Co-branding

Twelve products, twelve brands. Fairly straightforward, no?

Co-branding refers to a line or sub-set of toys with its own name and logo that is additionally also branded as part of another, larger line for some, but not all of its releases. This is different from subline imprints, which are a subset of one specific toy line; however, if the same subline imprint is used for several concurrent or consecutive lines, it can be considered co-branding. Co-branding is also not the same as a multi-property brand, which spans several different properties; however, there is some overlap, as the Transformers portion of several multi-property brands is additionally also co-branded as part of other Transformers lines.

Furthermore, products can also be co-branded by several companies. This does not refer to all the various licensed products that use Hasbro's logo to identify them as a licensor; it only applies to instances where Hasbro and/or TakaraTomy and/or a licensee are presented as equal originators with all the companies' logos featured, typically when an identical product is released in multiple markets (possibly in the same multilingual packaging in order to minimize costs), but distribution in those markets is handled by different companies.

Examples

Toy lines

Generations... Combiner Wars... Platinum Edition... Liokaiser. Seriously.

• The more widely distributed Built to Rule! Transformers sets were co-branded as part of the Armada line, while a few more sets co-branded as part of the Energon line saw limited distribution.
• The Transformers portion of the Titanium Series multi-property brand originally started out as its own line, but was later absorbed into the 2007 Transformers movie line, with some exclusive redecos later released as part of the 2008 Universe and Revenge of the Fallen lines.
• The initial waves of Robot Heroes, while containing Generation 1 characters, were released in packaging design evocative of the packaging style used for the concurrently released 2007 Transformers movie figures. Later waves actually did feature movie-based characters. The Robot Heroes range later continued as part of the 2008 Universe and Revenge of the Fallen lines.
• The 2011-onwards Cyberverse play pattern originally started out as part of the Dark of the Moon toy line and later continued under Transformers: Prime and its Beast Hunters subline imprint. Three of the four wave 2 figures from Legion Class Series 2 lacked the Prime moniker on their United States market packaging (but retained it on their European market packaging); furthermore, Evac, one of the figures, was additionally also released in Universal Studios packaging. In return, the Beast Hunters figures relegated the Cyberverse logo to the back of the packaging and even dropped it completely from the European market packaging.
• The Transformers portion of Kre-O originally started out as its own line, but later sets were co-branded as part of the Beast Hunters, Age of Extinction and Robots in Disguise lines. In addition, the Awesome Autobots Activity Book is co-branded as Transformers: Prime and Kre-O.
• Likewise, Construct-Bots started out as its own line, but later sets were co-branded as part of the Beast Hunters and Age of Extinction lines.
• The Thrilling 30 anniversary campaign logo appears on Generations and Platinum Edition packaging.
• Platinum Edition itself got absorbed into Age of Extinction in 2014, and continued under Generations in 2015. The Liokaiser Collection Pack took this to the max, being branded not only as part of the Generations line's Combiner Wars subline imprint, but also the only one of these Collection Packs to additionally sport the Platinum Edition branding.
• Hasbro's Masterpiece releases were finally given their own line with ongoing numbering in 2013 after having previously been released as part of Classics (2006), Universe (2008) and Transformers (2010), but starting with MP-06 Bluestreak, they got absorbed into Generations.
• The Transformers portion of the Hero Mashers multi-property brand originally started out as its own line, but later waves were co-branded as part of the Robots in Disguise line.
• TakaraTomy's EZ Collection started out as a mere size class or gimmick type, just like its initial Hasbro counterpart, the old Legends Class, but switched from blister cards to blindpacked figures starting with the 2007 Transformers movie line. Starting with Revenge, it gained an ongoing numbering system for consecutive waves (or "volumes") that continued under Transformers Animated and Autobot Alliance. Following that, Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Prime brought back the blister cards, but also gave the name "EZ Collection" a logo that was the same size as the "Transformers Prime" title. Following that, the figures released concurrently with the Transformers: Go line omitted any additional monikers, thus making Transformers: EZ Collection a line of its own during this phase.
• The 2014-onwards Robots in Disguise line had its Toys"R"Us exclusive Clash of the Transformers subline imprint, which was co-branded as part of the general retail Mini-Con Weaponizers subline imprint in its second year.
• Both the 2018-onwards Cyberverse line (under its Battle for Cybertron and Bumblebee: Cyberverse Adventures subline imprints) and the War for Cybertron: Earthrise line (itself part of the Generations umbrella branding) included Target exclusive multi-packs that featured the sub-branding Cybertronian Villains.
• Beginning in 2020, the Target exclusive "everything goes" line Buzzworthy Bumblebee saw toys co-branded as part of Age of Extinction, the Bumblebee movie line, Generations (as well as War for Cybertron Trilogy, Studio Series and Legacy), and Cyberverse. A two-pack would have also been branded as part of the Rise of the Beasts line, but was changed to the Bumblebee movie branding prior to its release.
• TakaraTomy's Premium Finish line is divided up into sub-sections that cover the War for Cybertron Trilogy and Studio Series.

Companies

Where does this fit in the "Takara's toys are always better than Hasbro's" debate?

• Italian Generation 2 toys were co-branded "Hasbro" and "GiG" (the latter of whom still distributed Transformers toys in Italy at the time) on both sides of the packaging.
• Subsequently, during the early days of the Beast Wars toy line, Hasbro (or, more precisely, their now-defunct subsidiary Kenner) added Italian to one of the two different types of trilingual packaging used for their European markets at the time. While French/Dutch/German packaging only sported "Kenner" (and later "Hasbro") logos, English/Spanish/Italian Beast Wars packaging sported a "Kenner" logo on the front and a "GiG" logo on the back, before GiG lost the license for distributing Transformers toys in Italy in favor of Hasbro's own Italian subsidiary starting with the Fuzor and Transmetal figures.
• The Asian Hasbro market exclusive Dark of the Moon Leader Class Megatron & Optimus Prime two-pack (rebranded re-releases of the 2007 Transformers movie Leader Class figures in new packaging) is branded "TakaraTomy" on the front but "Hasbro" on the back of the packaging.
• The Asian Hasbro market exclusive Transformers: Prime Optimus Prime & Gaia Unicron two-pack is co-branded "Hasbro" and "TakaraTomy" on the front of the packaging, with the packaging mostly based on TakaraTomy's Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Prime packaging design but featuring numerous texts and logos in English instead of Japanese.
• Hasbro's 2017-onwards Masterpiece Movie Series figures are all co-branded "Hasbro" and "TakaraTomy" on the front of the packaging. The same applies to the entire Studio Series, War for Cybertron Trilogy and Legacy lines.

See also

• Multi-brand assortment
• Rebranding
• Subline imprint