Fan polls

This article is about the votes that directly determine new toy releases. For the votes to honor important Transformers characters and creators, see Hall of Fame.

Throughout the 2010s, Hasbro ran nearly-annual polls for the fandom to decide on future toy production. Initially, these Fan Built Bot polls focussed on the creation of new fan-influenced characters and toys, with voters being able to choose these characters' alternate modes, colourways, and personalities.

Eventually, these polls began to more closely resemble similar votes ran by TakaraTomy, merely allowing fans to choose which out of a list of pre-existing characters would see a new toy release.

BE A PART OF FAN BUILTThe slogan for the Combiner Wars poll

2013

Generations Fan Built Bot

For the first Fan Built Bot, polls were conducted on transformers.com over the course of a week each. The first round was held between April 18th and May 5th, and included the following questions:

Faction	Alternate mode	Signature Weapon	Color Scheme	Personality
Autobot Decepticon	Car Truck Tank Jet Spaceship Terran Beast (Land) Avian Beast (Airborne) Helicopter Motorcycle Construction	Blaster Cannon Flame Thrower Sword Mace Spear/Harpoon Morningstar Cybertronian Taser Nunchucks Crossbow Long-Range Blaster	Red & Black Green & Gold Blue & Silver Orange & White Purple & Bronze	Valiant Sneaky Hotshot Secretive Wildman Grumpy

The second round was held between May 10th and May 17th, and consisted of four more questions:

Name	Gender	Origin	Specialty
Autobot Eclipse Charon Centuritron Cashtron Windblade Autobot Wraith	Male Female	Kaon Iacon Altihex Kalis Praxus	Combat Medic Bodyguard Recon Telepath Close Combat Specialist

The result, Windblade, was revealed first in art form at San Diego Comic-Con 2013, with her toy subsequently revealed at Toy Fair 2014 for release in the tenth wave of Generations: Thrilling 30 Deluxe Class toys. In fiction, she starred in her own four-issue miniseries from IDW Publishing and remained a prominent character until the end of that continuity. (Though her origin of Kaon from the poll was dropped, owing to the scarcity of female Transformers on Cybertron in that particular fictional universe, with her instead being portrayed as coming from the colony Caminus; similarly, her broad telepathy instead became Cityspeaking.)

Due to the character's popularity, different incarnations of Windblade were also featured in the Transformers: Robots in Disguise and Transformers: Cyberverse cartoons.

Masterpiece Fan's Choice

To commemorate Transformers' 30th anniversary, TakaraTomy held a poll to decide which Japanese Autobot or Maximal leader would get a new toy in the prestigious Masterpiece toyline. The poll began on June 18th with a closing date of August 31, before being extended to September 6th. Voters were required to send their ballot form by post along with a requisite amount of Robot Points collected from Generations, Go!, and GT releases, or from in person at the 2013 Tokyo Toy Show.

	Candidate	Result
1.	Fortress Maximus (The Headmasters)	0.3%
2.	Super Ginrai (Super-God Masterforce)	18.6%
3.	Star Saber (Victory)	31.2%
4.	Dai Atlas (Zone)	8.0%
5.	Convoy (Beast Wars)	4.6%
6.	Lio Convoy (Beast Wars II)	2.0%
7.	Big Convoy (Beast Wars Neo)	2.1%
8.	Super Fire Convoy (Car Robots)	4.9%
9.	Convoy (Legends of the Microns)	24.3%
10.	Grand Convoy (Super Link)	1.5%
11.	Galaxy Convoy (Galaxy Force)	2.5%

On November 19, TakaraTomy representatives announced that Star Saber had won with 31.2% of the votes, followed by Legends of the Microns Convoy (24.3%) and Ginrai (18.6%). No other candidate received more than 8% of votes. Masterpiece Star Saber was released on March 21, 2015. Beast Wars Convoy and Lio Convoy would go on to receive Masterpiece toys in 2016 and 2020 respectively, while Super Ginrai would receive one in the subsequent MPG line in 2024.

2014

Generations Magazine Exclusive Character Popularity Vote

TakaraTomy and Million Publishing ran a poll through the first volume of Transformers Generations 2014 to determine the mail-away figure for the upcoming second volume. In addition, the winning character would also appear in that volume's original manga story by Yuki Ohshima. A box above the selection of ten characters noted that a partner figure such as a Micron would be considered for the winner; Alpha Trion was noted as coming with a Vector Sigma accessory, presumably to be a golden redeco of Beast Wars Eggbot as seen in the volume's manga story, "Train Wars".

Voting was done via post, as part of the same included postcard buyers could use to purchase Vol. 1's exclusive mail-away toy, Shouki. The deadline for votes was June 16, a good three months before the availability window for Shouki closed in September.

	Candidate	Result
1.	Alpha Trion from Generations Scourge	28.9%
2.	The Fallen from Generations Fall of Cybertron Onslaught/Ruination	5%
3.	"Sunstreaker Police Type" (placeholder name) from Universe Sunstreaker	3.8%
4.	Smokescreen from Universe Smokescreen	2.9%
5.	"Autobot Drift Black Ver." (placeholder name) from Generations Drift	12.7%
6.	Overdrive from Universe Silverstreak	2.9%
7.	Camshaft from Generations Wheeljack	1%
8.	Downshift from Universe Ironhide	1.6%
9.	Metals Silverbolt from Prime Grimwing	14.8%
10.	Goshooter from Generations Nightbeat	29.3%

On July 22, Million Publishing announced that Goshooter had won with 29.3% of the votes, with Alpha Trion a close second at 28.9%. Consequently, Goshooter was made available as a mail-away with Transformers Generations 2014 Vol. 2, now partnered with a Micromaster toy of his human counterpart, Shūta Gō, and the duo took centre stage in "Train Wars 2".

2015

Combiner Wars Fan Built Combiner

Following in the footsteps of the Fan Built Bot poll, the Fan Built Combiner poll (a.k.a. the Fan Built Combiner Wars poll) was announced on January 15, 2015, with the goal of creating a whole new character for the then-current Combiner Wars toyline.

Voting was done via the official Transformers mobile app, and the first round ran from January 25 to February 1.

Faction	Torso and weapon	Limbs
Autobot Decepticon	Jets Truck and car Fire truck and motorcycle	Jet/Helicopter Truck Car

The choices in this round consisted of molds from the first three waves of Combiner Wars–notably, the fire truck/motorcycle torso option pre-empted any official announcement of the third wave's Hot Spot and Groove. Each limb was voted on individually, while the torso and weapon components were presented as a set. On February 5, the combiner was announced as an Autobot.

Round 2 began on February 11 and included polls to narrow down the choice of limbs from two aerial vehicles and two cars to more specific mold options. This round ran at least until February 16.

Limb #1/#2	Limb #3/#4	Origin	Color scheme
Bomber Recon Plane Helicopter	Drag Racer Sports Car Race Car	Iacon Kaon Sea of Rust	Blue/cyan/tan Orange/grey/blue Cyan/red/white

A bonus round also took place via the Toys"R"Us Twitter between February 17 and 28 to select which power the Combiner would have. The tweet is still up.

Power
Earthquake Gravity control Teleport

By February 19, the app had updated to reveal the Sea of Rust as the chosen origin.

The final round of voting began on February 26 and ended on March 5.

Gender	Name	Personality	Nemesis
Male Female	Victorion Slammoth Quakebreak	Loyal Independent Leader	Devastator Galvatronus Menasor

On April 1, the Transformers Facebook announced that the Fan Built Combiner was being scrapped in favour of a new toy of Reflector – April Fools. A more serious update was shared on April 13, when it was announced that the new Combiner's rival would be Galvatronus.

Victorion, the resulting female Combiner, was revealed in all her glory on July 9 at San Diego Comic-Con where she also made her fictional debut in IDW Publishing's Combiner Hunters one-shot comic ahead of joining the main cast of the ongoing The Transformers vol. 2 series. After her box art was revealed on January 2, 2016, her toy was released in April that year.

Titans Return Titan Class Toy Release

The next fan poll, announced November 20, 2015, regarded who would be the next year's Titan Class figure for Titans Return, following Fortress Maximus.

The subsequent days revealed campaign posters for "You Can't Knock Scorponok", "Move On With Trypticon", and "I'm On Team Omega Supreme".

Voting opened on November 24 and closed within fourteen hours. Voters had to respond to the post with the hashtag of their selected candidate, and would even receive a (virtual) "I Voted" badge emblazoned with the image of their chosen character.

#VoteTrypticon #VoteOmegaSupreme #VoteScorponok

On December 1, Hasbro announced that Trypticon had won. The toy hit shelves in 2017.

2017

Power of the Primes Fan Vote

The next set of fan polls was announced on December 1, 2016 for Power of the Primes, and allowed fans to choose the next Matrix of Leadership bearer to "set[...] the tone for all things in the Transformers universe", with the winner to feature in the Prime Wars Trilogy storytelling and accompanying toyline.

The first round of voting opened on January 23, 2017. Voters were tasked with selecting one candidate from each group: Honor, Chaos, and Order. They were allowed to repeat this process once every twenty-four hours.

Honor	Chaos	Order
Hound Ultra Magnus Arcee	Unknown Evil Thunderwing Optimus Primal	Megatron Shockwave Star Saber

As January came to a close, Hasbro announced the successful candidates: Ultra Magnus, Optimus Primal, Star Saber, and the mysterious "Unknown Evil", a "wildcard" candidate who had received the highest number of votes out of all the runners-up. The second round of voting began on February 1.

On February 18, Hasbro announced that Optimus Primal had ultimately placed first, followed by Unknown Evil–now revealed as Deathsaurus–Ultra Magnus, and Star Saber in second, third, and fourth place respectively. The prototype of Primal's toy was first shown off at HasCon 2017, leading to a pair of releases in Power of the Primes in mid-2018 and a prominent role in the tie-in web series.

For further information, see: Source:Power of the Primes Fan Vote

2018

War for Cybertron Trilogy

Toy Fair 2018 saw the announcement of the War for Cybertron Trilogy franchise, and though nothing concrete was revealed about the then-upcoming line, fans were promised the opportunity to vote for a pair of Deluxe Class characters to be included in the trilogy's first chapter.

The polls opened on February 20, with voting taking place on the Transformers brand Facebook page, Instagram account, and Twitter replies. Hasbro Pulse–which at this point in its existence was a collector-oriented news site–revealed the story reasoning behind each pair of rivals. On February 23, the final day of voting, the Facebook page addressed some hanging questions about the character choices.

Saboteur vs Scientist: #SpinisterVsWheeljack Brother vs Brother: #NeedlenoseVsTracks Mirage vs The Mercenary: #ImpactorVsMirage

On February 27, then-design lead John Warden took to the Facebook page to personally announce the victors in video form. This led to Impactor and Mirage receiving new toys in the Siege toyline in 2019, both as regular retail figures and with alternative head sculpts in an exclusive multi-pack.

Over the subsequent five years, each of the other candidates would receive new Generations toys anyway.

Vintage G1

The next poll was announced via Hasbro Pulse and Hasbro's social media accounts on December 10, 2018 to decide a future toy out of two pairs for release in the Vintage G1 toyline in Spring of 2020. All polls were carried out on Hasbro Pulse's Instagram stories.

Round 1 took place on December 11, pitting Perceptor against Astrotrain, and round 2 took place on December 12, pitting Thundercracker against Skywarp. The final round took place on December 13, as a decider between Astrotrain and Skywarp.

Round 1	Round 2	Final Round
Perceptor vs Astrotrain	Thundercracker vs Skywarp	Astrotrain vs Skywarp

On December 14, Hasbro announced that Astrotrain had won, though his reissued toy unexpectedly hit shelves early in December 2019.

2019

Vintage G1

On May 17, 2019, the Transformers Facebook page held a surprisingly low key poll to determine another 2020 release in the Vintage G1 line, using Facebook's built-in polling feature.

Blaster Skywarp

The poll was only open for 24 hours, and the following day it was announced that Blaster had won, receiving 56% of the vote. The reissued Blaster went up for preorder in June 2020, and was released in the subsequent October.

War for Cybertron Trilogy

On June 12, 2019, the same Facebook page posted that another fan poll was upcoming, with four mysteriously silhouetted Decepticons in the running for a place in the second chapter of the War for Cybertron Trilogy. The following day, the character selection was revealed, and hashtag-based voting began in the comments section.

#Gnaw #Runamok [sic] #Needlenose #Shrapnel

Voting closed 48 hours later, with the accompanying image updated to spell Runamuck's name in the more traditional manner, suggesting votes with both hashtag variants were counted.

On July 18, the page proclaimed Runamuck the winner, despite the fact that it appeared that Needlenose had the most votes. Runamuck's toy materialised in War for Cybertron: Earthrise and, perhaps unsurprisingly, Earthrise Runabout soon followed... but then again, so did new toys of all the other candidates!

2025

Activate Your Alt Mode

Redesign your alt mode. We know what we're doing. We are here to help you. Everything's connected.

On July 25, 2025, Hasbro announced Activate Your Alt Mode at San Diego Comic-Con alongside a video uploaded to the Hasbro Pulse YouTube channel featuring franchise-legend Frank Welker. Welker explained that the winner of the vote was to receive a new toy with a fan-selected alternate mode. The voting was held using the poll feature on the Transformers Instagram account and on Chinese site RedNote, with all votes being combined to determine winners. Voting was split into 3 rounds over the course of 16 days.

Round 1: Character
Autobots	Decepticons	Finalists
Grimlock vs Mirage	Shockwave vs Starscream	Grimlock vs Shockwave

The first round was to decide which character would receive a new alt-mode, starting with the Autobot contenders on August 12, pitting Grimlock against Mirage. The Decepticon contenders were chosen on August 13, pitting Shockwave against Starscream. The last day of round 1, August 14, saw Grimlock against Shockwave.

Shockwave was announced the winner of round 1 on August 15.

Round 2: Alt Mode Category
Land Air Sea Wild Card

Before Round 2 began, brand manager Nate Purswell took to Instagram to clarify what the Round 3 alt-mode types for each Round 2 option would be to help inform voters. Land consisted of Creature, Truck, Train, or Supercar. Sea consisted of Speedboat, Submarine, Creature, or Hoverboat. Air consisted of Jet, Helicopter, Creature, or Airship. Wild Card consisted of Weapon, Starfigher, Creature, or Device. Additionally, Nate clarified that the winning choice—specifically sea's "creature" option—would not be based on any fan art, likely due to fans asking for a Shockwave with a Spinosaurus alt-mode based on a popular fan comic.

Round 2 began on August 18 and ran for three days to determine which alt-mode category would be chosen Wild Card started out in the lead on the first day, but was quickly overtaken by Sea, which was announced as the winner of round 2 on August 22.

Shockwhale, the most logical choice!

Round 3: Alt Mode Type
Hoverboat Submarine Speedboat Creature

Round 3 began on August 25 and ran for 3 days to determine which specific sea-based alt-mode Shockwave would turn into.

The Transformers Instagram revealed that "creature" had won round 3 on August 29, and that the design would be revealed on Transformers Day of that year, held on September 17, 2025.

After a few teasers, the design for the new Shockwave toy was finally revealed on September 17 in a video posted on the Transformers Instagram, once again featuring Welker to announce the figure. In the video, concept art was revealed of a Shockwave design capable of transforming into a mechanical humpback whale (fitting!) with subtle submarine influences as a nod to round 3's runner up. More refined concept art was revealed the following day, as well as scrapped concepts for shark, manta-ray, and squid Shockwaves. The figure will likely be released as a fan-channel exclusive in 2026.

Notes

You were expecting a spinosuarus? How illogical!

Losing options from the polls frequently received acknowledgement later down the road:

• Unsuccessful names from the 2013 Fan Built Bot poll saw use, with a new character named "Centuritron" appearing in Generations, and the names "Eclipse" and "Charon" being used for new Generations toys of classic characters.
• After losing the 2013 poll for a new Masterpiece toy, Beast Convoy and Lio Convoy were released in the line anyway, in 2016 and 2020 respectively, while Super Ginrai was released in the follow-up MPG line in 2024.
• The two unchosen names from 2015's Fan Built Combiner poll were used as new identities for established characters, with the Beast Wars: Uprising incarnation of Big Convoy being rechristened "Slammoth" and the Classics character Breakaway becoming "Quakebreak" after an in-fiction alteration to the multiverse.
• After losing out to Trypticon in 2015's second poll, Omega Supreme and Scorponok received Titan Class figures later on in Siege and Earthrise respectively.
• Ultra Magnus and Shockwave received Leader Class toys in Siege after losing the opportunity in 2017's poll – and arguably, both of those toys nonetheless fit into the "Evolution"-style armouring up gimmick found in the Power of the Primes Leader Class.
• Two other runners-up from the 2017 poll would receive big-ticket crowdfunding toys in the form of HasLab Victory Saber and Decepticon Deathsaurus.
• All of the candidates from 2018's War for Cybertron Trilogy poll received new toys anyway, with Spinister appearing in Siege, Wheeljack seeing three releases across the trilogy beginning with Earthrise, and Tracks coming out in the third chapter, Kingdom.
• After 2018's Vintage G1 poll, Skywarp was once again eligible in a similar poll in 2019. While he also didn't win that one, 2023's Transformers Retro, the successor to Vintage G1, reissued both him and fellow 2018 Vintage G1 poll loser Perceptor.
• Gnaw lost the opportunity for a War for Cybertron Trilogy toy in the 2019 poll, but received an aesthetically similar toy in Studio Series.
• Needlenose in particular seems to have had the deck stacked in his favour, being a recurring candidate in 2018 and 2019 (and losing both times) before finally being thrown a bone in Legacy: Evolution.
• Similarly, Shrapnel also got a toy in Legacy: Evolution despite losing the 2019 poll.

• Evan Brooks was advised by marketers to not have Activate Your Alt Mode Shockwave transform into a squid to "avoid undercutting the potential market" for a Studio Series Sea squid.

See also

• Transformers Hall of Fame, a regular fan poll for honouring Transformers characters and creators
• Splatoon, which also featured a vitally important fan poll

External links

• Hasbro press release announcing the Fan Built Bot poll (archived)
• Hasbro press release announcing the Fan Built Combiner poll (archived)
• Hasbro announcement video for the Activate Your Alt Mode poll on the Hasbro Pulse YouTube channel