Transformers Animated (toyline)

The Transformers Animated toy line merges the more expressive design style of the cartoon with extremely poseable robot forms (to a degree which seemed pleasantly surprising even to Hasbro). Unlike the franchises immediately before it, there is no overarching, line-wide gimmick (such as Mini-Cons or Cyber Planet Keys). Rather, transforming is the gimmick, and the toys have other special features unique and appropriate to the character (such as triple-changing or interchangeable tools). While the designs originated with Hasbro and the Cartoon Network team, TakaraTomy stepped up to the plate to engineer the toys. The line debuted on July 1, 2007, at Hasbro's Future Products panel at BotCon.

Hasbro, citing the strength of the movie toyline, postponed the official release of the Animated toyline to June 22, 2008 in the US. However, some toys began showing up at retailers in the Cincinnati area to coincide with BotCon, followed by wider releases in Canada in May and the U.S. shortly thereafter.

Toys
The core toys of this franchise are available at most of the traditional size classes.

Deluxe Class
Wave 1 Wave 2 Wave 3 Wave 4 Wave 5 Wave 6 Wave 7 Wave 8
 * Cybertron Mode Optimus Prime
 * Bumblebee
 * Lockdown
 * Prowl
 * Blackarachnia
 * Autobot Ratchet
 * Autobot Jazz
 * Oil Slick
 * Snarl
 * Soundwave
 * Swoop
 * Elite Guard Bumblebee
 * Sentinel Prime
 * Blurr
 * Swindle
 * Blazing Lockdown
 * Waspinator
 * Samurai Prowl
 * Cybertron Mode Ratchet
 * Freeway Jazz
 * Arcee
 * Electrostatic Soundwave

Voyager Class
Wave 1 Wave 2
 * Bulkhead
 * Cybertron Mode Megatron
 * Starscream
 * Earth Mode Optimus Prime

Wave 3 Wave 4 Wave 5 Wave 6 Wave 7 Wave 8
 * Grimlock
 * Lugnut
 * Blitzwing
 * Shockwave/Longarm Prime
 * Skywarp
 * Wreck-Gar
 * Atomic Lugnut
 * Wingblade Optimus Prime
 * Blackout
 * Hydrodrive Bumblebee
 * Goldfire Grimlock

Leader Class
Wave 1 Wave 2 Wave 3 Wave 4
 * Bulkhead
 * Earth Mode Megatron
 * Ultra Magnus
 * Shadow Blade Megatron
 * Roadbuster Ultra Magnus (redeco colored as a Roadbuster homage)

Supreme Class
Wave 1
 * Roll-Out Command Optimus Prime

Entertainment Pack
Wave 1
 * Optimus Prime vs. Megatron - The Battle Begins

Wave 2
 * Jetfire & Jetstorm

Activators
The Activators subcategory consists of chunkier, simpler, Scout-class-sized toys with one-touch, spring-loaded transformations.

Wave 1 Wave 2 Wave 3 Wave 4
 * Bulkhead
 * Bumblebee
 * Starscream
 * Lockdown
 * Optimus Prime
 * Autobot Ratchet
 * Patrol Bumblebee
 * Thundercracker
 * Cliffjumper
 * Megatron
 * Grimlock
 * Bandit Lockdown
 * Dirge

Bumper Battlers
An expansion on the Cyber Slammers subline from the 2007 live-action movie toys, Bumper Battlers feature "bump-and-transform" action. Hitting the front bumper causes the toy to change into robot mode, and pressing the toy's sigil activates sound effects and speech gimmicks.

Wave 1 Wave 2 Wave 3
 * Bumblebee
 * Optimus Prime
 * Ratchet
 * Autobot Jazz
 * Bulkhead


 * Sting Racer Bumblebee (redeco)
 * Nightwatch Optimus Prime (redeco)

Power Bots
Wave 1 Wave 2
 * Cyber Speed Bumblebee
 * Street Patrol Bumblebee (redeco of Cyber Speed Bumblebee)

Exclusives
Toys R' Us
 * Bulkhead (Leader Class) with Activators Bumblebee
 * Megatron (Leader Class) with Activators Starscream

Target
 * Stealth Lockdown (Deluxe Class) with Legends Class Bumblebee and Legends Class Optimus Prime
 * Rescue Ratchet (Deluxe Class) with Legends Class Starscream and Legends Class  Prowl
 * Sunstorm and Activators Ratchet
 * Shockwave (purple repaint) and Activators Bumblebee

McDonald's Happy Meal toys

 * Megatron
 * Optimus Prime
 * Bumblebee
 * Ratchet
 * Starscream
 * Lugnut

Movie (2007)
Wal-Mart exclusives
 * The Legacy of Bumblebee three-pack (movie-inspired minor redeco of Classic Deluxe Bumblebee, regular Movie Deluxe Class "Premium" Bumblebee and regular Animated Deluxe Class Bumblebee)

Universe (2008)
Legends Class (wave 3)


 * Optimus Prime
 * Bumblebee
 * Prowl

Criticisms
Since the first wave of Animated toys were released, there have been multiple complaints of poor quality paint applications, sloppy paint applications, and very greasy ball and hinge joints. There are also complaints over certain breakage issues, such as Lockdown's wrists, and toy functionality being limited by support struts added to prevent breakage, such as with Voyager Megatron's cannon and Bumblebee's stingers being unable to position properly.

Most of these issues can be fixed with relative ease.

The less easily solved problem with the Animated toys seems to be that some of the toys are very much out of scale with the series, not only in vehicle mode (which is relatively normal) but also in robot mode. Lanky characters like Deluxe Lockdown have a tendency to end up much taller than squatter figures like Voyager Bulkhead, when they should be the same height or shorter.