Greenlight and Lancer weren't even named onscreen which ruled them out at least during the early 2000s. They were nameless background generics until a Fun Publications story from 2010 gave them names.

Firestar had the problem of sharing a name with a Marvel character, resulting in trademark problems.

Which leaves Elita-1 and Chromia, both of whom got numerous toys beginning with the BotCon 2005 exclusives.

 

What about Moonracer?

 

Moonracer used to be a problem at least back in 2005 when it was Moonracer with Chromia’s name in the Botcon 2005 boxed set due to not being able to use the name Moonracer.

 

So it's all Beth Bornstein's fault.

 

Yeah,Hasbro not being able to use Moonracer's name was because of King Moonracer,IIRC. Rudolph And The Island Of Misfit Toys had come out a few years earlier and had a toyline with him in it. Here's a toy of him from 2002.
King Moonracer Figure Memory Lane Rudolph & The Island of Misfit Toys 2002 | eBay

 

I wonder if some of the execs at Hasbro also fell back on sexist assumptions with Moonracer as of the group she also has a name which sounds like it could just as easily be a My Little Pony character.   That said she got the first toy of the deluxes of her team *shrug*
Mind you, Greenlight is coming with a Battlemaster(?) Called Dazzlestrike xD

I do wonder if two fan votes voting for female characters is a factor for the increase of other female characters appearing in toy form, even without a current cartoon (such as with Prime Arcee)

Fine by me though, always happy to see more fembots. Now if we could only get a good Nautica. I've just recently started reading her stuff in MTMTE and I love her, she's so adorkable <3

 

god I wish I could get a complete set of those ! need two at least. Would be nice to have around the house at Christmas time

 

Windblade wouldn't have come as prominent as she has if her toys weren't profitable.

Honestly if the Bee Movie ends up earning a sequel and full reboot I wouldn't be shocked if she finally shows up in a mentor role like we've seen in RiD and Cyberverse.

 

no current cartoon? what is cyberverse then?

 

What I meant was, getting fembots from things OTHER than those from current cartoons, not that there is no current cartoon. So like other than ones like Prime Arcee or Cyberverse Windblade etc. Like how we're getting Elita and her team from the G1 Cartoon decades ago.
Ultimately I'm talking about the mentality a lot of toy manufacturers still seem to have that toys based on female characters won't sell well in lines aimed primarily at boys, even when said characters are major characters from the show/movie, like what happened with Gamora not getting a figure in the initial Guardians of the Galaxy figures or Rey and Captain Phasma getting replaced by generic Stormtroopers in a pack of figures of the main characters from Force Awakens. I just think it's nice that we are now seeing more fembots in general in Transformers appearing in toy form.

 

gotcha, that makes sense

 

This is the sort of thing I mean, there's this mentality that female characters won't sell well in what is nominally a toy aimed at boys - which is both insulting to the female fanbase and to boys who probably care more about if a figure looks cool or is a cool character in the show/movie over if they're 'icky girls with cooties'

And yeah it would be cool to see Windblade in a movie   I'm actually interested in seeing Bumblebee (I can't make it to the cinema for health reasons) which is the first time the live action films have interested me since the train wreck of Dark of the Moon.

 

I’m positive that Windblade was a big realisation to Hasbro to the fact that fans want more female characters and want more female toys. Despite the amount of man-children crying about it online, Windblade’s continual usage in nearly all forms of Transformers media shows what a success she has been and it is incredible the huge influx of female characters that have been introduced into the Generations line since her.

With Elita-1, Windblade (x2), Chromia (x2), Arcee (x2), Nautica, Slash, Cindersaur, Victorion, Moonracer, Firestar, Solus Prime, Greenlight and now Lancer it’s strange to look back at the fact that the wave that included Arcee, Chromia and Windblade was the first Classics figures of female characters ever. It’s bizarre now to remember that back before that wave was announced, the idea of an Arcee toy in Generations was thought of as laughable.

It really does show how important that initial fan vote was for the franchise. A huge positive change to representation in the franchise and a massive wake up call to Hasbro.

 

technically thanks to sdcc windblade, chromia and arcee should each be sitting at 3 figures for generations

 

You’re not wrong!

And there were zero female combiners before the fan votes started and now we have two full female teams, three if you count Megatronia! Can you imagine telling yourself that back when Generations first started?

 

4 for Windblade surely? T30, SDCC Combiner Hunters, SDCC Titans Force, Titans Return W5 deluxe?

 

Forgot about titan force haha

 

Why wouldn’t someone count Megatronia?? Just because they’re repaints? Japanese exclusive? The individual characters are more fleshed out than most of The Torchbearers. I love my team of bad girls!

 

I am seriously considering getting her. I quite like the look of Victorion's mould but the colours put me off while Megatronia's colourscheme looks great  

 

If we're counting Japanese exclusive figures since the Generations reboot, we can't leave out Nightbird, Slipstream, and Blackarachnia. I'm agnostic to including the Japanese exclusives, but we might as well list all of them and not leave people out.