Studio Series: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 14:59, 9 April 2023
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First revealed at New York Toy Fair 2018, Transformers Generations: Studio Series (aka Transformers: Studio Series), acts as a celebration under the Generations banner of over ten years of live-action movies, with characters from every movie represented. It also coincided with Bumblebee, the sixth film in the live-action film series.
Each figure from the Deluxe, Voyager and Leader Class assortments is numbered, with an indication of their movie of origin. The same also applies to store exclusive figures and multi-packs. All figures also come with a cardboard backdrop depicting a notable scene from their respective movie. In some instances, backdrops are repeated between separate figures representing the same scene. If those figures are released as part of different size classes, the backdrops are rescaled accordingly.
With rough robot mode scale as a line-wide goal, each figure is sized in relation to other toys, even in the same size class; 18 Deluxe Bumblebee is shorter than Jazz and 01 Bumblebee, who are in turn shorter than Ratchet and Lockdown.
The toyline boosts a greater accuracy than lines previous, due to using relative scale, as mentioned above, and using models in the films for reference as opposed to concept art, though this does fall short for early Bumblebee toys. Studio Series also explores toys for characters who had none before, or were left to a smaller size class.
In 2021, Studio Series started to include the additions of characters from The Transformers: The Movie, in celebration of the film's 35th anniversary. These toys feature a separate numbering system in Hasbro markets that utilizes "86" before the number of the respective figure. The '86 figures follow the same style, scale and play pattern of those from the concurrently-ran War for Cybertron Trilogy toylines, complete with Fire Blast effects and 5 mm ports that can support Weaponizers and Fossilizers.
In 2022, Studio Series introduced the Core Class that was first introduced in the Kingdom line, putting in characters that are both smaller-sized versions of the core cast, as well as characters too small to be included in the Deluxe class. Notably, unlike the main figures in the line, the toys in the Core Class are not numbered.
In 2023, while continuing to incorporate characters from the animated film and the live-action films, including the newest entry, Studio Series expanded to the world of video games, namely the Transformers: War for Cybertron franchise. This new subline, "Gamer Edition", has a new separate numbering system as well.
Toys
Core Class
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Wave 6
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TBD
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Deluxe Class
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Wave 9
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Wave 10
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Wave 11
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Wave 12
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Wave 13
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Wave 14
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Wave 15
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| Wave 17 | Wave 18
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Wave 19 | Wave 20
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TBD
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Voyager Class
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Wave 9
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Wave 10
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Wave 11
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Wave 12
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| Wave 13 | Wave 14
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Wave 15
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Wave 16
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Wave 17
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Wave 18
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Wave 19
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Wave 20
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TBD
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Leader Class
Wave 1
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Wave 2 | Wave 3
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Wave 4
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Wave 6
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Wave 7
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Wave 8
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Wave 9
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Wave 10
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Wave 11
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Wave 12
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Multi-packs and exclusives
These are even more complicated than usual, and that's before international releases come into play. Thundercracker was originally released as a worldwide Toys"R"Us exclusive, but due to the bankruptcy of Toys"R"Us in several countries, he only had a very short availability window in those markets. and was never added to the Toys"R"Us online store before the latter ceased operations. Likewise, the Bumblebee/Charlie 2-pack was originally intended as a Toys"R"Us exclusive but ultimately was only released that way in Canada, which still had Toys"R"Us by the time it came out. In the United States, both Thundercracker and the 2-pack were eventually made available through numerous online retailers such as BigBadToyStore, Entertainment Earth, ToyWiz, and TFSource, although the 2-pack was also inexplicably found at a single Target store several months earlier.
The Bumblebee Then & Now Two-pack was exclusive to Target and BigBadToyStore in the United States and to Kmart in Australia; the Bumblebee Vol. 1 Retro Rock Garage set debuted at San Diego Comic-Con 2018 and was later also made available via Hasbro Toy Shop (and additionally was also available at general retail in Taiwan and was offered at Comic-Con Paris 2018); and both the Bumblebee Vol. 2 Retro Pop Highway set and the Drift/Baby Dinobots set appear to be "online exclusives" shared between the same online retailers that also offered Thundercracker and the Bumblebee/Charlie 2-pack, although both were initially claimed to be exclusive to Entertainment Earth. We say "appear" because the Retro Pop Highway set was also available at GameStop stores in the United States, and both sets were also listed in Diamond Comic Distributors' Previews catalog, so really the only "exclusivity" for these appears to be that neither of them is available from Walmart or Target. Battle Damaged Megatron was first found stocked by Hong Kong shops, and much later, was put up for pre-order on Toys"R"Us' Canadian website, and then on Target's US website before being found in stores. "As Seen In Parks" Megatron was officially exclusive to Universal Studios, but was released (almost a year after he had been officially revealed) in Hasbro's Asian markets first. Due to the global [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}COVID-19 pandemic|{{#if:||COVID-19 pandemic}}]], the toy was only released exclusively to online retailers in the US. Leadfoot was released as a Target exclusive in the US.
2020 started the celebration of everyone's favorite yellow Autobot in the Buzzworthy Bumblebee line, exclusive to Target in the U.S. Late 2021 saw reissues of the Battle Damaged Megatron and Bumblebee Then & Now Two-Pack at Target.
Deluxe Class
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Voyager Class
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| Buzzworthy Bumblebee |
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- Asia only
Meanwhile, in Singapore, a special Bumblebee was a giveaway at Toys"R"Us with purchase of a currently unknown total value of Transformers.
Singapore (Toys"R"Us)
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China (TaoBao)
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Studio Series (TakaraTomy)
Similar to Power of the Primes, in Takara's Transformers Studio Series (トランスフォーマー スタジオシリーズ Toransufōmā Sutajio Shirīzu) line, all figures are identical to their Hasbro counterparts, forgoing Takara's past practice of using more movie-accurate paint jobs. This is most likely due to the line being an official collaboration between Hasbro and TakaraTomy, much like the Masterpiece Movie Series line. ID numbering differs after number 8 compared to the Hasbro release, since some of the exclusives are not released in Japan. Introduced to the line in 2021, Takara includes characters from The Transformers: The Movie in its pre-existing Studio Series numbering system, whereas Hasbro assigns them ID numbers prefixed by "86". Takara also assigns ID numbers to Core Class figures, which go unnumbered in Hasbro markets. From wave 4 through wave 12, the packages featured the franchise's 35th anniversary logo.
In 2021, Takara decided to go back to its old ways and launched the exclusive Premium Finish toyline, featuring rereleases of some Studio Series figures with much more movie-accurate decoes.
Regular retail
Wave 1 (Apr 24, 2018)
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Wave 2 (Jul 21, 2018)
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Wave 3 (Sep 15, 2018)
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Wave 4 (Oct 27, 2018)
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Wave 5 (Jan 26, 2019)
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Wave 6 (Mar 23, 2019)
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Wave 7 (Apr 27, 2019)
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Wave 8 (Jul 27, 2019)
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Wave 9 (Aug 31, 2019)
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Wave 10 (Jan 25, 2020)
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Wave 11 (Feb 29, 2020)
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Wave 12 (Mar 28, 2020)
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Wave 13 (Apr 25, 2020)
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Wave 14 (May 30, 2020)
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Wave 15 (Jun 27, 2020)
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Wave 15.5 (Aug 1, 2020)
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Wave 16 (Aug 29, 2020)
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Wave 17 (Sep 26, 2020) | Wave 18 (Oct 23, 2020)
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| Wave 19 (Nov 28, 2020) | Wave 20 (Apr 20, 2021)
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Wave 21 (May 29, 2021)
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Wave 22 (Jun 26, 2021)
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Wave 23 (Jul 31, 2021)
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Wave 24 (Aug 7, 2021)
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Wave 25 (Nov 27, 2021)
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Wave 26 (Feb 26, 2022) | |||||
Wave 27 (Apr 30, 2022)
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Wave 28 (May 28, 2022)
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Wave 29 (June 25, 2022)
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Wave 30 (August 27, 2022)
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| Wave 31 (October 29, 2022) | Wave 32 (November 26, 2022)
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Wave 33 (February 25, 2023)
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Wave 34 (March 25, 2023)
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Wave 35 (April, 2023)
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Wave 36 (June, 2023)
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Wave 37 (July, 2023)
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Wave 38 (August, 2023) | |||||
Wave 39 (September, 2023)
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Premium Finish
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Wave 1 (October 30, 2021)
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Wave 2 (November 27, 2021)
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Wave 3 (December 29, 2021)
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Wave 4 (January 29, 2022)
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Wave 5 (July 30, 2022)
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Exclusives
| Tokyo Comic Con 2018/TakaraTomy Mall | Omni7
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Toys"R"Us
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TakaraTomy Mall
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Notes
- Studio Series can be considered a "sister series" to Hasbro's Star Wars: The Black Series and Marvel Studios: The First Ten Years, which are based around a similar concept and feature a similar overall packaging design.
- In July 2017, photos of a computer screen taken during an internal Hasbro presentation were leaked to the public that revealed, among other things, the very existence of the Studio Series general retail line-up, though not the actual title "Studio Series" yet (which was later revealed through separate leaks). The fact that the slides incorrectly featured projected release dates for "2017" instead of 2018 (which included dates predating the leak) led some fans to assume that the still unannounced line-up had long since been canceled. It wouldn't be until several leaks later that Hasbro finally acknowledged the existence of the Studio Series line, and revealed the first few waves during New York Toy Fair 2018, even offering a limited quantity of the first wave of Deluxe Class figures as an early release through the Hasbro Toy Shop website. Simultaneously, TakaraTomy revealed their version of the line at Wonder Festival Winter 2018.
- Among the figures whose existence was revealed through the aforementioned July 2017 leak that were not officially unveiled at Toy Fair was Voyager Class Ironhide, who made his worldwide debut at retail in Singapore in June 2018. Subsequently, Hasbro announced the redeco of Voyager Class Starscream (based on his appearance in Revenge of the Fallen), the final figure revealed through the July 2017 leak, via their "Hasbro Pulse" Instagram account a few days before San Diego Comic-Con, even though they still hadn't officially acknowledged the existence of Ironhide by that point.
- Like with previous movie-based lines, Studio Series also assigned code names to at least some of its characters. This time, the "theme" for those code names was "Australian race horses":
{{ #if: {{#ifexpr: 3 }}
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- Bumblebee: "Stryker"
- Dropkick: "Blue Lightning" or "Blue Light"
- Megatron: "Fox"
- Optimus Prime: "Radar"
- KSI Sentry: "Sentry"
- Shadow Raider: "Mercenary"
- Shatter: "Red Lightning" or "Red Light"
}}
- The code names of many of the other figures, assuming they even had code names, are still unknown, as those toys have (thus far) consistently been listed under their actual characters' names. Meanwhile, a listing for a supposed Voyager Class figure using the code name "Destroyer" later turned out to be a mislabeled Energon Igniters Speed Series Barricade from the Bumblebee movie toy line, with which the Studio Series shares its code names.
- A few of the Voyagers and Deluxes of the previous two movie toylines scale fairly well with Studio Series figures. The latter of the two toylines, The Last Knight, seems to have a greater tie-in to the Studio Series lineup, as a few molds were also redecoed in this toyline as well as a few retools. Furthermore, the static figurine of Quintessa scales perfectly among these molds and also seems to serve as an inspiration for later pack-in figurines like Wheelie, Brains and the Mini Dinobots.
- Certain figures reuse packaging artwork from the last two movie toylines, as well as promotional renders for the first three films. There are also some artwork that retools existing renders for better screen accuracy.
- One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding the Studio Series toyline is that there is a subline called "Studio Series 86". This came about from leaked listings on Walmart's website where the number "86" was misinterpreted as part of the toyline's title, rather than the ID numbers of those toys. While the toys based on characters from the 1986 movie do feature a separate numbering system, the line itself doesn't acknowledge them as being any different from the live-action movie toys they are sold alongside.
- While it has never been confirmed, the move to include 1986 characters in the Studio Series toyline after three years of continuous focus on the live-action films, was likely done to allow Hasbro and TakaraTomy to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the film, without stepping on the toes of the Beast Wars 25th anniversary, which was celebrated as a part of the War for Cybertron Trilogy. Evidence suggesting this is the inclusion of some of the film's main characters (Cyclonus, Rodimus Prime and Galvatron) being sold in the concurrently-ran Kingdom toyline and the shared design aesthetics of the toys between both lines.
- It is also very likely that the '86 toys in the Studio Series toyline were originally meant to be sold in the Kingdom toyline alongside their movie co-stars and the Beast Wars characters as part of a combined anniversary line, but with the COVID 19 pandemic and the halt on worldwide distribution, delays were made and the waves for Earthrise were cut short, leaving products that were presumably intended for the line being held back for their eventual release in Kingdom.