Franchises
From Transformers Wiki
A franchise, for lack of a better term, is an incarnation or "generation" of the Transformers brand. Strictly speaking, the entire Transformers brand can be viewed as a single franchise, coexisting alongside other Hasbro franchises with multiple distinct entries such as G.I. Joe or My Little Pony, but on the wiki the word is used to refer to the collection of not just toys, but also media, merchandise, and ideas that surround each of these incarnations. Because of these other elements, the word "toyline" would not be broad enough; the toyline is just the toy component of the whole thing.
What defines a franchise is not always clear-cut. Since the early 1990s, multiple Transformers franchises can and have coexisted with one another, targeting varying demographics through different forms of media. (e.g. the 2007 film franchise and Transformers Animated both running through 2008 in different ways). Additionally, each franchise has the potential to evolve the brand further, taking characters, toys, or concepts in a radically different direction. What one franchise does can affect future storytelling decisions in other franchises — the rise of the AllSpark as a plot device, for instance, evolved out of its prominent usage in the live-action film series.
Below are the majority of franchises that have appeared in the 40-year history of the Transformers brand, highlighting some of the key aspects of each franchise and their lasting impact on the brand as a whole.
Hasbro franchises
Generation 1
- The original franchise, and the one from which most other incarnations of the brand are ultimately derived, the "Generation 1" umbrella covers a vast array of disparate stories and toylines, beginning in 1984 and largely continuing into the present day in one form or another. By far the most "recognizable" incarnation of the brand, it's also the one with the most amount of franchises, fiction, and characters.
The Transformers (1984-1991, 2001–present)
- For the first eight years of the Transformers brand, there was no "franchise" as such; the brand of "The Transformers" alone was used on the toyline and associated media. Following the rise of "Generation 2" in the early 1990s, and subsequent reboots in the early 2000s, the line was retroactively dubbed "Generation 1". As the root of the Transformers franchise, new Generation 1 stories and toys continue to be produced to this day.
| The Transformers/"Generation 1" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Transformers: Generation 2 (1993-1995)
- In the early 1990s, the Transformers brand had largely faded from the American consciousness and was nearing dormancy. Based on the line's overseas success, however, Hasbro launched Transformers: Generation 2, a relaunch of the toyline that mixed Generation 1 redecoes with some brand-new molds. In support of this new franchise, Marvel published a short-lived continuation of their Generation 1 comics that pitted the Autobots and Decepticons against the evil Jhiaxus, and while no new television show was produced, Generation 2 would re-edit and rebroadcast a version of the original cartoon.
- Though Generation 2 largely failed to achieve its goals, the line is fondly remembered by fans; a child of the "xtreme" marketing of the early 1990s, Generation 2 will forever be remembered for its usage of endearingly terrible rap music and CG in its commercials, while the clashing, eye-searing color schemes of many Generation 2 toys have received occasional homages.
| Transformers: Generation 2 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Beast Wars: Transformers (1996-2001, 2006)
- Following the end of Generation 2, Hasbro opted to move its boy's toys division to the recently acquired Kenner and tasked them with revitalizing the ailing Transformers brand with a fresh new direction. Beast Wars: Transformers was the end result of this creative process, a new line that recast the heroic Maximals and evil Predacons in the roles of the Autobots and Decepticons: organic animals that changed into sleek, Guyver-styled robots. The toyline was primarily supported by a CGI animated series, which would flesh out the universe and eventually establish the characters as the descendants of the Autobots and Decepticons of yore. Though a radical, and sometimes controversial reinvention, Beast Wars would also reinvigorate the Transformers brand, and many fans would come to regard the tie-in cartoon as one of the best Transformers shows of all time.
| Beast Wars: Transformers | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Machine Wars: Transformers (1997)
- A small, strange franchise that briefly ran alongside the more popular Beast Wars, Machine Wars: Transformers took advantage of the success off Beast Wars to return a handful of redecorated Generation 2 toys to store shelves, featuring a mixture of new characters and returning faces. No concurrent fiction was ever released to explain their place in the Transformers mythos other than some vague on-package bios; years later, however, BotCon 2013 would incorporate the characters into a convention-exclusive toyline, supported by a single comic that slotted the characters into the distant future of Fun Publications' Transformers: Wings Universe.
| Machine Wars: Transformers | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Beast Machines: Transformers (2000-2001)
- Beast Machines: Transformers continued the story of Beast Wars, returning the action to the Transformer homeworld of Cybertron. The franchise pitted the technorganic Maximals against the new Vehicon faction, who transformed into science-fiction vehicles, in a battle between the forces of nature and technology. Beast Machines was supported by an animated series, a direct sequel to Beast Wars. However, the cartoon's dark, high-concept approach to its story divided fans, and combined with the odd, "alien" aesthetic of the toys, it's safe to say that Beast Machines proved a mixed bag amongst fans.
- Ultimately, Hasbro would wind up cancelling the next sequel franchise entirely in anticipation of a total rework of the Transformers brand to bring things back on track, importing Robots in Disguise to buy time while they developed the Unicron Trilogy. Despite this, later fiction, most notably the Universe franchise, would occasionally revisit the post-Beast Machines universe to tell stories.
| Beast Machines: Transformers | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Transformers: Alternators (2003-2006)
- Transformers: Alternators combined licensed, 1/24th-scale replica vehicles with complex transformations with Generation 1 characters, marking the return of many Generation 1 characters to mass-market release for the first time in decades. Though only a modest success in the West, the toys would see a great deal more success in Japan, where it was marketed as Binaltech. Binaltech toys were packaged with bios and short stories that fleshed out the line's place in continuity, and spawned a sequel series, Kiss Players.
- The American franchise, by contrast, received little to no accompanying fiction, outside of a brief summary of the original setting of the Japanese Binaltech story revealed through a promotional Mazda website, and a single toy bio that was never officially released.
| Transformers: Alternators | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Transformers: Classics (2006-2007)
- When the first live-action movie was pushed back from 2006 into the summer of 2007, Hasbro rolled out the short-lived Classics line to bridge the gap between the end of the Unicron Trilogy and the start of the first movie franchise. Classics built on the nostalgic approach of Alternators, using modern toy-engineering technology to create new toys of various Generation 1 characters while throwing in a handful of Mini-Cons intended for the tail end of the Cybertron toyline. Its success prompted Hasbro to continue it as the "Classic Series" under the 2008 Universe line.
- Though no comics or cartoons were intended to accompany its release, Fun Publications would take the initiative by establishing the "Classics-verse" as one of several potential future timelines of the Marvel Comics universe, and eventually taking part in a crossover with FunPub's own Shattered Glass franchise.
| Transformers: Classics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Universe (2008-2010)
- 2008–2009: Running alongside the Transformers Animated and Crossovers toylines, Transformers: Universe was a spiritual successor to Classics, moving beyond the G1 umbrella to incorporate remakes of Beast Wars and Beast Machines characters. The series received little in the way of fiction beyond a duology of online Flash-animated shorts with dubious production values.
| Transformers: Universe | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Generations (2010–present)
- Generations began as a continuation of 2008's Universe line, a "catch all" for products that didn't fit under the then-current Prime or 2010 Transformers toylines. From there, Generations evolved into a continuous celebration of the Transformers franchise, focusing largely on remakes of older characters from across the brand. As other Transformers toylines since 2014 have focused on simplification and accessibility for children, Generations has become the de facto banner for most of Hasbro's more complicated and collector-oriented Transformers toys, including the toys that constitute the Prime Wars and War for Cybertron trilogies, "Selects;" which as the name suggests, includes more collector focused repaint and retools, and even non-Generation 1 sublines such as 2018's Studio Series.
- Some Japanese toys, most notably the Masterpiece figures, are released in the West under the Generations banner.
| Transformers: Generations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Combiner Wars (2015-2016)
- The first installment in Hasbro's Prime Wars Trilogy, a subline imprint of Generations, Combiner Wars hit store shelves in early 2015, featuring a variety of combiner characters and their components. To advertise the toyline, IDW Publishing would launch the Combiner Wars event that year in their ongoing comics continuity, bringing several Combiner Wars characters to the fore in a storyline involving the planet Caminus and the Council of Worlds. This comic, in turn, was very loosely adapted into an animated miniseries produced by Machinima; however, a variety of factors meant that the series debuted more than a year later—after Combiner Wars had largely ended in favor of Titans Return— and the inept writing and production of the show was largely met with derision.
| Combiner Wars | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Titans Return (2016-2017)
- Titans Return, the second installment of the Prime Wars Trilogy featured the return of the Headmaster gimmick from the original Transformers toyline, represented by tiny Titan Master figures who could form the head of any compatible Titans Return toy. The toyline also saw the release of Generations Fortress Maximus, currently the largest Transformer toy of all time. On the media side of things, IDW once again published a tie-in that wove through all three of its ongoing titles; this arc was more modest than Combiner Wars, however, only featuring the Titan Masters Sovereign and Infinitus as antagonists. As the line wrapped up in late 2017, Machinima released its own animated tie-in, a direct sequel to Combiner Wars.
| Titans Return | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Power of the Primes (2018)
- Power of the Primes tied a bow on the Prime Wars trilogy, featuring the Thirteen original Primes and a mish-mash of gimmicks. Combining the play features of Combiner Wars and Titans Return, Power of the Primes introduced some new combiner teams and the Prime Masters, who could combine with the "Prime Armor" included with each figures. Machinima returned once more to round off their animated trilogy, introducing Power of the Primes poll winner Optimus Primal into the series. Though IDW Publishing did not publish a direct tie-in to the line, the Optimus Prime and Unicron comics would—by coincidence or design—explore the secret history of the Thirteen and their legacy as the 2005 IDW continuity reached its finale.
| Power of the Primes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
War for Cybertron Trilogy (2018-2021)
- Not to be confused with the 2010 franchise of the same name, the War for Cybertron Trilogy is the newest Generations subset, that has each installment have a theme and line-wide gimmick. Starting in 2020, a toyline that releases several repaints of toys from the three installments in gift boxes was released in "War for Cybertron Trilogy" branding in conjunction with a three season television show exclusive to Netflix produced by Rooster Teeth and animated by Polygon Pictures. Tie-in material also includes 2019's Transformers reboot comic that uses several designs based off the installments (primarily Siege).
- War for Cybertron: Siege is the first installment of the War for Cybertron Trilogy, with the majority of the toys sporting Cybertronian alt-modes and paint applications simulating battle damage and the line-wide gimmick of the C.O.M.B.A.T. System, letting any accessory with a 5mm post to post in the many compatible holes on all the figures.
- War for Cybertron: Earthrise is the second installment of the War for Cybertron Trilogy with the majority of toys sporting more standard Earth alt-modes with paint applications simulating wear and tear, and the return of Siege's line wide gimmick; the "C.O.M.B.A.T. system", and it's own; the "A.I.R. Lock System" which allows certain figures and accessories to lock together using special connectors.
- War for Cybertron: Kingdom is the third and final installment of the War for Cybertron Trilogy, with many of the toys being based around characters from the Beast Wars franchise in addition to their vehicular brethren.
| War for Cybertron Trilogy | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Generations Selects (2019-present)
| Generations Selects | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Legacy (2022)
| Legacy | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Go-Bots
- Not to be confused with the similarly-named transforming robot franchise of the 1980s, 1-2-3 Transformers and Go-Bots represented the Transformers franchise's early forays into the preschool market, featuring a variety of large, simple toys aimed at younger children. Though not directly connected, some later stories would retcon the two similar franchises into a single shared continuity family, so for simplicity's sake we've opted to arrange them together here.
1-2-3 Transformers (2001-2002)
- 1-2-3 Transformers was a short-lived line of large, simple toys aimed at younger children. No tie-in fiction exists.
| 1-2-3 Transformers | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Go-Bots (2002)
- 2002–2005: Transformers: Go-Bots, which also went by the names Playskool Big Adventures: Transformers and just Go-Bots, followed up on 1-2-3 Transformers, featuring more toys aimed at toddlers too young for the main Transformers brand. The toyline was supported by a short-lived cartoon, which featured a group of heroes from the city-planet Botropolis and their adventures on Earth.
| Go-Bots | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Robots in Disguise (2001)
- 2001–2002: Coming off the controversial Beast Machines franchise, Robots in Disguise was a stopgap: originally intended to be a Japanese-exclusive anime series, the need to buy time and retain a presence on store shelves while Hasbro and Takara collaborated to create the Unicron Trilogy led to Hasbro hastily importing and dubbing the Car Robots anime, giving rise to the odd beast known as Robots in Disguise. A transition of sorts away from the Beast Era and back to an age of vehicular Transformers, Robots in Disguise incorporated a mixture of new molds and a handful of Beast Wars toys, featuring heroic, vehicle-mode Autobots and evil, beast-mode Predacons.
- Of all of the "main" Transformers franchises, Robots in Disguise is perhaps the most forgotten; following the conclusion of the series and the debut of Armada, Robots in Disguise received a single acknowledgement in the form of a Dreamwave comic story before largely slipping into oblivion.
| Transformers: Robots in Disguise | |||
|---|---|---|---|
- 2003: The tiny Dinobots franchise consisted of six redecoed Beast Wars toys, including several Japanese-exclusive molds from the Beast Wars Neo franchise. No fiction explaining their place in the broader Transformers canon was ever produced until a brief mention in 2015's Ask Vector Prime feature retroactively slotted the characters into the Robots in Disguise universe.
| Transformers: Dinobots | |||
|---|---|---|---|
The Unicron Trilogy
- The end result of extensive collaboration between Hasbro and Takara, the "Unicron Trilogy"—so named for the role that Unicron plays in each installment—dominated the Transformers franchise for most of the mid-2000s, its success due in no small part to the turn-of-the-millennium anime boom.
- As was common for the era, the Unicron Trilogy was unafraid to mix and match character designs and personalities from "Generation 1" lore and beyond; while Optimus Prime, Starscream, and Megatron were more-or-less faithful reimaginings of their Generation 1 counterparts, other characters, like Armada Wheeljack, had little to do with their Generation 1 namesakes.
Transformers: Armada (2002-2003)
- The first true coproduction between Hasbro and Takara, Transformers: Armada marked a new beginning for the toys and fiction, heralded by the addition of the Mini-Con faction. This toyline was supported by a variety of ancillary media, including comics, storybooks, and a tie-in cartoon series, all of which established a brand new Transformers universe and the first true "reboot" of the franchise.
| Transformers: Armada | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Transformers: Energon (2003-2005)
- Transformers: Energon was a direct sequel to Armada, picking up where the first franchise left off and continuing its story. Released in 2004, the 20th anniversary of the Transformers franchise, Energon featured several homages to fan-favorite Generation 1 characters, and featured the return of concepts such as combiner teams. As with other franchises, Energon was supported by several pieces of ancillary media; however, the abrupt collapse of Dreamwave Productions during this time meant that the comic was cancelled, and the infamously poor quality of the Energon anime soured many fans on the line as a whole.
| Transformers: Energon | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Transformers: Cybertron (2005-2006)
- Transformers: Cybertron completed the arc begun by Armada, taking the Unicron Trilogy beyond Earth and Cybertron and introducing four all-new colony planets. Generally considered a return to form after Energon, toys were notable for featuring a franchise-wide "Cyber Key" gimmick that could unlock additional play features. Unlike its predecessors, Cybertron did not feature any kind of comic-tie in, due in part to the Transformers license having been then-recently acquired by IDW Publishing.
| Transformers: Cybertron | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Live-action film series
- Debuting in 2007, Michael Bay's first live-action Transformers film was a watershed moment in the history of the brand, almost singlehandedly responsible for revitalizing the flagging franchise, turning the Transformers brand into one of Hasbro's most profitable lines while ensuring that the Transformers would remain a household name. Though subsequent sequels were largely panned by critics for a variety of reasons, the series remained financially viable for almost a decade until the disappointing box office results from The Last Knight caused the next film, Bumblebee, to become a "soft reboot" of sorts.
Transformers (2007-8)
- The "Movie" franchise marked a turning point for the Transformers franchise, built around the Transformers film and arriving amidst a blitz of tie-in merchandise and promotions, the likes of which have never been seen in the franchise before or since. The success of this franchise paved the way for the five sequels that make up what the wiki calls the "live-action film series", as well as 2008's Transformers Animated franchise, taking advantage of the resurgence of the Transformers in the pop culture consciousness. Indeed, the first movie's toyline proved so popular that it would delay the release of Transformers Animated''s own toyline by several months, well after the cartoon had first premiered.
| Transformers | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
- Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen continued the direction begun by its predecessor, featuring a greater variety of Transformers—both on and off-camera—and an international theme, expanding the war between the Autobots and Decepticons into far-flung countries.
| Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Dark of the Moon (2011)
- 2011: The third installment of the series, Transformers: Dark of the Moon is built around the third live-action feature film, with the themes of human-Autobot cooperation carrying over into the film's toyline and other ancillary media. Dark of the Moon would be the last of the five Bay-directed movies to receive tie-in comics, due to Bay's displeasure at the fact that several adaptations of the film spoiled the movie's central plot twist months in advance.
| Transformers: Dark of the Moon | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Age of Extinction (2014)
- Transformers: Age of Extinction hit theaters with a smaller amount of merchandise than usual, due to a variety of factors; most notably, concerns over the growing complexity and budget of Hasbro's Transformers line led to a smaller, less collector-oriented line than prior outings. Due to Bay's new policy over spoilers due to the Dark of the Moon fiasco, both this film and The Last Knight received no tie-in comics or book adaptations, outside of a few side stories in Titan Magazines' Transformers magazine and a a lone online comic by IDW.
| Transformers: Age of Extinction | |||
|---|---|---|---|
The Last Knight (2017)
- After a decade of profitability, the fifth and final Michael Bay-directed film in the series, Transformers: The Last Knight debuted with little fanfare, receiving the smallest amount of publicity and tie-in merchandise of any of the five Bay-directed films. This franchise followed up on the format established by its predecessor; like Age of Extinction, The Last Knight franchise featured no print adaptations, with its tie-in toyline focusing largely on simpler, kid-friendly toys. The disappointing financial reception to the movie led to the indefinite shelving of its sequel, while the already-in-production Bumblebee was hastily reworked into a "soft reboot" for the franchise.
| Transformers: The Last Knight | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Studio Series (2018-present)
- Having long since proved itself a pillar of the brand, the live action film series received its own devoted evergreen collector toyline in the form of the Studio Series line underneath the Generations umbrella.
| Studio Series | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Bumblebee (2018–19)
- Bumblebee represented a fresh start for the film franchise, helmed by a new director and featuring a nostalgic, 1980s-influenced approach that proved popular with critics and audiences alike. Bumblebee saw the return of ancillary comics and storybooks, including an IDW miniseries that served as an ostensible prequel to the film; last-minute changes to the final cut, however, meant that the two were mutually incompatible. As with the two preceding movies, the Bumblebee toyline consisted mostly of simpler, kid-friendly toys, with the more complex-collector-oriented figures folded into the Generations Studio Series line.
| Bumblebee | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Transformers Animated
Transformers Animated (2007-2009)
- Transformers Animated was the first American-written cartoon franchise in just under a decade, a movie-inspired reinvention that adopted the same design sensibilities as other contemporary Cartoon Network shows such as Ben 10 and Teen Titans. A radical departure at the time from the "traditional" Transformers design aesthetic, the cartoon reimagined old characters while also introducing new faces into the Transformers mythos, and proved popular with fans despite its relatively short run——enough to get two postmortem guide books to the universe in the form of IDW Publishing's extensive AllSpark Almanac compendiums.
| Transformers Animated | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Shattered Glass
Transformers: Shattered Glass (2008-2016)
- Originally a convention theme under the Timelines imprint for BotCon 2008, Shattered Glass became one of the best known stories from the Fun Publications era, riffing off the old sci-fi trope of a "mirror universe" where evil Autobots battled good Decepticons. The series consists of a variety of text stories and a "virtual toyline" that mixes specifically-designed convention exclusives with repurposed toys from around the franchise. As time went on, FunPub would use the Shattered Glass universe to wrap up several dimension-hopping stories, tying up loose ends before they finally lost the Transformers license at the end of 2016.
| Shattered Glass (2008) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Shattered Glass Collection (2021-present)
- The Shattered Glass concept made a surprise return in 2021 reincaranted as an exclusive toyline at Hasbro Pulse with an accompanying comic series by IDW Publishing.
| Shattered Glass (2021) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Aligned continuity family
- The "Aligned" continuity represented Hasbro's first serious attempt to create a series-wide "mythos" for the Transformers franchise, drawing on three decades' worth of lore in the hopes to create a functioning, cohesive universe for future creators to tell stories in through the "Binder of Revelation". For a variety of reasons, this plan almost immediately fell through; though the Aligned universe would eventually grow and forge stronger links between its disparate components, the original vision for the universe remains almost entirely unfulfilled.
Transformers: War for Cybertron (2010)
- Transformers: War for Cybertron was the first installment in the universe, a prequel that explored the height of the Autobot-Decepticon war. This tale was told in two radically different mediums: the War for Cybertron video game told one story, while the novel Exodus and its recursive comic adaptation featured a slightly different version of events. This kind of disparity would continue throughout the history of the Aligned continuity family.
- War for Cybertron also received a small toyline, which was folded in with the Generations line.
| War for Cybertron | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Transformers: Prime (2010-2013)
- Transformers: Prime was the first television installment in the "Aligned" continuity and by far its most popular, the first fully computer-animated Transformers television show since Beast Machines. Prime's character designs blended elements from the live-action films, Generation 1, and Animated, and the franchise took a "cinematic" approach to the Transformers mythos, unafraid to touch on mature subjects of war and loss.
- Despite Prime's popularity, the release of the franchise's toyline was fraught with repeated delays, and it would not see a full release until almost a year after the show's debut. Prime followed up on some of the plot threads seeded by War for Cybertron, such as Dark Energon, but the radically different way that the two franchises approached these and other topics mean that they are not strictly connected to each other.
- A prequel video game of sorts, Transformers Universe, would have been set in the continuity, but shut down before ever leaving development.
| Transformers: Prime | |||
|---|---|---|---|
- Transformers: Rescue Bots (2011–2015)
- Featuring a young team of rescue-oriented Autobots and their adventures on the high-tech island of Griffin Rock, Transformers: Rescue Bots was not originally intended to be a part of the "Aligned" universe, but the concurrent development cycle led to the studio making the decision, not Hasbro. The franchise comprised a television show—the longest-running show in the history of the brand, in fact— an extensive toyline designed for little hands, and some miscellaneous storybooks and educational games. Rescue Bots proved popular enough to spawn a sequel-slash-spinoff, Rescue Bots Academy, which debuted in 2018.
| Transformers: Rescue Bots | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron (2012)
- Transformers: Fall of Cybertron was a sequel to the War for Cybertron game, telling the story of the Autobot's desperate escape from a dying Cybertron and the creation of the Dinobots. No official toyline was released, though several Fall of Cybertron-inspired toys saw release under the Generations banner.
| Fall of Cybertron | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015-2017)
- The second franchise named Transformers: Robots in Disguise was not connected to the 2001 series; rather, it served as a loose sequel to the Prime franchise, focusing on the continuing adventures of Bumblebee on Earth as he assembled a new team of Autobots to capture Decepticon fugitives loose on Earth and clashing with the upstart Decepticon leader Steeljaw. The series was notable for jumping on the then-popular "toys-to-life" marketing fad; every toy featured a scannable insignia, which could then be uploaded into a mobile game to unlock new characters and content.
| Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy (2018–present)
- Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy is the sequel to the original Rescue Bots, passing the torch to a new team of recruits as they train under the auspices of the original four Rescue Bots. However, Hasbro's increased focus on brand unification led to some characters drawing heavily on their incarnations from the concurrent Cyberverse franchise.
| Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Kre-O
Kre-O (2011–2017)
- The second brick-based building toy after 2003's Built to Rule! toyline, Kre-O recreated various Autobots and Decepticons from various continuities in interlocking plastic bricks, similar but legally distinct from any other kind of construction toy you might have heard of. The line would expand to include a staggering range of "Kreons", minifigure-like toys that depicted a mixture of old, new, and entirely original characters, with various larger playsets tying into concurrent goings-on elsewhere in the Transformers brand. Additionally, Kre-O was supported by a modest amount of tie-in media, including comics, online stop-motion animations, and a surprisingly long-running Japanese manga. The line fizzled out of mass release sometime around 2015, with future releases finding their way into discount chains in non-US markets until 2017.
| Kre-O | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Cyberverse
Transformers: Cyberverse (2018–2021)
- Transformers: Cyberverse is set in a continuity that draws liberally from a variety of prior Transformers works to create a new universe, with the first season of the tie-in cartoon focusing on Bumblebee and Windblade's adventures on Earth.
| Cyberverse | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Nezha (2019–present)
- Developed for China in conjunction with China Central Television, Nezha combines the Transformers with the deity Nezha using assets from the Cyberverse franchise. Currently in-development with very little public information, the series might see release outside of China as well.
| Nezha | |||
|---|---|---|---|
BotBots
Transformers: BotBots (2018–present)
- Based off other collectible toys like Shopkins, Transformers: BotBots features a variety of blindbagged soft-plastic robots, who transform into mundane items such as electronic devices, plants, or even food. A tie-in cartoon premiered several years after the toyline first hit shelves.
| Transformers: BotBots | |||
|---|---|---|---|
EarthSpark
Transformers: EarthSpark (2022–present)
- Transformers: EarthSpark takes place in a post-war setting, placing special focus on a new generation of Earth-born Terran Transformers, along with the human family they become a part of.
| EarthSpark | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Minor franchises
Titanium Series (2006-2009)
- The Titanium Series was aimed specifically at adult fans, with a range of characters from older franchises and more obscure corners of the fiction, and die-cast metal designs. As the characters are all based on previous franchises, fiction consisted solely of on-package bios. The line effectively ended in 2007, with a few delayed releases coming out as exclusives as late as 2009. Later releases were co-branded as part of the Movie line, Universe or Revenge of the Fallen.
| Titanium Series | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Robot Heroes (2007-2008)
- Tying in with the release of the 2007 movie, the Robot Heroes line features super deformed soft plastic statues of movie characters, with subsequent waves branching out into other corners of the Transformers franchise, though the line was eventually cancelled before it could incorporate some really obscure characters.
| Crossovers | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Power Core Combiners (2010)
- An experimental attempt to bring combiners back into the franchise before Combiner Wars, Power Core Combiner toys were built around a single Autobot or Decepticon, who could transform into a torso, while a bevy of autotransforming vehicles would automatically morph into arms or legs. Hasbro has stated that the Power Core Combiner characters do not fit into any one continuity,[1] though several would play bit parts in various Movie continuity-based ancillary media.
| Power Core Combiners | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Transformers/Hunt for the Decepticons/Reveal the Shield (2010-2011)
- Though it began as an unambiguously movie-inspired toyline, 2010's Transformers toyline is a bit of an animal to define. Transformers led in with the Hunt for the Decepticons subline, which continued on from 2009's N.E.S.T. Global Alliance subline imprint, featuring various movie-inspired Autobots and Decepticons. From there, however, the line mutated into a broader Transformers franchise, featuring a mélange of G1-and-beyond characters through the Reveal the Shield subline. Adding to the confusion, Transformers also ran alongside the unambiguously G1-inspired Generations franchise. As a result, oddball characters introduced into the brand like Lugnut, based off the Transformers Animated character of the same name, didn't cleanly fit into any one franchise.
| Transformers | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Construct-Bots (2013-2014)
- Another building-based toyline, Construct-Bots were buildable action figures that encompassed a variety of G1, Movie, and Aligned characters, with the latter half of the franchise tying into Age of Extinction.
| Construct-Bots | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Hero Mashers (2014-2015)
- 2014's Hero Mashers toyline depicted a variety of characters from G1, Age of Extinction, and the 2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon as non-transforming modular action figures, which could be combined with other Hero Masher toys to make some zany combinations.
| Hero Mashers | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Takara franchises
Generation 1
Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers (1985-1992)
- Beginning in 1986, (the second year of the franchise in Japan), Takara got into the habit of annually rebranding the Transformers property. Moreover, 1987's Transformers: The Headmasters kicked off a trend in which Takara's toylines and fiction branched off from Hasbro's versions to increasingly significant degrees, though the toyline continued under its original title until 1992. Notably, almost all of Takara's fictional output ties into the Generation 1 cartoon continuity; over the years, this has led to a sprawling, incredibly convoluted universe which the wiki refers to as the "Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity".
- 1985 (Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers)
- Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers was released a year after the franchise had been released in Hasbro's markets, combining the 1984-85 franchises into a larger line and releasing a dubbed version of the cartoon's first two seasons.
- 1986 (Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers 2010)
- In 1986, the third season was broadcast under the name Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers 2010, augmented with the direct-to-video special "Scramble City: Mobilization".
- 1987 (Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: The Headmasters)
- In 1987, Hasbro wrapped up production on the Transformers cartoon with season four: a three-part story titled "The Rebirth", which featured that year's Headmaster toys and brought the story of the universe to a conclusive ending. With the franchise still running strong in Japan, however, Takara chose not to import and dub "The Rebirth", and created Transformers: The Headmasters to continue the tale. Set in an alternate universe that ignored "The Rebirth" and picked up from where "The Return of Optimus Prime" left off, The Headmasters featured the eponymous characters as the next generation of Autobots and Decepticons, hailing from the planet Master. Though the franchise was not imported Stateside, Omni Productions' legendarily incompetent English dubs quickly reached memetic status in the English-speaking fandom.
- 1988 (Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Super-God Masterforce)
- After The Headmasters ended, wrapping up most of its loose plot threads in the process, writer Masumi Kaneda sought to start anew. Thus was born Transformers: Super-God Masterforce, which featured an all-new cast of characters, focusing on the Headmaster Juniors and "Godmasters:" human beings who could temporarily become Transformers. While an ostensible sequel to The Headmasters, (and by extension Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers) the show dropped many of the futuristic conceits from these two series.
- 1989 (Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory)
- A return to basics of sorts after the experimental Masterforce, Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory brought the Autobots and Decepticons back to the fore. The franchise followed the adventures of Star Saber, the Brainmasters and the Multiforce and their battles against the new Decepticon leader Deathsaurus, the bumbling Dinoforce, and the Breastforce. As per the norm, fiction included both a cartoon and tie-in manga, with the toyline seeing release under the Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers banner.
- 1990 (Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Zone)
- Transformers: Zone signaled the wane of the Transformers franchise in Japan, a short-lived franchise that saw Dai Atlas take command of the Autobots in a battle against Violengiguar. Zone consisted of a single OVA, a manga adaptation of said OVA, and a toyline, with a series of story pages expounding somewhat on the story.
- 1991 (Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Return of Convoy)
- If Zone signalled the wane of Takara's Transformers franchise, then Transformers: Return of Convoy truly marked the beginning of the end; the small franchise featured the Battlestars in their quest to revive Optimus Prime and defend the universe from Dark Nova and his revived creation, Super Megatron.
- 1992 (Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Operation Combination)
- Takara's Transformers franchise wheezed into 1992 with Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Operation Combination, the final piece of original Japanese fiction before the line would go dormant for several years. What story there was featured several teams of Micromaster combiners and their skirmish on Earth.
| Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers (1997-1999)
- The Japanese localization of Beast Wars, Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers like Japan's version of Generation 1 before it, made use of yearly branding refreshes to create a series of sub-franchises and supplemented the American cartoon with multiple additional seasons. Unlike Generation 1, however, the additional Japanese seasons in the Beast Wars seasons were used to fill the airtime needed to dub the co-running now entirely American-produced cartoon. Perhaps the most infamous feature of the Japanese Beast Wars cartoon was that unlike its predecessor's more or less direct translation, the Beast Wars dub made heavy use of ad-libbed comedy, producing a nigh-unrecognizable parody of the original and setting the standard for the treatment of (nearly) all imports of American-produced Transformers seasons going forward.
- 1997 (Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers was released a year after the franchise had been released in Hasbro's markets, combining the 1996-97 franchises into a larger line and releasing a dubbed version of the cartoon's first season.
- 1998 (Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers)
- To fill the gap between the seasons of the Beast Wars television show, Takara decided to augment that series with two Japanese-exclusive franchises. Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers aired during the gap between the first and second seasons of Beast Wars, consisting largely of redecorated Beast Wars toys. Notably, the tie-in cartoon set the carton in the distant future, thousands of years after the end of Beast Wars and the as-yet unlocalized Beast Machines, with the primary setting, the planet Gaia, eventually revealed as a post-apocalyptic Earth. As a result, the cartoon possessed few links to the American Beast Wars franchise, though a tie-in theatrical feature would feature a time-travelling Optimus Primal as a guest star.
- Spring 1999 (Beast Wars Neo: Super Lifeform Transformers)
- Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Neo directly continued the story of Beast Wars II, passing the reins to Big Convoy and a new cast of rookie Maximals as they travelled the galaxy. Unlike its predecessor the Beast Wars Neo toyline featured many new molds for both Maximals and Predacons.
- Fall 1999 (Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals)
- In 1999, the second and third seasons broadcast under the name Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals. This series received a smaller toyline than its predecessors, noteworthy for taking advantage of the longer lead times to produce more show-accurate decoes, including, most famously, the coveted first toy of show-only character Generation 1 Ravage.
| Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Car Robots (2000-2001)
- It would take until 2004 for Beast Machines to be dubbed and released in Japan, and in the meantime Takara would release the Car Robots franchise, which would eventually be ported over to the States as Robots in Disguise. While Robots in Disguise set the series in a new continuity, completely separate from the Generation 1 universe, Car Robots and ancillary media established its characters as time travelers from the distant future, who fought their battles on Earth during a period when the contemporary Autobots and Decepticons had largely moved off-planet.
| Car Robots | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Micromaster (2002-2004)
- Micromaster rereleased various Japanese-exclusive Micromasters from late Generation 1 and told their story via a series of short prose stories. Later fiction would set these events in the early 1980s, before the awakening of the Autobots and Decepticons.
| Micromaster | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Binaltech (2003-2008)
- While Hasbro's Alternators line debuted in the west with little fanfare and no accompanying fiction, Takara would use the toys as a springboard to launch the Binaltech franchise; accompanied by a series of prose stories in the instruction manuals of each new toy, Binaltech positioned itself during the twenty-year timeskip between Season 2 of Transformers and the animated movie, featuring a labyrinthine web of time-travelling and extra-dimensional adventures that aimed to plug some of the holes in the sprawling JG1 continuity. The franchise ran intermittently, overlapping with 2006's Kiss Players storyline before a final story released in 2008 shuttered the franchise, succeeded by that year's Alternity line.
| Binaltech | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Masterpiece (2003–present)
- The The Transformers: Masterpiece franchise began in 2003 with the release of Masterpiece Optimus Prime and continued in fits and starts before evolving into the profitable corner of the franchise it is today. Masterpiece focuses squarely on the adult side of the fandom, featuring expensive, precision-engineered "adult collectibles". Though primarily a G1-focused line, in recent years Masterpiece has branched out into recreating Beast Wars and live-action film series characters as well.
| Masterpiece | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Robotmasters (2004-2005)
- The Japanese equivalent to Hasbro's Universe, Robotmasters featured a mix of old redecoes and new molds, representing an "ensemble" of characters from across the brand. A variety of comics—both pack-in and online—and a computer-animated cartoon told roughly the same story, featuring a variety of characters, from both the past and future of the JG1 universe, time-travelling to the year 2004 through the Blastizone and encountering Optimus Prime and his Autobots.
| Robotmasters | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Binaltech Asterisk (2005)
- Binaltech received a 2005 spinoff line, Binaltech Asterisk, which redecoed several molds into classic Autobots and packaged them with PVC figures of various human girls. Little did the fandom suspect that this was but a warning of things to come...
| Binaltech Asterisk | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Beast Wars Reborn (2006)
- This tiny franchise, released for the tenth anniversary of Beast Wars in Japan, is noteworthy for including one of the first crossovers between the Japanese Generation 1 continuity and the wider Transformers multiverse.
| Beast Wars Reborn | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Transformers: Kiss Players (2006-2007)
- Spinning off out of Binaltech and Asterisk came Kiss Players, which picked up Asterisks's primary gimmick and ran with it, featuring a variety of PVC dolls that could fit into the seats of any Alternators-style Autobot. The toyline was supported by fiction that picked up some of the story threads of Binaltech... though any contributions Kiss Players made to the mythos were immediately overshadowed by the manga's controversial usage of lewd imagery and inappropriate sexual themes. Though later installments would completely expunge said themes—refocusing the franchise on a time-travelling adventure through the G1 universe—the damage was by that point done, and Kiss Players is not fondly remembered by most fans, West or East.
| Kiss Players | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Beast Wars Telemocha (2007)
- This sequel to Reborn represents a full-throated analogue to the western Beast Wars 10th Anniversary line, supplemented by a series of idiosyncratic video shorts dramatizing physical dioramas.
| Beast Wars Telemocha | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Henkei! Henkei! Transformers (2008-2009)
- The Japanese adaptation of Hasbro's 2008 Universe toyline, Henkei! Henkei! Transformers featured toys based on characters from G1 and beyond; unlike Universe, however, Takara would frequently redeco the toys to more closely match their animated counterparts. Other fiction included a pair of mutually incompatible manga, though both established the characters in a new continuity unconnected to the long-running JG1 timeline.
| Henkei! Henkei! | |||
|---|---|---|---|
United (2010-2011)
| United | |||
|---|---|---|---|
United EX (2012-2013)
| United EX | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Generations (2012-2014)
| Generations (Japan) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Legends (2014-2019)
| Legends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Unite Warriors (2015)
Go-Bots
Kids' Transformers: Rescue Hero Go-Bots (2003)
- The Kids' Transformers: Rescue Hero Go-Bots was Takara's answer to Hasbro's 1-2-3 Transformers and Transformers: Go-Bots lines, using molds from both to create a separate line.
| Kids' Transformers: Rescue Hero Go-Bots | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Aligned continuity family
Triple Combination: Transformers Go! (2013)
- Though Japan imported and dubbed seasons 1 and 2 of Transformers: Prime, Takara did not release the Beast Hunters subline imprint, nor did they release the third season of the cartoon. Instead, Takara created Triple Combination: Transformers Go! to continue the story, shifting the focus away from Optimus Prime and the cast of Prime to focus on a new group of combining Autobots known as the Swordbots, and their battles against Shockwave's Predacons. The events and characters of Go! are fundamentally irreconcilable with both season 3 of Prime and Robots in Disguise, much as The Headmasters had been incompatible with "The Rebirth".
| Go! | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Minor franchises
Smallest Transforming Transformers (2003)
- Smallest Transforming Transformers was a toyline-only franchise that consisted of some small-scale remakes of classic G1 characters.
| Smallest Transforming Transformers | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Alternity (2008-2011)
- While the Transformers: Alternity toyline was the successor to Binaltech's usage of licensed, 1:24-scale vehicle modes, the franchise itself was a wild divergence from what had gone before; eschewing the JG1 continuity entirely, Alternity reimagined the characters in a new setting, unconnected to the long-running JG1 timeline and depicted them as higher-dimensional beings whose adventures spanned multiple universes.
| Transformers: Alternity | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Transformers GT (2013)
| Transformers GT | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Transformers Cloud (2014-2015)
| Transformers Cloud | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Q-Transformers (2014-2016)
| Q-Transformers | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Other franchises
Several Transformers franchises do not fit cleanly into any one category; this may because they encompass a wide variety of characters from multiple continuities, because they crossover with outside intellectual properties, they can't be slotted neatly somewhere into the Transformers multiverse, or simply because they never grew beyond a handful of toys.
Convention Franchises
From 2002 to 2016, Hasbro made use of subcontractor licensees to appeal to hardcore collectors centered around an officially sanctioned convention called BotCon. The franchises produced by 3H Productions and Fun Publications ran the gamut across the Transformers multiverse, defying straightforward brand categorization.
Universe
- 2002: Transformers: Expanded Universe based its name off the old Star Wars Expanded Universe, while also tying into the concurrent 3H Wreckers storyline. This extremely short-lived toyline ultimately encompassed a mere four figures— one original character and three remakes of fan-favorites—all of which saw exclusive release at BotCon 2002.
| Transformers: Expanded Universe | |||
|---|---|---|---|
- 2003–2008: Building off the concept of Expanded Universe, 2003's Transformers: Universe was conceived as a line made up entirely of redecoes of older toys, some of them returning faces while other redecoes represented entirely new characters. This cross-continuity hodgepodge of Beast Wars, Armada, Robots in Disguise, and even some Generation 1 toys was explained by the toy's packaging blurb, which described Unicron as having abducted these heroes and villains from across the multiverse to aid in his restoration. Universe supplemented the wildly successful Armada toyline, with a series of convention-based comics exploring the multidimensional conflict and its ramifications. Universe largely ended in 2005, but toys in the line reportedly continued to trickle into discount stores as late as 2008.
| Transformers: Universe | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Timelines
- Transformers Timelines (2005–2016)
| Timelines | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Crossover Franchises
Transformers' central gimmick of "two toys in one" has proved an enticing prospect for other IP holders over the years, resulting in a steady stream of small "crossover" toylines with external brands.
Animorphs (1999)
- Animorphs tied in with the television show and book series, consisting of a small line of toys that featured the Animorphs and their Yeerk enemies. Despite a brief promotion with Taco Bell, the line folded within the year, and four leftover molds were hastily retooled and shunted into the Beast Wars line as part of the "Mutant Beast Wars" subline.
| Animorphs | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Star Wars Transformers (2006-2008, 2011–2012, 2018)
- The second crossover with an outside intellectual property, Star Wars Transformers combined the Transformers play pattern with the characters and vehicles from the Star Wars franchise. Fiction was limited to on-package bios, which suggested that the Transformers in this universe were non-sentient mechs piloted by the human characters. In 2008, the line was reworked into Transformers: Crossovers, but when Crossovers ended, Star Wars Transformers would make a brief return.
- In 2018, Takara would remake several characters, bringing them in line with modern Transformers engineering techniques.
| Star Wars Transformers | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Transformers: Crossovers (2008-2011)
- Following their acquisition of the Marvel license, Hasbro expanded the scope and scale of Star Wars Transformers by throwing Marvel characters into the mix to create the Crossovers branding. Featuring a mixture of Transformer-ized goodies and baddies from the worlds of Marvel Comics and Star Wars, Crossovers ran for three years before the Marvel toys were phased out, with several proposed new molds and redecoes never seeing release. The next year, Hasbro would release three Marvel toys under the "Mech Machines" banner to coincide with the release of the first Avengers film, but this temporary revival also marked the end for Crossovers as a whole.
| Crossovers | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Disney Label (2009-2010)
- Akin to Hasbro's Crossovers line, Takara's Disney Label was a much smaller toyline that featured three Disney characters — Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Buzz Lightyear — as transforming robots.
| Disney Label | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Transformers Collaborative (2019-present)
| Collaborative | |||
|---|---|---|---|
References
- ↑ "...they basically exist on their own". October Hasbro Transformers Q&A Answers for Cybertron.ca
