Franchises

Headmasters jplogo.jpg

A franchise, for lack of a better term, is an incarnation or "generation" of the Transformers brand. The word is used here to refer to the collection of not just toys, but also media, merchandise, and ideas that surround each of these incarnations. Because of these other elements, the word "toyline" would not be broad enough; the toyline is just the toy component of the whole thing.

Hasbro franchises

There have been many franchises over the two decades that Transformers has been around. A list follows.

"Flagship" lines—generally those containing the bulk of new-mold toys and supported by an animated cartoon and other marketing—are listed in bold. Many of the minor "franchises" are little more than toylines, either with little or no fiction, or else new iterations of previous franchises, primarily Generation 1.

• 1984–1991, 2001– : For the first eight years, there was no "franchise" as such; the brand of "The Transformers" alone was used on the toyline and associated media (such as the Sunbow cartoon and Marvel comics). When that toyline was resurrected in the early 2000s, it was retroactively dubbed Generation 1. New Generation 1 media and toys continue to be produced to this day.

• 1990–1991: Classics was the name of a Generation 1 subline in Europe and Australia, reissuing many toys originating from 1984 through 1987.
  

• 1993–1995: Transformers: Generation 2 was a relaunch of the toy line, a mix of old and new toy designs. A new comic continued the story of the Marvel Generation 1 comics, while the Generation 1 cartoon was re-edited and rebroadcast.

• 1996–2001: Beast Wars: Transformers changed the direction of the line with robots that changed into "realistically"-styled animals and soon moved into other varieties of animal-alt-mode robots. It was supported by a CGI cartoon.
  

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• 1997: Machine Wars: Transformers was a limited line of redecorated older toys, released to capitalize on the popularity of Beast Wars. Fiction was limited to on-package bios.

• 1999: Animorphs was a short-lived franchise using the Transformers name but unrelated with regard to fictional backstory. As this line was in support of a non-Transformers fictional universe, no specific fiction was tied to the toy line.

File:BeastMachines Logo.jpg

• 2000–2001: Beast Machines: Transformers continued the directions of Beast Wars and added futuristic vehicles to the mix. The latter portion of this franchise was subtitled "The Battle for the Spark". Like Beast Wars, it was supported by a CGI cartoon.
  

• 2001–2002: 1-2-3 Transformers was a short-lived line of large, simple toys aimed at younger children. The line's niche was later filled by the Go-Bots line. No fiction exists for this franchise.

• 2001–2003: Transformers: Robots in Disguise was a port of the Japanese Car Robots toyline and cartoon, padded out with additional toys in the United States.
  

• 2002: Transformers: Expanded Universe was a short-lived labeling of BotCon toys. It was used solely for BotCon 2002 and only consisted of CatSCAN, Cyclonus, Glyph, and Tap-Out. For simplicity, most people combine this line with the later Universe line.

• 2002–2003: Transformers: Armada marked a new beginning for the toys and fiction, heralded by the addition of the Mini-Con faction. The latter portion of the franchise was subtitled "The Unicron Battles". It was marketed in Japan as Micron Legend. The toyline was supported by a full cartoon series, comic book, pack-in mini-comics, on-line bios, and a great deal of ancillary merchandise.
  

• 2002–2005: The The Transformers: Generation One Commemorative Series consisted of reissued toys from the first three years of Generation 1, primarily available at Toys "R" Us. The toys had been previously reissued by Takara in Japan in the Transformers Collection line. As a reissue line, fiction was limited solely to on-package bios. Effectively ended in 2004, with two more delayed releases coming out in 2005.
  

• 2003–2008: Transformers: Universe supplemented the wildly successful Armada with redecoes of older toys and convention-based fiction. Package blurbs provided a general fictional overview, and the line was briefly supported by a comic book. Largely ended in 2005, but still continued in one form or another until early 2008.

• 2003: Built to Rule consisted of Lego-compatible building blocks used to assemble various transformable Armada characters. It received no fiction independent of Armada.
  

Gobots logo.jpg

• 2002–2005: Transformers: Go-Bots, which also went by the names Playskool Big Adventures: Transformers and just Go-Bots, introduced a line of larger, simple toys aimed at children too young for the mainline toys. Fiction included on-package bios and a short-lived cartoon.
  

• 2003–2005: Transformers: Energon followed up on Armada. The latter portion of the franchise was subtitled "The Powerlinx Battles". It was marketed in Japan as Super Link. Fiction included a full cartoon series, a comic book, pack-in mini-comics, and on-line bios.
  

• 2003–2006: Transformers: Alternators, a toy-only franchise, combined licensed, 1/24th-scale replica vehicles with complex transformations and Generation 1 characters. It was marketed in Japan as Binaltech, where the toys were packaged with bios and short stories that fleshed out the line's place in continuity. Sadly, the American franchise received no fiction beyond on-package character quotes for the later toys, a brief summary of the original setting of the Japanese Binaltech story revealed through a promotional Mazda website, and a single toy bio that was never officially released.
  

File:Cybertron-Logo.jpg

• 2005–2006: Transformers: Cybertron completed the arc begun by Armada, capping off the "Unicron Trilogy". The latter portion of the franchise was subtitled "Primus Unleashed". It was marketed in Japan as Galaxy Force. Fiction included a cartoon, on-package blurbs and pack-in "Planet Maps" with character bios and profiles of various worlds.

• 2006–2008: Star Wars Transformers combined the transforming play pattern with the characters and vehicles of the popular movie franchise. Fiction was limited to on-package bios, as this line was in support of a non-Transformers fictional universe.

• 2006: The Transformers: Beast Wars 10th Anniversary limited line featured six reissues of older Beast Wars toys with special packaging, new decos and bonus features, and two all-new molds. Fiction included on-package bios and pack-in DVDs of Beast Wars cartoon episodes.
  

File:Classicslogo.jpg

• 2006–2007: Classics was a line of rehashed Generation 1 characters intended to be a stopgap while the 2007 movie toys were being prepared. Its success prompted Hasbro to continue it as the "Classic Series" under the 2008 Universe line. Fiction was limited to a fan club comic.

• 2006–2009: The Titanium Series was aimed specifically at fans, with a range of characters from older franchises and more obscure corners of the fiction, and die-cast metal designs. As the characters are all based on previous franchises, fiction consisted solely of on-package bios. Effectively ended in 2007, with a few delayed releases coming out as exclusives as late as 2009. Later releases were co-branded as part of the Movie line, Universe or Revenge of the Fallen.
  

• 2007–2008: The "Movie" franchise marked a new level for Transformers, with Transformers as its centerpiece. The later portion of the toyline, primarily consisting of redecos, was subtitled "AllSpark Power", followed by a short-lived second expansion, the Premium Series. In addition to the movie itself, fiction included various comics, bios, package blurbs, and other ancillary merchandise.
  

Transformersanimated franchise logo.png

• 2008– : Transformers Animated is the first American-written cartoon franchise in just under a decade. It carries on the brand with a new look and some old familiar faces. Fiction includes the cartoon, a comic book series, and on-package bios.
  

• 2008–2009: Transformers: Universe re-uses the catch-all name of several years prior, but is a new umbrella franchise covering products not falling under either Crossovers or Animated. It is not slated to receive any fiction except for on-package bios.

• 2008– : Transformers: Crossovers rebrands the Star Wars Transformers line, as well as bringing in transforming Marvel characters, following Hasbro's acquisition of the Marvel license.
  

• 2009–2010: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen continues in the live-action film direction begun by Transformers. The later portion of the toyline, was subtitled "N.E.S.T. Global Alliance".
  

• 2010: Transformers: War for Cybertron is the first franchise in the Aligned continuity family.
  

• 2010– : Transformers: Generations continues on from 2008's Universe to be the catch-all franchise covering products not falling under the concurrent Transformers (2010) toyline. It is not slated to receive any fiction except for on-package bios although it includes characters from the game War for Cybertron.
  

• 2010–2011: the non-subtitled Transformers toyline builds on the Revenge of the Fallen toyline but also includes other toys and characters, acting as a general celebration of the Transformers lineage. Sub-sections of this franchise include the Hunt for the Decepticons promotion and the Reveal the Shield subline. Reveal the Shield covers the same territory as the concurrent Generations line, recreating classic characters with new modern designs.

• 2010– : Transformers: Prime is intended to serve as a basis for the core Transformers line for some time to come. The line began with video games, comics, and a CGI TV show. The toyline began in late 2011 with the subline "First Edition", followed by "Robots in Disguise" in early 2012.
  

• 2011 : Transformers: Dark of the Moon is built around the third live-action feature film.
  

• 2014 : Transformers: Age of Extinction is built around the fourth live-action feature film.
  

• 2017 : Transformers: The Last Knight is built around the fifth live-action feature film.
  

Takara franchises

Generation 1

Beginning in 1986, (the second year of the franchise in Japan), Takara got into the habit of annually rebranding the Transformers property. Moreover, 1987's Transformers: The Headmasters kicked off a trend in which Takara's toylines and fiction branched off from Hasbro's versions to increasingly significant degrees. Thus, the later iterations of Japanese Generation 1 are often referred to as "franchises", despite being part of the larger Generation 1 franchise. They include:

• 1985: Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers
• 1986: Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers
• 1987: Transformers: The Headmasters
• 1988: Transformers: Super-God Masterforce
• 1989: Victory
• 1990: Transformers: Zone
• 1991: Transformers: Return of Convoy
• 1992: Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Operation Combination

Beast Wars

To fill the sometimes-lengthy gap between the seasons of the Beast Wars television show, Takara decided to augment that series with two Japanese-exclusive franchises.

• 1998: Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers, with a toyline mostly consisting of redecorated existing Beast Wars toys.

• 1999: Beast Wars Neo: Super Lifeform Transformers, numerous new molds with additional redecos.

Post-Beast Wars

• 2000: Transformers: Car Robots was a mixed line of complex new molds and redecorated toys from previous lines. An expanded version was later marketed in America as Robots in Disguise.

• 2002–2004: Micromaster re-released the various Japanese-exclusive Micromaster combining teams from late in the Generation 1 era.

• 2002-2006: The Transformers Collection consisted of book-boxed reissues of toys from the early years of Generation 1. Many of the same toys would subsequently be reissued in the United States in the Commemorative Series line.

• 2003: Smallest Transforming Transformers (often mislabeled "World's Smallest Transformers") reworked early Generation 1 toys at extremely small scale.

• 2003–2008: Binaltech, Japan's version of Alternators. Originally ended in 2006, later reanimated.

• 2003– : The Transformers: Masterpiece is a collector-oriented series of "ultimate" versions of classic Generation 1 characters, with great complexity and high prices.

• 2004–2005: Robotmasters was a line of mixed heritage, collecting characters from several continuities. Most of its toys were redecos or new designs based on larger toys reduced in scale.

• 2006–2007: Transformers: Kiss Players picked up the tail end of the Binaltech/Alternators toyline, but with an all-new, all-creepy storyline.

• 2007: The Transformers: Beast Wars Telemocha Series was Japan's expanded equivalent of the Beast Wars 10th Anniversary line.

• 2007– : Transformers Encore revives the trend of reissuing older Generation 1 toys, including many not previously available in Japan.

• 2007– : Henkei! Henkei! Transformers uses the molds created for the 2007 Classics and 2008 Universe lines and gives them color schemes more accurate to the original Generation 1 cartoon. Fiction exists in the form of a pack-in comic.

• 2013– : Triple Combination: Transformers Go! is a Japanese sequel to Transformers: Prime.

Other franchises

• 2003: Kids' Transformers: Rescue Hero Go-Bots is Takara's answer to Hasbro's 1-2-3 Transformers and Transformers: Go-Bots lines, using molds from both to create a separate line.

Merchandising franchises

Several lines of non-transforming figures have been released, capitalizing on the popularity of the Transformers characters.

• 2000–?: Super Collection Figure, a Japanese line of PVC figures based on character models from the Generation 1 cartoon. It was later marketed in America as Heroes of Cybertron, with some minor alterations.
• 2002–2003: MyClone, a Transformers iteration of a super-deformed figure line in Japan.
• 2007: Robot Heroes, adorably cute figurines of various characters. It started out under the Movie banner (despite originally containing toys based on Generation 1 characters), then continued under Universe (2008) and Revenge of the Fallen.

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