Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2001 franchise)
When Megatron and his Predacons arrive on Earth, they meet an unexpected resistance: Optimus Prime, who leads a special team of Autobot defenders who have remained hidden for years! But Megatron is after more than just energy... on Earth lies an ancient power that could make the Predacons the rulers of the universe!
The Robots in Disguise / Car Robots series brought modern-Earth vehicular Transoformers back into the limelight, and began the "reboot" tactic that would be employed by later lines.
In the year 2000, Takara released their new Transformers line called Car Robots in Japan. Up until that point, Takara had been expanding upon what America was doing with their Transformers toys; utilizing the "Beast" angle. This was the 15th anniversary of Transformers in Japan though, so to keep with that spirit they launched a completely new series based on vehicles. At the same time, they started the "Re-issue" phase, which repackaged original 1980's Transformers as collection editions. All of this was a much welcome change by fans both in the US and Japan, who were hungering for a return to the more classic rendition of Transformers. The toyline featured a mixture of everything that, up to that point, was Transformers. All new exciting molds for the core Autobot characters, using real life vehicle models, with updated transformation techniques, most developed during the Beast era.
To fill the line in, they took toys previously released in older lines, repainted them, and released them as new along side of these "all new" molds. The Bruticus/Combaticon combiner toys from the original G1 series were introduced, the Laser Optimus Prime toy from Generation 2 was released (and recoloured to serve as a villain), basic and mega sized Beast Wars figures not featured in the American show were used as primary characters, plus the Spychangers (a name now used in America as well) were released. These were Matchbox sized cars originally released under the name "Go-Bots" in the Generation 2 line from the 90s. Takara also did the unthinkable: repainting and re-releasing the biggest Transformer ever made, Fortress Maximus (this time named Brave Maximus). Couple that with an all new 10-changer, Beast oriented, Gigatron and you had the making of the first new millenium Transformers series, one that combined the best from everything before it into one.
Car Robots Vs. Beast Machines
Meanwhile, in the Western world, Beast Wars had just ended and Hasbro wanted to produce a continuation of the very successful toyline and series; thus, Beast Machines came to be. Unfortunately, for reasons not belonging here, the Beast Machines line fell through. This line destroyed the momentum Hasbro had going for them at the end of Beast Wars. In the mind and pocket book of collectors, Beast Machines was going head to head with Car Robots: One from America, one from Japan. And America lost.
Many fans were paying hand over foot for imports of the Japanese line, all the while complaining about the poor quality of the Beast Machines line and show. Ultimately, Beast Machines ended its run just under a year before its anticapted end. At that point what we know as "Robots In Disguise" was born, unveiled at the 2001 Toyfair event in NYC. US Fans rejoiced.
In the US, Robots in Disguise was intended as a low-cost, minimal-work "filler" line that would allow Hasbro and Takara the time needed to completely shift gears from previous series and begin the process of working together on a level they had not previously for the next line, and re-thinking their design and play-pattern aims for the toys as well. This turned out to be a boon; Robots in Disguise did remarkably well for Hasbro (Car Robots for Takara... not so much), and the following line did even better.
Toyline
Car Robots
After the last several Beast Era lines were received poorly in Japan, Takara decided to make a fresh start in 2000 with Car Robots, a combination of "traditional" Earth vehicles and beasts, as well as a near-even mix of newly-created molds and those originally developed for other lines, presumably to keep development costs down. The line had a heavy bias towards the Cybertrons (Autobots); of the ??? toys in the line, only 11 were Destrongers (Predacons/Decepticons)
To this day, many people still refer to the Car Robots line as Transformers 2000. However, the series was never officially named as such; it's possible this was a working title at one point, but proof has yet to be found of this.
Robots in Disguise
Hasbro also added a significant number of toys to Robots In Disguise that had not been part of Car Robots, although they also left out the toy incarnation of Brave Maximus (due to failure to pass safety testing), who in the dubbed cartoon was named Fortress Maximus.
Fictions
A cartoon series accompanied the Car Robots toyline,
Unlike previous toylines, there was no Car Robots manga. The only Hasbro-endorsed comic for Robots in Disguise came in the form of a short story in the "Dreamwave Summer Special" comic released in 2004. Dreamwave held a vote in 2004 to see which series fans wanted to be the focus of a mini-series, Beast Wars or Robots in Disguise; Beast Wars was the winner by a wide margin. (Though Dreamwave filed for bankruptcy and closed its door before the Beast Wars comic was made.)
