Hero Mashers

Has science gone too far... or not far enough???

Hero Mashers is a Hasbro multi-property brand of action figures released in 2014, where the figures can be disassembled and reassembled, with the user being encouraged to mix and match parts between characters to create "Mash-Ups". The line started with Marvel Comics characters (sold as Super Hero Mashers), but soon moved on to add Transformers, Jurassic World, and Star Wars figures to its lineup. A fifth sub-line, Hero Mashers Monsters, based on classic movie monsters, only saw release in Europe, and by 2017 the entire series has sort of spluttered to an end.

The Transformers line of Hero Mashers debuted exclusively at Toys"R"Us in June 2014, with a subsequent wider release in August. The series lived up to its name by featuring a mash-up of characters from different franchises, including Generation 1, Animated, Prime, Age of Extinction, 2015's Robots in Disguise and even Shattered Glass!

The entire lineup is succeeded by MixMashers, a toyline that inherited its play pattern.

Play pattern

Parts is parts.

Hero Mashers figures are based on a universal ratcheting balljoint system, where joints are permanently affixed to a larger part at one end, somewhat limiting the range of motion. Most figures break down into eight parts: torso (with permanently-attached shoulders/biceps), head, left & right forearms, left & right thighs, and left & right boots. Bestial figures typically have an extra removable tail piece. Early figures in the line had ball-jointed ankles and shoulders, but both joints were quickly (but not simultaneously) removed, possibly for budget reasons, possibly to prevent confusion and damage from kids trying to pull apart permanently-affixed joints that look exactly like the pull-apart ones. The shoulders were replaced with a simple single-plane swivel joint, the ankle joints were just excised completely.

Virtually all Hero Mashers figures are the same size, with larger kits being filled out with extra body parts, more accessories, and even vehicles in non-Transformers lines. Every part of the figure (except for the head) has at least one 4mm wide accessory-mounting port on it; figure accessories have a smaller mounting peg at the end of a thicker 6mm post. Most toys have one closed fist with a 4mm hole and one open fist for the 6mm post. And yes, this means that the accessories are incompatible with most modern Transformers toys, dangit.

As seen in the main picture above, the universal jointing and peg-sizing means that parts can be swapped and chained together to make some absolutely freakish combinations, even before you start mixing and mashing between franchises.

Toys

Action Figures

Action Figures are the line's basic assortment, including a figure and one or two simple weapon accessories. Waves 1 and 2 featured mostly Generation 1 characters, while waves 3 and 4 focused solely on Robots in Disguise characters.

Wave 1 Bumblebee Autobot Drift Autobot Springer Starscream		Wave 2 Autobot Heatwave Rodimus Jetfire		Wave 3 Bumblebee Sideswipe Steeljaw		Wave 4 Clampdown Optimus Prime Strongarm	Springer
Cancelled product Bisk Drift Fracture		Jazz Quillfire Thunderhoof

Waves 3 and 4 were originally only available at retail in Canada, Australia and Europe. Wave 3 eventually saw release in the US through Marshalls and TJ Maxx stores during the 2015 holiday season. Wave 4... did not.

Battle Upgrade Figures

Battle Upgrade Figures include a figure and several larger weapon accessories, along with a body part from another character.

Wave 1 Bulkhead (with Cliffjumper arm) Megatron (with Skywarp arm) Optimus Prime (with Ultra Magnus arm)

Wave 2 Dinobot Slug (with Snarl tail) Soundwave (with Sideswipe arm)

Megatron

Electronic Action Figures

Electronic Action Figures include a figure with a large number of weapon and armor accessories, plus electronic parts used to light up clear-plastic accessories.

Wave 1 Electronic Grimlock Electronic Optimus Prime

Grimlock

Multi-packs

Bumblebee & Strafe Team Pack

Strafe

Notes

• An early image distributed to retailers by Hasbro (seen at right) showed preliminary versions of Hero Mashers products with differences to the finalised toys; most notably, the toy released as Drift is decked out in the colours of Generation 1 Bludgeon. No Hero Mashers toy of Bludgeon was ever solicited, however, and the prototype still features an Autobot insignia.
• Transformers Hero Mashers packages prior to the Robots in Disguise-based figures bear the Beast Hunters logo on their back, even though the figures resemble characters from other continuities.
• Had the Transformers portion of the Hero Mashers line not been canceled, it would have continued with more Robots in Disguise-based figures: Quillfire, Thunderhoof, Fracture, Bisk, Jazz and Drift were found listed at Amazon complete with assigned Hasbro product code numbers and UPC barcodes (but sadly without images).

See also

• Revoltech
• MyClone