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The 2015 Robots in Disguise toyline, like its accompanying cartoon, is aimed at a slightly younger audience than previous Transformers mainlines, slotting neatly between the preschool Rescue Bots series and the preteen/older-fan-aimed Generations. It features a mixture of easy-to-transform figures and more "traditional" figures with multi-step conversions across an incredible number of price points, with a heavy focus on core characters. Contents
OverviewThe overarching gimmick for the line is special faction symbol "Shields", which can be scanned with the accompanying Robots in Disguise app to temporarily unlock the toy for use in-game. Yellow is the new black. The line had an impressive three subline imprints. At general retail, the line's additional gimmick for 2016 was Mini-Con Weaponizers, with the focus being on Mini-Cons that could turn into weapons for the larger figures to wield. For 2017, it was the more expansive Combiner Force, with the focus on, obviously, combining robots, either as two-component super robots, combining five robots into a traditional Combiner, or a gimmick-activating Mini-Con with a larger partner. Both saw the subline branding and overall packaging design extended to all price points regardless of their relevance to the subline gimmick, including packaging variants of unchanged re-releases of existing figures. In addition, Toys"R"Us had the exclusive Clash of the Transformers subline, a mix of redecos, retools, and a few all-new sculpts, which overlapped with Mini-Con Weaponizers in 2016, with the toys being co-branded as part of both subline imprints. What's particularly remarkable in this case is the sheer longevity of some figures, to a degree not really seen since the days of Generation 1: Despite having already been succeeded by the usual redecos in many instances (as has been the
standard for pretty much every line since Beast Wars), figures of the more prominent characters were frequently re-released in the new packaging styles for the general retail subline imprints listed above. Although toys being carried over into subsequent waves and being given packaging
variants for the sake of uniform packaging design isn't an unusual occurrence by itself, the shift from "same-character redeco" to "re-release of the original deco" is noticeable, especially with toys continuing to ship in their original decos over two years after their original release, some of them even having been available in three different packaging styles over the course of the series! Hasbro Robots in Disguise toylineGeneral retail"Standard" lineThis is, admittedly, a bit of an arbitrary distinction we're making, but given the sheer amount of product across more price-points than virtually any line in the past has featured, some sorting is in order. These are the more "traditional" toys in "traditional" size classes that the older fanbase would be more likely to care about. Legion ClassAfter being relegated to limited-release redecoes for most of 2014, the Legion size class returns in full. The Cyberverse branding has been dropped, along with the larger Commander pricepoint.
The wave that includes Cyclonus and Heatseeker was skipped entirely in the United States. While it has been released in numerous international markets such as Asia, Canada, Australia and Europe, stores in the US only received the subsequent wave that includes Twinferno but not those other two. And unlike that latter wave, the Cyclonus/Heatseeker wave has never even solicited to US-based online retailers. Warrior ClassThe newly-named "Warrior" assortment is broadly similar to the traditional Deluxe Class, but somewhat simplified for greater accessibility. As such, their MSRP is slightly lower than contemporary Deluxe figures in the Generations line.
The wave that features Twinferno as the only new figure was only released in the United States. In all other international Hasbro markets, the wave in which Bludgeon and Thermidor debuted alongside Twinferno was available from the get-go, in most cases long before even the Twinferno-only wave was released in the US. Single-pack Mini-ConsFeaturing single-step transformations, Mini-Con alt-modes are meant to augment larger toys. The first four waves work with the larger "Deployer" figures (see below), forming projectiles (Autobot Buzzsaws, Decepticon Torpedoes, and mostly-Decepticon spheroid Cyclones) the larger toys can launch via pressure mechanisms. Replacing the "Deployer" Mini-Cons at the price point, Weaponizers transform into, well, weapons that can he held by or mounted on larger figures via 5 mm posts. They are mostly one-step-transformations, but a few have extra pull-out parts needed to complete the process. All Mini-Cons include a number of clear-plastic accessories, packaged on the sprue, which can be pegged into various sockets on their bodies. The first two waves of figures' accessories can be combined with those from their wavemates to form an "energy animal": a Mini-Con armor lion for Wave 1, and a Mini-Con armor shark for Wave 2. The rest? Nope. Following the release of the second wave, waves 3 and 4 of the single-pack Mini-Cons arrived notoriously late at retail in the United States, and then only at clearance chains. The Weaponizer Mini-Cons were never found at US retail at all. In some other markets, the first Weaponizer wave was found long before wave 4 of the original assortment (due to being, well, separate assortments), and wave 2 of the Weaponizers was only released in a very small number of markets.
Mini-Con DeployersPackaged with a Mini-Con, Deployers are designed to wield and launch the smaller figures. Keep in mind that with all Deployers, their gimmick only works on a flat surface, as there is a switch that locks the gimmick when the toy is not on a table or the ground. So no, you can't shoot your friends with your Mini-Cons. Due to retailers in the United States discontinuing the Deployers assortment, the final wave with Crazybolt was never released at brick and mortar retail in the US, and was only stocked by US-based online retailers following a massive delay. The wave did see a release in various other markets more or less on schedule, though.
Mini-Con Battle PacksFor the first two waves, each Battle Pack includes a roughly Scout-sized "Decepticon Hunter" figure and a Mini-Con opponent; for the third wave, the "Decepticon Hunter" monikers were dropped, with the Mini-Cons now turning into weapons for the included Autobot figures. The Autobot figures include a number of translucent weapon and armor accessories which can also combine into a single large weapon.
Mini-Con multi-packsBig boxes of Mini-Cons! Very unusually for United States releases, all three 4-Packs feature the same Hasbro product code number as well as the same UPC barcode number, effectively making them the "same" product at the distribution level despite being different toys every time.
Simple transformationWith its larger focus on the younger set, Robots in Disguise produced a lot of toys with either very simple transformations, or no transformation at all. One-Step ChangersSub-Deluxe-scale figures with (mostly) single-step transformations, as advertised. As a consequence of the assortment's longevity, numerous characters have received two or even three all-new figures by 2017.
Three-Step Changers / Hyper Change HeroesThree-Step Changers, aka "Hyper Change Heroes" (see the Notes section for more) succeed the Age of Extinction Flip & Change toys as a large, simple-to-transform price point. Unlike those figures, however, there is no unified transformation scheme. For unknown reasons, the assortment was effectively put on hold at US retail for the better part of 2016, with wave 7 finally being found nine months (!) after it had first appeared in Australia. Subsequently, the assortment continued at a regular pace. In 2017, each figure was given a different, trademarked (!), gimmick-y call-out on the packaging such as "Hyper-Flip", "Hyper-Twist", "Hyper-Swoop", "Hyper-Hook", "Hyper-Turn" or "Hyper-Vault".
Crash CombinersPart of the "Combiner Force" third-year line, these Scout-sized individuals have simple transformations to robot mode. Crash them together in vehicle mode to form a super robot!
Team CombinersPart of the "Combiner Force" third-year line, these scout-class figures have simple transformations. The full groups can combine into larger robots.
Activator CombinersPart of the Combiner Force third-year series, these Deluxe-ish-level toys have extra "assault vehicle" modes (akin to the "Stealth Force" of the past) that are activated by plugging in their packed-in Mini-Con partner.
Large-scale figuresSpecialty toys even bigger than the normal 3-Steps.
ExclusivesToys"R"Us "Clash of the Transformers"A pretty sizable subline imprint of exclusives, a mix of redecos, retools and even some wholly-new molds. The line-up was released in Australia, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, except for Warrior Class Megatronus, who was only released in the US, and the "Decepticon Island Showdown" set, which was not released in Europe.
Target Robots in Disguise Collection (One-Step 6-pack)
This 6-pack was also available as a Toys"R"Us exclusive in Canada and as a general retail release in Latin America (or at least in Brazil), and a year later also as a Target exclusive in Australia and as a Tesco exclusive in the United Kingdom. TakaraTomy Adventure toylineTakaraTomy's take on the line, dubbed "Transformers: Adventure" (トランスフォーマー アドベンチャー), generally features more paint operations per figure, and is filled out with a number of molds from other series, including Generations, Prime, Combiner Wars, and even Animated. They have a similar scan-sticker gimmick to the Hasbro line, except the only thing they do in the app is mark them down in a collection checklist. The "imported" molds usually got minor retooling to accommodate the new stickers. Beginning with wave 14, the figures were released in redesigned packaging under the Prime of Micron subline imprint. Toys in italics are exclusive to the TakaraTomy line. This will not include the toys that are barely-changed versions of the then-recent toys brought in from the non-Robots in Disguise molds (aka "most of the blatantly-G1 characters"). Adventure Series
Easy Dynamic SeriesThis "subline" of Adventure is made up of the 3-Step and 1-Step Changers that didn't get rolled into the normal line.
ExclusivesRetail/online
MerchandiseTitan Guardians 6-inch minimally-articulated action figures sold mainly through "budget" stores.
NotesHasbro said "Three-Step Changers" is the final name of the assortment. Apparently Hasbro didn't get the memo.
References
What happened to Optimus Prime in robots in Disguise?He merged his own Matrix of Leadership with the AllSpark and sacrificed his life to save Cybertron. He currently acts as a mentor to the new Autobot leader, Bumblebee.
Is Optimus Prime a boy or girl?It turns out Optimus prime is not a male.
Who is Optimus Prime's family?Alpha Trion is ("more than almost like a") father to Optimus Prime and Elita One in the cartoon continuity. Grimlock is "father" to the Technobots in the cartoon continuity.
What is inside Optimus Prime's chest?Within his chest is a mystic talisman, known as the Autobot Matrix of Leadership or the "Creation Matrix", carried by all Autobot leaders.
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