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An Interview with Hasbro's Leonard Panzica
496 Plays5 years ago
Toy fam, ROLL OUT!
On this special episode Erik sits down with Hasbro's Leonard Panzica, Design Manager on GI Joe Classified and Transformers at Hasbro, to talk his history with toys, Transformers, GI Joe Classified, and answer some of YOUR burning questions!
Make sure you visit https://hasbropulse.com for all the latest from Hasbro, including Transformers, GI Joe, Star Wars, Marvel, Power Rangers, and more!
Follow Lenny on Instagram @roboraptor66
https://instagram.com/roboraptor66
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Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction to Adventures in Collecting
00:00:02
Speaker
Are you ready, kids? Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox, and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast.
00:00:13
Speaker
I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, where we talk toy news, culture, and hauls, along with our journeys as collectors.
Interview with Leonard Panzeca from Hasbro
00:00:25
Speaker
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting. Eric here. We are back with a special episode today. So I am flying solo without Big Brother Dave, but I am not alone. Joining me today, I have a very special guest.
00:00:42
Speaker
I have the man responsible for bringing the G.I. Joe classified and Transformers lines to life at Hasbro. I am thrilled to welcome Leonard Panzeca to the show. Lenny, thank you so much for joining us on Adventures in Collecting. Thanks for having me, Eric. And I wouldn't say responsible for it, but I'm involved. Hey, you got to give yourself some more credit there.
00:01:07
Speaker
We all watch the Fan First Fridays. We love all the virtual stuff that Hasbro's been doing since the world has entered into lockdown. And I'm sure our listeners are familiar with your voice and your face at this point, as you've been part of some pretty awesome reveals over the summer. Yeah, it's been fun, man. Fan First Fridays have been, I got to say, it's a breath of fresh air for us because we can communicate to everybody some of the thinking and all the essentially
00:01:36
Speaker
why, you know, and it's, it's fun to talk about this stuff. And it's fun to dice up about all those little details and get dorky with it, you know? Yeah. And you guys are really doing an incredible job with it across the board. You know, all of the, the Hasbro IP is there. All of them are interesting. And I find like, you know, obviously it's tough to collect everything and to kind of keep track with everything that's going on, you know, across all the different, uh, franchises, but these events really are like,
00:02:03
Speaker
amazing nerdy transparency from like a big company and it's it's very across the board like the reaction is great you know it's it's been a it's been a lot of fun to watch them well we're fans just as much as everybody else's you know and it's I gotta say it's it's I've been in Hasbro for about 13 maybe 14 years now and it's a really nice thing that we're doing and it's kind of fun to just kind of take all the guard guards off take all the armor off and just talk about it like this
00:02:33
Speaker
display and show everything we're working on and get people's feedback and, uh, just kind of share. So it's, it's been a blast. Well, it's, uh, it's glad, I'm glad to hear that the people behind the scenes are enjoying it as much as, as much as we are. That's, that's amazing. Um, before we, before we kind of jump into the meat of our conversation here, whenever we have a guest on the first thing that we like to ask since, you know, we are a show about toys and toy collecting is what are you collecting?
00:03:02
Speaker
Uh, I love the mythic Legion line. I think that's my favorite line right now. I'm super into fantasy and, uh, like that kind of genre. So I love what the full horsemen are doing with that line. Uh, I just got my Cyclops, which I love. Uh, we just moved. So everything's in boxes right now. So I'm looking forward to finding a place in the new house of where to put all of my, uh, my collections, including the four horsemen, uh, mythic legions.
00:03:31
Speaker
That's awesome. Yeah, that line is fantastic. I love the fact that you can kind of mix and mash and combine things together and make your own characters. It really does kind of embody that fantasy element.
00:03:42
Speaker
And it's, it's funny you mentioned, it's like, it's one of the things that draws me to it. I love the idea that I can mix and match and design. I mean, given my profession, right? So it's totally like, it's like targeted for me. So, so speaking of, of you and, and your profession, why don't you tell us a little bit about how you got into, uh, making toys?
Lenny's Journey into Toy Design
00:04:04
Speaker
Sure. Um, let's see, it all started back when I was six years old, I would say.
00:04:12
Speaker
And I used to draw a little comic book called lizard man, and I loved Ninja Turtles. And of course, right? Child of the eighties and early nineties. And I used to draw creatures and characters from it all the time. And then all through my life, I basically drew characters into character design and sketch monsters and all that sort of thing.
00:04:34
Speaker
And I kind of diverted a little bit and I went into, I went to William Patterson. I played football for a few years. And then I kind of heard my calling was design. It always was design, I feel. And I found the toy design program at FIT, Fashion Institute of Technology. And I applied actually before I applied it to build my portfolio up to be a little bit more professional.
00:05:00
Speaker
So, uh, you know, I, I dug down and dug deep and I built my portfolio up, I submitted it and, uh, I got called in to do a live test. Cause at that school, they do a live test to see who's actually going to make it into the program. And I got in and, uh, you know, two years deep into toy design.
00:05:21
Speaker
Um, you know, I was always an action figures as a kid. So a lot of my concepts were, uh, pretty action figure heavy. I remember one of them was bunny brawlers. I wanted to do street fighter mixed with like a pet shop kind of deal. So it's like all these like, like super jacked rabbits and stuff like that. Um, I did one that was, uh, a gorilla who was a military dude. And he had a little, uh, like a little, um, it's like a little spider monkey in his backpack who was his back gunner.
00:05:50
Speaker
So uh you know i was it was always like the program is very young kid focus but i always found my like older kid action figure uh stuff seeping into it which was always fun and i think it always it kind of added another element to the program which was really cool to do um so yeah from there uh i got my internship at hasbro no i'm sorry not my internship but hasbro oops my internship at fisher price
00:06:15
Speaker
Um, where I worked on the imagine X line with some very, very talented individuals. It was really cool to see the toy design process. It was cool to see how the guys would get their inspiration and how that would get, um, basically how things would go from inspiration to production. And I knew I needed to do this job. I was ready. I was like, all right, I want to graduate right, right now. I think I had like two more semesters left and I was like, I'm done. I'm done. Can I just go by? Um, so, uh,
00:06:44
Speaker
Yeah, basically from there, uh, it came down to FIT. They have a really good placement program. So, uh, I applied for a few jobs. One was Fisher price, the satellite in Manhattan, uh, of course
Contributions to Transformers and G.I. Joe
00:06:57
Speaker
Hasbro. And the interview that went the best, I would say is the Hasbro interview. It just kind of clicked with everybody there. And plus, I mean, GI Joe, you know, so I was like totally like pumped for it.
00:07:09
Speaker
Um, and it just kinda went from there. Um, I got actually hired for the Spider-Man three line, which, uh, was super fun to work on. Cause there's all this, I kinda ooze playing and then mixed with action figure play, which was fun to do a lot of toy, like kid core toy mixed with action figure, which was kind of like my discipline. And then, uh, from there worked on Spider-Man animated. Uh, that was the line designed by Sean Cheeks Galloway.
00:07:38
Speaker
And from there, I mean, I worked on Marvel for about maybe two and a half, three years, did a little stint on Star Wars. Then I made my way to Transformers, which I've been on for about, let's see, on and off, maybe 10 years or so, maybe longer. Took a little break, worked on Furby for a little bit, which was super fun. And, you know, once we had to,
00:08:03
Speaker
Break one brand out of the vault called GI Joe. I, uh, you know, I was like, let's do this. You know, so, um, I kinda went in, um, a full force on that one to, uh, to, uh, to, uh, call out the full force podcast. Uh, and, uh, you know, uh, I jumped in, jumped in headfirst, you know, and, uh, we have been going, we've been going full speed ever since it was about two and a half year, maybe a little longer process so far.
00:08:33
Speaker
Um, but it's been awesome. It's been a while, right? I love it. Um, I mean, GI Joe and transformers, I, the happiest action brands designer. There's, I think you could be, you know, I got two of the best brands that, I mean, action brands have ever seen. Um, it's a pleasure to be on them. Uh, I feel privileged. I feel honored to have the ability to work on it. So it's been, uh, you know, it's been a cool journey. It's been fun, artistic, creative, hard at times, but it's, uh, it's been, it's been, it's been cool so far.
00:09:03
Speaker
man, what a journey. So you, you have touched on some of the, you have touched on some of the like most important IPs in, in like action figure, really history. When you, when you think about it, you know, Spider-Man, Star Wars, uh, you know, and then the stuff of the, from the stuff of dreams to the stuff of nightmares, Furby. So, I mean, you've, you've kind of been, you've kind of been on, on, on everything. And then like you said, to, to eventually land on Transformers and GI Joe, I mean, that's, that's incredible. What a, what a journey.
00:09:33
Speaker
It's been cool. When I first got to Hasbro, I was like, man, I want to work on GI Joe so bad. And I remember GI Joe had its ups and downs. And I remember the last down, I was like, oh, man. But then when this opportunity came, I was like, we're doing this.
00:09:51
Speaker
Well, the internet being the way that it is, right? So like, but before that, uh, the, the classified series was, was officially announced, you know, there were, there were pictures of the, the, uh, that the con exclusive snake eyes that started to like leak out and people were like, is this real? Are they really going to do, are they really going to do GI Joe again? I remember just the hype train like didn't even just like pull out of the station. It like back to the future, like the train lifted off the tracks, the wheels went under and it just.
00:10:19
Speaker
took off. It's a brand that so many people are passionate about and has been a part of people's childhoods for generations, going back to the 12 inch doll style action figures. It's amazing to see the positivity around the line and the ravenous way that people are trying to get their hands on it.
00:10:45
Speaker
And we appreciate every single bit of the support we're getting and the criticism. I think that, you know, um, it, it's one of those brands that like, it's so iconic to action brands in general, like without GI Joe, you wouldn't have any of these lines. Like it invented a lot of the play pattern, you know? Um, and I think that, uh,
00:11:11
Speaker
to be able to work on it. Again, I keep on saying it, but it is an honor to be able to work on it and bring it to life in a new way.
Design Philosophy of G.I. Joe Figures
00:11:18
Speaker
Um, but you know, um, it's just to see that fan, uh, like fever, it just, it just lifts us up and it gives us confidence and it drives us, you know, and we're listening, we're, we got our hand on the pulse, uh, of what people are thinking and we're, it's part of our research and all that. So, um,
00:11:39
Speaker
Thank you to everyone who is getting behind it because it definitely is helping it a lot.
00:11:45
Speaker
Well, speaking of, of, of the line and the kind of history of innovation, um, you know, getting into kind of the design, uh, one of the things that impressed me most about the line and, and, you know, full disclosure, like I saw the figures and, you know, um, we, we talk about it on, on our show all the time, setting up those guard rails, right? So that way you don't just like, you don't hop into a new line every month. And then all of a sudden you're like, Oh my God, I don't know.
00:12:11
Speaker
I don't know where to put everything. Where did all my money go? Um, but I, I saw, I started to see all the toy photography of snake eyes. You know, people started kind of adopting this hashtag snake eyes Saturdays and they were posting photos of it. And I was noticing, I was like, wait a second. Can, like, can he actually hold his entire loadout at once? Like can the figure actually hold all of the pieces? That's.
00:12:39
Speaker
Insane and then you know, I saw it on shelves and actually having it in hand I was like, you know what? I'm getting this figure. I'm gonna get snake eyes I got to see what this whole thing is all about and that was the thing that really Kind of sold me was the fact that like like the little kid in me was like, oh my god he could go on like a mission and like not have the backpack but still be able to hold his sword and the scabbard and all of his guns and like, you know, he can
00:13:05
Speaker
Like just everything. So when you're designing these figures, when does that kind of work its way into the, the, the design process? Like, okay, so, you know, it's a snow mission. So the character has to have X, Y, and Z. And how does he carry all of that? Like tell us a little bit about how you, you kind of break that aspect down. So it's, it's interesting. Like when we design a character, the thinking is like, it's going to go on a mission. Uh, right. So they're going to go on a mission.
00:13:35
Speaker
And they're going to need particular gear with them. I mean, when I played Joe, when I was a kid, it was like, I would mix and match the loadouts. I would even mix and match the characters, take them apart and rebuild them based on what I needed them to do or what I wanted them to be. So we brought that thinking into classified because first and foremost, I think play is very important to any figure line.
00:13:57
Speaker
And I think part of the play of a military style character is they're bringing their gear with them. He doesn't have superpowers. He's not going to shoot a raise out of his eyes. He's not going to be able to fly. So he's got to be able to take all of his gear with him. So if you're going to be playing out that fantasy, you have to have the ability to do that on the action figure itself. So when we design a character, like in the case of snake eyes, the original had the sword that would kind of like.
00:14:23
Speaker
It was almost like a, like a clip system that you would slide the sword into the backpack and all that. But then, um, we wanted it to be a little more modular and more tactical in a way, if that makes sense. So he can wear the backpack, you can plug the sheath onto the backpack, or you can just take the backpack off, like you were saying, and plug the sheath onto his back, which that's why we kept, uh, the post hole and all their backs to homage to the original Joes. But at the same time.
00:14:50
Speaker
It keeps that play pattern and it, it adds a little level of customization, right? Because I could put anybody's backpack on him. I could put anybody sheath on his back. So I think basically what ends up happening is you have an idea, like I have an idea of like, I want to do snake eyes with a weapon stand and all that sort of stuff. And I do know that I want them to hold a lot of the gear. Um, and I knew that there's going to be places for the gear to go when it's not being used.
00:15:18
Speaker
So we go in with that mindset. And then when I go to the nitty gritty of design, which is my input phase where I literally draw the toy details and everything, calling out like, uh, materials that things should be made out of or sculpted to look like, um, as to like where we want hoops to be, where we want portholes to be, all that sort of thing. Um, and then in that phase, I would say is when it, where it solidifies cause that is what's going to the sculpting department so that they can
00:15:47
Speaker
Build the figure off of that So I would say it starts off in the conceptual phase I need this character to do this thing so he's gonna have to be able to hold certain gear and in some cases you can't write because you it's the dealing with the scale you're dealing with the cost you're dealing with or even it hasn't been invented yet, so once you get to the Sculpt input phases when we start almost inventing like ways to hold stuff
00:16:16
Speaker
or ways to build stuff and solidifying what the mission is going to be. It's born from at the concept phase and then we work it in through our development process.
00:16:27
Speaker
That's incredibly insightful because it's to your point, you know, it is both feels like both an homage and an innovation, right? You know, I, when I got the Cobra commander figure, I was like, Oh, cool. He doesn't have, he doesn't come with anything that ports into his back. But like thinking again, like the kid in me, like you could be playing and he could steal snake eyes, his sword and
00:16:50
Speaker
Put it on his back and run off with it, you know, like you can have all of these different play factors. And I think, you know, and correct me if I'm wrong, but kind of like unique to the GI Joe classified line. You guys are writing the story as you're, you're making these figures, you know, you don't have.
00:17:10
Speaker
Um, like the transformers has the earthrise show on netflix, you know, uh, You know if you're making marvel figures, they're based off of stuff that's going on in the comic books or the films This like you really do kind of have this ideal like dreamland sandbox to play in Yeah, uh, you know, yeah, we kind of do, you know, and I feel like that's the dangerous and awesome
G.I. Joe Video Game and Fan Influence
00:17:34
Speaker
part about it Right because it's like you have to pay
00:17:38
Speaker
respect to the original design, but then you have to, you have to drive it forward, right? Like where is the brand going to go? Um, of course there's going to be room to do super retro versions of characters and stuff like that. This line is so young. Um, but at the same time we have to establish that it is a new line. It's not real American hero rebuilt in a different scale. It's GI Joe classified. It's its own scale. It's its own thing. But like generations does and transformers,
00:18:08
Speaker
It takes cues from where we've been and pays respect to that because the characters are where they are today because of their past. But then how do you enhance it to get to the almost. Drive the brand forward. And so we don't stay stagnant. Um, and then again, we do want to tell the stories in the case of Earthrise, like toy and storytelling is like threaded together very tightly. We work very closely.
00:18:32
Speaker
um, with the, uh, storytelling team on that. And we make sure that we're cohesive between what we're doing and what they're doing. And because we want to give the brand, it's a total brand experience. Yes. On toy, we are focusing more on the visual and play, but there's some story elements to why that visual and play is there. And that has to be cohesive with the story that's going to be in media. So again, we go back and forth. Sometimes it starts.
00:19:00
Speaker
in the entertainment avenue. Sometimes it starts on the toy avenue, and it all kind of comes together as that full brand experience. I'll tell you what, I would love for another G.I. Joe show. It would be rad. Well, I saw that the video game is out now on the Nintendo Switch, and those character models are based off of the classified figures. So it's great to see them already kind of coming to life in another medium. But yeah, another TV show or
00:19:27
Speaker
you know, the way that everything works now with, you know, being able to like binge stuff on Netflix. It's like, you know, having your own extended film on there. So that would be, you know, well, the more the more you know. Right. Yeah. I haven't had a chance to play blackout. It looks pretty cool, man. I we're still in boxes, so I have yet to download any games and I don't think I'll be playing games for a while, but I am very excited to get my hands on it and dive into it at some point.
00:19:56
Speaker
Now, going back to like the, the characters for, for both transformers and, and GI Joe, you have such a wide array of characters to choose from. And one of the things that kind of always comes up when new new figures are being announced and, and, you know, redesigns of characters or, you know, a character in a certain aesthetic, how do you go about selecting the next character you're going to make?
00:20:23
Speaker
I would say it's all based on what's quintessential to the story we're trying to tell at that point in time. So in the case of Transformers, uh, it's playing into that war for Cybertron story and the characters that are going to play a major role. So, um, who do you need in your toy line so that when I'm collecting into this brand experience, I have them on my shelf and I can recall those iconic moments, right? Like how, what characters are resonating?
00:20:52
Speaker
that we can really celebrate in product. And the same thing with classified as well. It's like the story we're trying to build. I mean, the brand, we're building it back up. So you're going to, you've noticed there's probably a lot of those quintessential characters that we most likely were going to do out the gate. So now it's a matter of how we're going to progress the story. And you guys will notice that in a lot of the exclusive packages where, um, we're introducing characters through a program.
00:21:20
Speaker
And the program is kind of a story like Cobra Island is, um, roadblock and beachhead, uh, basically infiltrated, infiltrating Cobra Island to get documents or something like that to bring it back to Joe. When we first released GI Joe, uh, it was Duke, Scarlett and roadblock and snake eyes kind of checked out a little bit more because they're getting a readout of a threat.
00:21:43
Speaker
So what is that threat? And we didn't bring Cobra in until later because we wanted to establish the Joes. The Joes found a threat and it's Destro. And Destro's up to no good. What is he turning on? So the idea there is we're trying to create a narrative throughout the figures and through the exclusive opportunities that we have to kind of tell this overall branding, like branded story. But at the same time, we don't want to have it so heavy handed where
00:22:10
Speaker
the collectors and fans can't play out their own stories. So we're almost like setting the stage in our character selects in some of the, in the photography we're releasing and then letting people play out those stories or make up their own stories. Cause again, a lot of it is based on play and how are you inspiring people to play and collect?
00:22:30
Speaker
So you mentioned Destro. So I have to bring up one of my personal figures of the year, profit director, Destro. I'm actually looking at him right now. He's a permanent staple in the middle of my desk. That figure holding a lot of burning money, it gives me so much joy. Me too.
00:22:55
Speaker
where where we know where the if you are unfamiliar with where the the pdd comes from profit director destro i will provide a link to that in the end there's a varies there's a website that does a very nice story as to where that came from. That being said i'm how how did that.
00:23:17
Speaker
like that particular figure come back into reality this year. Like how how did that happen? Yeah, well, we like to have fun. We'll start with that. But I think it was born out of a little bit of necessity. At the time, the line was not slated to be as large as it is now. And we were trying to come up with what kind of cool exclusives we can do that kind of that play into a story arc. That's fun.
00:23:48
Speaker
And I think I've mentioned it before where we want the exclusive programs to be mini missions in themselves. Um, just like with, uh, Arctic storm shadow, he's coming into the battle from like a mountain range. So his side will be chosen shortly. Right. You notice there's no Cobra logos on him yet. Um, so the same thing with, uh, PPP, PPP, I love how you put it. Um, profit director Destro where, you know, um,
00:24:16
Speaker
it's an exclusive opportunity. So we needed to make a character that stood out from the rest of the line and told a fun story. In the case of him, we wanted to pick a character from the lineage that had been done and was kind of, he left a mark, you know, like that three, three quarter inch figure did. So with that being said, we,
00:24:40
Speaker
We recreated him, and there was like two iterations of him. There's a variant of him in the three and three quarter inch. So we kind of melded a lot of the details together to get him to where he was. And the narrative that he's telling is that he's robbing a safe in Las Vegas. So that tells the story of why he's wearing Jaguar print.
00:24:57
Speaker
In all in all the ridiculousness and that with burgundy red, I think I have on him. Oh, yes, you do He is um, I think not only is he one of my favorite action figures of the year He's I think he's the loudest figure Oh, what makes you say that Lenny where can I start? But again, it's just one of those things we're like I
00:25:25
Speaker
When i when i saw that that was announced i had was relatively familiar with the origin story of the three and three quarter figure and i needed a refresher but. When when the pictures of him start to come out after the official announcement.
00:25:40
Speaker
It was just like all of a sudden, like my brain went figure photography. Like this, this guy, you know, I, I'm sure, um, you know, just Jay Hernandez on, on Instagram, he is like a king amongst men in terms of like posing these figures. All I could think of was like this figure doing the walk with the Bee Gees playing behind him. You know, like he is, he is just, it's, it's, it's a perfect action figure. Congratulations.
00:26:06
Speaker
Thanks, man. I really very, very, very, very much appreciate that. That's awesome to hear. Thank you. But, you know, these, these one off things are, I think that's one of the things that makes this line so interesting is because we all kind of have over the years, like, like everybody has like their Cobra commander, their, uh, their Duke, their,
00:26:30
Speaker
Destro you know like everybody has like their version that they remember and By doing these little one-off things.
Toy Collecting Enthusiasm
00:26:37
Speaker
I think not only are you forwarding the story, but you're giving people a reason to kind of stay fevered if you will and You know it's
00:26:49
Speaker
It's been a long time since I've seen something like this, you know, my, my brother and I, we've been playing with toys since we were little, but honestly, the last time I can recall something kind of of this magnitude was probably back in like the, the WWF, like Jack's specific days when, you know, parents were going to, you know,
00:27:11
Speaker
I don't remember it because my parents were doing it, but I know it via stories, you know, like going to stores and like talking to people in the stock rooms, like, Hey, you getting a shipment today? You know, now, you know, there's tools on the internet where people can figure out stuff and, you know, they're lining up a targeted eight o'clock in the morning and kind of hoping for the best, but it's.
00:27:32
Speaker
It's so much fun to kind of see the thrill of the hunt You know it comes with a certain level of frustration But as do most good things come with some level of frustration You know, but it's it's just it's great to see I love to see it Yeah, we I gotta say speaking for myself and some might my my teammates we appreciate everybody's Excitement and support and as well as patience I
00:28:02
Speaker
You know again, it's a young line, right? It's it's it's it's not legends. It's not black series yet Those lines have had a lot of years to establish kind of their foothold. We're still we're getting there This is the we're not even been out a year. What I think we've been out for like maybe four months maybe so You know, it's exciting and so exciting to get everybody's Support and I think it like I think I might have mentioned earlier it
00:28:28
Speaker
It drives us, you know, and it's like, we gotta do better. We gotta do even better.
Innovations in Transformers Design
00:28:34
Speaker
And that goes from, that goes every aspect of the development process.
00:28:38
Speaker
So, so jumping back to, to transformers along with kind of the transformers that everybody knows and loves, you know, the, the, you know, the different class sizes are actual transforming transformers. You guys announced a, a new kind of transformer that is a, a non-transforming version. So, yeah, let's talk a little bit about the red line. How did, uh, how did that come to be? So I think it was about.
00:29:05
Speaker
maybe three years ago now where my director and I were talking about it. We're like, how do we make like the most ridiculously awesome robots that we can do? And, um, you know, not that our, our rope, our transformers are amazing. Like the feet of engineering and design that goes on on that line is, um, it's a next level. Our partnership with Takara Tomi is, is, is stronger than ever. And it's just amazing to see.
00:29:35
Speaker
what we can actually create with our forces combined, you know, um, and it's been year over year. It's just like, we keep on advancing how we do that. Right. So, but that being said, there are certain things that a transformer can't do because it's not dedicated to one form. Right. And a lot of that is articulation. Um, and a little bit of the kibble talk, as people like to call it. So we were like, how do we do a kibble free robot? And we're like,
00:30:04
Speaker
We just make a robot. Let's make the most ridiculously cool robot we can do. So from there, we made a couple of models. I can't tell you what models we made, but they were ridiculous looking. And when I say ridiculous, it usually means a good thing. Um, so we made the most ridiculously detailed robots we could have ever made for, for, uh, models and we pitched them, pitched them for about a year. And then when the timing was right, I actually wasn't on the kickoff of the line.
00:30:30
Speaker
Um, but when the timing was right, we green lit it. And that was the first wave you guys had seen, which was Megatron sound wave in Optimus prime, uh, which came up pretty rad. Um, so I'm excited to see people get them. I'm excited to see people's reactions to it. Uh, so yeah, it was really born out of like, how do we just make the best robots we can do? I mean, cause we've done so many versions of transforming. How do we celebrate the character aspect of it?
00:30:54
Speaker
Yeah, those things look like they walked right out of 1985 and onto your toy shelf. I mean, it's insane because they kind of, in the cartoon, in the animation, they have that smoothness to them, right? Everything disappears. Once they become a robot, that's it. They're a robot.
00:31:15
Speaker
Pretty damn impossible to do with the amount of, you know, transformations needed to get there to your point. So I, you know, I've already seen, again, some a great toy photography of them. Like, yeah, it's it's a really, really neat line. Yeah, that that first wave that was the design direction on that wave was to how do we make it look like you plucked them right off of the screen? And these are the Sunbow accurate versions of the figures.
00:31:44
Speaker
So I think they nailed it. Yes. Yeah. Now, you know, one of the things that I'm not embarrassed to admit, I I actually have quite a.
00:32:00
Speaker
affinity for the Michael Bay Transformers. I love the modern take on them, seeing them turn into real cars on a screen with explosions. The ride at Universal Studios is one of my favorite things ever, back when we could go to theme parks and things. Back when we could see people.
00:32:21
Speaker
And the three that I kind of have at any given time displayed somewhere, I think right now they're in my living room because my daughter likes to look at them. We're going through a bit of a Transformers thing here in the house. Awesome. But I have my Megatron, my Optimus Prime, my Bumblebee, the film versions out on display. As the technology kind of changes and gets better and more intricate,
00:32:51
Speaker
Are there transformers that you've kind of tabled because you're like, you know what? I don't think we are in a place where we could do that right now. And then as things change, do you go to that list and you're like, you know what? This, this, and this has changed. Let's take a stab at this now. Yes, 100%. And I think it's a matter of learning what can and cannot be done. Because every transformer is its own
00:33:21
Speaker
item. Yes, they're sorted and waved together. But it's not like with a six inch action figure where trust in the buck, the buck of the figure, right? Like we know the construction. Yes, there is variance in articulation from figure to figure and or internal structures. However, transformers, every single figure is different from each other. So, um, you know, there's tried and true transformations.
00:33:51
Speaker
Um, but then we always try to make sure the transformations are fun and unique so We kind of in a way curate it based on feasibility Right, like how feasible is it to make this transformer for a couple of points like price point complexity and tangibility right because in storytelling I think you could be a little less tangible
00:34:18
Speaker
than in an actual product or an actual three-dimensional thing. So if a character is going to require 300 steps of transformation, it gets knocked off of the list because of a couple of different things. If you could imagine, that would make it unfeasible for us to create it. So it's based on how tangible is it. And everything is really on the table. We just have to study it first. And a lot of things get studied and then canceled.
00:34:48
Speaker
Just because it's just not going to work out in the end and we don't want to put out a bad product. Yeah. And, and it's, it's clear that there's that, that level of, of passion behind it. It's, you know, to the point that you made earlier, you know, about transformers, the, the feet of engineering that goes into them is evident. Like when you're holding one in your hands, you're like, I can't, I can't believe that somebody figured out how to get this from this to this.
00:35:16
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, to this day, I still, I mean, I've been on Transformers a long time and to this day, working back and forth with Takara, I'm like, how? How? I mean, yeah, I could see it. And then, you know, it's just, it takes time. You know, you really have to, a transformer is a science project. For sure. You know, it's like, it starts off as like, here's the concept of a character I want to do and the features he's going to have.
00:35:43
Speaker
And there's a little bit of elasticity you have to have as a designer because in what you plan to do may not be feasible or it may actually be very feasible and you might be able to add other things in there. So you kind of have to bend like the read a little bit with your direction. Um, which it's, it can be hard at times cause like there's something you just really want to get cause you know, it's so quintessential to the design.
00:36:10
Speaker
but it may throw off everything. So it's in a way, it's a kill your darlings applies to toy design in a very big way. Um, you know, like you, you, you have to make sure the total play experience and total, uh, brand experience is there. And if one thing's going to throw it all off, you've got to consider is that thing worth throwing the whole thing off for. Um, well, speaking of, of unique experiences and, and, and kind of creating those through transformers.
00:36:40
Speaker
Uh, you guys have recently announced two really fun mashups, uh, the DeLorean and the, the Ecto one, you know, coming into the, the world of, uh, of the auto bots. How do those types of things come up? Those kinds of things come up in a really fun way. Um, we get together. We, well, we used to get together at the Transformers design table and the co-labs.
00:37:09
Speaker
Marketing really took the reins on it and they were like, okay, we got to really start planning out what these collabs are going to be. And we plan them far in advance. Like we have a list of what we want to get to. And, um, essentially we would have, I guess monthly or every two months, brainstorms as to what are we, where are we going to take collabs? What are the opportunities?
00:37:32
Speaker
and, um, come up with a plan. You know, we essentially brainstorm and we dork out at the transformers table and talk about who would be an awesome transformer. Now there's a whole other side of that, which probably can't get into today, but it's like that whole, like the partnership aspect, which plays a really big role in it. Like who is willing to work with who can we work with and who is going to be the right fit for our brand and what we represent.
00:38:01
Speaker
Um, so that's a whole nother can of worms. Oh yeah. Cause I mean, there, there are a ton of famous vehicles out there like, you know, Knight Rider, but Batman, you know, like you could name, you know, dozens of characters that have like sweet vehicles that would transform into cool robots. But, uh, you know, I think that the three that come to mind that you guys have, have done the, you know, Top Gun, the DeLorean and the Ecto one were
00:38:29
Speaker
first of all, like, you know, three choices straight out of the mid eighties, which is kind of like the Transformers wheelhouse. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and, you know, just so happens that Hasbro has has the Ghostbusters. So, I mean, I'm sure that that worked out. That made things a lot easier.
00:38:49
Speaker
But yeah, yeah, yeah, I love I love that the character design behind them, too. I'm very excited for for adorable gigawatt to join my election. It's funny, too, because we knew we needed to make them their own transformers. I mean, there was conversations of making it like Optimus Prime or something like that. But it just I feel like it doesn't do the character and when I say character, the sense of a vehicle and the sense of the bots, it doesn't do him justice to
00:39:18
Speaker
skin a pop culture phenomenon vehicle on top of one of our existing characters. That's where we were like, we need to make them their own characters. Like we need gigawatt to be in there, right? It's like, I think an ectotron. They need to be their own entity. It's transformers. Why wouldn't they be? Yeah, it makes perfect sense.
Fan Q&A on Future Figures and G.I. Joe
00:39:41
Speaker
And I'm hoping, like I know
00:39:44
Speaker
They, they've all have sold out very quickly. They've been wildly popular. I just keep my, my fingers crossed that like, so my, my main wheelhouse, the main thing I collected Star Wars. So like, I'm just, I have my fingers crossed that one day, one day we'll get like a sweet millennium Falcon that, that transforms into a robot or, uh, you know, like a star destroyer that turns into a, uh, Decepticon. I just, it, I feel like that would be a mashup made in heaven. It would be epic.
00:40:13
Speaker
Now that we've gone through a bunch of amazing stuff that you guys are working on, as I mentioned to you earlier, we posed the question up to our listeners and our followers on Instagram. They submitted some questions, and if you're game, we could go through a couple of these. Let's do it.
00:40:36
Speaker
All right. So, um, there were a bunch of duplicates. A lot of people asked the same question, which I guess is kind of cool. A lot of consistency. Um, so I have kind of lumped a lot of the ones that were the same or similar, uh, into, into kind of one question, um, fans choice.
00:40:56
Speaker
So a lot of the other Hasbro brands have held kind of polls in terms of character selection, you know, who you want to see next, some kind of fan's choice. Is that something that you guys would ever consider doing for the classified line? Yes. Yeah, the model is there, you know, and I think it's just like I said earlier, classified is so young, like it's not even a year old. And I think.
00:41:23
Speaker
I mean, the development, we've been working on it for a while, but it being in the marketplace, it's such an early brand that yes, absolutely want to do that. I think it's a matter of strategically when it makes sense to do it.
00:41:39
Speaker
Um, sticking with, uh, with the classified line, I don't know if this is more of a question or just kind of like, I guess I'll pass this request along to you. There, there were three characters that came up an overwhelmingly, uh, high amount, uh, requests for shipwreck.
00:42:05
Speaker
which I totally get, a more classic version of Storm Shadow, and everyone's favorite, favorite business attire bad guy, the hooded version of Cobra Commander.
00:42:21
Speaker
Yeah. So those, again, I'm not expecting any kind of answer here for those. I'm just passing the request along. I plead the fifth, as Dave Chappelle would say. Fair. Totally fair. And yeah, so that, like I said, not a question. I am just passing along. I am the messenger.
00:42:40
Speaker
I am playing the role of Messenger. So to the red line for Transformers, so far you guys have announced a series of animated bots. And we saw some now from Beast Wars that were announced at PulseCon.
00:43:03
Speaker
Is that a line that is expected to stay in the animated world or do you see foresee the possibility of potential movie realizations in the red line. As it stands right now we're gonna stay in the animated world is a lot a lot of characters that have not even been touched on i think in the transformation world of i mean the toy world so we'd like to kind of.
00:43:30
Speaker
stick to keeping it to our animated animated shows. Heading back over to G.I. Joe, are there any plans for vehicles or weapon packs for the classified line? Yes. And we need to make them right and we need to study as to how we will create them. So
00:43:59
Speaker
We 100% want to make the vamp. We want to make the stinger. We want to make the awestrike or we want to make trouble bubbles. I think it's just a matter of how and what is the right offering to everyone, right? So it's like, we got to come up with kind of our strategy and structure of how we're going to do it.
00:44:21
Speaker
Yeah. Six inch scale is, it has proven over the years has proven tough with vehicles, like in general. Cause once people don't realize that like the scale of a six inch vehicle, it's, it's very big. Even even a small vehicle, like going, you know, into the world of Star Wars, like something like raise speeder from the, the, the sequel trilogy. I mean, it's a small vehicle, all things considered. And then you see it on the shelf and you're like, whoa. Yeah. It takes up the space of where there would probably be four figures. Yeah.
00:44:51
Speaker
Right. So it's like, it, there's a lot of things to consider, not just when I say strategic, it sounds like it's all business, but it's like strategic of like, how are people going to get the stuff? And then how are they going to curate their own collections? So it's like, we got to kind of consider that. And that's why we launch with a bike because there is precedent for bikes. Uh, people collect bikes and it's something that people know and understand and how to have it in their collection. So, uh, that's where the new character, as we like to say, vehicles or characters, um, the coil was born.
00:45:21
Speaker
Right because we did consider we considered a lot of the old school vehicles and we started an opportunity to get a new Joe or new Cobra. Into the line right so it's a good way to kind of like study and understand. Where we could take vehicles for Joe but it's definitely it's such a part of G.I. Joe the vehicles are such a part of G.I. Joe that we would be doing a disservice if we didn't get to it as a matter of getting to it correctly.
00:45:47
Speaker
Yeah, that, that, I mean, that's the one thing where when I saw initially going back to the, the original announcement of the classified line, the first thing I started thinking of was like, Oh, they're going to make the flag for the six inch line. That's, that's going to be, they're going to make a scale flag, right? That's, that's when, that's what's going to come out and it'll, it'll be my dining room table. If you made a scale flag, the flag was 7.8, seven feet, eight inches long, the original flag.
00:46:15
Speaker
That means that six inch figures are not exactly actually, they're not exactly double the size of a three and a quarter inch, but that flag would be what? Maybe 15 feet long. And it's classified, right? So it's like, we got to go all in. Like if we're going to make that thing, uh, I think I would probably, two things could happen. One, I might go super Saiyan.
00:46:44
Speaker
The other one would be I would probably turn into like an underdark beast and
00:46:54
Speaker
just disappear from existence because of the amount that it would have to go into that thing. So, so when the next has lab is announced and it's the flag, I'll know where to find you. That's yeah. Yeah. Uh, I, I recently, and I say recently again, but before, you know, when we were allowed to go out and see people, I went to a toy show here in, in New Jersey and, uh, wait, you're in Jersey. Yeah.
00:47:21
Speaker
I'm from Jersey too. You know what? I could hear it. I can hear it in your accent. I'm like, yeah, we Jersey right now. We can smell our own. It's so true. It's so true. So I went to the Wayne, New Jersey, uh, toy show, uh, again, going, going back a few months and some, and somebody had a mint
00:47:45
Speaker
I mean, it was out of box, but it was a mint flag set up like for sale and they still had the box, but they, they had it fully assembled on the table with like Joe's set up on it and vehicles. And it was the first time, you know, my brother is seven years, my senior, but it was the first time either of us had ever seen it in person, but just seeing it was amazing. And yeah, they're just trying to wrap your brain around one for the classified scale. I can't.
00:48:14
Speaker
Yeah, it would be, I'm like, I'm like in, I'm like looking at my room that I'm in right now and I'm like, it would be as, it would be almost as long as this room. It would be epic. Like we, we, we muse about it a lot. Like we're like, dude, how could we do that? I'm like, can you imagine the panels? Could you imagine like,
00:48:33
Speaker
We have to go to a real aircraft carrier like we, because I believe that's what they did originally when they made it, they went and they checked out real aircraft care. I'm not exactly sure which one, but like the amount of research, it's like a Stanley Kubrick movie. You got to go in there and take pictures of the doorknobs. Yep. You know.
00:48:51
Speaker
What I could see is, once the world opens back up again, that would make a killer Toy Fair or San Diego Comic Con display piece. Those custom, here's the GI Joe part of the booth, and here's the one-off flag that we made for the display. I think at the Night Raven coming to take it out would be awesome.
00:49:16
Speaker
Listen, I'm here for all the ideas. You know how to find me now.
Nostalgic Toy Memories and Farewell
00:49:23
Speaker
Yeah, so that was all the questions that we had from our listeners. Thank you for humoring them. That was a lot of fun. So the last thing before I let you go, again, something that we ask every guest that we have on here. In your collection,
00:49:45
Speaker
What is your favorite, weirdest, you know, like most rare, like what's the thing in your collection that you adore more than anything else? I would say, and I don't know his name, but it's probably my frilled lizard, Battle Beast, that
00:50:12
Speaker
As a child, I had lost him in the snow because I would make little snow forts and little tunnels and stuff. And, uh, we were at BotCon in Florida. I think it was maybe, was that like, I don't know, eight years ago. And, uh, one of my coworkers had found him at a booth.
00:50:34
Speaker
And I had, I think I went on about a story about it. I was like, I can't believe I lost. And I was like crying about it. He's one of my favorite. Like I love reptiles and stuff like that. So Battle Beast was like my jam. Um, and then, uh, he comes up to me in the middle of the convention. He goes, I got you something.
00:50:50
Speaker
And I would say that's my prized possession because a really good friend of mine who got it for me. And, uh, it was a figure that I loved as a kid. And now I have him again with his accessory in an imagined battle beast really hard to maintain with their accessories. 20, 30 years later. Um, and, and the thermochromic sticker still works. Uh, yeah, yeah, it's pretty awesome. Whoever had this thing must've kept it in the dark.
00:51:16
Speaker
So in a box stored away, so I would say yeah my frilled lizard. I don't know his name But it's my it's my favorite I would say because it's got a lot of memory connected to it And it just dude battle beasts were so cool-looking. I love that line great line. Yeah So Lenny, thank you so much for for joining us today on on adventures and collecting Where can we find you online? You can find me on Instagram is Robo raptor 66
00:51:46
Speaker
Um, I'm there checking out all the cool, uh, toy posts that people put up. I'm there checking out, uh, adventure, adventures and toy collecting. And, uh, you know, um, you can find me there. And, and while you're there, definitely check out his amazing art because you do your, your, uh, your art that you post is incredible. And thanks man at that as well. Thanks man. Appreciate that. Well, with that, Lenny, I'm going to let you go back to your day. Thank you again. And, uh, we'll talk soon.
00:52:16
Speaker
Awesome man, thanks for having me. Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both on our show notes.
00:52:35
Speaker
Follow us on social media at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter. Stop by and say hi. Show us your toy hauls and share your toy stories. Maybe we'll talk about it in a future episode.
00:52:59
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer Frank Kablaui. This program and many others like it on the non-productive network is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives license. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.