Getting bonus plastic trinkets alongside your junk food is the right of all sentient beings.
Since the beginning, Transformers has been adept at getting plastic garbage into the hands of children. Try as they might to move away, Hasbro knows that there is no tactic quite so effective at this goal as packaging it alongside garbage food.
In 1985, McDonald's gave away non-transforming, non-poseable figurines of four Mini Vehicle characters, each rendered in six different color variations, in various two-color combinations of red, green, blue, yellow and black. These figures were only available in St. Louis as a test run.[1] The line included:
In conjunction with Generation 2, Dairy Queen gave away a non-transforming non-posable Optimus Prime figure with its "Kids' Pick-nic!" meals. It came with stickers kids can apply onto the toy that have nothing to do with Optimus Prime.
For Beast Wars, McDonald's released four transforming toys, with names very, very accurate to their beast modes. Another toy was sold to the under-3 crowd, as clearly indicated by his name.
North American Beast Wars Transmetals promotion (1998)
To coincide with the Transmetals subline and the second season of Beast Wars, McDonald's Happy Meals featured three characters from the show who did not get Transmetal toys in the retail line.
If you look into its eyes, it'll steal your soul. (Rhinox)
Hasbro Toys (2000)
At the tail end of Beast Wars proper, American chain Checkers and its regional variant Rally's offered four toys based on various Hasbro properties. Rhinox was the ugliest.
Australian chain Red Rooster opted to release four of the McDonald's pieces for their version of the promotion. Each of the four toys was available in four decos: the toy's original colors, and three versions using the plastic colors of each of the other toys in the set. All translucent plastic from the Happy Meal release was replaced with opaque plastic.
Released an inexplicable nine years after the show aired, Jollibee's Beast Machines toys included cube-like display stands with little niches to hold pencils with. These toys were based heavily on the characters' figures from the Beast Machines toyline.
With Armada out in 2002, McDonald's released eight toys to represent select characters from the cartoon. The Decepticon toys could combine into the Mighty Vehicle, while the Autobots could combine into a tall... "totem-pole" Mighty Robot. The toys all had 5mm Powerlinx hardpoints and ports, allowing them to interact with Mini-Cons and other compatible figures.
Mighty Vehicle
The Japanese release of this set featured a unique mold for Hot Shot.
McDonald's locations in various parts of Europe released four Energon-based Happy Meal toys. These toys were united by a common gimmick of interchangeable light-up "energon cube" accessories.
Philippine chain Jollibee released a set of four transforming toys in its home country under the "Robot Blasters" name, each including a display stand for their robot modes that were also intended to go on top of fast food cups. Their sculpts were based on the Legends of Cybertron figures, with reduced joints.
To coincide with the 2007 live-action movie, Jollibee released four toys each with their own cop topper stand. As with Jollibee's Cybertron set, these toys were modeled after Legends class figures, though this time hewing closer to the original sculpts. Bumblebee notably features original sculpting, vaguely resembling the 2008 concept Camaro rather than emulating the 1976 Chevrolet Camaro of the Legends toy.
Jollibee's Revenge of the Fallen toys included three modified Legends figures and one neutered Cyber Slammer! Their stands acted as vehicle mode launchers.
McDonald's stores in America released six figures tying into the generic 2010 Transformers toyline. Oddly, they are all based on movieverse characters.
In 2011, Burger King released eight super-deformed figures based on characters appearing in Dark of the Moon. The figures' bodies could be tucked away within their oversized heads.
A wave of toys for the third live-action movie would later be released in the same regions. Featuring the same set of characters, these toys forego alternate modes and focus instead on action features.
McDonald's stores in Japan offered two non-transforming figures as a promotional tie-in with the release of Dark of the Moon, these toys feature proximity-triggered electronic sound and light gimmicks:
Additionally, three rather different figures were available through other promotions. These three "Foodstrap" figures (so called due to the dangling strap attached to each used to hang them off other things) depicted Transformers: Prime characters popping out of items of McDonald's food via spring-loaded push-button triggers. They included:
Outside of Japan, McDonald's released eight Transformers: Prime characters in their vehicle modes. These toys had various gimmicks, including spring-loaded missiles, electronic lights or some sort of flip-out compartment.
For the 2017 holiday season, McDonald's released a set of twelve interlocking train cars based on then-popular franchises. Among them was a carriage representing Robots in Disguise.
First released internationally under generic Transformers branding, this set of super-deformed toys based on evergreen designs had unique gimmicks and very cute faces. The North American release wound up being branded as Bumblebee merchandise in time for the film's release.
This crop of toys was a mashup with Potato Head. It featured a variety of miniature Potato Heads with various character costumes, in the style of Mixable Mashable Heroes. In starch contrast to other entries on this page, where we have omitted any concurrently released My Little Pony toys, the featured ponies are listed below due to all being part of the same interchangeable, mix-and-matchable set.
As of March 2022, this set has only released in select regions across Asia and Africa.
Super-deformed interpretations of the evergreen designs, these toys were available with Wendy's Kids Meals. Each non-transformable figure came unassembled in a bag, which contained a plastic torso with cardboard legs, arms, and interchangeable faces.
Tying into the Power of the Spark subline imprint of Cyberverse, these four figures had shooty swingy pow-pow actions. Notably, their armor was mostly not removable.
Also promoting the Power of the Spark, these eight figures each came with a small vehicle that split apart to become armor or weapons. These parts all used a 4mm peg system that allowed them to be shared between any of the robot figures. The number of figures offered varied per country. Plenty only got an assortment of four, while others would get six, or rarer still, all eight.
International Bumblebee Cyberverse Adventures promotion (2021)
Released under the show's midlife rebranding, all of these toys feature a lenticular piece within their chests that can be wobbled around using one of their arms. Bee, Starscream, Prime, and Megatron were the common set across multiple countries, with the other two Autobots showing up sporadically in European countries.
