The Transformers: Generation One Commemorative Series

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Dirge is playing air guitar. No, really.

The Transformers: Generation One Commemorative Series was a line of Toys"R"Us exclusive reissues of early Transformers toys. Series I and II were released in traditional window box packaging. Series III and beyond were available in "book box" packaging which vaguely mirrored the style of Takara's contemporary The Transformers Collection reissue series.

The Commemorative Series line, in its initial release, lasted from 2002 to 2004, but there have been extra figures added since then. Astrotrain, an already produced but unreleased toy, was eventually released as a Hasbro Toy Shop exclusive in 2005. Soundwave was released in 2007 as an un-numbered figure in packaging that mirrored the style of the Classics line. In 2009, two new "Commemorative Edition" reissues were released as part of the Universe line, both as Toys"R"Us exclusives again.

Commemorative Series

United States market

Series I

Series II

Series III

Series IV

Series V

Series VI

Series VII

Series VIII

Though intended to be released together with Skids at Toys"R"Us stores, Side Swipe wasn't officially released in the United States until more than a year later, and then only at KB Toys stores and outlets at half the original price.
Ricochet is shocked to learn he's a choking hazard.

Series IX

Though intended to be released together with Ricochet at Toys"R"Us stores, the Hasbro version Astrotrain wasn't released until more than a year later, and then only exclusive to the Hasbro Toy Shop online store.


International releases and re-releases

Canada

In Canada, (almost) all of the figures listed above were released around the same time they came out in the United States, sometimes even preceding the US release. Unusually for Canadian releases, they were not sold in trilingual packaging, but in the same English-only packaging also used for the United States market releases.

Side Swipe was released as a Toys"R"Us exclusive together with Skids around the same time he was also supposed to show up in the United States.

Astrotrain was never officially made available in Canada.

Australia

Just like in Canada, all the figures listed above were also released in Australia, also close to their respective United States release dates. The packaging was also identical to the packaging used for the US releases.

Side Swipe was released as a Toys"R"Us exclusive half a year later than in Canada.

Astrotrain was released in Australia as a Kmart exclusive (for a deep discount price). Despite being an exclusive, he could also be found clogging up shelves in smaller, privately owned toy shops.

United Kingdom

The Commemorative Series figures were also released in the United Kingdom, but (unusually) not anywhere else in Europe.

Series I, II and III

The Series I figures were sold in standard multilingual packaging (with texts in English, French, Dutch, German, Italian and Spanish, including translations of the name "Commemorative Series") around the same time they were released in other markets:

Later figures

In 2006, long after even Sideswipe and Astrotrain had been made available in the United States, Hasbro UK released several figures that hadn't been available in the United Kingdom before. Unusually, these figures now came in English-only packaging, but lacked the US packaging's "Commemorative Series" labels, the "choking hazard" safety warning labels and all trademark ™ and ® markings:

Asian Hasbro market re-releases

Several Commemorative Series figures were also re-released in Hasbro's Asian markets in 2012, in slightly altered English-only packaging that also lacked the "Commemorative Series" labels, featured different age recommendations (5+ instead of 8+) and sported updated trademark ™ and ® markings, as well as modern cardboard ties instead of the pre-2010 twist ties.

Optimus Prime was actually a re-release of the Universe 25th Anniversary reissue of the figure, with tampographed insignias instead of stickers, in a variation of the older Commemorative Series packaging.

Also among these re-releases was a re-release of Soundwave (see below).

Classics (2006)

"Commemorative Edition" Soundwave was a Toys"R"Us exclusive released in early 2007, available in packaging using the design of the Classics line. He was also available as a Toys"R"Us exclusive in the United Kingdom around the same time, in unaltered United States packaging, and was later re-released in Hasbro's Asian markets in 2012, in slightly altered packaging.

Universe (2008)

Notes

What could have been.
  • Stock photos for the Series III figures Thundercracker, Silverstreak and Autobot Jazz depicted mock-up packaging that labeled each figure as an "adult collectable" instead of the final versions' age recommendations.
  • Series IX Ricochet was originally listed under the placeholder name "Sunstreaker" in Canadian and Australian Toys"R"Us computers. What's worse, the public Canadian Toys"R"Us website even illustrated their listing with a non-official photo of the Generation 1 Sunstreaker toy lifted straight off a fan's website, complete with watermark. Ultimately, however, the listings for "Sunstreaker" transformed into listings for Ricochet, leading to some confusion among fans.
  • Had the original Commemorative Series line not been canceled by Toys"R"Us, it would have continued with several figures that were found as listings in Canadian and Australian Toys"R"Us computers. One of these unreleased reissues even made it to the prototype stage:


Foreign names

  • French: Premiere Generation/Commémoratif de la Série
  • Dutch: Eerste Generatie/Klassiekers Serie
  • German: Erste Generation/Klassik-Serie
  • Italian: Generation One/Serie Classica
  • Spanish: Generación Uno/Series Commemorativas
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