Co-branding

Twelve products, twelve brands. Fairly straightforward, no?

Co-branding refers to a line or sub-set of toys with its own name and logo that is additionally also branded as part of other, larger lines for some, but not all of its releases. This is different from subline imprints, which are a subset of one specific toy line; if the same subline imprint was used for several concurrent or consecutive lines, it could be considered co-branding. Co-branding is also not the same as a multi-property brand, which spans several different properties; however, there is some overlap, as the Transformers portion of several multi-property brands is additionally also co-branded as part of other Transformers lines.

Examples

• The more widely distributed Built to Rule Transformers sets were co-branded as part of the Armada line, while a few more sets co-branded as part of the Energon line saw limited distribution.
• The Transformers portion of the Titanium Series originally started out as its own line, but was later absorbed into the 2007 Movie line, with some exclusive redecos later released as part of the 2008 Universe and Revenge of the Fallen lines.
• The initial waves of Robot Heroes, while containing Generation 1 characters, were released in packaging design evocative of the packaging style used for the concurrently released 2007 Movie figures. Later waves actually did feature Movie-based characters. The Robot Heroes range later continued as part of the 2008 Universe and Revenge of the Fallen lines.
• Cyberverse originally started out as part of the Dark of the Moon toy line and later continued under Transformers: Prime and its Beast Hunters subline imprint. Three of the four wave 2 figures from Legion Class Series 2 lacked the Prime moniker on their United States market packaging (but retained it on their European market packaging); furthermore, Evac, one of the figures, was additionally also released in Universal Studios packaging. In return, the Beast Hunters figures relegated the Cyberverse logo to the back of the United States market packaging and dropped it completely from the European market packaging.
• Kre-O originally started out as its own line, but later sets were co-branded as part of the Beast Hunters and Age of Extinction lines. In addition, the Awesome Autobots Activity Book is co-branded as Transformers: Prime and Kre-O.
• The Thrilling 30 anniversary campaign logo appears on Generations and Platinum Edition packaging.
• Platinum Edition itself got co-branded Age of Extinction in 2014.