Movie Trilogy Series

The Movie Trilogy Series is alternatively a subline imprint of the Dark of the Moon toy line, or a separate toyline of its own. Either way, it was short-lived, and the few toys that did get released and sport the name use it inconsistently.

History

It's a separate toyline!

Like pretty much every main toyline in the decade before it, the Dark of the Moon line was also intended by Hasbro to be extended by way of introducing a subline imprint as a way of "refreshing" the Dark of the Moon franchise, thus keeping it "interesting" for retailers. At New York Comic-Con in November 2011, the then-upcoming seventh wave of Dark of the Moon Deluxe Class figures and a Hasbro release of the previously Japanese market-only Chronicle trailer for Deluxe Class Optimus Prime were announced under the "Movie Trilogy" moniker.<ref name="nycc2011">Hasbro slides from New York Comic-Con 2011 at TFW2005, November 2011.</ref>

Ultimately, however, the Dark of the Moon line proved not to be as great a commercial success as its predecessors, the 2007 Movie line and the 2009 Revenge of the Fallen line. As a consequence, the Deluxe Class assortment was canceled before the wave 7 figures could be released. Ultimately, only the aforementioned Optimus Prime figure was released in February 2012, in packaging based on the Dark of the Moon toyline's template, but lacking the Dark of the Moon moniker entirely, instead sporting a separate Movie Trilogy Series logo.

... oh wait. Back to being a subline imprint? What?

For a while, it seemed like Hasbro was still intending to release the "Movie Trilogy" Deluxes, albeit exclusive to their East Asian markets such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and the Philippines. When shown at CybertronCon in March 2012, the line-up also included Evac, a character from Universal Studios' Transformers: The Ride – 3D, whose toy was ultimately exclusively available at Universal Studios stores in special Transformers: Universal Studios packaging.<ref name="cybcon12">Slide from Hasbro's presentation at CybertronCon 2012 at Planet Iacon's Facebook page.</ref> Ultimately, the Asian market release of the "Movie Trilogy" figures didn't come to fruition either.

The name "Movie Trilogy Series" was used again in a related context that was also tied to initially Asian-market exclusive releases: In 2012, Hasbro's East Asian division also released several redecos and retools of toys from various then-recent lines in its markets in Generations packaging (referred to by Western online retailers as "GDO", which was later revealed to be an abbreviation for "Global Development Organization"<ref name="gdo">TFW2005 thread containing an answer by Hasbro's customer service regarding the meaning of the term "GDO".</ref>). A late addition to that line-up were redecos of Dark of the Moon Leader Class Ironhide and 2010 Transformers "Hunt for the Decepticons" Leader Class Starscream. Eventually, Hasbro decided to make the "GDO" figures available in the United States and Canada as well, as Toys"R"Us exclusives. For reasons unknown, the English-only packaging of the Asian versions was changed to bilingual English/Chinese packaging in the process. Ultimately, the Leader Class figures were never made available in the United States, but were released in Canada... albeit in Dark of the Moon packaging with additional (English/Chinese) Movie Trilogy Series labels, whereas the Asian market versions had been released in Generations packaging like the other GDO figures.

In December 2013, a packaged sample of the unreleased Deluxe Class Wheeljack redeco surfaced. Like the released Optimus Prime figure, the packaging is in English only, lacks the Dark of the Moon moniker and sports a "Movie Trilogy Series" logo.<ref name="wheelj">Carded image of unreleased Movie Trilogy Series Wheeljack at Seibertron.com.</ref>

In 2014, TakaraTomy released their own versions of the canceled Deluxe Class Soundwave and Ratchet toys with altered accessories as part of their Movie Advanced Series tie-in line for Age of Extinction. The alternate head version of Wheeljack also saw release in that line as an AEON store exclusive, but with a significantly different deco to the canceled Movie Trilogy Series version.

Toys

Deluxe Class

Optimus Prime (redeco of the Walmart exclusive Dark of the Moon Deluxe Class Optimus Prime figure, including the trailer previously only available with the Japanese market exclusive Chronicle "G1 Optimus Prime & Movie Optimus Prime" two-pack)

Leader Class

Ironhide (redeco of Dark of the Moon Leader Class Ironhide colored as an homage to Generation 1 Ironhide; released under Generations in Asia and under Dark of the Moon/Movie Trilogy Series in Canada)

Starscream (redeco of 2010 Transformers "Hunt for the Decepticons" Leader Class Starscream colored as an homage to Generation 1 Starscream; released under Generations in Asia and under Dark of the Moon/Movie Trilogy Series in Canada)

Toys released under different toylines

Deluxe Class

Evac (original figure from Transformers: The Ride – 3D; released in Transformers: Universal Studios packaging, exclusively available at Universal Studios stores)

Unreleased toys

Deluxe Class (Dark of the Moon Deluxe Class wave 7)

??? Bumblebee (redeco of Dark of the Moon Deluxe Class Deluxe class Bumblebee)

??? Ratchet (white redeco of Dark of the Moon Deluxe Class Autobot Ratchet)

??? Soundwave (black/gray redeco of Dark of the Moon Deluxe Class Soundwave)

Wheeljack (white redeco of Dark of the Moon Deluxe Class Wheeljack, with the G1 style alternate head sculpt seen in the original Wheeljack's instructions)

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References

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