Vintage
From Transformers Wiki
Beginning in 2018, Vintage is the latest Hasbro line of reissued older toys. For the first several years the toys came from the original The Transformers toyline, with Beast Wars reissues added to the line in 2021.
The toys come in mostly-faithful recreations of their original packaging, complete with matching fonts, classic box art and Tech Specs (the Beast Wars toys even keep the classic, now-defunct Kenner logo), but with numerous concessions to modern requirements like multiple languages. The toys themselves are mostly faithful to the originals, but a number of small changes are present in each one, some intentional deco alterations, some concessions to modern toymaking requirements.
Most of the figures have been exclusive to Walmart in the United States and Canada, but have also been released at general retail in Asia, and the first wave of the "Legion Class" assortment has been available in Australia, exclusive to clothing chain CottonOn. (Singapore got most toys at general retail, except for the "Legion Class" figures, which were available from the Singaporean branch of CottonOn; although the Bumblebee reissue was also offered as a "Combo" freebie at Golden Village movie theaters.)
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Toys
Vintage G1
The Vintage G1 toys are mostly based on the earlier The Transformers Collection variants of the original toys, incorporating subtle differences like minor color changes/additions, retooled parts for safety reasons, and new tampographed company information instead of molded-in company info. These toys also sport a new type of rubsign, with a mirror-like silver border, and solid-red insignia rather than the "mood ring" multicolored variety of past rubsigns (yes, even the Decepticon insignia comes up red). Like their original releases, many include sticker sheets for the customer to apply, enhancing the maddening, hair-pulling warm nostalgic experience.
The default packaging is bilingual (English/French) so the toys can be sold in Quebec; however, it's not based on the original bilingual Canadian packaging for those toys from the 1980s, which looked even more cluttered (not least because it gave every character an additional French name). The only exceptions to this thus far are the Australian/Singaporean CottonOn exclusive releases of the "Legion Class" figures, which were available in multilingual packaging intended for the European market for whatever reason, which looks insanely cluttered.
After the release of Hot Rod and Starscream, Hasbro responded to wails feedback from customers, rounding off the boxflap corners on the packaging for the Optimus Prime and Soundwave releases.
Of particular note is that this is the first release of the original Bumblebee figure that's officially identified as a licensed Volkswagen product on its packaging, no doubt taking advantage of the existing licensing deal with the German car manufacturer thanks to the Masterpiece figure and in particular the accompanying toy line for the live action Bumblebee movie.
Carded figures
| 2018 Legion Class | 2019 Legion Class | 2019 Cassette 2-packs | Hasbro Pulse |  |
Boxed figures
2018
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2019
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2020 |  |
Vintage Beast Wars
In 2021, to take advantage of the 25th Anniversary of the Beast Wars series, Hasbro began to apply the same vintage treatment to characters from the Beast Wars franchise. While the packaging attempted to mimick the design the original English-only 1996 United States packaging for those figures, it nevertheless featured five languages (English, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese), while ignoring any of the unique elements specific to the contemporary multilingual packaging versions of those original Beast Wars figures' packaging. Oddly, the 2022 and 2023 waves of figures are listed online as Generations products under the in-house title: Transformers Generations: Beast Wars Vintage.
This line was also released exclusively through Big W in Australia, through The Warehouse and Toyworld in New Zealand, and TakaraTomy Mall and participating Cybertron Satellite stores in Japan.
Carded figures
| 2021 | 2022
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2023 |
Boxed figures
| 2021 | 2022 |  |
Notes
- The name "Vintage G1" doesn't appear anywhere on the toys' packaging. It was used in a Hasbro-initiated IGN article (read: advertorial) that officially announced the launch of the line in July 2018,[1] as well as in product titles and official product descriptions for the individual toys on Walmart's US and Canadian websites. Similarly, "Vintage Beast Wars" is not on the packaging anywhere, nor is its subsequent Generations branding.
- In December 2018, Hasbro held a fan poll to decide a Spring 2020 release in the Vintage G1 toyline.[2] Astrotrain won over Perceptor, Thundercracker, and Skywarp.[3]
- In May 2019, Hasbro held another fan poll to decide another 2020 release in the Vintage G1 toyline. Blaster won over Skywarp, receiving 58% of the vote.[4]
References
- ↑ IGN article announcing the Vintage G1 line.
- ↑ "Which G1 classic bot do you want to see make a return to Walmart in Spring 2020? Cast your votes starting tomorrow in @HasbroPulse's story!"—TRANSFORMERS, Facebook, 2018/12/11
- ↑ "4 Bots entered, 1 was voted back! G1 ASTROTRAIN will return to @walmart in Spring 2020!"—hasbropulse, Instagram, 2018/12/15
- ↑ "It's time to choose! Which one of these bots do YOU want to see as a G1 2020 @Walmart exclusive figure?"—TRANSFORMERS, Facebook, 2019/05/18
