follows up with “That is what she said” in an attempt to use and understand Earth humor.
No characters are dumb or whiny like a lot of cartoons have. No dumb dad a la Homer Simpson, no whiny irritating kid, all of the characters are written well.
Season 2 will have a different animation studio.
This show has some of the most action ever gotten out of Flash-style animation.
They showed the runaway mine cart scene and the smashed cake scene from “Little White Lies”.
They wanted to see how much they could do with just two characters for that scene. D.C. Douglas was playing the character of Chase robotic yet sentimental.
Greg Johnson also wrote some Beast Wars episodes. “Feral Scream”, “Gorilla Warfare”, “Bad Spark”, to name a few
They showed an animatic preview of season 2.
First 90 seconds of episode 27 (season 2 episode 1) “Road Trip”
Th Bots and Burnses are preparing for a road trip in the MHQ, Kade is giving Heatwave a driving lesson, which Heatwave is freaking Kade out with his crazy driving, Chief and Chase are in pursuit, and they all almost crash into a bus.
Q&A
Morocco was inspired by classic film actor Basil Rathbone, and he did remember the Bots, Cody and Frankie from 1939 when he first appeared in the present, but kept that info to himself.
Where is Mrs. Burns? They know what happened to her, but that’s not really a major concern to reveal at this time, but there could be a chance to reveal her fate at a later point. Season 2 will have more Burns family members.
How far ahead do they get to plan season-wise? Do they plan the whole season ahead of time, or do they work on it as they go and change things as they work? The episodes are planned out as standalone, but the multi-parters are seen as milestones, it’s a difficult series to plan episodes for. There is also a new villain on the horizon.
How much do the characters change with voice actors? There’s not much change, as they find actors that they listen to, and they tend to be quite good at what they all do with the characters and scenes as they are. It’s so thrilling to hear them say the lines. The character of Blades was originally just afraid of flying, but Parvesh Cheena was so good at playing him cowardly that they drew from that to make the character grow to develop confidence through the show.
The voice actors will often improv and riff in the booths.
Why does Boulder not have a visor while the others do? The toy was the only one that didn’t have visor, so his eyes just turn blue instead. They’re contacts.
Will there be more fighting and violence in tone for season 2, since the first season initially treaded lightly on the violence? That was probably the height of violence that they were going to reach for, and will be returning to more fun tone from before.
Since Nicle Dubuc used to work on Kim Possible, does she see Cody and Frankie as allusions to Kim and Ron? Could we see some of Kim and Ron put into those characters later on? And will we see older versions of the two? Cody’s less clumsy than Ron, but he and Frankie are more of their own selves, but Nicole does like the idea.
Is it a coincidence that the MorBots look similar to the Vehicons? Yes, any resemblances are coincidental. They wanted to make the MorBots look more like old-fashioned steampunk technology, they’re not meant to look like the Vehicons.
Are they going to expand the character cast for season 2? No new Rescue Bots, as they couldn’t figure out how to fit in Hoist and Medix. They had an idea, but it proved to be more trouble than its worth, so they couldn’t go that route and went in a more preferred direction. But there are going to be other new characters in season 2.
Any scoops on any guest writers for season 2? Shannon McKain will be writing, and they mentioned Greg Weisman.
Nicole Dubuc got to do some voice acting on Young Justice.
Nicole Dubuc voices Bumblebee in Rescue Bots like how Frank Welker does on Prime. She did the “drive thru” sketch in her Bumblebee voice (which sounded like Stitch).
Trex was indeed modeled after Beast Wars Megatron.
Statistics: Posted by Sabrblade — Tue Jul 02, 2013 6:32 pm — Replies 5 — Views 90