Transformers: Fall of Cybertron Toys Announced, We Chat with Hasbro

Hasbro has announced that it will be releasing five new Transformers action figures as part of its Generations Deluxe line to coincide with the release of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, High Moon Studios‘ follow up to the critically acclaimed War for Cybertron. The five characters featuring in the new line will be Blast-Off, Vortex, Decepticon Brawl, Swindle, and Onslaught. The characters that can combine into one fearsome, and colourful Decepticon, Bruticus, just as they do in the game.

Each figure within the assortment has three modes: robot, vehicle and a third ‘combiner’ mode to link together and form the colossal Bruticus figure. Each will be sold separately.

Before the official launch of the toy range at the New York Toy Fayre this weekend, we got a chance to have a short chat with Hasbro duo Jerry Jivoin, Director of Transformers Brand, and Joshua Lamb Director of Design for Transformers Brand, Hasbro about the toys, as well as a peek at the mighty Bruticus and some concept art.

Transformers has seen a massive resurgence in the last 5 years. Does the increased popularity bring increased pressure to the development of the toy ranges?

Jerry: I think it’s great that the brand has become a global entertainment franchise – it’s amazing. From the popularity of the movies over the last five years, it has really opened up the Transformers brand to a lot of new consumers. You know, one of the challenges is “how do we continue to re-imagine and reignite this brand as we continue with new versions of toys and story-lines that go out every year. That’s probably one of the big challenges. It’s a fun, active business to work on and we are excited to bring the new stories and the new ways to play to all the fans across the world.

Joshua: It’s been a great struggle with the popularity on our part because we are all fans as well, so with all the new coming fans – we have to engage them and come up with concepts, Transformers and designs that they can also get into, that perhaps a collector wouldn’t at first get into. We also have to keep the collector in mind because we want to stay true to our fans. It’a been a great balancing act of continuing with new characters or creating new ones.

Jerry:  We are planning to do a toy line to support the Fall of Cybertron game release and we are going to be revealing that toy line at the US toy fare on February 11th to the public and it will be within the generation segment of our line-up. Similar to how we did the release of the first characters from War for Cybertron – we did it within the Generations line and with specific characters with that styling so we will be celebrating the War for Cybertron characters in the same way at the US toy fayre in New York.

I’m someone who’sold enough to remember ZX spectrum gaming and when toys were very, very simple. With the technology getting better and better and things becoming more complex and creative, just how exciting is it from your perspective as toy makers?

Jerry: There is so many new processes coming out that we can do nowadays that we couldn’t even do ten years ago and it’s getting more exciting. With Transformers alone, the transformations have gone through a lot of evolution. From the past when they were very simple to getting a little more complicated and now we are getting to another level of transformation which is more intuitive. I would say that is due to what we can mould and the new joints we have come up with. Also, alongside with the engineering parts of designing a toy, we can add a lot more details now. It’s a really exciting time.

What do you think of the Fall of Cybertron toys? Let us know in the comments below. Check out the image gallery for some cool screenshots.

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Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is scheduled for a 2012 release for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3