Transformers: Universe (2008 franchise)
| The name or term "Universe" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Universe (disambiguation). |
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The 2008 Universe is the second Transformers franchise to use the name. Like the previous franchise, this line is intended to be something of a catch-all for toys that don't fit in the main line. While the contemporary main line alongside this Universe is Transformers Animated, for some reason Hasbro has actually included a few Animated figures in it too.
The franchise consists of:
The Titan Transformers comic also uses the Universe name and logo for some reason, despite all of its story content being firmly in the live-action film series continuity (one of the few franchises not appearing under the Universe banner). Some Universe toy designs have shown up in the IDW Generation 1 comic, but it is not branded with the Universe mark in any way.
When Hasbro first announced the Universe toyline at BotCon 2007, they said that it would not have a unified story arc. True to their word, the Universe toys are divided to various "series," with their on-package bios confirming the characters' presence in pre-existing continuities:
- Classic Series, originally the most prevalent sub-line.
- Generation 1 Series (sometimes G1 Series), currently the most prevalent sub-line. There seems to be no substantial difference between "Classic Series" and "Generation 1 Series"—in fact, later waves dropped the "Classic Series" label altogether in favor of "Generation 1 Series".
- Generation 2 Series
- War Within Series
- Beast Wars Series
- Beast Machines Series
- Robots in Disguise Series
- Armada Series
- Animated Series
- Cybertron Series
In January 2008, Hasbro launched a web page for the new Universe line, featuring a preview of the first Classic Series wave and a CGI reimagining of the battle between Megatron and Optimus Prime from the original animated Transformers movie. The tagline for the video, in keeping with the toyline's theme, was "They were always real to me."
