Tiny Tins

Itsa me, Mirage-io.

Tiny Tins is a brand owned by Australian company Track Stars Collectables (aka Tiny Tins Collectables). Each Tiny Tins product is a small toy—a race car, a plastic animal (a dinosaur, pony, dog etc.), a figure of a well-known fairy-tale/fable character, a plush toy, or a holiday-themed toy—that comes with its own pocket-sized tin carrying case.

In the early 2000s, Hasbro held the license for releasing Transformers, My Little Pony, Track Stars, teddy bear and plush Disney toys with Tiny Tins cases. For Transformers, these were either Spychangers or Mini-Cons, available between mid-2003 and early 2006. Most retain their original decos; the Cybertron-series Tiny Tins figures were the only ones to be redecoed.

Though the Robots in Disguise Tiny Tins were first officially announced via Diamond Comic Distributors' Previews catalog, they were not, in fact, Diamond exclusives, as they were also available at Target and Toys"R"Us stores in the United States. They were also available in Europe, at least in Scotland; however, Diamond's Previews catalog felt the need to specifically point out that they were not available in Germany for reasons unknown.

Tiny Tin Transformers toys

Robots in Disguise (2001)

• Crosswise
• Hot Shot
• Ironhide
• Mirage
• Prowl 2
• R.E.V.
• Side Swipe
• W.A.R.S.

Universe (2003) / Armada

• Dirt Boss
• Downshift
• Mirage

Cybertron

• Dirt Boss with Downshift
• Hot Shot with Mirage
• Landmine with Dirt Boss
• Override with Mirage
• Red Alert with Dirt Boss
• Thundercracker with Downshift

Notes

• The 2003 Tiny Tins releases of the Mini-Cons Dirt Boss, Downshift and Mirage were available on English-only Universe-branded cards and with Universe-styled and -branded Tiny Tins in the United States. However, since the Universe line didn't exist in Europe, their (extremely rare) European counterparts were instead available on multilingual Armada-branded cards and with Armada-styled and -branded Tiny Tins. Inevitably, some mix-ups occurred, resulting in the occasional Armada-styled and -branded Tiny Tin being sold on a Universe-branded card.
• Additionally, over the years, even more bizarre Mini-Con variations have popped up, most notably Robots in Disguise-branded versions, and it appears there might have even been Tiny Tins versions of Armada-Mini-Cons Spiral, Oval and Backtrack! However, these latter appear to be extremely rare, and information about them is almost impossbly to come by, so we cannot tell for sure if they ever actually made it to retail.