| The name or term "Legacy" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Legacy (disambiguation).
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Transformers: Legacy (aka Transformers Generations: Legacy)[1] is a subline imprint of the Generations toyline, and the successor to the War for Cybertron Trilogy.
First revealed in late 2021 at Hasbro Pulse Con 2021, Legacy commemorates the approaching 40th anniversary of the Transformers brand by featuring new toys of characters from across the Transformers multiverse. The toys are largely in the scale and style of those from the War for Cybertron Trilogy, including numerous 3 mm posts and 5 mm ports from the C.O.M.B.A.T. System. Characters from franchises known for a more unique art style, such as Prime and Animated, are updated with the modern Generations aesthetic to fit with the rest of the toyline, with some featuring significant redesigns. The toyline also sees the return of combiners from Hasbro for the first time since Power of the Primes, starting with the Stunticons in 2022.
The storytelling of Legacy follows characters brought together from across the multiverse as their universes collide[2] for an extra-dimensional battle.[3] As such, characters are given prefixes associated with their series of origin, such as "Cybertron Universe". Certain characters have also been given these prefixes to denote specific iterations, such as "Comic Universe" Impactor. Replacing the package bios of old is a QR code on the back of each box, or for Core Class figures, on the instructions, which leads to the character's bio on the Transformers website. A full list of the bios can be found here.
Unlike its predecessors, Legacy was not replaced by a new line with its own distinct title for its second and third years. Instead, it was given a refresh in the form of subline imprints titled Legacy: Evolution and Legacy: United, with the existing assortments continued in terms of distribution. Similar to its predecessors, the Legacy toyline features package refreshes of several figures from previous lines, even all the way back to Siege, though Legacy elects to remove the battle damage paint applications from these toys where applicable.
Legacy will conclude with United in 2025 and be succeeded by Age of the Primes the same year.
Legacy
We did it. We put the "s" in Generations.
The first year of Legacy (theoretically) focuses on characters that can "harness the power of Energon", with many toys including an often-translucent accessory that the figure can wield in multiple ways and combine with others branded an "Energon-infused weapon"[2], not too dissimilar to the 2003 Energon series. In keeping with this theme, the first wave of Core Class includes weapons specifically designed to combine into a large sword, but the gimmick was quietly dropped immediately after. Moreover, toys that do not utilize clear plastic in any part of their construction are still refered to as Energon weapons in their product descriptions.
General retail
Core Class
Deluxe Class
Voyager Class
Leader Class
Big ticket items
| Commander Class
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Titan Class
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HasLab campaign[4]
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Exclusives
Please note that the exclusivity listed for toys below applies to the United States. Also, most of Legacy's exclusives were available through Hasbro Pulse as well, but in much smaller numbers than their "main" outlets.
Walmart
- Walmart had a large number of exclusives; first came a trio of normal Legacy-packaged Deluxe beast-bots (which were sold as Farmers exclusives in New Zealand).
- Next came the "Velocitron Speedia 500 Collection", which focused on characters on the namesake planet participating in the namesake race. The first assortment was revealed on the June 23 2022 Fanstream. A second assortment of Deluxe Class toys was revealed in early October, without prior announcement.[5] Distribution of this second wave of product has been... let's politely call it varied. These toys were Kmart exclusives in New Zealand.
| Deluxe Beast Assortment
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Velocitron Deluxes
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Velocitron Voyagers
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Velocitron Leaders
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Other outlets
- The Amazon-exclusive "Wreck 'N Rule Collection" was themed around the Wreckers team. Each set in this collection had part of a buildable cardboard Wrecker hammer, the base of which translates to "Creator of the Wreckers Resistance - Emirate Xaaron". All five boxes could be stacked to form a display mural.
- Almost all of Target's exclusives were part of the long-running Buzzworthy Bumblebee series, a multi-franchise set of toys with increasingly-smaller amounts of Bumblebee in it. Red Cog, however, was sold in normal Legacy-style packaging.
| Amazon "Wreck 'N Rule Collection"
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Generations Selects (multiple outlets)
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Hasbro Pulse
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Target
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| Walgreens
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Legacy: Evolution
Legacy: Evolution, the second year of Legacy product, was announced in fall 2022 at that year's Pulse Con. This subline imprint not only broadened the range of past Transformers franchises characters could be pulled from, it retired the Energon-infused weapons in favor of a series of integrated weapons referred to collectively as "Evo-Fusion." Admittedly, many of these are just the same "combine and mount weapons somewhere on the figure" play gimmick that has been part of the Generations line for years, but hey.
Supporting this is a continuation of the "Weaponizer" concept with a new tribe of modular Junkions that can mix and match body parts and accessories to create your own robot and vehicle modes, or armor and weaponry for other bots. Following Menasor, this subline's combiner is Volcanicus, made up of six Dinobots in the smaller Core Class. Evolution also puts some more focus on Armada characters to commemorate the series' 20th anniversary, although these new releases do not include any of the series' original Mini-Cons. The line also notably features the first mainline Animated toys since the show's cancellation in 2009; 2023 also marks the 15th anniversary of the Animated cartoon, but we doubt this was intentional.
General retail
Core Class
| Wave 1
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Wave 2
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Wave 3
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Wave 4
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Deluxe Class
| Wave 1
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Wave 2
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Wave 3
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Wave 4
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Voyager Class
| Wave 1
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Wave 2
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Wave 3
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Wave 4
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Leader Class
Big ticket items
| Commander Class
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Titan Class
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HasLab campaign[4]
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Exclusives
Walmart
- Walmart's "Toxitron Collection" capsule featured gloriously garishly-decoed toys based on unreleased concept redecos from Generation 2 (and one from 2003's Universe). The series was revealed on March 13 in 2023 as part of Walmart's "Collector Con", showing off the first three toys as well as putting them up for preorder. The toys eventually started shipping in mid-July, with the remaining toys being officially revealed at San Diego Comic-Con (though they had been found at Walmarts before the show). However, distribution has reportedly been spotty at best, with many stores missing out on some or even all of the capsule.
| Toxitron Deluxes
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Toxitron Voyagers
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Toxitron Leaders
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Other outlets
- Amazon's "Pre-Cybertronian War" capsule is inspired by the beginnings of the war in both comic continuities from IDW Publishing. The boxes of the "Rise of Tyranny" and "Humble Origins" packs can be displayed next to each other as one image. Target's Evolution exclusives were all under the Buzzworthy Bumblebee banner.
| Amazon "Pre-Cybertronian War"
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Generations Selects (multiple outlets)
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Hasbro Pulse
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Target
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| Walgreens
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San Diego Comic-Con 2023
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Legacy: United
Into the fire! / Feel the burn! Give into the flame / And never return! Legacy: United, the third and final year of Legacy product, was once more announced in fall 2023 at that year's Pulse Con. A celebration of the franchise turning 40 years old, United continued the previous year's focus on expanding the pool of characters to bring back into the toyline, including further Animated toys as well as toys from franchises such as Rescue Bots and Beast Wars II.
This year also introduced another iteration of the mix-and-match "Weaponizer" gimmick in the form of "Armorizer" toys, rock-like beings who can turn into vehicles, weapons and armor for other toys. These characters take inspirations from both the Rock Lords of the sister GoBots franchise, as well as a race of rock aliens from planet Daira who appeared in a single episode of The Headmasters. The name of their home universe even shouts out the molten realm within the core of the Earth in the Inhumanoids cartoon. Talk about a literal deep cut.
The line would see a fifth wave added that consisted almost entirely of toys that fans in the U.S. reported were very hard to find, all receiving package refreshes with no changes to the toys themselves. This wave would serve as the final wave of the Legacy line; Hasbro Pulse Con 2024 announced that the line would be succeeded by Age Of The Primes in 2025.
Unfortunately, unlike its predecessors, United has omitted the QR codes on the packaging.
General retail
Core Class
Deluxe Class
| Wave 1
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Wave 2
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Wave 3
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Wave 4
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| Wave 5
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This item is currently scheduled for release, but is not yet available at mass retail.
Wave 5
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Voyager Class
| Wave 1
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Wave 2
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Wave 3
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Wave 4
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| Wave 5
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This item is currently scheduled for release, but is not yet available at mass retail.
Wave 5
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Leader Class
| Wave 1
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Wave 2
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Wave 3
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Wave 4
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Big ticket items
| Commander Class
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Titan Class
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HasLab campaign[4]
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This item is currently scheduled for release, but is not yet available at mass retail.
Omega Prime
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Exclusives
- United continues the exclusive "capsules" trend with Amazon's "Doom 'n Destruction Collection", based on the Mayhem Attack Squad to rival the earlier "Wreck 'N Rule Collection", and Walmart's pirate-themed "Star Raider Collection". With the apparent end of Buzzworthy Bumblebee in 2023, this year's Target exclusives use standard United packaging.
Walmart
| Star Raider Deluxes
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Star Raider Voyagers
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Star Raider Leaders
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Other outlets
| Amazon "Doom 'n Destruction Collection"
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Generations Selects (multiple outlets)
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Hasbro Pulse
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Target
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| San Diego Comic-Con 2024
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Legacy (TakaraTomy)
TakaraTomy's normal-retail Transformers Legacy (トランスフォーマーレガシー Toransufōmā Regashī) toyline is largely the same as Hasbro's, with no notable changes to the toys proper (other than the omission of the tampographed Hasbro product code numbers); the one "big" change is that the packaging adds ID numbers for each item (sadly, Hasbro's Legacy toyline ditches the number system seen in the previous War for Cybertron Trilogy toyline). But the TakaraTomy line is markedly smaller than Hasbro's, having omitted all of the package-refresh figures and the first-year Core Class figures (the Cores were eventually picked up again with the Evolution Dinobots, et al.). On top of that, the list of exclusives for the line released by TakaraTomy is a more limited selection.
Beginning with Wave 9 (corresponding to Hasbro's Evolution imprint), TakaraTomy's bios began making reference to the characters' arrival in "Legacy World", presumably the same enigmatic location featured extensively throughout Hasbro promotional images and stock photography.
Comic
TakaraTomy's iteration of the Legacy franchise is accompanied by a series of (very) short comics on their website by brand veteran Hayato Sakamoto, thus far uncharacteristically continuity-light for a TakaraTomy outing as befitting Legacy's grab-bag approach:
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Legacy VS500 Collection Special Comic: 1 | 2 | 3
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General retail
Exclusives
"Universe" designations
The universes featured in the Legacy toyline include (as the line names them):
The "Universe" naming conventions are, at times, arbitrary:
- Toys in Generations Selects, the HasLab program, and the "Pre-Cybertronian War", "Doom 'n Destruction" (except Breakdown), and "Star Raider" (except Calcitron) capsules lack any universe label.
- "G1 Universe", "Beast Wars Universe", and "Beast Wars II Universe", did not appear on the toys' boxes prior to United.
- The Diaclone-adjacent items in the Buzzworthy Bumblebee and the previously mentioned Generations Selects are not given the "Diaclone Universe" label.
- "Headmasters Universe", "Super-God Masterforce Universe", "Beast Wars Neo Universe", and "Beast Machines Universe" are not on any boxes, despite their shows being named in product descriptions. United Metalhawk and Magmatron in particular are given the "G1 Universe" and "Beast Wars Universe" labels, respectively.
- Laser Optimus Prime lacked the "G2 Universe" label on his box, until his United package refresh.
- The "Comic Universe" label is not on Blurr, Scarr, the previously mentioned "Pre-Cybertronian War" capsule, and United Bludgeon, Orion Pax, and Gladiator Megatron. Jhiaxus and the Cybertronian Trooper are given the "G2 Universe" label despite being Marvel Comics-original characters, like "Comic Universe Impactor".
- The first "Victory Universe Galaxy Shuttle" toy is the only toy to receive the "Victory Universe" label, including the previously mentioned HasLabs, Dinoking/the Dinoforce... and Galaxy Shuttle's United package refresh!
- Toxitron has the "G2 Universe" label, but he is from Universe.
- The "Robots in Disguise 2000 Universe" label was changed to "Robots in Disguise 2001 Universe" for United, matching the American Robots in Disguise release year as opposed to its original Japanese version, 2000's Car Robots.
- United Origin Bumblebee, Autobot Cosmos, and Overcharge are missing the "G1 Universe" label, unlike the rest of the main line United G1 toys.
In TakaraTomy's take on the line, everyone is established as visiting the "Legacy World" (レガシーワールド), alternatively "Legacy Spacetime" (レガシー時空) or "Transformers Legacy World" (トランスフォーマーレガシーワールド) in full. Their origin universe descriptions are largely similar, to the point of using Hasbro's names for the lines rather than their own (in line with their use of Hasbro's names for the characters), but there are still some notable differences and inconsistent terminology:
- Ancient Time Universe
(エンシェントタイムユニバース)
- Animated Universe
(アニメイテッドユニバース)
- Armada Universe
(アルマダユニバース)
- Beast Wars Universe
(ビーストウォーズユニバース)
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- Beast Wars World
(ビーストウォーズワールド)
- Beast Wars Metals Universe
(ビーストウォーズメタルスユニバース)
- Comic Universe
(コミックユニバース)
- Cybertron Universe
(Cybertronユニバース,
サイバトロンユニバース)
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- Cyberverse Universe
(サイバーバースユニバース)
- Energon Universe
(エネルゴンユニバース)
- G1 Multiverse
(G1マルチバース)
- G1 Universe
(G1ユニバース)
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- G2 Universe
(G2ユニバース)
- Prime Spacetime
(プライム時空)
- Prime Universe
(プライムユニバース)
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- Rescue Bots Universe
(レスキューボッツユニバース)
- RID Universe
(RIDユニバース)
- Victory Universe
(ビクトリーユニバース)
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The change from "Diaclone" to "Ancient Time Universe" is because TakaraTomy has a concurrently-running Diaclone revival line entirely separate from Transformers (focusing on the original pre-Car Robot aesthetic).
Notes
- Emiliano Santalucia was responsible for the concept art of the various "energon weapons".[7]
- Prior to the toyline's reveal in October 2021, much of its roster was found through internal online listings from retailers such as Target.
- Some toy listings featured "Evolution" as part of the toyline's name in its first year,[8] far before the Evolution branding was officially introduced.
- Much like 2022's Studio Series lineup, Leader Class toys feature window-less packaging, which allows for expanded artwork. The others largely utilize the same minimized window and plastic tray-less boxes from the previous line, War for Cybertron: Kingdom, though with many hard-to-stack (but cool!) angles for the sides and no plastic window.
- The lack of a plastic window in the packaging has led to several drawbacks, most prominently the lack of support offered by the plastic window makes the packaging more susceptible to stress-based wear-and-tear, as well as tampering with the figures inside such as pushing Voyager Bulkhead's head into his chest cavity, making it appear as though the figure is missing his head... or many, many cases of figures actually missing their heads, having been stolen out of the packaging.
- Due to the polarizing reception to the Generation-1-fied redesigns of Prime characters, Hasbro announced they were trying to find a better balance between preserving the original designs for non-G1 characters whilst updating them for the current aesthetic for later toys, particularly the Animated character updates,[9] and has not ruled out on Studio Series for more accurate redos of Prime characters.[10] Come Legacy: Evolution, the new Animated Prowl showed off this new approach, being basically the original design, just made more boxy. Meanwhile, Prime Skyquake ended up as a pretty even blend between the Prime and original Skyquake visually, while the Armada characters added to the line all had sculpts that were incredibly faithful to their original iterations (minus loads of gimmicks, of course, but the visuals were there).
- The original listings included a lot of entries titled "Energon Monster". These Fossilizer/Weaponizer-style Core and Deluxe toys were dropped and Pretender characters were approved at the last minute to fill in those slots.[11]
- A Legacy animated series, conceptualized as a sequel to the War for Cybertron Trilogy cartoon, was in the discussion stage at one point, but Netflix passed on the pitch,[12] as it didn't fit with Netflix's mandates at the time. Hasbro chose not to shop it to other platforms or services, as they wanted to maintain their good relationship with the streaming giant.[13] The show was intended to be much lighter in tone than War For Cybertron, and would have been set centuries after the events of Kingdom.[14] The main villain was intended to be Straxus, who had a space in the toyline and preliminary concept art when the show was canned. His toy was cancelled and its place taken by Transmetal II Megatron.
- The Legacy line saw the release of the very first Titan Class figures from beyond G1, including Cybertron Metroplex and the much-requested Armada Tidal Wave. Design director John Warden stated in 2024 that he expected they wouldn't ever run out of toys to release in this size class.[15]
- However, these figures and most of the other Armada updates in the line were notably missing their trademark Mini-Con partners. Hasbro had found the Micromaster price-point introduced in War for Cybertron: Siege to be unviable, as the low price-point struggled to justify the high cost of cutting steel molds for small figures which were not much less intricate than their larger equivalents. A couple of Mini-Cons were eventually designed to be packed into exclusive sets, but for the most part, the designers seem to have struggled to find an appropriate release vector for more—despite obvious enthusiasm from the team![16]
- Similarly, the "Cybertron Universe" figures in Legacy lacked their trademark Cyber Keys; there were vague plans to release some Cyber Planet Keys in an accessory pack.[17] Evidently in response to fan feedback, when the series was revisited in more detail with Legacy: United, the figures all included smaller-scale Cyber Keys that could attach in various ways—though of course, these were just for show, the original toys' gimmicks being impossible to replicate on a modern budget.
References
- ↑ The official in-house title of the toyline is "Transformers Generations: Legacy", which is often used in online product descriptions given to retailers. The name used for the line's logo, however; is just "Transformers: Legacy".
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Pre-reveal of Legacy on the Transformers Facebook: "Celebrating an almost 40-year legacy of Transformers, universes collide as fan-favorite characters are brought together from across the multiverse, updated with Generations styling. You can harness the power of Energon, with all-new Energon-infused weapon accessories that come with figures across the line."
- ↑ "So the way the Legacy line is handled right now, it’s an extra-dimensional battle, it invites all of the different continuities to join under a single umbrella."—John Warden, TFW2005, "SDCC 2024 Hasbro Interview – John Warden’s Return, Generations, Studio Series, Combiners, More!", 2024/08/03
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Due to their sheer scale, all HasLab campaigns are kept in-house and are thus sorta kinda joint exclusives between Hasbro Pulse, TakaraTomy Mall, and a very select list of secondary retailers with Hasbro and TakaraTomy's blessing to cover additional regions around the globe.
- ↑ Transformers Velocitron Speedia 500 Deluxe G2 Shadowstrip & Crasher Out In New Zealand – First In-Hand Images at TFW2005
- ↑ Wave 1's Breakdown was, despite being Evolution product, released in standard year one Legacy packaging to match the rest of the Stunticons. His instructions initially featured the "Evolution" branding and green color scheme, but a running change variant replaced those with the vanilla "Legacy" branding and purple color scheme.
"You will see a regular Legacy box sitting on the shelf with all of our new Legacy: Evolution stuff for Wave 1 so that if you are a MIB collector you can actually collect these all in the right same packaging."—Ben MacCrae, YouTube, "Hasbro Pulse Con 2022 | DAY ONE"
- ↑ "Then you will actually see the concept art Emiliano Santalucia drew up even before we had the rollout of characters planned for the year. I think this will provide great insight for all yall as alot of the planning for weapon combinations was to obviously utilize our 5mm peg across all scales but this was all sold in before character selects were figured out."—Mark Maher, Instagram, 2022/06/21
- ↑ BigBadToyStore listing : "Transformers Generations Legacy Evolution Voyager Wave 1 Set of 2 Figures" (outdated, "Evolution" has since been removed)
- ↑ "[Animated figures would be given a "more G1-ified" style], however they have heard the stylization feedback about the TFP figures, so they are working on trying to find a better balance regarding G1-ification."—TFW2005, "SDCC Hasbro & Kotobukiya Show Floor Q&A", 2022/07/25
- ↑ "Entirely possible [to have screen-accurate Animated and Prime figures in Studio Series], they’re talking about expanding Studio Series beyond movies."—TFW2005, "SDCC Hasbro & Kotobukiya Show Floor Q&A", 2022/07/25
- ↑ "Last minute these Pretenders were approved for slots slated for dropped characters."—Mark Maher, Instagram, 2022/08/17
- ↑ "Per FJ DeSanto: they had a series for Transformers Legacy planned out, but Netflix passed on it. #TFconLA"—Mike Seibert, Twitter, 2022/03/13
- ↑ "To be clear Mike even though i may have said it, Netflix didn’t “hate” the pitch, in fact they liked it. But their mandates had changed and what we were proposing didn’t fit that. Hasbro didn’t want to shop it elsewhere cause they want to keep their relationship w Netflix."—F.J. DeSanto, Twitter, 2022/03/13
- ↑ "Also the show was a dramatic change from WFC as it was lighter and more colorful as it was set centuries after WFC and would emphasize the fun of everything. See how colorful the legacy packaging is and you’ll get the idea."—F.J. DeSanto, Twitter, 2022/03/13
- ↑ "I don’t think we’ll ever run out of Titans."—Nate Purswellsite=TFW2005, "SDCC 2024 Hasbro Interview – John Warden’s Return, Generations, Studio Series, Combiners, More!", 2024/08/03
- ↑ "Absolutely. The Armada universe is filled with incredible Minicons. When I first came to Hasbro, I worked at Kenner years ago – a lifetime ago – and I was in a boardroom with Archer when he was pitching the idea of Minicons. And so I’ve been along the ride for the lifespan of it, sort of in a tertiary sense. I was working on Pokemon at the time, but what’s cool about Minicons is they came to rise in the same time Pokemon sort of came to rise. And I always admired, in Archer’s office, they had one of these like, acrylic cases with all the Minicons in it. And I would just stand there, like a dork, and just stare at it. On of the things I love about the Minicons and the Armada series in general is the groupings of them. I know that in Thrilling 30 we touched on it, but I think that there’s absolutely potential for more. What I don’t want to do is kind of shortchange these characters and make them like, not meaningful redecos, because a lot of them really have – at the time the style was asymmetrical, really unique heads, the deco colorways are really, really nicely done. So I can see a world where we bring some of those guys back."—John Warden, TFW2005, "SDCC 2024 Hasbro Interview – John Warden’s Return, Generations, Studio Series, Combiners, More!", 2024/08/03
- ↑ "May release the keys as a weapons pack."—Hasbro, TFW2005, "SDCC Hasbro & Kotobukiya Show Floor Q&A", 2022/07/25
External links
