Movie Trilogy Series
The Movie Trilogy Series was originally (presumably) intended as a subline imprint of the Dark of the Moon toy line, but was later (arguably) turned into a separate toy line... of which ultimately only one toy was released.
History
Like pretty much every main toy line in the decade before it, the Dark of the Moon line was also intended by Hasbro to be extended by way of introducing a subline imprint as a way of "refreshing" the Dark of the Moon franchise, thus keeping it "interesting" for retailers. At New York Comic-Con in November 2011, the then-upcoming seventh wave of Dark of the Moon Deluxe Class figures and a Hasbro release of the previously Japanese market-only Chronicle trailer for Deluxe Class Optimus Prime were announced under the "Movie Trilogy" moniker.[1]
Ultimately, however, the Dark of the Moon line proved not be not as great a commercial success as its predecessors, the 2007 Movie line and the 2009 Revenge of the Fallen line. As a consequence, the Deluxe Class assortment was canceled before the wave 7 figures could be released. Ultimately, only the aforementioned Optimus Prime figure was released in February 2012, in packaging based on the Dark of the Moon toy line's template, but lacking the Dark of the Moon moniker entirely, instead sporting a separate Movie Trilogy Series logo.
For a while, it seemed like Hasbro was still intending to release the "Movie Trilogy" Deluxes, albeit exclusive to their East Asian markets such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and the Philippines. When shown at CybertronCon in March 2012, the line-up also included Evac, a character from Universal Studios' Transformers: The Ride whose toy was ultimately exclusively available at Universal Studios stores, in special "Transformers: Universal Studios" packaging.[2] Ultimately, the Asian market release of the "Movie Trilogy" figures didn't come to fruition either.
Still, the name "Movie Trilogy Series" was tied to predominantly Asian-market releases in more than one way: In 2012, Hasbro's East Asian division also released several redecos and retools of toys from various recent lines in its markets in Generations packaging (referred to by Western online retailers as "GDO", which was later revealed to be an abbreviation for "Global Development Organization".[3]). A late addition to that line-up were redecos of Dark of the Moon Leader Class Ironhide and 2010 Transformers "Hunt for the Decepticons" Leader Class Starscream). Eventually, Hasbro decided to make the "GDO" figures available in the United States and Canada as well, as ToysЯUs exclusives. For whatever reason, the Canadian ToysЯUs website advertised the two Leader Class figures with stock photos that depicted them in Dark of the Moon packaging rather than Generations packaging.[4] Furthermore, in April 2012, a packaged sample of Starscream in Dark of the Moon packaging surfaced, sporting the same Movie Trilogy Series logo also found on the Optimus Prime figure.[5] Samples of Ironhide in the same packaging style later also surfaced, alongside more samples of Starscream.[6] It's likely that Ironhide and Starscream were originally intended to be released as part of the Movie Trilogy Series subline imprint alongside the unreleased Deluxes, then became Asian market exclusives, and then were released in Generations packaging alongside the GDO figures just so Hasbro could release them in any fashion (thus sparing them the same fate as the Deluxes), and the stock photos from the Canadian ToysЯUs website and the leaked samples are relics of those earlier plans.
Toys
Deluxe Class
- Optimus Prime (redeco of the Walmart exclusive Dark of the Moon Deluxe Class Optimus Prime figure, including the trailer previously only available with the Japanese market exclusive Chronicle "G1 Optimus Prime & Movie Optimus Prime" two-pack)
Toys released under different toy lines
Deluxe Class
- Evac (original figure from Transformers: The Ride; released in Universal Studios packaging, exclusively available at Universal Studios stores)
Leader Class
- Ironhide (redeco of Dark of the Moon Leader Class Ironhide colored as an homage to Generation 1 Ironhide; released under Generations)
- Starscream (redeco of 2010 Transformers "Hunt for the Decepticons" Leader Class Starscream colored as an homage to Generation 1 Starscream; released under Generations)
Unreleased
Deluxe Class (Dark of the Moon Deluxe Class wave 7)
- ??? Bumblebee (redeco of Dark of the Moon Deluxe Class Nitro Bumblebee)
- ??? Ratchet (white redeco of Dark of the Moon Deluxe Class Autobot Ratchet)
- ??? Soundwave (black/gray redeco of Dark of the Moon Deluxe Class Soundwave)
- ??? Wheeljack (white redeco of Dark of the Moon Deluxe Class Wheeljack, with the G1 style alternate head sculpt seen in the original Wheeljack's instructions)
 Proceed on your way to oblivion. |
References
- ↑ Hasbro slides from New York Comic-Con 2011] at TFW2005, November 2011.
- ↑ Slide from Hasbro's presentation at CybertronCon 2012 at Planet Iacon's Facebook page.
- ↑ TFW2005 thread containing an answer by Hasbro's customer service regarding the meaning of the term "GDO".
- ↑ "Movie Series GDO Leader Ironhide and Starscream Coming to Toys R Us in Canada and the US", TFW2005.
- ↑ Packaged sample of "GDO" Leader Class Starscream in Dark of the Moon "Movie Trilogy Series" packaging at TFW2005.
- ↑ Comparison of the Asian retail Generations packaging, the Dark of the Moon packaging stock photos and leaked samples of Movie Trilogy Series packaging for "GDO" Leader Class Starscream and Ironhide at TFW2005.
