War For Cybertron is a toyline in the Transformers franchise, released under the Generations line. It debuted in late-2018 and had three sublines with their own unique themes;
- Siege (2018-2020) - Set during the final days of the Great War between the Autobots and Decepticons as both sides make their plans to leave the planet.
- Earthrise (2020-2021) - Set during the Autobots and Decepticons' travels through space, with many gaining Earth vehicle modes, as well as introducing independent factions such as the Quintessons.
- Kingdom (2021 - 2022) - A crossover between Transformers: Generation One and Beast Wars on prehistoric Earth.
The toyline would serve as the basis for the tie-in Netflix War For Cybertron animated series. The designs of the Transformers, in particular those from Siege, also being the basis for IDW's 2019 Transformers reboot.
Not to be confused with the Transformers: War for Cybertron video game.
This toyline sees examples of;
- The Bus Came Back: The Kingdom subline is dedicated to the Beast Era era of Transformers, being the first time a toyline's focused on it since the original line's conclusion in the late-90s/early-2000s.
- Canon Immigrant:
- Hot Shot, the poster child of the Unicron Trilogy, received a figure based off his "Cybertronian Defense Team" design from Transformers: Cybertron.
- Barricade of the Transformers Film Series is brought over and given a G1 redesign. Appropriately one based off Prowl.
- Crossover: The theme of Kingdom is one between the G1 and Beast eras of Transformers.
- Mythology Gag: Soundwave's official Cybertronian mode is a type of hovercraft. However, it's possible to transform the toy into the alt-mode he assumed in the pilot episode of the G1 cartoon: a Cybertronian lamp post.
- Palette Swap: As is standard for a Transformers line, several figures are recolors or minor retools of other toys released in the line.
- The Siege and Earthrise molds of Starscream were recolored and retooled for other notable Seekers such as Thundercracker, Skywarp, Dirge, Ramjet, and Thrust; some more obscure Seekers, such as the Rainmaker trio and Redwing, also used the mold.
- Both Siege and Earthrise Barricade share the same mold as the Prowl, Bluestreak and Smokescreen of the respective lines. More precisely, they combine the Smokescreen headsculpt with the Prowl body.
- Another recoloring/retooling tradition is held up with both the Siege and Earthrise figures of Ratchet coming from the Ironhide toys of each line.
- The three Weaponizers from Siege were retooled into the Powerdashers.
- A few Cybertronian designs from Siege were retooled into the respective characters' classic Earth-based designs in later series. Earthrise did this with Ironhide and Ratchet, while Walmart's exclusive War for Cybertron Trilogy line did it with Soundwave, Ravage and Laserbeak and Kingdom did it with Ultra Magnus, Mirage, Sideswipe and Red Alert.
- The Cliffjumper mold got a bunch of retools back and forth. Selects had him retooled as Hubcap and Bug Bite, War for Cybertron Trilogy retooled him as Bumblebee (using the Bug Bite head and reshelling the altmode into a licensed Volkswagen Beetle), he got a release as Shattered Glass Goldbug and then Buzzworthy Bumblebee featured a more cartoon-accurate Cliffjumper, a different take on Bumblebee (this time as a straight redeco of Bug Bite) and Goldbug (using the SG Goldbug head on the Trilogy Bumblebee body).
- Keeping in with traditions, Earthrise uses the same mold for Hoist and Trailbreaker, while Kingdom does the same with Huffer and Pipes and with Cheetor and Shadow Panther.
- Private Military Contractors: Earthrise would introduce the Mercenaries faction, mainly represented by Doubledealer and complete with their own logo. Space faring mercenaries with no allegiance to either Autobot or Decepticon. Takara would release an exclusive Soundblaster figure with the Mercenary logo based off his appearance in the War For Cybertron trilogy.
