Activation Number Transformers Toys

Learn about Transformers® with with realtime toy price. Transformers: Cybertron brought the. Which could be inserted into the figure to activate some spring. Like Hasbro's toys we, too, have been created to be genuine transformers. To stay in active service, we need (somehow) to say to our spiritual man: “Transformer activate!” whenever. Fortunately, no matter how we come, whether it is polite or pressured, He loves us and welcomes us and activates us!

Hasbro wasn't quite sure whether to advertise this expensive toy until the fans forced their hand. To understand Transformers fiction, it is important to understand that it exists to sell toys. And are toy companies, and they are primarily interested in continuing to sell to children and adults. The cartoons, comic books, etc., mostly exist to make this happen. To be sure, they normally, but this is regarded as mere gravy. The 'to sell toys' effect often distorts the fiction in interesting ways. Primarily, since you can't () sell someone the same toy twice, Hasbro and Takara constantly introduce new toys, and often require the creators of the fiction to introduce the new characters into ongoing storylines.

Older characters (whose toys are no longer being sold) are shoved aside to make room. Another effect of 'to sell toys' is when the toys have gimmicks which must be explained in the fiction.

Sometimes () this is relatively easy, while other times it requires a lot of imagination on the part of the writers (the in-comic explanations for the and are kinda wonky). The UK took this to more blatant heights. For its first year, it had a specific four-page feature every week called Top Gear, which existed solely to promote the newest Transformers merchandise. Any merchandise.

This led to readers being told how great was. For, opened letters pages by telling readers how awesome the game was and how should buy it. “ Truly, I'm speechless. Your species characterizes the infinite wonders of the churning, whorling, chaotic cosmos through the lens of. I can see why Swindle loves you idiots.

” — on the concept,. Hasbro makes a lot of toys at once, and they generally want all of them to appear in their fiction.

This can force writers to bring in vast numbers of characters all at once, sometimes with awkward results. Examples include: • The first issue of the, ', in which twenty-eight different robots appeared and introduced themselves, even though only a handful are important to the plot.

• ', a free mini-comic given away with issue of the, notoriously introduces the reader to twenty-four new Transformers in just three pages. Granted, four of those are the of the other twenty, but that's still a lot of new names to remember.

• The 1987 Limited Series, which introduced over sixty characters in the course of four issues, including all the first waves of and, all their partners, the,, and. • The cartoon episode trilogy ' likewise abruptly introduced well over forty of the 1987 toyline characters, mostly the same ones seen in Headmasters.

• In the first four episodes of, eighteen characters are introduced in quick succession. • From #9 onwards, heavily bumped up the cast with new toys. In one example, #17 brought in nine new toys in eleven pages; only one of the five Decepticons got any real focus or dialogue. Random casting The Hasbro-induced need to show all the toys can also cause stories to suddenly focus on a new character, sometimes dropping ongoing plot threads about older ones. Examples include: • Season 2 of the cartoon introduced many new characters/buyable toys with no explanation; despite never having been seen before, the story treats them as though they have. Apparently, the Triggerbots didn't make much of an impression on Prime. • The comic issue ' suddenly introduces a dozen Autobots and Decepticons that we've never met before, and follows their adventures.

The story adds nothing to the long-range plot that couldn't have been accomplished by using existing characters; these teams were added to the mix to promote their new toys. • Many issues of the had cover blurbs in the form 'Introducing the _______!' , where the blank was whatever the latest line of toys was. The following issues specifically introduce new toys on the cover:,,,,,,,,,,, and. Throw in a few covers where new characters were pictured but not named, and that's 1/5th of the series.

• In of the Marvel comics, when decides that he needs help in dealing with 's inept leadership, he doesn't turn to any of the dozens of Autobots aboard the, which include two combiner teams and Omega Supreme. No, he has to call in his 'old buddy'/new toy,. • In the prelude to the, and were the lead characters in a story set before the Transformers came to. But rather than palling around with the likes of Jazz or Soundwave, they are instead shown alongside the newest 'gimmick' characters, the and the. • planned to use in Beast Wars, but appeared instead because he had an upcoming toy, and to save money as his CGI model was only a slight tweak of 's.

• Rather than revealing stuff about the and, a long-running subplot, ' spends much of its time telling us how great is and how we should buy his toy. • Material released by both and tends to release characters from various series and continuities and then write stories featuring every character (usually with a particular focus on that year's box set), which often leads to some bizarre casting choices.,, and were all retroactively added to and because they wanted to do toys of them that year. The version of is introduced from nowhere, has minimal characterization, and doesn't do anything, because they wanted to do in / colors. And pretty much every story taking place in the, ostensibly a -based series, will introduce or reintroduce characters who were dead (the various casualties), not even implied in the original stories (, ), or (). Sometimes this gets a token justification, other times not.

• The of stops following the regular cast so it can flag the awesome cool out-now-in-shops toy. • Prominent generals in Decepticon army change frequently and without any acknowledgment as new toys jostle for (and gain) space.

• and its lead-ins were packed with toys, so suddenly Beast Wars characters and are in G1. Things got worse in later issues when and needed a comic; Tankor berates Starscream for a few panels in, while Crosscut and briefly halt the plot in to tell you who Crosscut is. Then he vanishes. They've started getting an increased role in IDW fiction ever since, though. • For ', several Autobots had to abruptly depart the for Cybertron so they could appear in their combiner teams.

In the case of, this was despite him having just become the Chief Medical Officer: a long-running plot! Limited casting On the opposite side of things, Hasbro doesn't want to pay to depict characters that aren't selling toys. This can force a story, particularly an animated cartoon, to have a smaller cast than it otherwise might. The full might of the Decepticon army. • The early episodes of featured only the toys available on the shelves. This resulted in two ridiculously small teams going to for the all-important mission of gathering Mini-Cons, rather inexplicable in story terms. • and suffered exactly the same problem, but it gets worse: reused models of older Transformers as background guys to bump numbers up.

The comics didn't. So Megatron apparently conquers all of planet Cybertron with an army of three guys, whereas the city/planet defending Autobots are just five blokes. • Dreamwave would also, where the only Autobot who seemed to exist was. • For, IDW got around this by deciding that was going to be a instead of one guy, allowing for really big battle scenes despite a then-limited number of toys.

(It would later turn out there was also a Dreadwing who was one guy.) Titan Magazines would borrow this, and turn other Decepticons into drone series too. • It seems unlikely that four bots and their human partners would be sufficient to handle every emergency on, but those four bots (other than and, who were needed ), so they were the ones who went into. As the toyline expanded, toy characters Blurr, Salvage, High Tide and Quickshadow were introduced into the cast. Plot Forced explication. Reflector is actually here, he's just buried underneath a pile of speech bubbles. • Again, has two huge splash pages in which 28 characters do nothing but stand around and tell each other who they are and what they can do.

• The two-part Generation 1 cartoon episode ' features many new 1985 characters getting their own short little introductory scene, often with a characteristic bit of self-description (: 'I'd rather stay in my stunning auto mode!' : 'I'm always ready for action!' : 'Wow, like, I hope we don't destroy this place before we can study it!' ) • ' has three different sequences in which large new groups of characters form a lineup and introduce themselves to viewers one after another. Strangely enough, much of this screen- and dialogue-time is given over to Nebulan partners; the 'main' Transformer characters get no such introductions, even though they are the items kids would have to purchase to acquire the Nebulan accessories. For instance,,, and (all speaking characters) are introduced by name as part of various lineups, but their in-store hosts,, and are never named (and Weirdwolf never even speaks).

• ' has the Maximals walk on one-by-one admiring their, loudly explaining their names and showing character traits. This also gives the impression they deliberately changed their names to fit these new beast modes for no apparent reason. • Crosscut and Swerve fill in Crosscut's backstory and job during a fight.

That's all Crosscut does in. Gimmicks When the toys can do something special, fiction writers must often go out of their way to show the gimmick in action. • The Headmaster gimmick got devoted to it.

• The comic issue ' features proudly creating the, gloating that they will hide the Decepticons' identities from the Autobots 'until it is too late'. Not only does the plan not actually work, it's also a plot point with absolutely zero lead-in or build-up—at no point has Scorponok ever expressed concern about his troops being detected by the Autobots, and we've never even met the Pretender characters before.

It was brought about solely because the new toys had to be jammed into the story. (The, uh, story of returning Optimus Prime's character to the comic book because he had.) • made their debut in ', and both here and in subsequent Generation 2 issues would primarily fight enemies not with guns like everyone else, but by firing their giant rotors at them. Page 3 of New Dawn actually shows them having to stop and reattach their rotors before they can carry on fighting.

• The had six alternate modes and really wanted you to see them, which is why is as a giant hand for no reason. It gets sillier when he turns into Galvatron and gains four more modes.

In ', he turns into his 'Iron Mammoth' form when facing off against even though he doesn't do anything in his form except stand there as he was already doing. • and are the only Autobot jets in the Animated line.

(Not counting the toyless.) To fully big this up, their origin story has it that there have never been any flying Autobots before, despite them having been in (and won) a long and bitter war with enemies who often fly. • The second season of the 2015 cartoon coincided with the release of the toys, which fire smaller figures.

Suddenly, every Decepticon in the cartoon was partnered with a Mini-Con or two, even Decepticons who'd appeared in the past as solo operatives. The, noted for its gimmicks in all three toylines, was particularly notorious in this regard: • The quest for power-enhancing practically defined the plot of the cartoon, with both factions out to recruit or capture all the Mini-Cons. • is shown again and again and again in, despite having comparatively little relevance to most episode plotlines. In fact, due to the fact much of Energon's action was firefights, Powerlinxing seemed to be a disadvantage, since it resulted in a single larger Autobot shooting instead of two smaller ones. • powerups are likewise shown repeatedly in.

In this case, while most characters had basic weapons, the Cyber Keys were necessary to unlock hidden weaponry or special techniques. So, for example, Optimus might be able to shoot at the Decepticons with a smaller firearm, but to fire his larger cannons he would need to summon his Cyber Key. Some characters, however, needed their Cyber Keys to activate what one would expect to be their main weapons (e.g. Starscream activating his Null Ray Cannon). • All three series were also marked by lengthy transformation sequences which highlighted the gimmicks in very toy-accurate animation (and also made production cheaper, thanks to ). Strange developments Shoehorning loads of new characters with new powers can compel the writers to do things with the plot that, in all probability, they otherwise wouldn't.

• Marvel UK had to promote the toys before they knew how they'd be appearing in the US reprints. To get around this, wrote a story arc titled ', where, Optimus and watched an advert saw a Matrix-induced vision of the Special Teams in action.

These events were previewed in 'The Special Teams Have Arrived', nine issues earlier, with no indication that they were part of a vision, making their place in continuity uncertain. • In the US Marvel comics, the simultaneous introduction of the and and the introduction of the Pretenders both saw a lot of rigamarole involved in explaining why both the Autobots and the Decepticons had new members with identical numbers/gimmicks at the same time.

• Season 3 of the almost completely ignored the characters of the previous two seasons that were no longer on toy shelves. The 1985 Autobot cars, for example, are not seen at all. And the 1985 Mini-Vehicles, by contrast, show up now and again, as their toys were still shipping. Even Starscream, who was dead, managed to get a couple of Season 3 episodes all to himself; again, his toy sold through 1986. • was absolutely crazy about this. (whose toy was long gone) kicks the bucket only three episodes in for the sake of a sacrifice that would be nullified only a few episodes later, putting new(er) toy back in the command chair for a short while.

In the tenth episode, Rodimus departs the series and hands the title of Supreme Commander to brand-spanking-new toy, who's had a few months, tops, of combat experience. Much like Season 3, Headmasters also ignored most of the Season 3 regulars (,, the, the ) or removed them altogether, sometimes fairly dubiously ( and leave with Rodimus, gets shot a bit and dies, is buried in ice and nobody digs him up until ). By the end of the series, the only remaining Autobots from the first three seasons were the, and his cassettes,,, and. • wrote an entire story devoted to Optimus sternly explaining which Autobots and Decepticons were on sale in in 1989.

The reason he had to? Had shot an Autobot! • The first thirteen issues of the comic were focused around the Mini-Cons, with plots often revolving around their desire to be seen as equals and not be enslaved. Then without any prior set-up, the last five issues turn into a dimension-spanning battle against —who had just had a new and expensive toy. • debuts in ', where he's the reason the Predacons lose their base and is killed. This disrupts any ending for the Tarantulas/ storyline, as the episode is left with little time to properly explain the mysteries of either character and the plot of last episode, Tarantulas trying to destroy the whole Ark, is reduced to two lines about the.

Upgrades are bad. Upgrades are GOOD. We have always been at war with Eurasia Eastasia. • ' has learn not to use upgrades, and he gives up using powerful samurai armour. But whoops, Hasbro thought 'hey, we could make a toy out of that armour'!

And so in, Prowl regains it and the show hurriedly claims that the upgrade is fine now because Prowl realizes now that it's the Autobot, not the upgrade. • The decided to be good sports and start using propeller-driven nuclear bombers again in, just so could be used. • has been on Earth for a while, in hiding from other Decepticons while he waits for orders from in '.

Ransack is a member of a race that can scan any object and take its form as a disguise. Ransack moves around in the cunning disguise of a 100-year-old plane. (At least, unlike the previous example, the oldness of the alt mode was pointed out.) • In Titan's Revenge of the Fallen comic, and go from being responsibility to bugging to being responsibility in the space of three issues, all to allow each issue to focus on a specific toy-bearing movie star. Similarly, only one or two Decepticons per issue are sent on a mission, when presumably the Fallen might want to send loads of guys to silence the twins. • In Dark of the Moon, nearly all of the Transformers switch from built-in weaponry to handheld weaponry. It just so happens that the gimmick of the Dark of the Moon toys was that they had 'MechTech' weapons that could be held by any other figure. • Also in Dark of the Moon, most Autobots have a strange tendency to transform into a weaponized vehicle mode that allows them to access various weapons in their otherwise defenseless disguises, an incredibly useful combat mode that's never used in any prior or later films.

On an unrelated note, there was an accompanying sub-series of figures and videogames called which revolved around the characters being able to transform into a weaponized vehicle mode that allows them to access various weapons in their otherwise defenseless disguises. • The of the was the line, which took hold at about the time of the 's third season, which was given the subtitle of the imprint.

In the episode ', awkwardly redubs as the 'Beast Hunters', when they begin looking for Predacon fossils. The Autobots must've felt the same way as we did about the sudden name change, since really only the protocol-obsessed begins using the term.

Thanks to behind the scene troubles and the whole concept being a late addition to the series, the team never actually hunts any beasts, as only three Predacons ever take a central role in the story. • The for the Generations line from 2015 to 2016 was, hence IDW's tie-in comic had to introduce a heapload of combiners in a universe that regarded combination as a lost art with unpredictable side-effects. (Devastator, Menasor, Superion, and Monstructor were around, but they had each been introduced separately, and each with their own unique explanations, over the course of ten years.) Enter the, an artifact of Nexus Prime with the power to merge any Transformers into a combiner.

Not only is this artifact used on Superion, Menasor, and Defensor, it is also used on Optimus Prime and other selected Autobots to create. The fact that Optimus had two Combiner Wars toys (one released, one upcoming at the time of the story's publication) might have influenced this decision. • Also, the big toy of 2015 was a Titan Class Devastator. In his classic configuration instead of IDW's newly introduced 'Prowlastator' form. Unfortunately, Scrapper had been long dead and hence was unable to take his spot as the combiner's leg. However, IDW had another bulldozer-bot conveniently lying around -.

Naturally, he was merged with the other Constructicons by the aforementioned Enigma, restoring Devastator's classic silhouette. • Prior to Combiner Wars, the comic had dropped hints that forming Devastator was taking a heavy toll on Prowl's mind and body, and his unconscious references to 'Scrapper' seemed to hint at something greater going on in his psyche. Come Combiner Wars, 'Prowlastator' was quickly written out, leaving this plot thread dangling. • In a follow-up story, Galvatron creates two combiners out of random soldiers and foes. To plug the new merch, these are called and but most of the characters that made them up in toy form were either on Cybertron, the, or dead at the time. Unusually for this page, Hasbro allowed IDW to use random limbs as long as the names were right but this leads to the comic pimping a toy you can't buy (though you could make it with others), and in Galvatronus' case a toy that doesn't even have the same face as in the comic. • The first wave of Titans Return Voyagers had Sentinel Prime.

Lo and behold, the last two issues of Robots in Disguise and More Than Meets The Eye revolve around Sentinel Prime suddenly coming back from the dead after four million years, with absolutely no buildup beforehand, menacing everyone a little, then getting dropped down a very big hole, never to be spoken of again. • A Titans Return Orion Pax toy was announced as an exclusive two-pack.

The accompanying IDW fiction, however, has only Optimus Prime. Until Team Rodimus takes an unexpected visit to the and (accidentally) leaves Megatron there. As Megatron completes a speaking tour, a voice comes through his communicator. The voice of Orion Pax!

Awkward continuity. This happened. Look just buy the toys, ok?! Sometimes the requirement to feature new toys can be so strong that continuity takes a major backseat and stories are produced that feature combinations of characters that make the story very difficult to slot into the main continuity. The Marvel UK comic was especially prone to this as it could not always foresee where, when and how characters would be introduced: • The contains many stories featuring toys from the 1985 release long before they were formally introduced in the regular comic, often interacting with other characters who would be out of action by then.

As a result, few of the stories easily fit the continuity of the weekly comic. • The demands of Hasbro UK for the and to be featured heavily even before the US mini-series was available meant that both the and the regular strip ' contain a slightly different set of events that are at odds with the mini-series. • The requirement to give prominence to the rereleased toys in the range resulted in one of the biggest continuity trainwrecks of all,. Over two decades later fans are still uncertain where it fits in continuity, and even admits to being unsure. • Germany's started in 1989 and reprinted older Marvel US and UK strips. Since, of course, these would rarely show the current toys, Comic-Magazin ran text stories from #2 that showcased completely different Transformers that were on Earth at the same time, and just happened not to be seen in the strips.

• Trapped between the need to pimp toys and the problem of not knowing what the plot of Revenge of the Fallen would be, Titan just threw up their hands and unambiguously set their lead strip in. • Based on evidence from various sources, it's been speculated that the episode ' was originally meant to star, who at the time had been exiled from the Decepticons and was on somewhat friendly terms with the Autobots. Instead, his role was taken over by new toy.

The only other episode to prominently feature Octane, ', which was aired after 'Starscream's Ghost', kinda sorta explains his falling out with the Decepticons—except it doesn't: While said episode does have him go rogue, not only is he still a bad guy—by the end of that episode, Galvatron is no longer on bad terms with Octane! Likewise, the episode ' starred, Starscream and Thrust, with Astrotrain (a new toy at the time) taking on a leadership role more akin to Megatron rather than the bus he's reduced to in almost every other episode. • The Japanese broadcast of Animated outright skipped ' and ', as they largely revolve around the toy-less and. Meanwhile, ' was moved up to be the first episode to air after the pilot to promote Soundwave's toys, which is at odds with continuity since Megatron only came back online during ', which was pushed to air after 'Sound and Fury.' Power levels In order to make new characters seem more totally awesome, they're often depicted as ultra-powerful in their initial appearances. Once they become old news, they frequently seem to lose their super-charged abilities. • The Generation 1 cartoon introduced as the ultimate threat.

Once newer combiner teams came along, however, he was less of a threat, easily defeated at various times by, and even. Buzzsaw reminds Omega Supreme he's not a new toy any more. • The Marvel comics feature as nigh-invulnerable and ultimately powerful in, slaughtering all but two of the Decepticon forces sent to attack him. Just, he's getting his butt handed to him by the likes of, one of his original victims. • was, amazingly, something of a threat in early episodes; he holds his own against in his debut. He only became significantly weaker than the other Predacons during the second season. • In her first appearance on the Beast Wars cartoon, effortlessly blasts to pieces.

She never displays such a level of power again. • Similarly, was presented as a huge threat when he first appeared, but just a few episodes later, he seems just slightly tougher than the average Predacon (save for a few notable occasions).

• was actually a credible threat for his first couple of episodes. • The were far more powerful and competent than the Predacons, who were made even less powerful and competent as episodes went on. Remarkably, this was actually used in the plot, with Megatron focusing on the new toys while the Predacons became underdogs trying to get their old status back and one-up the new guys. Before he shrank in the wash. • Any new toy character in the Unicron Trilogy cartoons is almost guaranteed to win the day's battle. • was a staggering behemoth as big as the sky in his introduction, and his ability to combine with Megatron gave the battle advantage to the Decepticons until his equally powerful counterpart was introduced.

By the time of the Energon cartoon, Tidal Wave is just this tall guy (but not as tall as he used to be) and is treated as just another Decepticon, even after he gets a body upgrade in the form of 'Mirage'. • When the newly redecoed Jetfire and combine in Dreamwave's Armada comic, they are so powerful they can hurt Unicron himself. • ruler was incredibly powerful when he was first introduced, but later on, he's getting slaps on the wrist by and, and schooled by, ultimately becoming more of a sympathetic comedic bumbler than a credible threat. • The Decepticons in Animated started off as being so horrifically powerful that the entire Autobot team had to take on a single one.

By Season 3, this no longer happens. Uniquely, this was deliberate by the writers: they wanted to show the Decepticons as supreme threats, and have the Autobots gradually being better at dealing with them. • The in Prime started off pretty tough; easily wearing down in a group, then just two giving and a tough time. In the next episode, they've got Stormtrooper aim, and basically exist to give the Autobots someone to kill while saving the named Decepticons from the scrapheap. It gets to the point where in the third season, actually counts on the Vehicons failing to execute, and Wheeljack makes several amusing comments about the Vehicons' incompetence. • Additionally, the started off as nightmarishly strong monsters.

One wears to the point of exhaustion before dying (admittedly, Megs was deprived of his main asset when Airachnid webbed his fusion cannon). However, for the remainder of the series, the Insecticons are just as weak as the Vehicons, being blasted down in one shot, despite a return to form in and (the latter of which saw the debut of notorious Autobot killer ). New bodies There's rarely a compelling reason for a Transformer to get a brand-new body in fiction; it's simply to promote a new toy.

It has become a default way to keep a popular character on shelves, rather than having to kill them off and introduce a new character to keep moving toys. Sometimes fiction writers are able to work these alterations in elegantly. Sometimes not. Ratchet pulls a Kitty Pryde on Bumblebee. • was rebuilt into Goldbug following his near-destruction. And was later re-rebuilt back into Bumblebee to sell the. The reason given in was that reverted him without his consent because Ratchet liked his old form better, something Bumblebee is strangely fine with.

• Season 2 of introduced the new toys in short order, requiring some strange sci-fi waffling to explain why members of both teams suddenly got special new bodies. The writers had originally planned to introduce these changes gradually, across the length of Season 2, but Hasbro ordered them to be brought in immediately. (The slow-and-gradual notion would eventually appear during Season 3.) • The cartoons feature getting recolored and renamed 'Galvatron' three times; at the start of each subsequent series, he's given a different body but called Megatron again, because the name 'Megatron' just sells more toys. (This also means Hasbro gets to keep the 'Galvatron'.) The Japanese versions handled this differently (with Megatron known as Megatron throughout Armada even after his upgrade, and being known as Galvatron throughout all of Energon) due to different trademark laws.

Galaxy Force (the Japanese version of Cybertron) played it straight with Master Megatron being upgraded into Master Galvatron. • Several times during the Unicron Trilogy, characters get new paint jobs as part of some magical power-up enhancement. These new color schemes exist solely to promote redecorated toys like ' or '.

Even the comics got in on the action, introducing the redecorated versions of Jetfire and Optimus during the Unicron arc. • The three future members of the get shot up by Megatron, then transmogrify through the power of into new forms. These new forms, of course, were just hitting shelves at a toy store near you. • In the course of the, gets irritated at a slight against his alternate mode, and scans a new form. Voila, suddenly he's got two toys on the shelf! He later pulls the exact same thing in, but by now, he's been established as having a fragile ego, explaining the constant desire to switch alternate modes. • When 's Transformers comic originally came out, there were no Generation 1-themed toys to flog, and many characters were given altered designs for the series.

Then along came, featuring new toys of Generation 1 characters, and suddenly multiple characters get new, toy-accurate bodies in, for no apparent in-story reason. Later, even gets a namechange to Silverstreak to fit his toy. • Sometimes, IDW's comics don't even bother with a reason: you just get the latest issue and a character suddenly resembles the latest toy. This can sometimes be explained as artist interpretation, but at other times. • was originally grey, but when he was reunited with the Animated Decepticons, he changed his colours to purple while referring to it as his proper look. Why he changed colouration to go undercover was not explained, but it may have something to do with a purple-coloured Shockwave toy being out when that episode aired. • In, and start out as an old ice cream truck combiner but after a disastrous mission decides to upgrade them to new individual vehicles.

New toys and product placement! • got a new toy in 2014. There wasn't an Armada comic but there was a Generation 1 comic with a Starscream, which was then with the toy series including Armada Starscream. And lo and behold, for Starscream got a new body! A year later, he swapped to another body for ', which was his then-new Leader Class toy, and several issues were devoted to him choosing it and then flaunting it. Then again, this is Starscream we're talking about. • finally got a new toy as well.

Problem is, his comic body didn't look much like the toy. Then, in, he revealed his new invention: reactive armor that changed his body to look like his opponent's. Who did he use this armor to battle? Why, it's Starscream, the guy his toy was retooled from! • 2015's ' comic series brought back almost all of the combiner characters that have appeared in the IDW continuity thus far. However, was apparently killed by and quit the Stunticons.

So that and can replace them! Meanwhile, Starscream rebuilds Devastator; not only does Devastator suddenly resemble his toy counterpart, but is no longer a required member of the combiner team, leaving him free to combine with Optimus Prime and company to become the brand-new combiner.

Superion and Menasor, who had made previous appearances in IDW fiction, are both rebuilt by the, causing their bodies to more closely resemble their toy counterparts. Character pimping Characters with toys may get more attention than those without: • ' has four separate teams on a mission.

You could use any three Transformers in one of these teams, right? Nope, Furman has toys to promote: out go nine new Autobot characters and three existing ones with new toys. • presence in all three of his first three Beast Wars episodes: one for his origin, another for him joining the Maximals after all, and then an abrupt appearance at the very end of ' where he turns up and single-handedly drives off a Predacon force.

• When was released in Japan, episodes focusing on the were never broadcast on television (instead being reduced to bonus content on the DVDs), as the Constructicons did not have toys. The episode order was also rearranged (and thus the internal narrative of the series, as well) so that episodes introducing new toys could air earlier than those that didn't. • IDW's came back in 2013 in order to promote six of the upcoming Generations toys. Even, a little-used character who would never have been given a Spotlight otherwise! (Initially published through Diamond and Comixology as per IDW's usual practice, these comics were subsequently packed-in with the toys they were based on, aiming to use the higher sales of the toys to boost comic sales in a 'I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine' scenario.) Likewise, Waspinator, having a new toy out in late 2013, began making appearances and took on increased importance in the IDW universe.

An upcoming toy brought forth a Tankor appearance in Dark Cybertron. The opening arcs of the second seasons of More Than Meets The Eye and Robots in Disguise (as well as Windblade vol.

1) in 2014 also heavily feature casts of characters with new toys, such as Nightbeat, Rattrap, Arcee, and Jetfire. • When frees some Decepticons in the second season of, the freed 'Cons include his former minions and, yet not the other two members of the Pack, and. He instead frees,,, and. There's no reason to neglect those who have already proven to be able to work together in the Pack (and thus Steeljaw should know would help in his eventual coup), except for the fact that the toys of both Fracture and Underbite had already sold, and the newly freed Decepticons have new figures on the shelves. Abrupt conclusions. It's the end of the road for Transformers Generation 2! That can't bode well for the toyline.

Just as Transformers fiction lives at Hasbro's pleasure, so too does it die. Falling sales, a change of plans, and standard can all cause a storyline to come to a sudden end when Hasbro decides to pull the plug. • The American Generation 1 cartoon got a somewhat rushed conclusion in the form of ', rather than a full fourth season. • The Generation 1 comics were nearly canceled at, but granted a reprieve.

The stay of execution was only temporary, however; with the Generation 1 toyline ending, the comic was terminated a mere five issues later, resulting in a rather hasty concluding plotline. • Hasbro was only willing to support the for twelve issues, unless it proved an unqualified (perhaps phenomenal) success. Aware of this from the start, writer Simon Furman was able to plot a story arc that reached its finale as the series ended (and poked fun at it with a character whose name is a pun on '.) • The writers of the Beast Wars cartoon reportedly never had any idea if they'd be back for another season. When the axe fell with Season 3, they had only three episodes left to wrap up the whole series. • Hasbro nearly killed off the just-begun comic series The Wreckers in 2001, wishing instead for to focus on a comic advertising its current toyline. • Even though wasn't abruptly canceled, Kids WB ended the series on the of the episode ', leaving millions of kids tuning in next time only to get a re-run of Xiaolin Showdown.

The Cybertron Defense Team toys hadn't hit stores yet. • With coming out in June, Titan had to end their alternate universe storyline in May so they could tie in early—an issue earlier than planned.

The main strip handled this, with the notable exception of going completely unresolved, but it played havoc with working out the IDW reprints! • According to, IDW was asked to drop their G1 continuity and move to the brand-spanking new one. (They said 'nah'.) Death Killing off old product. Scorponok, Terrorsaur, we're condemning you to a fiery death 'cause Waspinator has a bigger fan club.

The most obvious To Sell Toys effect comes from the temporary nature of retail sales. Even in the 1980s, toys rarely stayed on the shelves past two years; today that timespan is much smaller. Once a toy is no longer selling, Hasbro has no interest in supporting fiction about that character—especially when there's newer toys to promote. Therefore, writers are often compelled to remove characters from the story by killing them off. Sometimes this happens through carefully developed story arcs, but it's easier to do it with huge, apocalyptic battles with massive numbers of casualties.

• In, numerous main characters are killed or changed in the movie's first 30 minutes, including,,, and. They are replaced by a slew of new characters; in fact, the poster for the movie shows only new characters. • Numerous characters are killed in the Marvel UK comics saga '. The Grim Reaper seemed to spare either popular characters (Megatron and ) or newer characters (, and, for example.) • The features a super-powerful killing literally dozens of characters; some place the count over fifty. The survivors were mostly from the,, and ranks, those being the then-current toy lines.

However, the explanation ( power didn't affect those TFs with organic components) meant that even the, new toys at the time and introduced three issues before, met their end. • The climactic 25 issues later killed off many of the Underbase survivors, whose shelf run had ended. • With its enormously expensive CGI animation, Beast Wars was particularly vulnerable to toy-based interference. The expense of creating and animating a CGI body model meant that the character roster had to remain fairly constant; the introduction of all-new characters usually required the removal of an equal number of pre-existing characters. And so, and die just in time for the arrival of and. (Frustrated with the situation, the writers carefully planned out the demise of, anticipating that someone would have to be removed to make way for.) was introduced and then killed off within three episodes, due to corporate uncertainty about whether the toy would actually be produced. • would end up killing a large number of Autobots in, after their toys had been around for a while; as they'd not made an appearance in the comics until this mini, this is both an example of Huge Cast and Product Clearing.

It would then go on to bump off some Decepticons, while its sequel slaughtered hordes of Decepticons with old toys. Mowry is the new Furman. • An odd case of this is in the, which, as well as advertising toys, also serve as advertising for vehicles. Hence, Autobots whose cars are no longer in demand have an uncanny tendency to either lose prominence or perish. The most prominent example would be - the GMC Topkick had been discontinued for two years by, and so, despite a fifty-dollar toy on the shelves, Ironhide dies halfway in.

• IDW's ongoing has to promote a. With a new helicopter instead of. Hence, Slingshot is the one to suffer most and die from the injuries caused when conveniently tore him in half several issues ago. This becomes horrifically redundant when one considers that Devastator tore through Superion from the right, and Slingshot was Superion's left arm at the time. Not to mention that Silverbolt, the torso, was explicitly ripped in half. The series would go on to have leave the Stunticons over a humiliating defeat.

One he suffered years ago, in. Naturally, the empty position was filled by new toy. Then Hasbro decided to release Quickslinger and Brake-Neck (Slingshot and Wildrider renamed for trademark issues) much later after the others' release, part of a strategy that effectively forced fans to buy toys both of 'replacement' characters and the original characters. This has become less common in recent years, as Hasbro has come to realize that their target audiences can actually get attached to certain, and might not enjoy seeing them die random, brutal, meaningless. Likely dialog: 'SHEEEAAGH!!'

Modern Methods For Robust Regression Pdf To Jpg. Kids don't want to buy a toy of a character who's dead. So if the plot calls for someone to die, smart money bets on the character who has a toy as the survivor. The guy without a toy, who you've never heard of before? This is the Transformers version of 's infamous.

The stereotypical hi-and-die character is killed off in the same episode/issue that introduces him, if not the very same scene. • This approach was particularly common in the.

Characters created specifically so they could be killed off include Wrecker leader, Autobot/zombie food, Tailgate's Autobot trainee buddies/mutant fodder and, and the sixth member of the 'Magnificent Six',. Comics also used this approach on occasion, as with 's poignantly adorable buddy.

• showed up and died in, of course Hasbro doesn't make, right? • The Energon cartoon introduced, whose purpose was to die at 's hands, providing motivation for toy-character.

• Animated chucked in so Ratchet could have a tragic past where he failed to save someone. (And then she got a toy!) • The wants to do a story arc about an Autobot who's really a spy and then have him killed.

• invents hordes of characters solely to populate the story with casualties while preserving the classic characters:,,,,,, and dozens of other unnamed Autobots, Decepticons and. • elevated hi-and-die to an artform; though his run on is crammed with minor non-toy characters who wind up dead, many still received some backstory, history, or distinctive characterization before - or even after - being killed off. Examples from MtMtE's first 'season' include,,,,,,,,,,,,, ', ',,,,,,,,,,,, and. Similarly, introduced us to, comprising just about every Decepticon hi-and-die character from the Marvel continuity, who were then all slaughtered by Impactor. Resurrection Killing off a character isn't always toy-motivated; sometimes it's a dramatic plot development. Electro House Sample Pack Free Download. But it can also be a problem if Hasbro decides to make a new toy of that character.

Only a flesh wound! • has been resurrected that it's practically a defining character trait. His original revival in the cartoon didn't correspond to any actual toy release, but the Marvel comic brought him back specifically to advertise his form.

A second death-and-revival introduced his body. And a third death-and-revival in Generation 2 brought him into his toy form. • The Japanese killed off Optimus (or 'Convoy' as they called him) in.

A few years later, they not only brought him back with a new toy, the entire franchise for that year was called. • Numerous 'dead' characters were brought back into the Marvel comic series when their Classics and/or Action Master versions were released. Many were 'deactivated' rather than outright dead; however, very few non Action Master characters showed up alongside them. • The series writers for Beast Wars considered dead and gone at the end of Season 1. Hasbro, however, had a Optimus Primal toy to promote, and so he was returned to life in Season 2. Hasbro wanted him brought back in the first minutes of the season premiere, but the writers managed to convince them that it would be better to do so at the end of the two-episode story.

• At the end of Season 2 of Beast Wars, was pretty clearly shown being killed—being disintegrated—but in the next season appeared to have just been bruised and cracked, because Hasbro was not ready to have a Mega-scaled toy removed from the series. • Pretty much nobody could successfully die in the.,,,,, and all die and/or are resurrected from the dead during the course of the show. • still had toys out in 2008. The for AllSpark-Enhanced Autobot Jazz states he was brought back from near-death by the AllSpark and is 'more powerful than ever'. Voila, Jazz comes back from the dead thanks to the AllSpark in! Optimus even uses the term 'Autobot Jazz' in. • was shot in the head and abandoned on back in '.

Six years later, Hasbro were releasing a new Nightbeat toy and back he comes into Dark Cybertron, a chatty undead from the. He proceeds to survive the destruction of the Dead Universe and is currently on the Lost Light.

• was killed by an empowered in, his death motivating to, and had his body sucked into an unstable singularity. He was thereafter seen as a 'hallucination' of, thought to represent the 's doubts and insecurities. However, he was revealed to be alive inside said singularity in. Just as the new Legends class Bumblebee hit shelves.

Really, they could just stand there making rude noises at Starscream. Obviously, if a character does have a current toy (or soon will), they're () not going to die, even if the plot or common sense indicates they should. This is sometimes because Hasbro itself declares a character unkillable, and so comics and TV writers must follow suit. • In ', had betrayed to the Maximals, ruining his greatest shot at victory. As he declared, 'There will be no more betrayals!' , she would pay the price: being knocked into stasis lock so the Maximals could fix her and she could stay on their team.

• Megatron himself was in a prime position to be terminated, as were the Maximals later on, in '. Since this was only episode 6 and everyone had toys out, the cast politely agreed not to take this opportunity to end a brutal war for the planet. • Titan's Movie strip was moved to an alternate universe, where you'd. However, most of the cast had toys out, so whether it was a desperate guerrilla fight against Decepticon occupation, the rise of, a, or the final battle, very few characters bought it.

The big exception was, dying in his first battle. • In Last Stand of the Wreckers (mentioned earlier), James Roberts observed that Impactor was the only character who was guaranteed not be killed.

However, Hasbro shot down the idea of Perceptor or Springer dying, and so most of the fatalities were less well-known characters like Pyro, Ironfist, and eternally unlucky Wreckers Twin Twist and Topspin. • Similar to his Beast Era counterpart, was worn down to the point of exhaustion, and was at 's mercy. Optimus, now, is about to pull the trigger, but ends up backing down when he's threatened by Decepticon reinforcements.

In this case, the laughing stock redshirt Vehicons. It doesn't help that the toyline had just gotten on shelves, but seriously?

Optimus felt threatened by Vehicons? • If a Decepticon with a current toy is about to be captured in, they can pull off the most miraculous of escapes, sometimes. • Starscream, the end.

Notable exceptions There are, however, a few notable exception to the To Sell Toys effect, such as fictional characters without a toy counterpart, and other anomalies: Toys not released in the relevant market. YOU CAN'T HAVE ME. Occasionally the Transformers fiction released in a particular country features characters whose toys were not released in that country. The Marvel UK comic featured two variations of this phenomenon: • Characters inherited from the U.S. Some, such as, and the, were given fairly prominent roles in the U.S.

Stories reprinted in the UK comic and so it was hard to ignore them completely in the UK originated material despite their toys not being around to need advertising. However the decision to develop the Predacons (even before their US appearances were reprinted), to have entire storylines focusing on Swoop, and also to keep Shockwave in continuity even after he'd been (supposedly) killed off in the US comic goes beyond this. • Characters not featured in the U.S.

Bizarrely the UK comic also made use of some characters such as,,, and, despite their toys not being available on UK toy shelves. None of these characters were inherited from the US material. Writer has since stated that when writing the stories he was generally unaware of which toys were unavailable in the UK: 'We largely took our cue from what characters were being introduced into the US storyline. If there was a release schedule for the toys in the UK, we rarely saw it. But in the case of Swoop and the Predacons, I don't think I was consciously aware (at the time) that we were dealing with toys not generally available in the UK. They were just extant characters, and therefore fair game.' This would happen again with Titan, as foreign exclusives such as and palled around with UK-available toys.

Another example would be the original text stores published by in their: The text story from features the, even though catalogs from the era, backed up by German fans' recollections, suggest that the German release of the line-up omitted the Classic Combaticons, possibly due to their 'war' theme. Post-Marvel, pre-2013 G1 comics. 'Hey, Runamuck, it's our first appearance on a comic book cover in twenty years!' 'Heh heh, now if only we could appear on toy store shelves.'

Both and comics, the two recent holders of the license to publish Transformers comic books, sometimes produce comics using whichever toy line is current (e.g., Dreamwave's comic or IDW's tie-ins), and sometimes publish comics using whatever characters they please (e.g., and ). • Although the toy lines from the have given us multiple different toys of the same characters. • • 'Looking back, as I try my hardest not to do, it's very hard to tie the Earthforce stories into a specific time frame (in terms of the US continuity), because (if I'm brutally honest) I didn't try too hard to make it work in the first place.

By that point, I was just trying to tell a bunch of fun UK stories that didn't necessarily impact on the larger (US) storyline. How was I to know 15 or so years later people would be trying to reconcile it all?'

Welcome to the incredible world of Transformers robots. It is a world of high technology, ancient history, and a battle that has spanned the entire galaxy and millions of years. Optimus Prime, leader of the heroic Autobots, battles the tyrant Megatron and his evil Decepticons for the fate of freedom across the universe. There's a Transformers figure for every kid or collector. From big converting action figures to miniature battling robots to figures that change between modes in 1 step, you can team up with Transformers toys to create your own incredible adventures.

Whether you're defending Earth with the Autobots, or conquering space with the Decepticons, the action is up to you. Transformers is a world-famous entertainment brand with 30 years of history, blockbuster movies, hit television shows and countless novels and comic books. With Transformers robot toys, you can create your own chapters in this epic, ongoing story. In the Transformers: Robots in Disguise animated series, Bumblebee leads a new team of Autobots.

Their mission: capture the Decepticons that are loose on Earth and do it without being discovered. Hit the Decepticons with a super-charged attack with this Power Surge Optimus Prime figure and Mini-Con Aerobolt figure. Mini-Con Aerobolt figure converts from eagle to shield in 1 step. Attach the Mini-Con figure to the Power Surge figure’s chest to activate pop-out cannons and wings, lights, battle sounds, and phrases like, “Let’s battle this in the sky!” Imagine Optimus Prime is joining with Aerobolt to activate Power Surge mode, using his wings and flight power to battle in the air, as seen in the Transformers: Robots in Disguise animated series. Transformers and all related characters are trademarks of Hasbro.

• Different Figures Activate Different Sounds. Power Surge figures are compatible with other Mini-Con Weaponizers figures, making gearing up for battle exciting every time. Attach different Mini-Con figures to Power Surge figures to activate different phrases and battle sounds. This Power Surge Optimus Prime figure can also link with other Mini-Con Weaponizers figure, including Mini-Con Windstrike or Mini-Con Buzzstrike figures (each sold separately). Collect your favorite Autobot characters and Mini-Con heroes from the animated series, and hit the Decepticons with a super-charged attack! Mini-Con Weaponizers figures are each sold separately. Subject to availability.

• Unlock a Power Surge Sword Weapon in the Transformers: Robots in Disguise App. This Power Surge Optimus Prime figure brings home exciting play, but the action doesn’t stop there. The app, based on the Transformers: Robots in Disguise animated series, creates an interactive mobile gaming experience that brings the characters of the show to life with awesome battles, and this figure can become part of it. Grab your compatible mobile device, and scan the Autobot shield on the figure to unlock a Power Surge sword in the Transformers: Robots in Disguise app. Download the app, scan the shield to activate the code, unlock, and play. See below for more information about the app.

Includes Power Surge Optimus Prime figure, Mini-Con Weaponizers Aerobolt figure, sword accessory, demo battery, and on-box instructions. Legal Disclaimer © 2016 Hasbro. All Rights Reserved. Manufactured under license from TOMY Company, Ltd. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. And other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc.

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