The man who gave us Transformers! (interview)

Nevermore · Post by **Nevermore** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 1:37 am

A happy new year everyone!

It began a few days ago with a few questions that arose during my research on the early days of the Transformers brand. Eventually I asked Karl Hartman, who directed me to George Dunsay, who was Hasbro's Senior Vice President of R&D back in the day. Surprisingly enough, Mr. Dunsay not only remembered the details amazingly well, but also gave me exhaustive replies to my questions.

Those helped me close a lot of gaps in the documentation of the behind-the-scenes events that led up to the launch of the "Transformers" brand in 1984, and on top of that debunked various rumors and widespread misinformation.

So ultimately, my mail exchanges with him evolved into a fully-fledged interview. With the permission of Mr. Dunsay, a slightly edited version of this interview is now open to the public under the following address:

http://www.tfarchive.com/fandom/intervi ... erview.php

Special thanks have to go to Karl Hartman for establishing the initial contact, and of course for George Dunsay for taking the time to answer my questions almost in record time. You will find him to be a very down to Earth person who has no problem giving credit to other people that also had a share in the creation of the Transformers as we know them today.

Pun-3X · Post by **Pun-3X** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 3:33 am

Rather informative. Some things confirmed, some things new. That was a good read.

another tf fan · Post by **another tf fan** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 4:32 am

Very nice interview.

TSFC · Post by **TSFC** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 6:13 am

Quite an intricate history.

More hardships than I thought, and all for a toyline. Wow.

We really need to give Hasbro more credit than we do, they really bust their butts to give us what we want.

Osku · Post by **Osku** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 12:30 pm

Interesting read from marketing point of view.

One note, Dunsay doesn't seem to realise(?) how big influence profiles (tech specs) and cartoon/comic have on Transformers' long time success.

Personally I can say I'm here because of the interesting characters and universe Transformers appeared in Marvel comic. Not because of toys or because there good and bad robots.

Jaynz · Post by **Jaynz** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 4:23 pm

I think he kinda understood it, in that he knew that you needed a innate conflict of some type for an action-figure line. I'm not 100 percent sure that he quite understood how much the quality of that material matters, though. (G1 was amazing quality for its day, as was Beast Wars of course).

I found more telling about how 'Wal*Mart', et al, tell the toy companies what to make based on what's popular last year. That very much explains why we so much 'following yesterday's trends' in the toy aisles - since that's exactly what they're doing.

Post by **Denyer** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 7:42 pm

Very sharp guy. Two modes that kids like is going to sell the nature of a transforming toy more effectively than anything, but it's amazing how many designers seemed to lose sight of that.

And it doesn't seem that toys our generation's familiar with can happen -- or at least, the surprise of a line happening for the first time -- as things are set up. The "order in" system he describes is part of it, as stores won't take a chance on anything too different to what they're currently selling, but there're also far more things competing for attention -- back in the 80s the materials were new, the situation with advertising being relaxed was new... it's a climate that won't be seen again. Eh, I'm rambling...

Nice work on the interview, and thanks to Mr Dunsay for giving it.

Heinrad · Post by **Heinrad** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 4:04 am

I like it. Very well done.

Nevermore · Post by **Nevermore** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:04 pm

Guess who invented the rubsigns!

(Dunsay told me about it today, so I decided to look them up)

http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT4674985
http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPATD297337

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:07 pm

Originally posted by Nevermore
Guess who invented the rubsigns!

Akihiko Nakaya!

Post by **Denyer** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:45 pm

When did Google get a patent archive?

Nevermore · Post by **Nevermore** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:19 pm

Originally posted by Denyer
When did Google get a patent archive?

ABout 2-3 months ago.

Asked the Wiigiis about the option to get a patent site on the Wiki.

LKW · Post by **LKW** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 10:41 pm

Very interesting stuff. Mr. Dunsay seems like a very nice fellow. Way to give TFA an important interview, Nevermore!

redman prime · Post by **redman prime** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 3:59 am

that's very neat.

Mr. Dunsay is a class act, and my hat's off to him.