User:Giggidy/Sandbox/Multi-Family Toys
Multi-family toys are toys used to represent the same basic character across multiple continuity families. It is similar to the practice of repurposing.
Conceptual history
In the beginning, there was The Transformers. There were multiple branches and even significant differences between characters from one to the other, but there was one franchise. In time, it would come to be called Generation 1. New fiction would continue this trend, with Beast Wars, Beast Machines and its various Japanese offshoots firmly in the shared lore of Generation 1.
In 2001, that began to change. Robots in Disguise, the English-language dub of a Japanese G1 series, was changed in a number of ways that made it fundamentally incompatible with the lore that had gone before. Names reuse began in a serious way, with some applied to characters completely unlike their Generation 1 counterparts. This trend continued with the next new major franchise, the Unicron Trilogy, starting with Armada. Ironhide could now be a female Mini-Con and then, in the sequel series, a different Ironhide could be a young doofus.
In response, the Wiki adopted as a useful organizational element, the idea of continuity families. Though there are multiple distinct franchise in Generation 1 and in the Unicron Trilogy, they're all related in some way, all tying together in a loose overall mythology. This model continued to work well as Transformers Animated (franchise) and the Live-action film series continued the trend of each new reboot introducing its own shared aesthetic, mythology, and theme. It even bled into official fiction to a certain extent, though it remained primarily a wiki-defined organizational scheme, a useful model for taxonomy.
Cracks in the organizational structure began appearing with the introduction of the Aligned continuity family. Hasbro began trying to present a unified vision of the brand moving forward. The Transformers Hall of Fame bios and videos were a good example of that, with elements taken from multiple incarnations of a character. On some level, it was becoming clear, Hasbro considered Optimus Prime to be Optimus Prime to be Optimus Prime. The practice of name-slapping was toned down. Once a character became established, future versions of that character in new franchises were likely to draw from the same elements.
Aesthetic elements, too, became more flexible. The gritty movie-inspired CGI of Transformers Prime could now coexist with Robots in Disguise as a sequel. Now, a movie design might not feel out of place in a Generation 1 universe, even as an Animated design might not look out of place in the same universe.
The fiction, too, updated to reflect this changing landscape. Ask Vector Prime would note that certain characters exist in multiple "reality clusters," the in-fiction analog to a continuity family. Other streams were noted to be on the borderline between one cluster and another, to the point where they could go either way. Some universes even existed in two clusters simultaneously, which Vector Prime indicated was rare but not unheard of.
All of which, in turn, resulted in a great increase in frequency of a character in one continuity family showing up in another virtually unchanged. Though Hasbro does not consider this to be particularly noteworthy, we of the wiki choose to track such instances as examples of Multi-family toys.
Examples of official Multi-family toys
- Revenge of the Fallen Deluxe Lockdown as Generation 1 Lockdown. Drift issue 2
- Banzai-Tron (G1) from Transformers (2010 toyline) movie Banzaitron Transformers Legends (mobile game)
- Prime Ratchet used as G1 Ratchet. The X-Files: Conspiracy: The Transformers
- Aligned Lugnut from Reveal the Shield Movie Lugnut Transformers: The Covenant of Primus
- Hordes of Mini-Cons as Micromasters in the Beast Wars: Uprising universe.
Notes
- Individual fans may unofficially, within their personal canon on an unofficial level , especially with toys importing previous versions of a character to a new continuity. A good example might be Movie Big Daddy as Generation 1 Big Daddy.
