Transformers (2007 toyline)
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The 2007 Transformers film was accompanied by one of the largest product blitzes in the history of the Transformers brand. The prominence of the movie allowed Hasbro to push the toy line to new levels of complexity and diversity.
In addition to the standard "main line" figures, several sub-lines were developed. Some, such as the Fast Action Battlers and Cyber Slammers, are aimed at younger users. Others, such as Real Gear Robots and the various role play toys, expand on the plot and concepts of the movie. Furthermore, many stores received various exclusive redecos and multi-packs. Other markets, such as Japan and even Europe, also had their own exclusives.
Virtually all characters of the movie cast received multiple toy incarnations at various price points, from the tiny $4 Legends versions and two-for-$5 Robot Heroes PVCs up to the massive, complex, electronic $80 Ultimate Bumblebee. Given the limited number of Transformers featured in the movie, the toyline naturally contains many additional characters. Many of these are featured in alternate movie-related media, such as prequel comics and video games.
Following the success of the movie toyline, it was expanded with the AllSpark Power and Premium Series sub-lines, while the subsequent toyline, Transformers Animated, was officially pushed back from late 2007/early 2008 to July 2008.
Toyline
Action figures ("main" line)
The main line movie figures attempt to emulate the complex, multi-faceted appearance of the screen characters, succeeding to a remarkable degree given the radical style shift. Robot modes integrate and hide their vehicle mode kibble very well, avoiding most of the parts-clearance problems seen in many "shellformer" style designs. Even non-film characters match the overall aesthetic. Most alternate forms are realistically styled contemporary Earth vehicles, many of which are licensed replicas.
The main line figures feature an above-average design complexity, packing an amazing number of moving parts into a small package. Transformations are fairly complex, and tend to capture the movie's visual spectacle of a vehicle flying apart into a thousand pieces as the robots transform. The primary gimmick of the main line is "Automorph Technology", a gimmick by which moving one piece of a toy will in turn move other pieces into their designated positions via hidden gears, furthering the parallel with the movie's visuals.
Another major aspect of the line is its heavy focus on "core cast", making sure most of the film Autobots and Decepticons were available at multiple price points, especially the budget-minded Legends size class, which was once again available at all major retailers (instead of just at specialty and convenience stores). While the newly-created bots in the film were left out, the concept was represented by the Real Gear Robots. Even major human characters got toys (rare for a Transformers toyline) in the "Screen Battles" diorama sets.
Unfortunately, due to issues of vehicle mode licensing and the fact that the robot designs are the shared intellectual property of Paramount, the movie series toys were not available to be redecoed in non-film-based lines, not even as convention exclusives. (This rule would later be relaxed slightly to allow "offscreen" character molds to be used, but that's not til the next movie-based line....)
Legends Class
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 |
- Allspark Battles 2-packs
"Allspark Battles" are two-packs that contain two Legends Class figures each. On the North American market, they replaced the Legends Class single packs in late 2007, coinciding with the launch of the "AllSpark Power" sub-line (see below), whereas other markets continued getting some of the toys included in these two-packs as single packs instead.
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3
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Real Gear Robots
Real Gear Robots are a sub-set based on modern electronic items which convert to miniscule robots.
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 | |||||
| Wave 5 | Wave 6 |
Deluxe Class
| Wave 1 (Movie Preview) | Wave 2
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Wave 3 | Wave 4 |  | ||||
| Wave 5 | Wave 6 | Wave 7 (AllSpark Power) | Wave 7.5 (AllSpark Power) | |||||
| Wave 8 (AllSpark Power) | Wave 9 (AllSpark Power) | Wave 10 (Premium Series) |
Screen Battles
"Screen Battles" are minor redecos of Deluxe Class toys in more movie-accurate decos based on specific moments from the movie. They come packaged in nifty diorama boxes and include PVC figurines of both human and Transformers screen characters. The assortment was named "Battle Scenes" in international markets, simply using the English language name for European packaging and translated French and Spanish versions of the name alongside the United States market name "Screen Battles" for the trilingual packaging used for Canada and Latin America.
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 |
Voyager Class
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 2.5 | Wave 3 | |||||
| Wave 4 | Wave 5 (AllSpark Power) | Wave 5.5 (AllSpark Power) | Wave 6 (Premium Series) |
Leader Class
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 (AllSpark Power) |  | ||||
Wave 5 (AllSpark Power)
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Wave 6 (Premium Series) |
Ultimate Class
- Wave 1
Fast Transformers Fun
This series is made more for the little ones, simpler, chunkier toys meant for smaller, less coordinated hands.
Cyber Stompin' Robots
(non-transforming)
- Cyber Stompin' Optimus Prime
- Cyber Stompin' Bumblebee
Wave 1
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Wave 2 | Wave 3
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Wave 4 |  | ||||
| Wave 5 |
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 |  | ||||
| Wave 5 | Wave 6 |
Role Play
| Helmets | Converting Arm Blasters | Allspark Blasters | Super Soakers
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- T.E.C.H. (Transformers Electronic Combat Hardware)
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 |  |
Plain Transformers Fun
Super-simple fun for all ages!
- Mr Potato Head Transformers
Yes, the famous Mr. Potato Head. This was the start of an ongoing cross-branding of one of Hasbro's longest-running toys with Transformers.
- Plush Transformers
Are you ready for adorable? These small plush versions of the Generation 1 Optimus Prime and Bumblebee "transform" by unzipping their backs and folding them inside-out, whcih gives you a nice compact vechile-mode plush!
- Robot Heroes
The Robot Heroes are 2-inch non-transforming "super deformed" soft-plastic figurines, featuring characters from a mix of generations. While the line lasted a lot longer than the waves listed here, we're just going to focus on the stuff in specifically movie-branded packaging (even though half of those had Generation 1 characters).
Wave 1 (G1)
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Wave 2 (G1)
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Wave 3 (G1) | Wave 4 (movie)
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Wave 5 (movie)
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Wave 6 (movie)
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Collector items
Unleashed
- Turnaround Unleashed
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 |
Wave 3
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| Wave 1 | Wave 2 |
Titanium Series (3")
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 |
Store exclusives
While store exclusives were certainly nothing new to Transformers by this point, the movie toyline positively blew the doors off past lines in terms of sheer numbers, both in the amount of product and in the number of outlets to get exclusives. It was pretty difficult to keep track of everything; what was a new deco, what was a plain repack, what was just-different-enough-to-make-you-mad, etc.
Of course, many of these store exclusives ended up as mass retail releases outside the US, or as exclusives to different chains (both regional and international). See individual entries for more details.
Best Buy
Yes, Best Buy the American electronics retail chain. For a brief while they dabbled in collectibles. It didn't last long, but long enough to get out a pair of Voyager molds with "Premium Series" level more screen-accurate, metallic paint jobs.
BJ's Wholesale Club
- Cyber Stompin' Optimus Prime with Bonus Robot Heroes Rodimus & Insecticon
- Cyber Stompin' Optimus Prime with Bonus Robot Heroes Starscream & Mirage
- Cyber Stompin' Optimus Prime with Bonus Robot Heroes Shockwave & Grimlock
- Cyber Stompin' Optimus Prime with Bonus Robot Heroes Ravage & Optimus Prime
- Cyber Stompin' Bumblebee with Bonus Robot Heroes Rodimus & Insecticon
Costco
- Leader Class Optimus Prime with bonus figures (Legends Class Bumblebee & Autobot Jazz)
- Ultimate Bumblebee with "Special Value" bonus Titanium Series 3" Bumblebee figure
Kmart
- Unleashed Bumblebee with bonus comic (Movie Prequel #1 with exclusive Klaus Scherwinski cover)
Sam's Club
- Voyager/Deluxe three-pack (battle damaged Voyager Class Optimus Prime, battle damaged Deluxe Class Arcee & regular Voyager Class Starscream)
- Deluxe three-pack (Decepticon Brawl, Bonecrusher & Autobot Jazz)
Target
Target was one of the biggest exclusives outlets for new-deco/significantly-changed-deco toys, with the "Robo-Vision" promotion featuring heavily early on, as well as being the only store to get "Scout" class toys.
| Scouts Wave 1 | Scouts Wave 2 | Scouts Wave 3 | Scouts Wave 4 (AllSpark Power) |  | ||||
| Scouts Wave 5 (Canceled) |
Deluxe Class
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Voyager Class | Multi-packs
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ToysЯUs
| Voyager Class | Ultra Class | Multi-packs |
Walmart
| Deluxe Class |
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Real Gear Robots 2-packs
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Multi-Packs
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Sub-lines
AllSpark Power
Premium Series
Notable international variants
Even though the Movie toyline differed from previous Transformers toylines insofar as TakaraTomy's Japanese versions of the toys were almost identical to their Hasbro counterparts (as a matter of fact, the Japanese "mainline" toys even came in Hasbro packaging, with additional Japanese stickers on the packaging identifying them as the Japanese versions), there were a few genuine variants - and on top of that, one of those variants was also released in the United Kingdom, making it the first shared Japanese/European "variant" toy since red Armada Powerlinx Thrust.
UK variants
- Nightwatch Optimus Prime (Leader Class; missing the US version's "AllSpark Power" blue paint and coming in slightly different packaging)
Japanese variants
- Most of the initial decos of the Real Gear Robots (Speed Dial 800, Spy Shot 6, Power Up VT6, Longview and Zoom Out 25X) featured different stickers in Japan, depicting scenes involving the Movie cast rather than screenshots from the Cybertron cartoon, and replacing the time index "7:47" (hinting at the US release date of the movie, July 4) with "8:04" (as the movie wasn't released in Japan until August 4).
- MA-03 Bumblebee (Deluxe Class Classic Camaro; using clear blue plastic for the windows with painted over yellow car parts, instead of the US version's yellow plastic with tampographed blue windows)
- MA-18 Nightwatch Optimus Prime (Leader Class; identical to the UK version)
- MA-19 Landmine (different shade than the Hasbro version, and features tires made of rubber instead of plastic)
- MA-21 Battle Mode Optimus Prime (same mold as Hasbro's Leader Class Premium Series Optimus Prime, but features vacuum metallized rims, bumper/grill and gas tanks/toolboxes. His overall paint deco in robot mode is also slightly more detailed.)
- MD-22 Incinerator (Voyager Class; sporting black as the main colour and a slightly different deco than the US version; also comes with a small AllSpark cube accessory)
International exclusives
Non-US market Legends Class single packs
Wave 4 (AllSpark Power Wave 1)
- Cliffjumper (redeco of Legends Class Bumblebee)
- Recon Barricade (redeco of Legends Class Barricade)
- Autobot Jazz (minor redeco of Legends Class Autobot Jazz)
- Bonecrusher
Non-US market Hasbro multi-packs
- "Unleashed y Voyager" (two-pack of Unleashed Bumblebee with either Voyager Class Autobot Ratchet or Blackout)
- Autobot Jazz, Protoform Optimus Prime & Decepticon Brawl three-pack (Deluxe Class Autobot Jazz, Deluxe Class Protoform Optimus Prime & Deluxe Class Decepticon Brawl)
- "Bumblebee and Optimus Prime" two-pack (Deluxe Class Concept Camaro Bumblebee & Voyager Class Optimus Prime)
Non-US market Hasbro "special" single packs
- Autobot Optimus Prime (battle damaged redeco of Voyager Class Optimus Prime, identical to the one from the Sam's Club exclusive three-pack)
- Arcee (battle damaged redeco of Deluxe Class Arcee, identical to the one from the Sam's Club exclusive three-pack)
Japanese exclusive molds
- TS-01 Trans Scanning Optimus Prime (an articulated "Protoform"-esque figure with snap-on vehicle mode parts)
- TS-02 Trans Scanning Bumblebee (an articulated "Protoform"-esque figure with snap-on vehicle mode parts)
Japanese exclusive redecos
- EZ Collection Bumblebee "scanning version" (a clear redeco of Legends Class Bumblebee, exclusively available with the August 2007 edition of Hyper Hobby magazine)
- Bumblebee "limited metallic color version" (a redeco of the first Deluxe Class Bumblebee toy with a shiny gold metallic finish, exclusively available at Lawson stores)
- Protoform Optimus Prime "Fusion Cluster Edition" (a redeco of Deluxe Class Protoform Optimus Prime in "entry mode" colors, exclusively available at the C3xHobby Convention and later also from e-HOBBY)
- Protoform Starscream "Fusion Cluster Edition" (a redeco of Deluxe Class Protoform Starscream in "entry mode" colors, exclusively available at the C3xHobby Convention and later also from e-HOBBY)
- Optimus Prime (a Movie-esque redeco of the 2001 Robots in Disguise Spychanger Scourge mold, available at pretty much every store for purchase of the Transformers Movie DVD)
- EZ Collection Bumblebee metallic version (a metallic redeco of Legends Class Bumblebee, exclusively available at Tsutaya Records stores for purchase of the Transformers Movie DVD)
- Blackout "4500x version" (a more movie-accurate redeco of Voyager Class Blackout and his little Scorponok companion, exclusively available at Lawson stores; based on the same paint mask as Hasbro's "Premium Series" redeco of Blackout, with very minor differences)
- Starscream Vardia Red Model (a red-ish redeco of Voyager Starscream, exclusively available at Toshiba stores for purchase of the Toshiba RD-A301 HD-DVD player)
- MA-20 Black Arcee (black redeco of Deluxe Class Arcee, based on the motorcycle used by William Lennox during the final battle of the Movie; the only explicit redeco of a movie toy available at mass retail in Japan with no US counterpart)
- Arcee G1 color edition (a pink and white redeco of Deluxe Class Arcee, limited to 1000 pieces, exclusively available at Wonder Festival 2008 Winter)
Merchandise
Notes
- The "Scout" size class was made exclusive to Target stores for the run of the Movie toyline (although it was available as a mass retail assortment in other countries), and consisted solely of redecos of toys from the Energon and Cybertron toylines. The Animated and Universe lines didn't revisit this price point at all, but the Scout price point returned with the Revenge of the Fallen toyline, this time with entirely new molds.
- Likewise, the "Ultra" size class was originally not used during the Movie toyline's run either. Eventually, the only two "Ultra Class" releases were redecos of Cybertron toys that were exclusively available at Toys"R"Us stores. The 2008 Universe line brought the price point back as a mass retail assortment.
- The Fracture, Crankcase, and Getaway exclusive toys were originally meant to be part of the 2008 Universe line, but Wal*Mart insisted that they be placed into the Movie line instead. (The logic being that the old Universe line eventually failed in the market, while the Movie line was a dramatic hit.)
"Drought"
For the remainder of 2007 following the movie's premiere, many fans complained of a severe toy shortage in most markets, particularly the U.S. Mainline figures had proven to be more difficult to locate at retail than in many years, if not ever. This was due to the convergence of several factors:
- The tremendous success and high profile of the movie has vastly broadened the toy-buying audience, with many more kids, adult collectors, and scalpers seeking out product.
- Major retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target placed orders for TF movie product based on their sales records for Cybertron and Classics figures, as well as movie-related toylines in general, which tend not to do well (as the Spider-Man 3 figures still warming shelves for many months can attest).
- Unusual congestion at Chinese factories and shipping docks lengthened the time necessary to produce and ship new figures to the West.
Ironically for much of 2008, as supply began to overtake demand, the movie toys became shelf-warmers, appearing not to sell in huge numbers, and often to the detriment of shelf-space for the newer Animated and Universe toylines.
Legacy
- While previous lines had occasionally featured multiple toys of the same character in different sizes, the Movie line considerably increased their number, with nearly all characters from the primary fiction getting a multitude of toys in various sizes and with different gimmicks, many of which were released around the same time.
- The Movie line also took the concept of auto-transforming parts and sections, which had occasionally been used by a few toys from previous lines, and made it a line-wide gimmick, here named "Automorph Technology".
