Transformers (2007 toyline)
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The 2007 film Transformers was accompanied by one of the largest product blitzes in the history of the Transformers brand. The prominence of the movie allowed Hasbro to push the toy line to new levels of complexity and diversity.
In addition to the standard "main line" figures, several sub-lines were developed. Some, such as the Fast Action Battlers and Cyber Slammers, are aimed at younger users. Others, such as Real Gear Robots and the various roleplay toys, expand on the plot and concepts of the movie. Furthermore, many stores received various exclusive redecos and multi-packs. Other markets, such as Japan and even Europe, also had their own exclusives.
Virtually all characters of the movie cast received multiple toy incarnations at various price points, from the tiny $4 Legends versions and two-for-$5 Robot Heroes PVCs up to the massive, complex, electronic $80 Ultimate Bumblebee. Given the limited number of Transformers featured in the movie, the toyline naturally contains many additional characters. Many of these are featured in alternate movie-related media, such as prequel comics and video games.
Following the success of the movie toyline, it was expanded with the AllSpark Power and Premium Series sub-lines, while the subsequent toyline, Transformers Animated, was officially pushed back from late 2007/early 2008 to July 2008.
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Toyline
Action figures ("main" line)
The main line movie figures attempt to emulate the complex, multi-faceted appearance of the screen characters, succeeding to a remarkable degree given the radical style shift. Robot modes integrate and hide their vehicle mode kibble very well, avoiding most of the parts-clearance problems seen in many "shellformer" style designs. Even non-film characters match the overall aesthetic. Most alternate forms are realistically styled contemporary Earth vehicles, many of which are licensed replicas.
The main line figures feature an above-average design complexity, packing an amazing number of moving parts into a small package. Transformations are fairly complex, and tend to capture the movie's visual spectacle of a vehicle flying apart into a thousand pieces as the robots transform. The primary gimmick of the main line is "Automorph Technology", a gimmick by which moving one piece of a toy will in turn move other pieces into their designated positions via hidden gears, furthering the parallel with the movie's visuals.
Another major aspect of the line is its heavy focus on "core cast", making sure most of the film Autobots and Decepticons were available at multiple price points, especially the budget-minded Legends size class, which was once again available at all major retailers (instead of just at specialty and convenience stores). While the newly created bots in the film were left out, the concept was represented by the Real Gear Robots. Even major human characters got toys (rare for a Transformers toyline) in the "Screen Battles" diorama sets.
Unfortunately, due to issues of vehicle mode licensing and the fact that the robot designs are the shared intellectual property of Paramount, the movie series toys were not available to be redecoed in non-film-based lines, not even as convention exclusives. (This rule would later be relaxed slightly to allow "offscreen" character molds to be used, but that's not til the next movie-based line....)
Legends Class
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 (non-US only) |  |
- Allspark Battles 2-packs
- "Allspark Battles" are two-packs that contain two Legends Class figures each. On the North American market, they replaced the Legends Class single packs in late 2007, coinciding with the launch of the AllSpark Power sub-line (see below), whereas other markets continued getting some of the toys included in these two-packs as single packs instead (see above).
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3
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Real Gear Robots
- Real Gear Robots are a sub-set based on modern (well, for the time) electronic items which convert to miniscule robots, basically a 1:1 scale line of toys.
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 |  | ||||
| Wave 5 | Wave 6 |
Deluxe Class
| Wave 1 (Movie Preview) | Wave 2
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Wave 3 | Wave 4 |  | ||||
| Wave 5 | Wave 6 | Wave 7 (AllSpark Power) | Wave 7.5 (AllSpark Power) | |||||
| Wave 8 (AllSpark Power) | Wave 9 (AllSpark Power) | Wave 10 (Premium Series) |
Screen Battles
- "Screen Battles" are minor redecos of Deluxe Class toys in more movie-accurate decos based on specific moments from the movie. They come packaged in nifty diorama boxes and include PVC figurines of both human and Transformers screen characters.
Wave 1
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Wave 2 |
Voyager Class
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 2.5 | Wave 3 |  | ||||
| Wave 4 | Wave 5 (AllSpark Power) | Wave 5.5 (AllSpark Power') | Wave 6 (Premium Series) |
Leader Class
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 (AllSpark Power) |  | ||||
| Wave 5 (AllSpark Power) | Wave 6 (Premium Series) |
Ultimate Class
- Wave 1
Fast Transformers Fun
This series is made more for the little ones, simpler, chunkier toys meant for smaller, less coordinated hands.
Cyber Stompin' Robots
- Cyber Stompin' Optimus Prime
- Cyber Stompin' Bumblebee
Wave 1
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Wave 2 | Wave 3
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Wave 4 |  | ||||
| Wave 5 |
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 |  | ||||
| Wave 5 | Wave 6 |
Role Play
| Helmets | Converting Arm Blasters | Allspark Blasters | Super Soakers
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- T.E.C.H. (Transformers Electronic Combat Hardware)
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 |  |
Plain Transformers Fun
Super-simple fun for all ages!
- Mr. Potato Head Transformers
- Yes, the famous Mr. Potato Head. This was the start of an ongoing cross-branding of one of Hasbro's longest-running toys with Transformers.
- Plush Transformers
- Are you ready for adorable? These small plush versions of the Generation 1 Optimus Prime and Bumblebee "transform" by unzipping their backs and folding them inside-out, which gives you a nice compact vehicle-mode plush!
- Robot Heroes
- The Robot Heroes are 2-inch non-transforming "super deformed" soft-plastic figurines, featuring characters from a mix of generations. While the line lasted a lot longer than the waves listed here, we're just going to focus on the stuff in specifically movie-branded packaging (even though half of those had Generation 1 characters).
Wave 1 (G1)
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Wave 2 (G1)
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Wave 3 (G1) | Wave 4 (movie)
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Wave 5 (movie)
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Wave 6 (movie)
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Collector items
- Unleashed
| Wave 1 | Turnaround (Wave 1) | Turnaround (Wave 2) | Turnaround (Wave 3)
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| Wave 1 | Wave 2 |
- Titanium Series (3")
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 |
Store exclusives
While store exclusives were certainly nothing new to Transformers by this point, the movie toyline positively blew the doors off past lines in terms of sheer numbers, both in the amount of product and in the number of outlets to get exclusives. It was pretty difficult to keep track of everything; what was a new deco, what was a plain repack, what was just-different-enough-to-make-you-mad, etc.
Of course, many of these store exclusives ended up as mass retail releases outside the US, or as exclusives to different chains (both regional and international). See individual entries for more details.
Best Buy
Yes, Best Buy the American electronics retail chain. For a brief while they dabbled in collectibles. It didn't last long, but long enough to get out a pair of Voyager molds with Premium Series level more screen-accurate, metallic paint jobs.
BJ's Wholesale Club
Costco
Kmart
Sam's Club
Target
Target was one of the biggest exclusives outlets for new-deco/significantly-changed-deco toys, with the "Robo-Vision" promotion featuring heavily early on. They were also the only American store to get "Scout" class toys, although these also saw later releases as non-exclusives in other countries.
| Scouts Wave 1
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Scouts Wave 2
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Scouts Wave 3
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Scouts Wave 4 (AllSpark Power)
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| Scouts Wave 5 (Canceled)
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| Deluxe Class
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Voyager Class
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Multi-packs
(Megatron vs Autobot Jazz) ("Classic Camaro" & "Camaro Concept" Bumblebee) (Optimus Prime vs Bonecrusher) |
(Legends movie Optimus Prime, Cybertron Optimus Prime, movie Megatron, Cybertron Megatron) (Titanium Series 3" robot, vehicle and Protoform Optimus Primes) |
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Toys"R"Us
| Voyager Class
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Ultra Class
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Multi-packs
(Legends Bumblebee, Autobot Jazz, Optimus Prime, Megatron, Barricade & Starscream) (Blackout & Scorponok) |
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Walmart
Deluxe Class assortment 1
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Deluxe Class assortment 2 | Deluxe Class assortment 3 | Real Gear Robots 2-packs
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Multi-Packs
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Sub-lines
AllSpark Power
Premium Series
Notable international variants
Even though the Movie toyline differed from previous Transformers toylines insofar as TakaraTomy's Japanese versions of the toys were almost identical to their Hasbro counterparts (as a matter of fact, the Japanese "mainline" toys even came in Hasbro packaging, with additional Japanese stickers on the packaging identifying them as the Japanese versions), there were a few genuine variants - and on top of that, one of those variants was also released in the United Kingdom, making it the first shared Japanese/European "variant" toy since red Armada Powerlinx Thrust.
UK variants
Japanese variants
International exclusives
Non-US market Legends Class single packs
Wave 4 (AllSpark Power Wave 1)
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Non-US market Hasbro multi-packs
Non-US market Hasbro "special" single packs
Japanese exclusive molds
Japanese exclusive redecos
Merchandise
Notes
- The "Scout" size class was made exclusive to Target stores for the run of the Movie toyline (although it was available as a mass retail assortment in other countries), and consisted solely of redecos of toys from the Energon and Cybertron toylines. The Animated and Universe lines didn't revisit this price point at all, but the Scout price point returned with the Revenge of the Fallen toyline, this time with entirely new molds.
- Likewise, the "Ultra" size class was originally not used during the Movie toyline's run either. Eventually, the only two "Ultra Class" releases were redecos of Cybertron toys that were exclusively available at Toys"R"Us stores. The 2008 Universe line brought the price point back as a mass retail assortment.
- The Fracture, Crankcase, and Breakaway exclusive toys were originally meant to be part of the 2008 Universe line, but Walmart insisted that they be placed into the Movie line instead (their logic being that the old Universe line eventually failed in the market, while the Movie line was a dramatic hit). The same is true for Big Daddy, Grindcore, Jolt and Divebomb, if this Hasbro product listing is any indication.
- Most—if not—all of the Target exclusive Scout Class figures were sold exclusively at Farmers in New Zealand, while the Toys"R"Us and Walmart exclusives were sold exclusively at The Warehouse.
- Although most subsequent movie toylines would expand on their film casts with various toy-only characters, the first movie franchise was notable for having almost all of these extra characters appear in ancillary fictional media. For instance, almost every toy-only character appeared in IDW Publishing's various tie-in comic series at some point, with exception of Backtrack, Mudflap, and the Real Gear Robots. Meanwhile, Titan Magazines' Transformers series focused heavily on the toy-only characters, with only a few characters from later waves never appearing in its pages. This is all in marked contrast to later lines, where expanded toy ranges or reduced fictional offerings meant many toys never really appeared in fiction.
"Drought"
For the remainder of 2007 following the movie's premiere, many fans complained of a severe toy shortage in most markets, particularly the U.S. Mainline figures had proven to be more difficult to locate at retail than in many years, if not ever. This was due to the convergence of several factors:
- The tremendous success and high profile of the movie has vastly broadened the toy-buying audience, with many more kids, adult collectors, and scalpers seeking out product.
- Major retailers such as Walmart and Target placed orders for TF movie product based on their sales records for Cybertron and Classics figures, as well as movie-related toylines in general, which tend not to do well (as the Spider-Man 3 figures still warming shelves for many months can attest).
- Unusual congestion at Chinese factories and shipping docks lengthened the time necessary to produce and ship new figures to the West.
Ironically for much of 2008, as supply began to overtake demand, the movie toys became shelf-warmers, appearing not to sell in huge numbers, and often to the detriment of shelf-space for the newer Animated and Universe toylines.
Legacy
- While previous lines had occasionally featured multiple toys of the same character in different sizes, the Movie line considerably increased their number, with nearly all characters from the primary fiction getting a multitude of toys in various sizes and with different gimmicks, many of which were released around the same time.
- The Movie line also took the concept of auto-transforming parts and sections, which had occasionally been used by a few toys from previous lines, and made it a line-wide gimmick, here named "Automorph Technology".
