Transformers figures are wildly popular toys due to their excellent back stories, intricate history, and utter coolness factor. While newer additions to the toy line are impressive with their intricate transformations and gadgetry, the heavier and clunkier toys of the 80’s are exceptionally desirable, partially due to their varied history.

In the seventies, Takara, a Japanese toy company manufactured the popular Diaclone and Microman toy lines, which featured toys that morphed into vehicles, robots, and electronics devices. Hasbro was already licensing Takara’s technology for the G.I. Joe toy line and continued the partnership to manufacture the Transformers figures toy line, while simultaneously purchasing the Diaclone line outright. 

A backstory was developed for the toy line and many new figures were added, while many of the original Diaclone toys were retooled to blend into this new story line. That’s the straightforward piece of their history. Then things began to get confusing. 

Soon after, the Marvel comic was launched in the United States. It would later be released in the UK and Japan, spawning new figure variations and multiple names for toys in the process. In 1984 the television series was developed, but the writers didn’t precisely follow the original backstory.

In 1986, the full length animated movie was developed, two more seasons of the animated series were launched, and the UK and Japanese story lines were still being created. In the early 90’s, the second generation series was created (G2), followed by Beast Wars, followed by a new series of comics and toys released by Dreamwave in the early 2000’s. All of this led to wild discrepancies in characters, plots, backgrounds, and most other aspects associated with the toy line and the backstory.

Concurrently, Hasbro was creating many more Transformers figures and sets, including Pretenders, Technobots, Targetmasters, Powerlinx, Omnicons, Masterforce, Combiners, Actionmasters, Brainmasters, Micromasters, Minibots, Aerialbots, and many more. Many of these lines were truly engineering wonders. Wait a minute, don’t tell me that you thought there was just one toy line?!

Adding to this confusion are the new Transformers releases, inspired by the popular 2007 movie. Some of these new toys even feature cross-over promotions with the popular Star Wars franchise. While these transforming figures don’t carry the same geek appeal as Star Wars vintage action figures or the original Transformers figures, they are very popular with newer fans of both the Transformers and Star Wars series.

The end result is that Transformer action figures are more than just a disntant memory for many collectors; they are also a perfect example of creativity, cooperation, and design ingenuity not often seen in the current mass market toy releases. Thanks to their past, vintage Transformers figures should remain popular and collectible for many years to come.