Candy toy
From Transformers Wiki
"Candy toys" are a staple of Japanese convenience and grocery stores (though examples can be found in many other parts of the world, notably the Kinder Surprise/Kinder Joy treat); small, inexpensive toys that come packaged with some form of candy. This is done primarily to sell toys without the standard taxes applied, since they are technically food items and therefore get sold tax-free.
As expected from the price point (typically the equivalent of a couple bucks), these toys trend towards the simple, like PVC figurines, to unassembled and unpainted miniature model kits, though sometimes fully-assembled and factory-painted toys get released in this way as well. The candy also runs the gamut, from nigh-inedible simple planks of gum and plain white sugar-pellets, to more elaborate chocolate-covered malt balls and "ramune" fizzy tablets.
Transformers candy toys
Takara's markets
Kabaya is the primary maker of candy toys for the Transformers brand in Japan, having produced a large number of them since the beginning of the line back in 1985. The majority of their Transformers output falls under varying form of unpainted, unassembled "model kits" of existing characters that use stickers for detailing, and due to many of these kits being gang-molded to save on development costs, there can often be some interesting color variations on known characters. But there are also plenty of PVC figurines, miniature action figures (including fully-assembled transforming ones!), co-branded side-merch, and packs of trading cards to boot.
Rather than list them all here, we'll just point out some highlights (see Kabaya's page for the full list):
- Transformers Milk Caramel — Possibly the first Transformers candy toy, a set of rubbery, non-posable mini-figures (similar to the Decoys) that ran for several years.
- Transformers Gum — A long-running series of "model kit" style figures. The original series ran from the first year all the way to Victory. It was revived in 2009 with an expanded lineup and plenty of combiner characters, and generally much more accurate colors.
- Change Micron / Micron Galaxy — Produced for Legend of the Microns and Galaxy Force respectively, these toys are fully-assembled and painted recreations of some of Takara's Mini-Cons, with altered paint applications and various molding differences. Most notably, the Air Defense Team members are cast in solid white plastic rather than clear, making them more sturdy than the originals!
- Gaiacross — A set of six model-kit-type Autobot figures based on the Multiforce play pattern, where any two robots can combine into a larger robot, and all six can combiner together into a single super robot.
Takara themselves has occasionally dipped into the candy toy market on their own, usually under the TakaraTomy A.R.T.S. label. Notably, there's EZ Collection Gum, two different sets of Legends class toys (which Takara have branded as "EZ Collection") sold with small bits of sugar-coated gum.
And last but not least, there's major snack manufacturer Meiji, maker of treats like Hello Panda and Chocorooms. While they never made any candy toys directly for the Transformers franchise, they did do a series of toys packed with choco balls and trading cards packed with ramune-flavored candy tablets for the Beastformers spin-off series.
Hasbro's markets
The candy toy is a lot less prevalent in most of Hasbro's markets, just, like, in general, never mind with Transformers in specific. There have been some toys packed in with foodstuffs and drinks, but, well... rarely candy.
In 2010, UK company The Little Factory Ltd released a set of twelve Mini-Cons, re-creations of the 2008 Universe "Mini-Con Class 12 Pack" set, blind-packed with "energon fizzy jellies" candies. Like the Kabaya Mini-Cons above, these are all actually new molds, some of which have some significant differences from the original versions.
In 2020, Hershey's teamed with Hasbro to release "Treasure Surprise", where a pair of Hershey's Kisses were packed into a plastic treasure chest with a small figurine from Transformers or My Little Pony.
