First Hasbro Transformers action figures was introduced in United States over 25 years ago. With a partnership Hasbron and Takara (Japanese toy manufacturer)to be precise. Toys already have been made by Takara that time, and Hasbro was the one who bought the rights to distribute them in the western world, (that’s when this toy line been named “Transformers”).
Animated Series aired in US in 1984, which of course was massive success and the interest to Hasbro toys has grown, these action figures became must have gifts for Christmas and other occasions ,for every child and not only children. These toy lines included almost every character from the Transformer series, both, Autobots and Decepticons; among the most popular, bestselling action figures were leaders of the Autobots and Decepticons Optimus Prime and Megatron, yellow autobot Bulblebee, Starscreen (right hand of the Megatron), Devastator (Decepticon giant transformer assembled from 6 smaller size robots) and Dinobots. These toys became instant success. Due to its popularity, numbers of other animated series, manga and Transformer games have followed original series.
There are collectors all over the world that pay fortune for the rare edition of the Hasbro Toy lines, the ones that were exclusive for just a single country are among those. Thousands of online shops and auctions offer numerous collections of these toys.
From 1993 to 2007, Hasbro toy lines and companion cartoon series were re-imagined several times over in different varieties, one of which saw the Transformers changing into animals instead of machines. In these series, Optimus Prime appeared as a Gorilla and Megatron as a Scorpion. Toys dedicated to this line were also extremely successful.
In 2007 large scale action movie by Michal Bay was released. The robots seen in this movie are redesigned versions of the original characters from the 1984 cartoon series, including Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream, Bumblebee and others. The movie was a huge box office success. Polularity has grown even more, new manga series, Transformer games and animated series have followed.
