CHUG

"A bogstandard retail toyline targeted towards adult collectors? How silly! Like that's ever going to sell!"

CHUG is a common fan acronym derived from the Classics, Henkei, Universe and Generations toylines, although it also designates later series following the same aesthetic and design philosophy. If we were to be pedantic, the complete terminology should be "CHUGRtSULCWUWTRPotP" but, since it doesn't roll off the tongue all that well, distinctive sublines of Generations series are often just contained within the term.

These are all unified and generally considered as one singular toyline by being modern re-imaginations of classic Transformers characters, most often from Generation 1 but also occasionally including other eras like Generation 2, Beast Wars, Beast Machines, and Armada. Sculpts and engineering are also shared between these lines, with groups like the Seekers and the Insecticons having their individual characters being sequentially released across the span of different CHUG series. These lines rarely had any line-wide gimmicks, unlike most mainline Transformers series.

Toylines generally accepted as CHUG

• Classics (2006 - 2007)

Initially conceived as a brief filler line between Cybertron and the first live action film, Classics was Hasbro's first attempt at producing a series consisting entirely of modernized Generation 1 characters in Deluxe and Voyager sizes. Despite short, it proved to be successful enough to lay the foundations for the later Universe and Generations toylines. As an homage to the original toys, most figures featured rubsigns.

• Universe (2008 - 2009)

Directly following up on the success of Classics, Universe was a substantially bigger and more intricate toyline, heavily expanding on the original concept of modernized G1 characters with various new molds and also expanding its scope with the introduction of some figures based around Armada and the Beast Era. These figures were generally more complex than those introduced in Classics, a design choice which is commonly attributed to the concurrent Movie toylines. This line was also supplemented by redecoes of various molds from older lines, particularly Cybertron. Every figure was labelled to indicate which 'sub-series' it was a part of - for instance, Dropshot was labelled 'Classics Series' while Overload was labelled 'Cybertron Series' - despite both being redecoes of the same mold!

• Henkei! Henkei! (2008 - 2009)

Concurrently available with Hasbro's Universe line, Henkei! Henkei! was TakaraTomy's Japanese equivalent for both Classics and Universe, featuring more cartoon-accurate paintjobs and pack-in mangas. These figures all had various areas cast in vacuum-metalized plastic, whether it made much sense or not.

• Generations (2010 - )

From 2010 on, Generations became Hasbro's umbrella term to designate all upcoming releases based on the same concept. Most of the following lines are directly branched from this one.

• Reveal the Shield (2010 - 2011)

Concurrently available with the original run of Generations, Reveal the Shield was a confusing subline imprint by Hasbro that incorporated both figures originally intended for the Generations line (with some sculpts shared between both lines) and Movie-verse characters under the same label. Most notably, these all featured rubsigns, hence the title of the toyline.

• United (2010 - 2012)

In the style of Henkei, United would be Takara's primary equivalent for Japaneses releases of Generations figures for a while. Much like Henkei, these would also go on to feature more show-accurate paintjobs.

• Thrilling 30 (2013-2014)

For the 30th anniversary of the Transformers franchise, the Generations line was rebranded. This toyline included characters from all across the franchise, notably including Generation 2, Beast Wars and Armada for the first time since Universe, and new molds of Diaclone, Beast Machines, Robots in Disguise characters for the first time. The designs of the figures shifted to incorporate more elements of IDW's designs for those characters, and every Deluxe-class figure was packaged with an issue of IDW's Dark Cybertron event. This line included Windblade, the first Transformers designed based on the results of a fan poll, Jetfire, the first leader-class CHUG figure, and Metroplex, the first titan-class figure.

• Legends (2014 - )

From 2014 on, Legends became Takara's own umbrella term to designate its Generations-based releases, also following in the same show-accurate tradition of Henkei and United.

• Combiner Wars (2015 - 2016)

The first of the Prime Wars Trilogy, Combiner Wars was a subline entirely centred around combiners, simplifying the Deluxe and Voyager figures to incorporate a Scramble City style of combination. Significantly more figures were released for Combiner Wars than any other CHUG line until then. Some new Legends-class and Leader-class molds were released, along with redecoes and retools of various Thrilling 30 figures. This line's Titan-Class figure was Devastator, and another fan poll resulted in the creation of Victorion. Box sets, containing a whole combiner each, were released for the first time.

• Unite Warriors (2015 - 2017)

Takara's equivalent for the Deluxe and Voyager combiner teams of Combiner Wars, strangely enough being released as their own individual line. The Leader molds were simply sold as regular Legends figures.

• Titans Return (2016 - 2017)

The second subline in the Prime Wars trilogy, Titans Return was focused around the titular Titan Master robots, most of them being directly based off the 1987 Generation 1 Headmasters. Various Targetmaster and Powermaster figures became Titan Masters too, along with some characters which had never been -masters in the first place. Two box sets were released for this line, generally including more obscure G1 characters.

• Power of the Primes (2017 - 2018)

Power of the Primes is the third and final installment in the Prime Wars trilogy, spotlighting Primes and using Prime Masters as a unified play pattern.

Gallery

• 
  Classics Starscream, a figure which would get redecoed for many other CHUG toylines. Note the rubsign.
• 
  Universe Sunstreaker.
• 
  Henkei! Henkei! Starscream.
• 
  Generations Drift.
• 
  Reveal the Shield Jazz.
• 
  United Jazz.
• 
  Thrilling 30 Springer.
• 
  Legends Springer.
• 
  Combiner Wars Defensor.
• 
  Unite Warriors Guardian (G1).

Toylines loosely considered as CHUG

• Universe (2003 - 2005)

Although released a three good years before Classics, the 2003 Universe toyline could be seen as a very early version of what would become CHUG, featuring various attempts at replicating characters from previous eras in a regular retail line - these were, however, limited to redecos instead of actual original sculpts, hence why the line is often disregarded as not necessarily being a part of the abbreviation. Still, considering how some toys do match the aesthetics of early Classics and 2008 Universe figures, it sounds fair to say they aren't completely negligible either.

• Power Core Combiners (2010 - 2011)

The Power Core Combiners hold a strange place in terms of continuity, with Hasbro themselves admitting they aren't particularly tied to any specific series. On one hand, a few of the characters have been featured in Movie-related media, but on the other hand the line also somewhat follows the CHUG premise of reinventing classic characters (mostly combiners, as suggested by the title) with modern designs, and most of them look closer to a traditional Generations look rather than their edgier Movieverse equivalents. Curiously, they were released as United figures in Japan, under the "United EX" label.

• Cloud (2014 - 2015)

Much like PCC, Cloud is also a somewhat confusing line to pin down. It was released as a separate line from Legends with its own story and continuity, but it also tries to reinvent the classic G1 characters... By mostly reusing the Generations sculpts of other previously reinvented classic characters. Still, as far as aesthetics goes, it certainly is compatible with most of CHUG.