Transformers Animated (toyline)
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The Transformers Animated toyline merges the more expressive design style of the cartoon with extremely poseable robot forms (to a degree which seemed pleasantly surprising even to Hasbro). Unlike the franchises immediately before it, there is no overarching, line-wide gimmick (such as Mini-Cons or Cyber Planet Keys). Rather, transforming is the gimmick, and the toys have other special features unique and appropriate to the character (such as triple-changing or interchangeable tools). While the designs originated with Hasbro and the Cartoon Network team, TakaraTomy stepped up to the plate to engineer the toys. The line debuted on July 1, 2007, at Hasbro's Future Products panel at BotCon.
Hasbro, citing the strength of the movie toyline, postponed the official release of the Animated toyline to June 22, 2008 in the US. However, some toys began showing up at retailers in the Cincinnati area to coincide with BotCon, followed by wider releases in Canada in May and the U.S. shortly thereafter.
Hasbro Animated toyline
General retail
Deluxe Class
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 | |||||
| Wave 5 | Wave 6 | Wave 7 | Canceled |
Voyager Class
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 | |||||
| Wave 5 | Wave 6 | Canceled (TakTom release) | Totally canceled |
Leader Class
Wave 1
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Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 |  |
Supreme Class
Entertainment Packs
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Wave 1
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Wave 2 |
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Activators
The Activators toys are chunkier, simpler, Scout-class-sized toys with one-touch, spring-loaded autotransformations.
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 | |||||
| Wave 5 | Wave 6 | Wave 7 | Canceled |
Bumper Battlers
An expansion on the "Cyber Slammers" subline from the 2007 live-action movie toyline, Bumper Battlers feature "bump-and-transform" action. Hitting the front bumper causes the toy to change into robot mode, and pressing the toy's sigil activates sound effects and speech gimmicks.
| 'Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 |  | ||||
| Wave 5 (non-US) | Canceled
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Power Bots
Giant chunk non-transforming action figures with electronic gimmickry.
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 |
Exclusives
Target/Zellers
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ToysЯUs
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Walmart
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McDonald's Happy Meal toys
North America/Europe
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Latin America |
Post-Animated releases
Even after the original Animated toyline ended, several toys of Animated characters old and new were released in other Transformers lines.
- Live-action movie toyline
- "The Legacy of Bumblebee"
(Classics Bumblebee, "Premium" movie Bumblebee, Animated Bumblebee)
| Legends Class Wave 3 | Legends Class Wave 4 |
| Transformers Collectors' Club | BotCon 2011
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Figure Subscription Service |
TakaraTomy releases
Beginning in 2010, TakaraTomy's release of the Animated toy line consists of most of the same toys released in Western markets by Hasbro. Early waves gave the toys extremely shiny metallic paintjobs (and not necessarily more intricate ones at that), but later waves eventually dropped that in favor of the usual assortment of small paint operation changes.
Standard retail
| Wave 1 (March 27, 2010) |
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Wave 2 (April 24, 2010)
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Wave 3 (May 22, 2010) | |||||
| Wave 4 (June 19, 2010) | Wave 5 (July 10, 2010) | Wave 6 (July 24, 2010) | Wave 7 (August 28, 2010) | |||||
| Wave 8 (September 18, 2010) | Wave 9 (October 2, 2010) | Wave 10 (November 20, 2010) |
EZ Collection
Exclusives
Criticisms
Since the first wave of Animated toys were released, there have been multiple complaints of poor quality paint applications, sloppy paint applications, and very greasy ball and hinge joints. There are also complaints over certain breakage issues, such as Lockdown's wrists, and toy functionality being limited by support struts added to prevent breakage, such as with Voyager Megatron's cannon and Bumblebee's stingers being unable to position properly.
Most of these issues can be fixed with relative ease.[1]
Also, Takara's releases tend to correct the QC problems but not the molding errors.
