Transformers: Cybertron (toyline)
 |
| |||||||||||||||
The final act of the "Unicron Trilogy", Transformers: Cybertron vastly expanded the scope of the Transformers universe, bringing in the theme of "lost colonies" with different styles, while still unifying the toyline under a central play-gimmick, the Cyber Planet Keys.
Overview
After Energon's rather muddled gimmick/theme presentation, Hasbro dialed it back for Cybertron by sticking with a single unifying play gimmick: the Cyber Keys. These large discs, with designs based on the planet of their origin, unlocked pop-out weapons and action features in each toy once plugged into the key slot. Any planet's key would work with any toy. With the spring-loaded gimmicks less complex than those in Armada, they freed up the designs to allow for more robot-mode posability.
Where Cybertron gets its diversity is in its aesthetics, through the different planets each Transformer could hail from. Each planet has its own theme, with the toy designs reflecting the culture of each world.
- Cybertron and Earth toys are the most traditional of the series, with future-tech-vehicle and close-to-real-life vehicles respectively, and more "traditional" proportions and detailing.
- The Speed Planet toys are naturally all about the fastness. The vehicle modes are futuristic and fantastical, with transparent plastic tires and other accents. Even the bulkier vehicle modes at least look like they were built for raw horsepower. Colors are bright and clashing, the robot modes themselves streamlined. The Cyber Key gimmicks are typically tied to their swing-out blaster weapons.
- The brutal Jungle Planet is full of robotic beasts, with deeply-complex, nigh-organic sculpting that brings to mind the Transmetal IIs of Beast Wars or the technorganic Beast Machines Maximal toys. Robot modes feature limbs made from beast-bits, clawed hands, and fanged mouths. Melee weapons rule the land, with most Cyber Key gimmicks focused on pop-out blades.
- The Giant Planet is about heavy machinery. Very heavy machinery. Though few in number compared to the rest of the planets, they live up to their planet's name by being some of the largest toys in the line. These heavy construction (or destruction) vehicles are bulky and industrial, plus each one has a tiny Mini-Con partner to operate a work station somewhere on each bot's vehicle or robot mode.
- Planet X bots are similarly few in number. Their only real unifying style is "futuristic danger". The vehicle modes are sleek and deadly-looking, robot modes vicious and pointy.
The tail-end of the line was again heavy on the redecoes (by then a practice that had become expected and largely accepted), but also brought micro-play back into the line. Mini-Con two-packs were released to bolster the ranks of the still-popular Mini-Con class. But the history-making addition to the Transformers franchise was in the Legends Class toys. These sub-basic, simple and above all inexpensive toys were based on the larger toys of popular/major characters, giving kids the chance to own an Optimus Prime or Megatron they could keep in their pocket. From this point on, Legends-sized toys would continue on through every major Transformers toyline.
Hasbro Cybertron toyline
For Hasbro's line, every Cyber Key (packaged with every toy Scout Class or larger) has a short alphanumeric code printed on its back. These Cyber Key Codes, when plugged into the official Cybertron website (now defunct), unlocked design sketches and extra biographical info on each toy.
General retail
Mini-Con Class
| Wave 1 (Sky Attack Team vs. Air Defense Team)
|
Wave 2 (Lunar Assault Team vs. Exploration Team) |
Wave 3 (Sky Terror Team vs. Council of Sages)
|
Wave 4 (Deep Space Team vs. Street Action Team)
|
 |
Legends of Cybertron
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4
|
 |
Scout Class
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 |  | ||||
| Wave 5 | Wave 6
|
Wave 7 | Wave 8 | |||||
Wave 9
|
Wave 10 |
Deluxe Class
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 3.5 | |||||
| Wave 4 | Wave 5 | Wave 6 | Wave 7 | |||||
| Wave 8 | Wave 9 |
Voyager Class
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 |  | ||||
| Wave 5 | Wave 6 | Wave 7 | Wave 8 |
Ultra Class
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 | |||||
Wave 5
|
Wave 6 |
Leader Class
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 |
Supreme Class
| Wave 1 | Wave 2
|
Wave 3 |
Exclusives
| BotCon 2005 | Costco | San Diego Comic-Con 2005 | ToysЯUs
|
 | ||||
Target
|
|
Walmart |
Hasbro European market-only releases
As with Energon before it, the European Cybertron line was mostly just the US line outlined above. However, two sets of Micromaster combiner teams that were released as part of the 2003 Universe toy line (which was never officially distributed as such in Europe) in the US, exclusive to KB Toys, got released under the Cybertron banner, using a different assortment number (29514) than their own Universe counterparts as well as the earlier Energon/Universe figures (all of which were released under the assortment number 29460).
 |
Takara Galaxy Force toyline
Premiering roughly half a year before Cybertron (as Hasbro's lines tended to run approximately 18 months while Takara stuck with 12 months), Galaxy Force would mostly feature slight alterations from the Hasbro versions. Some of the additions to the line, like the Armada retools (sold in Vs packs in Japan) would eventually make their way to the States.
Store-promo Mini-Con giveaways returned in a big way, with full teams devoted to some of the major characters in the line.
Presumably due to lackluster sales, the line ended even earlier than its projected twelve-month run, after only nine months. Several characters and redecos that appeared on the show were either never released in Japan at all, or were given a limited production run and/or only made available as exclusives: First, "Dark Ligerjack" (aka Nemesis Breaker), despite being initially assigned the ID number GD-14, was relegated to a Toys"R"Us Japan exclusive; then "Master Megatron" was given a "limited edition" release; the "Dark Crumplezone" redeco of "Landbullet" (named "Armbullet" in the anime), despite being initially assigned the ID number GD-15, was never officially released in Japan at all; Primus was released in an unaltered Hasbro deco (complete with a tampographed Cyber Key code that was only relevant for the Hasbro release) in special retro packaging marketed as part of the Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers toy line; and "Blender" (Quickmix) and "Moledive" (Menasor) were only released as e-HOBBY exclusive "USA Editions", also in unaltered Hasbro decos in Hasbro packaging with additional stickers on the packaging, more than a year after the Galaxy Force line had run its course at retail.
Regular retail
Wave 1 (12-28-2004)
|
|
Wave 2 (01-20-2005)
|
Wave 3 (02-10-2005)
|
 | ||||
| Wave 4 (02-24-2005) | Wave 5 (03-17-2005)
|
Wave 6 (03-31-2005)
|
Wave 7 (04-14-2005)
|
|||||
Wave 8 (04-28-2005)
|
Wave 9 (06-09-2005)
|
Wave 10 (06-23-2005)
|
Wave 11 (07-14-2005)
|
|||||
Wave 12 (07-28-2005)
|
EZ Collection (08-25-2005) | Wave 13 (08-22-2005)
|
Wave 14 (08-29-2005)
|
Exclusives
- Store exclusives
| JUSCO | Hello Mac | Ito Yokaido | Joshin Denki |  | ||||
| "TF Station" affiliates | Toy's Dream Project | Toys"R"Us
|
- Media exclusives
Dengeki Hobby magazine
|
Galaxy Force DVDs | TV Magazine
|
 |
- Store exclusives
| e-HOBBY | Toys"R"Us | Toy's Dream Project |
Mocom Toy Galaxy Force toyline
TakaraTomy/Hasbro licensee Mocom Toy released a selection of Cybertron/Galaxy Force toys in Korea, under the name Transformers: Galaxy Force (트랜스포머 갤럭시포스).
| Cybertron | Destron | Other | ||||||
| Multipacks |
Post-Cybertron releases
| Titanium Series
|
Universe (2003)
|
Classics | Universe (2008)
(Optimus Prime, Crumplezone) (Blurr, Buzzsaw, Longrack, Optimus Prime, Runamuck) |
|
Kre-O | Siege |
