Joe Kyde

One of these is a pop culture icon. The other one is Optimus Prime.

Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kyde (born 1980) is a former Hasbro employee who last held the job title Product Designer, designing Transformers toys across multiple brand segments. He started as an Associate Designer in charge of store-exclusive product for the G.I. Joe and Transformers brands. He had previously done color layouts for many Transformers toys.

A longtime Transformers fan and formerly active member of the Transformers fan community, Kyde began an internship with Hasbro in 2002, doing design work and color layouts for many Transformers toys as both an intern and freelance designer. He was hired at Hasbro full-time in 2007 as an Associate Designer in charge of store-exclusive product for the G.I. Joe and Transformers brands. By 2009, he had moved on to full Transformers toy design, contributing to the Hunt for the Decepticons/Reveal the Shield, Revenge of the Fallen, and Dark of the Moon toylines. He would go on to become the lead designer of both the 2011 Cyberverse toyline and the Generations toyline from its inception all the way up through the Thrilling 30 imprint! If you like Springer, thank him.

After leaving Hasbro, he became a Senior Designer for The LEGO Group in Denmark. In 2022, his then and former jobs crossed paths when he got the opportunity to design the official LEGO Icons Optimus Prime figure.^[1]

Known design projects

Color decos

He accepts offerings of Skyline Chili.

Armada

Mini-Con Class

Super-Con Class

Max-Con Class

• Thundercracker with Zapmaster

Giga-Con Class

• Galvatron with Clench

Cybertron

When Hasbro says "Smokescreen", Kyde hears "Rad".

Deluxe Class

• Optimus Prime
• Skywarp
• Smokescreen

Beast Wars 10th Anniversary

Deluxe Class

• Axalon (with Optimus Primal)
• Darksyde Predacon Ship (with Megatron)

Classics

Your face makes a great Trypticon homage.

• Optimus Prime vs Megatron: The Ultimate Battle

Deluxe Class

Legends Class

Transformers (2007)

Fun fact: Kyde loves beige.

Retail

Deluxe Class

Voyager Class

Store exclusives

Big "Kyde" Daddy

Target

Will trade black repaints for Skyline Chili.

Walmart

Toys"R"Us

Animated

Deluxe Class

• Rescue Ratchet
• Stealth Lockdown

Voyager Class

• Shockwave (versus Bumblebee)
• Sunstorm (versus Autobot Ratchet)

Universe (2008)

Hasbro Toy Shop

• Special Edition
  • SE-02 Megatron
  • SE-04 Overkill

Store exclusives

Target

Sam's Club

• Battle for the Cyber Planet Keys
  • Optimus Prime

Kmart

Combiner Wars

• Protectobot Rook

Design

Armada

• Overload with Rollout (detailing, core design by Eric Siebenaler)

Revenge of the Fallen

• Arcee
• Jolt

Transformers (2010)

Hunt for the Decepticons

Legends Class

Scout Class

Reveal the Shield

He worked really hard to get us to love him.

Legends Class

Scout Class

Deluxe Class

• Tracks

Generations (2010)

Deluxe Class

MechTech (Dark of the Moon)

Deluxe Class

Voyager Class

• Sentinel Prime

Cyberverse (2011)

Series 1 - Dark of the Moon

Legion Class

Commander Class

Action Set

Playsets

• Autobot Ark with Autobot Roller

Series 2 - Prime

Legion Class

Commander Class

Vehicles

• 001 Energon Driller with Knock Out
• 002 Star Hammer with Wheeljack
• 003 Bumblebee Battle Suit with Bumblebee

Optimus Maximus

• Optimus Maximus

Series 3

Legion Class

Commander Class

Vehicles

• 001 Sky Claw with Smokescreen
• 002 Apex Hunter Armor with Breakdown
• 003 Energon Driller with Bumblebee

Universal Studios

• Evac^[3]

Generations: Fall of Cybertron

Legends Class

Voyager Class

Generations: Thrilling 30

Legends Class

Deluxe Class

As in, really REALLY hard.

Voyager Class

Leader Class

• Jetfire

LEGO

The Return of the King

• 10302 Optimus Prime

Known convention appearances

• BotCon 2007
• BotCon 2008
• BotCon 2009
• BotCon 2010

SAGE2764

It's false. We created it. It's totally made up. It's fiction. Pure fiction. It's a total fabrication.

Starting in March 2006, a user going by the handle "SAGE2764" posted various tidbits of inside information, including leaked images of various sorts, to the Hong Kong discussion group talk.transformers, from where they were spread to other parts of the fandom. Those included:

• Packaging cross-sell stock photos of the Cybertron Leader Class "Galaxy Force Optimus Prime" redeco (offering a first look at the deco, with the toy still simply being called "Optimus Prime").^[4]
• Photos of Cybertron Nemesis Breaker, Metroplex and Menasor in packaging, including the bios from the back of the packaging.^[5]
• A color guide for Cybertron Deluxe Class Smokescreen, information about the Cybertron Mudflap redeco (aka Landslide) being canceled in favor of a Vector Prime redeco (aka "Galaxy Force Vector Prime"), information about Classics Optimus Prime only being available as a Voyager without a trailer (contrary to previously revealed information from other sources),^[6] and his blasters transforming into parts of his vehicle mode.^[7]
• A color guide for a new Alternators version of Megatron as an M1 Abrams main battle tank.^[8]
• A color guide for Classics Grimlock.^[9]
• Photos of the Cybertron "Galaxy Force Vector Prime" redeco in packaging.^[10]
• Photos of Classics Voyager Megatron in and out of packaging.^[11]

The one that stands out among these is the M1 Abrams Megatron color guide, a toy that was never released... and never intended for release to begin with. At BotCon 2006, Hasbro representatives stated that it was a "fanmade experiment by one of their friends outside the company" who "wanted to see what would happen in the fan community if he tried to make it look like Hasbro's color guides".^[12] It was later revealed that the whole thing was actually intended for Joe Kyde's senior capstone project to "disseminate hoax information", conducted with Hasbro's approval.^[13] It's unclear whether "SAGE2764" was actually Kyde himself or just someone acting on his behalf. Kyde only ambiguously commented on that question by stating that he knew "how to get stuff out there". He would later homage "SAGE2764" by using the name for Movie Deluxe Class Recon Barricade's license plate, and again with Revenge of the Fallen Decepticon Bludgeon from the "Master of Metallikato" two-pack, who sported "KN-2764" tampographs. Bizarrely, Vehicon from the Age of Extinction Platinum Edition "Breakout Battle" multi-pack, a toy whose deco was presumably designed long after Joe Kyde had left Hasbro, sports "2764-K-03" markings.

Notes

DON'T TOUCH MY ICE CREAM SWERRRRRRRRRRVE :/

• Kyde decoed every version of the 2007 Transformers movie Voyager Class Starscream sculpt except the Toshiba-exclusive "Vardia Red" version.
• His favorite Transformer is Swerve.
• Every story you might have ever heard about Joe Kyde, no matter how amazingly outlandish, is absolutely 100% true, and not just a neverending cascade of silly in-jokes by longtime friends of his, who most certainly are not frequent editors of this very wiki. Honest!

References

External links

• Joe Kyde on Twitter
• Joe Kyde on LinkedIn
• A complete summary of the "SAGE2764" affair complete with design notes on the Alternators-Megatron-that-never-was in Kyde's portfolio

Interviews

• Design notes from Kyde on the then-upcoming Walmart exclusives for the 2007 live action film at the Hasbro website (archived)
• Design notes from Kyde on the then-upcoming Toys"R"Us exclusives for the 2007 live action film at the Hasbro website (archived)