Titanium Series

The Titanium Series is a multi-property brand line of partially die-cast figures produced under Hasbro's Galoob brand as a subdivision of Micro Machines. Beginning in 2005, the line originally consisted entirely of Star Wars vehicles of various sizes, before expanding to include vehicles from Battlestar Galactica, Marvel Comics characters of various sizes and, yes, those gaddang Transformers.

The Transformers assortments joined the Titanium fold in 2006, and lasted at regular retail only until 2007, forcing several products to be released as limited exclusives and leaving many more unreleased. Figures and figurines in the range were developed by a separate branch of Hasbro from the normal Transformers team (who only had some input into character choices and looks), and were notably not engineered or "mech-designed" by TakaraTomy.

They are not actually made of titanium.

Toys and merchandise

3" Robot Masters

"I am Optimus Prime."

Robot Masters are small, non-transformable, die-cast figurines of various Transformers characters dating from the dim and distant past of Generation 1 to the then-recent past of Cybertron, briefly hitting Beast Wars and Energon along the way. The predominant presence in the line was characters from G1, though they were at least filtered through the different lenses of their original character models, original toys, their Alternators bodies, and designs from Dreamwave's The War Within (the latter of which is treated as a distinct entity from Generation 1, as you'll see from the below section). The eighth wave and onwards, released in 2007, pivoted to focus on characters from some movie or other.

Robot Masters figurines stand (or squat, as may be more accurate) three inches tall, are coated in extensive paint applications, and typically, but not universally, feature articulation in the neck, shoulders, and waist. Each of them came with a stand in the shape of the Autobot or Decepticon insignia – yes, even the Beast Wars guys – and some of them even included removable accessories!

Mass retail releases

The Robot Masters assortment got off to a rocky start, with its first three waves hitting Australasia and U.S.-based online retailers long before reaching mass U.S. retail, and when they finally were found in U.S. stores, they were sighted in reverse order compared to their official wave numberings (although all those sightings occurred within the span of a few days at most).

Wave 1 Beast Wars Megatron War Within Optimus Prime Unicron		Wave 2 Autobot Jazz Side Swipe Starscream		Wave 3 Autobot Starship Ark Megatron Optimus Primal		Wave 4 Bumblebee Optimus Prime Smokescreen		"No, I am Optimus Prime." "No, I'm Optimus Prime."
Wave 5 Grimlock Predaking Scorponok		Wave 6 Rodimus Thundercracker		Wave 7 Galvatron Optimus Prime		Wave 8 (Movie wave 1) Blackout Bumblebee Optimus Prime
Wave 9 (Movie wave 2) Ironhide Autobot Jazz Megatron		Wave 10 (Movie wave 3) Decepticon Brawl Autobot Ratchet

Exclusives

The Robot Masters line was accompanied by a handful of exclusive releases. Most of them were co-branded with larger live-action film series toylines as part of the films' associated merchandise push; notably, the latter three Toys"R"Us exclusive two-packs were released to tie in with Revenge of the Fallen in 2009, well after Transformers product had ceased being released in the Titanium Series proper. This stands in contrast to the Cybertron Heroes range below, where the majority of that line's exclusives came out after the Transformers segment had already ended, saving some unreleased products from limbo; no such reprieve came for several Robot Masters already in development, which got the chop completely.

Costco/Transformers Ultimate Bumblebee with "Special Value" bonus Titanium Series Bumblebee

Target/Transformers Ultimate Optimus Prime 3-Pack

Toys"R"Us Optimus Prime & Bumblebee two-pack

Toys"R"Us/Revenge of the Fallen Cliffjumper and Dead End Offroad Ironhide and Deep Desert Brawl Rescue Ratchet and Blackout

6" Cybertron Heroes

"I'm Don's fanfic brought to life!"

The Cybertron Heroes range was an ambitious line of 6-inch, transformable, partially die-cast toys aimed at collectors. Intending to pull characters from all corners of the Transformers franchise, the line is mostly remembered today for being the sole release venue for toys based on Dreamwave Productions's War Within comics. Every figure in the line was designed in conjunction with artist Don Figueroa, and they were either based on pre-existing toys or designs Figueroa had himself created while pencilling the original The War Within miniseries... though Hasbro-Galoob's adherence to his designs varied wildly.

Unfortunately, the Cybertron Heroes toys suffered from a series of tolerance problems and design flaws, typically resulting in figures with articulation joints that were too flimsy to hold their heavy die-cast limbs. Add to this an inexperienced design team and a lack of TakaraTomy oversight and you're left with offbeat transformation sequences and unusually-proportioned robots. Each toy usually included a generic display base with a removable nameplate. Notable releases in this range included the first ever figure of The Fallen, and the first retrospective toy to homage Beast Machines in the form of Cheetor (which, reportedly, came about by accident).

Mass retail releases

The mass retail assortment of Cybertron Heroes began in 2006 and ran into 2007. The release schedule wasn't without roadbumps; Waves 6, 7, and 8 were delayed at U.S. mass retail by several months, after they had already been available from online retailers and speciality stores (and according to sighting reports at the time, Wave 8 turned up in stores several weeks before Wave 7). The lack of interest outside of the collector market was cited by Hasbro as a factor in Titanium Series' discontinuation. Planned subsequent waves of product were reshuffled into exclusives or cancelled altogether.

Beginning with Wave 4, each figure was labelled with the character's series of origin.

Wave 1 Megatron Optimus Prime		Wave 2 Jetfire Thundercracker		Wave 3 Optimal Optimus Scourge		Wave 4 Rodimus Prime (Generation 1) Soundwave with Laserbeak (Generation 1)		"I'm the explosion Pat Lee walked away from!"
Wave 5 Optimus Prime (Robots in Disguise) Starscream (War Within)		Wave 6 Cheetor (Beast Machines) Fallen/War Within Fallen (War Within)		Wave 7 Megatron (War Within) Ultra Magnus (Generation 1)		Wave 8 Sunstorm (War Within) Ultra Magnus (War Within)

Exclusives

The majority of Cybertron Heroes exclusives were released after the Titanium Series line proper had already finished, the two exceptions being the San Diego Comic-Con and Hasbro Toy Shop toy of Menasor, and the Toys"R"Us Optimus/Megatron two-pack. Prowl and Grimlock were both intended to be part of Wave 9 and 10 of the mass retail line respectively; following the pattern of two new figures in each wave, that year's Skywarp may have been intended to debut as late as Wave 11.

With these last few toys signalling the death throes of the Titanium Series, it came as some surprise when three entirely new redecos appeared co-branded with the Universe line, celebrating the franchise's 25th anniversary in 2009. ...Which was nothing compared to the surprise caused by the Rodimus Prime redeco that dropped in the Platinum Edition premium line ten years after Titanium ended.

San Diego Comic-Con/ Hasbro Toy Shop 2007: Menasor (Generation 1) 2008: Skywarp (War Within)

Toys"R"Us War Within Optimus Prime vs. War Within Megatron (including The War Within #5 comic) Grimlock (War Within) Prowl (War Within)

Target/Universe (2008) Hot Zone Optimus Prime Thrust

Platinum Edition Rise of Rodimus Prime (Rodimus Prime, Galvatron)

"And I'm... eh, whatever."

Cancellation and unreleased toys

Took us twelve months to get an image of this thing only seen in a pack-in leaflet. You're welcome.

Titanium Series began full of ambition, pulling characters from all over the franchise, utilising the talents of fan favourite artist Don Figueroa, and bringing die-cast to Western Transformers fans for the first time since the 80s. As time went on, the realities of producing such a line proved too expensive and retailers lost interest, causing many products in both ranges to slip through the cracks.

Following the typical leaks, the Titanium Series Transformers were first officially revealed at Toy Fair in February of 2006. With the first few waves of the Robot Masters and Cybertron Heroes assortments being released in quick succession shortly afterwards, the displays at both San Diego Comic-Con in July of the same year and at BotCon 2006 in September contained Robot Masters figurines of Cliffjumper, Soundwave, Alternators Sunstreaker, and a War Within-themed Nemesis Prime. In December, Soundwave was listed as a product on the official Transformers website, followed soon after by Cliffjumper and Sunstreaker, all complete with stock images. The pack-in leaflet included with sixth wave Cybertron Heroes and onwards, which started hitting specialist retailers in early 2007, also listed the four Robot Masters; incidentally, this is the only known place one can find Nemesis Prime's stock photo. The included checklist features Cliffjumper, Sunstreaker, Soundwave, and Nemesis—in that order—between the finalised wave 7 and wave 8 Robot Masters, suggesting at least two waves were dropped before the range pivoted to live action film series characters. In addition, a multitude of Robot Masters was listed after the three waves of movie product, none of which have ever been heard from outside of this leaflet.

The pamphlet also hinted at a brighter future for the Cybertron Heroes assortment. The chronological checklist of six inch figures suggested a ninth wave featuring Soundblaster (with Ravage) and Prowl, and a tenth wave featuring Primal Prime and Grimlock; the list ended on a solitary bullet point for Skywarp. In April, fans with access to Wal-Mart's internal inventory system uncovered Cybertron Heroes UPCs for "G1 SHOCKWAVE", "CLASSC COSMOS", "CYBTN BUMBLEBE", "METALG1 ARCEE", and "WWBRAWL" (the latter of which has never been corroborated by any other information). Figueroa himself took to the TFW2005 forums that May, showing off his advance copy of Prowl – as he often did with upcoming Cybertron Heroes – revealing the toy's War Within styling. Fans were left to speculate until BotCon 2007 that June.

The adequate language to describe Titanium Series Arcee did not yet exist in 2007.

BotCon offered five hundred attendees the rare opportunity to take a tour of Hasbro's corporate headquarters in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, guided by Transformers personnel. The product development portion of the tour included displays of unproduced toy prototypes, including resin hardcopies of Titanium Series Shockwave, Cosmos, War Within Bumblebee (with an additional Cliffjumper head for an intended redeco), and Arcee. Hasbro employees including then-lead designer Eric Siebenaler maintained that, though the designs would not be used in Titanium, the concepts may be repurposed for Transformers: Classics, which was noncommittally reiterated at the Collectors' Club roundtable later that day. It was also stated that Soundblaster, Prowl, Primal Prime, Grimlock, and Skywarp would all be shipping, after which the Titanium line would be put on indefinite hiatus. Hasbro's upcoming product display on the BotCon convention floor included Primal Prime and Soundblaster with Ravage, the unspoken understanding being that these two redecoes were ready to exhibit earlier than the new-mold Prowl and Grimlock.

The writing was on the wall at the future product unveiling panel; with the Hasbro team focussing on the upcoming Animated and Universe franchises, it fell to the fan Q&A section to reveal the future of Titanium Series. When asked why there was no mention of Titanium or the concurrent Alternators line, reps responded that Hasbro wasn't getting a return investment on the $2 million they had put into Alternators tooling and/or the die-cast materials needed for Titanium; indeed, the line's underperformance outside of speciality stores meant it was challenging to get retailers to stock it – perhaps the cause or result of the delays to Cybertron Heroes' final three waves. The choice was instead made to focus on the nascent Classics sequel as the line aimed at collectors. It was made clear that the resin hardcopies shown on the Hasbro tour had had no metal tooling created; with this being the most expensive part of Transformer toy manufacture, this was the "threshold" step required for them to see market release. Nonetheless, they were open to the idea that these designs could at least influence future toys, with Cosmos in particular being named as a concept that had already been bandied about in an attempt to see release. Of the checklist of upcoming Cybertron Heroes names, Skywarp was ruled out as not happening, and Soundblaster was only a maybe; Prowl and Grimlock – the latter now revealed as also being in his War Within body – were named as the final toys to be released in Titanium, though the panel noted they would probably be difficult to find.

A period of radio silence followed. In August, Figueroa revealed his copy of Grimlock on the TFW2005 boards, but he was unsure if or when it was ever being released. Nothing else was said until December, when ToyFare magazine reached out to Hasbro PR for the letters column of its 126th issue; when asked directly whether Prowl and Grimlock would come out, the answer was an unequivocal "We are not planning to release these versions."

Eventually, at BotCon 2008 in the subsequent April, Hasbro revealed they had successfully "found homes" for a handful of Cybertron Heroes, all of them as exclusives; Skywarp was released as a Hasbro Toy Shop exclusive in the summer of 2008 both online and at that year's San Diego Comic-Con, whereas War Within Grimlock and Prowl were made available at Toys"R"Us a month later. The panel noted that the resin hardcopies shown the year prior would not be produced owing to the expensive cost of creating die-cast tools – perhaps implying that Grimlock and Prowl's releases were an attempt to recoup costs – and the line was unpopular outside of the collector market. Hasbro recognised that fans wanted Titanium Bumblebee and Cliffjumper, and that getting new versions of classic characters was important, but any further Titanium Series releases would make use of molds that had already been made.

That wasn't quite the end of the story, as the Titanium Series branding would resurface briefly in 2009 with some Robot Masters packs branded as part of Revenge of the Fallen and three Cybertron Heroes materialising in Universe. True to Hasbro's word, all of these toys were redecos of previously-released molds. Sucks to be Primal Prime and Soundblaster.

Robot Masters

Solicited/pictured

Robot Master superior, Cybertron Hero inferior, yadda yadda

These four figures were displayed by Hasbro at San Diego Comic-Con and BotCon in 2006. Official product listings for Cliffjumper, Sunstreaker, and Soundwave were put up on the Transformers website. Their order on the below checklist suggests they were intended for an eighth wave (Cliffjumper and Sunstreaker) and a ninth wave (Soundwave and Nemesis Prime, both of whom were solicited to now defunct Australian online retailer Case Fresh). <ul="iconlist">

Cliffjumper (redeco of Bumblebee)

Sunstreaker (redeco of Side Swipe)

Soundwave (new mold)

Nemesis Prime (redeco of War Within Optimus Prime)

Solicited only

But I can't LIVE without a tiny evil clone of Hot Rod!

This list of names comes from the pack-in flyer included with Cybertron Heroes toys from wave six and onwards. No images of these figures have ever surfaced, and it's unlikely that any of them ever actually made it past the planning stage. <ul="iconlist">

War Within Megatron

Jetfire

Soundblaster

Skywarp

Silverstreak

Black RODIMUS [sic]

Shockwave

Ultra Magnus

Grimlock

Cybertron Heroes

Solicited/pictured

Mercifully cancelled before he could fail constantly.

Both of these toys were exhibited by Hasbro in the upcoming product display at BotCon 2007. As per the Cybertron Heroes checklist, Soundblaster was intended for Wave 9 alongside Prowl, and Primal Prime was intended for Wave 10 with Grimlock. These plans were reflected by the cross-sells on the packaging for Prowl and Grimlock when they were finally released as Toys"R"Us exclusives in 2008, their boxes having evidently been finalised before the Titanium Series was cancelled. <ul="iconlist">

Soundblaster with Ravage

Primal Prime

Resin hardcopies

Although, if you squint at Generations Cosmos...

These hardcopies were included in a display cabinet with other prototypes during the Hasbro tour at BotCon 2007. Each hardcopy was displayed in robot mode, with an additional A4 printout nearby showing photographs of each in alternate mode. It had been decided by this point that none of these toys would see release; despite insistence that these designs may be ported into Classics or Universe, nothing ever came about. <ul="iconlist">

Arcee

War Within Bumblebee

War Within Cliffjumper

Cosmos

Shockwave

Years later, Don Figueroa would post the original concept art of each of these four molds on his Twitter account.

Others

A UPC in Wal-Mart's internal inventory system implied the existence of a War Within figure of Brawl.

Fan site TFW2005 alleged the existence of a Cybertron Heroes toy of Bludgeon, though for his part, Figueroa does not remember working on one.

In 2022, Figueroa posted historic concept art for a triple-changing Titanium Series Springer to his Twitter.

Notes

• Star Wars was the longest running of the Titanium Series brands, lasting until 2009. The imprint resurfaced in 2015 as part of Star Wars – The Black Series.

External links

• Interview with Titanium Series designer Mark Boudreaux at SDCC 2006