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Hasbro Designer Lenny Panzica Explains Transformers Toy Design Process

By Rain Noe - April 22, 2013

in Toy

Of all the different types of industrial designers we cover, it's exhibit designers and toy designers that get the shortest shrift; there simply aren't many of you lot giving out interviews. But now Lenny Panzica, a Hasbro product designer has stepped up for a Gizmodo interview explaining the design process behind the latest Transformers toy. (Panzica, by the way, is a natural fit to design the dragon-inspired "Predaking" robot; the dinosaur enthusiast has degrees in both archaeology and toy design.)

You'd think something as sophisticated as a transforming robot would be worked out almost exclusivly in CAD, so I was surprised to see how much of it is done on good ol' pen and paper:

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bob

11 years ago

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as always there is more than meets the eye
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Ant

11 years ago

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I agree with Dan. I would like to see more interviews done by Core77.
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David Hill

11 years ago

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Awesome video but Dan just got it spot on, C77 should be delivering this kind of content.
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Dan

11 years ago

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My question is: Why is Gizmodo doing this interview and not Core77? I want to see this type of content (although I would expect it to be different coming from C77) on a monthly basis, at the very least. I don't care if it's about bottle caps, flashlights, irons, or screw drivers... I want to see interviews with designers/engineers and discussion as to what thought process went into the design and why certain decisions were made. Was it driven by cost, timeline, tooling simplification, material properties, manufacturing limitations or new processes? Let's talk about the reality of design for once instead of how great a sketch is, how cool the rendering turned out, or how "groundbreaking" the CONCEPT is. .02 deposited.
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Eric

11 years ago

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Wow, how disappointing, looks like they built it in sketch up! It lost all of it's character when they went to CAD!
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