Transformers: Universe (2003 franchise)
| This article is about the franchise. For the Marvel profile books, see Transformers Universe (Marvel comic). |
Universe is a Transformers franchise without a clearly-defined starting date. The name Universe first appeared on toys released in 2003. However, in 2002 the BotCon exclusive toys bore the name Expanded Universe, and BotCon characters extending as far back as 1996 were all portrayed as being in-continuity with the convention's Universe comics.
The franchise largely ended in 2005, although a few more Universe toys trickled out to discount stores with a low frequency in 2006 and even in mid-to-late 2007 toys from the Cybertron franchise were still appearing at discount under the Universe label. Word from Botcon 2007 was that Hasbro would revive the Universe label in 2008 as a catch-all-banner for any product outside of their Animated universe offerings. Whether this revived "Universe" will be in any way continuous with the old in package dress or fiction remains to be seen.
The Universe franchise was conceived by Hasbro as a way of getting more Transformers product on store shelves in order to meet high demand without having to greatly increase the brand's development staff and budget. The toyline would consist entirely of redecoes and retools, both creating new characters and re-creating old ones. The backstory for the line was written to accomodate these goals:
Set ostensibly in a Generation 1 universe sometime after the events of Beast Machines, Universe deals with a struggle between the Minions of Unicron and the Children of Primus. Unicron, injured and floating in deep space, plucks Transformer warriors from across the multiverse and deposits them on his surface. The Transformers are forced to fight each other, and as they do so, Unicron absorbs energy from them in order to repair himself.
The Universe franchise consists of only two components:
The comic series was published by 3H as part of their Official Transformers Collectors Club (OTFCC).
