Transformers Animated (toyline)

The Transformers Animated toy line merges the more fluid, 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 overarcing, line-wide gimmick such as Mini-Cons or Cyber Planet Keys; rather, transforming is the gimmick, and toys will have other special features that are unique and appropriate to the characters they depict (such as triple-changing, or interchangeable weaponry). While the designs originated with Hasbro and the Cartoon Network team, TakaraTomy is once again stepping up to the plate to engineer the toys. The line debuted on July 1, 2007, in Hasbro's Future Products panel at BotCon.

Hasbro has, citing the strength of the movie toyline, postponed the release of the Animated toyline to June 2008 in the US.

Size classes
The core toys of this franchise will be available at most of the traditional size classes. They are listed here with an example from each.

Deluxe

 * Blackarachnia
 * Bumblebee
 * Lockdown
 * Oil Slick
 * Cyberton Mode Optimus Prime
 * Prowl
 * Ratchet
 * Soundwave

Voyager

 * Cybertron Mode Megatron
 * Bulkhead
 * Starscream
 * Earth Mode Optimus Prime

Leader

 * Bulkhead

Supreme

 * Roll-Out Command Optimus Prime

Toys in the low-end Legends and Scout classes will presumably also be available, but details are not available as yet.

Activators
The Activators subcategory consists of chunkier, simpler toys with one-touch, spring-loaded transformations. Ratchet is an example of a character that will be available as an Activator.

Bumper Battlers
An expansion on the Cyber Slammers sub-line concept for the 2007 live-action movie toys, Bumper Battlers will feature "bump-and-transform" action. Hitting the front bumper will cause the toy to change into robot mode, and pressing the toy's sigil will activate sound effect and speech gimmicks.

Others
Bumblebee will be available in a non-transforming "Animated Power Bots" version, in the style of the Cyber Stompin' Bumblebee and Optimus from the 2007 live-action movie.