Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2001 toyline)
| The name or term "Robots in Disguise" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Robots in Disguise (disambiguation). |
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The Takara Car Robots toyline, brought to the West as Robots in Disguise, marked a turning point for the Transformers franchise in both markets, both as the end of the "Beast Era" and the return of more "traditional" franchise elements... though the two companies differed in just how many elements they brought back.
Both lines are predominantly filled with robots that transform into realistic (or close enough) modern-day Earth vehicles, though a significant number of villains become robotic beasts. The classic Autobot symbol made its return, but the Decepticons would only appear in the Hasbro version of the line.
Though the toyline struggled in Japan (leading to another year-long gap in Transformers product there), it was a rousing success in Hasbro's markets, continuing well past its normal retail life through a number of store exclusives.
Overview
Takara's Car Robots
At the end of the 1990's, Transformers was floundering in Japan. Though the original Beast Wars toyline had reinvigorated the franchise there just as it had in the US, Takara's follow-ups/fillers Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo failed to retain its kid audience, to the point where the Beast Wars Metals series, aka "the Transmetal toys and the last two seasons of the Mainframe cartoon" couldn't gain purchase. While Hasbro would continue the Beast theme with Beast Machines, Takara decided to change direction.
A new toyline for the new millennium, 2000's Car Robots focused on modern-day Earth vehicles. The "headliners" of the line are all new-mold toys, with some redecorated toys from previous lines (most of which had not been released in Japan previously). The line is marked by an extremely wide variation in quality, complexity, realism, and posability. At one end of the spectrum were fairly simple designs from previous lines, such as the Commandos and Spy Changers. On the flip side, most of Takara's original mold designs were extremely complex, often to the point of frustrating fans with their origami-like shellformer transformations that required stuffing robotic bits just so to make them all fit together in vehicle form — though some fans also found this same complexity to be an enjoyable challenge.
Hasbro's Robots in Disguise
When the Transtech toyline concept was dropped, Hasbro needed additional time to develop a new franchise to follow the Beast Era. To prevent there being a gap in Transformers product on store shelves for the better part of a year, Hasbro ported over the ready-to-go Car Robots line, rebranding it as Transformers: Robots in Disguise. The line was filled out with other readily-available molds as new characters. Hasbro also made the classic Transformers branding more overt, applying faction symbols to the characters' vehicle modes (Car Robots kept the symbols to robot mode), and rebranded the Combatron sub-faction as Decepticons.
As sales rose and more toys were needed, Hasbro added in still more redecorated toys to pad the line out toward its end. By the time all was said and done, Robots in Disguise included molds from Generation 1, Generation 2, Beast Wars, Machine Wars, and Beast Machines—in other words, every American toyline that had been produced to that point. Several cancelled/delayed/unproduced molds from previous lines were brought out as well, such as Air Attack Optimus Primal.
Robots in Disguise was the first (and thus far, only) time an existing Japanese line was brought over wholesale to the U.S. The line was met with a generally positive reception by fans (particularly those who'd found the Car Robots import prices to be more than they were willing to dish out), and more importantly the line sold well to kids, setting up the upcoming Armada line with a nice receptive audience.
Takara Car Robots toyline
Standard retail
| Wave 1 (3-??-2000) |
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Wave 2 (4-??-2000) |  | |||||
| Wave 3 (5-??-2000) | Wave 4 (6-??-2000) | Wave 5 (7-??-2000)
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Wave 6 (8-??-2000) |  | ||||
| Wave 7 (9-??-2000) | Wave 8 (10-??-2000) | Super Spy Changers (3-??-2003) |
Exclusives
| Daiei | JUSCO | ToysЯUs | Multiple conventions
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Hasbro Robots in Disguise toyline
Put out as something of a stopgap "filler" line, Hasbro took the Car Robots toys and did some tweaking for its 2001 US release: slight deco changes, adding Autobot and Decepticon faction symbols, and minor retooling here and there. They also supplemented the line with a host of redecoed and previously-unreleased molds.
And the line took off, so much that Hasbro scrambled to fill out the line more, dipping into more unreleased toys and even more decos, even funding the tooling of a few all-new small-scale items.
Standard retail
- Basic class
| Wave 1 (July 2001) | Wave 2 (September 2001) | Wave 3 (October 2001) | Wave 4 (January 2002) |  | ||||
| Wave 5 (April 2002) |
- Tiny Tins
- An odd side-class, the Tiny Tins were actually sub-licensed releases, single Spy Changer toys that came with a small tin carrying case.
| Wave 1 (July 2003) |  |
- Deluxe class
| Wave 1 (July 2001) | Wave 2 (September 2001) | Wave 3 (October 2001) | Wave 4 (November 2001) |  | ||||
| Wave 5 (January 2002) | Wave 6 (April 2002) |
- Mega class
| Wave 1 (July 2001) | Wave 2 (October 2001) | Wave 3 (April 2002) |  |
- Ultra class
| Wave 1 (July 2001) | Wave 2 (December 2001) |  |
- Super class
| Wave 1 (July 2001) |
Exclusives
| KB Toys | ||||||||
Target
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Toys"R"Us
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Walmart |
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Sonokong Car Bot toyline
In 2003, Takara-licensor Sonokong imported the Car Robots line into the Korean market as Jeonguiui Yongsa: Car Bot (정의의 용사 카봇, "Brave Heroes of Justice: Car-Bots"). For the most part, these imports followed the Japanese toy line, with only cosmetic changes on the boxes. At the tail end of the line, however, Sonokong repackaged several Destrons from the older Beast Wars II line in Car Bot boxes; the toys themselves were unchanged, which meant that the figures who were sold as heroic Cybertrons still had the Predacon insignia on them. While most of these re-releases had new names, the Sonokong line also re-released Beast Wars II Galvatron as the Destronger "Gigatron Z", seemingly an additional version of Car Robots Gigatron/Robots in Disguise Megatron.
Cybertrons
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Destrongers
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Post-Robots in Disguise releases
Following the end of the Robots in Disguise line, key characters have popped up in subsequent series. Admittedly, a large percentage of these releases come from a series immediately following Robots in Disguise, when the line was still fresh in people's minds (and the molds used to make the characters in the first place were readily available).
Innovations and lasting effects
- Like Beast Wars before it, Robots in Disguise also integrated the robots' weapons and accessories into their alternate modes, now applying the concept to Transformers who transform into vehicles as well.
- Robots in Disguise firmly established redecos of previously released toys from the same line marketed as the same characters as the older toys (as compared to different characters), with the accompanying fiction often identifying the new decos as the result of a "power-up".
- Robots in Disguise also introduced trilingual packaging to the United States market, which would last four years.
- While store exclusives had existed since almost the beginning of the brand, the expanded Robots in Disguise line was when the concept really took off beyond "three or four exclusives for an entire line".
Notes
- Although not branded as Car Robots product, The Transformers: Super Spy Changer Lottery figure assortment sold by Takara in 2003 features the Car Robots Spy Changer characters, and its pack-in catalog makes reference to the end of the Car Robots TV show.
- The 2008 Universe toyline includes toys marked as "Robots in Disguise series".
Foreign names
- French: Les Robots Mutants (France), Robots Déguisés (Canada)
- German: Getarnte Roboter
- Spanish: Transformers: Robots Camuflados (America)
