Hasbro: San Diego Comic-Con 2018 Transformers Panel

Click HERE for the full photo gallery of the slideshow!

The panel began by focusing on the products tied to the upcoming movie, Bumblebee. There is a heavy 80's theme and Hasbro is leaning in, going full 80's. Amazon will feature some exclusive 80's themed shirts for the movie and Alpha Industries will have an exclusive bomber jacket. There will also be an app that will be an 80's style arcade came with an action focus for your mobile devices, available this fall.

With publishing, expect a prequel comic series from IDW that takes place in during the Cold War. There will also be a series of junior books available starting 20 November.

There will be three toy lines pertaining to the movie. Energy ignitors (figure that take on extra action when a component is added), DJ Bumblebee (he dances), and Power Charge Bumblebee (deluxe electronic version with the VW license).

The big surprise here was that beginning this fall, Walmart will have an exclusive run of the original G1 products. Original packaging art, original aesthetic. Meanwhile, Target will be running a Bumblebee's Greatest Hits line. For those after the San Diego Comic-Con exclusive this year with the two dinosaur tape decks, there will be an accompanying version at retail with two more dinosaur tape decks and an old-school version of Bumblebee. We will also see a re-released version of Soundwave with Boombox, like Titans Return line, only with an 80's design aesthetic. Then the segment ended with the announcement that a new product just went live, a Bumblebee blu tooth helmet (which was also a disruptive panel member for the presentation).

The remainder of the presentation focused on the next Generations line now that Power of the Primes ended with Predaking. The next series is the War for Cybertron Trilogy. This is focusing on a Cybertronian version of the characters, pre-arrival on Earth. Designers drew some inspiration from the pilot episode of Transformers but took artistic license with some characters and even created a few new ones. One detail shown was that Optimus's wheels fold to a hover position to add another dynamic. It seems clear that this is the new direction for now and we only got a look at the Autobots with a strong hint that the next show Hasbro is at will feature a look at the Decepticons. There are a few holdouts from the Power of the Primes, Titans Return, and Combiner Wars line that are exclusive to Amazon and now available for pre-order and all come with a previously released prime master.

Related Stories: