Transformers Animated (toyline)
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The Transformers Animated toyline was a radical departure from previous Transformers lines. It merged the more expressive design style of the accompanying cartoon with the advanced engineering that had been evolving over the course of the line to produce a series quite unlike anything seen before (or since).
Hasbro, citing the strength of the movie toyline, postponed the official release of the Animated toyline to June 22, 2008 in the US, letting the cartoon get kids (and collectors) hungry for toys of the on-screen characters. However, some toys began showing up at retailers in the Cincinnati area to coincide with BotCon, followed by wider releases in Canada in May and the U.S. shortly thereafter.
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Overview
Unlike the franchises immediately before it, Animated has no overarching, line-wide extra play gimmick, such as Mini-Cons or Cyber Planet Keys. Rather, the line got back to basics, as transforming is the gimmick, and the toys have other special features unique and appropriate to the character (such as triple-changing or interchangeable tools). Like the concurrent live-action film toyline, there was a heavy focus on keeping the small core cast —especially the Autobots— available at multiple price points and complexities to get them in as many kids' hands as possible.
The line's other primary feature is in its synergy with the accompanying cartoon. Where the previous two decades of Transformers had the toys made first then translated to media, and the movie toyline was tasked with creating toys of intricately-complex characters that were not designed to be toys, the Animated line was a previously-unprecedented level of collaboration between toymaker and media-maker. Hasbro designers, the Cartoon Network design team, and TakaraTomy engineers all worked closely together out of the gate to make sure toy and show-character were as close as possible, to the point where even the characters' transformation schemes were consistent between 2D media and 3D toy (such as Bumblebee's breakdancing-like spin-kick from car to robot mode).
This design consistency translated into sculpts with more swooping arcs and softer edges, following head character designer Derrick Wyatt's love of "rounded squares and squared rounds"... with some obvious concessions for physics (wheels, for example, kind of had to be nigh-perfect circles to function). Default stances leaned towards the superheroic, with bulky chests jutting out with broad shoulders and large arms. The color choices (at least for the Hasbro line) were also carefully chosen so the toys would have a more "matte" finish rather than the shinier plastic of past lines, making them look even more like cel-animated characters come to life. Character faces were given much more expression than the default "neutral" non-expression of most Transformers lines, with large eyes, smirks, snarls and more as appropriate to the general attitude of the character.
Of course, such a radical shift in style brought its share of detractors, especially given that the movie had its own out-there interpretation of the robots in disguise... despite the existence of a currently-running older-fan-aimed toyline dedicated to recreating Generation 1 characters in modern forms.
The line was a success, bolstered by its Cartoon Network collaboration. However, it was ultimately cut short, with many toys in the prototype stage intended to tie in with the show's fourth season. A combination of the runaway success of the movie line, mixed with (reported) issues between Hasbro and Cartoon Network —with Hasbro seemingly keen to have its own media outlet it had more control over— brought the line to an end.
Hasbro Animated toyline
General retail
Deluxe Class
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 |  | ||||
| Wave 5 | Wave 6 | Wave 7 | Canceled |
Voyager Class
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 |  | ||||
| Wave 5 | Wave 6 | Canceled (TakTom release) | Totally canceled |
Leader Class
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 |  |
Supreme Class
- Wave 1
Entertainment Packs
Wave 1
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Wave 2 |  |
Activators
The Activators toys are chunkier, simpler, Scout-class-sized toys with one-touch, spring-loaded autotransformations.
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 |  | ||||
| Wave 5 | Wave 6 | Wave 7 | Canceled |
Bumper Battlers
An expansion on the "Cyber Slammers" subline from the 2007 live-action movie toyline, Bumper Battlers feature "bump-and-transform" action. Hitting the front bumper causes the toy to change into robot mode, and pressing the toy's sigil activates sound effects and speech gimmicks.
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 |  | ||||
| Wave 5 (non-US) | Canceled
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Power Bots
Giant chunk non-transforming action figures with electronic gimmickry.
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 |
Exclusives
Target/Zellers
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Toys"R"Us
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Walmart
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McDonald's Happy Meal toys
North America/Europe
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Latin America |
TakaraTomy Animated toyline
Beginning in 2010, TakaraTomy's release of the Animated toy line consists of most of the same toys released in Western markets by Hasbro. Early waves gave the toys extremely shiny metallic paintjobs that actually made them less screen-accurate (and not necessarily more intricate paintjobs at that), but later waves eventually dropped that in favor of the usual assortment of small paint operation changes... though some of those changes did involve shiny paint, so...
Standard retail
Exclusives & prizes
| Apita | Family Mart
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Hyper Hobby Magazine |  | |||||
| Ito Yokado | JUSCO | Kadokawa Shoten Publishing | Million Publishing | |||||
| Seibu | Tokyo Toy Show | Toys"R"Us | ||||||
| Multiple outlets |
Post-Animated releases
Even after the original Animated toyline ended, several toys of Animated characters old and new were released in other Transformers lines.
- Hasbro releases
Transformers (2007)
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Universe (2008) | Kre-O | Legacy |  |
- Hasbro via Fun Publications
| Transformers Collectors' Club | BotCon 2011
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Figure Subscription Service |  | ||||
BotCon 2015
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- TakaraTomy releases
Transformers (2010)
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Legends |  |
