When was the term "Generation One" first officially used (in print) for the original 1980s series (toys, cartoon, comic, etc), by Hasbro or a licensed item that didn't have fan involvement?
Taking a moment to think back to the early days of the online fandom in the mid-90s... when Generation Two came out, us fans would refer to the Original Series as "Generation One", but only because the name Generation 2 came first.
I noticed on the UK Hachette Comic Series that they call it Generation One... but has the term been used (printed) officially on a Transformers product before, and if so, when was the earliest use of it officially?
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I think it might have been used on some Takara reissue toy packaging first, but I can't be anywhere near certain.

Light the Nevermore signal!!

 

As mentioned above, I believe the first time it was officially used anywhere was on the Takara product.

Speaking for Hasbro, if I'm right it first appeared on their official website but with soon printed on the Toys R Us generation one reissues of the G1 figures

 

So... it looks like 2002 could be the first official usage (some 10 years after the series ended), on the Commemorative Series reissues by Hasbro. And then, on the 25th Anniversary Universe toys.

I couldn't see anything yet on Takara(Tomy) packaging or promo materials... but then again, they already had a name for each year of the Original 1980s series, so we didn't need to create one like we did for the Hasbro series (which was just too generic for fans to refer to now that we had several different series in America, Europe and Japan by the late 90s, and the name "Generation 2" gave us an obvious name for the series before that).

 

In the West, it was probably Dreamwave. Either that or the Commemorative Series reissues.

 

How about a giant light up banner of a perched raven?

 

Probably when the next generation of Transformers came about.

 

Okay, let's see.

Takara first used the name "Generation One" (spelled out as the word "One") on the packaging of SCF (Super Collection Figure) Act-1, released in December of 2000.


In the West, the name "Generation 1" (spelled with a numerical "1") first appeared on the inside cover of Dreamwave's Generation 1 vol. 1 Preview issue, originally released in March of 2002.


Hasbro themselves first used the name "Generation One Collection" (spelled out as the word "One") on the packaging of wave 1 of the Heroes of Cybertron PVC figures (Hasbro's versions of the SCF figures), released in June of 2002.


The first Hasbro packaging to feature the name "Generation One" without an additional "Collection" was that of Commemorative Series I Optimus Prime, Rodimus Major and Ultra Magnus, all of them released in August of 2002.

 

Greet stuff... nice job

 

SCF was the first time I remembered seeing it, so I'm glad my recollection on that turned out true. Although the term had been used unofficially by the fandom ever since Generation Two.

 

Oh, and this:

Someone over at the Allspark found this brand history overview from Hasbro's old Beast Wars website ca. 1999, which only refers to the pre-G2 era as "the line's first generation of toys".

 

Nice work there Nevermore, as always.  

That's what had me wondering about when it made it's transition from fan-term to official usage... which happens from time to time, particularly when you have fans working their way into Hasbro and comic/cartoon media.
It's just interesting to see that it was 16 years after Generation One started that Hasbro finally officially adopted the name (or any series name really for that era).

 

To the Google...!

DAMMIT.

 

I guess it's possible I'm wrong but from what I remember what was on the site was in the form of advertisements for upcoming G one releases

 

I always thought that Hasbro and Takara started referring to everything pre-Generation 2 as Generation 1 just so fans could easily tell them apart. Like retroactively changing the original to Generation 1. It kinda makes sense that Generation 1 and Generation 2 would be introduced at the same time. The bigger question is... can they only count to 2? No generation 3, no Trans metal 3, they seem to have the same problem as Half-Life and Portal.

 

I used to have a G2 Inferno knockoff that said Generation 3 on the package. I want to say it was yellow and red, similar to the white and red on Artfire.

 

This one?
Non-Official Scorch image gallery and review | www.transformertoys.co.uk

 

Probably? I've seen pictures of it with an unpainted face too. About all I remember about the one I had was the garish deco and that it came on a card with a G2-ish G3 logo.

 

I guess you could say that RiD is G3...?

 

That's a completly different continuity. G2 was still in continuity with G1. If anything was G3 it would be the beast era.

Though I'm not entirely sure what G2 actually was. In terms of cartoons it was just reruns of old episodes with annoying added CGI effects between shots replacing the rotating faction insignias and with commercial bumpers hosted by Power master Optimus Prime. In terms of toys there was that Tank Megatron, Laser Rod Optimus Prime, Dreadwing, some other toys who were repainted for BWII Predacons, in terms of comics I think they actually had fiction that went along with the toys. It's so confusing I like to just lump it all in with G1 and pretend G2 never existed.