Toys / Transformers Studio Series

Studio Series is a toyline in the Transformers franchise initially focusing on the Transformers Film Series. It debuted in spring 2018 and has been running ever since underneath the Generations banner.

The toyline acts as a celebration the live-action films released since 2007 with the primary goal to give almost every major character - and many minor characters, too - a highly movie-accurate toy with modern engineering. As well hope to give characters who had perhaps been underrepresented or even missing in past toylines big, fancy new toys and use actual files straight from ILM to reproduce the appearance as accurately as possible. Another goal was to aim for accuracy in robot-mode scale whenever possible, allowing figures to display very well next to each other. This line served as targeted towards older teen and adult fans, though not quite at the "Masterpiece" level, while other toylines are simplified and focused on being tie-ins for concurrent shows. Studio Series is exceptionally collector friendly, with numbered boxes that has high quality artwork and comes with a themed backdrop display stand for every figure.

In 2021 the line expanded to include characters present in The Transformers: The Movie, as part of a 35th Anniversary celebration, while there was some crossover with the Legacy toyline. In addition there was a companion subprint of Studio Series called "Buzzworthy Bumblebee" that was largely re-issues of the toys connected to the Bumblebee film before; it would later go on to provide expansions for other concurrent lines. 2023 saw the line expand into covering video game adaptations of the franchise with the Gamer Edition subline, starting with characters from Transformers: War for Cybertron; 2024 also introduces Concept Art figures based on designs of characters who didn't make it into a film, such as abandoned concepts for Bumblebee like Megatron and Rumble.

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Transformers: Studio Series provides examples of:

• Adapted Out: In Revenge of the Fallen, nine Constructicons combined to form Devastator - Mixmaster, Scrapper, Scavenger, Overload, Long Haul, Rampage, High Tower, an unnamed shovel who formed his left hand, and an unnamed yellow dump truck who helped Rampage form his left leg. Studio Series incorporates all but the yellow dump truck into its version of Devastator, with Scrapmetal, who was killed early in the film, taking the place of Devastator’s left hand.
• Art Evolution:
  • Due to the production timetables of the films, many characters got toys that weren’t accurate to their designs as seen in the final film. The first notable examples are Car Shatter and Helicopter Dropkick, since Bumblebee was released during the first year of the line’s release, well after the characters' first figures were finalized. Each would later receive two new figures after the film’s release—Jet Shatter and Car Dropkick—that are far more accurate to their onscreen appearances. This also came into effect with the Rise of the Beasts figures, all of whom revealed to date have several differences with their designs seen in the final film, such as Scourge's toy having a neck armor his film counterpart lacks (that said, concept art released after the film shows that the toyline was spot on to the designs they received).
  • The standardization of ankle pivots that began in 2019's War for Cybertron: Siege was applied to the Studio Series' toys of live-action character designs in 2022. This addition greatly assists with the figures' ability to maintain dynamic poses unassisted. There are a few exceptions to this rule, namely a few Core Class figures, who are small and light enough to warrant being without ankle articulation.
  • A handful of characters received new details that differ from their onscreen models.
    • Crowbar in Dark of the Moon largely shares his body with Crankcase. However, instead of reusing the digitigrade legs from the mold's previous release, Berserker of The Last Knight's toyline, Crowbar's Studio Series release gives him humanoid ones that end in very large, bird-like feet. He also receives a different torso design, along with additional accent colors like red and rusty brown to break up his color scheme.
    • The Shadow Raider of Age of Extinction is not only a retool of Lockdown, but also uses orange as one of their main colors, both quite unlike their on-screen counterparts. The KSI Sentry, also from the same movie, was given a similar treatment; they were retooled from Stinger and exchanged their screen-accurate red for blue. These changes were very likely made to make each release distinct from their bases.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Constructicons Hightower, Overload, Scrapmetal, and Scrapper all get their first major full-sized transforming toys after either not transforming in the movie or only getting minor roles in Scrapper’s case. Moreso Scrapmetal, who never had any toy while the others at least had Legend-scale toys and non-transforming representation in Devastator figures.
  • Many larger figures come with accessories, including minor characters vaguely connected to the big name but never got their own toy. The DOTM Megatron comes with a small, articulated figure of Igor, the head-with-limbs sycophant who gives him regular repairs. Shockwave came with a figure of the parachuting trooper who blinded him and gave fellow soldiers and later Optimus the opening to attack.
  • Minor Junkion extras Junkheap and Scrapheap get full Voyager toys.
• The Bus Came Back: Numerous characters get their first toys in years, not even counting the Sequel Gaps between movies. By movie:
  • Jazz, Blackout, Bonecrusher, and Brawl all get their first major toys since 2007 (not counting Jazz’s Human Alliance figure in 2010).
  • The Constructicons, Jetfire, Jolt, and Scorponok for the first time since 2009 (not counting Jolt's DOTM figure in 2011, and the Takara exclusive repaint of that figure in 2014)
  • Sentinel Prime, the Wreckers, Dino/Mirage, and Shockwave for the first time since 2011 (not counting the Takara exclusive Dino figure from 2014)
  • From Studio Series 86:
    • Perceptor, Scourge, the Sweeps, Kup, Blurr, Gnaw, Wheelie and Brawn, who haven't had a mainline toy since 2016's Titans Return.
    • Ditto with Jazz, Hot Rod, Grimlock, Slug, Wreck-Gar, Sludge and Snarl, who were absent since 2018's Power of the Primes.
    • Junkheap gets his first figure since the final wave of the original Generations line in 2011.
    • Scrapheap gets his first figure since the one that came in a 3-pack from the Japan-only United toyline in 2011.
  • The Aligned incarnation of Barricade never received a mass market figure, with his only toy being a convention exclusive from 2014, until his Gamer Edition toy.
• Canon Foreigner: Played With in regards to Thundercracker. While a movieverse Thundercracker has previously appeared in toylines and most prominently IDW’s post-2007 comics, this Thundercracker is identified as hailing from Dark of the Moon, when the character did not make an appearance.
• Combining Mecha: One of the biggest struggles of any combiner robot is trying to fit in alternate mode, robot mode AND a third transformation to form part of the larger robot. Historically, even the combo-packs tend to have low articulation and combining figures are kept to just two. The Studio Series Devastator is the first multi-figure combiner where each individual toy had three distinct modes and was released over a period of about two years. And due to being eight toys and the aversion to Your Size May Vary, the resulting combined figure (two Leader class toys, four Voyager class, and two Deluxe class) is absolutely massive.
• Continuity Nod: Cogman’s bio mentions how a woman named Agnes wanted a date with Sir Edmund Burton in The Last Knight.
• Easily Detachable Robot Parts:
  • The Fallen has a removable face, referencing the battle between him and Optimus.
  • 86 Kup and Ultra Magnus feature removable limbs based on scenes from The Transformers: The Movie.
  • Mohawk has a removable head to recreate his death scene.
  • Rise of The Beasts Scourge’s claw hand is removable to swap with his arm cannon.
  • The Gamer Edition figures all feature removable right hands on a 5mm port to mimic the arms transforming into their blasters like in the War For Cybertron games.
• Equippable Ally: Freezer and Novakane can transform into blasters for the Terrorcons to wield.
• Fauxrrari: Some figures, such as Dino, Sideways and 86 Jazz, lack the licensed vehicle modes common to the line and instead have generic vehicle modes evoking the real vehicles which, in the case of the former two, are game-accurate, depicting their alt-modes in the PS3/Xbox 360 Dark of the Moon and PS2/Wii Revenge of the Fallen videogame adaptations respectively.
• LOL, 69: The 69th item in the line is a box set of Revenge of the Fallen Devastator, who had an enormous set of brass balls in the movie.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Grindor, who is a redeco of Blackout is packaged with a mini figure of Ravage, despite the two characters never sharing any screen time. Blackout was originally intended to be Soundwave, who is Ravage's master.
  • Concept Art Megatron’s alternate modes are inspired by the unreleased Marauder Megatron from the cancelled fourth season of Transformers: Animated.
• Named by the Adaptation:
  • Studio Series gives official names to Lockdown’s generic bounty hunter crew that went unnamed in Age of Extinction. The KSI Boss is also officially named for the first time, though concept art identifying them as such had already been released.
  • The baby Dinobots are all officially named as well after only getting nicknames from Cade in The Last Knight.
• Palette Swap: As is standard for a Transformers toyline, several figures are recolors of older molds.
  • Michael Bay Film Series
    • Revenge of the Fallen Megatron received a Battle Damaged Target exclusive repaint to reflect his injuries sustained at the end of that film.
    • Starscream received a Revenge of the Fallen tattooed repaint for Wave 4.
    • Revenge of the Fallen Skipjack is a yellow repaint of the previously-released Revenge of the Fallen Rampage, made for the option of having a Devastator with a more accurate color scheme.
    • Revenge of the Fallen Grindor is a repaint of Blackout featuring re-done, articulated hands and Ravage.
    • Revenge of the Fallen Sideswipe is an extensive retool of Dark of the Moon Sideswipe, now featuring a hardtop Corvette Stingray alt-mode accurate to the character's appearance in Revenge of the Fallen with more elaborate and accurate paint applications.
    • The first Optimus Prime (released under the Revenge of the Fallen branding) has been slightly repainted and retooled twice. The first time was in Wave 5, put under the first film's brand and made to look more accurate to the films and allow him to combine with his wavemate Jetfire, while the second time was to reflect his appearance in Dark of the Moon, bumping him to Leader class.
    • As Dark of the Moon Laserbeak was based on his brief disguise as a child-sized pink version of Bumblebee, a redeco as the actual Bumblebee was obviously destined to come.
    • Dark of the Moon Megatron received a Universal Studio exclusive repaint, featuring an entirely gray body meant to resemble the Megatron meet and greet in Universal Studios (which is actually referred to as "As seen in parks Megatron").
    • Crowbar is an extensive retool of The Last Knight Berserker. Playing this straighter, however, is the bizarre entry of Crankcase, whose model was repainted into Berserker, yet his toy uses Crowbar’s mold.
    • KSI Boss is a repaint of The Last Knight Nitro Zeus with metallic silver paint. Thundercracker is also a repaint of the same mold, also bearing a different headsculpt.
    • KSI Sentry and Shadow Raider are repaints of Stinger and Lockdown, respectively.
    • The Last Knight Drift is a more premium, movie-accurate repaint of his Deluxe-class The Last Knight figure from 2017 with a retooled, more detailed head, packed together with mini-figures of the Baby Dinobots as a set.
    • The Last Knight Cogman is the exact same figure as the one from the original movie's toyline, repainted in more movie-accurate gunmetal and gold.
  • Reboot Film Series
    • B-127 is a repaint of Cliffjumper with a new battle-mask head-sculpt, based on B-127's initial appearance during the opening Cybertron battle scenes in Bumblebee. The Buzzworthy Bumblebee subline (which features rereleases and variations of figures from other toylines currently running) features a variant of the figure with a maskless Bumblebee head.
    • As usual, Bumblebee Ironhide and Ratchet share the same design, with Ratchet having the V-shaped chevron on his forehead that Ironhide lacks.
    • Bumblebee Thrust was a new-head retool of Bumblebee Starscream, which was then redecoed into Bumblebee Thundercracker.
    • Rise of The Beasts Freezer was retooled to Novakane, who sports a damaged head and slightly different colors.
  • Studio Series 86
    • Sweep is essentially Scourge with a slightly paler color scheme and hands retooled to switch around their posing, though it's Justified to an extent since they're supposed to be clones of him.
    • Coronation Starscream is just his Earthrise figure with new hands and a slightly different paintjob, mixed in with a new crown and shoulder pad accessories, and a large throne for him to sit in.
    • Arcee is a heavy retool of her Thrilling 30 figure from 2013, repainted in less saturated colors, lacking most of the weapons except for the smaller gun and with new parts from the waist down to give her slimmer, more show-accurate legs.
    • Junkheap and Scrapheap are retools of Wreck-Gar from the same line, with a new chest and headsculpt.
    • As expected, the moment when 86 Core class Ratchet and Voyager class Ironhide were announced together, it was confirmed both molds would be redecoed into one another.
    • Naturally, SS86 Rumble and Frenzy are redecos of each other.
  • Gamer Edition
    • Gamer Edition Cliffjumper is, as usual, retooled from the same line's Bumblebee.
  • The Buzzworthy Bumblebee line and other exclusives for Target include various relaunches of previous toys along some new numbered releases that are still repaints:
    • 86 Kup got redecoed and repainted to look more accurate to how he appeared in animation along some battle damage, without changing his number.
    • Cliffjumper, the 13th release of the 86 line, is repainted from his Earthrise figure under more animation-accurate colors.
    • 79 High Octane Bumblebee is a straight-up re-issue of a repaint of the original Age of Extinction toy from 2017's Tribute line.
    • 95 N.E.S.T. Bonecrusher and 96 N.E.S.T. Ratchet are gray redecoes of their original toys with N.E.S.T. tampographs. Amusingly for the former, his bio states he's undercover to gather intelligence.
    • 102 Rise of The Beasts Optimus Prime is an extensive retool of Bumblebee Optimus Prime, with the only retained details being the wheels and the translucent window pieces.
    • The 20th and 24th releases for ''SS86'' are a two-pack of Prowl and Ironhide respectively, retooled from the Earthrise and ''SS86'' figures of the characters with painful expressions and destroyed chests to represent their dying scene in the original movie.
    • ''SS86'' 25 Blaster and Eject are a redeco of their Kingdom figure, omitting the clear plastic and with cartoon-accurate colors.
• The Rival: The first wave of figures saw every character paired up with a contrasting foe - Optimus Vs Starscream, Grimlock Vs Blackout, Bumblebee Vs Stinger, and Ratchet Vs Crowbar.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In a way for Scrapmetal. In the film, he is “Ze little vun” who is killed and cannibalized for parts to help resurrect Megatron. Studio Series sees him as part of the combiner team who form Devastator.
• What Could Have Been: Invoked by the "Concept Art" figures, which depict characters that, while conceptualized during the production of the movies, were never included in the final products, such as the Bumblebee versions of Megatron and Rumble.
• You Don't Look Like You: Crankcase's figure in this line isn't accurate to the character design depicted in Dark of the Moon at all, as it's merely a recolored Crowbar using Crankcase's color palette. The traits distinct to Crankcase did see use on a previous version of the Crowbar mold: The Last Knight's Deluxe Berserker, a character who, coincidentally enough, is a Palette Swap of Crankcase. But those parts did not carry over to the Studio Series' take on Crankcase.
• Your Size May Vary:
  • The stated goal of the line was to try and match every character to the relative scale of their robot mode, rather than their alternate mode. They've managed as well as they could, given the long history of Transformers with scale and Shapeshifter Baggage, but there's always been a disconnect between the road vehicle Autobots and the Decepticon jets being the same size. Notably Arcee, Chromia and Elita-1, being motorcycles, get tiny legends-sized figures, but the three together were sold as a Deluxe class.
  • The Core class zig-zags with this concept, just like it does in other Generations lines, fluctuating between characters that fit the scale (ie. Bumblebee Ravage) and smaller versions of bigger and popular characters (86 Ratchet).

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