Franchises
A franchise, for lack of a better term, is an incarnation or "generation" of the Transformers brand. The word is used here to refer to the collection of not just toys, but also media, merchandise, and ideas that surround each of these incarnations. Because of these other elements, the word "toyline" would not be broad enough -- the toyline is just the toy component of the whole thing.
US Franchises
"Franchise" is the term used by this wiki for the specific runs of product that compose the Transformers brand. There have been many franchises over the two decades that Transformers has been around:
- 1984-1991: Generation 1 is the retroactively-applied term for the original toys and associated media.
- 1993-1995: Generation 2 was a relaunch of the line, a mix of old and new toy designs.
- 1996-2001: Beast Wars changed the direction of the line with robots that changed into realistically-styled animals.
- 1999-2000: Beast Machines continued the directions of Beast Wars, and added futuristic vehicles to the mix.
- 2001-2003: Robots in Disguise was a port of a Japanese toyline and cartoon, padded out with additional toys in the US.
- 2002-2003: Armada marked a new beginning for the toys and fiction, and the addition of the Mini-Con faction.
- 2002-2005: Universe supplemented the wildly successful Armada with redecos of older toys and convention-based fiction.
- 2003-2005: Energon followed up on Armada.
- 2005-2006: Cybertron (franchise) completed the arc begun by Armada.
- 2006-2007: Classics acted as a stop-gap until the next franchise was ready.
- 2007: The Movie franchise marked a new level for Transformers, with the live-action film as its centerpiece.
- 2008: Transformers Animated will carry on the brand with a new look and some old faces.
Franchises within franchises
Beginning with the third year of Generation 1, Takara got into the habit of annually rebranding the Transformers property. Moreover, 1987's The Headmasters kicked off a trend in which Takara's toylines and fiction branched off from Hasbro's versions to increasingly significant degrees. Thus, the later iterations of Japanese G1 are often referred to as "franchises", despite being part of the larger G1 generation.
A similar situation arose during Beast Wars, when Takara decided to augment that series with the Japanese-exclusive franchises Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo.
