Help:Franchise identifiers

The terminology used on this Wiki to refer to each "era" of Transformers is as follows. Note that these are franchise or more crudely "toyline" distinctions, not continuity distinctions.

New series identifiers will be added as needed, after being agreed upon by a consensus of users.

Many objects, ideas, or entities will have articles which apply in whole or in part to many continuities, sometimes even across continuity family boundaries. Examples include energon and Vector Sigma. In general, these entries should be inclusive of all relevant continuities, discussing their commonalities first, followed by details of each in turn. It is not neccessary to have separate articles for Vector Sigma's Generation 1 and Beast Machines incarnations, for example. In fact, the entry is better served by incorporating and synthesizing as much information as possible. Such inclusive articles, obviously, do not need a continuity signifier in their title.

Hasbro franchises

• Generation 1, abbreviated G1.
  • This includes most Transformers material produced worldwide between 1984 and 1992.
  • This also includes the newer "Generation 1" comics from companies such as Dreamwave and IDW, as well as Generation 1 toy reissues and any new characters introduced by those stories or toys, such as Sunstorm and the G1 GoBots.
  • Although Alternators and Robotmasters are part of the Generation 1 continuity family, they are new franchises within that continuity and as such are labelled differently.

• Generation 2, abbreviated G2.
  • For the purposes of this Wiki, the Generation 2 television series is treated as no different than the Generation 1 series.
  • Includes BotCon 1994 exclusive toy Breakdown, although the character is the same as Generation 1 Breakdown.

• Beast Wars, abbreviated BW.
  • Excludes the Animorphs subline, but includes Mutant Beast Wars.
  • Includes all BotCon exclusive toys from 1995–2001, except for Apelinq. BotCon-original characters from this time period are considered Beast Wars characters—despite being later incorporated into Universe—because they originated with toys and stories that were branded as Beast Wars.

• Machine Wars, abbreviated MW.

• Beast Machines, abbreviated BM.
  • Includes the first (non-Wal-Mart exclusive) Dinobots subline.
  • Includes BotCon 2000 exclusive toy/character Apelinq.

• Robots in Disguise, abbreviated RID or RID 2001 if necessary to distinguish it from the 2015 franchise.
  • Includes the "main" Robots in Disguise line from 2001/2002 as well as a variety of redecoes that were released under the same brand name after the main line ended.

• Universe, not abbreviated.
  • Both the 2003 and 2008 franchises use this disambiguation tag. A date should only be added when absolutely necessary, such as with Air Raid and Air Raid.
  • As well as the widely-available redeco lines, this includes BotCon/OTFCC exclusives from 2002–2004. (The name first appeared in 2002 as "Expanded Universe".)
  • The fandom often uses the abbreviation "TFU" for this line, but it is this Wiki's policy not to abbreviate one-word franchise names in article titles. "TFU" is not acceptable within the text of articles.

• Dinobots, the Wal-mart exclusive line, not abbreviated.

• Armada, not abbreviated.

• Energon, not abbreviated.

• Cybertron, not abbreviated.
  • Includes the comic story published in Fun Publications' fan club magazine from issue 1 (Feb/Mar 05) through 12 (Dec06/Jan07), as indicated by the logo at beginning of each story.

• Unicron Trilogy, abbreviated UT.
  • This is a meta-franchise encompassing the above three franchises (Armada, Energon, and Cybertron). Article titles should generally not be disambiguated as "UT" but instead by the subject's specific franchise of origin. "UT" is not acceptable within the text of articles or in their titles.

• Timelines, not abbreviated.
  • Includes BotCon material (both toys and fiction) starting in 2005 and going forward.
  • Only used in article names when absolutely necessary (ex. Dirge (Timelines)).

• Alternators, not abbreviated.
  • Binaltech story material and Binaltech-exclusive toys are not part of Alternators.

• Classics, not abbreviated.
  • Includes all toys released in Classics-style packaging, even if the word "classics" does not appear on that packaging. For example, the Magnus/Skywarp "Battle for Autobot City" versus set is included here.
  • Includes the comic story published in Fun Publications' fan club magazine from issue 13 (Feb/Mar07) to issue 18 (Dec07/Jan08) and other stories, as indicated by the logo at beginning of each story.

• Movie, not abbreviated.
  • The franchise surrounding the 2007 live-action movie.

• Animated, not abbreviated.
  • Franchise with a new visual style starting in 2008.

• 1-2-3 Transformers and Go-Bots.
  • The former can be abbreviated as 123, the latter should simply be called Go-Bots. Note that Go-Bots also is used for the Takara Rescue Hero Go-Bots franchise.

• Revenge of the Fallen, abbreviated ROTF.

• Shattered Glass, abbreviated SG.

• War for Cybertron, abbreviated WFC.

• Prime, not abbreviated.

• Dark of the Moon, abbreviated DOTM.

• Rescue Bots, abbreviated RB.

• Fall of Cybertron, abbreviated FOC.

• Age of Extinction, abbreviated AOE.

• Robots in Disguise, abbreviated RID or RID 2015 if necessary to distinguish it from the 2001 franchise.
  • Includes the "main" Robots in Disguise line begun in 2015.

• The Last Knight, abbreviated TLK.

• Cyberverse, not abbreviated.

• Rescue Bots Academy, abbreviated RBA.

• EarthSpark, abbreviated ES.

• Rise of the Beasts, abbreviated ROTB.

Japanese-exclusive franchises

Note that the first six items on the following list—everything up to the first Beast Wars franchise—are a part of Generation 1. The term "Generation 1" is used to refer to several things in the fandom, including the original franchise, a continuity family, and also the grouping of all Transformers franchises until the advent of Generation 2. As these franchises were treated as sub-lines of the original toyline in Japan, with toys in these lines being released under that branding, we have elected to treat characters introduced in these sub-franchises as "G1", and are disambiguated as such except in instances where another character already had the name, in which case the name of the individual line is used. In contrast, while fiction like Kiss Players is canonically treated as part of "G1 the story continuity", it is not part of "G1 the toyline and multimedia franchise". To further complicate things, the American G1 franchise was presented in Japan as two separate franchises: Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers and Transformers 2010. However, as before, we treat them both as a part of what we consider "G1".

Confused yet? Trust us, we get it.

By the same token, Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo are treated as sub-lines to the larger Beast Wars franchise, as their toys were all similarly released under the same shared branding rather than as independent toylines.

• The Headmasters, shortened to Headmasters.

• Super-God Masterforce, shortened to Masterforce.

• Victory, not abbreviated.

• Zone, not abbreviated.

• Return of Convoy, abbreviated ROC.

• Operation Combination, abbreviated OC.

• Beast Wars II, abbreviated BWII.

• Beast Wars Neo, abbreviated BWN.

• Robotmasters, abbreviated RM.

• Binaltech, abbreviated BT.
  • Includes Binaltech Asterisk.
  • Because of the English-centric focus of this Wiki, material or toys which are common to both Binaltech and Alternators should be considered "Alternators". There are a lot of Binaltech-exclusive characters and fiction, however, which would not be properly labelled as part of Alternators.

• Kiss Players, abbreviated KP.

• Henkei! Henkei! Transformers, abbreviated Henkei!

• Rescue Hero Go-Bots, abbreviated Go-Bots. Note that Go-Bots also is used for the Hasbro Go-Bots franchise.

• Go!, not abbreviated.