BotCon may be over for the year, but we aren't done covering just yet. As most of our staff was on site for the event's festivities, we covered a lot of the panels that went on that weekend. In addition to our previous coverage of the Hasbro Panel, through the space bridge are our notes from seven more panels containing info ranging from behind-the-scenes information, info about cartoons past, present, and future (though, sparsely), new toy info, new comic info, and so much more!
Friday, June 20, 2014
Universal Studios Fan Experience Panel
Started with a preview for the SyFy TV series Defiance.
Showed a preview for SyFy the TV series Dominion.
Neither of those previews have anything to do with Transformers. Just casual advertisements.
Host – Hasbro Director of Marketing, Ben Montano
Marketing team – Mark Webber
Design team – Lenny Panzica, Bill Pawkert, John Warden
IDW – John Barber
Hall of Fame – two robots, one human
Posted on Facebook – 1 million Likes
First inductee – Arcee
Show pics of Arcee toys – Energon, Animated, ROTF, Prime
Excited about the Generations Arcee figure
Second inductee – Rodimus
Rodimus, Rodimus Major, Rodimus Prime, Hot Rod, “The guy who got Optimus killed”
Showed pics of Rodimus toys - all the way up to Masterpiece
Human – Stan Bush
He’s here! A few word “Holy smokes! I had no idea! Thank you so much. This is awesome. You got the touch.”
The show could end here, but… special presentation.
1985 “Everybody Wants to Rue the World”, Back to the Future, Grimlock toy!
Celebrating Grimlock, exploring what is cool about him.
Ratchet and Wheeljack made the Dinobots out of ancient dinosaur fossils.
Showed a clip from “S.O.S. Dinobots” of the Dinobots’ unveiling.
Used the Rhino DVD footage instead of the Shout! Factory DVD, meaning the Dinobots fail to “clear this rubble”.
Showed a clip from “Grimlock’s New Brain” about Grimlock asserting his “not stupid” and “knowing how to bash brains”
Showed Teletraan I files on the Dinobots’ transformations.
Showed a clip from “Dinobot Island” of the Dinobots partaking in tests on the island.
G1 Dinobot toys had lots of cool textures (patterns, clearparts, gratuitous use of metal), they enjoy having those toys in hand when thinking about the next iteration of the Dinobots.
Mark’s favorite Dinobot is Snarl
Lenny – Grimlock
Bill – Slag
John Warden – Sludge
John Barber – Slag
25th anniversary – Transformers Animated
Animated had a really good take on the dinobots with a good design aesthetic that kept the aspects that made them memorable and
Showed a clip from the end “Blast from the Past” when Grimlock first transforms.
There was something about the Animated Dinobot toys.
Snarl’s name came about when they ran into trouble with the name “Slag” in the UK.
Showed the Animated short called “Catch”.
They really played up the fire aspects of the Animated Dinobots with the fire weapons (club, flail, sword)
Fall of Cybertron
Showed the FOC trailer with the song “The Humbling River”
FOC dealt back into the origins of the Dinobots and rooted in the Marvel Comics origin, which was different from the cartoon. But in this version, Shockwave takes ordinary Autobots and turns them into Dinobots
Showed the FOC video interview with Matt Tieger discussing the Dinobots with footage of the Dinobots in the game. The video that was first shown by Game Informer.
First time having the original team back together. Though, “Slug” now instead of Slag.
Showed the FOC Dinobots concept art
These designs gave them the leverage to take G1 and propel it into a new place. Keeping the heart of it but continuing it into a new place.
They had a really great relationship with High Moon. They wanted to put the fire breath into the toy, and so put the LED in his mouth.
They’re proud of the FOC Grimlock toy.
Age of Extinction – in theaters next Friday
Showed the extended version of the second theatrical trailer
They started off this journey into this next movie. The Dinobots had the energy, and had to be sharp, and they wanted to keep these guys really primal/visceral. Early on, there weren’t any descriptions of what the Dinobots looked like, but the script called them “barbaric knights”, and so they worked that into the designs. Raw, barbaric-looking robots.
Each one owns a job on the team. Grimlock –leader, jack of all trades. Strafe – flyer two heads, whips, bladed wings, Slog – a tank.
Grimlock is the normal one while the others get special abilities. Each of the Dinobots are weapons. They thought of Grimlock gaining more weapons with the more enemies he eats.
Grimlock – fearless leader
Slog – walking tank, incredible
Slug – charging bull, swords plug into the sides for a charging attack to take out enemies flanking him on his sides
Strafe and Snarl – intense, Snarl is a suit of armor, bladed armor, Strafe flies and gets the crossbow
Scorn – big fan-favorite, awesome to work on, big sail on his back
Slash – what’s cooler than a Velociraptor? They had to work a raptor in there somewhere
Showed promo art of the Dinobots
Showed pics of toys for the Dinobots – 1 Step, Power Battlers, Generations, Chomp & Stomp, etc.
Chomp & Stomp is gigantic
San Diego Comic-Con exclusive – AOE Dinobots with G1 decos and Matthew Reinhart-made box that unfolds into Mount St. Hilary
That wraps up the panel
“How To Ride Your Dinobot” artwork
Showed the “How To Ride Your Dinobot” cartoon episodes
Saturday, June 21, 2014
Rescue Bots Cast & Crew Panel
Mike Vogel – Supervising Director
Greg Johnson – Story Editor (did eps of Beast Wars)
Nicole Dubuc – Story Editor and Co-creator of the show
Jason Marsden – Voice of Kade
Élan Garfias – Cody Burns
Shannon McKain – Graham Burns
Parvesh Cheena – Blades
Steve Blum – Heatwave
Imari Williams – Boulder
Sneak Peak of season 2, episode 25
Mr. Bunty is eating his lunch when Cody appears out of nowhere through a portal to grab a misplaced soccer ball. He retrieves it and brings it back through the portal to continue their game of Rescue Ball, in which there are no rules. Everyone, Bots, Burnses, Greenes, even Trex are playing. Chief gets a call. Mayor Luskey tried to drive over the destroyed Franklin Bridge. The team saves him, but he seems to be suffering from some long term memory loss.
Many of the people who inspired the townsfolk’s designs are present in the audience.
Q&A
When does this show take place? It starts off taking place during the first season of Prime, but is now into the early parts of season 2 of Prime. There is a chart that keeps track of when events correspond with Prime.
Were there any considerations to include cameos of the Rescue Bots in the Prime cartoon like when the base was destroyed in Prime season 2? Optimus has made attempts to keep the Rescue Bots unknown since they are his Plan Z, the last
Are there any plans to release an art book or a behind the scenes featurette for the show? That is a great idea.
Steve Blum is both Heatwave and Starscream. What about Megatron? That’s not what the show is for. They write for a younger yet broader audience with no fighting as a rule.
Question about the new 2015 cartoon. Who is voice acting in that show? None of these voice actors got that call. They don’t know. This is a panel for Rescue Bots, not the new show.
Any plans for a Rescue Bots movie? They really like the idea, and then joke about the cast being able to play live action versions of the characters (even the Bots).
Either Imari or Parvesh usually arrives late to sessions.
What’s next for Vigil? We haven’t seen the end of him. That’s the safe answer.
If you were given the chance to play any other Autobot in Transformers, who would you want to add to the show? Jason – Jazz (did the Jazz voice), Parvesh - Ironhide, Steve – Jetifre, Imari – Grimlock, Shannon – a Graham version of an Autobot
Why is the Burns family the only emergency responders in the show? Downsizing. There aren’t that many people on the island, but a lot of people did lose their jobs when the Bots came to the island.
What style do they use when they record their lines? They record together in the same room. Humans first, then the Bots. They get shushed a lot (lol). After the adults are done, they bring in Élan and Diamond (Frankie’s voice) to record their sessions. It all depends on sessions.
Mark Hamill is coming back as Woodrow. He’s a busy guy.
Jason wore Star Wars underwear with Luke Skywalker on them when he met Mark Hamill.
Starscream, Heatwave, Green Goblin, and Wolverine, plus Blades and Boulder all meet. What would happen? A funny sketch with these voices, but the only got to do Wolverine, Green Goblin, and Boulder.
Are there gonna be any other Prime characters in this show besides Prime and Bee? It’s a lot of money to create new designs for these characters, though Prime did mention “our medic”. Wait and see. They can’t say anything.
What would they feel if Arcee showed up? Boulder and Heatwave and Kade like the idea of a fembot showing up, and the crew say “wait and see”.
What’s their favorite behind the scene moment? G rated or PG-13? PG-13. Karaoke. Imari also talks about when he took a picture he wasn’t supposed to and got spanked for it by Jenny. In front of everyone. Élan talks about once being in the booth with the Bots and D.C. was messing around and said something that made Élan do a spit take and messed up his take. Jason talks about the first time he met Peter Cullen in season 1 and how he started crying when he heard Peter Cullen doing his Optimus voice on the job, because Jason is such a huge G1 fan.
Any chance for a DVD box set? They don’t think so because there isn’t a good enough market for it. It’ll take the power of the fans if they want one bad enough.
Will the dinosaur toys be in the show? It was announced at Toy Fair that season 3 will have them. Season 3 will air this Fall.
The voice over community is very small and very close and they respect and help each other.
Now that Bumblebee finally has his voice, would you consider having a Will Friedle-voiced Bumblebee appearing in a future season episode?
Ooo, cool idea! They like the idea of that. Pretty clear though that they don’t have any current plans for that.
When the voices begin to fade, will they be replacing the voice actors? They do not plan to.
Sneak peek of season 3. Animatic for season 3 episode 1. Optimus is impressed with the team. The team shows Optimus what they’ve learned. Boulder does physical strength tests, Heatwave does speed tests, Chase does turning tests. Heatwave coverts to his fire boat mode. Chase pulls him over. Blades flies up to Mount Griffin and encounters a Pterodactyl.
TCC Roundtable Panel
Brian Savage
Pete Sinclair
Lanny Latham
2014 Convention set – box art by Robby Musso
Showed early concept sketches for the box art.
Showed Devcon’s deco sheet
Showed Cannonball’s deco sheet
Showed Ginrai’s deco sheet
Showed Ferak’s deco sheet (and Tornado’s)
Showed Scorponok’s deco sheet
They wanted originally to do a rotating head, but it just didn’t look good no matter what and just scrapped it.
They used the Spike forehead which saved a lot of money
A lot of engineering went into making the new neck piece.
They had some tooling issues on the first one popping back open since it didn’t sit flush with the back of the piece.
A lot of things were either painted wrong or not painted at all on the original sample.
The face was too far out for the face to be covered in Olin’s robot mode, but there was so much detail in the face that they needed it to be that far out.
2014 convention souvenirs
Showed Brimstone’s deco sheet
Showed Alpha Trizer’s deco sheet
Showed the Hunter’s deco sheet
Showed Flareup’s deco sheet
Showed the Clones’ deco sheet
Showed Apelinq’s deco sheet
Rampage
Showed Rampage’s deco sheet
Trans-Mutate
Showed Trans-Mutate’s box art and deco sheet
The box was to give room for Rampage
Transformers Figure Subscription Service 3.0
The following were shown as rough concepts that are subject to change
Krok with Gatoraider – remold from Generations Deluxe Megatron w/ new head and Arm Micron Dai mold
Nacelle – Redeco of Classics Starscream but with the wings of BotCon 2007 Thrust
Serpent O.R. – Redeco of Generations Senator Ratbat
Zap w/ G.B. Blackrock – Redeco of Generations IDW Bumblebee w/ a Kreon human and a Kre-O gas station
G2 Starscream – redeco of the Classics Starscream mold
Dawn of Future’s Past (yes, they used that term!) TARANTULAS!!! – Redeco of Reveal the Shield Wreck-Gar w/ head of United Scrapheap and two of the Arms Micron Ida mold as Arachnoids.
Q&A
Do you plan to release info on the custom class figure ahead of the con? No, we want it to be a surprise.
Devcon came as a result of being released at the right place and time.
We will be more from the Dawn of Future’s Past toyline? They’re testing the waters with Beast Wars: Uprising and there could be some crossover with molds, and they did Depth Charge and Rampage and Trans-Mutate and that’s probably where they would go. They’re wanting to stay in the universe that they’re currently in, but who knows.
Will you be doing anything with Beast Machines? It depends since most of the characters were already in Beast Wars and most of the other toys weren’t in the show, so it all depends of the demand for it.
They’ve taken some risks in the past with things like pre-Beast wars and Shattered Glass and SG turned out to be one of the most successful things they’ve had.
Any chance of unproduced concepts coming to fruition? Come to the BotCon Retrospective panel tonight. There are ten concepts that were deemed awful and ten that got cut and replaced at the last minute. 20 concepts. Be there.
How much access does the Club have to Takara molds? It depends on the molds. Some rules change and some new rules come about. It’s always changing.
When can we have monthly comics? It goes back to how the comics they currently have are expensive to produce, and to go monthly would be about 50% more than what members are currently paying. They’re afraid the price might get so silly that it would drive people away.
Any chance of seeing more 3H era characters? They did that for this special year and they don’t know about future plans for more. Who knows. Maybe. There’s also mold degradation to account for in some cases of older molds.
What about doing season 4 of Animated? Derrick J. Wyatt has talked to them about something like that, but would there be enough love for Animated for them to do something like that after this number of years? And would people be willing to pay for the Animated molds? It depends on those things.
Will there be convention comics of trade form? Possibly. They’re looking at their options for that.
Will they be doing more Car Robots? Well, they already did Sky-Byte and Side Burn.
What about Generations versions of the Dinobots? Or Elita One? The Dinobots are pretty much completely off the table for them due to Paramount owning them for the movie. And they did do an Elita One from Cybertron Thunderblast in 2009.
Have they considered adding more story space in the magazines by reducing other magazine content? It all depends on how much story they have to tell and how much other content they have to fill each issue with. More story means more writing, but they do try to fill up more story material with the character bios.
Any possibility of more Diaclone homages in the future? Yes. Well, people talk about wanting a Diaclone set, but it’s not something the masses would want. The Subscription Service is a good place to take these kinds of risks, but the box set would be tougher to sell since Diaclone technically isn’t Transformers.
And we managed to get some pics of the 2015 Subscription Service figure mock-ups:
BotCon Retrospective Panel
Pete Sinclair
Karl Hartman
They showed a slideshow of various images commemorating all the previous BotCons, but none of the two OTFCCs.
Karl Hartman had everyone stand up and then sit down when he asked for each number of years that they’ve been attending BotCon (“for those that this is your second, third, or fourth BotCon, sit down”).
Seven people have been to every BotCon.
No pics were allowed in this one-time deal.
20 Years, 20 Exclusives That Never Were.
The first 10 never even made it past conception, the second ten were approved but then rejected
1 – Hardshell (G1 Bombshell) from Generations Darkmount/Straxus
2 – Overlord from ROTF Mindwipe
3 – Hubcap from Animated Soundwave
4 – "Marlboro" from ROTF Lockdown
5 – "Femme Fatale Cykill" from Prime First Edition Arcee
6 – "Predaking BW Style" from Beast Wars Tigerhawk
7 – Shattered Glass Stranglehold from 2010 Deluxe Axor, would have had a mustache
8 – Skyquake and King Atlas (I think?) from Universe Ultra Silverbolt
9 – The Turbomasters w/ Thunderclash from Prime RID Ultra Magnus and four Prime RID Deluxe car molds (Wheeljack, Bumblebee, etc.)
10 – Twilight Sparkle Prime from Beast Wars Neo Mach Kick
What You Almost Got
11 – G1 Ransack from Generations FOC Kickback w/ two Arms Microns
12 – Three pirates from PRID Wheeljack, PRID Dreadwing, Generations FOC Air Raid (Wheeljack was almost this year's Cannonball)
13 – Bumper from Prime RID Rumble
14 – G1 Crosshairs from Generations Kup
15 – Animated Strika from Animated Voyager Bulkhead
16 – Bruton from Generations FOC Grimlock
17 – Bruton from Prime First Edition Bulkhead
18 – Machine Wars Prowl from Classics Mirage (was replaced by Machine Wars Mirage)
19 – Machine Wars Hubcap from Generations Kup w/ the MW Hoist/Electrons headsculpt
Teasing us with Animated drawings, Sideswipe, Jackpot, Jhiaxus, Goldbug, purple Blackout
20 – The original plan for 2011's Animated set: Toxic Mayhem – BugBite (Animated Hydrodrive Bumblebee) and Toxitron (Animated Wingblade Optimus Prime) vs. Jackpot (which we did get later) and Kup (Cybertron Mode Optimus Prime). Animated Sideswipe would have been based on the SG deco instead of the G2 deco. Animated Tigatron from Rodimus. Animated Shokaract from Blackout. Animated Springer from Swindle. Animated Flamewar, Nightracer, and one other black & green Con fembot (missed the name of this one) from Arcee. Plus G1-colors Breakdown and Action Master colors Thundercracker (both of which we did wind up getting).
One proposal that couldn’t be found was told to us instead: a BotCon Alternators box set. Four figure box set. Galvatron from Wheeljack (new head). Cyclonus from Mirage. Ultra Magnus from Optimus. Rodimus from somebody (but we got one anyway).
The Ultra Mammoth idea came out earlier, in like 2012 or so.
Bonus 21 – Rodimouse from Transmetal Rattrap!
Q&A
Are we gonna see any actual combiners in the box set? If it makes sense, yeah. Fill out the survey.
It was accidentally slipped out that the silhouette shown at the end of the Hasbro panel might very well be Superion .
What do you think about doing a RID/Car Robots themed set? It depends on the demand for it, but probably not. They at least do have a concept for X-Brawn, but just a concept.
Are the GoBots completely unavailable for a set? Anything from that series involves too much legal stuff.
Why after 20 years does BotCon not have a set rotation of cities for planning or at least a year or two out, as it makes planning for the con each year very difficult? The original plan was gonna have three rotating cities each year, eastern, middle, and western. But it has been directed to have things in different places for different reasons. For this year, they were directed to come back to Pasadena because of the Fan Experience at Universal Studios. Right now, they’re not at the point where they can have set cities because the brand is in a constant flux with different things going on for it each year. This year’s location also has all the voice actors and the movie. Fill out the survey with some feedback about locations.
What are the chances of having a female robot theme box set? Transformers is great right now since, at the first few BotCons, there was very little female participation, while nowadays there are tons of females, with the fandom not as divided as it used to be. Both genders accept each other. But it doesn’t seem to make that much sense to do an all-female set just to do it, since it would be like doing an all-male set just to do it. The big thing is making a set in which all of the figures/characters fit together thematically. The want to do things that work together as a set, rather than doing something for the sake of it. Flareup and Flamewar this year pay tribute to 2005, and they’ve done Nightracer and Strika as non-female body molds.
Any chance for Animated G2 Dinobots? Derrick J. Wyatt was very invested in the 2011 set and wanted it to make sure it fit his creative vision. Animated is his thing.
How about Animated season 4? Derrick Wyatt was present here to talk about this. They’d need new molds to do it. Season 3.5 worked since they could do it. For season, they have nothing to do Marauder Megatron from. Maybe a one-shot that ties into the existing fiction could be done but… it’s really not looking feasible.
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Transformers Animated Panel
Story editor and producer – Marty Isenberg
Art director – Derrick J. Wyatt
Voice and cast director – Susan Blu
Voice of Optimus Prime – David Kaye
Marty wrote and story edited and did a lot of other things he’s not credited for.
Derrick was art director and color stylist
Sue was Arcee in G1, and has been directing for the last 20 years, having done Beast Wars, Animated, and early episodes of Prime.
David Kaye was one of the cops, the old man, and a number of other voice roles in Animated.
Q&A
Who did you have the most fun working with on any of your projects? Derrick really likes it when they get the gang back together on projects they work. Sue says that when she casts a project, she likes to cast a party who will bring fun to voice sessions. David really liked working with the cast of Animated.
Tom Kenny once brought his kids to Weird All’s recording for Wreck-Gar’s episode, even though none of Tom Kenny’s roles were in that episode. His kids were huge Weird Al fans and they got to meet him when Al was just sitting there on the couch in the studio (“Hi, I’m Al, how are ya?”). Though, it turns out they were short on some voices and so Tom ended up voicing a minor cop role in the episode.
Other notable voices in the show: Fred Willard was Swindle, Lance Henriksen was Lockdown, Lance had a really deep and low voice and talked about his tattoos, they brought back Judd Nelson for Rodimus. And John Moschita for Blurr, who was really concerned about what happened to Blurr.
They homage BW Megatron with Optimus saying “Excellent! Yes!” in the second-to-last episode.
What was your favorite series to have worked on? Animated is a very good contender for that, since they all had so much fun working on it and hadn’t had as much fun until then. Though, Derrick also enjoyed working on Teen Titans and David talked about working on Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated. David got to work with Frank Welker on Scooby-Doo. To this day, Derrick considers Animated Leader Megatron to still be the best Megatron toy to date. Sue really has to go with Transformers as well since it’s been in her life so much, having worked on multiple TF cartoons.
Would anyone be considering returning for more BotCons? Yeah!
What would you have liked to have shown in season 4? And in your head, what did Sari say to Optimus when she whispered to Optimus where babies come from? For the latter, Tara Strong did whisper something in that recording session. For season 4, they did have it mapped out, and were set to go for it until the eleventh hour. The AllSpark Almanac has the most complete rundown of what season 4 would have been, so check that out. And BotCon 2011 had a story set between season 3 and what seaso n4 would have been. So, if they could have, they would have done a full season with Cybertron being like Springfield in The Simpsons, and Megatron would have escaped prison and Jazz and Ironhide would have joined Optimus’s team with Bulkhead, Sari, and Arcee staying behind on Cybertron. The AllSpark Almanac has descriptions for the season episode, with the final episode being called “Megatron Must Be Destroyed”. As for Sari, they like to think that what she said was completely wrong, like if she mentioned the Cabbage Patch. And they would have liked to have seen a Galvatron in season 4.
What was the most embarrassing moment in their careers that they can remember? There are a couple of them. There was a scene in Walla in which the guy who voiced Scorponok who thought “Walla” was a line instead of a cue.
Sue talked about how they were recording for Beast Wars and she needed someone to burp. So Garry Chalk said that he could burp. So he drink a coke, burped into the mic, and some of the Coke came out and got on the system, and Garry just sucked it back up.
In another recording session, another actor had some bad flatulence whilst recording.
Marty talked about an episode with Warpath and they had David do Warpath with a Clint Eastwood type voice. An angry Republican. But originally, David did a much wimpier voice for him, which Derrick gave him the big “noooo” for.
Would you be willing to flesh out more season 4 stories in comics? That’s entirely up to other people.
About the Shattered Glass episode from season 4, will Derrick be drawing more SG Animated stuff? Yeah, he likes drawing that stuff, but it’s a matter of finding time to do it, but yeah he’ll do more of it for fun. The episode was actually meant for season 2, and then for season 3, but then got bumped.
What would SG Animated Optimus sound like? First Kaye did a high pitched squeaky voice, then his Toxitron voice, and then a BW Megatron-style Optimus voice. Sue comments that SG Optimus would make sense to sound like Megatron.
How did the voice actors get into their jobs, and how did the creators come up with Optimus as a junior Autobot? For Sue, she was a controlled stutterer in high school and they thought she was a Special Needs, which she was, but she wasn’t, and she was found out to be really smart with a healthy IQ. And she had a tutor that would help her to speak better and she made a habit of trying to imitate characters like Porky Pig. And she did some camera work as was asked how shewould sound if cast as the Pillsbury Dough Girl, and got the job. And she was the new kid on the block and got working at Warner Bros and has been in the business ever since. David would mimic his teachers and stood in the hall a lot. He made friends with the janitor and he got into mimicking people and became a DJ in his hometown as his first job. He says he was horrible, but one person gave him his chance and that’s all he needed.
For Optimus, at the time that Marty was taking his first meeting with Sam Register, Sam said he wanted to do something new, mess around outside the box. Not like how the Unicron Trilogy did it and start fresh. He had a lot of strange ideas and the backstory they ended up using had been worked on by Sam. Marty can’t remember if he was directed to do a younger Optimus, but they had already seen the godlike, infallible Optimus and they had already seen that and didn’t find in interesting. So they wanted someone they could relate to, like someone who’s in over his head. It’s cool to see someone become the hero instead of start out as the hero. And in general that’ how they wanted to go with the character.
David, how did you come up with the voice of Gravitak from Ben 10? There’s a lot of voice references in that show, and there’s so many voice roles for that show with all the aliens that Ben can turn into, so it’s hard to keep track of which voices he does in that show.
Sari Sumdac is an unusual name, how did it come about. Sam Register handed them the name, and “Sumdac” is “Cadmus” spelt backwards.
If season 4 had come out, how would it have played with Prowl dead? They were gonna do some Obi-Wan Kenobi with him as a ghost. One episode would have been like G1 Starscream’s ghost jumping from body to body to get to his point.
Might any of you have any involvement with the next Transformers cartoon? Marty was going to write an episode, but it didn’t pan out. David claims to be involved, but can’t do any voice sample for what he might do for it (though he might have been speaking in jest).
David talked about working on Prime as Hardshell, in which he got to work with Welker and Cullen. He also had to hold his face for two hours in the voice session to get Hardshell’s voice right.
What’s your favorite moment of the series and what would you change if you could? For Derrick, when Sari upgrades is his favorite. Marty’s is when Sari reveals the fact of childbirth, and during the production with the very first table reading with the cast, which was nerve-racking since it’s always a nervous moment. There were some debate over how young David was to make Optimus sound. With Scooby-Doo, when David got to say the legendary “meddling kids” line, he had a geek out moment. For Sue, when the work was all done on episode 1 and everyone came together to watch it. In the recording, all the actors are going “BS, BS, my line, BS, BS, my line.”
Where did Starscream’s head blaster come from in season 3? That was Marty’s idea, they wanted to give Starscream a power with his scream to make his name make sense. And they love doing Headmaster stuff.
Some of the season 2 end credits bickering scene was adlibbed.
In season 4, were they planning on bringing Blurr back to life? No, I don’t know, nah. [Note that the BotCon 2011 Animated season 3.5 comic “The Stunti-Con Job” featured Blurr’s recovered cube in Cliffjumper’s possession, so officially, Blurr was not fully destroyed.]
Watching Animated, who is your favorite background character? Marty likes Porter C. Powell. He was designed for one episode, but he was so bizarrely designed and so fun that they just kept using him. Though, Marty’s REAL favorite is himself, who appeared in the burger joint in the Christmas episode.
Do they feel bored coming to more BotCons? No! They hope that WE don’t become bored seeing them over and over.
More animated TV shows are done with ensemble casts while feature films are recorded by the actors by themselves.
Corey Burton is a voice over aficionado. He can do any narrator voice like Paul Fries or the Disney theme park ride announcers.
With Ben crossing over into various universes in Ben 10 Omniverse, could Ben cross over into the TF Animated universe? CN doesn’t even seem to know that they had a TF cartoon. In the CN offices, there’s no trace of Animated in their list of shows. And TF is a Hasbro toy while Ben 10 is a Bandai toy. So, most likely not.
Transformers Comic: IDW Panel
John Barber
James Roberts
Andrew Griffith
Mairghread Scott
Sarah Stone
Livio Ramondelli
More Than Meets The Eye
Issue 30 next week, exclusive BotCon cover, concludes the “Trial of Megatron” arc
Issue 31, Drift returns
Issue 32 cover, sneak peek page of Prime/Megs uncolored, Rewind
Robots in Disguise
Issue 30 just came out, BotCon cover
Issue 31, Jazz, action shot with the Autobots, Thundercracker and Buster (his pet dog)
Issue 32 uncolored peek at Jazz
Windblade
Issue 3, reviewers claim Scott is “evil”, darkest issue, Windblade finally gets to use some weapjns training, Starscream looks nice and sinister like inviting you to tea
Sarah’s first comic series, it’s been surreal and awesome
Issue 4 cover, sneak peak cover, her jewelry has significance
Primacy
Concludes the Cybertronian War Trilogy, Chrsi Metzen and Flint Dille
First two series had Optimus and Megatron evolving into their archetypal roles, and here they are at that point.
Omega Supreme?
Transformers vs. G.I. Joe
Ton Scioli, unique art style, divisive reactions
Really crazy fun story
The world of aliens coming into Earth, issue 2 is really TF heavy
Full Kirby-esque
Devastator blowing up
Transformers: Punishment
And original motion comic
In continuity with IDW G1
Motion graphics, original music and sound effects
Optimus visits Cybertron and sees how a post-Dark Cybertron is
Somebody starts killing Decepticons and Optimus has to figure out who’s doing it
Most animated comic story, when someone’s head blow up it really blows up
November
Guido Guidi
Drift: Empire of Stone
Shane McCarthy and Guido Guidi
Follow up after the end of Primacy
Ties in with MTMTE
Drift was a member of the Lost Light crew, Drift took the blame and Rodimus kicked him out and no one’s seen him since.
2015
Sarah Stone
Windblade Returns
Can’t say anything that’s not super spoilery, but they and the fans couldn’t let her go. Greatly positive feedback.
Q&A
Will we ever see all five Dinobots reunited as a team? No, never (lol). Kidding. The four Dinobots will be in Punishment and Grimlock’s with the Scavengers.
Will Windblade and Drift ever be seen together? I dunno. That’s a cool idea. If only there was a way to get Windblade onto the Lost Light. We’ll see.
No more movie comics? Yeah, looks like it. They want to focus more on the main IDW continuity for right now and on TF vs. G.I. Joe, but no movie comics at this time.
When will we see Windblade’s return? In the winter or in Spring 2015? Somewhere in 2015, stay tuned.
Punishment looks awesome, are we ever going to see an animated MTMTE sometime? That’s more of a question for other people. It’d be cool, but that might not be where Hasbro is at the moment. It’s up to them.
Stupid question: Since this is the 30th nniversary, will Grimlock return? And since Drift is actually alive, will we see him with Windblade? Grimlock’s got a huge number of fans, but it’s in a strange state of mind and being looked after by a group of Decepticons, so we will be seeing more of him. Drift and Windblade will have to wait and see.
What known voices might have provided inspiration behind the art or dialogue of the characters? John hears the G1 voices, except for Soundwave and Prowl (who sounds like Peter Weller to him). James hears Foghorn Leghorn and David R. Pierce, but not much else. Andrew doesn’t really hear any voices, but Mairghread hears Prime Starscream and Waspinator’s original BW voice. Sarah had wanted Chromia to emulate Riker in Star Trek TNG in one scene. Livio also hears the G1 voices.
Will we see more of the Wreckers? Well, they’re all out there in different places right now?
With the popularity of the Windblade character and the fans helping to create her, would there be more opportunities for fans to help create more characters like that? That’s more of a Hasbro question, but based on the so far success of the character, it would make sense to do more of those, but that’s a Hasbro question.
Any more Transformers crossovers? Yes. There should be some announcement soon, but yes there will be.
Why was Transformers/Justice League not a thing? Times weren’t right for things to fit together with that. DC was going through the old/new 52 thing back then.
With how each of the Dinobots got such great character focus in the Prime series comics, will they getting similar treatment in the main IDW comics? The four non-Grimlock Dinobots are in Punishment, and there are a lot of Dinobot stories. But each time they show up, the story kinda becomes a Dinobots story.
Will Fort Max return? Yes, he’s coming back soon.
What was the aim of making Megatron and Galvatron different characters? That was before all of their times. That was Simon Furman’s thing. He must have had fun writing them as separate and it’s in the spirit of shaking things up a bit. And they like have to ongoings with one featuring Megatron and one featuring Galvatron.
With the story back on Earth, will we see more of Verity? Maybe, it’d be nice to see what she’s been doing, there’s a lot to explore at there, 34 is more about Galvatron, and 35 will have some old human friends, but as for if Verity will show up, we’ll say that we’re aware of her and the fan interest in her.
Any plans for Sixshot or Springer to return since neither has been seen in ages? The Wreckers are currently in a holding point, being left alone in favor of going with the ongoings, and there’s a lot of characters out there to explore.
Any chance of the Thirteen making it into the story like with Alpha Trion’s involvement? Interesting question. Don’t stop reading at the moment?
Have they thought about doing an anthology series? They’ve talked about it, but they don’t have a good answer for it.
Anymore spotlights? And are previous spotlights going to be included in upcoming IDW hardcovers? They haven’t dropped doing spotlights altogether, but they aren’t currently planning any. And the new hardcover series Phase 2 will continue where the last one left off and they will include The Death of Optimus Prime and things like MTMTE, RID, Autocracy, Monstrosity, Dark Cybertron, etc.
Have there been any talks with Hasbro about making comics for the new RID cartoon? This is a conversation for Hasbro, so, um, stay tuned?
With memory being a large part of MTMTE, will Soundwave missing his early memories come up in the future? Er, yeah, sort of, they can’t explain about the story.
Are we gonna get to see Windblade’s backstory? Yeah, that’s a big part of issue 4.
Will there be a story about the senators besides Ratbat? Sort of. There’s a MTMTE set in the past and returns to the Chaos Theory era of senators and functionists.
Does Simon Furman have a future with IDW? Not at the moment. Regen One ended where it wanted to end, so he’s not involved in the near-future.
Will the Titans being genocidal murderers be flesh out or is that part of the messed up lore of Transformers? That is something they might start drawing towards in the future, but not at the moment.
The DJD will be back in MTMTE, but what about in other comic series? I dunno, I dunno. They’re not MTMTE’s property and could theoretically appear in other series, but it’s not known.
Is there a time slide going on in the series since the MTMTE and RID series started two years ago, or do the comics still take place in 2012? They were operating under the mindset that it’s more in the future and haven’t really spelled out when it exactly takes place. But it’s fun to play around with how these characters don’t age and since 22-28 take place within 36 hours.
With characters like Rattrap and Waspinator showing up, who’s in charge of characters from other series showing up and will we see more of those kinds of characters? They liked the idea of bringing in more characters from other series as lost colony characters, and Waspinator and Rattrap were preexisting on Cybertron and Sky-Byte was someone they thought would be fun to bring in. There really isn’t a hard mandate from Hasbro that has which characters they need to appear in the comics. They just seem like fun characters to use, but there wasn’t someone from somewhere else saying they had to use them. And it gets the IDW continuity away from being just solely G1.
What about Jimmy Pink?
Seriously? Are there that many Jimmy Pink fans? Well… He’s around, he’s around on Earth. We’ll see some human friends on Earth in RID, can’t say who. Stick around.
From Japan with Love Panel
Andrew Hall
Jesse Wittenrich
Hayato Sakamoto
Naoto Tsushima
Sakamoto-san is a big fan of the IDW continuity. He’s dressed as Pharma.
He did the Botcon comics this year and did the Kre-O comics, and the new Legends manag based on Beast Wars. He does the concepts and designs for Cloud.
He is also doing the art for an upcoming Club prose story featuring the G1 GoBots.
Tsushima-san is a veteran TF mangaka, he did the Battle of the Star Gate manga and the Animated: The Cool manga.
This is his first BotCon. He had a bit of trouble when he entered the country with an immigration agent questioning him. He told the agent that he draws Transformers.
Hall worked at Part One writing TF manga for e-HOBBY. He wanted to do something more interesting for the fans and asked the TCC if they could get some Japanese artists to work on some TCC fiction. That’s the thing about Transformers. Like how it started as a co-production between America and Japan, it’s still a joint effort between nations.
The brown Perceptor character in the BotCon comic is the Chairman, who turns into Cannonball’s chair.
The paper size is smaller than U.S. comics, so that took some getting used to, and the characters in the comic are based on the toys sold at this con. And the Prime character designs aren’t meant to be drawn in this sequential art style. The characters were hard to draw, especially Scorponok. Everyone had to be on one page with six clones in the background and everyone is doing something on the page instead of just standing around. Underneath Ferak, he drops the bomb and Autoceptor is drawn with two different times on his chest to show the time freeze.
Josh Burcham did the coloring of the comic. He’s very picky about the background characters being colored just right.
An earlier version of the comic’s fourth page went online and has some differences from the final version. Big Rescue Force had his claws colored yellow instead of maroon. Autoceptor was colored wrong. Roulette is crouching way in the back. None of them are generics.
This job came shortly after Sakamoto did the Kre-O comics and he drew a lot of background characters into the comic. Bonaparte Tulcas, the lost “brother” of Roadbuster and Whirl, was included in the comic page.
As far as the choice of character goes, this was supposed to be after Beast Machines but had the look of the G1 characters, so he added Sky Garry and Bonaparte Tulcas. And they had in a way that we wouldn’t know where it would take place. It’s post-Beast Machines as sort of after the 3H fiction, but the surprise would come later.
Even in the explosion, every character has their name and Sakamoto was sad that they all got rendered green when the bomb blew. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of the character.
Bonaparte Tulcas was the third toy from the line that Whirl and Roadbuster came from, but never got used in Transformers. A name they thought of for him might be “Landfire”, but it wouldn’t be Bonaparte Tulcas.
For the backgrounds, the page for the Knights of Cybertron, the thing on the bottom corner is supposed to be Dai Atlas in his base mode and is supposed to be colored like Goryu from Might Gaine, but he came out colored wrong. It’s supposed to be like a castle or a cathedral for the Knights of Cybertron. The transmission played from Devcon is on like a pipe organ, and the painting of Primal Prime is like a certain French painting and there’s a mural of guys like Hot Rod as the past heroes, it’s really cool.
The comic for this year was to be “Pirates vs. Knights”, but the knights didn’t look anything like knights, so he made their base look knightly and medieval. Ginrai’s all angry and fiery while Alpha Trizer is so calm and sage-like.
Tsushima-sensei worked on the magazine story’s line art and is really excited about working on it.
Greg Sepalak came up to say a few words about the magazine comics. He and Trent didn’t know who was going to be the artist, so they scripted the first few issues to be very quiet, as quiet as Rampage could be.
Tsushima-sensei came to take the job through a Transformers fan event in Japan and was approached by a tall guy at one who asked him if he wanted to work on a Transformers comic from the TCC. It was Andrew and he smoothed it over to Tsushima-sensei, who was suspicious at first but then came around to seeing it happen.
Hall wrote the Arms Micron Leo Prime bio.
There’s a great feeling of solitude in Trans-Mutate riding around in the desert in the vertical panel, which is pretty different from Tsushima’s usual more lively and action-packed artwork.
In future chapters, there will be scenes that play up how dynamic an artist Tsushima is.
There is that language barrier Tsushima has, so while it’s not that difficult, but it’s that he can’t get the direct fan reaction which he’s more concerned about.
The page of Trans-Mutate being betrayed by Cryotek and being picked up by the rebels was the most complex one thus far. Cryotek’s lackeys are Escargon and Packrat, the blue Rattrap.
The first story, the prologue, feels more like a “rebels against the world” type of the story with a prison break, but then the next chapters abruptly switch to a survival story with Rampage and Trans-Mutate.
Trans-Mutate needed to have her own chapter to show who she is in this universe.
Q&A
How long did it take to make the comic from beginning to end? Sakamoto got the script for the BotCon comic in January and worked on it till April, but he was also working on another thing simultaneously. Tsushima took a week to complete his magazine issue work, but he too was working on a number of things, like the Avengers anime in Japan.
Andrew, will you finish your story with Scrash in the United EX story? Well, if he spills the beams now, there won’t be anything to write. He wants the chance to write it, write a continuation of United EX. He wants to write an origin story for Scrash and do justice to the character. He’s hanging onto it.
What kind of Transformers projects would they like to work on in the future? Sakamoto wants to work on IDW comics. Tsushima also wants to work on IDW, but he heard about the new cartoon and might like to do a comic for that. Hall wants to get what the other two work on for Westerners. He’d also love to see a comic for season 4 of Animated done by Sakamoto and Tsushima.
There was supposed to be a BotCon comic for the Kre-O set this year, but they were busy working on the main BotCon comic. The line art is almost done, so maybe Sakamoto might color it and give it to the BotCon guys, and hopes that we might enjoy it.
Have Sakamoto or Tsushima worked on other past series like Brave? Sakamoto hasn’t worked on them directly, but he worked on a book for GaoGaiGar. Tsushima hasn’t worked on Brave but he has done a comic for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Takara in Japan.
Sakamoto would like to pitch an idea for a comic that bridges the gap between the G1 cartoon season 2 and the 1986 movie, and would base them off the toys.
Which Transformers do you like in general? Sakamoto said that there are too many but at first he liked Starscream and then Animated Sentinel and now Pharma from IDW. Tsushima said that he too likes Starscream, for how he’s been a Number 2 all these years but hasn’t given up. He also likes Optimus Prime. Andrew likes minor characters like Atomizer, and some major characters like Cyclonus in IDW. He’d like to look into Cyclonus’s Armada and see where that went.
Statistics: Posted by Sabrblade — Fri Jun 27, 2014 12:01 pm — Replies 0 — Views 89