On Monday, myself and 14 other lucky fellows were treated to a behind the scenes look at the offices of Hasbro Australia, located in Sydney. Organized by the operator of Ozformers, this was for a hands-on experience with the newest Transformers toyline: Power of the Primes.
After a short wait, myself and my compatriots were ushered up to the fourth floor of the Hasbro offices where a space had been prepared. Scattered around various parts of the room were examples of some of the great Transformer products that have come out of recent.
Of course there was one other major Hasbro product on show and that was My Little Pony. Whilst this was largely ignored by the Transfans I couldn’t help but have a good look. I loved the huge Pinkie Pie – if it had been Rarity I would have forgotten the TF’s altogether and tried to work out a way to smuggle her out of the building for me to ride whenever I saw fit (sounds kinda dirty I know but Rarity – I loves ya!).
Power of the Primes
Of course the main point of the day was to give fans a hands-on experience with the new toyline. This consisted mainly of Wave 1 which has been released in the USA already and is due out in Australia within the next few months. Whilst this is all the same toyline, it can be broken into different groups.
The Dinobots
Something that has all the fans excited is that for most of the Dinobot characters this is their first Generations treatment. On display was the latest (of many) Grimlock‘s as well as Slug and Swoop. Also on display was the newest addition to the classic Dinobot team – a female raptor named Slash.
Of course, without Sludge and Snarl we couldn’t see the fully combined form of the Dinobot gestalt but I will say that what we could put together did look a lot better than what I had seen in photos to date.
The Original 13 & Pretenders
Now I’ll admit – I was not a fan of the Pretenders from G1, not particularly liking organic modes. But many of these characters have been brought back and in a bizarre twist, has been combined with the characters from TF lore which constitute the first 13 Primes. The classic Pretender shell characters are used to ensconse the mini-Primes within. Rather odd, but I know when they hit the shelves I wont be able to resist.
The Primes
A rather interesting concept that has been done here is with Optimus Prime and Rodimus Prime. Not only do both transform from Truck/Cybertronic Winnebago to robot, but you can remove a smaller robot which transforms into their pre-evolved forms – Orion Pax and Hot Rod. I really dig this concept and both toys looked great! Both also came with a Matrix of Leadership.
And the others…
There were several other figures on show from the new line. These included Beachcomber, Windcharger and a Dreadwind which is based on an older Combiner Wars figure. The Ozformer owner was also kind enough to bring a couple of figures that were US exclusives that not many Aussies would have touched – Arcee and Grotusque.
So overall it was a very interesting hands-on experience and behind-the-scenes look at Hasbro. I’d like to thank Hasbro for the opportunity – I’m sure my fellow 14 fans had as much fun as I did! And to top it off, in the raffle at the end I scored a The Last Knight Hot Rod to take home!
Got anything to say about this visit to Hasbro? Would love to read it in the comments section below!
