Evan Brooks, Senior Product Designer for Transformers at Hasbro, on recent highlights – and 40 years of The Transformers: The Movie

Evan, it’s great to connect again. I wanted to kick off by diving into the Transformers Studio Series Energon Universe Optimus Prime. For anyone that hasn’t seen this yet, talk us through what makes this a special launch?
This is our launch into the Energon Universe comic from Skybound which has created many iconic moments that we’re now racing to catch up with! This particular figure features Optimus Prime after Ratchet has attached Megatron’s arm and fusion cannon to him so he can continue to fight the Decepticons. We’ve all been getting nonstop requests for a figure to re-create this iconic scene since it appeared in the comic.

Looking back on the past year, what were some 2025 highlights?
The launch and success of our Liokaiser Haslab will always be a high point for me. Whenever we can dig deep into our Japanese characters and fans are excited for them, it just makes my day. Meeting and chatting with folks at conventions is also always a joy and this year I think I was shipped off to more than I’ve ever done. I can only hope to continue to be a part of that.

Have any recent launches posed any unique design challenges you were proud to have conquered?
Sometimes I need to remind myself what launched this past year as we work about a year and half in advance – and launched a lot of pre-orders for 2026 already! Our new 86 Devastator featuring the combining group of the Constructicons was certainly a challenge that Hasui-san tackled spectacularly… But I think the biggest one was perhaps adapting a piece of concept art for our KSI Widow and bringing it to life in Studio Series. Kunihiro-san did an amazing job getting the details to match what would be expected of a live action based figure.

This year sees The Transformers: The Movie celebrate its 40th anniversary. Can you shed light on any anniversary activity product-wise?
Oh, we have a lot in store! A figure getting their first converting toy in 40 years is probably the biggest thing I can say right now…

Nicely teased! And why do you feel the movie still holds up?
The sheer quality of the animation and the spectacle on display is timeless. Robot 2-D animation is something rather rare these days and the amount of detail they were able to pack into every frame – colouring mistakes included – is still rather jaw-dropping. The story is also the classic Hero’s Journey that I think makes it and easy jumping off point even if you’re not as familiar with the brand.

Are there any corners of the broader Transformers world that you feel remain relatively untapped product-wise?
There’s a lot of history in this brand! I do think we could dive deeper into some of the Japanese exclusive content, but even then there are specific characters and segments that only launched in a few countries that I think fans would love to see updated. We do a lot of re-creating and modernising these classic characters and designs. Hopefully there’s also room for some newness as we proceed forward into the coming years.

Last question! What fuels your creativity?
There are so many things! Books, comics, games, movies, toys, anime, card games…There is so much creativity just floating out in the world that I think rubs off on us all as we just live our lives and partake in the things we love. I think this then injects itself into our work – whether we realise it or not – because we obviously all have biases for what we like.

I’ve loved robots for as long as I can remember, and particularly Transformers. I’m sure things I’ve watched or read has trickled down into the work I do now and made me go: “I want to create something like that! But what if it was like this…”. We are social animals by nature and I think we are all constantly influencing ourselves.

Good answer. Thanks again Evan.

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