Robots in Disguise (franchise)

Robots in Disguise is a Transformers franchise that launched in the year 2001. It was an American port of 2000's Japanese transformers series Car Robots. Many of the characters were changed into new incarnations of characters from Generation 1, and the remains notable for its numerous vague reference to characters and events from other series, making it difficult to place in relation to other continuities.

Despite fan rumors to the contrary, Car Robots was never called and was never going to be called Transformers 2000.

The Robots in Disguise franchise featured the following primary components:
 * A toyline
 * A cartoon series
 * A single American comic book story by Dreamwave (produced after the series ended production) set in the same continuity as the cartoon series.

Robots in Disguise was intended as a low-cost, minimal-work "filler" line after Hasbro scrapped Transtech, the series slated to follow Beast Machines. Hasbro used the time this bought to co-develop Armada with their japanese partner Takara. It aired on Fox Kids (the last Transformers series to air on a broadcast network) and saw surprising comercial success, laying the groundwork for the success of the subsequent series Armada.

The Robots in Disguise dub was inadvertently bought by Disney in 2002, creating legal problems with images from the series. As a result, RiD's section in The Ultimate Guide was perfunctory, covering only the toys.

As of July 2006, the series has been released on DVD in the UK only, in two box sets. The DVDs are Region 2 and in PAL format, to serve you better and protect us all from robot pirates.

Continuity Heacheaches

 * The Robots in Disguise cartoon rewrote the Japanese Transformers series Car Robots, transforming the all-new Japanese cast into familiar American characters, notably Optimus Prime and Prowl.
 * Takara considers Robots in Disguise to be the 'same' series as Car Robots. Thus, the American release of Sideways for Robots in Disguise toyline means that Doubleface (Sideways's Japanese name) first appeared in Car Robots.
 * The Robots in Disguise cartoon included numerous references that seemed to make it follow season 2 of the original cartoon, but which precluded it being in the same continuity as the movie and season 3. though unprecedented at the time, as of this writing there are now 3 or 4 more 'branch off before the movie' continuities.
 * Takara placed Car Robots in the year 2000 of its Transformers G1 history. Yes, we're aware that's crazy.
 * In the Devil's Due G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers continuity, Firewall has a mug with RiD Optimus Prime's face on it. Presumably this means there is a RiD (or possibly Car Robots) animated series within that universe.