Transformers: Armada (franchise)
| "Armada" redirects here. For other uses of the word Armada, see Armada (disambiguation). |
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Transformers: Armada is a Transformers franchise that launched in the year 2002. It was the first Transformers franchise to be completely co-developed by Hasbro and Takara. Until Armada, every Transformers franchise had been led by one company or the other. It is the first franchise in the Unicron Trilogy, and was followed by Energon and Cybertron.
Takara marketed the series as Chō Robot Seimeitai Transformers Micron Densetsu (超ロボット生命体トランスフォーマー マイクロン伝説), officially translated as Transformers: Legends of the Microns.
The Armada franchise featured the following primary components:
- A toyline
- A cartoon series
- A mini-comic series packed with the Japanese DVD releases of the cartoon
- A series of mini-comics that came packed with toys
- An American comic book series by Dreamwave
- A British comic book series by Panini Comics
- A video game for PS2 based on Armada developed by Melbourne House
- A series of coloring and activity books by Funtastic Publishing
Armada also had a large amount of ancillary merchandise, sometimes referred to by fans as artifacts. Examples include birthday cards, storybooks, and coloring books. Merchandise of this sort had been rare during the years of Beast Wars, Beast Machines, and Robots in Disguise.
Armada also introduced a brand new faction to the Transformers multiverse: Mini-Cons. Armada has been nicknamed "Pokeformers" due to the emphasis of "trying to collect all of the Mini-Cons.
