Favourite theme/gimmick/concept of Transformers

[griffin]

Over the 30 years of Transformers, what has been the best or favourite, or most recurring marketable gimmicks of the toyline?

Things like (for example - you can add your own of course)...

Combiners (groups or bonus combining gimmick between toys),
Fembots,
Beasts (robotic or organic),
Dinobots,
Leadership characters that get multiple toys (including Movie Bumblebee),
Playsets/citybases/trailers,
Homage toys (based on a pre-existing toy),
Masters (head, target, power, breast, etc),
Micro-size (including Micromasters, Microns, Cyberverse),
Giant-size (including toys/characters that don't need to be giant-size),
Cassettes and their "masters",
Multi-mode (more than two modes),
Seeker jets,
Constructicons,
Insecticons,
Pretenders,
Non-vehicle, non-beast devices (things like guns, microscope, cassette-recorder, USB stick, shoe, iceblock, hat, toaster, pen, Playstation),
Junior-demographic play gimmicks (like One-step, Bash-bots, Titans, Cyber-Stompers),
Adult-demographic (like Masterpiece, Platinum Editions, SDCC, BotCon),
Crossovers,
Single-mode/Non-convertible (like Actionmasters, Rescue Bot figurines, Titans, Dino-Sparkers, Robot Replicas, Hero Mashers, Humans)
(others - these are just some examples)


Which ones are your favourite marketing concepts and why?
Which ones have been the most successful, in general, and to the fans?
Which ones do you think have been the most recurring? (successful or not)

[Sky Shadow]

Transforming?

[griffin]

Okay... this was less interesting to members than I had expected.

How about just rating them or ranking them in order of most popular and most common... and add in any other gimmicks that you think are significant in our 30 year Transformers history.

Then after a month, I will order them from most popular to least popular.

Transforming?

I think that can be considered the default gimmick, that applies to about 95% of Transformers toys, unless an over-riding gimmick above is applied.
I'll actually include "non-converting" in the list above as a gimmick, since it is an occasionally recurring gimmick, and not always aimed at the younger demographic like the Titans, Rescue-Bots figurines or Dino-sparkers are.

[Krayt]

I just hadn't seen this bossman....

Combiners are THE BEST thing ever....
Then Cassettes
Then Adult Demo
Then Cities

After having to keep most stuff packed away (damn kids), and often in offsite storage (damn lack of space), I have 2 conditions....

Combiners stay onsite, and together
Tapes stay, and accessible
Masterpiece stay, most are in their boxes, but all are on top of the wardrobe

[Paulbot]

Is Fembot really a gimmick? Look kids, boobs!

You left out Action Masters (maybe that belongs on a least favourite gimmick list given all the hatred that gets) but that was the first example of a much loved gimmick/selling point that still sells toys today: cartoon model accuracy.

[griffin]

Is Fembot really a gimmick? Look kids, boobs!

You left out Action Masters (maybe that belongs on a least favourite gimmick list given all the hatred that gets) but that was the first example of a much loved gimmick/selling point that still sells toys today: cartoon model accuracy.

I know. Female Transformers, or more specifically, gendering of robots shouldn't be a marketing gimmick, but it keeps reappearing, and utilised in some significant way in just about every series since the second season of Gen1... instead of just having them there as part of the crowd and nothing particularly special or different. It's like the "token black guy" in TV shows... we get the token female character as a required element now in Transformers series, to help cover more marketing demographics.
Just look at all the publicity IDW is giving to female themes at the moment, promoting both characters and creative staff... and Hasbro with the new Arcee toy by inducting the character into the HOF.
Or often just introducing a female character to incorporate a close relationship in a cartoon that doesn't necessarily add to the story of war and conflict that losing a close comrade or friend could do. Or how each time we had a Female character toy, it has been boasted in some way as being the first for something - first female toy (Minerva), first American female toy (Nightracer), first mass-released female toy (Blackarachnia), first Arcee toy (BotCon 2001), first mass-released toy of a Gen1 female character (Arcee)... etc.

As for Actionmasters, list them and anything else you think is a significant concept and they'll be included in the final tally. My list above was just the examples I could think of at the time of posting it.

[UltraMarginal]

I've got to say Transforming.

The toys that don't have any extra gimmicks are generally the best transformers, they aren't burdened by volumes of space that can't be used as part of the transformation.

having said that,

Headmasters and target masters are super cool, The notion of partners that combine makes for interesting dynamics.

I really like some of the automorph features that have turned up since the first movie toys.

In Recent times, well, for over ten years now, the Masterpiece line has been one of my favorites, the high end attitude of the line really stands out. (note that these toys aren't furdened by any particular "gimmicks" except perhaps MP soundwave with his minion space.)

I'm going to come back to this later when I've had a bit more of a think about it.

[CBratron]

So hard to pick. Triple Changers or Combiners.