"Transformers in a couple of weeks," says Aaron Archer at today's Hasbro Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Partnership panel at Botcon, "is going to be completely different to the world at large than it was a month ago."  And that's been the goal all along at Hasbro: use the movie to build a wider audience.  The first step, of course, was to stoke the nostalgia buzz among the likes of us fans, followed by orchestrating the current flood of movie merchandise.  The plans post-movie, according to Allspark staffer ChessPieceFace on the scene in Rhode Island?  Keep the momentum going with "updated styling, focus on core characters, and strong focus on feature play."  What does that mean?  We suspect there will be more details on that at tomorrow morning's big event - the future product unveiling!

For more on the movie partnership panel, click below.  And to talk it over, check this thread.

More tidbits from the movie partnership panel...

 - The panel began with a look at Transformers School, also known as the education of Michael Bay.  At Transformers School, you learn the basics that long-time Transfans take for granted - Transformers have Sparks, can be disguised anywhere and scan alternate modes, they're alive and can die - you get to know ideas of scale and size, and you meet the main characters.

 - Aaron Archer planned a day trip to Los Angeles to check the movie designs... and that "day trip" turned into a two-week stay with many changes made.  That explains the variety of designs seen earlier in the Hasbro tour pictures.

Target's Robovision site and exclusives grew out of its success with Star Wars exclusives. Hasbro had a poster "showing the perspective of a robot scanning something" and Target loved the idea for the exclusive line - working it, of course, into the site they currently have.  One Target idea Hasbro did NOT like: a Prime covered in Target logo bullseyes.  We have a feeling Prime would not have liked this either.

In addition to the Hasbro people, Takara designer Joe Kasui is there. He designed the toys for Movie Starscream, Ratchet, Jazz and Barricade.