Transformers: Generation 2 (franchise)

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Transformers: Generation 2 was the first of many rebirths for the Transformers brand. Although the original Transformers franchise had never stopped producing toys in Europe, the North American line had completely disappeared for nearly two years when Generation 2 launched in 1993.

The Generation 2 franchise featured the following primary components:

• A toyline
• A European toyline
• A cartoon series
• A US comic book series
• A short-lived UK comic
• One UK Annual.
• Some coloring books

Although the Generation 2 cartoon was merely a set of repackaged Generation 1 cartoon episodes (featuring the flashy, computer-animated Cybernet Space Cube), the Generation 2 comic book was a direct continuation of the story from the G1 comic which had ended at issue 80.

Generation 2's toy commercials are noted for an early use of CGI animation (including depictions of some characters who had very few fictional appearances anywhere else.) A subset of the commercials is also noted for hilariously bad rap music.

Generation 2 ended in 1995 due to lagging sales. Rather than put the franchise to rest, Hasbro shuffled its boys-toy lines over to the recently-acquired Kenner offices, and gave them the task of re-inventing Transformers with something fresh and new... Beast Wars.

In 2010 the Generation 2 line was re-imagined as "Generation 2: Redux" by Fun Publications for that year's BotCon.

Transformers: G-2

Having disappeared in Japan in 1993, the Transformers toy line returned to Japan in 1995 with the Japanese version of Generation 2, formally referred to as Transformers: G-2 (トランスフォーマー G-2). Unlike the English Generation 2 version, the Japanese G-2 storyline followed the animated continuity rather than the comic book continuity, being told through a combination of:

• A series of story pages.
• A manga series packaged with the instruction manuals.
• A manga special, "The New Battle!!", published in Comic Bom Bom.

Like its Western market counterpart, G-2 also ended in 1995. Afterward, Takara continued to release their other main transforming robot toy line, the Brave Series, until getting back into the Transformers with the new Japanese Beast Wars toy line in 1997.