Transformers: Generations (toyline)
| The name or term "Generations" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Generations (disambiguation). |
Transformers: Generations is a line of figures launched in 2010. Like the earlier 2006 Classics and 2008 Universe lines, along with much of the 2010 Transformers line, it aims to recreate older Transformers characters as new toys and celebrate the history of the brand. The line lapsed after the end of 2011, but was relaunched in mid-2012 and has run continuously ever since.
The Generations line can be divided into three "eras", each of which saw a new logo and new packaging designs.
Original line (2010–2011)
The initial Generations line featured only Deluxe Class toys, and included both characters from the concurrently released War for Cybertron video game, and “modernised G1” figures in the spirit of the previous Classics and Universe toylines. In a first for the franchise, the Drift toy and its Blurr retool were based directly on designs created by Guido Guidi for IDW's Generation 1 comic universe. The earlier waves of figures sported advertising for The Hub or War for Cybertron.
Deluxe Class (general retail)
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 |  | ||||
| Wave 5 | Wave 6 | Wave 7 | Wave 8 | |||||
| Wave 9 |
Asian market exclusives ("GDO")
Bottom: North American ToysЯUs packaging
In mid-2012, Hasbro's Asian division released a variety of redecoes and retools in their markets such as China, Singapore, and the Philippines. This lineup, which featured the same general packaging design as the 2010–2011 figures, introduced the first non-Deluxe toys in the line (as Generations had been limited to the Deluxe price point up to that point). Western online retailers referred to these figures under the mysterious term "GDO" (which was later revealed to be an abbreviation for "Global Development Organization"[1]).
Hasbro's United States and Canadian divisions later decided to release all these figures in North America as well, as a massive batch of ToysЯUs exclusives for the 2012 holiday shopping season. Strangely, while the Asian market versions were released in standard English-only packaging, the versions available in the United States and Canada came in bilingual English/Chinese packaging. Also, the Deluxes came packaged in their alternate modes, whereas the Asian versions were packaged in robot mode.
| Legend Class | Scout Class | Deluxe Class | Voyager Class
|
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| Leader Class |
Fall of Cybertron and Thrilling 30 (2012–2014)
Fall of Cybertron (2012–2013)
After a six-month hiatus, the Generations line was relaunched mid-2012, starting out the Fall of Cybertron toyline with eight Deluxe Class figures. The line continued into 2013, with Legends and Voyager Classes being introduced too. Unlike the previous Legends Class, now absorbed into Cyberverse under the name 'Legion Class', these new products consisted of two-packs of data disc Deployer figures designed to interact with the Voyager Class Soundwave mold.
Legends Class (Series 01)
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 |  |
Deluxe Class (Series 01)
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 |  |
Voyager Class (Series 01)
Wave 1
|
Wave 2 |  |
Thrilling 30 (2013–2014)
In mid-2013, Generations was rebranded to become part of Hasbro's Thrilling 30 anniversary campaign, which saw the line return to the Classics/Universe-style updates of older characters. This refresh was notable for introducing close ties with IDW Publishing's Transformers material – many toys were based on designs from comics, and for the US market[2], every Deluxe figure was packaged with a comic issue. The format of Legends Class was also changed, now including a vaguely Cyberverse Commander-sized figure with a smaller, triple-changing partner. Thrilling 30 saw two new size classes introduced to the line – 2013 featured the huge Titan Class Metroplex figure, whilst 2014 debuted Leader Class with Jetfire.
For 2013, toys featured packaging art by Clayton Crain and the Deluxe pack-in comics were Spotlight issues. Continuing into 2014, the included issues tied into the "Dark Cybertron" story and Phil Jimenez, who helped plan and draw that event, took over package art duties.
In Europe, only the first wave of the Legends and Deluxe price points was ever officially released, exclusive to Toys"R"Us. However, several UK retailers were later used as a dumping ground for all the Voyagers and the last two waves of the Legends as gray imports in US (Voyagers) or Canadian/Latin American (Legends) packaging.
Legends Class (Series 02)
| Wave 3 | Wave 4 | Wave 5 | Wave 6 |  | ||||
| Wave 7 | Wave 8 |
Deluxe Class (Series 02)
| Wave 5 | Wave 6 | Wave 7 | Wave 8 | .jpg) | ||||
| Wave 9 | Wave 10 | Wave 11 |
Voyager Class (Series 02)
| Wave 3 | Wave 4 | Wave 5 | Wave 6 |  | ||||
| Wave 7 | Wave 8 |
Larger classes
| Leader Class | Titan Class |  |
Exclusives
- Convention exclusives
While these toys premiered at conventions, many also ended up available through other venues, like the Hasbro Toy Shop online store, and even occasionally at retail in certain chains. See individual entries for more information.
| San Diego Comic-Con 2012 | San Diego Comic-Con 2013
|
Animation-Comic-Game Hong Kong
|
 |
- Asian market exclusive sets
| Ultimate Gift Set | Specialist: Decepticons | Specialist: Autobots | Autobots Warriors |
Prime Wars Trilogy (2015–)
Combiner Wars (2015–2016)
For 2015, the line was given another subline imprint titled Combiner Wars, which saw Deluxe, Voyager, and some Legends figures able to form combiner robots. The format for Legends Class was changed once again, dropping the small partner figures of the Thrilling 30 line.
The tradition of including IDW comic books with U.S.[2] Deluxes continued, whilst Legends, Voyagers, Leaders, and non-U.S.[2] Deluxes gained collector cards featuring art taken either from the Transformers Legends mobile game, or simply the toy's package art (which doubles as the comic book cover for the U.S.[2] version). However, due to production schedule problems,[3] Deluxe wave 1's initial U.S.[2] release featured the collector cards. Along with the concurrently released Robots in Disguise line, Combiner Wars also heralded the return of multilingual packaging to the United States[2] market, now in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. The sole exception to this was the Deluxe figures packaged with comic books, which retained English-only packaging.
Meanwhile, Combiner Wars marked the end of the Toys"R"Us exclusivity for Generations figures that had been in effect in several European markets since the launch of the original line in 2010 (which had usually resulted in only one wave per assortment ever being released in Europe). Not only did availability and distribution improve tremendously across the board—the Combiner Wars figures were even released in European markets where Generations figures had previously never been available at all! At the same time, European packaging reduced the number of languages from thirteen to a mere four (English, French, German and Spanish), resulting in a less cluttered packaging design.
After the general retail assortments had run their course, the line was extended for several months via giftsets of complete teams featuring redecos and retools, referred to as "Collection Packs" in official promotional materials. Those sets were typically "shared exclusives" between online retailers and the online storefronts of "big box" retailers, though they were also available at brick and mortar retail in several non-U.S. markets.
Titans Return (2016–)
Mid-2016 introduced a new subline imprint, Titans Return (initially touted under the early working name Titan Wars[4]), with its own new line-wide gimmick: all Deluxe, Voyager, and Leader Class figures include a Headmaster-style Titan Master partner, all of which are completely interchangeable. To compensate for the size differences, Leader class figures feature large helmets that cover the Titan Masters, while Voyager class figures have spring-loaded pop-out adornments to "bulk up" their heads. Each Deluxe and Voyager figure's hand-held weapons can transform and combine to form a "turret" that can be manned by any Titan Master, and which can attach to the base modes of the Leader Class figures.
Additionally, a new Titan Master assortment was introduced, each including a single Titan Master, plus a small vehicle or beast. These can transform into a vehicle/beast for the Titan Master to ride, a second vehicle/beast formed by combining with the Titan Master, and a 5mm weapon for a larger figure to wield. Legends Class figures are predominantly Mini-Cassette characters, and can transform into both a vehicle and a blocky PDA that can fit inside Leader Class figures such as Blaster. Though never officially addressed by Hasbro, Deluxes no longer included comic books in any market, thus eliminating the need for English-only packaging entirely, leaving only two types of multilingual packaging, one for Europe and the other for all non-European markets. However, the character cards included with all figures (except for Titan Masters) now featured Tech Spec stats on their back.
Voting for the second Titan Class figure was conducted via Facebook, with fans choosing between a remake of Omega Supreme, Trypticon, or Scorponok.[5] Trypticon won.[6]
Power of the Primes
Power of the Primes is expected to follow Titans Return, with a yet to be revealed new play pattern.
Voting for a fan-chosen Prime will begin on January 23, 2017 on Transformers.com.[7]
"GDO" Cyber Series figures
Three years after a large batch of redecoes and retools had been created for Hasbro's Asian markets (with North American ToysЯUs branches later picking them up as exclusives), Hasbro's Global Development Organization ("GDO") division was given a budget to design entirely new toys. Taking a cue from the tail-end Beast Hunters Deluxe and Voyager Class figures, most of these figures were based on smaller figures from the 2010 Transformers Reveal the Shield Legends Class, Transformers: Prime Cyberverse Legion Class, Generations Thrilling 30 Legends Class, and 2015 Robots in Disguise Legion Class ranges, with the designs upsized to roughly Deluxe or Voyager size, keeping the engineering mostly unchanged. These figures were released in Hasbro's Asian and Latin American markets in 2015.
| Cyber Battalion Series | Cyber Commander Series |
Platinum Edition
Generations in Japan
TakaraTomy initially had Transformers United as their counterpart to the first phase of the Generations line. In 2012, with the revival of the Hasbro Generations line, TakaraTomy decided to use the same name for their successor to the United toyline. Similarly to United, many of the figures have been given "premium" paint jobs, being coated in shiny paint and featuring numerous additional paint details. Japanese Generations ended roughly halfway through Hasbro's Thrilling 30 assortment, and many Generations molds were released in Japan under other lines, namely Transformers Legends and Adventure.
Most "Combiner Wars" toys were released under the Unite Warriors toy line, a line of giant five-packs of combiner teams, with decos (and character selections) focusing heavily on accuracy to the Generaton 1 cartoon. Titans Return was pretty much rolled wholesale into Legends.
| Wave 1 (12-28-2012) | Wave 2 (1-26-2013) | Wave 3 (2-23-2013) | Wave 4 (3-23-2013)
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| Wave 5 (4-27-2013) | Wave 6 (5-25-2013) | Wave 7 (6-29-2013) | Wave 8 (8-31-2013) | |||||
Wave 9 (9-28-2013)
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Wave 10 (10-26-2013) | Wave 11 (11-30-2013) | Wave 12 (12-28-2013)
|
 | ||||
| Wave 13 (1-22-2014) | Wave 14 (3-23-2014) | Exclusives
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Notes
- During 2010, clicking "War for Cybertron Toys" on Hasbro's War For Cybertron web page actually brought up the whole Generations toy line. Looking for War for Cybertron toys? Here you go.
- Since the toys released during the first phase of the Generations toy line were all Deluxe-sized, the difficulty level bar on the front side of the packaging (which indicates how hard it is to convert a toy from mode to mode) denoted each individual toy's challenge level (Cybertronian Bumblebee, for example, is a Level 4, while Thrust is a Level 2).
- The plastic-coated wire twist-ties, which were normally used to secure a toy in its packaging in past toylines, have been replaced with rattan tie-downs. The paper-based tie-downs are also used in the 2010 Transformers toy line and subsequent toy lines until being replaced by sock ties near the middle of 2014. The tyranny of twist-ties has mercifully never sullied these toys.
- The 2010 Transformers toy line, particularly the Reveal the Shield subline imprint, contains several toys with a design aesthetic similar to the Generations line. This led to confusion when fan expectations were contradicted by official Hasbro announcements. Subsequently, Hasbro released Wheeljack, a retool of Reveal the Shield Turbo Tracks, and Junkheap, a retool of Reveal the Shield Wreck-Gar, under the Generations banner, later followed by Generation 2-inspired redecos of Reveal the Shield Optimus Prime and Special Ops Jazz released as part of the "Ultimate Gift Set" and the Asian market/Toys"R"Us exclusive Wheelie redeco/retool of Special Ops Jazz, all of them also in Generations packaging, thus further strengthening the ties between the two lines.
- Most of the 2010–2011 Generations toys (along with several from the 2010 Transformers toy line) were released by TakaraTomy in their Transformers United toyline. The toys representing characters who appeared in the video game War for Cybertron (which is part of the Aligned continuity family) were released as their Generation 1 continuity family counterparts in Japan. The waves from 2012 and onward were released under the Generations banner in Japan as well.
- The 2012-onwards figures were numbered in sequence for each size class assortment separately. However, the Combaticon and Wrecker combiner teams were also additionally numbered as members of their respective teams, and the sequences for those two separate sets of numbers are completely inconsistent with each other: For the Combaticons, team members 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 correspond with Deluxe Class Series 1 figures #004, #008, #006, #005, and #007, respectively; and for the Wreckers, team members 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 correspond with Deluxe Class Series 1 figures #014, #016, #018, #017, and #015, respectively. The only consistent system is that each sculpt is given the same number as a team member between both sets.
Footnotes
- ↑ TFW2005 thread containing an answer by Hasbro's customer service regarding the meaning of the term "GDO".
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Australia, New Zealand, and Hasbro's Asian markets typically get toys in whatever format is also used for the United States. The markets that traditionally get multilingual packaging are Canada, Latin America, and Europe, which meant no comic books for Thrilling 30 and Combiner Wars. See the images to the right for a comparison.
- ↑ Interview with Jerry Jivoin at BWTF.com
- ↑ Which is obviously used by many European retailers in official advertising, with annoying persistence.
- ↑ November 24 2016 photo
- ↑ There truly is nothing that can stand in the way of Trypticon. With your votes, he smashed his way to becoming the next Generations Titans Return Titan Class toy. Mark your calendars, and look for him to hit shelves late 2017.
- ↑ Hasbro announcement (copied via Tumblr)
