Transformer Action Figure Recall Make America Great Again

Generation 1 continuity family The Transformers » Toyline (Northward America) Toyline (Europe) Toyline (Japan) Toyline (Red china) Various Merchandise Cartoon Comics Books Video games Flyers Commercials

Fortress Maximus, the biggest toy made in the original toyline.

The Transformers (also now known as "Generation 1" or "G1" for curt, though the line was never branded as such) started as a joint venture between Hasbro of America and Takara of Nihon. Afterward an idea to rebrand and sell Takara's Diaclone and Microchange robot toys as a whole new line with a new concept backside it (developed by Hasbro's partners at Marvel Comics), Hasbro ultimately created what would be i of the longest-running and most pop franchises for both companies. Starting in 1984, the line ran for seven years in America and eight in Europe and Japan (though Takara would break the line up into multiple sub-franchises).

Contents

• 1 Overview
  • i.1 Then Vs. Now
  • 1.2 Refining the Formula
• 2 Hasbro The Transformers United states toyline
  • 2.1 1984
    • 2.i.1 General retail
    • 2.i.2 Mail-aways and promos
    • 2.1.3 Notes
  • 2.2 1985
    • ii.2.i Full general retail
    • two.2.2 Mail-aways and promos
    • 2.2.3 Notes
  • ii.3 1986: "The Movie"
    • 2.three.1 General retail
    • 2.three.2 Postal service-aways and promos
  • two.4 1987: Headmasters and Targetmasters
    • ii.4.1 General retail
    • ii.four.two Mail-aways and promos
  • 2.5 1988: Powermasters and Pretenders
    • 2.5.1 Full general retail
    • 2.5.2 Mail-aways and promos
  • 2.6 1989: Pretenders and Micromasters
    • 2.6.1 General retail
    • 2.6.2 Exclusives
    • 2.vi.3 Notes
  • 2.seven 1990: Micromasters and Action Masters
    • ii.seven.one Retail releases
• three Hasbro (and others) Transformers European line
• 4 Takara Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers line
• 5 Mexican & South American Transformers
• half-dozen Chinese The Transformers toyline
• seven Post-Transformers releases
  • 7.ane Reissue lines
    • vii.1.1 Takara
    • 7.1.2 Hasbro
  • 7.two New "Generation 1"-based lines
• 8 Notes

Overview

Having run for seven years, the line inverse dramatically over its lifetime, going from pre-made items to all-new designs and greater focus on gimmicks beyond simply transforming. Thus, the more descriptive bits will exist tackled year-by-yr... but in that location's yet enough to talk about in the big picture.

Then Vs. Now

Page from the 1984 JC Penney annual catalog. A book hundreds of pages thick, which could devote an entire page or 2 to a single toy line. 80s kids craved these books. And yep, JC Penney used to behave toys.

The original Transformers came out in a very dissimilar toy environment than what exists today, and at a time when the marketplace was venturing out from the slow-paced 1970s into undiscovered country.

Start of all, the market itself was merely broader. At that place were a lot more retailers out there, both national and regional, muscling for market share, and most all had a sizable toy department. Sears and Kmart were the biggest retailers in the United States; Walmart and Target were but regional players poised to go nationwide. There were multiple large-scale toys-merely chains, not but Toys"R"United states of america (at present RIP in the US). Even grocery stores and drug stores devoted a significant amount of space to toys year-round, and not just the inexpensive stuff! The idea that you could buy anything via figurer, much less toys, was a novelty at best. No, yous had to get out there and shop - or use a big printed post-order catalog like the erstwhile Sears "Wish Book".

On superlative of that, there were far more toy companies scrabbling for shelf space. Mattel was still an activeness-figure heavyweight thanks to Masters of the Universe, which led the boom of cartoon-advertised toy lines (more on that in a bit) throwing out weird concepts in the hope of creating the next big thing. Transformers wasn't even the kickoff shape-changing robot toy to US shelves, having been beat to the punch by so-competitor Tonka, who brought over Bandai'south Machine Robo toys as GoBots six months prior, plus Takara's own prior attempts to market place their toys in the US as Diakron and Kronoform. Also, in more global terms, Hasbro's Transformers was originally only ane of several international outlets for Takara'south Diaclone and Micro Change figures, initially circumstantial with Joustra'south own version of Diaclone in Central Europe, GiG'due south Trasformer [sic] line in Italy, and Takara themselves were releasing Diaclone in Republic of finland. And then there were all the major sorta-likes, such as Kenner's 1000.A.South.M. with its transforming vehicles, Tomy'due south Starriors reconfigurable robots (a Zoids offshoot), and approximately eleventy-billion as well-rans and cheap knockoffs from a host of now-defunct companies. (And yes, well-nigh of the previously-mentioned companies at present fall under the Hasbro/TakaraTomy umbrella.)

While almost modern toys accept a shelf-life of maybe 6 months, in the 80s a single toy could ship steadily for two years, more if the line was particularly successful. The original Bumblebee and Starscream toys shipped for three, and some of the Mini-Cassettes for 4. (Though the king of long-run shipping is surely Kenner'southward original Star Wars line: the single Darth Vader figure shipped for seven years.)

Not but did the toys ship longer, but the look of Transformers' packaging did not modify significantly for 5 years, only irresolute the logo and overall design in 1989 equally function of a revitalization attempt. Today, even when a single line lasts more than than a year, the packaging changes considerably at least every twelvemonth.

Though even with all that, vii years was a long fourth dimension for a toy franchise to run. Nigh of the bigger lines simply managed most iii years, and that tertiary was typically a terminal flailing-for-its-life year as kids had moved on. That Transformers made as big a splash equally it did and lasted so long before the revivals and reboots is remarkable. How'd information technology practise that? Well...

Refining the Formula

To be honest, Transformers didn't do much that was really "new" outside of its central transformation gimmick, and that was 1 it shared with multiple competitors. However, what put Transformers above the others, both its domestic rivals and the other international licensees, was merely doing a great many things improve than its competitors.

Many early manufactures on the "transforming robot toyline wars" opined that GoBots would win due to its reliance on a big number of small-scale, inexpensive items like shooting fish in a barrel for kids to pick up. (After all, that formula worked wonders for Star Wars.) And while Transformers did have a number of pocket-sized, cheap "entry point" items, its larger figures would turn out to exist a huge draw, a kind of playground status symbol. The boxed figures featured multiple accessories and addition stickers for an extra level of interaction with the toy, giving them an actress air of quality. Sure you lot could get a GoBot or a Mini Vehicle only about any fourth dimension, but the larger Transformers were something large and special for birthdays or saved-upward allowances.

Lotta reading going on in the toy aisles in the 80s.

The packaging too was a step beyond what other lines were doing. Every packaging back had a hefty bio of the character, penned by Marvel author Bob Budiansky. Most lines gave their toys only a cursory judgement or two virtually the toy'southward imaginary powers (if that, GoBots didn't), but the Transformers bios truly "humanized" the alien robots, giving each one a distinct personality complete with motto, on meridian of a much more full description of the imaginary powers that character possessed. Fastened was the "Tech Specs", numeric rankings of the grapheme'southward stats. This information was (by and large) obscured and (sort of) unreadable without a carmine plastic "Tech Spec decoder" inside the boxed toys early (though the ruby lens of a pair of 3D glasses would piece of work likewise, and who didn't accept at to the lowest degree 1 of those lying around in the 80s?), but eventually would motility to easily-readable bars.

Kids had a lot of these. The flyers, nosotros mean, not the toys themselves.

While mail service-away offers were an extremely common practice at the time, Hasbro smartly spruced this process up. Almost every toy (and cereal) post-away offering asked you to clip out the UPC bar-codes as "proof of purchase" when sending abroad, but Transformers instead asked for the "Robot Points" clipped from the packaging back. Bigger toys had more Points, again adding to the idea that the larger toys were a footstep higher up the smaller ones. (The Points were, of course, actually worthless, since you also sent in a check for roughly what the toys would ordinarily cost anyhow.) While many other lines' mail-aways tended to be just toys that weren't out in stores however, Transformers from the outset offered toys that they would never sell at normal retail, like the Omnibots. Talk near playground bragging rights!

While not directly function of the toyline, the way Transformers was advertised has got to be mentioned when talking most its success. President Reagan'south recent deregulation policies allowed for the line between "advertisement" and "amusement" on television to blur heavily, and toy companies were still exploring how to properly exploit this new "advertainment" method of pushing plastic to preteens. He-Human being and the Masters of the Universe was the beginning of these toyline-based cartoons, and information technology rocketed that toyline to success. And permit's be honest here: that prove was garbage, but kids ate it up. Hasbro upped the ante with The Transformers cartoon, giving it a more serious story and college-quality animation (both low hurdles compared to He-Man but let's not rag on that too much, they were testing the early limits of the medium under the furious middle of scary-loud and panicky parental watchdog groups)... and cheers to the fact that the characters were robots, more violence. Yous can't shoot a human with a light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation-blaster, but a robot who could exist rebuilt? Oh yeah! This was ultimately also the reason why the same Italian Takara licensee GiG acquired an additional license from Hasbro to release Transformers toys proper: Information technology gave them admission to the the best course of advertisement for the toys they could possibly go, a dubbed version of the Transformers cartoon!

The basic result... Hasbro merely marketed the line better in well-nigh every regard, and sold kids on the idea that these weren't merely robot toys, they were characters... that these plastic doodads were, well, more than meets the center.

Almost of these tactics were also applied to Hasbro's other huge success story in the 1980s, Chiliad.I. Joe. Broad multifariousness of cost points, character writeups, "Flag Points" for unique mailaways, meliorate drawing... all there.

Hasbro The Transformers Us toyline

1984

The outset yr of Transformers changed very little from the original Japanese Diaclone and Microman releases. The majority of the changes were to the stickers (mainly adding new faction symbols, just also removing "Diaclone" texts and potentially-legally-contentious brandings) and some low-cal retooling, including the removal/weakening of springs inside the missile launchers for safety reasons. Near of the toys' base color schemes came from the original lines, with a few exceptions: Ironhide, Sunstreaker, Skywarp, and Buzzsaw were new decos created whole-cloth by Hasbro.

One particularly helpful bit of marketing for this year is the clean division of adept-guy/bad-guy alternate modes. The Heroic Autobots were the cars and trucks, and the Evil Decepticons were... everything else.

Autobot Commander Optimus Prime number

In contrast to the nigh-solid plastic toys of today, die-bandage metallic played a large part in these toys' construction. This was really a cost-saving measure; a lingering effect from the petroleum toll crises from the '70s fabricated it a scrap cheaper overall to make sizable chunks of toys out of metallic instead of plastic! The larger cars (and some of the Mini Cars) also featured condom tires, and most every toy had some piece on them that was chromed.

Unfortunately, these materials issues mean that these toys rarely historic period well, especially given the rigors of playground life. Paint chips off metallic, condom dries out and splits, chrome fades and rubs off, and the combination of metal-and-plastic on hinged parts leads to easier breakage. Many of these toys have outright notorious harm issues, and loose undamaged toys are a fleck difficult to come by.

Joint was besides a tertiary-at-best concern in the overall design scheme. It was rare for a toy to accept moving parts that weren't direct tied to its transformation sequence beyond a simple rotating shoulder/elbow joint. These toys beingness "bricks", mixed with the aforementioned deposition/breakage issues, have largely relegated them to being display pieces for older collectors.

General retail

Autobot Mini-Cars Brawn Bumblebee (available in yellow and red) "Bumper" [A 1] Cliffjumper (available in cherry-red and yellow) Gears Huffer Windcharger		Decepticon Cassettes Frenzy / Laserbeak Rumble / Ravage		Autobot Cars Bluestreak Hound Ironhide Jazz Mirage Prowl		Ratchet Sideswipe Sunstreaker Trailbreaker Wheeljack		Autobot Car Sunstreaker Decepticon Jet Starscream
Decepticon Planes Skywarp Starscream Thundercracker		Decepticon Communications Soundwave and Condor Cassette: Buzzsaw		Decepticon Leader Megatron		Autobot Commander Optimus Prime number (due west/ Roller & Combat Deck)
Kronoform Autoceptor Deceptor Kaltor

Mail-aways and promos

• "Reinforcements from Cybertron!"

Powerdashers Drill Type F-1 Type Jet Type

Omnibots Camshaft Downshift Overdrive

Others Time Warrior

Omnibot Camshaft

Notes

1. ↑ This effigy, originating from Takara'south Micro Change line just like the rest of the Mini-Cars, was sold on Cliffjumper cards. Afterward beingness referred to past nicknames such as "Bumblejumper" and "Bumper" amid fan circles for over a decade, Dreamwave Productions finally established him as an bodily character with the official name "Bumper" in 2004.

1985

The 80s! When toy companies actively encouraged you to play with burn down!

1984 was a roaring, out-of-the-gate success for Transformers, so 1985'due south offerings upped the ante, both in numbers and in variety of form.

Diaclone and Microchange were mined for equally many viable toys as possible. The remaining unused "Machine Robot" models were brought over, as were several redeco/retools of start-yr Cars. The Constructicons, half-dozen small-scale construction vehicles that could combine into the mighty super-robot Devastator, were a huge hit. Robotic beasts made a splash with the Dinobots and Insecticons. The two predecessor lines also had some in-development concepts that were pushed into Transformers, and while some would not be ready until next year, Hasbro/Takara were able to go out a set of new Mini Vehicles, and new versions of the large jet mold with all-new wings and weapons.

Simply all this wasn't plenty to see expected demand, so Hasbro looked elsewhere for future Transformers. They struck a deal with Bandai for molds from a diverseness of Japanese toylines. As Bandai was (and is) a straight competitor to Takara, none of these toys were put into the cartoon, which was being ported to Nihon. (There was a whole big affair with Jetfire/Skyfire in the drawing, follow the link for more than on that.) Other toys were also licensed from other companies, but didn't have the major-rival-baggage of Bandai's toys, so they could at least exist in the bear witness, if not in Takara's version of the toyline.

All in all, 1985'south output was roughly double that of 1984's. And with a new slew of imitators popping up, Hasbro pushed a new little bit of condition-symbol into the line, giving every toy released in '85 —including the re-released '84 toys— a heat-sensitive rubsign. This brand was the marking of a "truthful" Transformer, and they even spent the coin to make a commercial just to say so. The rubsigns were also key to another fleck of promotion, the mystery-allegiance Mini-Spies that came with the Mini Vehicles this yr equally bonuses.

This year also marks the debut of Transformers internationally, being released in multiple European countries, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina... all with various changes from the US line, some minor, some... well, "major" might be an understatement for some.

General retail

Autobot Mini-Cars w/ Motorized Transformer[B one] Brawn w/ yellow Motorized Transformer Bumblebee (xanthous/red) due west/ white Motorized Transformer Cliffjumper (red/yellow) w/ white Motorized Transformer Gears w/ yellowish Motorized Transformer Huffer w/ blue Motorized Transformer Windcharger w/ blue Motorized Transformer		Autobot Mini Vehicles Comber Creation Powerglide Seaspray Warpath		Constructicons Bonecrusher Hook Long Booty Mixmaster		Scavenger Scrapper Devastator (giftset)		Palatial Insecticon Barrage Triple Changer Blitzwing Blaster
Jumpstarters Topspin Twin Twist		Insecticons Bombshell Kickback Shrapnel		Autobot Cars [B two] Grapple Hoist Inferno Red Alarm		Skids Smokescreen Tracks
Triple Changers Astrotrain Blitzwing		Dinobots Grimlock Slag Sludge Snarl Dive		Deluxe Insecticons Barrage Chop Shop Ransack Venom		Autobot Deluxe Vehicles Roadbuster Whirl
Decepticon Planes Chant Ramjet Thrust		Autobot Scientist Perceptor		Autobot Communicator Equalizer		Decepticon Military Operations Commander Shockwave
Autobot Air Guardian Jetfire		Autobot Motorized Defense force Base of operations Omega Supreme		Tyco Licensed Playsets Electric Racing Set (W/ Natron & Freezon) Electric Train and Battle Gear up		Others Tech Specometer Eleven

Pepsi postal service-away Optimus Prime number

Post-aways and promos

Cookie Well-baked Jazz

Pepsi Optimus Prime

• "Earthlings: THE Due south.T.A.R.S. need your help now!"
• "Have the Decepticons defeated us once and for all?"

Notes

1. ↑ There were four types of "Motorized Transformers" (chosen "Mini-spies" in the television commercial for the figures and "Koma cars" on Hasbro'south shipping cases): "4WD Blazon" (or "Jeep Type"), "Buggy Type", "FX-1 Type" and "Porsche Blazon". Each was available alternatively in white, yellow or blue, with the colour supposedly depending on which figure they were packaged with.
2. ↑ The 1985 "Autobot Cars" toll bespeak was given a somewhat odd treatment with 2 separate assortments, each of which contained re-releases of six of the 1984 figures (packaged one per case in a example of 12) and three of the new 1985 figures (each packaged two per example). The only exception to this was Skids, who was actually released at least as early as December 1984, in 1984 packaging along with the other '84 Autobot Cars, in which he took the place of an extra Mirage that had previously been used to bring the number of figures contained in those cases upwardly to twelve. Due to this, he was packed in the 1985 assortments like the '84 toys, at simply one Skids per case.

1986: "The Motion picture"

That's a lot of explosions with no evidence of anything actually being exploded.

1986 presented a major change in the franchise on several levels. The first being that Diaclone and Microchange were pretty much depleted of feasible toys, so information technology was time for all-new toolings to get made.

The past lines still had a role to play in this, though. The Mini Vehicles were refreshed by taking the 1984 array and extensively retooling them into all-new characters. Takara had been designing a dissimilar sort of combining robot team for Diaclone, where the limb-bots were wholly interchangeable. These plans would come up to life in Transformers as the "Scramble City" way combiners (though that branding was only used in Takara's line; Hasbro called them the "Special Teams" in Europe, and... nothing special in the US). The combiners were actually advertised in the 1985 season of the cartoon (i team, the Aerialbots, were released in time for Christmas in 1985) in a bit of bleed-over equally Hasbro prepared for the really big change... The Transformers: The Movie.

Metroplex

This media event actually shook things (and kids) up. The older cast of not-shipping-any-more-1984-toys was shuffled out, with many characters openly and brutally killed in the picture, to make way for all-new toy-characters who would have the forefront, including new faction leaders. These bots were developed for blitheness first so had toys adult based around those designs, a very rare move at the time (and nonetheless uncommon today, mostly but the live-activeness film series works this mode). These new designs were very Cybertronian/futuristic in blueprint, every bit the Movie was set in the far-flung future of 2005 ooooooohhhhh. This more sci-fi look would stick with the line for a fiddling while.

Another subtle but important modify was that the two factions began to share subgroups, with the Autobots gaining their own Mini-Cassettes and Triple Changers, plus both sides had "Scramble City" style combiners. These groups shipped in mixed-allegiance assortments, which would go more than and more common going forward.

This was too the year die-bandage metallic started being phased out of the toys' construction. With petroleum prices lowering, plastics became the less-expensive alternative. Many of this year's toys shipped initially with painted die-cast bits, but were later on replaced with plastic-parts variants.

General retail

Autobot Mini-Vehicles Hubcap Outback Pipes Swerve Tailgate Wheelie		Mini-Cassettes Ramhorn / Eject Ratbat / Frenzy Rewind / Steeljaw		Aerialbots Air Raid Fireflight Silverbolt Skydive Slingshot Superion (giftset)		Stunticons Breakdown Dead End Drag Strip Motormaster Wildrider Menasor (giftset)		Menasor, the Stunticon combiner
Protectobots Blades Showtime Assistance Groove Hot Spot Streetwise Defensor (giftset)		Combaticons Boom Off Brawl Onslaught Swindle Vortex		Battlechargers Runabout Runamuck		Triple Changers Broadside Octane Sandstorm Springer
Autobot Cars Blurr Hot Rod Kup		Heroes Rodimus Prime Wreck-Gar		Predacons Divebomb Headstrong Rampage Razorclaw Tantrum		Sharkticons Champ		Autobot Motorcar Hot Rod
Decepticon Planes Cyclonus Scourge		Urban center Commanders Galvatron Ultra Magnus		Motorized Autobot Infinite Shuttle Heaven Lynx		Cities Metroplex (west/ Six-Gun, Slammer, and Scamper) Trypticon (w/ Burden & Total-Tilt)

Mail-aways and promos

Reflector

• "The Autobots Take a Special Mission for:"

Reflector (Spectro, Spyglass, Viewfinder)

• "You lot Have Been Chosen."
• "Decipher the Decepticon" competition
• "Prizes in Disguise" contest

1987: Headmasters and Targetmasters

Autobot Targetmaster Pointblank

This year was almost completely dominated past "sci-fi" vehicle modes, following upward on The Pic styling. On height of that, extra gimmicks beyond transformation began to play into the subgroups, with the Throttlebots' pull-back motors and the spark-firing Monsterbots.

More importantly, this was the first year Hasbro would push button a primary over-arching gimmick equally a large percentage of the line: the Nebulan "Principal" partners. Where previous years tended to be a bit scattered with its transformation types, the Headmasters and Targetmasters presented a more than unified theme across both factions and multiple cost-points. This culminated in the mighty Fortress Maximus, a towering two-foot-tall Headmaster city-bot, with a hefty $100 toll-tag (in 1987 dollars, which is about the same as a $200 Transformer today). For sheer size and mass, Fortress Maximus remained the largest Transformer produced for over 25 years... and something of a "bragging rights" move on Hasbro's part, showing that they could demand that kind of shelf infinite from retailers. (They did the same thing with M.I. Joe and the massive USS Flagg playset.)

However, this high indicate also marked the start of the franchise's waning. The drawing was ended with a truncated three-part special, with reruns standing on in syndication. Mail-away offers were also slowing down, with no new product bachelor from this yr on, only older items no longer in stores. Smaller figures were packaged with small soft-rubber Decoys of older characters equally an actress incentive, but they weren't a fully transformable mini-Transformer.

Full general retail

Throttlebots Chase Throughway Goldbug Rollbar Searchlight Wideload		Technobots Afterburner Lightspeed Nosecone Scattershot Strafe Computron (giftset)		Terrorcons Absorb Cutthroat Hun-Gurrr Rippersnapper Sinnertwin		Mini-Cassettes Slugfest / Overkill		Computron, the Technobot combiner Headmaster Brainstorm (with Arcana)
Duocons Battletrap Flywheels		Clones Fastlane / Cloudraker Pounce / Wingspan		Double Spy Punch-Counterpunch		Monsterbots Doublecross Grotusque Repugnus
Headmasters Begin (w/ Arcana) Chromedome (west/ Stylor) Hardhead (w/ Duros) Highbrow (w/ Gort) Mindwipe (w/ Vorath) Skullcruncher (westward/ Grax) Weirdwolf (w/ Monzo)		Headmaster Horrorcons Apeface (w/ Spasma) Snapdragon (westward/ Krunk)		Targetmasters Blurr (w/ Haywire) Crosshairs (due west/ Pinpointer) Cyclonus (w/ Nightstick) Hot Rod (westward/ Firebolt) Kup (westward/ Recoil) Misfire (w/ Aimless)		Pointblank (w/ Peacemaker) Scourge (w/ Fracas) Slugslinger (w/ Caliburst) Sureshot (w/ Spoilsport) Triggerhappy (west/ Blowpipe)
Decepticon Six Changer Sixshot		Headmaster Bases Fortress Maximus (w/ Cerebros, Spike, Cog) Scorponok (w/ Zarak & Fasttrack)

Postal service-aways and promos

• "Start Your Own Decoy Drove" (Decoys packed in with carded figures)
• "Rodimus Prime remembers the Transformers greatest battle on Earth."

1988: Powermasters and Pretenders

Decepticon Pretender Skullgrin

Later four years and slowly-declining sales, the button to brand Transformers live up to its new tagline ("More... Much More than Meets the Center!") was in full consequence. Even toys in old subgroups gained new gimmicks: the new Mini-Cassettes were combiners, the Seacon combiner team'south limb-bots each had a cannon mode the super-robot could use as a handgun, and the Targetmasters each had 2 Nebulans who could besides combine into a super-gun.

The big noise this year was the Pretenders, Transformers that wear outer shells in the guise of armored warriors, monsters, and more, effectively giving you ii warriors in one buy. However, the line didn't exactly excite kids, as most of the inner robots' vehicle modes could be generously described equally "vague at best" due to the necessity of plumbing equipment inside their shells. And while the shells' minimal articulation (having merely potent shoulder swivels) would be fine for much younger children, the inner robots and number of pocket-sized parts definitely put them exterior of that age group.

The other large move was the return of Optimus Prime as one of the Powermasters, robots whose Nebulan partners unlocked the vehicle-to-robot conversion as engine-shaped "keys". Though the previous yr saw Bumblebee return every bit "Goldbug", this large-scale toy of a returning character heralded a shift in Hasbro'southward strategy, which would get fifty-fifty stronger next year.

However, the decline that begun the yr prior was made worse by a sudden splash in the activity figure earth: the inflow of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Kids flocked to this strange new line and its weird new drawing, leaving Transformers... sorry, there's no helping this... trounce-shocked.

Sorry.

General retail

Cassettes Grand Slam / Raindance Squawktalk / Beastbox		Sparkabots / Firecons Cindersaur Fizzle Flamefeather Guzzle Sizzle Sparkstalker		Triggerbots / Triggercons Backstreet Crankcase Dogfight Override Ruckus Windsweeper		Seacons Nautilator Overbite Seawing Skalor Snaptrap Tentakil Piranacon (giftset)		Firecon Sparkstalker Powermaster Optimus Prime Pretender Flop-Burst
Targetmasters Landfill (west/ Flintlock & Silencer) Needlenose (w/ Sunbeam & Zigzag) Quake (due west/ Elevation & Heater) Quickmix (w/ Boomer & Ricochet) Scoop (westward/ Holepunch & Tracer) Spinister (w/ Hairsplitter & Singe)		Headmasters Fangry (w/ Brisko) Horri-Balderdash (w/ Kreb) Hosehead (westward/ Lug) Nightbeat (w/ Muzzle) Siren (w/ Quig) Squeezeplay (w/ Lokos)		Powermasters Darkwing (w/ Throttle) Dreadwind (w/ Hullo-Exam) Doubledealer (w/ Knok & Skar) Getaway (westward/ Rev) Joyride (w/ Hotwire) Slapdash (west/ Lube)		Powermaster Autobot Leader Optimus Prime number (west/ Hi-Q)
Pretenders Assortment 1 Flop-Flare-up Cloudburst Landmine Skullgrin Submarauder Waverider		Pretenders Assortment 2 Bugly Finback Groundbreaker Iguanus Sky Loftier Splashdown		Pretender Beasts Carnivac Catilla Chainclaw Snarler		Pretender Vehicles Gunrunner Roadgrabber
Autobot Half dozen Changer Quickswitch

Mail service-aways and promos

• "The Autobots Are Nether Set on!"

1989: Pretenders and Micromasters

Construction Station

Facing potent competition, Hasbro attempted to unify and re-make Transformers with a new focus and a new look.

First, they eliminated the miscellaneous subgroups of the by, rolling everything under ii over-arching gimmicks: expansions of the Pretender concept, and the new ane-inch-alpine Micromasters, the latter being a response to the steadily-growing popularity of and so-competitor Galoob's Micro Machines micro-play vehicle line. Kids would purchase packs of four Micromasters together, or would become a single Micromaster with a transforming vehicle or playset, with the larger vehicles themselves transforming into base-mode playsets that could interconnect with included ramps (again a response to Micro Machines' heavy use of playsets).

The nostalgia-grab got larger, with new toys based on some of the well-nigh popular characters from the early years, now back as "Classic Pretenders". This yr fifty-fifty saw the get-go shop-exclusive Transformers, as those aforementioned four bots were sold without their Pretender shells equally "Legends", available only at Kmart (which wasn't the decrepit beat out of a retailer it is now).

On top of this, the packaging changed dramatically, with a new look and logo design, although this change was gradual. The starting time three Micromaster patrols released in late 1988 (the Air Strike Patrol, the Off Road Patrol and the Race Car Patrol) still came on old-style cards and featured a unique "Micro Transformers" logo; the Legends kept the overall packaging design simply changed the "Transformers" logo to the all-new overall brand logo introduced this twelvemonth, and changed the on-package Tech Specs to an easier-to-read bar graph; and all other releases, including the remaining Micromaster Patrols, completely ditched the color-coded distinguation between Autobot/Decepticon (other than the aforementioned new "Transformers" logo itself), instead opting for a gimmick-specific color-coding with gilt-carded and -boxed Pretenders, and silver-carded and-boxed Micromasters. Hasbro hoped that this would testify stronger from a marketing standpoint than the Autobot/Decepticon distinction from previous years, plus look new and fresh, rather than simply some other iteration of a now-six-yr-old toyline.

You can kind of guess how well that worked.

General retail

Pretender Monsters Birdbrain Bristleback Icepick Scowl Slog Wildfly		Pretenders Bludgeon Doubleheader Longtooth Octopunch Pincher Stranglehold		Classic Pretenders Bumblebee Grimlock Jazz Starscream		Mega Pretenders Crossblades Thunderwing Vroom		Mega Pretender Thunderwing Sports Car Patrol
Ultra Pretenders Roadblock Skyhammer		Micromaster Patrols Assortment 1 [C one] Air Strike Patrol (Nightflight, Storm Deject, Tailwind, Whisper) Off Road Patrol (Highjump, Mudslinger, Powertrain, Tote) Race Machine Patrol (Free Wheeler, Roadhandler, Swindler, Tailspin)		Micromaster Patrols Assortment 2 Battle Patrol (Large Shot, Flak, Sidetrack, Sunrunner) Rescue Patrol (Fixit, Carmine Hot, Seawatch, Stakeout) Sports Car Patrol (Blackjack, Detour, Hyperdrive, Route Hugger)		Micromaster Transports Erector (w/ Crane) Flattop (w/ Aircraft carrier) Overload (westward/ Car carrier trailer) Roughstuff (due west/ Military transport)
Micromaster Stations Airwave (west/ Airport) Greasepit (west/ Gas station) Hot House (w/ Fire station) Ironworks (w/ Construction station)		Micromaster Bases Groundshaker (w/ ATV) Skyhopper (w/ Helicopter)		Micromaster Jet Command Centre Skystalker (due west/ Interstellar shuttle)		Micromaster Rocket Base Countdown (w/ Rocket base of operations)

Exclusives

Kmart

Legends Bumblebee

Legends Grimlock

Legends Jazz

Legends Starscream

Notes

1. ↑ Micromaster Patrol Assortment 1 began shipping in tardily 1988, and sported packaging that looked drastically different from the "proper" 1989 Micromaster output. Instead of the redesigned argent packaging with the all-new "Transformers" logo, they came on cards that pretty much still resembled the packaging manner that had been used up to that point, and sported a unique "Micro Transformers" logo.

1990: Micromasters and Action Masters

Activity Principal Jazz, reintroducing a character from the line'south early years.

By this fourth dimension, Transformers was in serious trouble. Ninja Turtles was still dominating the toy aisle and TV ratings, and was even putting out a live-activeness moving picture that year. (Bet Hasbro wished they had a cartoon on the air and so, huh?) Home video games were getting even hotter and luring more kids abroad from toys birthday, especially with the release of the hugely-anticipated Super Nintendo Amusement Organization.

Hasbro tried to rally with something that was very rare for its time: a big-scale appeal to nostalgia. While Micromasters continued on, the rest of the series was taken upward by Action Masters, non-transforming One thousand.I. Joe-calibration action figures of Transformers characters, with a half-and-one-half mix of "classic" characters and all-new bots. As with the Micromasters, the focus was mainly on the low-cost items, with the carded individual Action Masters getting the largest corporeality of production. Larger offerings included vehicles that transformed into battle stations or "assault modes" for the Action Masters to airplane pilot.

Unfortunately, it simply wasn't enough, and Transformers was canceled in the United states of america. While the European version of the line would continue on with both new production and a glut of "Classics" re-releases, it would exist two years before Transformers would come up back to United states toy shelves, as Generation two.

Retail releases

Micromaster Patrols Assortment 3 Air Patrol (Blaze Master, Eagle Middle, Sky High, Tread Bolt) Structure Patrol (Crumble, Groundpounder, Neutro, Takedown) Race Runway Patrol (Barricade, Ground Pig, Motorhead, Roller Force)		Micromaster Patrols Assortment iv Hot Rod Patrol (Big Daddy, Greaser, Hubs, Trip-Up) Military Patrol (Bombshock, Dropshot, Growl, Tracer) Monster Trucks Patrol (Large Hauler, Heavy Tread, Hydraulic, Slow Poke)		Micromaster Combiner Squads Astro Squad (Phaser, Boom Main, Moonrock, Missile Master, Barrage & Boost) Battle Squad (Meltdown, One-half-Rail, Direct-Hit, Power Dial, Fireshot & Vanquish)		Constructor Squad (Stonecruncher, Excavator, Sledge, Hammer, Grit & Knockout) Metro Team (Wheel Bonfire, Roadburner, Oiler, Slide, Power Run & Strikedown)		Micromaster Combiner Tanker Truck (with Pipeline & Gusher) Action Master Rollout & Glitch Action Main Wheeljack with his Turbo Racer
Micromaster Combiner Transports Cannon Ship (west/ Terror-Tread & Cement-Head) Missile Launcher (due west/ Retro & Surge) Tanker Truck (w/ Pipeline & Gusher)		Micromaster Combiner Anti-Shipping Base Anti-Shipping Base w/ (Blackout & Spaceshot)		Micromaster Combiner Battleground Headquarters Battlefield Headquarters (westward/ Full-Barrel & Overflow)
Action Masters Assortment 1 Grimlock with Anti-tank cannon Jazz with Turbo Board Rad with Lionizer Rollout with Glitch Soundwave with Wingthing Treadshot with Catgut		Action Masters Assortment two Bumblebee with Heli-pack Blaster with Flight-Pack Devastator with Scorpulator Jackpot with Sights Krok with Gatoraider Mainframe with Push button-Button		Action Masters Assortment 3 Banzai-Tron with Razor-Sharp Inferno with Hydro-Pack Boot-Off with Turbo-Pack Shockwave with Fistfight Skyfall with Top-Heavy Snarl with Tyrannitron		Activity Primary Action Blasters Assail Copter with Over-Run Off-Road Wheel with Axer Turbo Wheel with Prowl Turbo Jet with Starscream
Action Master Autobot Vehicles Set on Cruiser with Sprocket Turbo Racer with Wheeljack		Action Chief Decepticon Assault Vehicles Stratotronic Jet with Gutcruncher Neutro-Fusion Tank with Megatron		Action Principal Autobot Armored Convoy Armored Convoy with Optimus Prime number

Hasbro (and others) Transformers European line

The history of the European-market releases of The Transformers is simultaneously complicated and kind of tiresome, as while diverse countries got different amounts of product, sometimes released past Hasbro subsidiaries or not-Hasbro partner companies (like Milton Bradley and GiG), the actual toys were largely identical to the U.s.a. releases for the overwhelming bulk of the line. In that location are certainly a number of notable early variants, such equally the reddish Tracks, as well as the occasional release of toys otherwise exclusive to Nihon, such as GiG'southward Bruticus and Abominus giftsets or the legendary Galaxy Shuttle, but their scarcity has relegated them to "only for the completist with ample funds" category.

Activity Main Elite Omega Supreme, a bot every bit hard to detect as he is to focus on.

Things wouldn't really go significantly different until the 1990s. While the American toyline was shutting down, Transformers in Europe kept on chugging along.

1991 was an odd hodge-podge of a line, starting with a short burst of exclusive Action Masters (including some that actually did transform!), so introducing several redecoed previously-Takara-exclusive molds, mainly from the 1989 ("Victory") line-upwards. Several of the toys released this yr weren't given individual names, including the re-released Constructicons (who had as well lost the parts needed to combine into Devastator, oddly plenty).

Speaking of re-released old toys, 1990 saw the Classics subline debut, the return of numerous toys from the 1984 through 1987 lines. Several of these releases had minor changes from the originals, mainly the removal of rubsign indents. The line would continue through 1991, and a few extra pieces would see release only in Australia.

Turbomaster Thunder Clash, the new Autobot leader of 1992.

In 1992, the line got much more cohesive, moving back to much more "traditional" Transformers, changing from pseudo-realistic vehicles to robots, with gimmicks that were by and large not super-obtrusive. The Autobots and Decepticons got some physical stardom in their designs in 1992: the Autobots got hot-pink transparent plastic parts, primarily their optics and windows, while the Decepticons got a bright toxic clear-green transparent parts equally well as less-homo, more than angular faces. Yep, hot pink and toxic green: the 90s was also the time that the color schemes for new toys overall got brighter and more than reliant on pastels (and in some cases, straight-upwardly gloriously awful). In 1993, Hasbro changed the traditional faction symbols to the types used in the Generation 2 series, as the US line was changing over that year. The European line would follow arrange in 1993, ending the original "Generation 1" serial in European markets without the line being canceled, the only major market to non have a gap betwixt Generations ane and two. Neat!

Takara Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers line

Takara took Hasbro'due south lead and brought the new universe of living robots to Japan in 1985, where it was a massive success. Despite many/most of the toys having been available just a year or two prior, the new story and cartoon propelled Transformers sales far beyond those of the lines that the toys originally came from. Diaclone and Micro Alter were speedily discarded in favor of the new hotness as kids ate up this new accept on the behemothic robot genre, one that was a fresh change from the sheer amount of competing "piloted mecha" robot toylines/cartoons in existence.

The line started very parallel with Hasbro's offerings, but over time the 2 companies pursued some pretty different visions for the brand. Takara gave the accompanying advertisement media dissimilar sub-franchise titles for each year, a long-running tradition in kids' media/toylines in Japan (which would eventually end up making its mode Stateside), although the toyline itself would not proceeds over-arching secondary titles until 1991, instead just featuring gimmick-specific brandings for relevant toys, some of which just happened to mirror the accompanying media'south title. They would also create a variety of all-new toys unique to their version of Transformers (although some of them also saw release in Europe), most of them highly sought-after by collectors. By the end of the series, Takara would go back to following Hasbro's lead for the bulk of the line, with new molds being relegated to a pocket-sized handful of big pieces. Transformers finally ended in 1992, as Takara's meantime-running (and Tv set-drawing-backed) non-Transformers "Brave" giant robot lines gained more than popularity.

Transformers would non be back on Japanese toy shelves until 1995, when the curt-lived Yard-ii toyline would hit.

Mexican & South American Transformers

If you want strange variants of Generation 1 toys, then the short-lived toylines s of the border are the female parent lode. But many of these items are not inexpensive on the secondary market due to their scarcity.

Mexico

Mexican Cruise, with actress blackness bits.

Principal article: IGA

Transformers was released by IGA in Mexico in 1985. For the nigh function, the toys are similar to their Hasbro counterparts, though with plenty of minor coloring and materials differences... which evidently includes lead paint. Oops.

The line did not practise well, and 1986's releases were little more Metroplex and a handful of get-go-year Mini Vehicles recolored roughly like their tertiary-year retools. The line was fully canceled shortly afterwards.

A number of these toys somehow ended up in European markets years after the line was over, which is when that whole "pb paint" thing was discovered. Oops.

Brazil

Malignus Camaro. Gorgeous. And expensive.

Chief article: Estrela

Easily the most well-known of the Southern-Hemisphere Transformers releases, Estrela's batch of half dozen Mini-Vehicle molds were the majority of the toys released by the company, put out in a variety of colors. Notably, the mysterious "Bumper" mold was function of this assortment, nether the proper name "Sedan", complete with packaging art and a bio, leading fans to wonder if this bio came from scrapped plans for the toy in the original Hasbro line.

The line was filled out with redecoed Jumpstarters chosen "Salt-Man" ("salto" meaning "spring" in Spanish and Portuguese), and non-Takara molds like the Eletrix and Bat-Robô.

Well-nigh coveted among the Estrela toys is the second circular of Mini Vehicles, the "Optimus vs Malignus" series, which split the toys into brand-new expert & evil (respectively) factions. These twelve toys —particularly the more radically-changed Malignus— are very expensive on the secondary market place, easily earning triple-digit sums for even loose samples. Still-carded toys are exceptionally rare.

Argentine republic

Table salt-Homo X

Main article: Antex

A bit of an odd case, it appears that Argentinean company Antex got its Transformers license from Estrela, rather than Hasbro, which is kind of dubious on the "did Estrela actually have the authorisation to do that" mark. Antex would then release its ain batch of Mini Vehicle redecoes.

In the early 2010s, a large number of on-card/boxed Antex toys striking the secondary marketplace, apparently due to an old warehouse find. Many of these items were sold cheaper than domestic packaged original toys in the Usa... but nevertheless brand a not bad curiosity for a collector.

One more odd Argentinean release is the Radio AM Robot, an original mold by Comando Toys. Your guess is as expert equally ours.

Republic of peru

Chief article: Lynsa

There is a chip of confusion equally to the short-lived Peruvian Transformers line as it appears that ii different companies obtained the license and took two different approaches to information technology, though both mainly stuck to -again- the Mini Vehicle range.

BASA (which would later alter its proper noun to HUDE, which doesn't help in the confusion department) simply imported Hasbro product and applied a visitor sticker to the packaging.

Lynsa, still, made their own cheaper-to-produce versions of the original Mini Vehicle range, frequently with less-to-no paint applications, decals or chrome, as well equally multiple different color variants for each mold. In that location are supposedly upward of three dozen different mold/colour combinations altogether, many of them unique to the Peruvian line, but the ravages of time have made samples stunningly rare and reliable information scarce.

Venezuela

Main article: Rubiplas

The tiny Rubiplas line is very similar to the Peruvian Lynsa line in structure, being low-cost, minimal-deco versions of the incomplete Mini Vehicles range. Most are similar in color to their Hasbro releases, save their very weirdly-colored Huffer.

Chinese The Transformers toyline

Main commodity: The Transformers (Chinese toyline)

Several factors kept The Transformers out of mainland Mainland china for years, including government-based resistance to the line'due south primary "advertainment" vehicle. But in Baronial 1989, Hasbro International started cranking out classic Transformers at Chinese factories, which were shipped throughout China, too as Taiwan and South Korea (with additional stickers applied to the packaging for those markets). The line ran through 1995 (!), ending with several previously-Japanese-exclusive Victory toys.

For the most office, the toys are identical to their previous releases, only with slight changes to the manufacturing stamps, and the occasional minor deco alteration (primarily painted details on the Mini-Cassettes, and some rubsign changes). They came in the same packaging as their American (or European) counterparts, simply with small-scale stickers in the corner giving the characters' Chinese names. Japanese-original toys were altered slightly more, changing the Transformers logo to a Chinese-language version. The copyright and manufacturing data on the back of the packaging was also shortened to remove the no-longer-true statements "Made in Japan", "Fabricated in Taiwan", etc., and omit references to Takara. The manufacturing data was instead applied equally a sticker in Chinese on the dorsum of the box. By 1994, when the Power Master-era toys were released, "Made in China" was added to the box.

Despite running for nigh half dozen years, the Chinese Generation ane line released only about 100 toys all told.

This belatedly entry into China actually goes a long way towards explaining the country's current Transformers mania, and its ever-increasing corporeality of toys fabricated specifically for that market. Those who grew up with the line as kids were hitting machismo just every bit the Chinese middle class was booming, which meant disposable income. And with the huge success of the live-activity movie spurring things on further right in the middle of that economical benefaction, Red china has since get a major part of the franchise's current global success.

It'due south quite probable that the Chinese line is also the source of the European "Classics" reissues that were released in 1990. The toys share the same contradistinct copyright and Chinese manufacturing stamps... plus some Classics toys have surfaced with Chinese proper name stickers on them.

• Chinese G1 Reissue ID Guide
• The Petty Sticker in the Corner: The Truth about Early-1990's Chinese G1 Transformers Toys
• Fighting "Transformer Fever"

Post-Transformers releases

BotCon 2007 Dirge
RIP BotCon (1994-2016). We'll always love you.

Hahahahahahahhahahah haaaaaa hahahahahhahahaha hahaahahaaaaaaaahahahaaaaa. Hoo. Hooooh boy.

Okay, just seriously.

Despite having set the stage for everything that would follow, and in abrupt contrast to the nostalgia-sodden market of today, "Generation i" actually took some fourth dimension to get back into existence a sizable portion of the "mod" toyline following the original's end. The Generation 2 revival failed to revive, and its vastly more successful replacement Animal Wars was such a radical shift from everything before that going back to the '80s trappings was seen as risky. Thus the original serial was more often than not relegated to scattered homages for the ameliorate function of a decade.

By the turn of the century (ugh), the older-nostalgic market was picking up force. More children of the '80s were out of school and getting jobs and disposable income (yeah, that kind of thing used to actually happen) and were looking to reclaim $.25 of their childhoods. And the marketplace responded... timidly at first, as the markets exercise, but over time, more and more than of the archetype series was brought dorsum in 1 form or some other.

Reissue lines

Principal article: Reissue

Before the re-cosmos blast, in that location was the re-release boom. Many vintage toy molds were pulled out, refurbished and put back into service to permit fans fill holes in their archetype collections.

Takara

The Transformers Drove Skids

Takara was the first to get the reissue ball rolling, and generally took the lead in re-releasing classic "Generation 1" molds over the course of several years. Re-problems began sporadically at get-go in 2000, mainly major characters (particularly Optimus Prime, Megatron, Rodimus and Starscream) in recreations of the original packaging, with a few special editions. But it didn't accept long for this to expand into larger, more than organized lines:

• The Transformers Collection (2002)

This series is besides known as the "bookbox" serial, as each toy came in a large box with a multi-folio, full-colour booklet attached to the inner front comprehend of the box, full of bio information, toy trivia, cartoon summaries and more. In some respects this series was a bit of an "ultimate G1" line, as a cracking many toys were modified from their original releases. Tooling issues were fixed for actress immovability, stickers were altered or even replaced with more than durable mill-practical tampographs, accessories were added that had either not been released in Nihon (like Targetmaster partners) or wholly-new items altogether.

This series would be further filled out with all-new characters set in the archetype universe, with redecos of the mold reissues in new colour schemes (often -merely not always- replicating Diaclone variants the original Transformers line passed on) through outlets like eastward-HOBBY.

• Transformers Encore (2007)

Riding the surge of popularity that had been building (and exploding with the live-action moving-picture show), Encore brought more "enhanced" classic toys out, though this time in more archetype-style packaging. The line besides put a much heavier focus on the larger pieces in the original line, including the likes of Metroplex and even Fortress Maximus, as well as toys the original Japanese line had skipped, similar Sky Lynx.

Hasbro

Commemorative Serial Thundercracker, "Silverstreak" and Jazz.
(No, the real Silverstreak did non accept the black hood/top.)

Hasbro mostly seemed less keen on remaking the past, focusing their efforts on new lines, only saw the value in trying to get the reissues into fans' easily... even if at that place had to exist compromises for prophylactic reasons.

• Generation Ane Commemorative Series (2002)

Sold exclusively through Toys"R"Us (though overstock would later filter into closeout outlets), the Commemorative Series mostly picked upwardly what Takara was already putting out and swung them onto U.s.a. and European shelves. This series proved less popular with fans, thanks to the changes that had to be washed to make the functional spring-launched missiles pass safety standards, plus a rather high price tag (a Toys"R"Us staple for its exclusives) that generally left net-savvy fans deciding to just import Takara'due south offerings for just a little bit more.

• Vintage G1 (2018)

A series of reissues from Hasbro which began in 2018. Packaged in Generation 1-styled boxes consummate with fonts, classic box art and Tech Spec, the figures invoke the look and feel of the original toyline, from the era of the franchise'due south nascent emergence as a cultural phenomenon. All the figures thus far have been exclusive to Walmart in the United States and Canada, only have too been released at full general retail in Asia, and the commencement wave of the "Legion Course" assortment has been available in Commonwealth of australia, exclusive to clothing concatenation CottonOn. (Singapore got virtually toys at general retail, except for the "Legion Class" figures, which were bachelor from the Singaporean branch of CottonOn… although the Bumblebee reissue was also offered as a "Combo" freebie at Gold Village flick theaters.) The toys themselves hew closely to the original releases, mostly using The Transformers Collection variants, incorporating subtle differences for safety or other reasons. Like their original releases, many include sticker-sheets for the customer to use, enhancing the maddening, pilus-pulling warm nostalgic experience.

New "Generation ane"-based lines

If you think we're gonna listing every individual new toy based on a Generation i character here, you're insane. And not the fun kind. Instead, enjoy this series of links to the numerous toylines that think to the originals. Many of these lines are technically multi-franchise ensembles, merely the majority of their output is of updated Generation 1 bots.

• Machine Wars (1997)

Auto Wars Hoist

A strange, slapdash and very brusque line released in the centre of Creature Wars, Machine Wars was sold exclusively at KB Toys stores. It's a mix of modest toys originally developed for Generation two and some larger retooled European-market items from a few years prior, all mostly as old characters, and by and large in color schemes that don't match the characters they're supposed to exist. On the other manus, this was the first run a risk many American fans had to acquire some of those larger strange molds, and at KB'due south (in)famous pre-discounted prices to boot.

• Robotmasters (2004)

Robotmasters Starscream

A short line in Nippon during the middle of the "Unicron Trilogy" series, Robotmasters is ready in the nebulous time between the second season of the original cartoon and The Transformers: The Movie... merely with the intrusion of fourth dimension-traveling characters from Animal Wars (and more). Sticking mainly to smaller items, the series is mostly recycled "Basic" figures and sub-Deluxe items, most every bit new characters. Many came with extra weapons also, most of which were recycled from a canceled Microman series.

Still, there were a serial of all-new molds, based on the leader characters of the past. The brand-new Starscream was easily the near popular, being a archetype-designed toy with some actual posability, with a new smaller Optimus Primal being close behind.

Though the new molds were highly sought after at the time, they'd go very obsolete in fairly short society...

• Alternators (2003) / Alternity (2009) / GT: Mission GT-R (2013)

Ii of the numerous Japanese variants of Alternators Smokescreen.

The offset focused Generation 1 "revival" series, Alternators was aimed squarely at the older collector. Every toy in the line (save ane odd add-on) is a Generation ane character reimagined as a one:24-calibration recreation of a real, fully-licensed vehicle, complete with opening doors, an bodily open commuter/passenger compartment consummate with dashboard, opening hoods/trunks and more than. This led to many of these toys being very complicated to transform. The Japanese Binaltech line took the collector-aim even further by using copious amounts of painted die-cast metal for the vehicle shells. A line of very deadening and staggered releases, it would continue on for several years in the Usa. Nippon would keep the line live even longer (and with a lot of variants), upward through 2008, including a few small sub-lines like Binaltech Asterisk (which included human mini-figures to drive the vehicle modes) and the controversial Kiss Players.

Despite heavy interest early on from the older fandom, Alternators has basically been left backside in favor of the later "normal" Generation i remakes that would follow a few years later on.

TakaraTomy would take another crack at the style afterward with Alternity, which is generally the aforementioned thing, only at one:32 scale, putting the toys at roughly "Deluxe" size. Several years subsequently it would dust off the Alternity Convoy mold for GT: Mission GT-R, a racing-themed mini-series which added "GT Sis" Microman figures to each toy.

• Masterpiece (2003)

MP-x Convoy, the 2nd Masterpiece Optimus Prime number mold.

A line that started as a one-shot, ceremony-celebratory bargain, that slowly over time grew to become basically the "ultimate" collector's Generation 1 toyline. Takara has taken the lead here, putting out much of the product at general retail, where Hasbro picks and chooses molds to bring out equally shop exclusives from fourth dimension to fourth dimension.

Starting with Optimus Prime (of course), the line features larger-scale, very complex, highly-detailed, and (generally) animation-accurate renditions of classic characters. Originally a wearisome-release line, in 2011 it moved to a smaller scale (with a redone Optimus, of course), focused on filling out much of the 1984/1985 bandage, and started putting out toys at a fairly regular clip, several a year. The line is notwithstanding going today, and has expanded its scope, recently adding Animal Wars characters to the roster.

Hasbro would occasionally release their own versions of Masterpiece toys, sectional to diverse stores. Due to the brand unification, these were stopped in favor of merely importing the toys.

• Timelines (2005)

The Timelines series is also a multi-franchise ensemble line, but naturally, the majority of the production is Generation-1-based, and sold by Hasbro licensee Fun Publications via BotCons and the Transformers Collectors' Club. This series features a lot of toys based on more obscure characters and decos.

• Classics (2006)

Classics Bumblebee

Originally intended to just be a brusk gap-filler line betwixt Cybertron and the upcoming live-action motion-picture show toyline, Classics more or less set the gold standard for today's Generation 1-based toy: modern-tech recreations of classic characters in updated forms highly evocative of their original incarnations, in the "focused-around-deluxe-scale" play size.

Hasbro originally had no plans to put out more the original line in this format (leading to some kerfuffle when several "missing" classic characters concluded upwards every bit BotCon 2007 exclusives). Merely a combination of solid sales, heavy demand, and —most chiefly— a gargantuan influx of income cheers to that whole Michael Bay motion-picture show bargain meant that Classics-style toys could continue on in successive lines (see below).

• Titanium Series (2006)

Titanium Series Jetfire

Originally a subline of Hasbro'south Star Wars product line, Titanium Series put the focus on die-cast metal, separate between ii-inch-tall non-transforming mini-figurines, and the transforming six-inch "Cybertron Heroes". The latter were... let's politely say "not very well-received".

These toys were developed completely in-house at Hasbro, with no Takara applied science, by a squad who had never worked on Transformers to kick. The results often resulted in ill-proportioned messes with odd joint tolerances and questionable joint that couldn't actually handle the weight distribution. The toys based on designs from the popular "The State of war Within" comics from then-licensee Dreamwave more often than not fared meliorate, and would garner some demand, particularly The Fallen. It'southward a existent grab-handbag of a line, both in character and quality.

• Universe (2008) / Generations (2010) / Transformers (2010)

Universe Sunstreaker

After the live-activeness movie made Hasbro and Takara approximately eleven bazillion dollars, they had the funds to put out more traditionally "risky" product like older-nostalgic-aimed toys. From this signal on, they would devote a major portion of each year's product to making modern toys of Generation 1 characters.

Hasbro's 2008 Universe line was the kickoff, with everything from small Legends Class items to huge electronic Ultra Class toys.

The line eventually turned into Generations, but the overall focus was more or less the same. Generations is however running as of this writing, though at this point "Generations" has kind of become more a descriptor than an actual line: generally used as an umbrella branding for the more collector-oriented production, which includes non just multiple themed lines of "Generation i"-based toys (expanding to other eras for the cornball fan too), but more elaborate alive-action movie product.

2010's Transformers line was actually a movie-based "general" line. But the back end of the line had several toys in multiple cost-points based straight on Generation 1 characters that seemed similar they were right out of Generations, confusing fans a bit.

• Henkei! Henkei! (2008) / United (2010) / Chronicle (2011) / Generations (2012) / Legends (2014) / Unite Warriors (2015)

Henkei! Henkei! Megatron, a redeco of Classics Megatron.

Takara's cord of Generation-1-based modern toys is a little more fragmented, changing names with regularity. Largely following Hasbro's lead, these toys are typically more extensively painted (owing to Nihon's retailers not having the vise-similar grip on detail prices that major American retailers have), with a much heavier focus on replicating animation decos, even when the molds are not terribly suited for animation-based deco.

Complicating things a fleck more is Adventure, Takara'south version of the 2015 Robots in Disguise line. That line was initially filled out with a large number of Generations molds, colored and named blatantly as Generation i characters... but equally part of the "Aligned" universe. While we list these characters as the alternate-universe takes they're presented as, they are definitely worth mentioning hither for fans who don't care well-nigh dividing past universe and merely want a modern Override that blends in perfectly with their modern Generation 1 drove.

Starting with 2018'due south Power of the Primes, the brand unification meant Generations toys would not end up in diverging toylines between Hasbro and TakaraTomy. While each company would take their exclusives, they would often exist imported over by the other visitor.

TakaraTomy as well created diverse smaller toylines, such as Smallest Transforming Transformers and Golden Lagoon, based on Generation 1 characters and designs, though focusing on a certain gimmick or idea.

Notes

• The term "Generation 1" is a piece of ascended fan-terminology. When Generation 2 striking, the early online fandom quickly took to calling its predecessor "Generation i". It became such a ubiquitous term it made its way into official terminology pretty rapidly.
• The Transformers isn't the first fourth dimension Diaclone molds were sold in the US. In 1983, Takara released "Diakron" in the US, directly-importing vi Diaclone molds in new packaging. Information technology didn't do also well. These releases are interesting curiosities for the serious collector, though.

spearsbuttleace.blogspot.com

Source: https://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_Transformers_(toyline)