2007 was the year that Transformers took the world by storm and once again became a household name, driven by the success of Dreamworks and Michael Bay’s explosive new take on the Transformers mythos. A massive toyline comprising several different segments for all audiences was launched to tie in to the movie, and the UK got a new Transformers comic based on the live-action movie universe, the first true ongoing comic for the UK since 1991 (barring the false starts in Generation 2 and Armada). Japan also embraced the live action movie, even going as far as to adopt the name “Optimus Prime” in the place of “Convoy”. They followed up the release of the movie with more reissues of classic toys. After the massive build up through the latter part of 2006, Transformers the Movie arrived in theaters on the 4th of July, 2007 (with many early showings preceding this official launch). Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg’s back-to-basics take on the franchise revolved around the source of Transformers life, the Allspark cube, which was jettisoned into outer space hundreds of years ago and eventually crashing onto Earth. The key to finding the Allspark was inscribed on a pair of glasses in the possession of Sam Witwicky (played by Shia Labeouf), an everyman awkward teen making his way through high school, trying to get the grades he needs to get his dad to help him buy his first car and attract the attention of the hottest girl in class, Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox). He gets the car – except the car just happens to be an alien robot. Sam and Mikaela find themselves swept up into a battle for the future of the Earth, caught between Autobots, Decepticons and secret human organizations.
The story had a heavy military presence from the word go, which played out in the second main story thread involving US army major William Lennox (Josh Duhamel) who survives a Decepticon attack on the US base in Qatar where he was stationed. Lennox and his comrade in arms Epps (Tyrese Gibson) become the two main military characters for the franchise, often helping to lead the charge against the Decepticons when they appear.
The film was a massive blockbuster hit. The back-to-basics approach restored the basic themes of the franchise – the idea that any vehicle could be a Transformer lurking in disguise was used in full force throughout the movie. Steven Spielberg managed to find a way to make the whole thing relevant to theatergoers by making the core of the story hinge around the idea of a boy and his car, and in Sam Witwicky, there was a character that many people could relate to. The movie’s impact could not be understated – Transformers was well and truly re-established as a household name, and people who had enjoyed the toys 20 years earlier were able to relive happy childhood memories. A special showing of the movie was arranged as a part of Botcon 2007, with a positively electric atmosphere and fans cheering from the first moment that Peter Cullen delivered the film’s opening lines to the conclusion.
The movie’s success was so great that a sequel was greenlit in September 2007 – just two months after the release of the movie in the US.
As well as the stars on the human side of the equation, Transformers brought back Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime, for the first time since 1987. Frank Welker was considered for Megatron, but it was decided his voice was not right for the character, so Hugo Weaving was cast in the role. Notably for most of the movie and the sequels, Bumblebee did not talk, kicking off the “mute Bumblebee” trend. Instead, Bumblebee communicated using clips from his radio (why nobody installed him with a vocoder is anyone’s guess). Originally, none of the Transformers were going to speak, though thankfully that idea was dropped. Another element which was dropped was the use of Arcee as one of the Autobots – reasons vary from her being too small to needing to explain female robots and having no time to do so, but ultimately, she was replaced in the final production by Ironhide.
The movie’s score was provided by Steve Jablonsky, who provided many epic pieces of music to accompany the key scenes, chief among them the theme that accompanied the arrival of the Autobots, “Arrival to Earth”. Linkin Park headlined the vocal soundtrack with their song “What I’ve Done”.
The mainline Transformers movie toys included Optimus Prime and Megatron in both Leader and Voyager size, and two different variations of Bumblebee for his 1970s and 2007 model Camaro forms. There were toys of the whole rest of the robot cast as well, including Ironhide, Starscream, Jazz, Bonecrusher and Barricade[/size]
The Transformers Movie toyline was heralded initially by a pair of Deluxe class “Movie preview” figures, Protoform Optimus Prime and Protoform Starscream, which represented the characters in their “pre-Earth” forms. They transformed into the meteorite forms which were used in the arrival to Earth scene in the film, although Starscream never appeared as a Protoform.
The main movie line was in fact divided into multiple toylines, and particularly noteworthy was that there were in fact two movie lines running – a line with toys of a similar complexity to the usual Transformers toys, and a simplified toyline called “Fast Action Battlers” for younger audiences. Other assortments included non-transformable Power Bots, bump and go “Cyber Slammers”, movie themed Legends toys, and the non-transformable action figure versions of the cast, the Real Robots series.
Fast Action Battlers were a simplified line, aimed at the younger end of the market. They featured chunky toys with simplified transformations, and tended to have gimmicks that consisted of shooting missiles or spinning weapons. One notable release in the series was a version of Frenzy who turned into a stereo, as seen in the Air Force One infiltration scene – he was not featured in the main line. The Fast Action Battlers, both as a sideline and as a larger, more simplified line of toys, were in many ways a forerunner of how future movie lines for Revenge of the Fallen and Age of Extinction would run a two-tiered system for toy complexity.
The movie series mainline featured no dedicated Scout assortment, and also dropped the Ultra class, so the whole main line was divided over the three size classes Deluxe, Voyager and Leader. All three size classes featured “Automorph” as a gimmick. Automorph was conceived as a way to recreate the thousands of movie parts of the on screen robots and replicate the transformation style of the movie designs. It worked by having certain panels trigger the movement of other parts when they were transformed – for example, folding Ironhide’s foot down made the surrounding panels on his truck bed swing out the way to form the rest of the lower leg.
As the main movie featured a fairly small cast, the movie toyline diversified with the number of characters available. As well as offering Optimus Prime, Megatron and Brawl at Leader class and again in the Voyager / Deluxe classes, several off-screen characters were produced. Some like Longarm were based on non-Transformer vehicles featured in scenes, while others were based on concepts that did not make the final cut, like Arcee and Stryker. Still others were based on the drone enemies from the tie-in videogame by Activision.
Two-packs and other exclusive sets were released in abundance for the movie, with Target taking the lion’s share of the exclusives, including movie-themed redecos of Scout class toys from Transformers Energon and Cybertron and a “Robovision” edition of the Voyager class Optimus Prime. Some particularly notable boxed releases from the 2007 movie line were the Scene Battle sets, which were based on key set pieces from the movie and included one Deluxe class Transformer, plus other PVC figures all in a display box patterned after the scene in the film that was being represented.
The Real Gear Robot series brought back Transformers that turned into everyday household objects with a modern movie twist[/size]
The Real Gear Robots series, which was released alongside the mainline and sold at the equivalent of a Scout pricepoint, had originally been developed for Transformers Cybertron. The series featured everyday household objects like cell phones, watches, and handheld games turning into robots. The series had a decent reception among fans, and was the first new series of robots based on household objects since the early days of Generation 1 – a welcome concept and quite fun little toys.
The Transformers Robot Heroes line made its debut in 2007. The series featured small PVC versions of the main characters of the franchise in a mock Playskool Heroes style. The first two waves of Robot Heroes were Generation 1 inspired, with the subsequent three waves then being movie themed, including the only toy release (at the time) of the Mountain Dew vending machine robot, Dispensor. The Robot Heroes line continued through to 2009 with Revenge of the Fallen, with more Generation 1 Robot Heroes coming out under the Universe banner in 2008, and a selection of Revenge of the Fallen Robot Heroes released in 2009. The line was popular for its slightly irreverent take on the subject matter, and in a way, it was almost a US equivalent of some of the Japanese PVC figure collections like the MyClone series.
A selection of Legends class releases from the Transformers movie line[/size]
The Legends class continued for the Transformers movie line, with the entire main cast of the movie represented in Legends class. The initial releases were single-packed, with the first wave of Legends bringing Legends class versions of Bumblebee, Ratchet, Jazz and Barricade. Later assortments added Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream and Blackout into the mix.
After the third wave, Hasbro varied the Legends assortment up a bit and instead released “Allspark Battles” two-packs which included an Autobot facing off against a Decepticon. The initial assortments included a Generation 1 themed Ratchet packed with Brawl and Jazz packed with Bonecrusher, with future assortments released in 2008 adding a Scorponok VS Bumblebee set amongst others. Some of the toys in these VS packs were sold separately in international markets.
The release of Transformers was accompanied by tie-in videogames from Activision. A pair of games were released for the Nintendo DS, an Autobots edition and a Decepticons edition, which placed you into a player-created avatar Transformer for the respective faction and had your avatar character interact with the cast and events of the movie. It was a fun game and allowed you to scan different alternate forms on the fly, though it hardly redefined Transformers video games. There was a console movie adaptation game too, which gave players a choice of either an Autobot or a Decepticon campaign and put them in control of various characters on both sides as again the player went through a series of missions based on and inspired by the movie. In between missions players could explore sandbox style areas to find hidden collectibles and undertake side missions. Again the game was fun, though it had some annoying moments and was nothing particularly stunning or revolutionary. There was, however, an interesting inclusion among the game’s characters and bosses – in the Autobot campaign, you would end up facing a triple changing Shockwave.
Transformers in 2007 was a worldwide sensation. In the UK, it prompted a new comic series from Titan Magazines which is still running to this day. The series kicked off with a series of six “movie prequel” stories chronicling the adventures of some of the Autobots and Decepticons on their journey from Cybertron to Earth. These were followed up with a pair of stories set post movie, telling the further adventures of the characters. The stories were simple and self-contained, and were fun, though nothing sensational.
In Japan, the movie’s release marked the first time that US character names were used in Japan – Cybertron gave way to Autobot, Destron to Decepticon, and Convoy was replaced with Optimus Prime. This trend would continue and escalate in following years, although reissues and the Masterpiece series continue to use the original Japanese character names.
The movie was a hit in Japan too, where it prompted Takara-Tomy to launch a new series of reissues, called the Transformers Encore series. Optimus Prime, Soundwave, Starscream and Megatron were the first releases, with Ratchet and Ironhide following soon after. E-Hobby also released some exclusive recolors through their online store.
Transformers Sports Label Transformers X Nike Free Megatron and Convoy – their alternate forms are sneakers. Photo by SoundwaveCA[/size]
Away from the movie series, Takara-Tomy introduced the Label series of Transformers. The “Sports Label” series featured Convoy and Megatron as Nike sneakers – the infamous “shoeformer” toys. They were cute oddities, notable mostly for how utterly wacky they were.
Another Label series was the Music Label. The Music Label were all about “real working” sound equipment. A new version of Generation 1 Optimus Prime aka Convoy was released, with a new trailer that doubled up as a iPod docking station. Soundwave also got included in the series, and he was a working MP3 player. This version of Soundwave was a great scaled down version of the original character, and many fans purchased him to have in their collections as a Classics styled Soundwave. A set of earphones, which transformed into Frenzy and Rumble, were also released.
Transformers Masterpiece MP-5 Megatron. Photo by SoundwaveCA.[/size]
On the Masterpiece front, the fifth Masterpiece Transformer, MP-5 Megatron, was released this year. Masterpiece Megatron could transform into the original Walther pistol alternate mode. As a collector’s piece, Megatron made a good companion to Masterpiece Convoy. However, Megatron’s transformation made him feel very fragile and fiddly. A second Masterpiece was also released in 2007, Masterpiece Skywarp, a black recolor of Masterpiece Starscream. Masterpiece Starscream himself arrived in the US this year, but this time in a white, show accurate deco.
Japan also marked the fact that 2007 was the 10th anniversary of Beast Wars arriving in Japan, and released their own series of 10th anniversary reissues to celebrate the occasion. The Beast Wars “Telemocha” series rereleased many of the Beast Wars cast with more show-accurate decos. The toys also featured metallic paint on their robotic components, which was a welcome addition to the designs. A larger “Golden Disk” set including remolds of the original Optimus Primal and Megatron Ultra Class toys was also released as a part of the celebrations.
All this, and comics too! IDW Publishing ramped up their Transformers comics in 2007 with more additions to their Generation 1 universe and movie universe comics. There was also a second Beast Wars miniseries, and a Beast Wars who’s who book released.
Wraparound cover to issue #4 of the Transformers Movie Adaptation, featuring most of the core cast of the movie
The Transformers Movie comics released by IDW in 2007 consisted of a movie prequel, leading up to the events of the first movie. The four issue miniseries covered the events on Cybertron leading up to the Allspark being jettisoned into outer space and Bumblebee losing his voice at the hands of Megatron. It covered Megatron’s arrival on Earth and his discovery by Archibald Witwicky, and the arrival of Bumblebee and the other Decepticons on Earth, along with an early encounter between Bumblebee and the agents of Sector 7 – all leading up to the beginning of the 2007 live-action movie. A four issue movie adaptation miniseries was also released, retelling the events of the movie.
Beast Wars: The Ascending issue #2 cover, featuring Lio Convoy and the rest of his crew, codenamed The Pack[/size]
IDW’s Beast Wars: The Ascending was another four issue miniseries, carrying on the story of Razorbeast and the other Maximals stranded on Earth after the events of Beast Wars: The Gathering. It told the next part of the story, of how a team from Cybertron set out to rescue the Maximals, but how also a new, strange form of fuel called Angolmois was driving Cybertronians into a violent rage. The architect behind this latest occurrence was Shokaract, who sought to use the Angolmois energy to make all of Cybertron an extension of his will – when, in fact, it would facilitate the return of Unicron, who was using Shokaract as a pawn. Observing all of this from a place beyond time was Magmatron, who manipulated events to bring Shokaract into the same place beyond time, where Magmatron convinced Shokaract of the truth – prompting Shokaract to sacrifice himself. The campaign was not without losses, however – Razorbeast was infected with Angolmois in a battle with the Blentron servants of Shokaract, and was euthanized before he could harm his friends. The series closed by showing Beast Wars Megatron on Cybertron – hinting that soon after the events of the series, Megatron took over the planet as seen in Beast Machines.
Beast Wars: The Ascending was better received than The Gathering, largely for getting more of the charm of Beast Wars captured in the series. The plot was largely based on two previous stories, the cartoon Beast Wars Neo and the 3H Botcon story arc, Reaching the Omega Point. However, since both of those series were relatively unknown at the time, the story was new ground for fans and generally a fun read.
IDW supplemented these new Beast Wars comics with four “Beast Wars Sourcebooks”, which were profile books in the Marvel Comics Transformers Universe style, covering all of the characters from both the US and the Japanese Beast Wars franchises, including Botcon exclusive characters like Fractyl. These profile books drew some criticism, though, for some inconsistent characterizations to the source material – particularly on characters from the Japanese series – and for artistic or coloring mistakes. They were however admirable for their scope in covering almost every single Beast Wars character ever.
Transformers: Escalation issue #4 cover[/size]
IDW’s own Transformers universe also forged ahead. The two miniseries Escalation and Devastation further built up the war on Earth – in Escalation, Sunstreaker and the Autobots’ ally Hunter O’nion were abducted by a shadowy human group, the Machination, with Ratchet and Ironhide trying to find them over the course of the series. At the same time, the Decepticons begin to escalate conflicts in war-torn parts of the globe to further their own goals, leading to a clash between Optimus Prime and Megatron – a clash that leads to Optimus briefly going unconscious and glimpsing a sinister presence within his subconscious – a former Prime, Nova Prime.
Following the events of this series, Megatron breaks from the usual Decepticon invasion protocol and decides to unleash a “phase sixer” on the Earth – Sixshot. Phase Six Decepticons would normally come into play much later in the Decepticon plans, when a planet would have been exploited for all it was worth and be ready for total devastation. The third miniseries, Devastation, followed Sixshot’s assault on the planet, with an alien race called the Reapers following in his wake to purge whatever Sixshot missed. The Machination also made their move, with their leader revealed to be the Decepticon Scorponok, who abducted Sunstreaker to mass produce Headmasters based on Sunstreaker’s design. And amid all the chaos, the Dead Universe Transformer Galvatron made his move, ironically becoming instrumental in saving the day.
These two miniseries upped the ante from the Infiltration series significantly and built up the world that IDW had established while progressing multiple plot threads. More Spotlight issues also fleshed out the storyline and how individual characters played into the action.
The other major Transformers miniseries from IDW in 2007 was Megatron Origin. Megatron Origin told the story of how Megatron started out as a simple miner before fighting as a gladiator in the pits of Kaon and rising to lead a revolution as leader of the Decepticons. The series showed how, early on, Megatron was a noble character, and how as time went by he increasingly fell into the ways of violence and combat. The series drew some criticism for its art, which was sometimes so dark that it was hard to understand what was happening, and also for the scene in which Megatron removed his helmet and displayed his true head – although the idea behind the scene was sound, as it was intended to show what Megatron might have been had things been different. Overall, the miniseries further codified the “Megatron as gladiator” backstory that began to be set out in The War Within and the old Marvel annual story State Games, and with this series, it became more or less the de facto backstory for Megatron, as future stories such as the Aligned Continuity drew on this miniseries’ versions of events in a greater or lesser extent.
That is almost all for 2007 – a packed year dominated by the first live-action Transformers movie. But it was not all about the movie – in December 2007, the world got its first taste of the next Transformers cartoon, Transformers Animated, a joint production between Hasbro and Cartoon Network. The pilot aired on December 26th, 2007 – with the rest of the first season following in early 2008.
Superquad7
Agreed! Maybe @Sol Fury can give another one soon!
Back in
Need a update but that ok
Phantformer5533
Thank you for all these links! I definitely needed this in order to make my own list. Glory to transformers!
Vik
Awesome, such a dense history!
Metro Prime
Thanks. I have been doing that since that post. TF Wiki has been answering a lot of questions.
batfan007
You can always read some pages over at TFWIKI to catch up on those years, covers pretty much everthing.
John Does
Awsome looking forward,…
Metro Prime
It took me days to read all of this!
Excellent and informative write up. I'm impressed and it filled in a few blanks for me. I've been collecting since G1 with a few years of breaks until I started a major effort into collecting through the Energon era, the beginning of the Classics line, and intermittently through the years til I saw Titans Return and have been heavily collecting since. This write up has shown me where some of my more eclectic figures have originated.
Is there an update from 2015 to current in the works? I'd love to see what else I've missed.
Excaliberprime
good info here
Abishai100
Gen 1 – Gen 2
I think a good way to think about the immense shift in style and content between TG1 (Transformers Generation 1) and TG2 is to think about how the toys, cartoons, and comics focused more on variability of character significance for various storylines. TG1 offered stories relevant to particular characters, but TG2 offered a more liberal attitude towards who could be a randomized figurehead in a given storyline!
That's why TG2 was the 'gateway' to the modern Transformers era which focuses much more on general concepts and character randomization than did TG1.
That's also why TG1 is the ideal intro for anyone looking to become a Transformers fan. Hey, isn't that why we all love Transformers: The Movie (1986), the real art-piece that began showing us conceptual bridges between TG1 and TG2?
ChromedomeMaster
35 years of transformers, and i have only been apart of it for 10 years
3 Wheeler
I like the Long Haul Pic!!!
Djin
Great read
Blam320
That's really too bad. You're missing out on a lot, and I mean a lot of really good Transformers stuff by only caring about G1.
Rodimus Prime BetterPrime
For years I've wanted the G1 series in a blu-ray release. With this year marking its 35th anniversary, hopefully we'll finally get it. I don't care about anything but G1.