Transformers Animated (toyline)

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Putting the "cool" in "Playskool".

The Transformers Animated toyline merges the more expressive design style of the cartoon with extremely poseable robot forms (to a degree which seemed pleasantly surprising even to Hasbro). Unlike the franchises immediately before it, there is no overarching, line-wide gimmick (such as Mini-Cons or Cyber Planet Keys). Rather, transforming is the gimmick, and the toys have other special features unique and appropriate to the character (such as triple-changing or interchangeable tools). While the designs originated with Hasbro and the Cartoon Network team, TakaraTomy stepped up to the plate to engineer the toys. The line debuted on July 1, 2007, at Hasbro's Future Products panel at BotCon.

Hasbro, citing the strength of the movie toyline, postponed the official release of the Animated toyline to June 22, 2008 in the US. 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.

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		Wave 4 Elite Guard Bumblebee Sentinel Prime Swoop		File:Bumblebee anim toy.jpg Deluxe Bumblebee
Wave 5 Blurr Blazing Lockdown Swindle		Wave 6 Samurai Prowl Waspinator		Wave 7 Freeway Jazz Electrostatic Soundwave		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		File:Lugnut animated toy.JPG 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 Class Ultra Magnus

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		File:Activatorsstarscream.jpg Activators Starscream
Wave 5 Cliffjumper Dirge		Wave 6 Fireblast Grimlock Soundwave		Wave 7 Armor Up Optimus Prime Battlefield Bumblebee		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

ToysЯUs 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" (Cybertron Optimus Prime vs Blackarachnia) "Battle in Space" (Prowl vs Megatron)

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

Post-Animated releases

Even after the original Animated toyline ended, several toys of Animated characters old and new were released in other Transformers lines.

Live-action movie toyline

• "The Legacy of Bumblebee" three-pack (movie-inspired minor redeco of Classic Deluxe Bumblebee, regular Movie Deluxe Class "Premium" Bumblebee and regular Animated Deluxe Class Bumblebee)

Universe (2008)

Legends Class Wave 3 Optimus Prime Bumblebee Prowl

Legends Class Wave 4 Starscream

Timelines

Transformers Collectors' Club Cheetor

BotCon 2011 "The Stunti-Con-Job" box set (Breakdown, Dead End, Drag Strip, The Motor Master, Wildrider) Sideswipe and Toxitron 2-pack Autotroopers 3-pack Minerva Fisitron

Figure Subscription Service Jackpot

TakaraTomy releases

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 (and not necessarily more intricate ones at that), but later waves eventually dropped that in favor of the usual assortment of small paint operation changes.

Standard retail

Wave 1 (March 27, 2010) Blackarachnia Bumblebee Cliffjumper Dirge Ironhide Lockdown Megatron		Optimus Prime Prowl Ratchet Starscream SET A Optimus Prime vs Megatron SET B Bumblebee vs Starscream SET C Ratchet vs Lockdown		Wave 2 (April 24, 2010) Arcee Blitzwing Decepticon Lugnut Decepticon Shockwave Soundwave SET D Ironhide vs Soundwave SET E Prowl vs Blitzwing		Wave 3 (May 22, 2010) Blackout Grimlock Snarl Autobot Swoop
Wave 4 (June 19, 2010) Jetfire Jetstorm Skywarp Soundblaster Thundercracker SET G Safeguard		Wave 5 (July 10, 2010) Megatron		Wave 6 (July 24, 2010) Blurr Elite Guard Bumblebee Jazz Sentinel Ultra Magnus Wreck-Gar		Wave 7 (August 28, 2010) Samurai Prowl Rodimus Sunstorm Swindle Waspinator
Wave 8 (September 18, 2010) Jetpack Bumblebee Wingblade Optimus Prime Ratchet Cybertron Mode		Wave 9 (October 2, 2010) Armorhide Ironhide Light & Sound Oil Slick Optimus Prime Light & Sound Shockwave Original Ver.		Wave 10 (November 20, 2010) Blazing Lockdown Soundwave Electrostatic

Criticisms

Since the first wave of Animated toys were released, there have been multiple complaints of poor quality paint applications, sloppy paint applications, and very greasy ball and hinge joints. There are also complaints over certain breakage issues, such as Lockdown's wrists, and toy functionality being limited by support struts added to prevent breakage, such as with Voyager Megatron's cannon and Bumblebee's stingers being unable to position properly.

Most of these issues can be fixed with relative ease.

Also, Takara's releases tend to correct the QC problems but not the molding errors.