Transformers: Prime (toyline)

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The Transformers: Prime toyline hit shelves in November 2011. Originally, Hasbro played coy with the series receiving a toyline at all, emphasizing that it was a television series first and foremost. There were initial plans to release a small assortment of three Deluxe figures (Bumblebee, Arcee and Starscream) in the Generations line before they were moved into the expanded "First Edition" launch line.

Hasbro Prime toyline

First Edition (2011)

The first assortment of Prime toys are more collector-aimed, with more intricate transformation schemes than later iterations.

The First Edition toys had a spotty, messy release in the US. Only the first wave of Deluxes made it to some stores at first, with fans having to turn to Canada and Asian markets for later releases. Eventually, in late 2012, ToysЯUs picked up the whole "First Edition" line as part of a huge block of US market exclusives for the holiday season.

Deluxes

Wave 1 Arcee Bumblebee Starscream

Wave 1.5 Cliffjumper

Wave 2 Terrorcon Cliffjumper Vehicon

First Edition Arcee

Voyager Class

Wave 1 Bulkhead Optimus Prime

Entertainment Pack

• Optimus Prime vs Megatron: A Rivalry Reborn
  • Includes Jack Darby, Miko Nakadai, and Raf Esquivel

Exclusives

San Diego Comic-Con 2011 Matrix of Leadership Optimus Prime

New York Comic-Con 2011 Bumblebee / Arcee, Includes Raf Esquivel and Jack Darby

Pretty in Pink, she is not.

Robots in Disguise (2012)

Finally releasing well after the Prime cartoon had premiered and run through several episodes, the "real" Prime toyline was bent a little more towards kids, with simpler transformations than the First Edition toys (including "false" vehicle-mode parts sculpted into purely robot-mode bits) and a handful of smaller play gimmicks.

Deluxe Class

Deluxe class figures feature a dynamic "head reveal" gimmick: the robot-mode heads pop out during transformation via spring-loaded or gear-operated gimmickry, or occasionally by simple manually-operated panel-flipping. Internally, these figures were referred to by Hasbro as "Revealers".

Wave 1 Bumblebee Cliffjumper Soundwave Wheeljack		Wave 2 Arcee Autobot Ratchet		Wave 3 Hot Shot Knock Out Vehicon		Wave 4 Airachnid Shadow Strike Bumblebee Dead End		Vehicon
Wave 5 Sergeant Kup Rumble

Voyager Class

Voyager figures all feature a spring-loaded MechTech-style transforming weapon, partially constructed from translucent plastic, which lights up via LED when the weapon is deployed. The figures themselves also feature translucent plastic, so the moving LED creates the image of energon power "flowing" from the character's bodies into their weapons. This worked better in theory than in practice. Internally, these figures were referred to by Hasbro as "Powerizers".

Wave 1 Megatron Optimus Prime		Wave 2 Bulkhead Starscream		Wave 3 Dreadwing		Wave 4 Ultra Magnus Thundertron		Voyager Skyquake, who barely made it out at retail.
Wave 5 Skyquake

Weaponizers

Weaponizer Optimus Prime

A new size class, Weaponizer Class figures are similar in size to Leader Class toys of previous lines, but with simpler transformations. They feature light-up parts and spinning mini-guns that can deploy in either mode.

Wave 1

Optimus Prime

Bumblebee

Entertainment Pack

• Bumblebee vs. Starscream: Ultimate Opponents
  (w/ Silas and MECH soldier)

Exclusives

In a rare move, the only exclusives for the regular Prime line in the US were from BigBadToyStore, an online store. These "Dark Energon" figures are all redecos done in mainly translucent plastics.

All of the figures were available at general retail in Singapore and Malaysia, and the Voyager Class figures were also available at general retail in the Philippines.

Deluxe Class Bumblebee Knock Out Starscream Wheeljack

Voyager Class Megatron Optimus Prime

Dark Energon Megatron

Asian-market exclusives

• Optimus Prime & Gaia Unicron two-pack

Beast Hunters (2013)

In 2013, Prime shifted to the Beast Hunters subline imprint, a branding that also extended into the Kre-O line.

This series introduced the dangerous Predacon faction, robotic dragons and mythical creatures that posed a threat to Autobot and Decepticon alike. spiky, over-weaponized vehicles reminiscent of Mad Max (for Autobots), or vehicles with beastly traits (for Decepticons). On-package bios were reduced in length to just a sentence or two, and the instruction sheets instead feature facts about one of the figure's main weapons, as well as a chapter of the Tales of the Beast Hunters prose story.

The final waves of this line, released in early 2014, really pushed towards younger kids, with incredibly simplified designs based on the characters' Cyberverse releases, which actually allowed the toys to be larger than most others in their size class. Unfortunately, as they were tail-enders, their US releases were nearly nonexistant: only the Voyagers made it out at US retail, and only through discount chains like Ross and TJ Maxx.

Deluxe Class

Wave 1 Bumblebee Soundwave (w/ Ravage) Lazerback Wheeljack		Wave 2 Starscream Ripclaw Bulkhead Smokescreen		Wave 3 Skystalker Autobot Ratchet Dreadwing		Wave 4 Wave 4 Arcee Knock Out Vertebreak		Beast Hunters Soundwave
Wave 5 Night Shadow Bumblebee Prowl		Wave 6 (EU only) Bumblebee Smokescreen Twinstrike Windrazor

Voyager Class

Wave 1 Optimus Prime Predaking		Wave 2 Shockwave		Wave 3 Grimwing (w/ Blackbeak) Ultra Magnus		Wave 4 Megatron/Sharkticon Megatron		voyager Shockwave
Wave 5 Optimus Prime Predaking

Battlemaster Class

Beast Tracker Optimus Prime

Basically just a re-naming of the prior year's Weaponizer Class toys, redecoed and retooled with some new gear.

Beast Tracker Optimus Prime

Talking Bumblebee

Ultimate Class

Beast Fire Predaking, an Ultimate Class figure. Now where's that gunpowder?

A new size class, Ultimate Class figures are larger than Leader Class toys of previous lines, but have simpler transformations like the Weaponizer Class toys. They feature light-up gimmicks and spring-loaded missile launchers in some form. They also ship in separate assortments due to their differently shaped boxes.

• Beast Hunter Optimus Prime with Firebreath Cyclocannons and Chapter 17
• Beast Fire Predaking with Infernum Blade and Chapter 18

Beast Fire Predaking was available as general retail release in regular Beast Hunters packaging in various international markets such as Canada, Singapore, the Philippines, and Australia. In the United States, he was sold, without any changes to the toy itself, as a Target exclusive in Predacons Rising packaging instead.

Cyberverse The Cyberverse figures for the third series adapted the Beast Hunters theme, in the retooling of old molds, as well as the introduction of new molds (particularly for the new characters/forms, the Predacons, and the molds originally intended for Series 2 before moving to Series 3).

Kre-O

Exclusives

Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising (Target)

Convention exclusives

• Shockwave's Lab (US version), contains:
  • Shockwave (redeco of Voyager Class Shockwave)
  • Predaking (redeco of Commander Class Predaking)

This set was exclusive to Hasbro Toy Shop and San Diego Comic-Con 2013.

• Shockwave's Lab (Asian version), contains:
  • Shockwave (redeco of Voyager Class Shockwave)
  • Predaking (redeco of Commander Class Predaking)

This set was exclusive to Cybertron Con and is basically a slightly altered version of the Hasbro Toy Shop/San Diego Comic Con version, down to nearly identical packaging. Whereas Shockwave is identical to the Hasbto Toy Shop/San Diego Comic Con exclusive version, Predaking is cast in differently colored plastic.

• "First Edition" Beast Hunter Optimus Prime (unchanged Ultimate Class Beast Hunter Optimus Prime)

This set was exclusive to CybertronCon. While the figure itself is unchanged, it has been packaged in the box with his backpack plugged into his back, allowing the cannons to rotate when his spiky stomach-fenders are pushed down. The box itself also has slightly different text and graphical layouts, is encased in a large, slip-on outer covering. The "First Edition" prefix comes from Hasbro's Facebook retrospective of the numbered "Thrilling 30" figures and doesn't appear anywhere on the packaging itself.

European Toys"R"Us exclusive

• Optimus Prime vs Predaking (minor redecos of Voyager Class Optimus Prime and Predaking)

Thus far, this two-pack has been found at Toys"R"Us stores in Portugal, the United Kingdom, Germany and France; in Germany, it was explicitly advertised as a Toys"R"Us exclusive. Since the only known official stock photos have shown this two-pack in multilingual European packaging, it's very likely that this has always been intended as a European market exclusive; however, it has also been found at general retail in Brazil.

Takara Prime toyline

In Japan, TakaraTomy decided to take the post-"First Edition" line in a completely different direction, refocusing it around the model-kit-esque Arms Micron gimmick and removing a significant portion of many toys' paint operations in lieu of user-applied stickers. These toys were sold under the "Arms Micron" subtitle.

• 005 Megatron (single pack release of Deluxe class Megatron from the Entertainment Pack released in Hasbro's territories)

Sharing the same ID number as Terrorcon Cliffjumper, Japan's 005 Megatron may not have been a release that was planned by Hasbro.

• Shining Optimus Prime - redeco of FE Voyager Optimus Prime, available exclusively at the Tokyo Toy Show 2012
• Dark Guard Optimus Prime - redeco of FE Voyager Optimus Prime, available exclusively at Yodobashi Camera, Big Camera, Toys"R"Us, and Aeon stores.

Arms Micron

Autobot Peaceman, a promotional Arms Micron figure

• Aimless - redeco of Power Core Combiners Throttler, available with the purchase of 3000 yen's worth of Prime "First Edition" toys at Japanese Toys"R"Us.

• Blowpipe - redeco of Power Core Combiners Groundspike, available with the purchase of 3000 yen's worth of Prime "First Edition" toys at Yamada Denki, Yodobashi Camera, Edition Group, Ishimaru, Deodeo, Eiden, and Midori stores.
• Autobot Peaceman - redeco of Power Core Combiners Chopster, available with the purchase of 3000 yen's worth of Prime "First Edition" toys at Joshin, Kidsland, and Bic Camera stores.
• Autobot Firebolt Clear Yellow Ver. - unchanged Power Core Combiners Pinpoint, given for free by participating in a character vote at the Next Generation World Hobby Fair.

War Breakdown, a Japanese-exclusive Voyager Class figure

• AM-06 Skywarp - redeco/retool of FE Starscream
• AM-12 War Breakdown
• AM-16 Jet Vehicon - redeco/retool of RID Vehicon
• AM-17 Swerve - redeco/retool of Voyager War Breakdown
• AM-19 Gaia Unicron
• AM-20 Ironhide - redeco of Deluxe Sergeant Kup
• AM-24 Silas Breakdown - redeco/retool of War Breakdown
• AM-25 Nemesis Prime - redeco/retool of RID Optimus Prime
• AM-26 Smokescreen - redeco/retool of Deluxe Knockout
• AM-28 Leo Prime - redeco of Voyager Thundertron
• AM-29 Shockwave - redeco/retool of Generations Fall of Cybertron Deluxe Shockwave
• AM-30 Rumble - redeco of Deluxe Rumble with alternate head
• AM-31 Frenzy - redeco of Deluxe Rumble with alternate head
• AM-32 Stunt Wildrider - redeco/retool of Deluxe Wheeljack
• AM-33 Final Battle Megatron - redeco of Voyager Megatron
• AM-34 Jet Vehicon General - redeco of Jet Vehicon
• Autobot Firebolt - redeco of Power Core Combiners Pinpoint, available with the online pre-order of AM-01 Optimus Prime through Amazon.com, ion, ToysЯUs, Bic Camera, and Yodobashi Camera.
• Battle Shield Optimus - redeco/retool of RID Optimus Prime, available exclusively at ToysЯUs.
• Terrorcon Bumblebee - redeco/retool of RID Bumblebee, available exclusively at AEON stores.
• AM-EX Orion Pax - redeco of Deluxe Optimus Prime, available exclusively at Bic Camera and Joshin Kids' Land.
• AM-EX Thundercracker - redeco/retool of FE Starscream, available exclusively at Yodobashi Camera, Yamada Electronics, and EIDON group stores.

Merchandise

• Optimus Prime Stand-up Mover
• Bumblebee Stand-up Mover

Roleplay

• Bumblebee Ion Blaster

Battle Masks

• Optimus Prime Battle Mask
• Bumblebee Battle Mask

Energon Helmet

• Optimus Prime Energon Helmet

Notes

• Hasbro applied for a Beast Hunters video game trademark on December 17th 2012, leading to speculation of a possible Beast Hunters game. With no news after that and the marketing shift to Age of Extinction, any video game appears to have been canned.