Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2001 toyline)

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When the Transtech toyline concept was dropped, Hasbro needed additional time to develop a new franchise to follow the Beast Era. In 2000, the company therefore opted to bring over Takara's Transformers: Car Robots line, rebranding the toyline as Transformers: Robots in Disguise.

The Car Robots line consisted of a group of new-mold toys, along with several redecorated toys from previous lines. The line included the first realistically-styled Earth vehicle Transformers in half a decade.

RiD Optimus Prime, the largest vehicular toy since Optimal Optimus.

As sales rose and more toys were needed, Hasbro added in still more redecorated toys to pad the line out toward its end. By the time all was said and done, Robots in Disguise included molds from Generation 1, Generation 2, Beast Wars, Machine Wars, and Beast Machines—in other words, every American toyline that had been produced to that point. Several cancelled/delayed/unproduced molds from previous lines were brought out as well, such as Air Attack Optimus Primal.

The line is therefore marked by an extremely wide variation in quality, complexity, realism and posability. At one end of the spectrum were fairly simple designs from previous lines, such as the Commandos and Spy Changers. On the flip side, most of Takara's original mold designs were extremely complex, often to the point of frustrating fans with their origami-like shellformer transformations that required stuffing robotic bits just so to make them all fit together in vehicle form — though some fans also found this same complexity to be an enjoyable challenge.

Several elements introduced by Robots in Disguise would recur in the subsequent Unicron Trilogy and various other storylines, such as Optimus Prime combining with other major toys, and Prime and Ultra Magnus as brothers.

RiD Megatron - the only new-mold bad guy in the line.

Robots in Disguise was the first (and thus far, the only) time an existing Japanese line was brought over wholesale to the US. Though the toys were new to the line's primary audience of children, many fans had already paid considerably higher prices to import the toys from Japan. Despite this, the line was met with a generally positive reception by fans (particularly those who'd found import prices to be more than they were willing to dish out), and seemed to sell well enough to kids as well, if the number of later redeco additions to the line is any indication.

Some minor changes were made to the Hasbro releases of the toys, most notably the application of tampographed faction symbols.

Car Robots

2000

Cybertrons

Spychangers
The Spychanger group began as redecorated Generation 2 GoBots molds. Eventually, several molds that were developed for G2 but never released were added to the ranks, as well as several entirely new molds representing characters from the line who had larger toys.

Flipchangers
The Flipchangers were another canceled G2 item, though these had previously surfaced in Machine Wars.

Deluxe
Includes the Autobot Brothers and the Build Team, all molds original to the line. The Autobot Brothers share highly realistic vehicle forms and complicated, shellforming transformation schemes. The Build Team share a very blocky aesthetic which conceals a complex design, allowing them to combine in multiple ways.

Mega
Known on the cartoon as Team Bullet Train, these three Takara-original molds can combine into JRX.

Super
Two massive new Takara molds, which can combine to form God Fire Convoy.

City

Gift sets

Destrongers

Basic

Mega

Ultra

Combatrons

Basic

Deluxe

Ultra

Super

Gift set

2003

Cybertrons

Spychangers (Japan)

2003 Sonokong, Korea

In 2003, Takara-licensor Sonokong imported the Car Robots line into the Korean market. For the most part, these imports followed the Japanese toy line, with only cosmetic changes on the boxes. At the tail end of the line, however, Sonokong repackaged several Destrons from the older Beast Wars II line in Car Robots boxes. These figures were each called Combatrons, given the Car Robots Combatron symbol on their packaging and instructions, but had their boxes colored as Cybertron figures. The figures themselves were unchanged, which also meant that they each still had the Predacon on them.

Robots in Disguise

2001

Autobot

Basic

Deluxe

Mega

Super

Predacon

Deluxe

Mega

Ultra

Decepticon

Basic

Deluxe

Ultra

Versus

Deluxe

2002

Autobot

Basic

Spychangers (KB Toys and Target exclusives)

Deluxe

Mega

Predacon

Ultra

Decepticon

Basic

Deluxe

Super

Versus

Basic

Mega

2003

Autobot

Tiny Tins

Spychangers (KB Toys exclusives)

Ultra

Maximal

Supreme

Decepticon

Deluxe (KB Toys exclusives)

Ultra

Innovations and lasting effects

  • Like Beast Wars before it, Robots in Disguise also integrated the robots' weapons and accessories into their alternate modes, now applying the concept to Transformers who transform into vehicles as well.
  • Robots in Disguise firmly established redecos of previously released toys from the same line marketed as the same characters as the older toys (as compared to different characters), with the accompanying fiction often identifying the new decos as the result of a "power-up".
  • Robots in Disguise also introduced trilingual packaging to the United States market, which would last four years.
  • While store exclusives had existed since almost the beginning of the brand, the expanded Robots in Disguise line was when the concept really took off beyond "three or four exclusives for an entire line".

Notes

The Universe (2008) toyline includes toys marked as "Robots in Disguise series".

Foreign names

  • French: Les Robots Mutants (France), Robots Déguisés (Canada)
  • German: Getarnte Roboter
  • Spanish: Transformers: Robots Camuflados (America)
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