Transformers: Universe (2003 toyline)
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The original Transformers: Universe toyline, launched in 2003, was a line (almost) entirely made up of redecos (and occasionally retools) of toys from older lines, in order to quickly (as quickly as a massive multinational corporation can, at any rate) capitalize on the success of Armada and the demand for more Transformers product that line created.
And in many ways, it did its job a bit too well. After a considerable flood of products and a huge number of store exclusives, the line was effectively dead after a little over one year. However, it continued in other forms, such as an outlet for rebranded toys to smaller retailers, for nearly three more years, coupled with the occasional delayed release from its original run.
Importantly, Universe really cemented the re-use of years-old molds at retail for Hasbro, and while they would never quite do it as extensively as they had this time, the practice would live on... especially in the second Universe line, launched in 2008, which was mainly all-new toys, but made pretty extensive use of older molds at its larger price points and for its many store exclusives.
History and overview
Initial conception and original run
The Universe line was intended to run concurrently with and supplement the main kid-aimed Energon line, with $10 "Deluxe" and $20 "Ultra" price points. Due to this more limited range of price points, toys that didn't really stack up to one of these were supplemented with other toys, such as a "Basic" toy and added Mini-Con sold as a Deluxe, or a "Mega" toy with a "Basic" sold as an Ultra class set. In addition, an unusually huge-for-the-time number of store exclusive toys and multi-packs was released as well. Some of those multi-packs were even available at lower prices than the original releases of those molds combined. The OTFCC 2003 and 2004 exclusives were also branded "Universe".
The molds used for the Universe line spanned from as far back as late-era Generation 1 to the most recent lines, with molds from Beast Machines and Armada being particularly common. Some molds that had previously only been available in Japan (such as Big Convoy or the Micromaster Sixcombiner teams) were also made available to Hasbro's target audience for the first time that way. Notably, many of these toys now had... unconventional decos. Reportedly, most of these decos were done by Hasbro employees from outside the Transformers team, particularly those working for Star Wars, and were basically allowed to go nuts. Early Universe toys had silver "energon surge" paint simulating power flashes, but this was dropped fairly shortly, even if the fantastically gaudy base color choices carried on.
The first wave of toys came with a pack-in CD-ROM featuring related stories and games.
The line was officially only available on the American market, although some toys (the aforementioned Micromasters, in particular) were released in some European countries in Energon and Cybertron packaging, coupled with a few American imports (such as the "Battle in a Box" sets) that were sold by online retailers and specialty stores.
Discontinuation and continuation
Universe effectively died as a mass retail line when Walmart decided to discontinue the Ultra Class assortment in late 2004 due to low sales. Earlier that year, Walmart had already stocked half a dozen exclusive Universe toys, which had also ended up as shelfwarmers. The Deluxe assortment was cancelled by Hasbro shortly afterwards.
Two more KB Toys exclusive Deluxe toys (in Cybertron-esque packaging) followed in 2005, as well as two more KB Toys exclusive Micromaster waves in 2005 and 2006, respectively. Furthermore, three Ultra two-packs that had already been produced before the Ultra assortment was cancelled eventually ended up as Target exclusives, also in 2006.
Aside from those delayed releases of already planned toys (except for the KB Deluxes), the Universe line continued for nearly four more years (!) following the cancellation of the mass retail assortments, but now only in the form of rebranded toys from more recent lines such as Energon, Cybertron, and Classics, with no redecoes whatsoever. Those toys were mostly available from liquidator stores such as Dollar General, Family Dollar, or Tuesday Morning. Even a new mold, which was available as a Chevrolet online store exclusive in 2008, used the old Universe logo in its instruction sheet.
Toys
The redeco line (2003 - 2006)
Retail releases
- Tiny Tins
An odd exception to the "redeco" rule of the early Universe line, these three Mini-Cons, released individually with additional Tiny Tins, were unchanged from their original releases as part of the Armada Race Mini-Con Team
| Wave 1 (03-2004) |
- Deluxes
| Wave 1 (06-2003) | Wave 2 (08-2003) | Wave 3 (10-2003) | Wave 4 (01-2004) |  | ||||
| Wave 5 (03-2004) | Wave 6 (08-2004) | Wave 7 (10-2004)
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Wave 8 (02-2005) | |||||
| Wave 9 (04-2005) |
- Ultras
An oddity of the Ultra assortment (one that would also manifest in the eventually-concurrently-running Energon toyline) is the ".5" assortments. Basically, the contents of a wave would be revised mid-run, with new product added to the mix, but none of the "tracking" information changed. As far as the stores were concerned, it was all the same stuff.
| Wave 1 (07-2003) | Wave 1.5 (10-2003) | Wave 2 (11-2003) | Wave 2.5 (03-2004) |  | ||||
Wave 3 (08-2004)
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Wave 3.5 (10-2004) |
Exclusives
Well after the normal retail line ended, Universe continued on as a series of store exclusives.
| Kmart (07-2004) | "Market six" (10-2004)
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Sam's Club | Target |  | ||||
Toys"R"Us
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Walmart
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| MicroMaster Series I (05-2004) | MicroMaster Series II (10-2004)
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MicroMaster Series III (09-2005) | MicroMaster Series IV (09-2006)
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| Deluxes (09-2005) |
| OTFCC 2003 (07-2003) | OTFCC 2004 (07-2004)
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Rebranding and other odds and ends (2005 - 2008)
At this point, Universe-branded product was almost entirely repackagings of toys released in other lines without changes (aside from the packaging, obviously), put out through "discount" chains in extremely staggered release. And the one truly new toy in the series was one you were highly unlikely to see through normal shopping...
Interestingly, the new packaging omitted any references to combiner toys' combining abilities.
| Spy Changers Wave 1 (02-2005) | Spy Changers Wave 2 (08-2006) | Basics Wave 1 (08-2005) | Basics Wave 2 (10-2006) |   | ||||
| Basics Wave 3 (10-2007) | Deluxes Wave 1 (10-2005) | Multi-packs
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Exclusives
Walmart (11-2007)
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Chevrolet Store (10-2008) |  |
Unreleased toys
A great many more toys were planned for Universe that ultimately never made it out the door. In early 2004, a large number of stolen samples of toys intended for the line appeared on eBay; all of them were later officially revealed by Hasbro one way or another. Many of these toys' decos would be the inspiration for other characters altogether, often through Fun Publications as club and convention exclusives.
- Toxitron — Seemingly set for regular retail release, this was a "toxic"-themed redeco of Generation 2 Super-sized Laser Optimus Prime. It was incredibly popular immediately. Fun Publications investigated the possibility of releasing this toy as a Club exclusive, but was told the tooling was too expensive.
- Jetstorm — An unreleased deco revealed in Hasbro's BotCon 2007 display. No name was assigned for this Ultra Class toy, so we're listing it as Jetstorm.
- A Chinese distributor list leaked to the internet in 2004 contained the names of four more toys listed under the mass-retail Deluxe assortment, namely "Sonar", "Optimus Primal", "Optimus Minor", and "Thrustor". It's unclear whether there were ever any concrete plans behind those names, or whether they were merely placeholders.
- Smokescreen with Jolt VS. Drench with Wind Sheer — Confirmed by Hasbro as an intended third "Battle in a Box" two-pack that would have been available from Target, this set was to include the Armada Super-Cons Hot Shot and Wheeljack molds (and their Mini-Cons, of course) redecoed like Generation 1 Smokescreen and Generation 2 Drench (but as a Decepticon like "Euro" Drench), respectively.
- While Smokescreen still hasn't seen a release, a "Drench"-based redeco of the Wheeljack mold was later released—with slight modifications—by the Transformers Collectors' Club as the BotCon 2008 exclusive Shattered Glass Sideswipe toy.
- Spacewarp with Comettor and Space Mini-Con Team — Originally intended for Toys"R"Us, this was a redeco of the Armada Giga-Con Jetfire, including redecos of his Mini-Con companion Comettor and a new-deco version of the Space Mini-Con Team (Astroscope, Sky Blast, and Payload). As with other Mini-Cons in the Universe line, Comettor and the Space Team would presumably have retained their original toy names and not have been new characters.
- The Transformers Collectors' Club later released the toy in a slightly modified version of this deco, sporting a new head sculpt, as Astrotrain. While the Comettor redeco (now named Starcatcher) was included, the Space Team redecos were replaced by redecos of the Cybertron Giant Planet Mini-Con Team as the Sabotage Team, as the Space Team molds had degraded beyond use by that time.
- Leatherhide VS. Blackarachnia / Nightprowler VS. Waspinator — Intended to be Walmart-exclusive "Halloween Horrorcon" two-packs, these toys were mysteries until two years after their appearance on ebay, when an odd checklist update on Hasbro's public Transformers website (which was "fixed" days later) revealed their names and planned outlet. Leatherhide is a redeco of the Beast Wars Mutant Soundwave, pitted against a redeco of the original Blackarachnia toy. Nightprowler is a redeco of the original Beast Wars Cheetor, packed with a redeco of Transmetal Waspinator.
- For BotCon 2015, the Waspinator deco was used on the Thrilling 30 Waspinator mold as the Waruder "Parasite" drone, which was later repurposed as the Predacon Skywasp. In 2022, Skywasp got a new toy, a Target-exclusive redeco of Kingdom Waspinator in a Buzzworthy Bumblebee "Beasts Collide" four-pack.
- Piranhaking — Redecos of the Generation 1 Seacons, now named the "Piranhacons", in a Walmart-exclusive Ultra-sized giftset. Even though the aforementioned checklist on Hasbro's public website confirmed them as having been intended for the Universe line, Hasbro themselves stated at OTFCC 2004 that Walmart had asked them to release them under the Energon banner instead. Either way, Walmart later decided to back out of the deal. Instead, the Seacons (now under their original Generation 1 names again) were released via the Transformers Collectors' Club in 2008.
- Menasor — The Machine Wars Ultra-sized Optimus Prime tooling of Generation 1 Thunder Clash was planned for a store exclusive redeco as "Menasor", as "Motormaster" was unavailable as a trademark at the time. This redeco got as far as a prototype and received packaging art before being canceled.[1]
- The Allspark fansite also received details about planned
BotConOTFCC 2005 exclusives following the bankruptcy of 3H Productions. As with OTFCC 2003 and 2004, these figures would presumably have been labeled as part of the Universe line. With the exception of Hot Spot/Defensor, who was shown as a prototype, none of the other ideas made it beyond the design stage.
- Brawn and Roadbuster — Energon Basic-sized Strongarm was planned as a redeco and new-head retool pair
- Devcon — Energon Deluxe-sized Slugslinger was intended for a new-head retool as the first toy of the Generation 1 cartoon character, who had previously lost a vote to become a BotCon 2002 toy.
- Megatron — Robots in Disguise Ultra Class Megatron was planned for a new toy of Beast Wars Megatron's Transmetal 2 dragon form, possibly characterized as a "Transmetal 3" upgrade in a post-Beast Machines setting. This Megatron concept was actually revived a decade later and released at BotCon 2016.
- Hot Spot / Defensor — Robots in Disguise Super Class Optimus Prime was intended to be used for a new form of Generation 1 Hot Spot and Defensor, but as one figure with a super mode instead of five figures together as the Combiner. This figure would have retained the small mode Optimus head for Hot Spot mode but received a newly-tooled head as super mode Defensor. To offset the costs of producing such a large toy, there was also a "Midnight Shield Defensor" black redeco planned.
Post-Universe releases
As, ultimately, a short-lived footnote in the overall Transformers franchise, Universe has not had a huge impact on later nostalgia-driven series. Most of the callbacks to it are more in the form of homage, and mostly to unreleased toys, as noted many times above. But a handful of characters have actually made their way into other lines with new, updated toys.
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Legacy
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Notes
- The Grimlock & Swoop/Mega-Dinobot combiner was originally intended for the Universe line, which would have made it the first newly created mold(s) to be initially released as part of the line. However, Hasbro ultimately decided to release it as a two-pack in the Energon line instead. As a consequence, Chevrolet Swerve was the first (and only) new mold to be released under the original Universe banner...in 2008, shortly before the second Universe line was launched.
- On their official Transformers website, Hasbro listed several combo-packs of Armada Mini-Con teams (Adventure Team/Sea Team, Road Wrecker Team/Night Attack Team, Race Team/Space Team) under "Universe". The actual toys, however, which were available from Toys"R"Us and Wal-Mart stores and were unchanged from their Armada releases other than the packaging, came on Energon rather than Universe cards.
See also
- Transformers: Expanded Universe—a short-lived BotCon 2002 exclusive toyline whose characters appear in the Universe comic.
