Who would have thought that some robot action figures from the 1980s would be even be relevant 25 years after their release.
Hey welcome to watchmojo.com, I'm your host Derek Allen and today we’re going to explore the history of the Transformer Franchise.
It was 1984 when US based toy maker Hasbro fresh off the success of their G.I Joe action figures, released the first Transformers line, previous to this, similar Transforming figures had been released by the Japanese toy manufacturer Takara, but proved difficult to crossover it to the US market.
Selling the rights and partnering with Hasbro, Takara’s converting robot lines were brought together under the Transformers name. In the short time that followed, Hasbro created a back story for the Transformers and also gave names and personalities to many of the characters from the older Japanese lines. Along with the 21 characters released in the original set, Hasbro created its commercial campaign for the Transformers with the popular and frequently restated tag line, Robots in the Skies.
Among the original characters released were Optimus Prime, Megatron, Star Scream and Bumblebee, all characters who still hold an important role in the franchise. In that same first year, an animated television series based on the toy line took to the airwaves.
Further proving that Transformers had quickly move from being simply a toy line to a media franchise, after finding its success in every area it had entered, the first Transformers feature film hit the big screen.
Based on the animated series, the film was also animated and served as a bridge between the TV series second and third seasons. However, even with the voice talent of people like Leonard Nimoy and Orson Welles, the film underachieved at the box office, bringing in only $5 million during the opening at weekend. Despite this poor reception, the Transformers franchise would live on and the film would eventually grow into a cult classic, among fans of the franchise.
In 1993, the Transformers generation II line was released, leading many fans to retro actively label and even released before 1993 has generation one. In the mid-90’s the beast wars era would begin and feature new characters that instead of transforming it into trucks and cars, would transform into a variety of animals. However, by 2001, Hasbro would return to the placid Transformer concept and a new generation would discover the joys of these transforming robots.
With anticipation building among new and old fans of the franchise, a brand new live action Transformers film was released in 2007, truly bringing the entire franchise into the 21st century, bringing in over $700 million at the box office, the new film’s success ensured that the sequel would be released only two years later, in 2009.
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