Moving from strength to strength, Hasbro introduced a new Transformers cartoon, one that was written in the west and co-produced with Cartoon Network. This new series was called Transformers Animated, and went with a radical change to the established art style of what had gone before, polarizing opinions from the very first glimpse of the series – though clever writing meant it quickly became a well-loved show. Its toyline was delayed, though, thanks to retailers demanding more movie toys on store pegs. Fans who disliked the new take in Transformers Animated were not left out in the cold either, as Hasbro recognized the success of the Classics series and brought out a new Classics styled series under the name of Transformers Universe, which blended redecos with Classics style reinterpretations of the original characters. Last but not least, IDW proclaimed “All Hail Megatron” as they carried out a soft-reboot of their Transformers continuity.
Transformers Animated opening credits. Uploaded to Youtube by Hasbro Studios Shorts[/size]
Transformers Animated, which had been developed under the working name Transformers Hero, first premiered with a three part pilot on 26 December 2007, with the first season starting in earnest in January 2008. The show was the first one produced in the US since Beast Machines, and was known for its lighter and more episodic approach to storytelling. Marty Isenberg who had co-edited Beast Machines was the story editor for the series, with Derrick J Wyatt providing the series with its unique new art style. David Kaye joined the series to provide the voice of Optimus Prime, in a change of pace from voicing Megatrons – Megatron was voiced by Corey Burton with Tom Kenny voiced Starscream in a style reminiscent of Chris Latta. The rest of the cast included Ratchet, Bumblebee, Prowl and new creation Bulkhead on the Autobot side, with the Decepticons including Blitzwing, Blackarachnia, and new characters Lugnut and Lockdown (though the latter was a non-aligned bounty hunter). Originally, the Autobot lineup was to have included Red Alert and Hot Shot in place of Ratchet and Bumblebee, but the inclusion of Bumblebee and Ratchet in the movie led to their characters appearing as a part of the main cast.
The story of Transformers Animated shook up a few of the things taken as ground rules for the Transformers. Optimus Prime was no longer the leader of the Autobots but just one crew within the larger organization – in this series, “Prime” was a rank, roughly equivalent to captain. Cybertron was largely at peace, with just a small handful of Decepticon rebels out in the universe causing trouble – although Megatron still harbored ambitions to return and retake Cybertron. The Autobots were not clear-cut good guys either – while Optimus Prime’s crew were by and large on the level, some of the other Autobots were xenophobic and every bit as petty as the Decepticons.
The first season of the series kicked off with Optimus Prime and his crew arriving on Earth and making friends with human girl Sari Sumdac. Unknown to them, Megatron had arrived on Earth in a damaged state, with his head influencing Sari’s father Professor Isaac Sumdac and being indirectly responsible for some of the villains that the Autobots encountered. The plot of the first season revolved around Megatron’s quest to have his body rebuilt, so that he might claim The Allspark, which Optimus’ crew accidentally stumbled upon while maintaining the Autobot Spacebridge network.
Along the way the Autobots clashed with enemies both human and Decepticon – in line with the series’ original brief as “Transformers Hero”, the Autobots were treated as a superhero team, and faced off against human supervillains, including Robin Hood / Green Arrow imitator The Angry Archer, the superfast Nanosec, and the Headmaster, who invented a machine in the form of a piloted robotic head that allowed him to overtake the body of any other robot, including Transformers.
Decepticon foes in the first season included Starscream, Megatron’s lieutenants Blitzwing and glorious Lugnut. Soundwave was introduced as a human created toy for Sari, albeit one altered by Megatron to absorb her Allspark powered key’s energies. The tortured Decepticon Blackarachnia was another foe for the Autobots to face, one who had history with Optimus Prime – she was Elita-1, an old friend of Optimus and Sentinel Prime, left behind on a planet of organic spider creatures. A bounty hunter, Lockdown, was also introduced as a recurring enemy – one who had some history with Ratchet. The Dinobots were also introduced as something of a neutral faction, although nominally Autobots their simple minds made them easily duped into fighting for other factions.
The first season finale was titled Megatron Rising, and featured Megatron finally getting his body back. The first thing Megatron did was execute Starscream for treachery, before going after the Autobots and the Allspark. Megatron was able to lay claim to the Allspark, but Optimus Prime shattered it, scattering shards of it across New Detroit.
The second season carried on where the first had left off, with a new running plot device of the scattered Allspark shards causing havoc wherever they cropped up. Allspark shards brought life, resurrecting the dead Starscream and allowing him to make clones of himself; they also gave life to a pair of construction vehicles who became the first Constructicons, and to garbage truck robot Wreck-Gar (voiced by “Weird Al” Yankovic). As if this was not enough, the Autobots also had to deal with intergalactic arms merchant Swindle, and a return appearance by Lockdown. The Autobots were not without allies, as the second season introduced the Autobot Elite Guard, led by Ultra Magnus and supported by Sentinel Prime and Jazz – with Sentinel Prime promptly clashing with Optimus due to the rivalry between the two Autobots. Another Elite Guard member, the Autobot Blurr, also showed up and helped the Autobots in the season finale.
The second season finale of Transformers Animated was an excellent two-part episode which featured an all-out battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons evolving into a three-way battle when Starscream turned up with a clone army. With the stakes escalating, Ratchet joined the battle piloting the Autobots’ spaceship, the Ark – really the mighty Omega Supreme in disguise. Megatron’s Spacebridge collapsed, hurling Megatron, the now severed head of Starscream, Omega Supreme, Blurr and two of Starscream’s clones into an unknown corner of space. However, Sari was cut during the battle, exposing mechanical parts beneath her skin…
Transformers Animated initially went over poorly with fans, who lamented the artstyle, which was drastically different to all that had gone before. Most of these complaints subsided when the actual animation for the series was shown in all its slick glory, and the series’ humor won still more round. There were still those who complained about “too many human villains, not enough Decepticons” which led to Decepticons and robot enemies in general having more presence in later episodes. That being said, the show managed to make the Decepticons a real threat by having them only show up sparingly. The series placed a great emphasis on characterization, often taking an episode or two a season to flash back and flesh out the backstories of the main Autobots; the more episodic approach also meant that the series was a bit more self-contained than the sprawling epics of the Unicron trilogy.
All in all, the series was a great and very welcome breath of fresh air, and set many benchmarks for how a Transformers cartoon arguably should be.
A Transformers Animated videogame was published by Activision for the Nintendo DS. The game took place across 24 levels and placed players in control of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Bulkhead, with Ratchet acting as mission control and providing tips and advice. The game was a puzzle game in the mold of the Lost Vikings, where each of the three Autobots could be switched between at will, and each Autobot had their own skills to utilize to solve puzzles and progress through the game.
The Transformers movie line rebranded with the Allspark Powered subline in 2008, with new releases including Deluxe class toys Landmine and Stockade and a Voyager class osprey Decepticon, Incinerator, who had different decos in the US and Japan
Due to the massive popularity of the Transformers movie, retailers wanted more movie toys and as a result the Transformers Animated toyline did not arrive until six months after Transformers Animated season 1 had aired, in spite of it being produced and ready to ship. So 2008’s toys kicked off with the last of the Movie toyline in the form of the “Allspark Powered” assortment – which featured, in addition to Automorph features, elements of the robots colored in powder blue to represent Allspark energy. There were a few significant releases in this series such as Incinerator, who was based on the Osprey helicopters used in the opening scene of the film.
The Allspark Power subset was followed up with a Movie Premium series line – which Hasbro pulled together to meet the extra retailer demand. The Premium series re-released the previous year’s movie cast toys with new, more accurate to the screen decos. Notably the Leader class Optimus Prime, when re-released in this Premium series, was reworked to feature a sword instead of a blaster, inspired by the scene in which Optimus Prime beheaded Bonecrusher in the movie.
The Movie line continued to be supported by exclusive releases, including a Premium series “Deep Space” version of Starscream offered through Target, and Target exclusive Allspark Power redecos of the some of the Deluxe class movie toys, who were sold in robot mode in cool cylinder style packaging. Meanwhile Walmart got two waves of redecoed Deluxe toys from Transformers Cybertron and Classics. These two waves of toys were, according to Hasbro, intended to have been released in the Classics line but were included in the Movie assortments at Walmart’s request. The mix of characters included new, Cybertron / Classics style takes on Micromaster Big Daddy, Generation 2 Laser Rod Jolt, Generation 1 Crankcase and Go-Bot Crasher, renamed Fracture.
The Japanese movie line had been largely the same as the US line – right down to the packaging essentially being the same just with Japanese language stickers – although a few Japan region exclusives and variants came with the Allspark Power series. Incinerator, the osprey Decepticon, was changed from his grey US deco to a sleek black deco for Japan. A pair of redecos of Arcee were made exclusively for the Japanese market – a black version and a pink Generation 1 inspired version, which was a Wonderfest exclusive. Lastly, Takara-Tomy also offered a pair of Trans-Scanning figures, figures which consisted of a basic mechanical skeleton which could be adorned with either Cybertronian or Earth alternate form parts. Two figures were released, a Bumblebee and an Optimus Prime. While fun oddities, the base skeletons were notoriously fragile.
Just some of the Transformers Animated toyline releases for 2008.[/size]
With the movie line concluded, Transformers Animated toys were introduced by Hasbro in full force. The Animated line had no named line-wide gimmick, unlike every main line since Beast Wars and to a lesser extent Beast Machines, although the Takara-Tomy designers talk about how they referred to some of the designs as having signature transformation or signature weapons as gimmicks. This is borne out by the toys, which feature the unique weapons of the characters or other features in line with their personalities or depictions in the show. The toy line consisted of a main line with releases in the Deluxe, Voyager and Leader classes; a subline which was roughly the size of the Scout class, called Activators and featuring spring-loaded transformations, was also released.
The Transformers Animated toy line was an impressive achievement on the part of the Hasbro and Takara-Tomy design teams. The toys had an incredible level of show accuracy, thanks to close liaisons between the Hasbro design teams and the character designers for the show. Blocky vehicles were made to turn into the smooth and rounded robot mode designs. The toys also had a unique finish on their plastic which recreated the matte style of the designs in the show, and for many of the toys, they looked like they had stepped out of the screen. Hasbro and Takara-Tomy admitted that through developing the toys for Transformers Animated, they challenged themselves with how they could best conceal vehicle parts in a toy’s robot mode – which has influenced toy designs ever since, to a great or lesser degree.
Some of the most significant releases in the toyline included the Leader class Megatron, Ultra Magnus and Bulkhead – the latter of whom also came with an accessory of Headmaster to “take over” Bulkhead’s body. Bulkhead also got a Voyager class release, alongside Blitzwing and Lugnut. Lugnut’s small size was a point of contention among fans, as he was huge in the show, yet ended up smaller than many of the toys in the line. The Deluxe size class included a Cybertronian mode Optimus Prime, along with Bumblebee and Prowl, and Decepticons such as Lockdown – who was extremely tall – and Blackarachnia. Notably, Transformers Animated also delivered a lineup of updated Dinobots.
Transformers Universe, or “Classics 2.0”, brought a mix of earlier toys with new decos and new toys updating classic characters. Here is a selection of the new mold “Classics” Transformers released as a part of the line[/size]
There was still a lot of demand for realistic Transformers, though, and in recognition of the popularity of the Classics line, Hasbro introduced a new version of the Transformers Universe line. “Universe 2.0” as fans referred to it mixed re-releases of earlier toys in new decos with all new molds. It featured a Legends class, a Deluxe class, a Voyager class and an Ultra class, marking the last time that the Ultra class was used for a Transformers toyline.
The Deluxe class of the Universe line was where most of the new mold Classics toys were released. It kicked off with a new triple changer, Tankor – an updated Octane – along with Prowl and Sunstreaker. Prowl got reused twice over to provide Classics versions of the other two Datsun Transformers, Silverstreak and Smokescreen, while Sunstreaker was exceptionally cleverly designed to allow his body to be transformed “backwards” and give fans a Sideswipe from the same design, but with a unique robot mode.
The Voyager class and the Legends class started out with reuses of older toys, but both progressed on to new molds, with an Inferno in Voyager class while the Legends class released a set of Transformers Animated Legends, before rendering several classic Generation 1 Minibots as Legends sized toys. The Ultra class, meanwhile, brought out versions of Onslaught, Powerglide and Silverbolt, all with electronic sound effects including the original transformation SFX.
Japan was not left out, either, with the Classics line making the jump across the Pacific along with the new molds in the Universe series as the Henkei! Henkei! Transformers! line, Transformers Henkei or simply Henkei for short. The Henkei releases all featured additional chromed details to set them apart from the US versions of the toys – this could be subtle, like the engine on Bumblebee or the grill on Optimus Prime, or very obvious, like the spoiler on Rodimus. Notably the line got all six of the Seekers, including three who had been Botcon 2007 exclusives, although all bar Starscream and Ramjet were exclusives in the “Gentei! Gentei!” part of the line (Gentei meaning roughly “limited edition”). Thrust and Dirge on these releases featured new toolings on the wings which would eventually find their way to the US as a part of the Generations line in 2010.
The Takara-Tomy Transformers Encore line continued to run alongside the Transformers Henkei series. The line of reissues expanded in scope through 2008 to reissue Generation 1 toys that had not previously made it to Japan, like Sky Lynx and Omega Supreme, and other rare and sought after Generation 1 toys, such as Metroplex.
In addition, Takara-Tomy briefly revived the Binaltech line for four more releases in 2008. The four releases included a silver version of Meister, Argent Meister, a blue Bluestreak (!), plus the Decepticharge mold as Arcee and the Optimus Prime Dodge Ram as Convoy, marking the first time the two were available in the Binaltech line. The story chapters that accompanied the releases told a story titled “Unfinished Business”, and told of the race to complete the “Timaeus Project” which would ultimately lead to the Binaltechs undergoing ascension into something known as Alternity. The story chapters also served to cap off the last hanging threads from the Binaltech stories.
2008’s Botcon took place in Cincinnati, Ohio. The 2008 convention notably introduced a new concept called “Shattered Glass”, a mirror universe interpretation of the classic Transformers characters, featuring Evil Autobots led by a tyrannical megalomaniac Optimus Prime and Heroic Decepticons led by a peaceful, just Megatron and his loyal second in command Starscream. The set was a massive success for Botcon, even more so than the 2007 Seeker set, and the Shattered Glass theme remained as a concept which Fun Publications would revisit time and again. A script reading at the convention “Bee in the City”, stood out as a highlight of the event – a fun story involving Animated Optimus Prime and Bumblebee crossing paths with Beast Wars Megatron (which led to David Kaye voicing both Optimus and Megatron at the same time). A sequel script reading “Bee in the City II: Electric Boogaloo” took place in 2012.
Transformers: All Hail Megatron issue #1 cover. All sixteen issues of All Hail Megatron had alternate covers done in this simple, yet striking, style.[/size]
IDW’s Transformers comics underwent a soft reboot of their continuity with the release of All Hail Megatron, with Shane McCarthy replacing Simon Furman as writer. Shane McCarthy’s All Hail Megatron set itself apart from previous continuity – it took place a year after the end of Simon Furman’s storylines. The idea was to take a fresh approach and get back to basics – although there were a few continuity glitches involved, like the Matrix suddenly being introduced into the story.
All Hail Megatron kicked off with the Decepticons in a commanding position, launching an all-out assault on Earth. Humanity was powerless to resist, and city after city fell to the Decepticons, who now had a combiner, Devastator, in their ranks. The Autobots had all been stranded on Cybertron, which was a bit less of a dead world than it had been but still inhospitable, and now infested with Insecticons to boot. Optimus Prime was lying in critical condition with everything that the Autobots had going into saving him. The first half of the story, released in 2008, dealt with these events – the generally hopeless position of the Autobots and the suspicions of who might have betrayed them, and the rise of the Decepticons as they laid waste to Earth.
Transformers Spotlight: Sideswipe cover. Spotlight: Sideswipe was the concluding fourth issue of the Revelations arc[/size]
In order to bridge the gap from the end of Transformers: Devastation to All Hail Megatron, Simon Furman was given 12 issues to wrap up the plot threads from his issues and join up with the story arc set out in Shane McCarthy’s series, as well as smooth out any continuity hiccups. Simon Furman’s slow-burning cosmic plot involving a parallel reality called the Dead Universe and Nova Prime, a corrupt Prime from an age before Optimus Prime, was wrapped up in four Spotlight one-shots collectively referred to as “Revelations” which saw Nova Prime and his servants Galvatron, Cyclonus, Straxus and Grindcore make their big play for universal domination, only to be thwarted by the efforts of the Autobots and a last minute betrayal of Nova Prime by Galvatron. The resolution of these plotlines – which had been building since the beginning of Simon Furman’s tenure at IDW – felt rushed due to the need for a hasty resolution. However it also left enough open for future writers to pick up on – which ultimately gave us the Dark Cybertron crossover.
Transformers Animated: The Arrival issue #1 cover, showing the core Autobots and Decepticons (along with Autobot ally Sari Sumdac and human villain Angry Archer)[/size]
IDW also released a five issue miniseries to tie-in with Transformers Animated. The five issue series featured several stories from across the continuity of Transformers Animated, some fleshing out the backstories of characters, and others telling tales that bridged gaps between events in the series. Notably, like the cartoon it was based on, the comic did not have an overarching storyline, but rather each story was largely self-contained.
IDW carried on their Movie continuity as well, with a five issue Movie sequel series called Reign of Starscream. It picked up where the Movie had left off and featured Starscream trying to create a new Allspark which he would control and use to gain dominance over the Decepticons and Cybertron.
Unicron in the Transformers Movie continuity, as depicted in Titan UK’s Transformers comic. The Unicron that appeared in these stories was a formless energy which possessed and reshaped Cybertron into the form you see here.[/size]
The Titan UK Transformers movie comic, under writer Simon Furman, also underwent a reboot as it moved from stories ostensibly set in and around the movie continuity to an alternate continuity which asked “what if Megatron and the Decepticons won in the 2007 movie?” This alternate continuity kicked off in a five part arc titled “Twilight’s Last Gleaming”, which had Megatron in firm control of the entire Earth, using the Allspark and an army of Decepticon troops to enforce his control. The first five part arc involved the scattered remnants of the Autobot forces staging a revolution to free Optimus Prime from Megatron’s old holding cell in Hoover Dam and liberate the Earth from the Decepticons.
While the mission to liberate Earth was a success – and Megatron was once again slain – further problems followed. Humanity did not trust the Autobots, and Earth was beginning to tear itself apart, thanks to the way Megatron had abused the Allsparks’ power. In an effort to save the Earth, a team of Autobots journeyed to Cybertron to find Nucleon to neutralize the Allspark energy. On Cybertron they discovered Stockade and his Decepticons, who were trying to revive Cybertron by drawing in an amorphous energy from another reality. Little did they know, though, that they were in fact summoning the essence of Unicron, who proceeded to possess Cybertron and start remaking it into a new vessel for himself, much as he did in the finale of Beast Wars Neo. Fortunately by cutting off the supply of Nucleon, Unicron’s hold over the planet – and very presence in the continuity, it seemed – completely dissipated.
Titan UK also expanded their comic lineup very briefly with a second comic based around Transformers Animated. Unlike the US series, the Titan comic did have an over-arching plotline involving a new member of the Autobot team, Afterburn. The comic was out of continuity with the cartoon, and only lasted three issues – though stories were completed for six, the remaining three were published in the main Transformers comic when it transitioned from a Movie comic into a “Transformers Universe” comic.
Throughout 2008, news was also coming through about the sequel to 2007’s Transformers live action movie. The sequel’s principle filming began in June 2008, and the title was announced at around the same time as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
Revenge (and a 25th birthday for Transformers) was coming in 2009…
Superquad7
Agreed! Maybe @Sol Fury can give another one soon!
Back in
Need a update but that ok
Phantformer5533
Thank you for all these links! I definitely needed this in order to make my own list. Glory to transformers!
Vik
Awesome, such a dense history!
Metro Prime
Thanks. I have been doing that since that post. TF Wiki has been answering a lot of questions.
batfan007
You can always read some pages over at TFWIKI to catch up on those years, covers pretty much everthing.
John Does
Awsome looking forward,…
Metro Prime
It took me days to read all of this!
Excellent and informative write up. I'm impressed and it filled in a few blanks for me. I've been collecting since G1 with a few years of breaks until I started a major effort into collecting through the Energon era, the beginning of the Classics line, and intermittently through the years til I saw Titans Return and have been heavily collecting since. This write up has shown me where some of my more eclectic figures have originated.
Is there an update from 2015 to current in the works? I'd love to see what else I've missed.
Excaliberprime
good info here
Abishai100
Gen 1 – Gen 2
I think a good way to think about the immense shift in style and content between TG1 (Transformers Generation 1) and TG2 is to think about how the toys, cartoons, and comics focused more on variability of character significance for various storylines. TG1 offered stories relevant to particular characters, but TG2 offered a more liberal attitude towards who could be a randomized figurehead in a given storyline!
That's why TG2 was the 'gateway' to the modern Transformers era which focuses much more on general concepts and character randomization than did TG1.
That's also why TG1 is the ideal intro for anyone looking to become a Transformers fan. Hey, isn't that why we all love Transformers: The Movie (1986), the real art-piece that began showing us conceptual bridges between TG1 and TG2?
ChromedomeMaster
35 years of transformers, and i have only been apart of it for 10 years
3 Wheeler
I like the Long Haul Pic!!!
Djin
Great read
Blam320
That's really too bad. You're missing out on a lot, and I mean a lot of really good Transformers stuff by only caring about G1.
Rodimus Prime BetterPrime
For years I've wanted the G1 series in a blu-ray release. With this year marking its 35th anniversary, hopefully we'll finally get it. I don't care about anything but G1.