In 2012 the Transformers Prime toyline made its debut almost a year after the show first arrived on screens, with Japan also getting a toyline all of its own complete with several Japan-only releases. Transformers Prime entered its second season on the Hub, and a new Transformers show for younger audiences based on the Rescue Bots toys also launched. The Transformers returned to video game consoles with the Fall of Cybertron, with a line of Generations toys released to coincide with it. IDW relaunched its comics as well, with John Barber and James Roberts helming new ongoing series Robots in Disguise and More than Meets the Eye, while Simon Furman returned to the classic Generation 1 comics continuity that began with The Transformers #1 in 1984 in the form of the Regeneration 1 comic series. The two new ongoing series from IDW, More than Meets the Eye and Robots in Disguise, reignited fan interest in the Transformers comics thanks to fan-favorite writers James Roberts and John Barber coming on board to write them, with John Barber also acting as new story editor for IDW’s Transformers comics.
Transformers: More than Meets the Eye issue #7 cover, showing Tarn of the Decepticon Justice Division[/size]
James Roberts’ More than Meets the Eye kicked off with Rodimus and Ultra Magnus taking a crew of some 200 Autobots on a quest to find the long-lost Knights of Cybertron, but on launch, a malfunction of the Lost Light’s Quantum Jump engines threw the ship into uncharted regions of space, all while a message from the future warned of dangers ahead, teasing of future events.
The series took a lighter-hearted approach to the Transformers concept, with a cast of unique, charming yet flawed protagonists, including the amnesiac Skids, the memnosurgeon Chromedome and his partner Rewind, the metallurgist turned barkeep Swerve, the ultra-violent ex-Wrecker Whirl, brooding former Cybertronian Cyclonus, diminutive Tailgate, psychologist Rung, and overly rigid Ultra Magnus. Their adventures took them to the distant planet Delphi where they met the insane Autobot doctor Pharma as well as Fortress Maximus, the former Garrus-9 warden suffering PTSD from his encounter with Overlord. The series also introduced the Decepticon Justice Division, a group of five Decepticons tasked by Megatron himself with rooting out and eliminating any and all traitors to the Decepticon cause.
The series attracted a handful of detractors in those who disliked the lighter approach, but many were won over for the same reasons that made Last Stand of the Wreckers a success. The series is exceedingly well-written and makes you truly care about the cast, their trials and their losses. The three part Shadowplay arc, which was framed as a story told by the Lost Light crew to try to rouse Rung from a coma, proved to be an extremely important story all thanks to the revelation on its final page about the identity of the Cybertronian senator who was the mentor of a young Orion Pax – a reveal that has serious implications on the entirety of the IDW chronology.
Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 1 trade paperback cover, also used for issue #1 of the ongoing series[/size]
John Barber’s Robots in Disguise, meanwhile, took a different approach, dealing with the politics of a newly reborn Cybertron and a fragile peace between Autobot, Decepticon, and unaligned Transformers. The focus of the story fell on Bumblebee as he tried to make the unsteady peace and the new Autobot government work, even as Prowl started to fall to the dark side as he made more and more morally grey decisions. On the other side, there was Starscream, who stood up for the Decepticons, supported by the representatives of the non-aligned Transformers, Metalhawk, who pressed for a power-sharing government, and elections.
The action periodically shifted away from Cybertron during the series to focus on the adventures of Orion Pax in the self-contained Syndromica issues, which focused on the ongoing plotting of Shockwave, who it was established had his own agenda, one which went back to his earliest IDW appearance in Spotlight: Shockwave, involving the various Ores he had seeded different worlds with. Orion Pax, recognizing Shockwave and his allies’ plans as a serious threat to peace in the galaxy, set out with Wheelie, Hardhead and Garnak to unravel the plot and put a stop to Shockwave’s intentions.
All the while, on Cybertron, something in the wilderness drove all those who ventured into it to madness. And on the eve of the free elections that Starscream hoped would let him claim the leadership of Cybertron that he so desperately craved, Starscream gazed out across the horizon and saw a lone figure advancing toward the city.
Megatron had returned.
The first year of Robots in Disguise was, without a doubt, a slow-burning title. Many of the issues built up the complex political situation and some of the mystery behind the series, along with setting up plot threads that would not pay off for nearly a year (such as the Orion Pax focused Syndromica issues, which were all setup for Dark Cybertron). But, as the series developed, the patience of readers was rewarded with a refreshingly deep and different take on the Transformers story; one that was about more than simply war and the different factions fighting it out.
And that was the main point of the rebooted ongoing series from IDW. Both took their start point as “the war is over; what next?” and took off in their own directions. Both offered a new direction for Transformers storytelling as a whole – telling new stories that had rarely if never been done before. The comics did not cross over in their first year directly, though both series had annuals released which told a story where the common thread was the appearance of a Metrotitan, an ancient Transformer which also provided a glimpse into the early days of Cybertron – and more buildup for 2013’s Dark Cybertron event.
Transformers Regeneration 1 issue #81 cover[/size]
IDW did not stop with their rebooted ongoing series, though. Buoyed by the success of the Larry Hama-penned continuation of the original Marvel comics G.I. Joe series, Simon Furman returned to IDW to write a continuation of the original Marvel comics Transformers series, picking up where issue #80 of the original run had left off some 20 years earlier. The series took place 20 years after that issue, with the peace on Cybertron shattered, and the revelation that all was not well in the universe after all – Megatron, left behind when Spike as Fortress Maximus crashed the Ark into Earth at the end of the Generation 1 comic series, had spent the last 20 years reducing Earth to ruins. The first five issues of the rebooted series had Optimus Prime recognize this threat and confront his old nemesis in one final battle, a final battle which also settled the fate of Ratchet, who had been melded to Megatron late in the original Marvel comics run. The announcement of the series was greeted with great excitement by fans, although the more serial nature of the series attracted criticism when compared to IDW’s two ongoing series.
IDW’s Transformers comics did not end there, though, as they delved into the emerging realm of digital-first distribution with the 12 issue miniseries Transformers: Autocracy, which told the story of the earliest days of the war on Cybertron in the era immediately following Megatron: Origin but before the ascension of Orion Pax as Optimus Prime. It dealt with the corruption of the Cybertronian Senate and its leader of the time, Zeta Prime, and how both Orion Pax and Megatron stood up to the corruption, before Megatron’s ambitions led him down the path that saw him become a tyrant, and destiny reached out to Orion Pax. Each of the 12 issues was 8 pages long, with releases coming on a biweekly schedule.
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron VGA Cinematic Trailer. Uploaded to Youtube by the official Activision Transformersgame account[/size]
In August of 2012, High Moon Studios released the follow-up to their popular Transformers War for Cybertron. Transformers Fall of Cybertron carried on the origin story that began in War for Cybertron. Unlike War for Cybertron, which featured squad based play and separate Autobot and Decepticon campaigns, Fall of Cybertron featured a single campaign whose narrative switched between the two factions, and placed players in control of a series of different individual characters, including Jazz, Starscream, Grimlock, Optimus Prime and Megatron.
Fall of Cybetron’s story was a bit stronger than War for Cybertron’s had been, thanks to the shift to a single narrative, and it delivered some excellent set pieces, including giving players control of Decepticon combiner Bruticus, Grimlock (who played exactly as a mighty, lumbering brute might be expected to), and in one level where played as Optimus Prime, you were given the option to call in the huge Metroplex to assist you. Gameplay modes including a much-expanded multiplayer character customization and the Escalation horde mode also made a welcome return. Overall Fall of Cybertron was a great sequel which made many improvements over the original game, although the loss of a co-op campaign was seen as a detractor to many.
Transformers Fall of Cybertron Toys, from the Transformers Generations toyline. The San Diego Comic Con version of Bruticus is shown at the back, the Voyager Soundwave, Blaster and Grimlock in front, and in front of them, the Deluxe class releases in the series, including Starscream, Jazz, Shockwave, Kickback and the new Optimus Prime[/size]
To coincide with the launch of Fall of Cybertron, Hasbro revived the Generations toyline, this time as a dedicated Fall of Cybertron line. While it started out with Deluxes, the line expanded to include Voyagers and two-packs sold at a $10 pricepoint, called Legends. What was great about the Voyagers was that the initial release in the series was Soundwave, released immediately alongside his black redeco Soundblaster. Soundwave came with a spring-loaded auto transforming Laserbeak – a plunger on Soundwave could be used to eject Laserbeak and make him transform as he hit the ground. Up to three data disk minions could fit into Soundwave, which is where the Legends come into play – the first assortment of two-packs gave Soundwave his minions. For the first time since 1984, Soundwave was released alongside a full complement of his minions, each of whom could fit into and be ejected from Soundwave’s chest.
Hasbro then went one better on this, and the next assortment of Voyagers, released very late in the year, included Blaster. Blaster’s own minions followed in the next assortment of Legends which arrived in 2013. A Voyager class Grimlock – with light up dino mode jaw – was released in the same assortment as Blaster.
The Deluxe series, which was the meat of the Generations series, kicked off with versions of Jazz, Shockwave and Optimus Prime based on Fall of Cybertron. They were noticeably smaller and simpler toys compared to the Deluxes which had gone before, which drew the scorn of some fans. The simpler approach was a breath of fresh air after some of the extremely complicated War for Cybertron Generations designs, such as Bumblebee; that being said it was very obvious that budgets were being cut and costs were being saved.
Even so, the assortment that followed managed to give fans their first new combiner since Revenge of the Fallen Devastator. The Combaticons and their gestalt form Bruticus were first released at the San Diego Comic Con in a game-faithful deco, before they got a mass retail release in brighter colors. A Generation 2 themed deco was also made as an Amazon exclusive, complete with Generation 2 styled box. The individual Combaticons were again victims of sacrifices, this time to make them capable of transforming into robot, vehicle, arm and leg forms – but this was a full-on combiner after years of fan demand for a “true” scramble combiner, and Hasbro delivered. It’s possible that the development of this Bruticus is also the reason for the first assortment being so simplified – Hasbro’s Aaron Archer always warned that a combiner was a significant time commitment for the Transformers design team. The third assortment of 2012 Generations Deluxes included a Fall of Cybertron Starscream and Kickback, along with a Sideswipe remold of Jazz with a huge gun, a very cool Air Raid remolded from Shockwave and an Ultra Magnus version of Optimus Prime.
Transformers: Rescue Bots opening credits. Uploaded to Youtube by AeonTFP[/size]
2012 has not one but two Transformers cartoons airing on The Hub, with both Transformers Rescue Bots and Transformers Prime airing full 26 episode long seasons. Transformers Rescue Bots premiered in late 2011, with the bulk of its run airing in 2012. Its story focused around a group of four rookie Transformers, who were not warriors like Optimus Prime’s crew but non-combatants. The four – Heatwave, Chase, Blades and Boulder – were assigned to the technologically advanced community of Griffin Rock by Optimus Prime to work with the humans there and learn from them. They teamed up with the Burns family – a family of rescue and emergency workers – and helped out wherever they could to avert and resolve accidents and disasters, both natural ones and ones resulting from scientific experiments gone wrong. Along the way they picked up an arch-enemy in the form of the Dr Morocco, voiced by Tim Curry, and his Morbots.
The second season of Transformers Prime started off well, with a three part story arc titled “Orion Pax”. It dealt with the amnesiac Optimus Prime being put to work by Megatron on decrypting a database that the Decepticons looted from Iacon in the last days of the war, and using it they could discover the locations of more Cybertronian relics hidden on Earth long ago. Meanwhile the Autobots attempted to find a way to restore Optimus Prime, which came down to Jack taking a trip to Cybertron with Arcee to charge up the Key to Vector Sigma – which Optimus had passed to Jack in the season 1 finale – with the wisdom of the ancient supercomputer. The plan worked, though not without a few complications, and Optimus Prime was restored. Some fans decried the “easy fix” solution, feeling that they had been deprived of a chance for a more interesting story of Optimus relearning what it meant to be a Prime.
The majority of the rest of the season was taken up with the ongoing hunt for Cybertronian relics, which seemed to be scattered in just about every conceivable location on Earth, although it was later revealed that this was intentional since Alpha Trion knew from the Covenant of Primus, which was inscribed with future events, that the Autobots would come to Earth and took care to send the artifacts they needed to Earth.
In addition to the artifact hunt, the Decepticons got a new recruit in the form of Dreadwing, the brother of a one-off Decepticon, Skyquake, from the first season. Dreadwing’s arrival was closely followed by Airachnid defecting from the Decepticon cause – slaughtering Breakdown along the way – and seizing control of an Insecticon hive which also happened to be on Earth. Airachnid ultimately met her end, though, when she was tricked into sealing herself into a stasis pod, and she spent most of the rest of the Prime series as little more than a background detail in first the Autobots’ vault, and then later in the one on board the Decepticon ship. Shockwave was also introduced in a flashback in an episode which partly adapted events from the IDW tie-in graphic novel released in 2010.
Amid all of these plotlines, and the endless hunts for Cybertronian artifacts that were seemingly turning up under every large rock, the Autobots got some reinforcements. Wheeljack, who was first introduced in season 1, became more of a recurring character, while Elite Guard trainee Smokescreen made his debut later in the series. Smokescreen’s cavalier attitude – combined with the fact he was almost made into a Prime in season 3’s premiere arc – made him seem more like Hot Rod than any previous incarnation of Smokescreen though (much like how Wheeljack was closer to Drift than the mad scientist inventor of Generation 1). Smokescreen’s character arc led directly into the season finale, which handed the Autobots a tough choice where to save Earth, they had to destroy the best hope for reviving Cybertron. The season closed with the Decepticons locating the Autobot base and destroying it – with Optimus Prime’s heavily damaged arm left exposed from the rubble of the ruined base.
The second season of Transformers Prime was not nearly as well received as the first. The plot of the series was good at first, with several intense episodes, but around the first clip show of the season, things descended into a “hunt for the artifact of the week” setting. The show’s reliance on maintaining the status quo in the second season was also criticized – for example, Bulkhead was exposed to fatal levels of a toxic Energon variant then shot in the back for good measure in the mid-season finale. He spent a few episodes in rehab, but by the end was back in action and his illness was never brought up again. The season finale did go some way to redressing the balance, though, and got the series back on track ready for what would be the third and final series.
A Transformers Prime videogame for Nintendo Wii, WiiU, 3DS and DS was also released in 2012, which was said to run in parallel with the story of the show’s second season although trying to place exactly where is problematic. It consisted of a campaign where you took control of the five main Autobots of Team Prime and battled Megatron’s Decepticons across 13 stages, including a new villain created for this game, Thunderwing. The game recreated the feel of the show, and placed an emphasis on melee combat and on-the-fly transformations. Ranged attacks were also an option, but were less effective than melee attacks. There was also a multiplayer mode, with both Autobots and Decepticons playable – the Decepticons were unlocked as players progressed through the game.
The Transformers Prime mainline, sometimes referred to as Prime Robots in Disguise. Releases in this line included the Voyager class Megatron, Starscream, Dreadwing, Thundertron and Ultra Magnus, and the Deluxe class Ratchet, Knock Out, Soundwave, Rumble, Wheeljack, Vehicon, Arcee, Hot Shot, Airachnid and Sergeant Kup[/size]
To go with the second season of Transformers Prime, a full Transformers Prime toyline was released! The main line, branded Robots in Disguise, was almost exclusively made up of Deluxe and Voyager class releases, with a pair of Leader class Weaponizer releases coming a little later in the line. A Cyberverse series – which did away with the $14.99 pricepoint vehicle sets, in favor of larger sets with more electronics – was also release.
The Deluxe class, although not advertised on the packaging, were code-named “Revealers” in the production of the line. The “Revealer” part came from how each Deluxe toy had a mechanism that made the head pop up or otherwise reveal itself when transformed. This could be as simple as the way Wheeljack’s head was on a hinge that lowered it behind the chest in his vehicle mode, or as complex as Rumble or Soundwave’s spring loaded heads which popped into position when their chests were opened as a part of the transformation.
The Voyager class, meanwhile, were similarly dubbed “Powerizers” in the production of the line. They featured MechTech weapons which had light up elements, the idea being that they made the parts of the robots “glow” to simulate power when the light was activated. The gimmick didn’t work too well in practice, though, and criticism was leveled at the way the weapons did not lock in their deployed positions and did not look like anything when folded up.
The Prime line was something of a mixed bag in terms of releases, with some of the on-screen characters, like Breakdown and the Insecticons getting passed over for mainline toy releases in favor of non-show characters like Kup, Rumble, and Thundertron.
A series of exclusives known as the Dark Energon assortment was produced for the line. The Dark Energon series was formed of four Deluxes – First Edition Starscream and mainline Bumblebee, Knock Out and Wheeljack – and two Voyagers, Megatron and Optimus Prime. Each release was made of translucent plastic, with the Starscream looking more like a version of Skywarp and Wheeljack homaging the 1991 Action Master Slicer. The Optimus Prime also featured an alternate, faceplate-less head. The series had originally been produced as a Walmart exclusive but it ended up as an online exclusive offered through Big Bad Toy Store after Walmart backed out.
Transformers Prime Cyberverse group, including some of the characters who only got a toy in this size class in the US, like Breakdown, Tailgate and Ironhide[/size]
The Cyberverse line was a similar affair to the Dark of the Moon Cyberverse, with both Legion and Commander class offerings alongside vehicle playsets. Most of the cast was eventually released in Cyberverse in some shape or form, though Wheeljack and Knock Out in their on-screen decos were exclusively available with the playsets only. The Cyberverse line featured fewer non-show characters, too. The main gimmick of the Prime Cyberverse line was that the toys featured clear weapons – and in the Commander class, clear bodies. This was the first time that the Legion class had featured weapons. The idea was that the weapons could be combined to form larger weapons, and featured extra pegs and sockets to that end, although the resulting weapons always looked a bit silly. The two initial vehicles, Wheeljack’s Starhammer and a Decepticon Energon Driller with Knock Out, featured light up parts. The part which made the sets light up could be unplugged and attached to the translucent weapons or to the clear bits of the Commander class figures to make them light up. A nice idea in concept, although it did not really work in execution. A third vehicle was released for the line, a “Bumblebee Battle Suit” which featured Bumblebee piloting a transforming mechsuit.
Transformers Prime made its debut in Japan in 2012 as well, with the first two seasons of the show being dubbed in Japanese. As with Beast Wars and Transformers Animated, Yoshikazu Iwanami handled the dub and brought to it his trademark style of humorous dialog, fourth-wall breaking and adlibbing, all of which was to soften the show’s darker tone for its younger target audience in Japan. One of the best known changes he made was to change Airachnid from a monstrous, psychotic killer who hunted creatures for sport into an overly amorous and boy-crazy character who scoured everywhere she went for “pretty boys” to add to her collection; greatly changing the dynamic of how she related to Jack in their episodes together and why she wanted him for a trophy. Like Transformers Animated in Japan the show also had some edits made to promote the toys, this was done by the addition of sequences to the show featuring girl band Tokyo Girls’ Style, which served to impart facts on Transformers and advertise the latest toys. The shows also had sequences tacked on the end called Arms Micron Theatre, CGI sequences starring the Japan-only Arms Micron toys who acted as Targetmaster partners to the bigger Transformer robots. The addition of both these sequences meant around three minutes of footage would be cut from each episode.
Takara-Tomy’s Transformers Prime Arms Micron series offered a series of Japan-only characters in addition to Japanese market versions of US Prime toys with different accessories. Shown here are some of the main Japan-only releases including Gaia Unicron, War Breakdown and his remold Silas Breakdown, the Jet Vehicon and the Smokescreen retool of Knock Out[/size]
The Prime toys were made available in Japan as a part of the “Transformers Prime Arms Micron” series. For this series, Takara-Tomy decided to emphasize customization, and thus brought back sticker sheets for all releases. They also largely stripped out the accessories that the toys came with and instead included little model kits which could be assembled to form little robot or animal Targetmaster style sidekicks for the larger toys, named Arms Microns.
The Arms Microns resembled the signature weapons of the characters, but were a bit bigger than the accessories that came with the Hasbro releases, sometimes comically so. Both the larger toys and the Arms Microns themselves were loaded with sockets and pegs, to allow the toys to be customized with Arms Micron loadouts and to allow the individual Arms Microns to be merged into larger weapons. It was, essentially, all a giant callback to the general play pattern of the Transformers Armada line, which had worked on similar principles.
The Arms Micron series released a whole series of characters who did not get toys in the US, including Breakdown in both regular and Silas Breakdown variants, Nemesis Prime, Smokescreen as a Knock Out remold, a jet-type Vehicon trooper in both regular and elite decos, and a Unicron (named Gaia Unicron based on his Earth connection in the show). Japan even got some non-show characters in their line, including Skywarp and Thundercracker versions of the First Edition Starscream mold, an Ironhide version of the Kup mold, and both Rumble and Frenzy.
Takara-Tomy released more Transformers toys besides Transformers Prime, though. They released two more assortments of Transformers United mid-2012, dedicated to releasing an selection of molds from past Transformers lines which had never before been released in Japan. These releases included toys such as Transformers Energon Sharkticon, the 10th anniversary new molds of Optimus Primal and Megatron from 2006, Transformers Cybertron Unicron, and more recently the Transformers Generations Thunderwing, Warpath and Windcharger (who came in a two pack with a black repaint named Wipeout for Trypticon’s drone partner).
This brief continuation of the Transformers United series led to a Japanese release of the Power Core Combiners toys, under the name Transformers United EX. They had backstories written by Andrew “Hydra” Hall, which placed the era these toys occupied at the extreme far end of the Japanese Generation 1 continuity, roughly concurrent with the story of Operation Combination. All the toys sported redecos and were named “something Master”, which the pack-in fiction explained as code names while alluding to the real identities of the characters. The pack-in fiction ended on something of a cliffhanger, with the intention of a resolution being included with a future toy release or a convention exclusive – although nothing has happened, yet.
Masterpiece MP-12 Lambor, aka Sideswipe, was the first of a new generation of smaller Masterpieces based on the original 1984 Ark crew[/size]
The Masterpiece line forged ahead in 2012 with the release of MP-12, Masterpiece Lambor (aka Sideswipe), the first of the “new style” of smaller Masterpieces based on the original Generation 1 cast. Fans were shocked at first that a minor character like Sideswipe was getting the Masterpiece treatment ahead of leader type characters like Galvatron or a Megatron version 2. Most of those complaints were soon allayed once the toy arrived in the hands of fans in all his glory, carrying on the Masterpiece tradition of innovative design delivering show accurate robot and vehicle modes, and a nice, solid robot mode that had plenty of poseability to boot. A retooled Lambor, MP-14 (Red) Alert followed, since the announced MP-13, Soundwave, was delayed until 2013.
MP-12 Lambor also started a trend of Amazon Japan offering special pre-order bonuses to those ordering the Masterpiece Transformers from its site, in this case, an alternate set of piledrivers based off of one of Sideswipe’s cartoon appearances. This trend was a little divisive – an argument could be made that the parts were fun additions, or should have been included with the toys in the first place, depending on your perspective.
In the US, the Masterpiece line also moved ahead with US, Toys R Us exclusive, releases of the MP-10 Convoy and MP-11 Starscream molds, with the MP-11 Starscream released as Thundercracker in the US, creating a huge demand with both Takara-Tomy and Hasbro to finish the Seekers and release an updated Masterpiece Skywarp or indeed to release the MP-11 mold in the US as Starscream. However, this was the first time that Thundercracker had been released in the US as a Masterpiece, while both Starscream and Skywarp had previously been Walmart exclusives. The MP-10 Convoy, released in the US as Masterpiece Optimus Prime, was notable for including the trailer, which previous releases like the 20th anniversary Optimus Prime and the Masterpiece Rodimus had both omitted.
The Kre-O line continued in 2012, with new sets incorporating a few Transformers Prime elements alongside the classic Transformers ones, including the release of a Kre-O Knock Out set. The big thing for Kre-O in 2012 was the debut of the Kre-O Micro Changers. The Micro Changers were Kreons, released in blind bags, which could transform through the rearrangement of their parts. These were extremely well received when they were released late in the year and quickly became the most popular part of the Kre-O line with many collectors.
2012 also saw Hasbro introducing a new series of Transformers as a battle game. The line was called “Bot Shots” and each release featured a spring-loaded transformation and a rotating panel in their chest with three different symbols. The idea was that as the line was a battle game, the toys would be an elaborate game of rock, paper, scissors – you selected which of the three powers you wanted to use, then bumped your Bot Shot against your opponent’s. If both players chose the same symbol, then the symbol with the higher value won. The figures were in and of themselves inoffensive, cute little versions of Transformers characters, drawn from both the Generation 1 series and also the Movie series. Each assortment featured 4-5 regular releases and a chase “Super Bot” in clear plastic. A series of launchers were also made, to launch Bot Shots into battle with each other. These launchers folded up into trailers for the Bot Shots they came with, so the launcher series featured the likes of Optimus Prime and Ironhide.
The Bot Shots line would continue into 2013, adding new styles of figures that sprang up in different ways, along with simplified launcher sets. The line also incorporated the new Predacon faction from Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters and drew inspiration from the Aligned continuity. However the series failed to gain traction at retail and quietly disappeared from store shelves.
http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/attachment.php?attachme
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.