Super-Con Class Hot Shot with Jolt
Transformers: Armada marked a fresh start for theTransformers brand, a reinvention that introduced a whole new universe and backstory for the robots in disguise. Thefranchise also introduced a new faction, theMini-Cons, the line's most distinctive element, asevery larger toy included one or more Mini-Con partners.
The line was a hit with kids; the simpler, cleaner transformations made the toys more accessible than prior lines, plus the wealth of actiongimmicks gave every toy more todo. The numerous Mini-Cons in particular proved popular with fans and children alike, and have continued on into many subsequent toylines. It did so well out of the gate that the line had to be expanded beyond its initial offerings pretty quickly, and began the next four-ish years of direct sequels, an era that would come to be known as the "Unicron Trilogy".
Overview
Super-Con Class Demolishor, packed to the gills with gimmicks.
The toyline marked a sharp change of design direction from the intricate, sometimes frustrating complexity found in the priorBeast Wars,Beast Machines, andRobots in Disguise lines (that last one being a particular point of contention with parents). The early offerings in particular are blocky, easy to transform, sturdy and colorful.Articulation tends to be reduced, sacrificed to keep price down in light of the need to add a Mini-Con partner and multiple intricategimmicks to every mold.Ball joints largely disappeared from the non-Mini-Con toys in favor of permanently-joined swivels. The aesthetics of larger robots hearken back more to the blocky concepts ofGeneration 1, while the Mini-Cons tend to be more experimental, with odd facial designs and non-standard limbs.
The overall aesthetics of the toyline also hearken back towards theTransformers franchises'mecha roots as a whole, as a lot of the figures took inspiration from the other popular mecha franchises of the time, such asGundam; design aesthetics that had—for the most part—swerved the WesternTransformers world entirely, being mostly restricted to theJapanese Generation 1 toyline, with such examples beingStar Saber andDai Atlas. Part of this change in aesthetics for the Western franchise was brought on by the then-HasbroTransformers lead designer,Aaron Archer, who had travelled in and out of Japan during the line's inception, while working closely withTakara, and had taken inspiration from various magazines and store displays around him at the time, trying to create something Western fans hadn't really seen inTransformers before.
Each larger toy features a "central" gimmick which can only be activated by attaching—aka "Powerlinxing"—a Mini-Con to the appropriate hardpoint; the socket on each Mini-Con has a central pin that presses a recessed button within the hardpoint. Though most transformation schemes are simple, many of the "Powerlinx"-activated gimmicks are quite complex and innovative, such asHot Shot's fan-coined "axlezooka",Scavenger's stompy-stompy action, andMegatron's turret-mounted twin-missile launcher. Electronic lights and sounds also became standard on nearly all toys larger than Deluxe/Super-Con Class. Most non-Mini-Con toys also have multiple hardpoints that don't activate any gimmicks, but as many Mini-Cons have working missile launchers, or third "weapon modes", or other combat-style gimmicks, or can be oriented toresemble guns and blades and so on, these hardpoints allow robots to be kitted out with all kinds of gear, a play pattern that would be revived in later lines like the Takara version ofTransformers: Prime with itsArms Microns and theWar for Cybertron Trilogy with the "C.O.M.B.A.T. System" and its successors. Whether it was intentional or not, when slapping all of these Mini-Cons onto a single figure, they start to look closer to aSuper Sentai/Power Rangers Megazord, as the ridiculousness of having ten or so individual figures attached to a single figure, restricts the already-limited articulation, and looks hilariously awesome.
As withRobots in Disguise, the back end of the series featured same-characterredecoes of toys in "powered up" modes, and this practice of heavy mold-re-use would continue on into the future to combat the ever-rising costs of production. The line was further bulked up by redecoes/retools of severalBeast WarsTransmetal toys, reworked to be Mini-Con compatible (despite a lack of any kind of action gimmicks), as early sales and subsequent retailer demand exceeded expectations, and they had to getsomething out relatively quick.
Towards the end, the line veered in an unexpected direction, with the introduction of the massiveUnicron, ahuge toy based on the character fromThe Transformers: The Movie, and arguably the greatest wish-fulfillment yet offered to fans from Hasbro, as no toy of this monstrosity had yet seen release. To promote this massive toy, the ongoing storylines of both the cartoon and comic abruptly changed direction to feature the character as their central plot element, and the toyline itself gained asubline imprint promoting him inThe Unicron Battles. The initial wave of this subline imprint used the original red and blueArmada packaging with an added "The Unicron Battles" logo sticker, whereas the second version sported a new color scheme in orange, blue and black that had theUnicron Battles logo as an integral part of its packaging design for the larger toys. Some toys ended up being available in all three packaging variants.
Armada saw a bit of a price jump (production costs again), as the $20 "Max-Con" size class replaced the $15 Mega Class of past lines, while the $25 "Giga-Cons" replaced the $20 Ultras. This was offset by the fact thatArmada toys overall tended to be somewhat more bulky and massive than their predecessors, plus contained much more intricate internal mechanisms and electronic features as well.
Development
Armada was driven byBrian Goldner wanting a collectible play toyline as seen in Japan and wanting to bringTakara in as co-developer. Takara, for their part, was extremely eager to come in as a co-developer onTransformers again to have some control on what the new toys would be and make sure they were commercial for the Japanese market as well. They brought in a horde of toy concept ideas that would shape the line, and a small team of Hasbro and Takara staffers were given leeway to develop the new idea.[1][2]
One early idea from Takara was individual Mini-Cons would work at unlocking features on specific Autobots and Decepticons, rather than working for all of them.Aaron Archer argued that American kids would just jam any Mini-Con into the slot and get frustrated it wasn't working.[3]
HasbroArmada toyline
All waves under theThe Unicron Battles banner are marked with "TUB".
You left a piece out!
This article is astub and is missing information. You can helpTransformers Wiki byexpanding it. What's needed: All of the store-exclusive Hasbro multi-packs. |
Mini-Con 3-packs
Mini-Cons were sold in carded three-packs at the Basic/Scout price point, each team defined by a particular gimmick or theme. Though only slightly larger than their closest precedent, theMicromasters, they generally featured greatly improved articulation, complexity, and originality of design.
Super-Con Class
| Wave 1 (July 2002) | | Wave 2 (September 2002) | | Wave 3 (December 2002) | | Wave 4 (March 2003)Side Swipe withNightbeatThrust withInferno | |  Super-Con Class Smokescreen with Liftor |
| Wave 5 (May 2003) | | Wave 6 (TUB; July 2003) | | Wave 7 (TUB; September 2003) | | Wave 8 (TUB;October 2003) |
Max-Con Class
| Wave 1 (July 2002) | | Wave 2 (November 2002) | | Wave 3 (March 2003) | | Wave 4 (TUB; July 2003) | | |
| Wave 5 (TUB; September 2003) |
Giga-Con Class
| Wave 1 (July 2002) | | Wave 2 (December 2002) | | Wave 3 (February 2003) | | Wave 4 (TUB; July 2003) | |  Giga-Con Class Tidal Wave |
| Wave 5 (TUB; August 2003) |
Super Base
| Wave 1 (August 2002) | | Wave 2 (TUB; June 2003) | | | | | | |
Supreme
| Wave 1 (TUB; July 2003) | | | | | | | |  Supreme Unicron, the line's largest toy. |
Role Play
| Role Play Triple Changer (July 2002) | | Deluxe Role Play (TUB; July 2003) | | | | | | |
Exclusives
K-Mart exclusive Optimus Prime
- K-Mart (TUB; November 2003)
Despite the various toys in this set being labeled "Powerlinx", they're not actually the Powerlinx versions. Just so you're not shocked when you click the links.
European-only releases
| Tiny Tins (March2004) | | Super-Con Class (2003) | | | | | | |
The Tiny Tin Mini-Cons were only available in
Armada packaging in Europe. In the United States, they were instead sold under the
Universe line, which didn't exist in Europe. Meanwhile, the red version of Powerlinx Thrust was
almost a European exclusive, since it was also available as a "
USA Edition" in Japan (see below).
TakaraLegends of the Microns toyline
Takara's take onArmada, hitting stores a bit later than the Hasbro version, has some small but significant differences, largely in the decos. With a closer tie to theanimation, the toys had their colors tweaked to make them closer to their animation counterparts. This ranges from the small and subtle to completely different color schemes.
Takara also wentnuts with the Mini-Cons. All but one of the three-pack teams got "Exdimensions" redecoes at normal retail, and some of the earlier molds got multiple redecoes as limited-edition store-exclusive promotional giveaways.
Regular retail
Store/event exclusives
Aside from the deluge of limited-edition Micron giveaways, Takara released a lot of the Hasbro line's non-cartoon-based toys as "USA Editions" through numerous outlets.
| Ito Yokado | | Jusco | | LaOX | | Hello Mac | |  Powerlinx Thrust with Inferno |
| TF Station affiliates | | Toys"R"Us | |
| | Toy's Dream Project/Toy Card | | |
| World Hobby Fair |
Media exclusives
SonokongEunha Yeongung: Cybertron toyline
From2003 to2005, Takara licenseeSonokong released a smaller selection ofLegends of the Microns toys inKorea, under the nameEunha Yeongung: Cybertron (은하영웅 사이버트론Eunha Yeongung Saibeoteulon, lit. "Galactic Heroes: Cybertrons"). The ID numbers, and the figures themselves are the same as their Takara releases. The only differences between the Japanese and Korean releases is the packaging.
| Cybertrons | | Destrons | | Other | | Multi-packs | | |
Cancelled toys
- A redeco of the Street Speed Team seen atOTFCC 2003—one-off "color shifts" of the Japanese Street Speed Micron Overdrive Edition—was intended for mass release, but never saw the light of day.
- Redecos of the Adventure and Space Teams surfaced from China, but were likewise not released.
- At OTFCC 2003, it was announced that the more show-accurate Japanese version of Wheeljack and Wind Sheer would be released in the North American line as a running change. That never happened.
- Likewise, the red version of Powerlinx Thrust was supposed to hit North American shores as a running change, but never did… although it DID see release in Japan, Europe, and Israel(!).
- APowerlinx Blurr toy was supposed to see release alongside Demolishor, but was canned; the deco (or some variation thereof) was eventually released asUniverse Swerve.[4][5] Not only that, butthree more Powerlinx redecos were planned for later waves that never happened; it's likely that these were shuffled intoEnergon asRapid Run,Treadbolt, andUltra Magnus.[6][7]
Post-Armada releases
Though it does not quite (yet) have the nostalgia-pull of older series,Armada has nonetheless had a number of toys released based on its characters, and even several all-new characters put into its universe since the Unicron Trilogy closed up shop. (Obviously, we're not counting toys from the direct-sequel series here.)
- Hasbro
| Universe (2008) | |
| |
| |
- Mini-Con 12-Pack
(Backstop,Blight,Bodyblock,Boltflash,Brimstone,Cloudraker,Flatfoot,Heavytread,Knockdown,Makeshift,Skyhammer,Suppressor)
| |  Universe Hot Shot with Jolt  Legacy Armada Universe Starscream |
| Kre-O | | Generations | | Combiner Wars | | Titans Return |
| Legacy | |
| | Age of the Primes |
- Hasbro viaFun Publications
- TakaraTomy
Notes
- According toAaron Archer during his stint as ORSON, the Armada Autobots and Decepticons had intentionally different design aesthetics. The Autobots were designed to be symmetrical with clean lines and detailing, while the Decepticons had asymmetrical sculpts and details to invoke a more foreboding and battle-worn feel. A good example of this would beHot Shot versusCyclonus.
- The official Hasbro press releases forArmada used the pricepoint titles from theBeast Wars era - Deluxe, Mega and Ultra - instead of Super-Con, Max-Con and Giga-Con, the designations specifically created for the toyline. Confusingly, one press release even referred to the "Mega Figure Assortment" as consisting of "MAXCON figures"…[8]
- While early toys in Hasbro'sArmada line used insignias without painted outlines (AKA "blob symbols"), starting with some shipments of Sideways and all later waves, the insignias received painted outlines like Takara's versions.[9]
- There were two different types ofUnicron Battles packaging: The first version was simply the original red and blueArmada packaging with an added "The Unicron Battles" logo sticker, whereas the second version sported a new color scheme in black, orange and blue that had the "Unicron Battles" logo as an integral part of its packaging design for the larger toys. Some toys were available in all three packaging variants.
- For the Japanese version of the line, Takara took the unusual step of picking and choosingpackage art from the Hasbro line, with just about all ofDon Figueroa andGuido Guidi's art being carried over, while the rest was replaced with new work. No explanation has ever been given, although most of the replaced art originally depicted the character incorrectly (Megatron's treads being mounted on his back instead of his shoulders) or just very inaccurately (Jetfire's everything).
- Armada continued a habit from theBeast Era andRobots in Disguise of reusing "G1" trademarks for characters who fit thevibe but were otherwise unrelated to those '80s characters. Hasbro designerAaron Archer had been tasked with re-securing key trademarks and iconography that had been allowed to lapse, and so he'd usually pick several names for each toy in case his first choice didn't clear legal, but the names chosen were decidedly a secondary consideration to the toys themselves. For example, had the first choice of "Blurr" not been available, the second choice option was "Silverbolt", followed by "Groove".[10][11]
- Each of the Mini-Con teams were seemingly created with a certain theme, gimmick, or functionality in mind that matches up with specific figures of the larger varieties. Evidence of this can be found in both the US and Japanese versions of the toylines, that feature Mini-Con teams included as pack-ins with other figures, as well asthe cartoon advertising them paired in this way. Some of these pairings are a little on the odd side, however, and probably don't have much of a common "theme" outside of cartoon-based fiction or just a way to make a quick buck. These include:
- Super Base Optimus Prime and theStreet Action Mini-Con Team – released as a set in Japan, specially as repaints. This was likely only done due to them both being the leaders of their respective factions.
- Hot Shot and theAir Defense Mini-Con Team/Star Saber – released as a set in Japan, and was shown in the beginning half of the cartoon. The Japanese "Hot Rod" toy also includes a light-up feature in his right hand for this specific purpose, but it was absent for the US release. Super Base Optimus Prime similarly features a light-up feature in his rightSuper Mode hand, for this very purpose.
- Smokescreen and theRace Mini-Con Team/Skyboom Shield – released as a set in Japan, and was shown in the cartoon. In the cartoon, Smokescreen's extending crane boom was utilized as a launcher for the Skyboom Shield. The cartoon kept up with this when he was rebuilt into Hoist, utilizing his the shovel arm as a swinging catapult.
- Hoist and theAdventure Mini-Con Team – released as a set in Japan. Hoist was originally intended to feature a gearing gimmick like Cyclonus, that was supposed to be activated by pushing on the shovel rod, but this was dropped on the final toy. Hoist's standard pack-in partner,Refute, still features the intended interactive gearing mechanism, but can't be utilized with Cyclonus's present gearing mechanism, due to him being too big. Cyclonuscan function with the Adventure Mini-Con Team members, though.
- Blurr and theStreet Speed Mini-Con Team – released as a set in Japan. This was likely done due to their shared connection of racing in-universe. Other than that, there isn't a whole lot that connects these two in any meaningful way.
- Jetfire and theSpace Mini-Con Team/Requiem Blaster – released as a "Bonus Pack" in the US. This is pretty self-explanatory, as they're all space-relatedalternate modes.
- Galvatron and theNight Attack Mini-Con Team – released as a "Bonus Pack" in the US. All of them are military vehicles, and repaints of existing molds? Yeah, we don't really know the reasoning behind this either, that's the best we could come up with.
- Demolishor and theLand Military Mini-Con Team – released as a set in Japan, and was shown in the cartoon. All of them feature military vehicle modes that compliment one another. Aside from commanding the team as a whole on-screen in some episodes,Bonecrusher was presented asDemolishor'strue Mini-Con partner.
- Cyclonus and theDestruction Mini-Con Team – released as a set in Japan, and partially shown in the cartoon. Cyclonus and this Mini-Con team feature gearing mechanisms that can be linked to one another. Much like Demolishor,Drill Bit was shown to be one of two partner Mini-Cons for Cyclonus—in fact—he was actually utilized by Cyclonus on-screen more thanCrumplezone ever was.
- Thrust and theAir Military Mini-Con Team – released as a set in Japan, and was shown being directly commanded by Thrust in the cartoon.
- Tidal Wave and theSea Mini-Con Team – only shown once in the cartoon. All of their alternate modes are water-based, and all of the Sea Mini-Con Team members feature bending knees and the same sized "butts", which allow them to sit perfectly in between the grooves of Tidal Wave's hovercraft modes' flip-out troop-carrying seats.
- Takara "Rampage" (Wheeljack) and the TakaraAir Assault Microns/Dark Star Saber – released as a set in Japan. This was never shown in the cartoon or any other media, and was likely done as Hot Shot—Wheeljack's friend-turned-archrival—is packaged with the Star Saber in Japan. The USAir Assault Mini-Con Team/Dark Star Saber was released as a "corrupted" version of the regular Star Saber; meant to represent it when it is being utilized by the Decepticons, specificallyMegatron/Galvatron. Whether or not it was intentional, Megatron lacks any form of light-up feature in his hand, so the Hasbro release of the team being molded in opaque plastics makes sense since there's no light needed to pass through it.
- The only Mini-Con team that isn't "officially" paired with anyone (aside from the otherUnicron Battles repaints), is theEmergency Mini-Con Team, but given the alternate mode theme, they fit rather nicely withRed Alert.
References
- ↑ "Brian Goldner wanted to get back to basics, and he wanted a 'collectible' kind of concept. He was familiar with what was happening in Japan prior with various types of collectible play, small play, micro play, things that- years before anything like that came to the western markets. […] So he understood the potential, and to that end I'll just say, he put a lot of trust in me to make this happen—tremendous amount of trust, when you think about what he was trying to do, because it was really a very small group of us and I was really the only designer that made this happen at the time. So his goal was to have the collectibility, that presented Takara the opportunity to pitch a lot of different ideas that they have had over the years, they were very much happy to- well, let me take a half step back. What Brian also wanted was to bring back was that co-development. […] For a few years, they were kind of like a partner-vendor; we would come up with ideas and what they would want for theBeast Wars stuff, and Takara would kind of make that happen, even though it wasn't necessarily an item they were going to sell in their market. […] So they were eager to get a better partnership, we were eager to get a better partnership, just to make better overall product: co-develop the animation, co-develop the products, co-develop all of it."—Aaron Archer onThe Toy Armada, 2021/12/14
- ↑ "Hasbro did 60% of the character designs, all the colors, names and background info and many of the heads. Takara did the toy eng. some bios and rough design and models work."—Aaron Archer, TFW2005, circa 2002
- ↑ "Takara, if left to their original concepts—each Mini-Con would have been unique to unlock that car's feature. They were always very, 'particular key fits a particular lock', where I always had to defend the dumb American kids—is how I used to refer to it—that would just try to jam any key or any Mini-Con into the port and be upset that it wouldn't work."—Aaron Archer onThe Toy Armada, 2021/12/14
- ↑ "With Armada selling well we are still making Blurr so we pushed out the PL version till late next year. I hope to find a home in the TF:Universe line for it."—Aaron Archer, TFW2005, 2003/08/19
- ↑ "I don't know if Blurr ever came out in that red [Powerlinx] deco."—Aaron Archer,The Toy Armada, "Toy Armada Friday Night LIVE - Armada BLURR and more!", 2023/03/17
- ↑ "In his answer found here, Orson provides us with the information that three PowerLinx figures are expected beyond PowerLinx Demolishor and PowerLinx Blurr."—Tim Formas, TFW2005, 2003/05/13
- ↑ "Not really, they are not a large part of Energon if part at all."—Aaron Archer, TFW2005, 2003/09/10
- ↑http://groups.google.com/group/alt.toys.transformers/msg/b11879ad57a742ca?hl=en
- ↑ "Up until now, the insignias have been painted with no background detail. Starting with some shipments of Sideswipe and all figures in later waves, Hasbro's Armada insignias will be painted with background detail much like Takara's Micron Densetsu take of these molds."—Tim Formas, TFW2005, 2003/03/11
- ↑ "I like the use of the name. "Blurr" was a great name from back in the day. Again, this is an era where I'm not- I'm just trying to regain the assets of the brand, and not really caring at all about how it played with G1 or what came before, because that really wasn't something we had to worry about at all. That was not under our purview, to keep the heritage going, so to speak. That kind of came later. So I was just trying to use cool names, Blurr is obviously a great, simple get. I love names that sound like what they do or what they are."—Aaron Archer,The Toy Armada, "Toy Armada Friday Night LIVE - Armada BLURR and more!", 2023/03/17
- ↑ "'Sleek Car. Type: rocket on wheels, Ferrari-type.' This is the notes from our working rollout. 'Triple change, flight mode, hand-held weapon. Mini-Con partner race dragster. Main character role. Interceptor. October '02.' So that's how we thought of that character. Alright, names, Sleek Car… first choice was… was what it was, I guess, so I guess we went with the first choice we had. Choice #2 was Silverbolt, choice #3 was Groove. I did not have a choice #4. Mini-Con names: Drag Strip, Crashor, Overdrive. Those were the options. Why we had so many options was, on this sheet, I went down the line, if something didn't get approved by legal, we dropped that one out, and moved the next one up. So because this went through, we never had to then search 'Silverbolt' to see if that would work."—Aaron Archer,The Toy Armada, "Toy Armada Friday Night LIVE - Armada BLURR and more!", 2023/03/17
