The2015Robots in Disguise toyline, like itsaccompanying cartoon, is aimed at a slightly younger audience than previousTransformers mainlines, slotting neatly between the preschoolRescue Bots series and the preteen/older-fan-aimedGenerations. It features a mixture of easy-to-transform figures and more "traditional" figures with multi-step conversions across an incredible number of price points, with a heavy focus on core characters.
Overview
The overarchinggimmick for the line is specialfaction symbol "Shields", which can be scanned with the accompanyingRobots in Disguise app to temporarily unlock the toy for use in-game.
The line had an impressive
threesubline imprints. At general retail, the line's additional gimmick for 2016 was
Mini-Con Weaponizers, with the focus being on
Mini-Cons that could turn into weapons for the larger figures to wield. For 2017, it was the more expansive
Combiner Force, with the focus on, obviously, combining robots, either as two-component super robots, combining five robots into a traditional
Combiner, or a gimmick-activating Mini-Con with a larger partner. Both saw the subline branding and overall packaging design extended to all price points regardless of their relevance to the subline gimmick, including packaging variants of unchanged re-releases of existing figures. In addition,
Toys"R"Us had the
exclusiveClash of the Transformers subline, a mix of
redecos,
retools, and a few all-new sculpts, which overlapped with
Mini-Con Weaponizers in 2016, with the toys being
co-branded as part of both subline imprints.
What's particularly remarkable in this case is the sheer longevity of some figures, to a degree not really seen since the days ofGeneration 1: Despite having already been succeeded by the usual redecos in many instances (as has been the standard for pretty much every line sinceBeast Wars), figures of the more prominent characters were frequently re-released in the new packaging styles for the general retail subline imprints listed above. Although toys being carried over into subsequent waves and being given packagingvariants for the sake of uniform packaging design isn't an unusual occurrence by itself, the shift from "same-character redeco" to "re-release of the original deco" is noticeable, especially with toys continuing to ship in their original decos over two years after their original release, some of them even having been available inthree different packaging styles over the course of the series!
HasbroRobots in Disguise toyline
General retail
"Standard" line
This is, admittedly, a bit of an arbitrary distinction we're making, but given the sheeramount of product across more price-points than virtually any line in the past has featured, some sorting is in order. These are the more "traditional" toys in "traditional" size classes that the older fanbase would be more likely to care about.
Legion Class
- After being relegated to limited-releaseredecoes for most of2014, the Legion size class returns in full. TheCyberverse branding has been dropped, along with the larger Commander pricepoint.
| Wave 1 | | Wave 2 | | Wave 3 | | Wave 4 | | |
| Wave 5 | | Wave 6 | | Wave 7 | | Wave 8 | | |
| Wave 9 | | Wave 10 | | Wave 11 | | Wave 12 | | |
| Wave 13 |
The
wave that includes Cyclonus and Heatseeker was skipped entirely in the United States. While it has been released in numerous international markets such as Asia, Canada, Australia and Europe, stores in the US only received the subsequent wave that includes Twinferno but not those other two. And unlike that latter wave, the Cyclonus/Heatseeker wave was never even solicited to US-based online retailers.
Warrior Class
- The newly-named "Warrior" assortment is broadly similar to the traditional Deluxe Class, but somewhat simplified for greater accessibility. As such, their MSRP is slightly lower than contemporary Deluxe figures in theGenerations line.
| Wave 1 | | Wave 2 | | Wave 3 | | Wave 4 | | |
| Wave 5 | | Wave 6 | | Wave 7 | | Wave 8 | | |
| Wave 9 | | Wave 10 | | Wave 11 | | Wave 12 |
The wave that features Twinferno as the only new figure was only released in the United States. In all other international Hasbro markets, the wave in which Bludgeon and Thermidor debuted alongside Twinferno was available from the get-go, in most cases long before even the Twinferno-only wave was released in the US.
Single-pack Mini-Cons
- Featuring single-step transformations, Mini-Con alt-modes are meant to augment larger toys. The first four waves work with the larger "Deployer" figures (see below), forming projectiles (Autobot Buzzsaws, Decepticon Torpedoes, and mostly-Decepticon spheroidCyclones) the larger toys can launch via pressure mechanisms. Replacing the "Deployer" Mini-Cons at the price point, Weaponizers transform into, well, weapons that can he held by or mounted on larger figures via5 mm posts. They aremostly one-step-transformations, but a few have extra pull-out parts needed to complete the process.
- All Mini-Cons include a number of clear-plastic accessories, packaged on the sprue, which can be pegged into various sockets on their bodies. The first two waves of figures' accessories can be combined with those from their wavemates to form an "energy animal": aMini-Con armor lion for Wave 1, and aMini-Con armor shark for Wave 2. The rest? Nope.
- Following the release of the second wave, waves 3 and 4 of the single-pack Mini-Cons arrived notoriously late at retail in the United States, and then only at clearance chains. The Weaponizer Mini-Cons were never found at US retailat all. In some other markets, the first Weaponizer wave was found longbefore wave 4 of the original assortment (due to being, well, separate assortments), and wave 2 of the Weaponizers was only released in a very small number of markets.
| Wave 1 | | Wave 2 | | Wave 3 | | Wave 4 | | |
| Weaponizer Wave 1 | | Weaponizer Wave 2 |
Mini-Con Deployers
- Packaged with a Mini-Con, Deployers are designed to wield and launch the smaller figures. Keep in mind that with all Deployers, their gimmick only works on a flat surface, as there is a switch that locks the gimmick when the toy is not on a table or the ground. So no, you can't shoot your friends with your Mini-Cons.
- Due to retailers in the United States discontinuing the Deployers assortment, the final wave with Crazybolt was never released at brick and mortar retail in the US, and was only stocked by US-based online retailers following a massive delay. The wavedid see a release in various other markets more or less on schedule, though.
Mini-Con Battle Packs
- For the first twowaves, each Battle Pack includes a roughly Scout-sized "Decepticon Hunter" figure and a Mini-Con opponent; for the third wave, the "Decepticon Hunter" monikers were dropped, with the Mini-Cons now turning into weapons for the included Autobot figures. The Autobot figures include a number of translucent weapon and armor accessories which can also combine into a single large weapon.
Mini-Con multi-packs
- Big boxes of Mini-Cons!Very unusually for United States releases, all three 4-Packs feature the same Hasbro product code number as well as the same UPC barcode number, effectively making them the "same" product at the distribution level despite being different toys every time.
| Mini-Con 4-Pack (1) | | Mini-Con 4-Pack (2) | | Mini-Con 4-Pack (3) | | | | |
| Mini-Con Mega-Pack | |
| |
|
Simple transformation
With its larger focus on the younger set,Robots in Disguise produced alot of toys with either very simple transformations, or no transformation at all.
One-Step Changers
- Sub-Deluxe-scale figures with (mostly) single-step transformations, as advertised. As a consequence of the assortment's longevity, numerous characters have received two or even three all-new figures by 2017.
| Wave 1 | | Wave 2 | | Wave 3 | | Wave 4 | | |
| Wave 5 | | Wave 6 | | Wave 7 | | Wave 8 | | |
| Wave 9 | | Wave 10 | | Wave 11 | | Wave 12 |
Three-Step Changers / Hyper Change Heroes
- Three-Step Changers, aka "Hyper Change Heroes" (see theNotes section for more) succeed theAge of Extinction Flip & Change toys as a large, simple-to-transform price point. Unlike those figures, however, there is no unifiedtransformation scheme. For unknown reasons, the assortment was effectively put on hold at US retail for the better part of 2016, with wave 7 finally being found nine months (!) after it had first appeared in Australia. Subsequently, the assortment continued at a regular pace. In 2017, each figure was given a different,trademarked (!),gimmick-y call-out on the packaging such as "Hyper-Flip", "Hyper-Twist", "Hyper-Swoop", "Hyper-Hook", "Hyper-Turn" or "Hyper-Vault".
| Wave 1 | | Wave 2 | | Wave 3 | | Wave 4 | | |
| Wave 5 | | Wave 6 | | Wave 7 | | Wave 8 | | |
| Wave 9 | | Wave 10 | | Wave 11 | | Wave 12 |
Crash Combiners
- Part of the "Combiner Force" third-year line, these Scout-sized individuals have simple transformations to robot mode. Crash them together in vehicle mode to form a super robot!
Team Combiners
- Part of the "Combiner Force" third-year line, these scout-class figures have simple transformations. The full groups can combine into larger robots.
Activator Combiners
Part of theCombiner Force third-year series, these Deluxe-ish-level toys have extra "assault vehicle" modes (akin to the "Stealth Force" of the past) that are activated by plugging in their packed-in Mini-Con partner.
Large-scale figures
- Specialty toys even bigger than the normal 3-Steps.
| Power Surge | | Titan Changers (Wave 1) | | Titan Changers (Wave 2) | | Misc | | |
Exclusives
Toys"R"Us
In later 2015,Toys"R"Us released the "Clash of the Transformers" toys, a pretty sizablesubline imprint of exclusives: a mix ofredecos,retools and even some wholly-new molds. The line-up was released in Australia, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, except for Warrior Class Megatronus, who was only released in the US, and the "Decepticon Island Showdown" set, which was not released in Europe.
| Legion 2-packs | | Warrior Class Wave 1 | | Warrior Class Wave 2 | | Warrior Class Wave 3 | |  Toys"R"Us-exclusive Megatronus |
| Three-Step Changers | | Mega Five-Step | | Power Heroes | | Multi-packs | | |
|
Target
- Robots in Disguise Collection (One-Step 6-pack)
This 6-pack was also available as a
Toys"R"Us exclusive in Canada and as a general retail release in Latin America (or at least in Brazil), and a year later also as a Target exclusive in Australia and as a Tesco exclusive in the United Kingdom.
TakaraTomyAdventure toyline
TakaraTomy's take on the line, dubbed "Transformers: Adventure" (トランスフォーマー アドベンチャー), generally features morepaint operations per figure. The early part of the line was filled out with a number of molds from other series, includingGenerations,Prime,Combiner Wars, and evenAnimated.
They have a similar scan-sticker gimmick to the Hasbro line, except the only thing they do in the app is mark them down in a collection checklist. The "imported" molds sometimes got minorretooling to accommodate the new stickers.
Beginning with wave 14, the figures were released in redesigned packaging under thePrime of Micronsubline imprint.
Toys in italics are exclusive to the TakaraTomy line. This will not include the toys that are barely-changed versions of the then-recent toys brought in from the non-Robots in Disguise molds (aka "most of the blatantly-G1 characters").
Adventure Series
Easy Dynamic Series
This "subline" ofAdventure is made up of the 3-Step and 1-Step Changers that didn't get rolled into the normal line.
Exclusives
- Retail/online
- Media mail-aways
Merchandise
- Titan Guardians
- 6-inch minimally-articulated action figures sold mainly through "budget" stores.
- Titan Heroes
- 12-inch minimally-articulated action figures sold at more places than the smaller Guardians, including major brick-and-mortar retailers.
| Wave 1 | | Wave 2 | | Wave 3 | | Electronic Titan Heroes | | |
- Tiny Titans
- Small soft-plastic figurines sold in individualblindpacked bags, this line features a mix of characters fromRobots in Disguise, "Generation 1" and other pastTransformers franchises... though they're all rendered in a veryRobots in Disguise fashion, especially the art on the packed-in cards. We'll only list theRobots in Disguise characters here, see the main article for the full lineup.
- Role-play
Post-Robots In Disguise releases
Notes
Hasbro said "Three-Step Changers" is the final name of the assortment. Apparently Hasbro didn't get the memo.
- The first year of the line lacked assortment names on the toys' packaging, which led to some confusion as to the "final" names of certain size classes, as several alternate working names have popped up through official channels.
- The "One-Step Changers" are identified as "One-StepWarriors" on multiple international versions of the Hasbro website, a name that popped up on several US retailers' sites as well...and briefly on the US Hasbro website.
- The "Three-Step Changers" (aka "3-Step Changers") are referred to as "Hyper Change Heroes" (or "Hyperchange Heroes") across multiple international Hasbro and individual retailer websites. Hasbro's PR releases all use "Three-Step Changers", and a Hasbro representative atBotCon 2015 (and laterBotCon 2016) further confirmed that "Three-Step Changers" was supposed to be the final name. Despite this, Hasbro shipping cases still said "Hyper Change Heroes" as late as 2017.
- Thewave numbering used on this page is a convenience, where only waves that actually introduce new toys (either new sculpts or redecos of existing figures) are counted. Hasbro's official wave numbering includes waves that consist entirely of changed line-ups of previously released figures. In the case of the One-Step Changers, for example, the final wave is officially "wave 16", even though there were only 12 waves that introduced any new product.
- On multiple occasions, major updates to theRobots in Disguise mobile game's list of available characters and variations thereof have indirectly revealed massive bulks of previously unannounced toys.
- Take note that the insignia stickers from theMini-Con Weaponizer/Combiner Force re-releases of the original Warrior/Legion Class figures only unlock Energon currencies in the mobile game instead of the characters.
References
