John Patrick 
To answer any lingering questions about the recent Legacy reveals, the team at Hasbro held a Virtual Roundtable where we could ask questions of them. Read on to see what was said!
Question: Will we see Legacy in Generation Selects or Buzzworthy Bumblebee?
Answer: Legacy will definitely continue to pop up in Generation Selects, like Black Zarak and Lift Ticket. Meanwhile, Buzzworthy is a capsule program for Target using the Legacy branding.
Q: With the combiner limbs scattered across the waves, doesn’t that make it difficult for kids to collect the combiner?
A: They might look into doing a giftset at some point.
Q: With recent toys showing Yellowing at a rapid pace, are there any concern for figures such as Star Saber with a huge amount of white plastic?
A: This is a big deal to Hasbro, but due to the Pandemic, they haven’t been able to fully investigate as much as they wanted to. Engineering has been informed, and they are continuing to examine the situation thanks to the help of all the pictures people have sent in.
Q: Can the Legacy Blitzwing Turret turn all the way around like the G1 toy so we can have the jet cockpit in the back?
A: After checking to see if it couldn’t be made into undesirable poses, the turret can move 360 degrees in both bot mode and alt mode.
Q: Unlike the classic Transformer toyline Universe, which used whichever molds were available, Legacy is all new molds for existing characters. How do you pick which characters are put into the Legacy toyline?
A: They have to go on several things, like the characteristics of the alt mode, the color scheme, budgeting, as well as the designers wants. On top of that Marketing wants to push Tier A characters such as Optimus, Arcee, Bumblebee, etc.
Q; How did you decide on Cybertron Metroplex as a titan?
A: The running theme/gimmick of the line are the Energon weapons, and he is a Titan that can mine all that Energon. While this line does sell to collectors, it is made for children in mind, and kids love gimmicks. Although, the amount of Pre-orders for last weeks Legacy toys crushed last year’s numbers.
Q: With the cost increase over the last few years, will there continue to be a cost increase every year? That might drive a lot of collectors and parents to buy only what they/their kids want and reduce impulse purchases.
A: Due to the increase costs of production, raw materials, transit over the last few years, retail prices have risen across the board for all Hasbro products. Also, Carboard itself has gone up substantially. Deluxe figures will be $24.99 going forward.
Q: With the reveal last week, the universal disappointment was that we were getting Siege Soundwave instead of Netflix Soundwave, which is selling for $200 on the secondary market these days. Is there a reason why we got this toy that people are selling off versus the one everyone wants to get?
A: Because the Soundwave was made for the Netflix exclusive line, it is a Walmart exclusive for a certain frame, and then it can be used elsewhere, although nothing is stopping Walmart from making more of it.
Q: With the Pandemic, it seemed that most store exclusives in the Earthrise line were impossible to find. Coneheads, Ironhide, Ratchet, Prowl, Bumblebee, etc were all sold out everywhere.
A: Stores have gone through some effort to prevent bots from ordering up all the exclusives in the past two years, so hopefully that will improve things in the future.
Q: With Open boxes without plastic, won’t the damaged bots with missing heads create more waste?
A: Only smaller size toys will have open boxes as the toys with open boxes are shown to be more attractive to kids than a render/photo on the box. The larger toys will have full art boxes to protect the toys.
Q: Will Combiner Wars limbs work with Legacy Combiners?
A: The connectors are similar but different. The new connectors have an extra locking tab that holds them into place. While you could put the combiner wars limbs into the legs, they wouldn’t be as secure and the arms would definitely fall out of the shoulder.
Q: Will there be Weapon/Accessories packs in the future, especially for already released figures that don’t have their iconic weapons.
A: Nothing has currently been announced for that, but anything can happen….
Q: Any chance of an artbook of the design work that has been shown off on Instagram?
A: Not something that they have thought of, but something that they like the idea of.
Q: what was the inspiration for Jhiaxus?
A: Mark worked on Thrilling 30 figure and wanted to make a more faithful rendition. Mark loves the character and even bought some of the Manny Galen artwork. Now that Jhiaxus has been made, expect to see Machine Wars in the future as Mark brings it up at all the meetings.
Q: Will we see the Takara Armada Optimus again?
A: We will look into it.
Q: Does Metroplex have any interplay with the old lines?
A: It does have 5mm and 3mm ports for weapons and blast effects, but it doesn’t have minicon ports or Cyber Keys. It can connect in city mode to Omega Supreme.
Q; Was Metroplex’s partner Drillbit ever considered?
A: Drillbit was in the initial plans but was cut early on for budget reasons. he could make a good core class figure later on though.
Q: With the delay of Rise of Beasts, did that effect you toy release plans?
A: No. The Legacy line will continue as plan and the Studio Series line that was slated for the following year will now come out at the same time as the film.
Q; As much as we do enjoy these virtual roundtables, will you be returning to in person events?
A: Hasbro is looking into returning to in person events, but don’t expect anything until at least the fall.
Q: With the Energon weapons combining, why is there no mention of it on the packaging?
A: Not enough space to write it in 5 languages.
Q: Will the Bios get more detail in the future?
A: Probably not, as they need to be translated into 27 languages and that costs a lot of money.
Q: Will we see Weaponizers again?
A: They went into a portal and disappeared. They might reappear one day.
Q: Will there be more shattered Glass minicomics?
A: There are five parts of the comic and Ultra Magnus will have the next part. Also, that skull head was designed in the original mold by John Warren years ago.
Q: Will we get transmetals in the future?
A: Possibly, but they might not be vacuum metal due to the flaking issues.
Q: is Tarantulas a remold of Blackarachnia?
A: Only the gun is reused, the rest is all new.
Q: Who did the artwork for Bot Bots?
A: Chris Hicks did a lot of it. The Netflix series peaked at #9 on Netflix.
Q: Does the combiner limbs splitting in half make them easir to repurpose? For example, Dragstrip to Mirage?
A: An interesting idea, but the way the molds are, they are too intricate, and not done by halves, so no.
Q: Any chance of an Energon Optimus Prime retool of Motormaster?
A: They are working on a retool for Motormaster, but no details for now.
MISC. Information discussed:
Metroplex excavator tool ratchets when spinning, and it doesn’t open up. It does disconnect from the crane though.
Metroplex’s head has a wielding mask on the backside of it.
Toy sizes effects what goes into each wave as well. For example if one wave has a Bulky deluxe then it will have a smaller one too.
Mark worked on BotBots, and encouraged us to get the Series 6 toys, especially the awesome pizza race car.
Menasor has molded detail for his blasters underneath his forearms.
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Thanks to TFU for the screenshots!
