Transformers: Age of the Primes toyline discussion || update: stock renders of upcoming Alpha Trion, Micronus, Flatline, Fireflight, Skydive, ++

Blot

Well-known member
Citizen
I think the earliest ones (the first few Studio Series figures) did. Sketches, gray protos.
They clearly stopped because they peaked early and knew they could never surpass him.

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wonko the sane?

You may test that assumption at your convinience.
Citizen
Wow, you got me beat. I am not that bad at all. I usually get to stuff within a few weeks, a few months at most.

But I am trying to string it all out, as my budget for transformers is all spent this year. So the 10 I have left unopened (5 earthspark, 4 AOP and legacy buzzsaw I scored on clearance at TRU.) have to last till christmas.

Where I probably won't get any new transformers anyway cause my family refuses to just get me jive off my wishlist.
 

Steevy Maximus

Well known pompous pontificator
Citizen
That soon? I got some figures that not been openned for a few years, such as TFP RID Megatron, also TFP Beast Hunters Darksteal, more resent is SS86 Junkions along with 86 Scourge & Sweeps
*Sees Powercore Combiners Grimstone staring through a dusty box...*
I might have a few things that have been put to the side for a year, or two...or fifteen...
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lastmaximal

Administrator
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
They clearly stopped because they peaked early and knew they could never surpass him.

pnGD5jJ.png
HasLab 2027 please.

Also, rereading some of these older entries from Evan (where he mentions using the Buzzworthy releases as a chance to experiment with opaque plastic instead of clear in response to feedback)... this whole team is just gold, Jerry, gold.
 

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
HasLab 2027 please.

Also, rereading some of these older entries from Evan (where he mentions using the Buzzworthy releases as a chance to experiment with opaque plastic instead of clear in response to feedback)... this whole team is just gold, Jerry, gold.

That's why we still use the Behind the Scenes label. Even when we don't see prototypes or CAD or design sketches they still sometimes casually drop "We're thinking about this" information that used to be treated as top secret.
I know we've said this before, but this team is really awesome. Archer's team, if they even bothered with this level of fan interaction at all, would have gone "we can't discuss the specifics of the packaging changes right now" or something.
Here Evan will just go "we experimented with stuff here, it didn't work but the line was good to try it out!"

Like... it's just toys, not national security secrets. Give us the deets
 

Shadewing

Well-known member
Citizen
I know we've said this before, but this team is really awesome. Archer's team, if they even bothered with this level of fan interaction at all, would have gone "we can't discuss the specifics of the packaging changes right now" or something.
Here Evan will just go "we experimented with stuff here, it didn't work but the line was good to try it out!"

Like... it's just toys, not national security secrets. Give us the deets

Well, tbf to Aaron, he tried. "Orson's World" over on TFW2005 was him interacting with fans and answering questions about the process and how things worked til, as I understand it, Someone bitched about him doing so and he got reprimanded hard, and had to stop doing that and afterwards he became very tight lipped.

It was due to this, as an example, that Armada's faction symbols got fixed from being just blobs (Hasbro trying to save money) to being outlined since he saw how much feedback there was about it and how long it would take to get fixed (Wave 3, since wave 2 at the time was already in production and too late to change things)
 

lastmaximal

Administrator
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
I try not to compare. Different times, different personalities, different channels; there's a lot that I can just shrug and chalk it up to. And in any case each team is well within their rights to choose to talk or not anyway. I'm just glad we're at this point and we've got what we've got.
 

Platypus Prime

Well-known member
Citizen
I do understand why they don't do a lot of production sketches, though. They had one of the Targetmasters being highlighted once and part of the production notes clearly showed a part that had to be dropped for cost, and people on a different board erupted over "They cut out value, give us back our missing part!" etc. It was idiotic. Technically they just did the same thing showing he extra hand with Flatline that didn't come with Red Alert, but far less griping.
 

Shadewing

Well-known member
Citizen
This team's been wise to do this on the neutral turf of Instagram instead of picking a forum. As much as I'd love to have them here, I get why that didn't work out for Orson's World and why it wouldn't work out now.

Yeah, but back then Aaron really didn't have a place like that. So it kinda made sense for him to use what was the most popular forums at the time.
 

lastmaximal

Administrator
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
I do understand why they don't do a lot of production sketches, though. They had one of the Targetmasters being highlighted once and part of the production notes clearly showed a part that had to be dropped for cost, and people on a different board erupted over "They cut out value, give us back our missing part!" etc. It was idiotic. Technically they just did the same thing showing he extra hand with Flatline that didn't come with Red Alert, but far less griping.
And honestly if I were on the team I would probably not be sharing stuff like this at all. The audience is overwhelmingly populated with rabid Dunning-Kruger whiners who think having a voice means we all want or need to hear it.

Definitely understand if this was one of the reasons for Archer and co at the time to let that distance exist. The work is hard enough without having a million backseat drivers with similarly varied motivations to pick it apart. I wouldn't have the stomach for it.
 

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
Well, tbf to Aaron, he tried. "Orson's World" over on TFW2005 was him interacting with fans and answering questions about the process and how things worked til, as I understand it, Someone bitched about him doing so and he got reprimanded hard, and had to stop doing that and afterwards he became very tight lipped.
The owner of TFormers wrote a really angry letter to Hasbro legal, who didn't know or care about any of this, but saw that letter and told Archer to stop.
 

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
And honestly if I were on the team I would probably not be sharing stuff like this at all. The audience is overwhelmingly populated with rabid Dunning-Kruger whiners who think having a voice means we all want or need to hear it.
The issue is that they share stuff, we get a peak behind the curtain, and people assume that because they knew a few tidbits they know how everything works. This site's own Discord server is full of people who pontificate over what's getting remoulded into what, and then act shocked when none of their predictions pan out.

I don't agree with the "they shouldn't share anything" take because I think that being as open and approachable as they can be has been one of this team's strengths.
I just think the fandom as a whole needs to realize that they know next to nothing about toy design, and what they do know has been what the team has decided to share. More people just need to accept that reading a few behind the scenes posts about "partials" and "sub-capsules" doesn't mean they know stuff.
 


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