I've
briefly dabbled with a couple of online checklists for this sort of purpose but,
frankly, find operating
and updating them tedious. The easiest thing,
from my point of view, would be to simply list everything I own
here, for the sake of posterity... or something.
I should emphasise that
I've never intended to own complete sets of any particular toyline - as a general rule, I only ever buy the figures I really
want - so what I'm calling 'completed sets' are simply the toylines from which I don't (
currently) intend to make any more purchases.
So, as I complete writing up groups of my collection, I'll batch together the links and add them in here for convenience.
Collectors' Boxed Sets
TransFormers Collectors' Club Exclusives
| Subscription Service |
| With the success of the G.I. Joe Collectors' Club's Subscription Service, Fun Publications decided to introduce this winning formula to the TransFormers Collectors' Club. This was a system by which you could buy a 'subscription' to premium set of exclusive toys, mailed out individually over the course of several months, or run the risk of losing out on the handful you might actually be interested or invested in, when the remaining stock was put up into the Club shop. I only bought into Series 1.0 and 4.0, but sought out two or three figures from each of the remaining years. Since most of sets were quite contentious, the secondary market tended to suffice, even though I probably ended up paying over the odds for some... Later sets became more ambitious, in theory, and even started adding bonus figures only available to those who subscribed to the full set. The final set emerged after the Club closed, but the Timelines branding had already been dropped in the penultimate set, which was branded as Combiner Wars instead. |
| Series 1.0/Timelines (2013) |
| Circuit |
Breakdown |
| Jackpot |
Scourge |
| Ultra Mammoth |
Slipstream |
| Series 2.0/Timelines (2014) |
| Chromedome & Stylor |
Barricade & Frenzy |
| Rewind |
|
| Series 4.0/Combiner Wars (2016) |
| Bluestreak |
Bludgeon |
| Impactor |
Grabuge |
|
Needlenose |
|
Spinister |
|
Windsweeper |
|
Thunder Mayhem |
| Series 5.0/Combiner Wars (2017) |
| Lifeline |
|
| SG Starscream |
|
G1 & Adjacent Continuities
| Masterpiece |
| Along with Binaltech, the Masterpiece line - and most specifically, MP01 Convoy - is most responsible for getting me back into collecting TransFormers toys. The original figure, 12 inches of awesome transforming action figure, built - like the G1 toys - with a decent amout of die-cast metal, is still a pretty impressive figure. What really sold it to me, though, was that it was first and foremost a contemporary reworking of the G1 toy, with a subtle nod to the G1 cartoon. As Masterpiece figures edged further in the direction of animation accuracy, my interest waned... so it's highly unlikely I'll get any more (unless Takara Tomy re-release Sunstreaker with the head and shin parts they gave Cordon and Spin-Out, which may convince me to acquire not just that, but Sideswipe as well) |
| MP01 Convoy |
MP03 Starscream |
| Grimlock |
MP05 Megatron |
| Rodimus Prime |
Skywarp |
| Optimus Prime (V2) |
Thundercracker |
| MP26 Road Rage |
Soundwave & Cassettes |
| Alternators, Binaltech, Etc. |
| For me, Binaltech was probably the most exciting TransFormers toyline, since it returned to the G1 ideal of real-world vehicles, continuing the G1 story in a sort of 'alternate future history' framework. Vehicle forms were now fully licensed, and additionally delivered semi-realistic vehicle interiors, including seats, dashboards, steering wheels, gear sticks and hand brakes, along with rubber tyres and, for most of the figures, 'steering' on the front wheels. A couple got spring-loaded suspension instead, like MP01, but virtually all of them had some interesting features one would normally find only on scale model cars. The robots themselves could be somewhat disappointing - their articulation awkward and limited even by contemporary standards, let alone now - and many figures were plagued by loose joints that didn't play well with the extensive use of die cast metal... but the presentation was vastly superior to Hasbro's Alternators in almost every case. Alternators, for me, was just a means of more cheaply filling out the range, where I wasn't so invested in a particular model, until it started including figures that never appeared in Binaltech. Asterisk was a somewhat disappointing and short-lived spin-off... and I suppose the less said about Kiss Players, the better. |
| BT01 Smokescreen |
BT05 Dead End |
| BT02 Lambor |
BT09 Swindle |
| BT03 Streak |
BT13 Laserwave |
| BT04 Hound |
BT17 Black Convoy |
| BT06 Tracks |
AT11 Battle Ravage |
| BT08 Meister |
AT24 Rumble |
| BT10 Grimlock |
AT24 Nemesis Prime |
| BT12 Overdrive |
AT26 Ravage (Jaguar) |
| BT14 Wheeljack |
|
| BT16 Skids |
|
| BT20 Argent Meister |
|
| AT18 Sunstreaker |
|
| AT21 Optimus Prime |
|
| BTA03 Broadblast |
|
| KP Hot Rodimus |
|
| TransFormers: Power of the Primes |
| By this point, Hasbro had agreed a 'Unification of World Brands' with Takara Tomy, which effectively brought Legends to an end and forced them to release toys in exactly the same form (packaging included) as their American counterparts. Worse still, the final chapter of the Prime Wars Trilogy presented little more than retreads of Combiner Wars and Titans Return rather than any true innovation. Individual toys were great, but the line as a whole was a disappointment. |
Prime Masters (Cloudburst & Micronus, Metalhawk & Vector Prime, Skullgrin & Leige Maximo,
Landmine & Alpha Trion, Submarauder & Alchemist Prime, Octopunch & Solus Prime,
Bludgeon & Quintus Prime, Bomb-Burst & Megatronus)
|
| Elita-1 |
Battletrap (Battleslash & Roadtrap) |
| Moonracer |
Darkwing |
| Novastar |
Dreadwind |
| Evolution Optimus Prime |
Evolution Nemesis Prime |
| Punch-Counterpunch & Prima Prime |
Evolution Rodimus Unicronus |
| Evolution Rodimus Prime |
|
| War for Cybertron: Siege |
| All hopes of something new in the toyline were cruelly dashed when Hasbro announced War for Cybertron as, essentially, just another G1 reboot. The concept sounded promising - returning to the early days of the Cybertronian civil war - but Siege indicated a disastrous misstep in that marketing. All the toys were covered with battle damage paint applications which, aside from looking terrible, would tend to indicate a war in full swing. More importantly, few of the vehicle designs took any real risks so, while the Autobots largely ended up looking like terrestrial concept cars, the Decepticons largely looked like nondescript boxes embellished with wings or weapons. The Weaponiser concept, random as it seemed at the time, unexpectedly turned out to be one of the better elements of the line, while the MicroMasters and undersized so-called Leader class figures seemed to have developed from one of my own nightmare scenarios about Hasbro's future handling of the toyline. Rarely have I been so disappointed with a new TransFormers toyline... But worse was yet to come... And I'm not even talking about the appalling Netflix series. |
| Sixgun |
Brunt |
|
Skytread |
|
Soundwave (& Spy Patrol 1) |
|
Spy Patrol 2 |
| War for Cybertron: Earthrise |
| ...Because, while Siege was almost something new, but disappointing and underachieving in the wake of the almost decade-old War for Cybertron videogames, Earthrise was nothing more than a cyncial reboot of Hasbro's own 15+ year old Classics line. A continuation of Classics/Generations might have been acceptable if it brought new toys of G1 characters who hadn't already appeared, or whose original toys were considered sub-par... but it was just another recycling job. Recycled Classics Seekers/Coneheads, upscaled with barely any improvements to their engineering; amateurish and ugly remakes whose lazy engineering paled in comparison to their predecessors; ill-considered holdovers from Siege that barely improved upon the G1 toys they were based upon; random additions from the 1986 animated movie, seemingly crossing over with the newly debuted Studio Series '86 line. Earthrise felt like a dumping ground of ideas no-one had yet been able to shoehorn into any other line. And where the toyline appeared to suggest a chapter of the story actually set on Earth, the Netflix series, when it eventually emerged, appeared to simply carry on and conclude the narrative of Siege, throwing in random characters simply because they were in the toyline, while omitting many others, and acting as little more than a bridge to the concluding chapter. |
| Cliffjumper |
|
| Optimus Prime |
|
| War for Cybertron: Kingdom |
| Kingdom fell foul of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in that, ever the optimists, Hasbro felt obliged to fill the shelves of toy shops even though no-one was actually going to toyshops, and shipping from online retailers was patchy, at best, because couriers and postal services the world over were subject to the same lockdowns as everyone else, on a per-country basis. Thus, a toyline was seemingly cobbled together from the tail end of Earthrise and a hypothetical Beast Wars Anniversary toyline that was more likely planned for release in 2021, for the 35th Anniversary. These carried over the 5mm port C.O.M.B.A.T. System, albeit inconsistently, and supplemented it with so-called F.O.S.S.I.L. Technology - that's "Fossilized Osteo-Skeletal Shield Integration Loadout", for those who absolutely insist on indulging Hasbro's ridiculous acronyms - which featured skeletal dinosaurs that... turned into robots and could be broken apart and recombined to form 'weapons' and 'armour'. For my money, these should have had their own toyline: individual toys were excellent, and the alternative combinations created by fans were truly mind-blowing... but they just didn't make any sense within the context of the TransFormers brand. Making matters worse, additional toys of key characters from the lore were turned into 'Capsule Programme' exclusives. Meanwhile, the Netflix TV show came up with a bonkers conclusion to the series that didn't even feature any Autobots or Decepticons in their Earthrise terrestrial disguises... because it was a reboot of Beast Wars with a few Siege characters thrown in. Nevertheless, I bought more toys from this chapter of War For Cybertron than I had from the two preceding lines put together. The Beastformers were decent enough, but the couple of Autobots I bought were clearly remnants of Earthrise. |
| Airazor |
Blackarachnia |
| Dinobot |
Covert Agent Ravage |
| Huffer |
Megatron (Beast) |
| Optimus Primal |
Mutant Tigatron |
| Skywarp |
Terrorsaur |
| Slammer |
|
| Tigatron |
|
Aligned Continuities
| War for Cybertron (Game) |
| Probably one of the more disappointingly short-lived toylines, with some rather poor entries and far too many repaints. Nevertheless, WfC did a decent job of representing characters from the videogame, and overall looked far better than the wider range of Fall of Cybertron toys that later made it to the shelves. The main problem with both these lines was that there was clearly no real planning behind them. The WfC wave covered the most obvious characters as Deluxe class figures, but then Soundwave was re-made as a Voyager class figure in the FoC line, to make use of the awful 'data disc' minions and their impact-based, spring-loaded auto-transform gimmick. FoC also introduced the first contemporary combiner toy, in the form of an ugly, misbegotten attempt at Bruticus. I've not played any of the games, since the my PCs are habitually underpowered and the last console I bought was a Wii (on which the games were basically on-the-rails shooters) |
| Optimus Prime |
Megatron |
| Bumblebee |
Soundwave |
| TransFormers Prime/Beast Hunters/Arms Micron/TF Go! |
| The TV show TransFormers Prime turned out to be just about the best bit of TransFormers media ever created - occasionally dark and gritty, but with lighthearted moments, without going overboard on the human angle. Without irony, the robots themselves were at their most human, with the PTSD-suffering Arcee being the standout character in my opinion, her partnership with Jack Darby driving her character arc every bit as much as her animosity toward Airachnid, and the loss of Cliffjumper in the very first episode. Not since Beast Machines has an on-screen Megatron been so single-minded, powerful and threatening, and the show's take on Starscream - constantly scheming, loyal only to himself unless outgunned - was possibly the first time the character has been portrayed as even remotely competent. While I found the final season's switch into Beast Hunters utterly incongruous and had no interest in the majority of the remolded Autobots or beastformer Decepticons, the main toyline and its spin-offs from Takara Tomy were quite compelling. |
| Arcee |
Airachnid |
| Beast Hunters Arcee |
Arms Micron War Breakdown |
| First Edition Arcee |
Dreadwing |
| First Edition Bulkhead |
Knock Out |
| Bumblebee |
Beast Hunters Knock Out |
| Ultimate Opponents Bumblebee |
Megatron |
| Cliffjumper |
Rumble |
| Arms Micron Ironhide |
TF Go! Hunter Shockwave |
| Optimus Prime |
Skyquake |
| Beast Hunters Prowl |
Arms Micron Skywarp |
| Ratchet |
Soundwave |
| Sergeant Kup |
Beast Hunters Soundwave |
| Beast Hunters Smokescreen |
TF Go! Hunter Soundwave |
| Ultra Magnus |
Starscream |
| Wheeljack |
Dark Energon Starscream |
|
First Edition Starscream |
|
Ultimate Opponents Starscream |
|
Arms Micron Thundercracker |
|
Vehicon |
|
Arms Micron Jet Vehicon |
|
Beast Hunters Ace Vehicon |
|
Beast Hunters Jet Vehicon |
|
Arms Micron Stunt Wildrider |
The Unicron Trilogy
Individual Movie Toylines
| Real Gear Robots |
| While released alongside the original 2007 movie toyline, in packaging branded in the same style as those movie toys, Real Gear Robots was only tangentially related thanks to the writers' decision to claim that reverse-engineering Megatron was responsible for all modern technology, as illustrated by Nokia-bot and the whole host of machines set off by a wave of AllSpark energy when Sam dropped the cube during the final battle. The toys had originally been conceived as part of the 2004/2005 Cybertron toyline, explaining why several 'display screen' stickers featured characters from that toyline. As a result, their aesthetic really didn't fit the movie toylines, even though their chosen device disguises were ideal. Transformations were invariably simplistic, and robot modes were often lacking but, overall, it was a fun, kid-oriented toyline, and most molds got repurposed so that there was at least one Autobot and Decepticon version of each... Not that I stuck with the line that long... |
| High Score 100 |
Booster X10 |
| Longview |
Power Up VT6 |
| Night Beat 7 |
Spyshot 6 |
| Speed Dial 800 |
Zoom Out 25X |
| TransFormers |
| The original movie's toyline required - and, for the time, delivered - a quantum leap in toy engineering. While just about everything was vastly improved by the 2009 Revenge of the Fallen toyline, what Hasbro/Takara Tomy delivered for the first movie was nothing short of stunning, particularly when one considers that they only had access to two-dimensional pre-production concept art rather than any finished CGI. In retrospect, some of the toys may seem overly simplistic and underachieving - and, certainly, the Leader class toys were all overburdened by the 'electronic lights and sounds' features that were requisite at the time - but the 'Automorph' gimmick, basic and glitchy though it was, was a mind-blowing milestone in the toy franchise. The small cast of (robot) characters was bolstered by toys developed from both unused concept art and robots created for the tie-in videogame... as well as several repaints of toys from previous, non-movie toylines, to mixed effect. |
| War of the Waves 2-pack (Air Raid vs. Storm Surge, Universe branded) |
| Arcee |
Barricade |
| Arcee (G1 Colour) |
Blackout |
| Arcee Black Version |
Bonecrusher |
| Arcee (Scout class) |
Brawl |
| Bumblebee ('76 Camaro) |
Dropkick |
| Bumblebee (Concept Camaro) |
Frenzy (Fast Action Battler) |
| Cliffjumper |
Fracture (KO) |
| Elita-1 (Scout class) |
Hardtop |
| Ironhide |
Megatron |
| Jazz |
Payload |
| Jazz (G1 Colour) |
Scorponok |
| Final Battle Jazz |
Deep Space Starscream |
| Landmine |
Stockade |
| Longarm |
Thundercracker |
| Optimus Prime |
Wreckage |
| Ratchet |
|
| Rescue Ratchet |
|
| Signal Flare |
|
| Strongarm |
|
| TransFormers 4 - Age of Extinction |
| And from my favourite to my least favourite (though only because I never bothered to see The Last Knight), Age of Extinction was an incoherent mess of too many ideas with not enough thought to tie them together. International travel, Dinobots, robot designs that couldn't possibly be turned into effective toys, and way too many new human characters of little or no consequence. The toyline was even smaller than that of the previous movie - almost as if Hasbro had lost confidence in the movie brand, or were trying to distance themselves from it - with very few highlights. |
| Bumblebee Evolution 2-pack |
Lockdown |
| High Octane Bumblebee |
|
| Crosshairs |
|
| Drift |
|
| Hound |
|
| Evasion Mode Optimus Prime |
|
| TransFormers 5 - The Last Knight |
| While I've yet to see the whole movie, I feel like I've seen enough of it in clips on YouTube to know that it's every bit the incoherent mess that Age of Extinction was, or perhaps worse. By all accounts, some interesting stuff ended up on the cutting room floor (not least Cogman demonstrating his HeadMaster function), while the toyline was the smallest and most underachieving movie line to date. Granted, it's possible Hasbro wanted to hold some stuff back for Studio Series, but what little they released under TLK branding really wasn't that good. The best figures have come from Third Parties, in the form of either upscaled reworkings of Hasbro's molds, or wholly new figures at approximately Masterpiece scale. |
| Cogman |
Barricade |
| Hot Rod |
Berserker |
| Optimus Prime |
Megatron |
|
Nitro |
Standalone Continuities
| Alternity |
| Loosely associated with Binaltech via its bonkers storyline, Alternity carried on the pattern of licensed vehicle modes and die-cast metal parts, but at Takara Tomy's original preferred scale for Binaltech. Disappointing in the end, as the engineering was a little too ambitious for the size and materials, and because there were far too many repaints of a small number of figures, but an interesting diversion nonetheless. |
| Bumblebee |
Megatron |
| Cliffjumper |
Skywarp |
| Convoy |
Starscream |
|
Thundercracker |
| Street Fighter II x TransFormers |
| Clearly the fever-dream of a Capcom fan at Takara Tomy or a TransFormers fan at Capcom, this bonkers crossover line appeared suddenly and with little fanfare, and appears to be limited to four characters across two twin packs - two Voyager class repaints in one, two Deluxes in the other - made out of Titans Return/TF Legends repaints. |
| Arcee [Chun Li] |
Megatron [Vega] |
| Convoy [Ryu] |
|
| Hot Rodimus [Ken] |
|
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