Transformers (toy)
The Transformers ( Japanese ト ラ ン ス フ ォ ー マ ー , Toransufōmā , eng . "Transformer") are toys - action figures that have been produced since 1984 in cooperation between the Japanese company Takara (since 2006 Takara Tomy ) and the American company Hasbro . Takara serves the Japanese market, Hasbro the rest of the world. The Transformers are toy robots that can be converted into cars , planes , battle stations, etc. in just a few simple steps .
In order to promote the sale of the characters, there have been suitable cartoon series on television since 1984 . These tell the background story of the respective toy series and characterize the individual robots. In addition, various comic series have appeared over the years , which have been or are being published by the publishers Marvel , Dreamwave Productions and, currently, IDW Publishing . There were also movies with the Transformers, the cartoon Transformers - The Battle for Cybertron from 1986 as well as the movies Transformers , Transformers - Die Rache , Transformers 3 ,Transformers: Age of Extinction and Transformers: The Last Knight , as well as the spin-off Bumblebee from 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2018.
Video game conversions appeared for the C64 , the NES , the PlayStation , Windows - PCs , the PlayStation 2 . Most recently, a suitable game for the movie was released for Xbox 360 , Xbox One , Nintendo 64 , PlayStation 3 , Wii , Nintendo DS and Windows PCs.
overview
The toy figures
The Transformers are toy robots that can be transformed into vehicles or airplanes, everyday objects or animals and back with a few simple steps. The difficulty of these transformations varies depending on the series and cost of the character. In everyday parlance, the term “transformer” is often used synonymously for the genre “transformable toy robot”; In fact, however, it is a brand name of the US manufacturer Hasbro , which is used as the official name, along with various licensees, only by the Japanese toy company Takara (since 2006 TakaraTomy ), a partner company Hasbro's.
The robot shapes of the "Transformers" are usually based on human body proportions, but animal shapes and hybrid shapes with vehicle elements can also occur. The heads of the robots also often follow the human model, although helmets, eye visors and face plates are not uncommon. Animal heads are also often used as inspiration.
The forms of transformation of the "Transformers" are often more or less realistically designed cars, trucks, airplanes, helicopters, spaceships, military vehicles or watercraft. Other recurring forms of transformation are everyday objects such as radios, microscopes, weapons, cell phones or wristwatches. A third category of frequently occurring forms of transformation are animals that are either "realistically" designed or represent mechanical replicas of the respective animal forms. But there are also figures that transform into planets, such as the planet eater Unicron and the planet Cybertron, which can transform itself into the "absolute creator Primus".
In addition to the transformation function itself, many Transformers toys also have other additional functions. For example, many of the weapons available with the figures are equipped with a spring mechanism that can be used to fire the plastic missiles supplied. Furthermore, some figures have several different forms of transformation, while other figures can be combined to form larger robots or vehicles. Over the years, many other variants and special functions have been added, including tiny, transformable figures that can be connected to larger Transformers robots and in this way sometimes trigger additional functions in the latter. Larger figures also often use battery-powered electronic light and sound effects. The latest generation of figures has now even become interactive, with motion sensors and mechanisms that make them dance, such as. B. the Ultimate Bumblebee character from the movies.
The figures were originally developed by the Japanese company Takara, while Hasbro acquired the license for distribution on the American and international markets. In later years, Hasbro and Takara went on to develop new characters together, with the two companies sharing development costs. Occasionally, the two companies each produce figures specially designed for their own market without the involvement of the other. Most of the time it's Takara, because this company is Japanese and there are more die-hard fans there who pay more for Japan-exclusive figures, sometimes limited to 1000 pieces. These are mostly completely shiny and flashing chrome-plated figures, transparent figures or black new editions, where an Optimus Prime figure becomes a Nemesis Prime figure, for example.
The toy figures are mostly made of plastic, but metal parts are occasionally used, which are manufactured using the die-casting process. In addition, some figures with vehicle shapes also have rubber tires. In some cases, the Hasbro and Takara versions of a figure also differ, for example a Takara figure can use metal parts while the Hasbro counterpart uses plastic parts instead. Likewise, for safety reasons (different safety standards than for the Japanese market), a Hasbro figure can use a softer, more pliable type of plastic for some parts than its Takara counterpart. In the early years of the series, additional color details and other decorations were often in the form of stickers; later Hasbro and Takara went over to achieving such details almost exclusively through pad printing and painting. The paintwork, like the plastic colors, can also differ between the Hasbro and Takara versions of a figure.
For the first few years, Hasbro brought out completely new characters with new names and new looks every year. Only after it became clear what great importance the target audience attached to the characters known from the Transformers cartoon series did new characters appear more and more frequently from 1988 onwards, which were modeled on older characters and usually also had the same name as them. Each new Transformers toy series has a core group of characters that is also the focus of the respective television series or the associated movie. Especially since the turn of the millennium, this core group has in most cases been new variations or interpretations of well-known characters. Other toy figures are used as supporting characters in the respective television series or sometimes have no appearance at all, but only exist as toys.
In recent years, more and more different toy figures for the respective "core" characters in different sizes and designs appeared. In particular, supporting characters and figures that only exist as toys ensure greater heterogeneity in the respective toy series. In addition, Hasbro often publishes color variants and slight modifications of characters that have already appeared, some of which are marketed as special versions of the same characters, but also as independent characters with new names. This is done primarily for cost reasons, since reusing an already developed figure in new colors is associated with less costs than developing a figure from scratch.
distribution
During the first decade of the Transformers toy series, the original series and the Generation 2 series, Hasbro released the figures as part of assortments that were each geared to the transformations of the figures or to special functions and other common elements. Since a large number of different special functions were used for the figures in those early years, the individual assortments were usually limited to a maximum of half a dozen different figures, which were delivered to the trade for about a year. The dealers had to order each range individually, and the prices of the figures were set individually for each range. The same sales model was also used in Europe, including Germany.
Starting with the Beast Wars series, which went on sale in 1996, Hasbro (or at first the subsidiary Kenner) changed the sales model for the Transformers . In future, the figures were divided into a manageable number of fixed size and price categories that had to be taken into account when developing the individual figures. In addition to a maximum permissible total weight, the criteria here were, among other things, the number of individual parts installed, the degree of difficulty of the transformation and the maximum permissible number of individual paintings. The respective assortments, in turn, were now delivered to the dealers in “waves” that could contain both new figures and figures from previous “waves”. Only large individual figures initially appeared as special publications, but separate price segments were also introduced for this in later Transformers series.
The basic features of the price ranges introduced with Beast Wars have been taken over by the successor series to this day, although the names of the individual ranges and the tiered prices have changed several times over the years. With the Beast Wars series, Hasbro also began to increasingly sell individual figures exclusively through selected retail chains such as Wal-Mart , Target or Toys'R'Us . These exclusive figures are still mostly variants of figures that are also available in other forms in regular stores. As part of the toy series for the movies Transformers (2007) and Transformers - Die Rache (2009), Hasbro released a large number of other toys with special properties in addition to the "regular" figures, including figures suitable for small children with simple transformations, role-play accessories or non-transformable model cars and collectible figures. As in the case of the great variety of the original series, these were again sold as separate ranges.
In Europe and Germany, Hasbro basically uses the same distribution system, but here they refrain from delivering figures from an earlier “wave” in the following “wave”. Instead, each “wave” contains a clearly separated selection of figures. The intervals between the delivery of the individual "waves" are often significantly greater than in the USA. This often results in very little heterogeneity on retailer shelves. It often happens that in Europe only the first two or three “waves” of a series appear and many other figures that are available in the USA are not published in Europe at all. Only a few of the figures available exclusively in selected stores in the USA appear in Germany, the exception being the figures exclusively available from Toys'R'Us, especially in recent years.
In Japan, the distribution system is again different: there, since the beginning of the Transformers series in 1985, each figure has been sent as a separate range. This enables dealers to specifically order individual figures, but this is only possible due to the fundamentally different market situation in Japan.
The backstory
The background story of the Transformers , developed to promote sales of the figures, also varies depending on the series and is described in the respective television and comic series as well as in the descriptions of the individual figures on the toy packaging. All versions have in common that the Transformers are intelligent, independently thinking and acting robots whose home planet is the machine world Cybertron. The Transformers are divided into at least two warring camps, the "Autobots" ("Cybertrons" in Japan) interested in peace, freedom and cooperation and the "Decepticons" ("Destrons" in Japan), who are interested in conquest and violent gain in power. In the case of the Beast Wars series and its successors, however, other names were also used for the groupings. The leader of the Autobots is mostly "Optimus Prime" ("Convoy" in Japan), who can usually turn into a tractor-trailer (in some cases a fire brigade ladder truck). The leader of the Decepticons, on the other hand, is usually called Megatron or Galvatron (the latter is almost always a further developed form of Megatron) and usually transforms into a weapon, a tank or some kind of fighter plane or spaceship.
Usually the war of the Transformers leads them to earth sooner or later, which usually means that the Autobots now also have to prevent humanity from falling victim to the Decepticons' greed for conquest. The Autobots often make friends with people (mostly children or adolescents) who stand by their side on their adventures on earth (and sometimes in space). In some cases, mostly in the comic versions, the majority of humanity is skeptical about the Transformers and, incapable of distinguishing between friend and foe, occasionally even mistakenly attack the Autobots. In the animated series, on the other hand, the majority of people are usually well-disposed towards the Autobots.
The origins
Robot toys with the ability to be transformed have been around in Japan since at least the 1960s, and Yonezawa's “Space Explorer” is widely considered to be one of the first . Most of the figures that later became the first "Transformers" originally appeared from 1982 as part of the Diaclone and MicroChange toy series , an offshoot of the "New Microman" series, both published by Takara. The robots could be turned into cars, airplanes, mechanical dinosaurs, and everyday objects, among other things.
In 1983, the American toy manufacturer Hasbro discovered the Takara figures at the toy fair in Tokyo and secured licenses for distribution in the USA. The advertising agency Griffin Bacal was commissioned to develop a concept and contributed the name "The Transformers".
In order to market the series accordingly, the comic book publisher Marvel Comics was commissioned to develop a background story. The editors Jim Shooter and Dennis O'Neil developed an initial concept, while the author Bob Budiansky took over the elaboration of the individual characters.
In addition, Marvel was also commissioned to develop a comic book and an animated series. The first appeared from May 1984 (with a cover date of September of the same year) and was originally designed as a four-part mini-series, but ended up with 80 issues and various minor series. The toy series also started in the USA in May 1984, while the pilot of the cartoon series was still a long way off in September.
The individual toy series
The original series ("Generation 1")
The original series was officially called "The Transformers" and advertised with the slogan "More than Meets the Eye" (from 1987 "More ... Much more than Meets the Eye"). Fans later gave the series retrospectively the name "Generation One", "G1" for short, which is derived from the title of the subsequent series, Transformers: Generation 2 , and is now also used by Hasbro.
The toy series started in the USA in May 1984 and included figures from Takara's Diaclone and MicroChange series as well as individual figures from other manufacturers such as Bandai , ToyBox or Toyco. The figures were initially able to transform themselves into cars, airplanes and various everyday objects. The figure of Optimus Prime came from the Diaclone series, while his counterpart Megatron was originally a MicroChange figure. First introduced at the American International Toy Fair in February 1984, Hasbro earned over $ 100 million from pre-orders alone. Hasbro sold three million figurines in eight weeks, and ten million between May and December 1984.
In 1985, other variants were added, including mechanical dinosaurs, figures with several different transformations, and robots that could be assembled into a larger robot. 1985 turned out to be the most successful year for the Transformers for a long time , with Hasbro earning $ 333 million with the characters that year, a share of 27 percent of Hasbro's annual profit.
In 1986, the toy figures for the movie The Transformers: The Movie appeared primarily . For the first time, these were not based on existing Japanese characters or those in the works, but were developed on the basis of the film designs by the Filipino artist Floro Dery. In addition, this year production was completely switched from a mixture of metal and plastic parts to plastic.
In the following years the figures were developed again by Takara and regularly introduced new concepts. In 1987 these were the "Headmasters" and "Targetmasters", whose heads or weapons could be transformed into small figures. In that year, the figure of Fortress Maximus also appeared, which, with a height of over 50 centimeters, is still the largest Transformers toy figure today. The “Powermasters” of the following year, in turn, had convertible engines. Among them was a new version of Optimus Prime, the first Transformers character ever to use the name of an earlier character. In addition to characters with special functions such as spark wheels or arms that can be deployed with a spring mechanism, Hasbro also introduced the “Pretenders” this year, which are Transformers hidden in shells modeled on humans or monsters.
In 1989, Hasbro expanded the “Pretender” concept to include vehicle-shaped covers, brought back some popular characters from the early years with the “Classic Pretenders” and also introduced the tiny “Micromasters”, a concept that represented an answer to Galoob's Micro Machines . In addition to the “Micromasters”, there were also numerous vehicles and stations that could be combined to create entire game worlds. In 1990 Hasbro finally introduced the "Action Masters", fully articulated action figures, some of which were based on characters from the early years, but could no longer be transformed. Instead, they had transformable vehicles and accessories. The offer in 1989 and 1990 was thus limited to two overarching concepts.
At this point in time, sales of Transformers toy figures in the United States were at a low point. Compared to $ 333 million in profits in 1985, Hasbro earned just 35 million in 1990 with the Transformers, which made up only 2.4 percent of Hasbro's annual profit. So Hasbro decided in the same year to discontinue the series. The Japanese market was initially unaffected, and many of the “Action Masters” figures still planned were released in Europe the following year.
In Japan, Takara decided in 1985 to discontinue Diaclone and Microman due to the great success of the Transformers in the USA and to publish the Transformers instead . The animated series was dubbed into Japanese and aired from 1985 parallel to the release of the toy figures. These came under the name Tatakae at first! Chō Robot Seimeitei Transformer ( 戦 え! 超 ロ ボ ッ ト 生命 体 ト ラ ン ス フ ォ ー マ ー , Tatakae! Chō Robotto Seimeitei Toransufōmā ), with many of the figures for the Japanese market given new names, mostly borrowed from English. 1986 appeared in Japan parallel to the publication of an OVA with the title Tatakae! Chō Robot Seimeitai Transformer: Scramble City Hatsudō-hen ( !戦え超ロボット生命体トランスフォーマースクランブルシティ発動編, ~: Sukuramburu Shiti Hatsudō-hen ) Other figures also published Hasbro, while the figures for movie The Transformers: The Movie in Japan under the title Tatakae! Chō Robot Seimeitai Transformer 2010 ( 戦 え! 超 ロ ボ ッ ト 生命 体 ト ラ ン ス フ フ ォ ー マ ー 2010 ) published.
After the cartoon series was discontinued in the USA, Takara had a new series in Japan entitled Transformers: The Headmasters , in Japan Transformer: The Headmasters ( ト ラ ン ス フ ォ ー マ ー ザ ☆ ヘ ッ ド マ ス タ ー ズ , Toransufōmā: Za Heddomasutāzu ), also produced and published the toy characters in question from 1987 onwards under this title. The following year the series Transformer: Chōjin Masterforce ( ト ラ ン ス フ ォ ー マ ー 超 神 マ ス タ ー フ ォ ー ス , Toransufōmā: Chōjin Masutāfōsu ). The accompanying toy figures increasingly began to differ from their Hasbro counterparts, and increasingly included figures that were not available in the United States at all. In the case of the Transformers: Victory series, which started in 1989 , in Japan: Tatakae! Chō Robot Seimeitei Transformer: Victory ( 戦 え! 超 ロ ボ ッ ト 生命 体 ト ト ラ ン ス フ ォ ー マ ー
In Central and South America, Hasbro had to license local companies to sell Transformers toy figures due to local law . In the case of Mexico, this was Plasticos IGA, which from 1985 released Transformers figures under license from Hasbro. The figures, which often differed significantly from their Hasbro counterparts, did not sell particularly well, which is why the series was discontinued a year later and the remaining figures were exported to Europe from 1989 without Hasbro's approval. Further publications were made in Brazil, Argentina and Peru by the respective resident companies, whereby the selection of the figures was in all cases very limited and the legal situation of the publications is often unclear.
In Great Britain, Hasbro was responsible for the distribution of Transformers toys from 1984 onwards, while Milton Bradley (MB), which was then taken over by Hasbro, took over distribution on the European continent, including Germany, in 1985, since Hasbro was initially here the necessary capacities were missing. From 1986 onwards, toy packaging was also called Hasbros in Europe, but sales in Germany initially continued through the German MB subsidiary, until it was finally renamed "Hasbro Germany" in 1991. Not all of the figures published in the USA were also available in Europe, and not all figures appeared in all countries. Meanwhile, the company GiG, which today belongs to Giochi Preziosi, took a special route, which had already had the license for Takara's Diaclone figures since 1983 and only acquired an additional license for the distribution of Transformers under pressure from Hasbro . Due to the close contact between GiG and Takara, figures occasionally appeared in Italy that were not available anywhere else in Europe, sometimes not even in the USA.
From 1990 GiG increasingly adapted its own publications to those of Hasbro's in the rest of Europe. While the toy series in the USA ended in the same year, Hasbro continued it due to its continued success in Europe and, in addition to the Classic series, which included new editions of older figures, also released completely new figures from 1991, which were now developed exclusively for the European market were. The European series lasted until 1993 and was replaced in the following year by the successor series Transformers: Generation 2 .
Generation 2
In 1993 Hasbro made a fresh start with the Transformers in the USA. The reason was the continued success of sales in Europe. The new series, which came under the title Transformers: Generation 2 , in Japan: Transformer: G-2 ( ト ラ ン ス フ ォ ー マ ー G-2 ), initially consisted primarily of reprints of characters from the years 1984-86, including the original figure of Optimus Prime, whereby the figures had a rather idiosyncratic coloring compared to the original figures, which were modeled on the very realistic vehicles. The weapons and other accessories of many figures have also been replaced with new parts. The original Megatron figure, on the other hand, was no longer allowed to be published due to stricter American laws regarding realistic toy weapons, instead there was a completely new Megatron figure that could now be transformed into a tank.
From 1994 onwards, more and more newly developed figures appeared, as well as figures that had already appeared in Europe before. The figures often used the names of well-known figures from the early years of the original series, although they also bore little resemblance to them. However, Transformers: Generation 2 ultimately did not turn out to be the hoped-for success, which is why the series was discontinued in 1995 and many characters that had already been planned remained unreleased. Some of them later appeared in other Transformers series. In the meantime, a short-lived Generation 2 comic series had also appeared at Marvel Comics , and there had also been an animated series, but it was merely a remake of the original series with additional sound and computer effects.
In Europe, including Germany, Hasbro published Transformers: Generation 2 from 1994, which, unlike in the USA, was no break in publication. In addition to the figures available in the USA, the European version of the series also included new editions of the figures that had already appeared in Europe a year earlier, as well as other new editions of older figures available exclusively in Europe. Also, some figures in Europe had different names than their US counterparts. Some figures that never appeared in the USA due to the discontinuation of the Generation 2 series were still available in Europe, as well as in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. At the same time, GiG also released Generation 2 figures in Italy , although these had their own Italian names just like in the case of the original series.
In Japan, Takara published Transformers: Generation 2 from 1995, but the selection was limited to the completely newly developed figures. Three more characters appeared in 1996.
Beast Wars
After the lack of success of the Generation 2 series, Hasbro ceded responsibility for the future of the Transformers to the subsidiary Kenner . There it was decided to try a new concept. The starting point of Beast Wars: Transformers was that the robots could no longer primarily be transformed into vehicles and airplanes, but into animals. Optimus Prime became “Optimus Primal”, the Autobots became the “Maximals” and the Decepticons became the “Predacons”. Mainframe Entertainment (now Rainmaker Animation) developed a computer-animated television series, while the toy figures were now jointly developed by Kenner and Takara. The series hit the market in 1996 and ran until 1999, with Hasbro releasing numerous toy characters that were never to appear on the television series. Initially rejected by the fans, the Beast Wars in the USA should develop into the third most successful toy series in the USA after the Star Wars figures also produced by Hasbro / Kenner and Bandai's Power Rangers . The great success meant that Hasbro soon took control of the Transformers brand again.
In Europe too, including Germany, Kenner was initially responsible for the distribution of the Beast Wars figures, but just like in the USA, this was later taken over by Hasbro. On the occasion, GiG, which had previously taken over sales in Italy, was replaced by the Italian Hasbro subsidiary. The European figures were largely identical to their US counterparts, but two versions that were exclusively available in Europe were added.
In Japan, Takara began releasing the Beast Wars characters in 1997 , and the computer-animated television series was also dubbed into Japanese. Given the small episode number of US series Takara left after the broadcast of the first season of the mainframe series two of its own classic animated cartoon series with the titles Beast Wars II: Chō Seimeitai Transformer ( ビーストウォーズII超生命体トランスフォーマー, Bīsuto What Sekondo: Chō Seimeitai Toransufōmā ) and Chō Seimeitai Transformer: Beast Wars Neo ( 超 生命 体 ト ラ ン ス フ ォ ー マ ー ビ ー ス ト ウ ォ ー ズ ネ オ , Chō Seimeitai Toransufōmā: Bīsuto Wōzu Neo ). The associated toy figures were partly figures from Hasbro's Beast Wars series that did not appear in the television series, and partly unpublished figures from the Transformers: Generation 2 series, and especially in the case of Beast Wars Neo, also special Figures newly developed for the Japanese market. The conclusion of the Beast Wars in Japan was Beast Wars Metals , a dubbed version of the second and third seasons of the US television series including the accompanying toy figures.
Machine Wars
Machine Wars Transformers was a short-lived series that was exclusively available in 1996 in parallel to the Beast Wars series in stores of the American toy chain KB Toys. In contrast to the Beast Wars series, which focused on animal shapes for the Transformers, the Machine Wars figures again had vehicle and airplane shapes . Some of the figures were variants of figures that had already appeared in Europe between 1991 and 1993, while other figures were originally developed for the Generation 2 series, but were never used there. Most of the Machine Wars figures used the names of characters from the early years of the original series. In Europe, however, the Machine Wars figures were never available.
Beast Machines / Beast Wars Returns
The follow-up series to Beast Wars , initially planned under the working title Beast Riders , was released in the USA from December 1999 to mid-2001 under the title Beast Machines Transformers . The Maximals, still led by Optimus Primal, comprised some characters taken over from Beast Wars , while Megatron's group was named "Vehicons" this time. This time the Maximals had "cyber-organic" shapes, a mixture of animals and robots, while the Vehicons were futuristic vehicles and planes. A television series for Beast Machines was again produced by Mainframe, but this time the toy figures often bore little resemblance to their series counterparts. The proportions of the individual figures were also in no way related to the series. In contrast to the Beast Wars , Beast Machines was not a great success, which meant that the originally planned successor Transtech was discontinued in the planning phase.
The Beast Machines toy figures were also available in Europe, including Germany.
In Japan, Beast Machines did not initially appear at all, although the figures were jointly produced by Hasbro and Takara. It was not until the end of 2004 that Takara brought out some of the characters under the title Beast Wars Returns , whereby the selection was limited to the characters known from the television series - which was also broadcast for the first time in Japan at the time - and the figures were only available in limited numbers exclusively in stores of Japanese Toys'R'Us subsidiary.
Car Robot / Robots in Disguise
Since Takara initially had no interest in releasing the Beast Machines figures on the Japanese market, a new, separate series was developed, which was initially only to appear in Japan from 2000. Transformer: Car Robot ( ト ラ ン ス フ ォ ー マ ー カ ー ロ ボ ッ ト , Toransufōmā: Kāro Botto ) brought back vehicle forms for the "Cybertrons", with the Optimus Prime modeled Fire Convoy this time being transformed into a fire service vehicle. Overall, however, the Cybertrons primarily used newly developed figures, while their opponents, the "Destrongers" with animal shapes and the "Destrons" with vehicle shapes, were based on characters that were already used in the Beast Wars and Generation 2 - Series as well as the original series had appeared. The only exception was Gigatron, the leader of the Destrongers. A cartoon series for Car Robot was also produced in Japan.
Also in 2000, Hasbro signed a contract with Takara to develop three new Transformers series that were to appear on the markets of both companies. In order to bridge the time to the publication of the first of these series, Hasbro released the Car Robots figures under the name Robots in Disguise in the USA, with the Cybertrons in "Autobots", the Destrongers in "Predacons", the Destrons in "Decepticons ”, Fire Convoy to“ Optimus Prime ”and Gigatron to“ Megatron ”. Hasbro also had the animated series dubbed and expanded the toy series with some characters that were only supposed to appear in the USA, including some characters that should have appeared as part of the Beast Machines series. In 2003, when Transformers: Armada was already showing the current main Transformers series, Hasbro expanded its Robots in Disguise series to include various variants of figures from earlier series, each of which was available exclusively from selected dealers.
Many of the robots in disguise figures were also available in Europe, including Germany.
New editions
In 2000, Takara began releasing new editions of characters from the original series for the first time, starting with Convoy (Optimus Prime). In 2001, the irregular publications were supplemented by the Collectors' Edition 2001 series, the figures of which were available exclusively from selected dealers or at Japanese conventions . In July 2002, Takara began releasing the Transformers Collection series, with many of the characters showing changes from the original releases , including new accessories or color changes based on the original animated series. At the same time, exclusive color variants were available for almost every figure through the Japanese online retailer e-Hobby. Up to March 2006, a total of 21 figures had appeared in the Transformers Collection series. The Transformers Encore series has been published by TakaraTomy since August 2007 .
Hasbro also released new editions of original characters from the summer of 2002, which were available exclusively from Toys'R'Us under the title Commemorative Series . Due to the low success, the series was discontinued in 2004, with two more figures that had already been produced in the following year, one from KB Toys and the other from Hasbro's online shop, the Hasbro Toy Shop. At the beginning of 2007 another figure appeared as a commemorative edition as part of the Classic series, again exclusively from Toys'R'Us. In 2009, a few more new editions appeared as part of the Universe series.
In late 2005, Hasbro also began releasing a short-lived series for the 10th anniversary of the Beast Wars , Beast Wars 10th Anniversary , which included re-editions of Beast Wars characters . In early 2006, Takara released a double pack with reissues of two Beast Wars figures under the title Beast Wars Reborn , followed in 2007 by the short-lived Beast Wars Telemocha series, which also contained reissues of Beast Wars figures.
Some of Hasbro's Commemorative Series characters also appeared in Europe, but primarily in the UK. Neither the figures nor the Beast Wars 10th Anniversary figures went on sale in Germany.
Super Collection Figures / Heroes of Cybertron
In late 2000, Takara began releasing a series called Super Collection Figures (SCF). These were non-transformable PVC figures that were modeled on the cartoon versions of popular characters from 1984 to 1986, later figures from the Japanese series Headmasters , Victory and Masterforce as well as the then current series Micron Densetsu / Armada were added added. There were also some larger Mega SCF figures. The series lasted in Japan until early 2003.
In mid-2002 Hasbro began to publish the figures under the title Heroes of Cybertron in the USA, although the figures were deliberately not available from large retail chains such as Wal-Mart , Toys'R'Us or Target , but only from smaller chains. When choosing characters, Hasbro limited itself to characters from the original series. The series lasted until the beginning of 2004, and in 2007 new editions of some characters were available exclusively from Hot Topic. Hasbro decided not to release the larger Mega SCF figures.
The Heroes of Cybertron figures were never available in Europe .
Micron Densetsu / Armada
In 2000, Hasbro signed an agreement with Takara under which the two companies would jointly develop three new Transformers toy lines, which in turn would be launched in both countries.
The first of these appeared from mid-2002 under the title Transformers: Armada in the USA and from the end of 2002 as Chō Robot Seimeitai Transformer: Micron Densetsu ( 超 ロ ボ ッ ト 生命 体 ト ラ ン ス フ ォ ー マ ー マ ク ロ ン ン , Chō Robottonōmeitai Torans , Chō Roburotton Duppens Torans ur , Chō Robottonimeitai Torans. The Legend of the Microns ”) also in Japan, accompanied by an animated series of the same name. Hanger of Armada were the "Mini-Cons," a few centimeters wide Transformers -Figuren which as before were transformed exactly the Micromasters in small vehicles and aircraft. In addition, the Mini-Cons could also be connected to the larger Transformers figures of the series and thus activate hidden weapons and other additional functions. The Mini-Cons were on the one hand available as a pack of three, but on the other hand each larger Transformers figure was also accompanied by a Mini-Con.
When choosing the characters, Hasbro and Takara reverted to characters from the early years of the original series. The largest character from the Armada series was Unicron, a transformer who could be turned into a planet. Unicron first appeared in the 1986 cartoon The Transformers: The Movie , but although a prototype was developed at the time, a toy figure never appeared until the Armada series. The second half of the series, which mainly contained color variants of the characters from the first waves, was subtitled The Unicron Battles in the Hasbro version .
Many of the Transformers: Armada toy figures were also available in Europe, including Germany.
Universe (from 2003)
With the expansion of the Robots in Disguise series in 2003, Hasbro began to increasingly publish variants of characters from earlier series. This was continued in the same year with the short-lived Dinobots series, which was available parallel to Armada exclusively in stores of the Wal-Mart chain and contained variants of figures from Beast Machines and Beast Wars Neo . At the same time, the exclusive figures that were available at the “BotCon” convention became increasingly professional. In 2001 these appeared under the title Transformers: Expanded Universe .
From mid-2003 Hasbro published a new series entitled Transformers: Universe , which appeared parallel to the new "main series" Transformers: Energon and consisted exclusively of characters from previous series, with the characters each in new colors and some with new ones Names came on the market. Many of the Universe figures were again available exclusively from selected dealers. Ultimately, Universe did not prove to be a great financial success for Hasbro, which is why the series was limited to sporadic exclusive releases from mid-2005, which were most recently distributed mainly through discounters . In the meantime, the exclusive characters of the official Transformers Convention , which was now called the “Official Transformers Collectors' Convention” due to a legal dispute among the operators, had also appeared under the Universe banner in 2003 and 2004 .
In Europe, Universe figures were only available through import dealers.
The last character whose instructions bore the old Universe lettering was a commission that Hasbro had made for General Motors as a result of the Transformers movie . The figure transformed into a Chevrolet Aveo and was only given out as a giveaway at various official Chevrolet events, such as 2009 in Canada. In addition, the figure was also offered via the European Chevrolet online trade in early 2008 and was sold out within a few days. In the USA, however, the figure was never officially available.
In 2008, Hasbro began releasing a new Universe series that was initially based on a different concept.
Smallest Transformers
In mid-2003 Takara started a series called Gokushô Henkei Transformers (literally "the smallest transformable Transformers"). The figures, each only a few centimeters tall, were based on the original figures from 1984 and 1985 and appeared in opaque packaging, so that it was not possible to see from the outside which figure was contained in each case. The series was discontinued in mid-2004, although Takara had previously presented some new figures at a toy fair that were never to appear.
In the US, the release of some of the characters as part of the Universe series was planned, but this was never realized.
Binaltech / Alternators
After the end of the Car Robots or Robots in Disguise series, Hasbro and Takara decided to bring out a Transformers series that is more collectively oriented in addition to the regular series such as Armada or Energon and new editions of older figures . This time, the robots should be able to be transformed into true-to-original vehicle models, each of which was licensed by the official vehicle manufacturers - until then, Hasbro only had to license the vehicle shape of a figure from the Robots in Disguise series from Daimler Chrysler . Furthermore, the vehicles should all have a uniform scale of 1:24, which was also not a matter of course for Transformers toys until then . When selecting the characters, Hasbro and Takara initially oriented themselves on popular characters from the early years of the original series, but this led to some problems, as Porsche and Volkswagen , for example, refused to participate in "war toys".
First presented to the public in summer 2003, the series was published from the turn of 2003/2004 in Japan under the name Transformers: Binaltech and in the USA under the name Transformers: Alternators . While the Alternators figures were made entirely of plastic, the Binaltech versions also used cast iron vehicle parts . Both versions of the figures also had rubber tires. The vehicle shapes used included a Subaru Impreza , a Dodge Viper , a Jeep Wrangler , a Chevrolet Corvette , a Mazda RX-8 , a Ford Mustang and a Honda S2000 . The license agreements gave the automakers a say in the design of the figures, for example the Hasbro version of the Honda S2000 was not allowed to have a recognizable weapon. Takara himself only agreed to develop a character based on a Dodge Ram when Hasbro agreed to design the robot shape as the new form of Optimus Prime.
In 2005, Takara added the Binaltech series to the Binaltech Asterisk series , which consisted entirely of variants of figures that had already been published and also had PVC figures that were supposed to be "female drivers". Due to the lack of success in Japan, Takara discontinued both Binaltech and Binaltech Asterisk in early 2006 and replaced them with the controversial Kiss Players series . In 2007, however , the Binaltech series was resumed in the form of exclusive releases . In 2008, four more figures appeared, whereby all figures that appeared since 2007 were variants of figures that had already been published. Hasbro, in turn, restarted the Alternators series in the USA at the end of 2005, but this did not bring the desired success. Between mid-2006 and mid-2007, Hasbro also focused on exclusive releases. The last new Alternators figure appeared in the summer of 2007.
There was no cartoon series for the Binaltech / Alternators series, but the Japanese versions of the individual characters were accompanied by a sequel story in text form, the content of which referred directly to the original Transformers cartoon series.
The Alternators figures were published by Hasbro in Europe from the beginning of 2004, but the publication did not follow any recognizable pattern, so only about half of all figures available in the USA appeared in Europe, and not all figures were available in all countries. In Germany only five figures were officially released, the first of which in early 2007.
Masterpiece / 20th Anniversary
Simultaneously with the start of the Alternators / Binaltech series, Hasbro and Takara released a new, collector-oriented figure based on Optimus Prime to mark the 20th anniversary of the Transformers series. The figure had taken three years to develop. In Japan the figure came on the market at the end of 2003 under the name Masterpiece , while Hasbro released the figure in early 2004 as “20th Anniversary Optimus Prime”, but initially only outside of Europe. Both the Hasbro and Takara versions of the figure used plastic parts as well as metal parts and rubber tires.
A slightly modified remake of the character was released by Hasbro in late 2007 as part of the Classics series on the occasion of the 20th anniversary DVD reissue of Transformers: The Movie in the US, while the original version of the character was released in the UK around the same time came on the market. In the meantime, Takara continued the Masterpiece series in Japan with new releases at irregular intervals, so a total of 11 figures appeared within the series by April 2012, although some are not completely redesigned, sometimes they are so-called repaints. Some of the Masterpiece figures were later released by Hasbro in the United States, where they were exclusively available in Wal-Mart stores.
So far none of the figures have appeared in Germany, apart from the Hasbro Masterpiece Rodimus figure, which was to be found in 2011 in German Toys "R" Us.
Superlink / Energon
The follow-up series to Micron Densetsu / Armada came out at the end of 2003 in Japan under the title Transformer: Superlink ( ト ラ ン ス フ ォ ー マ ー ス ー パ ー リ ン ク , Toransufōmā: Sūpārinku ) and in the USA under the title Transformers: Energon , again accompanied by a cartoon of the same name on the market. On the part of the Autobots, the focus of the series was on the “Powerlinx” combinations (sic), in which two robots can be combined to form a larger robot. A tradition that had already begun in earlier series such as Robots in Disguise and Armada was also continued here, so Optimus Prime was once again connected to various other Autobots.
There were also mini-cons, but now they played a much smaller role than in the previous series.
The second half of the series, which contained numerous color variants of the characters from the first waves, was subtitled The Powerlinx Battles in the Hasbro version and also included three new teams of five robots each, which could be linked to form a large robot to similar figures from the original series. The last regular new figures appeared in Japan in late 2004 and in the US in early 2005.
Toy figures for Transformers: Energon were also available in Europe, including Germany, from 2004, but Hasbro discontinued the series in Germany early in 2005 due to poor sales.
Robot Masters
Robot Masters was a short-lived series that was only available in Japan from mid-2004 and did not have the name Transformers in the title. The series contained, on the one hand, similar to Hasbro's Universe series, color variants of figures from earlier series, on the other hand, completely new, modernized toy figures for characters from earlier series, including Optimus Prime and Starscream from the original series or Optimus Primal and Megatron from Beast Wars . However, the selection of the new figures was very quickly limited primarily to different incarnations of Optimus Prime or "Convoy", as the figure is called in Japan. The series was discontinued in Japan in mid-2005.
To Robot Masters , there were no animated series in the sense, but there was a back story that was in the form of mini-comics and DVDs with short computer-animated episodes that some came with the figures, told yet, also there were on the Takara website short comic stories with the Robots Masters characters .
Galaxy Force / Cybertron
The third part of the group of three called "Unicron Trilogy" by Hasbro employee Aaron Archer, to which Armada and Energon also belonged, came in Japan at the end of 2004 under the title Transformer: Galaxy Force ( ト ラ ン ス フ ォ ー マ ー ギ ャ ラ ク シ ーī ォ ー ス , Toransufakōmā, Toransufakōmā, Toransufakōmā ) Market, in the USA, however, only in summer 2005 under the title Transformers: Cybertron . This time there was another cartoon series with the same name.
Just like the previous series, Cybertron also had a cross-series concept: Each Cybertron figure was accompanied by a “Cyber Key” (“Cyber Key”, called “Force Chip” in Japan), which was similar to the Mini-Cons Armada was able to activate hidden functions of the Transformers figures. There were also some mini-cons again, but just like in the case of the Energon series, these did not play nearly as big a role here as in the Armada series.
One of the biggest characters in the series was Primus, the "creator" of the Transformers originally invented by writer Simon Furman for the Marvel Transformers comic series, who transformed himself into Cybertron, the Transformers' homeworld. Accordingly, the second half of the series was subtitled Primus Unleashed in the USA . In the USA the last new Cybertron figures appeared at the end of 2006, in Japan, on the other hand, the regular Galaxy Force series was prematurely discontinued at the end of 2005 due to poor sales figures and the last large figures, including Primus, were only brought onto the market as special releases.
In some European countries Cybertron toy figures were available from mid-2005, in Germany, where the previous series was prematurely discontinued at the beginning of 2005, the first figures did not come onto the market until the turn of the year 2006/2007. The selection of figures was initially limited to a few Primus Unleashed figures, only then were the figures from the beginning of the series published.
Star Wars Transformers and Crossovers
Since the end of 2005, Hasbro has been publishing a crossover series called Star Wars Transformers , the figures of which are from well-known Star Wars vehicles and spaceships in mech replicas of their pilots, including well-known characters such as Darth Vader , Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi , transform. Small versions of the pilots were included with the original toy figures to make it clear that the robots should only be controlled machines, but the pilots were omitted from later figures for reasons of cost. The figures are developed by Hasbro's Star Wars department in consultation with the Transformers designers, although TakaraTomy is not involved in the development. A background story to the Star Wars Transformers has so far only been told in the form of texts that are printed on the toy packaging
In 2008, the Star Wars Transformers were then integrated into a new series with the title Transformers Crossovers . In addition to the Star Wars Transformers , this now also includes the Marvel Transformers , which are robot versions of Marvel superheroes such as Spider-Man , Wolverine , Iron Man or the Hulk that transform into motorcycles, cars, planes or tanks . The background story to the Marvel Transformers has so far only been available in the form of texts on the toy packaging.
Titanium Series
Since 2006 Hasbro has published a series of figures, some of which are made of metal, under the title Titanium Series . The figures were produced by Galoob, a Hasbros subsidiary since 1998. In addition to characters from Star Wars , the Titanium Series also had its own Transformers segment. The figures were on the one hand non-transformable, about 8 cm (3 inch) tall figures, which were also sold by dealers under the name "Robot Masters", as well as transformable, about 15 cm (6 inch) tall figures the retailer name "Cybertron Heroes".
The selection of characters not only included characters from the original series, the Beast Wars and Beast Machines , Robots in Disguise , the Alternators series and, most recently, even from the 2007 movie , but also characters based on designs from the Transformers: The War comic series Within from Dreamwave Productions. Was Within artist Don Figueroa himself was also involved in the development of the characters. The sales figures for the series were not particularly good, which is why many figures appeared with a delay in autumn 2007 and the series was finally completely discontinued. Some stragglers that have already been produced are to be submitted as exclusive releases in 2008, while some other prototypes that Hasbro presented at BotCon 2007 never went into production. In 2009 some figures appeared again, this time however without exception variants and new editions of figures that had already been published.
In Japan only a few figures from the Titanium Series appeared as imports, and only a few figures were available in Germany.
Kiss Players
After the temporary suspension of the Binaltech series, Takara released some of the characters originally developed for this series and released by Hasbro as part of the Alternators series in Japan from mid-2006 in the form of a new series entitled Transformers: Kiss Play (with the English additional title Kiss Players ), which after the premature end of Galaxy Force should also represent the new main Transformers toy series Takaras. Instead of a cartoon series, this time the background story was told in the form of a radio drama series.
This time, the focus of the series was, in addition to the actual Transformers figures, which, as in the case of the Binaltech series, could be transformed into licensed vehicles on a scale of 1:24, on PVC figures which were also included and which were female "drivers" should act. Although the latter already existed in the short-lived offshoot series Binaltech Asterisk , the appearance of the drivers for the Kiss Players series was trimmed much more “young” in order to attract not only Transformers fans but also potential buyers from the Moe scene win. The figures in question were accordingly brought to the fore in all official advertising images for the series. The radio plays also contained numerous sexual ambiguities, and official manga stories in Japanese magazines also contained numerous visual ambiguities that, in the eyes of many fans, already exceeded the limit of pornography. Even Hasbro employees expressed incomprehension about the direction Takara was taking with this series.
Ultimately, however, the Kiss Players series should only include three Transformers figures in 1:24 scale including PVC drivers, a larger PVC figure with a miniature Transformers figure and some exclusive publications, including color variants of figures from earlier series. The last exclusive figure appeared in early 2007.
Classics / Henkei! Henkei!
As the next Transformers toy series after the end of Cybertron , Hasbro originally planned the characters for Michael Bay's movie . However, since this had been postponed from 2006 to 2007, Hasbro published a short filling series between autumn 2006 and the beginning of 2007 to bridge the gap. The focus was on figures that were modernized reinterpretations of "classic" characters such as Optimus Prime, Megatron or Bumblebee. For the first time since 1984, Megatron had itself converted back into a handgun, modeled on toy guns from Hasbro's Nerf range .
Commonly known by fans as Classics (a name that was at least also used on the Hasbro website), the characters themselves dispensed with this title and instead only bore the title Transformers: Robots in Disguise on the packaging , just the Price segments were marked as Classic Deluxe and Classic Voyager . There were also numerous other characters such as new mini-cons and exclusive releases, as well as a new edition of the "20th Anniversary Optimus Prime" character, which appeared on the occasion of the release of a new DVD version of the cartoon The Transformers: The Movie by Sony BMG.
After the end of the toy series for the movie, Hasbro released a new series, again entitled Transformers: Universe and continuing the Classics concept in a slightly modified form.
In Japan, the Classics figures did not appear until spring 2008 under the title Transformers: Henkei! Henkei! . After all of Hasbro's Classics figures had appeared in the Henkei series, this was continued with the new figures from Hasbro's new Universe series.
The Classic figures were also available in some European countries . In Germany, on the other hand, only a double pack called The Ultimate Battle was released .
Transformers (Movie 2007)
A toy series was also released for Michael Bay's real- life adaptation of Transformers , which was released in 2007. Due to the large lead time in production of the toy figures, Hasbro put pressure on Michael Bay to make a selection of the Transformers characters appearing in the film as early as possible and to have the corresponding figure designs completed. For the experienced designers at Hasbro and Takara or TakaraTomy, the complex film designs developed by Industrial Light & Magic presented a major challenge, as they differed significantly from the simpler aesthetics of earlier Transformers toys.
Unlike in the case of earlier Transformers series, in which Hasbro and Takara mostly share the rights to the toy designs, there are two additional parties here, as Paramount and ILM hold the rights to the robot designs, while General Motors and Saleen hold the vehicle forms , Force Protection Industries, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, and Lockheed Martin Corporation .
The toy series for the film was released in the USA from May and June 2007 and comprised different size classes, with many of the film characters being available in several sizes. The overarching concept this time was “Automorph Technology”, in which one part of the transformation automatically triggers another part with the help of hidden gears, levers and springs. In view of the small number of Transformers characters in the film, Hasbro expanded the selection of toy figures to include unused film designs and characters that were developed in cooperation between Activision and Hasbro as "drones" for the video game implementation of the film. In addition, both Hasbro and TakaraTomy published numerous color variants and cardboard boxes, each of which was exclusively available from selected retailers, and variants of figures from earlier series were also used. Toy figures of human film characters, on the other hand, were only available as part of the “Screen Battles” packs.
Hasbro did not participate directly in the film revenues, but as the owner of the rights to the Transformers brand, it had the advantage of earning more from the toy figures than with third-party licenses such as Spider-Man or Star Wars . In addition, Hasbro was able to grant over 240 licenses to third-party companies. At least in the USA, the success was so great that Hasbro had already sold three million Transformers toy figures from the film series in July, with the US supermarket chain Wal-Mart making more than five million dollars with the (film) Transformers at the same time would have. In the third quarter of 2007, Hasbro was able to post a net increase of 18% over the previous year, which was primarily attributed to the Transformers and toys from various Marvel films. Due to the great financial success in the USA, the toy series continued months after the film was released on DVD, expanded by the sub-series "Allspark Power" and the "Premium Series" during the official launch of the following series, Transformers: Animated , in June 2008 was postponed.
Overall, Hasbro's range of toys for the film included a wide range of different products. In addition to the "classic" convertible figures and the "Premium Series", which is more aimed at older collectors, there were also role-playing accessories and toys that were comparatively easy to non-convertible and mostly aimed at a younger target group. In some cases, the minimum age recommendation is just three years. Since the film itself was rated "PG-13" in the US , Hasbro was criticized for it by a parents' association.
In Germany, the toy figures for the film also appeared from May and June 2007, but primarily the “regular” publications. Only a few of the color variants and cardboard boxes that were exclusively available from selected chain stores in the USA made it to Germany.
Takara labels
In 2007, TakaraTomy began publishing mostly short-lived series based on collaborations with various other companies. It all started with the Sports label , which included new versions of Convoy (Optimus Prime) and Megatron that could be transformed into licensed replicas of Nike trainers. In the same year the music label followed with Convoy as an iPod docking station or Soundwave as a functioning MP3 player.
In 2009 TakaraTomy continued with the Disney label , starting with a cross between Optimus Prime and Mickey Mouse . Planned next is a cross between Bumblebee and Donald Duck . The Device Label was also released in 2009 with well-known Transformers characters that can be transformed into functioning USB sticks or optical mice . The Chrono label , whose figures could be transformed into functioning wristwatches, was also announced, but was canceled due to fewer pre-orders.
Transformers: Animated
The new Transformers toy line for 2008 was called Transformers: Animated . Just like the previous series (with the exception of the toy series for the movie), the toy series was developed parallel to the production of the cartoon series of the same name, the latter being developed by Hasbro and the station Cartoon Network , in contrast to the previous series of the "Unicron Trilogy" As in the case of the movie, TakaraTomy's role was limited to the development of the toy figures. Hasbro designer Eric Siebenaler was in charge of developing the series.
The appearance of the characters again represented a clear departure from the aesthetics of earlier series, so both the robot designs and the transformations have a very cartoonish style. The selection of characters is again based partly on popular characters from the original series, although new versions of characters from the Beast Wars series as well as completely new characters are also included. As in the case of the toy series for the film, many of the Animated characters are available in different sizes.
In the United States, the launch of the Animated toy series was postponed to June 2008 due to the great success of the movie toy series, although the animated series had been broadcast on Cartoon Network since December 2007. At the beginning of 2009, the Animated series was discontinued in the USA due to the imminent release of the toy figures for the cinema sequel Transformers - The Revenge . Some figures that are still planned are currently appearing after a break of several months, some of them exclusively in stores of individual chains.
The toy series has also appeared in Germany since mid-2008, but for a long time did not get beyond the first releases in any price class. It was only after many months that further publications appeared in some stores. A release of the Animated series is announced for 2010 in Japan .
Universe (2008)
In 2008, in addition to the Animated series, a new series called Transformers: Universe started . In contrast to the previous series with this name, the new series was initially designed as a continuation of the Classics series under a new name, so the focus was once again on modernized reinterpretations of "classic" characters from the original series. Color variants of figures from earlier series such as Cybertron or the Classics series also appeared, however, the latter in turn available exclusively in certain chain stores. Just like in the case of Animated , the regular Universe price segments were also discontinued at the beginning of 2009 due to the imminent start of the toy series for the movie Transformers: Revenge , but afterwards a few more color variants and cardboard boxes of earlier characters appeared, again exclusively at selected retailers.
In Japan, the new Universe figures also appeared within the Henkei! Henkei! -Line. Some of the Universe figures also appeared in Germany .
Revenge of the Fallen
Since the end of May 2009 the toy figures for the new movie Transformers have been released in the USA, Japan and Europe under the original title Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen . Some of the characters are slightly revised remakes of the characters from the first film, while other characters have been developed from scratch, including all of the Transformers that appear in Revenge . The overarching concept of the new figures this time is called "Mech Alive" and consists of visible replicas of mechanical innards that can be seen during the transformation. As in the case of the first film, many of the robots appearing in the film appear in different sizes and designs. In addition, there are again other figures that do not appear in the film, as well as color variants of figures that have already appeared, some under different names, and various individual and cardboard variants of figures that are exclusively available from selected dealers. A new addition is the “Human Alliance” price segment, which, in addition to Transformers robots, also includes action figures for some of the human film roles for the first time .
Just like in the case of the toy series for the first film, Hasbro expanded the product variety again this time far beyond the classic mutable characters. In addition to role-playing accessories and figures specifically aimed at older collectors, there is another innovation in the non-convertible “RPM” model cars (“Robot Powered Machines”), which compete with Mattel's Hot Wheels and Matchbox series. Hasbro even released a matching racetrack modeled after the Decepticon Devastator.
From the end of 2009, the series was subtitled NEST Global Alliance and offered some new characters, some of which are based on vehicles from the film, as well as color variants and modified versions of already published characters.
Overall, the Transformers toys, primarily the Revenge of the Fallen series, are among the products that continued to flourish despite the recession as a result of the economic crisis .
In Germany, the first figures also came on the market at the end of May, but here too, after the first wave of releases, the release of new figures again took place at a considerable distance from the USA.
Transformers (2010)
From spring 2010, Hasbro released new toys under the simple title Transformers . Despite the uniform packaging design, the series can be divided into two subcategories:
Under the subtitle Hunt for the Decepticons , the Revenge of the Fallen series was primarily continued. Again new characters appeared, some of them inspired by the films, as well as variants and modifications of characters that had already appeared, but also completely new characters for some of the main characters from the films.
Under the subtitle Power Core Combiners , Hasbro released completely new characters, most of which are only vaguely based on older characters and some even have completely new names. The figures can be combined with one another and are limited to two price segments.
Generations
Parallel to the simply titled Transformers series, Hasbro also published the Transformers: Generations series from 2010 , which is limited to the “Deluxe” price segment and primarily a continuation of the Classics and the second Universe series. Some of the figures are color variants of Universe figures, but also new figures in the same style, including a toy figure by Drift, which was originally invented for the comics of the IDW Publishing company. Characters based on the video game Transformers: Battle for Cybertron also appear under the Generations title .
Other media
In addition to the toy series, over the years there have been comics and television series, video games and even movies about the Transformers, the purpose of which was mostly to promote the respective toy series.
TV Shows
The original animated series with the title The Transformers (among fans today also known as "Generation 1", which even Hasbro himself now uses) was broadcast on American television from September 17, 1984. The appearance of the toy figures was heavily revised, which in many cases meant that the cartoon characters hardly resembled their toy counterparts. The series was produced by Marvel Productions and Sunbow Productions, the Japanese studio Toei was initially responsible for the animation and, in later seasons, the Korean studio Akom was increasingly responsible. In 1986, after the end of the second season, the animated film The Transformers: The Movie came to the cinema, which was set in 2005, 20 years after the second season, with the aim of introducing new toy characters. The film was followed by a third and fourth season, with the latter only comprising three episodes as Hasbro and Sunbow decided to discontinue the series.
In Germany, the series was available in 1985 for households with cable television in the original English-language version, which was broadcast on the British Sky Channel, until the same was replaced in the cable network by Eurosport . A German-language version of the series, on the other hand, was only broadcast on RTL plus from April 7, 1989 , with the sequence of the episodes not following any recognizable scheme and up to February 29, 1992 only 39 of a total of 98 episodes were broadcast. Polyband GmbH from Munich was responsible for the synchronization. The series was also released on DVD in both the USA and Germany , but the selection of episodes on the German boxes is limited to a few of the episodes broadcast by RTL, although the order of the content cannot be identified again.
In 1985, Japan released a dubbed version of the first two seasons of the US animated series under the title Tatakae! Cho Robot Seimeitei Transformers aired in 1986, followed by the third US season with the new title Transformers: 2010 . The fourth US season was not shown in Japan, instead Takara had a new animated series produced in 1987 entitled Transformers: The Headmasters , which was based on the last episode of the third US season. This was followed by two further series with the titles Transformer: Chōjin Masterforce (1988) and Transformers: Victory (1989), while only one episode was produced for the planned follow-up series Transformers: Zone , which was released in 1990 as an original video animation . Headmasters , Masterforce and Victory were later dubbed into English by the Malaysian broadcaster RTM , but the episodes were not shown on television in either the US or Germany.
For the toy series Transformers: Generation 2 , an animated series was broadcast in the USA between 1993 and 1995, but it was only episodes of the original series with new computer effects. A total of 51 episodes were broadcast, 26 of them also in Germany from April 1994, with RTL using the movie The Transformers: The Movie under the German title Transformers - The Battle for Cybertron as a “pilot film”. The synchronization differed from that of the original series, so almost all roles were filled with different speakers. Some episodes were dubbed a second time this way.
The Canadian company Mainframe Entertainment (now Rainmaker Entertainment) produced a computer-animated television series for the Beast Wars series. The series was produced and lead authored by Bob Forward and Larry DiTillo. The two soon actively dealt with the fan scene on the Internet and as a consequence built numerous references to the original series into the new series. The series consisted of three seasons with a total of 52 episodes, which were broadcast from April 1996 to May 1999 in the USA.
In Japan, a dubbed version of the first season with 26 episodes was initially broadcast. Since the second and third seasons should only contain 13 episodes each, Takara initially had two more series with the titles Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo produced, which, in contrast to the US series, again had classic cel animation and each of them own toy figures appeared. Subsequently, a dubbed version of the second and third US seasons under the title Beast Wars Metals was broadcast.
In Germany, the first season of the US Beast Wars series was broadcast on RTL II from April 1998 in a version dubbed by Planet Wave , while the second and third seasons never ran on German television.
The successor to the Beast Wars was the series Beast Machines, also produced by Mainframe . In terms of content, this was a direct continuation of the previous series, and many characters from it appeared again with the same speakers, but the entire creative team of the series was replaced. Bok Skir was now responsible for the direction of the series. The series lasted two seasons with a total of 26 episodes, which were broadcast from 1999 to 2001.
In Japan, Beast Machines was only broadcast on a satellite channel at the turn of 2004/2005 under the title Beast Wars Returns . In Germany, the entire series, synchronized by Arena Synchron , ran from 2000 on the K-Toon channel, which is part of Premiere . In 2007, the series was also released on DVD in two season boxes in Germany.
In 2000, the classic animated cartoon series Transformers: Car Robots was broadcast in Japan , which was based on the toy series of the same name and comprised 39 episodes. In terms of content, Car Robots had no direct references to earlier Transformers series, which is why the series was viewed by many fans as an independent universe until Takara declared to the contrary in 2007.
In the US, Hasbro had originally planned a sequel to Beast Machines called Transtech , but due to the negative fan reaction to Beast Machines and general financial difficulties at Hasbro - the company headquarters in Cincinnati was closed and relocated to Rhode Island , many employees were laid off - came the series never beyond the planning phase. Instead, Hasbro agreed with Takara to develop three new series. In 2001, Hasbro released the toy figures from the Car Robots series under the title Transformers: Robots in Disguise in order to bridge the time to completion . The dubbed version of the animated series that was broadcast on Fox Kids also had the same title. The synchronization took a lot of liberties compared to the Japanese original version, so the dialogues contained numerous Easter eggs in the form of references to earlier Transformers series. As a result of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 , however, many of the later episodes were only broadcast with a delay or even not at all, some of them also only in a shortened or otherwise edited version.
Toy figures from the Robots in Disguise series appear in Germany, but the cartoon series never ran on German television.
The first of the three animated series developed jointly by Hasbro and Takara was titled Transformers: Micron Densetsu ("Legend of the Microns") in Japan and Transformers: Armada in the USA . The series was produced by the company Aeon (later We've, Inc.) and initially set to music in Japanese, but first broadcast in the USA on Cartoon Network from mid-2002 , with the Canadian company Voicebox responsible for the synchronization into English was. In terms of content, Armada represented a completely independent universe and was not based directly on previous Transformers series. For the broadcast in Japan from the beginning of 2003, some changes were made to the image material in order to correct various animation errors. The series comprised a total of 52 episodes, 20 of which were also broadcast in Germany on RTL 2 at the turn of the year 2003/2004, dubbed by PPA Film. In 2008/2009, the series was released in Germany in two series boxes on DVD, with 17 of the episodes not broadcast by RTL 2 also have a German soundtrack, but the other 13 episodes only have German subtitles. In March 2011, a DVD box with all 52 episodes of the series will be released.
Armada's successor was called Transformers: Superlink in Japan and Transformers: Energon in the United States . The series was again produced by We've, but this time the animation was a combination of classic cel animation and computer-generated cel shading . The series, which was a direct continuation of Armada , again comprised 52 episodes and was again first in Japanese set to music and then dubbed into English by Voicebox. In contrast to Armada , Energon ran almost simultaneously on Japanese and American television from the end of 2003, but one episode was left out in the American version for unknown reasons. Energon never aired in Germany , although many of the toy figures did appear.
The last of the three jointly produced series was titled Transformers: Galaxy Force in Japan and Transformers: Cybertron in the United States . The series was again produced by We've, this time the Japanese studio Gonzo was responsible for the animation, which again represented a combination of classic cel animation and cel shading . In Japan, the series, which again comprised 52 episodes, was broadcast from the end of 2004 to the end of 2005, in the USA, on the other hand, it was only broadcast on Cartoon Network from mid-2005, with the first two episodes being cut together and the missing scenes as "new" Were subsequently submitted. Voicebox was again responsible for the English synchronization. In terms of content, the series in Japan should initially be independent of the two previous series, but this was revoked in the English dubbed version, and TakaraTomy also officially confirmed this link between the series in 2007. In Germany, the first 26 episodes were broadcast on Kabel 1 at the beginning of 2007 ; Studio Hamburg Synchron was responsible for the synchronization .
The animated series Transformers: Animated , which appeared in the wake of Michael Bays feature films , was developed by Hasbro in collaboration with the Cartoon Network, which broadcast 42 episodes in three seasons in the USA from late 2007 to mid-2009. In contrast to the previous series, the production of the Animated series was again under the control of Hasbro instead of Takara or TakaraTomy. The Japanese studios Mook, The Answer Studio and Studio 4 ° C were responsible for the animation . In terms of content, Animated was again independent of all previous series, but there were again numerous references to earlier series in the form of Easter Eggs . A broadcast of Animated has not yet been announced in Japan . In Germany, a version of Animated dubbed by TV + Synchron Berlin was broadcast on Super RTL from spring to mid-2008 . The first two seasons were shown with a total of 29 episodes. The two seasons of the series, translated into German, were released on a total of six DVDs.
From 2010 to 2013, the computer-animated series Transformers: Prime was broadcast on the station The Hub , which comprised a total of 65 episodes, divided into 3 seasons. In 2015 the sequel followed in the form of the computer-animated series Transformers: Robots in Disguise . Both series were broadcast in Germany on Nickelodeon .
Movies
→ Main articles: Transformers: The Battle for Cybertron , Transformers (film) , Transformers: The Revenge , Transformers 3 , Transformers: Age of Extinction , Transformers: The Last Knight , Bumblebee
In 1986, a cartoon with the original title The Transformers: The Movie was released in the USA , the content of which takes place between the second and third season of the original cartoon series. The film developed into a financial disaster at the box office in the USA and only later became a sales success as a video and DVD release, with numerous reprints by various production companies. In Germany, the film was never shown in cinemas, but was only broadcast on RTL in 1994 under the title Transformers - The Battle for Cybertron . In 2004 the film was first released on DVD in Germany under the simple title Transformers .
In 2007 a real-life version with the simple title Transformers came to the cinema, with Michael Bay as director and Steven Spielberg as executive producer. In terms of content, the film represents a universe independent of previous series. In Germany, the film was shown in theaters from August 2007 and has been available on DVD and HD DVD since the end of 2007 and, since 2008, on Blu-ray Disc . The sequel, Transformers, hit theaters in 2009 and was also released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc that same year. Furthermore, three other films ( Transformers - The Dark Side of the Moon , Transformers - Age of Doom and Transformers: The Last Knight ) were added. The feature films represented a trend reversal for Hasbro, as the main characters were developed primarily by the scriptwriters and the designers of Industrial Light and Magic , while Hasbro only had an advisory role and developed the accompanying toys according to the drafts of the ILM designers.
comics
In 1984, parallel to the start of the original toy and cartoon series, a comic series was also developed, which appeared from May 1984, before the start of the cartoon, at Marvel Comics . Originally designed as a four-part miniseries, The Transformers became an ongoing, monthly series due to its great success with issue 5, of which 80 issues were published by mid-1991. There were also several three- or four-part mini-series such as Transformers: The Headmasters , Transformers: The Movie (a comic adaptation of the film of the same name ), The Transformers Universe (a collection of profile descriptions of the individual characters) and a crossover with characters from another Hasbro toy series , GI Joe . Although the same characters appeared in the comic series as in the cartoon series, and the starting point was also the same, the stories of the two media were independent from the beginning and soon developed in different directions. From issue 5, the series was written by Bob Budiansky, who had already been involved in the development of the characters in the run-up to the series. With issue 56 he was replaced by Simon Furman, who wrote the series to its end. Draftsmen included Frank Springer, Don Perlin, José Delbo, Geoff Senior and Andrew Wildman.
The British Marvel subsidiary Marvel UK published its own comic magazine in A4 format from September 1984 , from which until January 1992, 332 issues and seven annual specials, "Annuals", appeared at weekly intervals for a long time. About half of the issues contained reprints of the stories from the American issues, while the remaining issues contained new stories specially produced for the British market, the content of which was designed to supplement these. Most of these stories were written by Simon Furman, who would later also write the US series. Drawers were among others Geoff Senior, Dan Reed, Lee Sullivan and Andrew Wildman, who alternated regularly due to the weekly publication rhythm.
In Germany, Condor-Verlag published the first four issues of the US series from July to November 1986 as a three-part mini-series under the Germanized title Die Transformer , also in A4 format. From February 1989, Condor published an ongoing monthly series entitled Transformers , in which 24 issues were published until December 1992. Stories from the US magazines were initially reprinted, but stories were often left out. From issue 7 onwards, the series now contained stories from the UK issues. For this, Condor published more US stories in four paperback books, and there were also three special issues that contained further stories from the US and UK issues, but again without a comprehensible order.
For the toy series Transformers: Generation 2 , a twelve-part comic series of the same name was published by Marvel from November 1993 to October 1994, written by Simon Furman and drawn by Derek Yaniker, Manny Galan and Geoff Senior, among others. In terms of content, the series was a direct continuation of the original series. In addition, the issues 138-148 of the comic series GI Joe, which was also published by Marvel, contained a prologue to the comic series Generation 2 .
In Great Britain the publisher Fleetway published five issues of the Generation 2 series, which in addition to reprints of the US stories also contained a new prologue. In Germany, on the other hand, no comics for the Generation 2 series were published.
From 2001 to 2006 the British publisher Titan Books published reprints of the Marvel stories in the form of anthologies in collaboration with Simon Furman. It all started with the volume All Fall Down , which contained US issues 69-74. After that, almost all 80 issues of the regular series, the four issues of the Headmasters miniseries and the twelve Generation 2 issues were reprinted in not always chronological order . In addition, Titan published anthologies of a large part of the UK stories, often sorted in terms of content according to multi-part stories, starting with the multi-part Target: 2006 from UK issues 78-88. None of the volumes were published in Germany. Further reprints of the Marvel stories are currently being published by IDW Publishing as part of the Transformers: Generations and Transformers: Best of UK series .
In 2001 the Canadian small publisher Dreamwave Productions, originally a studio within Image Comics , secured the rights to new comics about the Transformers . From April 2002 there was a six-part miniseries titled Transformers: Generation One , written by Chris Sarracini and drawn by Dreamwave President Pat Lee . The focus was on the original characters from 1984-86, with the story again being independent of previous television and comic series. A second Generation One miniseries titled War and Peace , written by James McDonough (using the pen name "Brad Mick") and drawn by Pat Lee, followed in 2003; In December 2003 an ongoing series started, written by McDonough (later together with Adam Patyk) and drawn by Don Figueroa.
In addition to the comics with the original characters popular among fans, Dreamwave also published a series on the Transformers toy series from July 2002 : Armada , the content of which was also independent of the cartoon series of the same name. The author was initially Chris Sarracini; from issue 6 he was replaced by Simon Furman. The draftsmen were James Raiz, Pat Lee, Guido Guidi and Don Figueroa. With issue 19, which appeared in January 2004, the series changed its title to Transformers: Energon , in keeping with the start of the toy series of the same name. In terms of content, the plot of the Armada series was continued. Furman stayed on as the author of the series, while the drawings were alternately by Guido Guidi, Joe Ng, James Raiz, Alex Milne and Marcelo Matere.
Completely new ground entered the history as the One generation -series scale, written by Simon Furman six-part miniseries Transformers: The War Within , which was published from October 2002 to March 2003 at Dream Wave. For the first time, the appearance of the characters appearing was not based directly on existing toy figures, rather the designs were all specially developed for this series by the draftsman Don Figueroa. A second War Within miniseries entitled The Dark Ages was released from October 2003 to April 2004, this time written by Simon Furman and drawn by Andrew Wildman. A third miniseries titled The Age of Wrath , written by Furman and drawn by Joe Ng, started in December 2004.
Dreamwave also released an eight-part miniseries titled Transformers: More than Meets the Eye , written by Adam Patyk and James McDonough and illustrated by various illustrators, which appeared from April to November 2003 and featured profile descriptions of the individual Transformers characters from Generation One - Series contained. A three-part miniseries, More Than Meets the Eye, featuring the Armada characters by the same authors, was released from March to May 2004. Dreamwave also released a four-part miniseries titled Transformers: Micromasters , written by McDonough and Patyk and drawn by Rob Ruffolo, a Transformers Summer Special and a six-part crossover with GI Joe , written by John Ney Rieber and drawn by Jae Lee.
In early January 2005, Dreamwave officially declared bankruptcy after months of rumors of financial difficulties and lost the Transformers license, which led to an immediate cessation of the series. The ongoing Miniseries Generation One ended in Issue 10, the Energon Series in Issue 30, the third War Within miniseries in Issue 3, and a second crossover with GI Joe , written by James McDonough and Adam Patyk and drawn by Pat Lee, only the first issue appeared. A planned Beast Wars miniseries and a miniseries More Than Meets the Eye with the Energon characters remained completely unpublished . Many of the Dreamweave stories have also been published in the form of anthologies, of which the current license holder IDW Publishing is now offering reprints.
Parallel to Dreamwave, the local branch of Panini Verlag published its own comic series on Transformers in Great Britain : Armada , written by Simon Furman and drawn by Andrew Wildman, which was independent of the cartoon series and the Dreamwave comic series and lasted nine issues. In Germany, Dino Entertainment , which belongs to Panini, began at the end of 2003, parallel to the broadcast of the animated series on RTL 2, with the release of the Dreamwave series, but stopped the release due to the short duration of the series on television (RTL 2 only showed 20 episodes within five weeks ) after two issues.
The image offshoot Devil's Due Publishing, which had the license for comics for the Hasbro toy series GI Joe from 2001 to 2007 , also published several crossover miniseries in which the Transformers and the GI Joe characters met.
In 2005 the small publisher IDW Publishing acquired the license for new Transformers comics. Since the end of 2005 / beginning of 2006, new mini-series such as Infiltration , Stormbringer , Escalation , Devastation , Megatron: Origin or All Hail Megatron , in which the characters from the original series appear again, are again independent of all previous stories. The mini-series are supplemented by spotlight booklets, each of which focuses on a single figure. The authors of the stories are Simon Furman, Eric Holmes ( Megatron: Origin ) and Shane McCarthy ( All Hail Megatron ), draftsmen among others EJ Su, Don Figueroa, Nick Roche, Guido Guidi, Marcelo Matere and Alex Milne.
IDW also published two miniseries for the Beast Wars series with the titles The Gathering and The Ascending (each by author Simon Furman and illustrator Don Figueroa), the four-part miniseries Beast Wars Sourcebook with profile descriptions of the characters (written by Simon Furman and Benson Yee and illustrated by various illustrators), a new four-part comic adaptation of the cartoon from 1986 under the title Transformers: The Animated Movie (by author Bob Budiansky and illustrator Don Figueroa), a four-part mini-series with the title Evolutions: Hearts of Steel (by author Chuck Dixon and draftsman Guido Guidi) as well as various comics for the Transformers movie from 2007 and the new series Transformers: Animated . Comics from the context of the sequel to the movie, Transformers - Die Rache are currently being released . In addition, IDW also publishes reprints of Marvel and Dreamwave stories.
Other official Transformers comics titled The Wreckers and Transformers: Universe , produced by 3H Enterprises, were available at the BotCon Convention and later the Official Transformers Collectors' Convention. However, the booklets appeared very sporadically and ended abruptly in 2004 when Hasbro 3H revoked its license in 2004. Since 2005, Fun Publications has been publishing new Transformers comics under the title Timelines , some of which are available through BotCon and others as part of the Official Transformers Collectors' Club magazine. Some of the stories were also published by IDW Publishing to a wide audience.
The British publisher Titan Magazines has been publishing a monthly Transformers magazine since 2007 which, in addition to reprints of IDW stories, also contains its own short stories with the characters from the Transformers movie from 2007. From July 2008 the stories will also be published in aggregate by IDW in the USA. In 2008, Titan also released a new Transformers comic series : Animated , which only lasted three issues.
Video games
In October 2003, a video game called The Transformers (also known as Transformers: Tatakai ) for the PlayStation 2 , which was developed by Winkysoft and based on the original series from the 1980s, was released in Japan . The game was never released outside of Japan.
Only a few months later, in April 2004, a video game for the PlayStation 2 with the simple title Transformers (working title: Transformers Armada: Prelude to Energon ) was released for the series Transformers: Armada . The game was developed by Melbourne House and distributed by Atari SA . The game was also available in Germany. A PC version developed by Midway Games , however, was never published.
For the 2007 movie , a video game developed by Activision entitled Transformers: The Game was released , which was available for the Nintendo Wii , PlayStation 2 , PlayStation 3 , Xbox 360 and PCs with DVD-ROM drives and was also available in Germany in the trade came. A variant of the game was released for the PlayStation Portable , and two other games were also released for the Nintendo DS with the titles Transformers: Autobots and Transformers: Decepticons , developed by Vicarious Visions.
A video game adaptation developed by Activision, which was available for the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PCs with DVD-ROM drives, was released for the sequel Transformers from 2009. Other games also appeared for the PlayStation Portable and the Nintendo DS. These games were also available in Germany.
In June 2010, a third-person shooter called Transformers: War for Cybertron was released , which was distributed by Activision and available for PCs, the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360, the Nintendo Wii and the Nintendo DS. The game provides content, similar to the number of years published comic series before Transformers: The War Within Dream Wave Productions, a kind of history to the original series is under the title. Transformers: War for Cybertron , the game was released in Germany.
In August 2012, the sequel to Transformers: War for Cybertron called Transformers - Fall of Cybertron was also distributed by Activision and developed by High Moon Studios.
With Transformers: The Dark Spark , Hasbro has announced a video game that will be released on June 27, 2014 in Germany for the PlayStation 3 , PlayStation 4 , Xbox 360 , Xbox One , Wii U and Nintendo 3DS . The story tells of the previous games and of the film Transformers: Era des Untergang , which will be released in German cinemas on July 17, 2014 .
In August 2016, Transformers: Downfall of Cyberton was a suitable implementation of the title published in 2012 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One . Both versions are available from the console's online store and contain three DLCs in addition to the main game.
Fan club and conventions
There are numerous fan conventions for the Transformers, one of which is officially licensed by Hasbro. The annual BotCon was originally founded in 1994 by the brothers Jon and Karl Hartman, and the first convention in Fort Wayne, Indiana was attended by 180 people. In the years that followed, the BotCon was initially organized by changing individuals until the Hartman brothers founded 3H Enterprises together with Glen Hallit in 1997 to finance the BotCon. From the start, Hasbro provided the respective organizers of the BotCon with exclusive characters, which were initially unpublished characters. In later years, however, these were variants of figures that had already appeared, which had new colors selected by the organizers of the convention and were available in increasingly professional packaging. Comics officially approved by Hasbro were also available at BotCon. There were even offshoots of BotCon in Japan and Europe, but neither of them lasted long.
In 2002, Hasbro's BotCon was recognized as the official Transformers Convention, and an official collectors' club was also announced. But there was a break between the Hartman brothers and Glen Hallit. While the former left 3H Enterprises and took the name "BotCon" with them, from 2003 Hallit organized the "Official Transformers Collectors' Convention". The Hartmans held another unofficial BotCon for this in 2004, but Hasbro Hallit revoked the license in the same year. In 2005, this went to the Fun Publications company, headed by Brian Savage, which has already organized an official convention and a collectors' club for the Hasbro series GI Joe . The Hartman brothers were recruited as consultants and in return made Fun Publications available the name “BotCon”. In 2005, Fun Publications also started the Official Transformers Collectors' Club, which not only offers a bimonthly magazine with an exclusive comic, but also exclusive characters for club members. BotCon 2008, held in April in Cincinnati, Ohio, had a "record" attendance. All exclusive figures, some of which were limited to a little over a thousand copies, were completely sold out.
The CONS has been taking place in Germany since 2009, a convention at which guests from the Transformers production team have been appearing since 2011. In 2009, for example, the Transformers comic book writer Simon Furman was present. The convention is organized by the operators of the Transformers fan forum ntf-archive.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Space Explorer Robot. Danefield.com, archived from the original on February 24, 2009 ; accessed on December 12, 2013 .
- ↑ Information on the Diaclone series , Diaclone.net, in Japanese. Accessed April 29, 2008.
- ↑ Information on the MicroChange series , Microman Forever. Accessed April 29, 2008.
- ↑ a b c Interview with the former vice president of the Hasbros development department, George Dunsay ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Thetransformers.de, January 1, 2007. Accessed April 29, 2008.
- ↑ Dwight Jon Zimmerman: "The Transformers," in: Marvel Age # 17, March 1984.
- ↑ Hasbro internal memo dated February 11, 1984, published on Fred's Complete Transformers Variants and Variations Page . Accessed December 13, 2013.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Detailed archive of older Transformers toy figures, TFU.info. Accessed April 29, 2008.
- ^ A b Karen Schwartz: "Poor Sales May Deal Toy Robots Fatal Blow", Associated Press, December 16, 1990. Archived at Electric-Escape.net ( memento of the original from March 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was used automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Accessed May 1, 2008.
- ↑ Dave Edwards: Interview with Floro Dery ( June 25, 2006 memento on the Internet Archive ), Zobovor's Multi-Faceted Transformers Site, July 17, 2002. Archived version, accessed May 19, 2009.
- ↑ Lukis Bros. Transformers Collector Site , collector's site with a detailed overview of the various Transformers toy series, sorted by year. Accessed April 29, 2008.
- ↑ a b c Overview of Japanese Transformers toy series ( Memento of the original from July 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Autobase Aichi (in Japanese). Accessed April 29, 2008.
- ↑ "The Invasion from Mexico" ( Memento of the original from November 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Thetransformers.de, March 30, 2005. Accessed April 29, 2008.
- ↑ Maziar Shahsafdari: Various detailed articles on Central and South American publications , TF-1.com. Accessed April 29, 2008.
- ↑ Maziar Shahsafdari: "Milton Bradley and the red Transformers Tracks" , TF-1.com. Accessed April 29, 2008.
- ↑ a b Complete List of euro-tfs; and euro-tf pack-changes. Fred's Complete Transformers Variants and Variations Page, archived from the original on October 19, 2009 ; accessed on December 12, 2013 .
- ^ Matthew Brady: Altered Beasts. From Autobots to Maximals, Hasbro's Transformers are still more than meets the eye. In: ToyFare # 11. July 1998, archived from the original on February 17, 2009 ; accessed on December 12, 2013 .
- ↑ Unused designs for the unrealized Transtech series by Draxhall Jump , archived at TFArchive.com. Accessed May 1, 2008.
- ↑ The Transformers Binaltech & TF Collection Complete Guide , Aspect, Tokyo of 2005.
- ↑ Transformers BotCon / OTFCC / Timelines , accessed October 9, 2015.
- ↑ Interview with Takara designer Hironori Kobayashi ( Memento from October 23, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), Takarahobby.com, December 2003. Accessed on May 4, 2008. English translation at Toybox DX ( Memento from April 22, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) , December 18, 2003. Accessed May 4, 2008.
- ↑ Report regarding Energon in Germany ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Thetransformers.de, January 6, 2005. Accessed May 23, 2008.
- ↑ Steve Stonebraker: Steve-o Stonebraker's BotCon 2005 Notes Version 2 ( Memento of the original from May 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Steve-o's Transformers Site. Accessed May 25, 2008.
- ^ "BotCon 2006 - Hasbro New Product Unveiling," TFormers.com, September 30, 2006. Accessed April 24, 2008.
- ^ "Optimus Prime Time," interview with director Michael Bay, Entertainment Weekly, July 5, 2007. Accessed June 8, 2008.
- ↑ "'ToyFare' talks Transformers with Hasbro and gives you the first look at the movie Optimus Prime toy!" ( Memento from August 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Wizarduniverse.com, February 9, 2007. Archived version, accessed on August 8, 2007 June 2008.
- ↑ Information on the packaging of the Transformers toy figures .
- ↑ John Gaudiosi, "LeBeouf, Fox role play for 'Transformers'" ( August 15, 2007 memento on the Internet Archive ), Hollywoodreporter.com, May 17, 2007. Archived version, accessed June 6, 2008.
- ↑ "Robots and Product Placement" ( Memento of the original from June 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , ORF.at. Accessed June 8, 2008.
- ↑ Parija B. Kavilanz: "Hasbro hints at 'Transformers' sequel" CNNMoney.com, July, 23, 2007. Access on 8 June of 2008.
- ↑ Wal-Mart contributor "Steevy Maximus": "Wal-Mart's Transformers expectations, and results," TFW2005.com, July 23, 2007. Accessed June 8, 2008.
- ^ "Hasbro Reports Strong Third Quarter Results," Corporate-ir.net, October 23, 2007. Accessed June 8, 2008.
- ↑ a b Official Magazine of the Official Transformers Collectors' Club, December 2008 issue.
- ↑ Michelle R. Smith, "Transformer movie marketing for kids criticized," TheStar.com, January 9, 2008. Accessed June 8, 2008.
- ↑ Rick Newman, “10 Products That Boomed During the Recession,” USNews.com, October 20, 2009. Accessed December 9, 2009.
- ↑ Webisodes on the official Hasbro website , accessed January 7, 2009.
- ↑ a b List of episodes of the original series including German first broadcast dates ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , TheTransformers.de. Accessed June 8, 2008.
- ↑ List of episodes of the "Generation 2" series including German first broadcast dates ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , TheTransformers.de. Accessed June 8, 2008.
- ↑ Bob Forward: "Melding Universes", preface in: Transformers. Matrix Quest , Titan Books, London 2002. ISBN 1-84023-471-7 .
- ↑ a b c Details on the Transformers comics at Marvel , NTFA.net. Accessed June 11, 2008.
- ↑ Details on the Transformers comics at Marvel UK ( Memento of the original from May 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Oneshallstand.com. Accessed June 11, 2008.
- ^ Information on German Transformers comics from Condor-Verlag , Maxithecat.de. Accessed June 11, 2008.
- ↑ Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark - Action game officially announced. In: gamepro.de . February 17, 2014, accessed March 25, 2014 .
- ↑ Transformers: Fall of Cyberton - Now available for PlayStation 4. Accessed August 11, 2016 .
- ↑ Official website of the Official Transformers Collectors' Club . Accessed July 7, 2008.
- ^ Official website of the BotCon . Accessed July 7, 2008.
- ↑ ntf-cons.de/
