Transformers: Energon (toyline)
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Transformers: Energon followed up on the highly-successful Armada toyline, continuing its universe and carrying over a number of its popular characters in new forms. Set roughly ten years after the previous series, Energon brought in new sub-factions, new faces and new modes of play.
The line also fell on the 20th anniversary of the Transformers brand, which led to many toys and characters being more overt homages to major characters from Generation 1 than past series produced. These homages did have a tendency to get garbled, though, due to different names or significantly altered characterization.
Unfortunately, the line, while moderately successful, didn't exactly light a fire under the brand the way Armada or Robots in Disguise had prior. A glut of early product, availability issues with later product, a less-than-cohesive play theme, and a poorly-received advertising cartoon proved to be stumbling blocks, and Hasbro began to re-think how to take the line forward from there.
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Overview
While Energon does have an overarching theme of "combination" ("energon" is oddly more of a minor feature in the line), it's not anywhere as clean-cut and uniform in actual execution as Armada's Mini-Con theme (or the Cyber Keys of the follow-up series Cybertron). There are multiple types of combination going on, split up between the price points and factions, which can be a bit confusing at first. Though virtually every new-mold toy featured Mini-Con Powerlinx-compatible points for that form of combination (but did not activate any gimmicks), Mini-Cons were significantly scaled back in Energon.
At the smallest price-point, the Omnicons and Terrorcons augment the larger toys with reconfigurable weapons, while the Mini-Cons sold at the same price are both combiner teams (one forming a weapon for larger toys). The "Combat Class" (aka Deluxe) and Mega Class Autobots can combine with each other to form two-bot gestalts, each bot having both an "upper body" and "lower body" configuration (also referred to as "shirt" and "pants" by parts of the fandom) that could be combined with any other. The larger Autobot toys, however, mostly combine with their own accessories (dubbed "Brute Modes") in ways that do not allow for cross-compatibility outside of same-mold redecos. Leader-Class Optimus Prime could also combine with two other larger Autobot toys, but again these combinations are quite specific and do not allow for real mix-and-match play.
Aside from the Mini-Con compatibility, the Decepticons were left out of the combination game (until the very tail-end of the line, at least), instead having "Hyper Modes" with built-in weapons that could be swung into attack position.
At the very back end of the series, five-robot "Scramble City"-like combiners were released, three teams of four "Energon" (Basic) Class figures with a Combat-Class torso. Unfortunately, in order to make up for the mold-reuse that allowed for three teams to exist (each limb-mold was used twice per team), the teams were split up across waves, and the tail-ender phenomenon left many fans wondering if they would actually be able to complete these long-awaited sets.
As the line premiered riding the popularity boom from Armada and retailers were eager for more product, stores ended up massively over-ordering early Energon product, leading to extreme shelfwarming for the first two waves. The situation was so severe, Hasbro removed much of the older product from stores' inventory to get "The Powerlinx Battles" subline to shelves in time for the 2004 holiday season. Much of this early stock would reappear on store shelves in "buy one get one" bonus buys in very large numbers.
Hasbro Energon toyline
As Transformers was still riding high on demand from Armada, the early Hasbro line was filled out with several redecoed and retooled Armada toys. This series also had a lot of ".5" revision waves, where new toys were added to the cases in mid-run, sometimes resulting in short-run figures if the new toy or the replaced one didn't carry over into future waves.
General retail
Energon Class
The Basic-sized Omnicons and Terrorcons came with clear Energon weapons and "Energon Chips" that can be attached over the spark crystals of the new-mold Energon toys. Chips and weapons were red-tinted for Omnicons, and green/yellow for Terrorcons. The final three waves consisted of the limb figures for the Air Team, Construction Team and Destruction Team Powerlinx Combiners (the torsos were sold as part of the Combat Class). The limb figures all came with add-on weapons and Energon Chips, cast in blue clear plastic, and these weapons formed the hands or feet of the combined robot.
| Wave 1 (December 2003) | Wave 2 (January 2004) | Wave 3 (March 2004) | Wave 4 (June 2004) |  | ||||
| Wave 5 (TPB, August 2004) | Wave 6 (TPB, October 2004) | Wave 7 (TPB, January 2005) | Wave 8 (TPB, February 2005) |
Combat Class
Combat Class (and Mega Class, see below) Autobots, besides transforming from vehicle to robot, could also become the top or bottom half of a "Powerlinx" combination robot. While it was not widely advertised, the two size classes could freely inter-combine, with occasionally ludicrous results. This assortment also featured the torso figures for the combiners Superion Maximus, Constructicon Maximus and Bruticus Maximus.
| Wave 1 (December 2003) | Wave 1.5 | Wave 2 (February 2004) | Wave 3 (April 2004) |   | ||||
| Wave 4 (July 2004) | Wave 5 | Wave 5.5 (August 2004) | Wave 6 (TPB, October 2004) | |||||
| Wave 7 (TPB, December 2004) | Wave 7.5 (TPB) | Wave 8 (TPB, February 2005) |
Mega Class
| Wave 1 (November 2003) | Wave 1.5 (December 2003) | Wave 2 (April 2004) | Wave 3 (June 2004) |  | ||||
| Wave 3.5 (TPB, September 2004) | Wave 4 (TPB, October 2004)
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Wave 5 (TPB, February 2005) | Wave 5.5 (TPB, March 2005) |
Command Class
Command Class Autobots (the new molds, at least) each include transforming accessories that form part of their vehicle modes. In robot mode they could combine with these pieces to be in "Brute Mode". Decepticons are just big.
Wave 1 (December 2003)
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Wave 1.5 | Wave 2 (February 2004) | Wave 3 (June 2004) |  | ||||
| Wave 4 (TPB, September 2004) | Wave 5 (TPB, February 2005) |
Leader Class
| Wave 1 (December 2003) | Wave 2 (February 2004) | Wave 3 (TPB, November 2004) |  |
Supreme Class
| Wave 1 (January 2004) | Wave 2 (June 2004) | Wave 3 (TPB, November 2004) |
Role Play
- Optimus Prime Energon Blaster
(The Powerlinx Battles)- Optimus Prime Energon Blaster
Exclusives
Costco (November 2004)
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KB Toys (September 2004)
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Kmart (November 2004)
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Sam's Club (August 2004)
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Toys"R"Us
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Toys"R"Us & Walmart (February 2004) | Walmart (canceled/used later) |
Hasbro Energon European market releases
For the most part, the European line was just the US line outlined above. However, two sets of KB Toys-exclusive toys from the 2003 Universe toyline got released under the Energon banner, because the Universe branding was not used in Europe at all.
| Micromasters Series I | Micromasters Series II |  |
Takara Super Link toyline
Premiering about the same time as the Hasbro line, Super Link (a much more thematically-appropriate name) largely stuck with slight color tweaks. Takara also filled out the line with a few more redecoes of the Terrorcon drones in more limited numbers.
The energon weapons were something of a bigger draw in the line, as the "powered up" redeco toys (the "Energon _____" toys in the Hasbro line) were given new-color Omnicon/Terrorcon energon weapons as a bonus. Speaking of redecoes, many of the new-character redecoes in the back end of the Hasbro line were put into the cartoon as powered-up forms of the original characters... but then were never released in Japan, not even as store-exclusive "USA Editions". Even major-ish cartoon character Six Shot was absent from the Super Link toyline. Weird!
Super Link also coincided with the 30th anniversary of Microman, the toyline that would eventually branch off as Micro Change and Diaclone, the lines that would eventually give birth to Transformers. Takara celebrated this joint anniversary by releasing toys of human ally Kicker Jones in the Microman format.
General retail
Wave 1 (12-25-2003)
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Wave 2 (2-26-2004)
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Wave 3 (3-18-2004)
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Wave 4 (3-25-2004)
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Wave 5 (4-22-2004) | Wave 6 (4-28-2004)
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Wave 7 (5-13-2004)
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Wave 8 (5-27-2004)
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Wave 9 (6-10-2004)
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Wave 10 (6-24-2004)
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Wave 11 (7-15-2004) | |||||
Wave 12 (7-29-2004)
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Wave 13 (8-5-2004) | Wave 14 (8-26-2004)
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Wave 15 (9-16-2004)
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Wave 16 (9-30-2004)
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Wave 17 (10-14-2004)
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Exclusives
- Store exclusives
| Convenience stores (misc) | Gamers | Hello Mac | Ito Yokaido |  | ||||
| JUSCO | Lawson | Posful
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Toys"R"Us | |||||
"Toy's Dream Project
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"TF Station" affiliates | Multiple outlets |
- Media exclusives
- Unknown exclusives
- MX-00 Unicron Black Version[1]
Post-Energon releases
There's really not a lot to speak of, at least as far as "new" product goes. A great many Energon items were re-branded under the original Transformers: Universe banner and sold at various "discount" chains, but those toys were all identical to the original releases outside of the packaging.
So we're only listing new stuff... and it's a small, small list.
- Hasbro
| Universe (2003) | Kre-O | Legacy: United |  |
- Takara
| Unite Warriors | Cloud |  |
References
- ↑ The black version of Energon Unicron was released in Japan packaged inside the Legends of the Microns Unicron box with "20th Anniversary" stickers applied to the front and back. According to several Japanese sources, the toy was released in limited numbers. Just how many were made and whether or not the figure was exclusive to any stores, is currently unknown.
