John Warden
From Transformers Wiki
| The name or term "John" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see John (disambiguation). |
John William Warden is the current Design Director for Transformers collector product (read: toylines weird grownups care about) at Hasbro and a man with a long history with the brand.
He began his career at Hasbro on the Star Wars and G.I. Joe brands before cutting his teeth Transformers-wise working on the Age of Extinction franchise and Thrilling 30. In 2014 he was appointed the design lead on the Generations mega-brand (inheriting the role from Joe Kyde) where he would dramatically expand its scope (and budget) in a reign stretching from Combiner Wars imprint all the way up through Kingdom in 2020. In addition to helming both the Prime Wars and War for Cybertron "trilogies" he was responsible for codifying the disparate live-action film series toylines under their own version of Generations in the evergreen Studio Series label as well several more whimsical projects such as the creation of the BotBots franchise alongside Associate Designer Aaron Gray[1] and the synergy-tastic Collaborative toyline. You're welcome, Bay heads.
After going out on a high note with the successful launch of HasLab Unicron, he announced in a tweet on July 17, 2020 that he had been promoted to the Global Design Lead on the Power Rangers and Ghostbusters brands.[2] On September 26 of that year at the first Hasbro Pulsecon, he passed his position on to Lenny Panzica in a formal ceremony.[3] As of April 2024 he has quietly returned to the world of the Transformers several rungs above his old job as the Director of Product Design for both Transformers and G.I. Joe, where he now oversees guys like his current successor as Generations design lead Mark Maher,[4] developing a shared strategy for both brands.[5] Dude just really loves Transformers.[6]
Known design projects
Generations: Thrilling 30
- Legends
- Voyager
- Brainstorm (with Yūya Ōnishi)
- Roadbuster (with Takashi Kunihiro)
- Sky-Byte (with Tomoya Miyake)
- Whirl
- Leader
- Jetfire (with Takashi Kunihiro)
Age of Extinction
Robots in Disguise
One-Step Changers
Electronic Stomp & Chomp
Generations/Series M4
- Deluxe Class
- Voyager Class
- Autobot Drift (helicopter)
- Autobot Hound
- Evasion Mode Optimus Prime
- Galvatron
- Leader Class
Generations: Combiner Wars
- Legends Class
- Deluxe Class
- Voyager Class
- Cyclonus
- Motormaster
- Optimus Prime
- Protectobot Hot Spot (with Takashi Kunihiro)
- Silverbolt
- Leader Class
- Armada Megatron
- Megatron
- Thundercracker
- Ultra Magnus (with Takashi Kunihiro)
- Titan Class
- Devastator (with Shogo Hasui)
- Box sets
- Victorion (Pyra Magna, Jumpstream, Dust Up, Stormclash, Skyburst, Rust Dust) (with Shogo Hasui and you)[7]
Generations: Titans Return
- Titan Masters
- Legends Class
- Deluxe Class
- Autobot Breakaway & Autobot Throttle
- Autobot Hot Rod & Firedrive
- Autobot Topspin & Freezeout
- Autobot Twinferno & Daburu
- Blurr & Hyperfire
- Chromedome & Autobot Stylor
- Decepticon Krok & Gatorface
- Decepticon Quake & Chasm
- Hardhead & Furos
- Highbrow & Xort
- Mindwipe & Vorath
- Misfire & Aimless
- Perceptor & Convex
- Scourge & Fracas
- Sergeant Kup & Flintlock
- Skullsmasher & Grax
- Slugslinger & Caliburst
- Triggerhappy & Blowpipe
- Twin Twist & Flameout
- Windblade & Scorchfire
- Wolfwire & Monxo
- Voyager Class
- Leader Class
- Titan Class
The Last Knight: Premier Edition
- Deluxe Class
- Voyager Class
- Leader Class
Generations: Power of the Primes
- Prime Masters
- Alchemist Prime (w/ Submarauder decoy armor)
- Alpha Trion (w/ Landmine decoy armor)
- Liege Maximo (w/ Skullgrin decoy armor)
- Megatronus (w/ Bomb-Burst decoy armor)
- Micronus (w/ Autobot Cloudburst decoy armor)
- Quintus Prime (w/ Decepticon Bludgeon decoy armor)
- Solus Prime (w/ Octopunch decoy armor)
- Vector Prime (w/ Metalhawk decoy armor)
- Legends Class
- Deluxe Class
- Voyager Class
- Leader Class
- Evolution Optimal Optimus (w/ Optimus Primal)
- Evolution Optimus Prime (w/ Orion Pax)
- Evolution Rodimus Prime (w/ Autobot Hot Rod)
- Evolution Rodimus Unicronus (w/ Nemesis Hot Rod)
- Titan Class
Generations: Studio Series
- Deluxe Class
- Leader Class
Generations: War for Cybertron Trilogy
War for Cybertron: Siege
- Deluxe Class
- Commander Class
- Titan Class
- Omega Supreme & Countdown (with Shogo Hasui and Takashi Kunihiro)
War for Cybertron: Earthrise
- Battle Masters
- Deluxe Class
- Voyager Class
- Commander Class
- Titan Class
War for Cybertron: Kingdom
- Core Class
- Deluxe Class
- Voyager Class
- Leader Class
- Commander Class
- Titan Class
Transformers Collaborative
Generations Selects
HasLab
Generations: Shattered Glass Collection
Generations: Legacy
Velocitron Speedia 500 Collection
Buzzworthy Bumblebee
- Origin Bumblebee
- Fangry with Brisko
Convention appearances
- BotCon 2014
- Toy Fair 2015
- BotCon 2015
- Toy Fair 2016
- BotCon 2016
- Toy Fair 2017
- HasCon 2017
- New York Comic Con 2017
- Toy Fair 2018
- San Diego Comic-Con 2018
- New York Comic Con 2018
- Toy Fair 2019
- San Diego Comic-Con 2019
- New York Comic Con 2019
- Toy Fair 2020
- Hasbro PulseCon 2020
- San Diego Comic-Con 2024
Hasbro Pulse livestream appearances
- November 13, 2020's "Hasbro Pulse | Fan First Fridays: Transformers & Ghostbusters | Event One" on YouTube, with Rachel Fleming and Sam Smith.
Notes
- As a kid living in Ohio, John got to tour the American Greetings AmToy design studio for an elementary school career-path project. After seeing how Madballs were made, he decided he wanted to be a toy designer.
- John graduated with a degree in Industrial Design from Ohio State University, and worked in the automotive industry designing car interiors before joining Hasbro in 1999.
- Prior to Transformers, John worked on Star Wars (including Episode 1, Episode 2, and 300th Boba Fett), Shrek 2, Rave Master, and all Pokémon toys from 2000 to 2005 (and was a co-signee on a patent for toy/game convergence used on Pokémon THINKChip Plus figures).
- He is probably best known to Hasbro fans as the lead designer on all G.I. Joe figures and vehicles from 2006 to 2013: Sigma 6, 25th Anniversary, Rise of Cobra movie toys, Pursuit of Cobra (including original designs Shadow Tracker, Jungle-Viper, Zombie-Viper, and Data-Viper), 30th Anniversary, and Retaliation movie figures. Some of the 50th Anniversary figures were also based on his "concept vault" work.
- At JoeCon 2011, Warden and Rik Alvarez participated in a "Treasures from the Hasbro Archives" panel, which revealed that a robot panther modeled on Ravage was intended for release with an unproduced Rise of Cobra "Arctic Baroness" figure. While Warden consistently denied that it was going to actually be Ravage, the use of Ravage design cues was intentional. Neither the Baroness nor the robot panther were tooled, with the panther in the photo being the only one in existence.
- His favorite Transformers are Roadbuster, Whirl, Sky Lynx, and Jetfire. He must be quite impressed with himself!
- Warden even expressed interest for a potential crossover with Power Rangers. Yes, he's serious about this.[16]
- Warden's favorite Transformers toys that he has designed are Combiner Wars Devastator and HasLab Unicron, but neither holds the same special place in his heart as a Shrek 2 action figure that "toots" when you squeeze it. Yes, really.[17]
References
- ↑ Botbots design notes from Hasbro designer Aaron Gray on ArtStation
- ↑ "Excited to share that I have taken on the global design lead role at Hasbro for Power Rangers and Ghostbusters! I am honored/excited to work on these iconic brands and can't wait for fans to see what's in store for them!!⚡️👻"—John Warden, Twitter, 2020/07/17
- ↑ Archive of the Hasbro Pulse Con 2020 stream
- ↑ "mark is still very much the design lead on Generations"—John Warden, Twitter, 2024/07/30
- ↑ "I’m the design director in charge of GI Joe and Transformers. And part of my role is to think about how collectors engage with our brand, what sorts of things are they doing, and what opportunities can we do to try to build the brands up in a way where they’re kind of feeding off of each other, but also understand, are there common themes or things we can start to look at – whether it’s detail, accuracy to content, that sort of thing. So by uniting Hasbro’s legacy brands under a single umbrella, I think it does give us an opportunity to really do some amazing new stuff for the future."—John Warden, TFW2005, "SDCC 2024 Hasbro Interview – John Warden’s Return, Generations, Studio Series, Combiners, More!", 2024/08/03
- ↑ "I was working with Lenny for about three years as the design director over top of GI Joe, as well as some other kid-based brands within Hasbro, new inventions and things like that. The love of Transformers really and the Transformers community brought me back. I looked across the Hasbro portfolio, and I started to see some commonalities – not just in true crossovers, but in the way that fans interact with our brands. The way they understand them, that curve of nostalgia and popularity, and also the precision and intricacies within the Transformers universe. I think more than anything, I was drawn back to the rich lore and universe of Transformers, and the promise of immortal metal men that are able to live forever and scan and transform. That’s really a magical premise that I think will never ever go out of style, and something I’ll never stop being in love with."—John Warden, TFW2005, "SDCC 2024 Hasbro Interview – John Warden’s Return, Generations, Studio Series, Combiners, More!", 2024/08/03
- ↑ "Designer Desk" feature on Combiner Wars Victorion at the official Transformers YouTube channel.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Glad to hear you like these guys. Fun fact: when I was doing the deco I actually ordered touch up paint for the actual vehicles these guys were based on to get that tone just right."—John Warden, Twitter, 2022/04/28
- ↑ "Leaked from Cybertron" presentation on Studio Series Grimlock at the official Transformers Instagram
- ↑ Toy Fair 2019
- ↑ "a cool little doodle I found when I designed the concept for the snake-shield/roadway transformer (which later became #slitherfangtransformers ) this sort of this was pretty normal, we would have an idea, I would sketch it out on scrap paper, snap a photo and send it to an artist like @santalux75 to drive home and bring it to life." --John Warden on Instagram
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 *July 17, 2020's livestream on Facebook, with Rachel Fleming and Mark Maher.
- ↑ "One of my favorite projects I've worked on in my career - glad you love all the extra detail we put in!"—John Warden, Twitter, 2022/06/10
- ↑ Transformers panel at New York Comic Con 2019
- ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/ClLfJnsNsGK/?img_index=1
- ↑ Hasbro Transformers Designer On Possibility of Power Rangers Crossover
- ↑ Get to Know John Warden – Our Interview with the Global Design Lead for Power Rangers
External links
Interviews
- Interview with John Warden at Bleeding Cool
- Podcast interview with Warden and Lynsey Urban at Slate
- Interview with Warden about the development of Siege Omega Supreme on the Hasbro Pulse blog:
- SDCC 2024 interview with Warden and the rest of the Generations team (but mostly Warden) at TFW2005
