Universal Studios' Transformers: The Ride - 3D to be 'natural follow-up' to movies

Further details have been revealed of the under-construction Transformers: The Ride - 3D attraction that will open at Universal Studios Sentosa later this year, and at Universal Studios Hollywood early in 2012.

A Variety report on the ride offers some hints as to what guests can expect to experience. Most notably, it confirms that while the ride will retain the look-and-feel of the Transformers movie trilogy, its plot will be a "natural follow-up" to the films rather than based on them directly.

Riders will be placed in the middle of the movies' war between the human-friendly Autobots and their Decepticon enemies. As in the films (and the earlier toys and cartoons), the robots will "transform" into cars, planes, tanks and other vehicles. Universal is working with special effects house Industrial Light and Magic, which also created the effects for the movies, to bring the characters to life.

The ride is set to reuse technology from the Amazing Adventures of Spiderman attraction at Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure, with the report claiming it will combine 3D animation, animatronics and flight-simulator elements.

Because the films breathed new life into Hasbro's toy line in 2007, the toymaker chose to embrace the look of the shape-shifting characters from the pics for the ride, its first theme park attraction since exploiting its brands across various entertainment platforms.

Aaron Archer, Hasbro's Vice President Brand creative, brand design and IP development told Variety, "we're always looking for ways to engage people and show our characters where people want to experience them."

Audiences have grown accustomed to the look of Transformers' robots after the first film earned US$710 million worldwide and its sequel hauled in US$836 million.

As a result, toy sales tied to the franchise generated US$482 million for Hasbro after its first outing and more than US$600 million around the second, providing a case study on how toymakers can capitalise on film and TV shows based on their popular playthings. 

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