Hasbro Reveals Transformers Hall of Fame’s Inaugural Members

From Hasbro and Hunter PR:

HASBRO REVEALS TRANSFORMERS HALL OF FAME’S INAUGURAL MEMBERS
 TRANSFORMERS Fans May Participate in Selecting One Additional Robot
to Join Hall of Fame’s 2010 Class

Pawtucket, R.I. (May 10, 2010) — After more than 25 years of “MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE” action, Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS) is launching the TRANSFORMERS Hall of Fame that will honor those influential in creating and building this iconic entertainment brand as well as actual  “ROBOTS IN DISGUISE.”

In 2010, Hasbro will induct four individuals into the TRANSFORMERS Hall of Fame who helped shape the global entertainment brand that has spawned popular action figures, comic book series, multiple animated series, video games and two blockbuster live action movies.  The inductees include:

Bob Budiansky: While working as an editor for Marvel Comics in 1983, Mr. Budiansky named and wrote the personality profiles for most of the first 20 or so TRANSFORMERS characters. He then became the editor of the very first TRANSFORMERS mini-series, which led to his scripting most of the next 50 issues of the monthly TRANSFORMERS comic book. As he continued working with the brand on behalf of Hasbro, he named and wrote the packaging copy and personality profiles of dozens more TRANSFORMERS, and developed story treatments as new lines of TRANSFORMERS were introduced.

Peter Cullen:  Mr. Cullen is a voice actor best known for providing the English voice for the wise and heroic AUTOBOT leader OPTIMUS PRIME in the popular 1980s cartoon series “The TRANSFORMERS” and in the 1986 animated film “The TRANSFORMERS: The Movie”.  He reprised the role again in 2007 and 2009 in the live action TRANSFORMERS movies, and will return for the third installment slated for 2011. Additionally, he has provided the voice of five other TRANSFORMERS robots during his career.

Yoke Hideaki:  While working at TAKARA TOMY, Mr. Hideaki invented the Micro-Robot segment within the MICRONAUTS toy line, which featured the engineering innovation of transformation in action figures that were no more than 3 to 4 inches tall. TRANSFORMERS characters MEGATRON, SOUNDWAVE and RAVAGE can trace their origins to Mr. Hideaki’s efforts.  He acted as liaison between TAKARA TOMY and Hasbro during the early years of their business relationship.

Kojin Ohno: Mr. Ohno started his career at TAKARA TOMY, working on the design of the Microman and Diaclone toy lines, which would later become one of the inspirations for the TRANSFORMERS toy line.  Mr. Ohno created SUNSTREAKER, which is considered the first “car to robot transforming toy”.  He was also instrumental in the introduction of Beast Wars TRANSFORMERS for the Japanese market. He helped design toys for both live action TRANSFORMERS movies.   He takes great pride in being the person who designed the largest TRANSFORMERS toy from Generation 1:  FORTRESS MAXIMUS.

Budiansky, Cullen, Hideaki and Ohno will all attend the 2010 TRANSFORMERS convention (known as BotCon) in Orlando, FL and will be officially inducted into the TRANSFORMERS Hall of Fame during the festivities on Saturday night, June 26, 2010.

Hasbro will also induct five iconic characters into the TRANSFORMERS Hall of Fame.  Heroic AUTOBOTS OPTIMUS PRIME andBUMBLEBEE, as well as evil DECEPTICONS MEGATRON and STARSCREAM, will be in the first class of robots honored with admission as chosen by Hasbro’s TRANSFORMERS Hall of Fame internal panel of judges.

In addition, TRANSFORMERS fans around the world may visit Transformers.com starting today and cast their online vote to select a fifth robot to join the inaugural class.

The ballot of finalists was created with input from several TRANSFORMERS collector fan media sites, which conducted their own online polling to ensure the ballot represented the robots that most resonate with fans.  The ballot features SOUNDWAVE, GRIMLOCK, DINOBOT, SHOCKWAVE and JAZZ. Fans may cast votes daily from now until May 28. The winning robot will be revealed at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony at BotCon on June 26, 2010.

First introduced in 1984 by Hasbro and Takara as a toy line, the TRANSFORMERS brand
has provided kids with hours of MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE fun with their action figures that convert from robot to vehicles and back again.  Legions of boys around the world grew up creating fantastic adventures and battles set on both the planet CYBERTRON and Earth that featured the “good-guy” AUTOBOTS and the “bad-guy” DECEPTICONS.  Since then, more than 7500 robots have been introduced, with five receiving the distinction of being in the first TRANSFORMERS Hall of Fame class.

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About HASBRO
Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE:HAS) is a worldwide leader in children’s and family leisure time products and services with a rich portfolio of brands and entertainment properties that provides some of the highest quality and most recognizable play and recreational experiences in the world. As a brand-driven, consumer-focused global company, Hasbro brings to market a range of toys, games and licensed products, from traditional to high-tech and digital, under such powerful brand names as TRANSFORMERS, PLAYSKOOL, TONKA, MILTON BRADLEY, PARKER BROTHERS, CRANIUM and WIZARDS OF THE COAST. Come see how we inspire play through our brands at http://www.hasbro.com. © 2010 Hasbro, Inc. All Rights Reserved.