Transformers Animated (toyline)

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Putting the "cool" in "Playskool".

The Transformers Animated toyline was a radical departure from previous Transformers lines. It merged the more expressive design style of the accompanying cartoon with the advanced engineering that had been evolving over the course of the line to produce a series quite unlike anything seen before (or since).

Hasbro, citing the strength of the movie toyline, postponed the official release of the Animated toyline to June 22, 2008 in the US, letting the cartoon get kids (and collectors) hungry for toys of the on-screen characters. However, some toys began showing up at retailers in the Cincinnati area to coincide with BotCon, followed by wider releases in Canada in May and the U.S. shortly thereafter.

Overview

Unlike the franchises immediately before it, Animated has no overarching, line-wide extra play gimmick, such as Mini-Cons or Cyber Planet Keys. Rather, the line got back to basics, as transforming is the gimmick, and the toys have other special features unique and appropriate to the character (such as triple-changing or interchangeable tools). Like the concurrent live-action film toyline, there was a heavy focus on keeping the small core cast —especially the Autobots— available at multiple price points and complexities to get them in as many kids' hands as possible.

Wreck-Gar

The line's other primary feature is in its synergy with the accompanying cartoon. Where the previous two decades of Transformers had the toys made first then translated to media, and the movie toyline was tasked with creating toys of intricately-complex characters that were not designed to be toys, the Animated line was a previously-unprecedented level of collaboration between toymaker and media-maker. Hasbro designers, the Cartoon Network design team, and TakaraTomy engineers all worked closely together out of the gate to make sure toy and show-character were as close as possible, to the point where even the characters' transformation schemes were consistent between 2D media and 3D toy (such as Bumblebee's breakdancing-like spin-kick from car to robot mode).

This design consistency translated into sculpts with more swooping arcs and softer edges, following head character designer Derrick Wyatt's love of "rounded squares and squared rounds"... with some obvious concessions for physics (wheels, for example, kind of had to be nigh-perfect circles to function). Default stances leaned towards the superheroic, with bulky chests jutting out with broad shoulders and large arms. The color choices (at least for the Hasbro line) were also carefully chosen so the toys would have a more "matte" finish rather than the shinier plastic of past lines, making them look even more like cel-animated characters come to life. Character faces were given much more expression than the default "neutral" non-expression of most Transformers lines, with large eyes, smirks, snarls and more as appropriate to the general attitude of the character.

Of course, such a radical shift in style brought its share of detractors, especially given that the movie had its own out-there interpretation of the robots in disguise... despite the existence of a currently-running older-fan-aimed toyline dedicated to recreating Generation 1 characters in modern forms.

The line was a success, bolstered by its Cartoon Network collaboration. However, it was ultimately cut short, with many toys in the prototype stage intended to tie in with the show's fourth season. A combination of the runaway success of the movie line, mixed with (reported) issues between Hasbro and Cartoon Network —with Hasbro seemingly keen to have its own media outlet it had more control over— brought the line to an end.

Hasbro Animated toyline

General retail

Deluxe Class

Wave 1 Bumblebee Lockdown Cybertron Mode Optimus Prime Prowl		Wave 2 Blackarachnia Autobot Ratchet		Wave 3 Autobot Jazz Oil Slick Snarl Soundwave (w/ Laserbeak)		Wave 4 Elite Guard Bumblebee Sentinel Prime Swoop		Deluxe Bumblebee
Wave 5 Blurr Blazing Lockdown Swindle		Wave 6 Samurai Prowl Waspinator		Wave 7 Freeway Jazz Electrostatic Soundwave (w/ Ratbat)		Canceled Vortex Blurr Hot Shot Toxic Oil Slick Mercenary Swindle Fugitive Waspinator

Voyager Class

Wave 1 Bulkhead Cybertron Mode Megatron Starscream		Wave 2 Optimus Prime		Wave 3 Grimlock Lugnut		Wave 4 Blitzwing		Voyager Lugnut
Wave 5 Shockwave Skywarp		Wave 6 Atomic Lugnut Wreck-Gar		Canceled (TakTom release) Blackout Hydrodrive Bumblebee Wingblade Optimus Prime		Totally canceled Mudbuster Bulkhead Goldfire Grimlock Marauder Megatron Thundercracker

Leader Class

Wave 1 Bulkhead (w/ Headmaster) Megatron

Wave 2 Ultra Magnus

Wave 3 Shadow Blade Megatron

Wave 4 Roadbuster Ultra Magnus

Leader Bulkhead

Supreme Class

Wave 1

Roll-Out Command Optimus Prime

Entertainment Packs

Wave 1 Optimus Prime vs. Megatron: The Battle Begins

Wave 2 Jetstorm and Jetfire

Jetstorm & Jetfire (and combined mode Safeguard)

Activators

The Activators toys are chunkier, simpler, Scout-class-sized toys with one-touch, spring-loaded autotransformations.

Wave 1 Bulkhead Bumblebee Starscream		Wave 2 Lockdown Optimus Prime Autobot Ratchet		Wave 3 Patrol Bumblebee Thundercracker		Wave 4 Megatron Grimlock Bandit Lockdown		Activators Starscream
Wave 5 Cliffjumper Dirge		Wave 6 Fireblast Grimlock Soundwave		Wave 7 Battlefield Bumblebee Armor Up Optimus Prime		Canceled Electromagnetic Soundwave

Bumper Battlers

An expansion on the "Cyber Slammers" subline from the 2007 live-action movie toyline, Bumper Battlers feature "bump-and-transform" action. Hitting the front bumper causes the toy to change into robot mode, and pressing the toy's sigil activates sound effects and speech gimmicks.

Wave 1 Bumblebee Optimus Prime Autobot Ratchet		Wave 2 Autobot Jazz Bulkhead		Wave 3 Sting Racer Bumblebee Nightwatch Optimus Prime		Wave 4 Lockdown Soundwave		Bumper Battler Nightwatch Optimus Prime
Wave 5 (non-US) Workzone Bulkhead Stealth Ninja Jazz		Canceled Autobot Ratchet (redeco)

Power Bots

Giant chunk non-transforming action figures with electronic gimmickry.

Wave 1 Cyber Speed Bumblebee

Wave 2 Street Patrol Bumblebee

Exclusives

Target/Zellers Stealth Lockdown (w/ Bumblebee & Optimus Prime) Rescue Ratchet (w/ Starscream & Prowl) Sunstorm vs Autobot Ratchet Shockwave vs Bumblebee

Toys"R"Us Arcee Ironhide Cybertron Mode Ratchet Rodimus Minor Bulkhead "Super Value" (w/ Bumblebee) Megatron "Super Value" (w/ Starscream) Autobot Ratchet / Bumblebee (UK & German stores only)

Walmart "The Revenge of Blackarachnia" (Optimus Prime vs Blackarachnia) "Battle in Space" (Prowl vs Megatron)

Cybertron Mode Ratchet

McDonald's Happy Meal toys

North America/Europe Bumblebee Lugnut Megatron Optimus Prime Ratchet Starscream Blitzwing (France only)

Latin America Optimus Prime Bumblebee Megatron Starscream

TakaraTomy Animated toyline

Beginning in 2010, TakaraTomy's release of the Animated toy line consists of most of the same toys released in Western markets by Hasbro. Early waves gave the toys extremely shiny metallic paintjobs that actually made them less screen-accurate (and not necessarily more intricate paintjobs at that), but later waves eventually dropped that in favor of the usual assortment of small paint operation changes... though some of those changes did involve shiny paint, so...

Standard retail

Wave 1 (3-27-2010) TA-01 Optimus Prime TA-02 Bumblebee TA-03 Ironhide TA-04 Ratchet TA-05 Prowl TA-06 Megatron TA-07 Starscream TA-08 Lockdown		TA-09 Blackarachnia TA-10 Cliffjumper TA-11 Dirge The Beginning Showdown: Optimus Prime / Megatron Speed of Sound Showdown: Bumblebee / Starscream Fated Showdown: Ratchet / Lockdown		Wave 2 (4-24-2010) TA-12 Arcee TA-13 Blitzwing TA-14 Decepticon Shockwave TA-15 Decepticon Lugnut TA-16 Soundwave Hard Sound Showdown: Ironhide / Soundwave Darkness Showdown: Prowl / Blitzwing		Wave 3 (5-22-2010) TA-17 Grimlock TA-18 Snarl TA-19 Autobot Swoop TA-20 Blackout		Blackout Rodimus Jetpack Bumblebee
Wave 4 (6-19-2010) TA-21 Jetfire TA-22 Jetstorm TA-23 Skywarp TA-24 Thundercracker TA-25 Soundblaster Safeguard		Wave 5 (7-10-2010) TA-26 Megatron		Wave 6 (7-24-2010) TA-27 Ultra Magnus TA-28 Autobot Sentinel TA-29 Autobot Jazz TA-30 Blurr TA-31 Elite Guard Bumblebee TA-32 Wreck-Gar		Wave 7 (8-28-2010) TA-33 Rodimus TA-34 Samurai Prowl TA-35 Sunstorm TA-36 Swindle TA-37 Waspinator
Wave 8 (9-18-2010) TA-38 Wingblade Optimus Prime TA-39 Jetpack Bumblebee TA-40 Ratchet Cybertron Mode		Wave 9 (10-2-2010) TA-41 Optimus Prime TA-42 Oil Slick TA-43 Ironhide TA-44 Armorhide TA-45 Shockwave Original Ver.		Animated Super Collection Vol. 1 (Lockdown, Optimus Prime, Megatron, Ratchet) Animated Super Collection Vol. 2 (Ironhide, Bumblebee, Grimlock, Starscream)		Wave 10 (11-20-2010) TA-46 Blazing Lockdown TA-47 Soundwave Electrostatic

Exclusives & prizes

Apita Prowl Clear Smoke Ver.		Family Mart EZ Collection Limited Clear Version (Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, Prowl, Starscream) Deluxe Class Optimus Prime		Ramjet Skywarp		Hyper Hobby Magazine Black Rodimus		Tokyo Toy Show's Prowl "Elite Guard Ver."
Ito Yokado Bumblebee Clear Yellow Ver. Ramjet Clear White Version		JUSCO Starscream Clear Purple Version Starscream Clone Black Version		Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Clear Version Optimus Prime		Million Publishing Optimus Prime Elite Guard Version
Seibu Optimus Prime Black Ver.		Tokyo Toy Show Prowl Elite Guard Ver.		Toys"R"Us Optimus Prime Clear Red Ver. Skywarp Clear Purple Version
Multiple outlets Silver Bumblebee Optimus Prime Gold Version Megatron Gold Version		Sunstorm Clear Orange Version Thundercracker Clear Blue Version

Post-Animated releases

Even after the original Animated toyline ended, several toys of Animated characters old and new were released in other Transformers lines. However, it wouldn't be until that the mid-2020s that Animated saw a major jump in recognition.

Hasbro releases

Transformers (2007) "The Legacy of Bumblebee" (Classics Bumblebee, "Premium" movie Bumblebee, Animated Bumblebee)

Universe (2008) Bumblebee Optimus Prime Prowl Starscream

Kre-O Bulkhead Captain Lugnut Slipstrike

Legacy Animated Universe Prowl Animated Universe Autotrooper Animated Universe Bumblebee Animated Universe Optimus Prime Animated Universe Motor Master

Age of the Primes Fugitive Waspinator Nemesis Prime Wreck-Gar Animated Ratchet

Legacy Animated Universe Prowl

Hasbro via Fun Publications

Transformers Collectors' Club Cheetor		BotCon 2011 "The Stunti-Con-Job" box set (Breakdown, Dead End, Drag Strip, The Motor Master, Wildrider)		Sideswipe & Toxitron 2-pack Autotroopers 3-pack Fisitron Minerva		Figure Subscription Service Jackpot		BotCon 2011 Wildrider
BotCon 2015 Kreon Headmaster Kreon Sentinel Prime

TakaraTomy releases

Transformers (2010) "Sons of Cybertron" (Optimus Prime and Rodimus)

Legends Slipstream

"Sons of Cybertron" Optimus Prime