Transformers: Prime Toy Review Index

Transformers: Prime

After the original trilogy of the movie was completed, Hasbro was ready to invest in a more long-term television series, since at that time the future of the Transformers Movie franchise was unknown. Its answer: Transformers: Prime, a TV show on its new television network, The Hub (jointly owned with the Discovery Channel). The show had an astronomical CG budget, and had a tone about more skewed towards the movies than usual in terms of its "maturity/darkness" level. The style was also about half-movie in terms of the character model's complexity, but scaled down a bit to work better in a TV show-- about halfway between a movie design and a stylized G1 design, to be precise.
The first toys released for Transformers: Prime were in late 2011-- however, with the Dark of the Moon toyline still going on at the time, they were deemed "First Edition" toys and released exclusively at Toys "R" Us. Unfortunately, their distribution was quite poor in the U.S., and they went for very high prices on eBay-- enough so that Hasbro released the First Edition toys a second time in late 2012 (again, exclusive to Toys "R" Us, along with a few online stores as well this time for good measure).
By the time Transformers: Prime became the main line on store shelves, the show was well into its second season in early 2012. Because of escalating plastic and labor costs, the toys for the first full year of the line-- subtitled "Robots in Disguise" on the toy packaging-- were made a bit simpler and smaller than the First Edition toys, as well as compared to most other Transformers toys up to that time (which also unfortunately coincided with a deluxe pricepoint escalating to ~$13 in the middle of the year). Now with a full line, the line kept the "Cyberverse"-scaled Legion and Commander size classes, while making the Cyberverse vehicle sets a bit larger and more complex, along with a steeper $20 price tag. The usual mainline deluxes and voyagers also existed, along with a "Weaponizer" size class at $30 that basically were simplified replacements for Leader-class figures. Additionally, a few of the most popular characters were released at a $20-pricepoint with a transformable remote-control gimmick. The overall "gimmick" for the "Robots in Disguise" subline-- besides transformation, of course-- were light-up features, such as fold-out weapons for the larger toys (similar to the spring-loaded Mechtech weapons from the Dark of the Moon line, but without a secondary weapon mode in their "compact" form), while the Cyberverse toys had light piping to allow the larger electronic playsets to "pump" light into their chest and eyes-- a gimmick, unfortunately, that didn't work well, if at all.
For 2013, Prime got a rather radical stylistic re-branding with the subtitle "Beast Hunters", featuring a new resurrected Predacon faction, a powerful, formerly extinct race of Transformers who all turned into different types of dragons. The original characters weren't left out in the cold, though, getting either new toys or extensive remolds into "Mad Max"-type cars, with spikes, huge weapons, and lots of extra armor to help them fight the new faction. The extra weapons and larger Predacon molds replaced the electronic gimmickry from the previous year. This line continued into early 2014, with the last couple of waves up-sizing the general designs of Legion and Commander-class molds into Deluxe- and Voyager-sized molds, respectively, at a further attempt at transformation simplification that would fully manifest itself in the next Transformers movie toyline that premiered in the summer of that year. Most of these last couple of waves were very hard (in many cases, impossible) to find in the U.S., with sightings in Europe, Asia, and Canada more common.
(Note: Non-transformable toy products for this line, such as Titans and roleplay toys, are not reviewed on this site.)

Robots in Disguise (2012) Mainline
Airachnid
Arcee
Autobot Ratchet
Bulkhead
Bumblebee
Bumblebee (Shadow Strike)
Bumblebee (Weaponizer)
Cliffjumper
Dead End
Decepticon Rumble
Dreadwing
Hot Shot
Knock Out
Kup (Sergeant)
Megatron
Optimus Prime
Optimus Prime (Weaponizer)
Skyquake
Soundwave w/ Laserbeak
Starscream
Thundertron
Ultra Magnus
Vehicon
Wheeljack

Beast Hunters (2013-2014) Mainline
Arcee
Autobot Ratchet
Bulkhead
Bumblebee
Bumblebee (Night Shadow)
Bumblebee (2014 simplified deluxe)
Bumblebee (Talking)
Dreadwing
Grimwing
Knock Out
Lazerback
Megatron (Sharkticon)
Optimus Prime
Optimus Prime (Beast Tracker)
Optimus Prime (Ultimate)
Optimus Prime (2014 simplified voyager)
Predaking
Predaking (2014 simplified voyager)
Prowl
Ripclaw
Shockwave
Skystalker
Smokescreen
Smokescreen (2014 simplified deluxe)
Soundwave w/ Ravage
Starscream
Twinstrike
Ultra Magnus
Vertebreak
Wheeljack
Windrazor

Cyberverse
Airachnid
Arcee
Autobot Ratchet
Autobot Tailgate
Blight
Bluestreak
Breakdown
Breakdown w/ Apex Armor
Bulkhead
Bulkhead (Battle Tactics)
Bulkhead (Beast Hunters)
Bumblebee
Bumblebee (Quickblade)
Bumblebee w/ Battle Suit
Bumblebee (Beast Hunters)
Bumblebee w/ Autobot Driller
Cliffjumper
Decepticon Bludgeon
Divebomb
Dreadwing
Evac
Fallback
Flamewar
Hardshell
Huffer
Hun-Gurrr (w/ Abominus review)
Ironhide
Knock Out w/ Energon Driller
Knock Out (solo release)
Megatron
Megatron (Unicron)
Mirage
Optimus Maximus
Optimus Prime
Optimus Prime (Nightwatch)
Optimus Prime (Beast Hunters)
Optimus Prime (Beast Blade)
Predaking
Prowl
Rippersnapper
Rot Gut
Shockwave
Skyquake
Smokescreen
Smokescreen w/ Sky Claw
Soundwave (Mercedes)
Soundwave (Beast Hunters)
Starscream
Starscream (Beast Hunters)
Trailcutter
Twinstrike
Ultra Magnus
Ultra Magnus (Beast Hunters)
Vehicon
Vehicon (Ace)
Vehicon (Air)
Wheeljack (Hyperspeed)
Wheeljack w/ Star Hammer
Windrazor

Remote-Controlled
Bumblebee
Knock Out
Optimus Prime

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