[Primacron]

Here's my effort at quickly explaining the world of Transformers and my take on where to start!


This is a quick overview of the different continuities:

G1+G2 - The Generation 1 toyline is the blocky and fairly unposable figures/characters you probably remember from the 1980's. This is also the era that most people are nostalgic for. Generation 2 was more of the same, for the most part re-decos of G1, but with a few more modern figures creeping in towards the end.

Beast Wars/Machines - The Beast Era is where ball joints became standard so making everything much more posable. The series stands out as having the best fiction in terms of it's supporting cartoon, continuity wise it actually followed on from the G1 fiction. Some great molds as well.

Robots in Disguise (RID) - The first proper modern Transformers toyline, again some great figures but a different universe.

Armada/Energon/Cybertron (AEC) - These form the 'Unicron Trilogy'. This is where Hasbro/Takara really started to perfect the art of a transforming toy, much more detailed and generally better than anything that had come before. Many were homages to G1 (and so started the 'neo' G1 collecting). There were some really great figures in these lines including Unicron, and pretty much everything in Cybertron was good.

Movie-Verse (aka Bayformers) - Toys based on the live action films and supporting media, these don't appeal to everyone as they have a different look and feel to previous lines (hence 'Bayformers'). Over the last year these have become less movie like and it's a bit more ambiguous about where they fit in.


There have been a few other lines, mostly homaging G1 in some way, but mostly without any supporting fiction (although some of the Classics style figures have appeared in the IDW comics).

There was Alternators and Masterpiece (which are roughly in scale with each other), and are much larger and more detailed, aimed at collectors. They're pretty expensive now (alternators finished a few years back) but amazing. They're not far off being in scale with 3.75" figures.

There have also been a couple of 'Universe' lines, which initially was a line of repaints, but then turned into a follow up to Classics (which was a G1 homage line). Finally we come to 'Generations' which as previously has been said, is a follow up to Universe.

Given you're not that familiar with the history of it, I think you're in a great position because you're not going to worry about the 'G1 accuracy' that plagues some of us. Just see what you like the look of!

If you're after some fiction to link it all together then I'd recommend the 1986 cartoon movie - Bumblebee, Prime, Megatron, Soundwave, Cliffjumper, Thrust, Dirge and Blurr who we've got in Generations are in it, Grimlock's in the film as well, as are Jazz, Wreck-Gar, Scourge, Perceptor and Kup who are coming out soon (Wheeljack and Windcharger who are also on their way are also in the movie, but not at their best.........).

I believe there's a store exclusive coming out soon with Hot Rod and Cyclonus as well, which means you wouldn't be far off having the main cast - a few others were (including Galvatron) were released in Universe, and if you're feeling flush then there are good third party (unofficial) figures of Ultra Magnus and Springer. Enjoy!