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Basically, you make him do yoga.

All Transformers toys that can be transformed converted between different modes come with instructions. Usually, those are included in the form of a sheet of paper (once called "instruction booklet"); however, some smaller toys have them printed on the back of their packaging instead (usually only for toys that come packaged on blister cards).

Instructions always give visual directions for how to convert the toy between its different modes and, if applicable, how to use its gimmicks and action features, either in the form or photos of the toy itself (or a prototype) or simplified line artwork. Additional text explanations were common in the early days of the brand, but have since been dropped at least as far as Hasbro's market is concerned.

If the toy includes loose accessories, the instructions will also depict the entire content of the package.

Formats of instructions

Instructions printed on the back of the packaging

The first Transformers toys that featured instructions printed on the back of their blister cards were the Generation 1 Mini-Cars/Mini-Vehicles such as Bumblebee, Cliffjumper or Beachcomber, and the Mini-Cassette two-packs such as Ravage/Rumble or Laserbeak/Frenzy.

Throughout the Generation 1 line, all toys that came packaged on blister cards (such as combiner limbs, Micromaster Patrols or single Action Master figures) had their instructions printed on the back of their blister cards.

With the Generation 2 toy line, this started to change: Smaller toys such as the Mini-Cars, the Go-Bots, the Constructicons and the Combiner limbs still had their instructions printed on the back of their blister cards; however, more complex toys such as the Autobot Cars, the Decepticon Jets, the Dinobots or the "Hero" versions of Optimus Prime and Megatron already came with instruction booklets included inside the blister bubble.

Beast Wars introduced uniform size classes that are, by and large, still used today. The Basic and Deluxe figures, which came packaged on blister cards, once again featured their instructions printed on the back of their cards. Beast Machines continued this trend, now also including the short-lived price points Deployers and Beast Riders.

The Machine Wars toys all had their instructions printed on the back of their packaging, even larger toys such as Optimus Prime, Starscream or Soundwave that came packaged in boxes.

Robots in Disguise finally abandoned the practice of printing instructions on the back of blister cards altogether: Even the simplistic Spy Changers or the Armada line's Mini-Con three-packs featured instruction sheets included inside the blister bubble. The only Transformers toys since then to feature instructions printed on the back of their blister cards are the small Legends Class toys originally launched during the Cybertron line, and only the ones that are released as single packs. Even the "AllSpark Battles" two-packs from the 2007 Movie toy line came with instruction sheets included inside their blister bubbles instead.

Instruction sheets ("booklets")

Ever since the launch of the original Transformers toy line, all toys (with the exception of the Machine Wars toys) that come packaged in boxes have featured their instructions printed on a sheet of paper that is included inside the packaging. For more recent lines, this also applied to most toys that come packaged on blister cards.

Up until 1989, the sheet was officially called an "instruction booklet". The sheets originally came in a format slightly larger than a playing card and could be folded out horizontally, printed on both sides. Larger toys such as Omega Supreme, combiner torsos (which also included instructions for the gestalt form's assembly), combiner giftsets, Metroplex, Trypticon, Fortress Maximus or Scorponok additionally also had to be folded out vertically.

The Generation 2, Beast Wars and Beast Machines line all kept the established format largely unchanged. The first main change to the format was introduced with the Robots in Disguise line, when the vertical fold no longer matched the horizontal rows from the instructions, and many instructions had to be folded out primarily downwards rather than sideways.

Finally, with the Alternators line, Hasbro started to print the instructions entirely on one side of the sheet, leaving the other side blank. With the launch of the Cybertron line, Hasbro also started to apply that format to their other Transformers lines, which affected later toys from the original Universe line. The Cybertron Mini-Con two-packs were an unusual exception in that they still featured double-sided instructions. Since then, the only toys that continue to use double-sided instruction sheets are Ultra, Leader and Supreme Class figures and other large toys such as Movie Ultimate Bumblebee. There's no cut-and-dry rule, however—Human Alliance Bumblebee from the Revenge of the Fallen comes with double-sided instructions, while Human Alliance Sideswipe from the same line features a one-sided instruction sheet.

Genuine booklets

Takara used actual stapled booklets for their Binaltech line, where one had to flip through the individual pages. In addition to the actual instructions themselves, those booklets also contained a small gallery of the toy with highlights and text descriptions of various features, a fictional "system description" of the Transformers character, a text-only chapter of Hirofumi Ichikawa's "Binaltech Story" and technical details of the real-life vehicle mode.

Visual directions

Photos of toys

All toys from Hasbro's 1984 Generation 1 line-up used full-color photos of the toys themselves to illustrate their instructions. The toys used were actually either prototypes or recycled Diaclone or Micro Change production toys. This is most evident in the case of Bluestreak, whose instructions depict him in the infamous blue and silver Diaclone color scheme, whereas the actual Transformers toy is entirely silver and sports a different deco. The Optimus Prime depicted in the instructions, referred to as "Photoshoot Prime" by some variant collectors, also has properties found on various known variant of the toy released in the USA, but not all one the same single specimen.

Starting in 1985, all toys stopped using photos for their instructions, now using line art depictions instead. This only applied to new toys; all the toys that had already been available in 1984 continued to feature photographic instructions.

Meanwhile, Takara used gray-scaled versions of the photos from Hasbro's instructions where available, and line art for the rest. An unusual case was Megatron, who used toy photos in addition to the mainly line-art-only instructions.

The "Classics" re-issues of older toys which were available in Europe in 1990 and 1991 recycled the instructions of the original releases, which included photographic instructions for toys originally released in 1984.

Takara used color photos of the actual toys (or a colored prototype) for some Beast Wars Metals toys such as Jaguar.

Hasbro briefly returned to photographic illustrations for instructions with the 2001 lineup of the Beast Machines, when they suddenly replaced the line art with photos of gray prototypes, highlighting the important parts for each transformation step in red (which was added in post-production). The Dinobots were an exception to this, as they still used line art for their instructions. With Robots in Disguise, Hasbro returned to line art for their instructions, which they have used for all their Transformers lines ever since.

Takara later also used photos of gray prototypes for their Galaxy Force instructions, also highlighting the important parts for each transformation step in red.

Trivia

• With the second wave of the 2008 Universe line, Hasbro changed multi-language text blurbs such as "Change to robot" in their European instructions from mixed case to upper case. Somehow, however, a weird error sneaked its way in: The Greek version of "Change to robot", previously correctly rendered as "Αλλαγή σε Ρομποτ" in mixed case, was changed to "ΑΛΛΑΓΗ ΣΕ ΚΑΤΑΠΕΛΤΗ" in uppercase... which translates as "Change to catapult".