Titans Return (toyline)
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Titans Return is a subline imprint of the Generations toyline, constituting the second portion of the Prime Wars Trilogy.
Introduced in mid-2016, Titans Return (initially touted under the early working name Titan Wars) features its own new line-wide gimmick: all Deluxe, Voyager, and Leader Class figures include a Headmaster-style Titan Master partner, all of which are completely interchangeable. To compensate for the size differences, Leader Class figures feature large helmets that cover the Titan Masters, while Voyager Class figures have spring-loaded pop-out adornments to "bulk up" their heads.[1] All Voyager and most Leader Class figures are Triple Changers; each Leader Class figure's third mode is a base/battle station, which can be manned by the Titan Master figures. Each Deluxe and Voyager figure's hand-held weapons can transform and/or combine to form a "turret" that any Titan Master can sit in, and which can attach to the base modes of the Leader Class figures. Most figures feature several tiny pegs dotted across their bodies, which allow Titan Masters to stand securely on them.
Additionally, a new Titan Master assortment was introduced, each including a single Titan Master, plus a small vehicle or beast. These can transform into a vehicle/beast for the Titan Master to ride, a second vehicle/beast formed by combining with the Titan Master, and a 5 mm weapon for a larger figure to wield. Legends Class figures started out as predominantly Mini-Cassette characters, which can transform into both a vehicle and a blocky PDA that can fit inside Leader Class figures such as Blaster. Starting with Wave 3, this changed into focusing on Mini Vehicles which can often carry Titan Master passengers.
Though never officially addressed by Hasbro, Deluxes no longer included comic books (previously included with Thrilling 30 and Combiner Wars figures in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and Asia) in any market, thus eliminating the need for English-only packaging entirely, leaving only two types of multilingual packaging, one for Europe and the other for all non-European markets. However, the character cards included with all figures (except for Titan Masters) now featured Tech Spec stats on their back.
Titans Return also finally brought back a minor but significant feature missing from several previous lines: All size classes are explicitly identified by name on the packaging again (in multiple languages, no less), thus leaving no unnecessary room for confusion with outdated working names floating around. Sort of.
Voting for the second Titan Class figure was conducted via Facebook, with fans choosing between a remake of Omega Supreme, Trypticon, or Scorponok.[2] Trypticon won, but the other two got new figures in the following trilogy.[3]
| “ | Harness the power of Titan Masters | ” |
| —Official tagline for the Titans Return line | ||
| “ | Many will unite, one will rule | ” |
| —Retrospective tagline[4] | ||
Contents |
Toys
General retail
Titan Masters
Every Titan Master class micro-figure comes with a triple-changing mini-vehicle or mini-beast that converts to another vehicle/beast as well as a weapon.
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 |  | ||||
| Wave 5 | Canceled |
Legends Class
Every new-mold Legends Class figure features cross-compatibility with other figures in the line. Toys with "spy tablet" modes are designed to fit inside Blaster and Soundwave's chest compartments. All the rest have some form of opening cockpit in their vehicle or beast modes that can seat a Titan Master mini-figure, with the exception of Cosmos.
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 |  | ||||
| Wave 5 |
Deluxe Class
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 |  | ||||
| Wave 5 | Wave 6 |
Voyager Class
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 |  |
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| Wave 5 |
Leader Class
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 4 |  | ||||
| Wave 5 |
Titan Class
| 2016 | 2017 |  |
Exclusives
Summer convention exclusives
- While debuting at San Diego Comic-Con, these releases were offered by Hasbro at a variety of summer conventions, and also made available online via Hasbro Toy Shop. 2016's releases also had an official UK release via A1 Toys. See individual entries for more information.
| Titan Force (2016) | Fortress Maximus Convention Edition (2016) | Primitive Skateboarding (2017) |  |
Store exclusives
While most of these figures and sets were exclusive to particular online or brick and mortar venues in the U.S., they were available at general retail in Asia, with the exception of the "Chaos on Velocitron" set, which was a Toys"R"Us exclusive in Asia as well. In Canada, "Chaos on Velocitron" was released as Toys"R"Us exclusive, while "Siege on Cybertron" was initially available via Toys"R"Us but was later stocked by other stores and online retailers as well. In addition, "Siege on Cybertron" was also available at Amazon in Mexico and at BOL in the Netherlands.
A pair of three-packs featuring Arcee and Grotusque were shared exclusives, having initial releases via Hasbro Toy Shop (and in Arcee's case, a special "early access" release at HasCon 2017 and NYCC 2017), before later being made available via the Toys"R"Us website. The Grotusque set was also available at Toys"R"Us in Hong Kong.
Additionally, pharmacy chain Walgreens also carried two exclusives: For 2016, it was Brainstorm, who was omitted from the general retail Deluxe Class assortment, while for 2017, it was a two-pack featuring Legends Class Wingspan & Cloudraker, who were originally intended to be part of two additional five-figure box sets that never made it. Brainstorm was also available as a general retail release in Malaysia (where he ended up as a royal shelfwarmer) and at Ripley stores in Chile, while the Wingspan/Cloudraker set was available as a general retail release in Taiwan, at Julio Cepeda Jugueterías in Mexico, at EB Games stores in Canada, and at Falabella stores in Colombia.
| Walgreens | Toys"R"Us
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BigBadToyStore
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Hasbro Toy Shop/Toys"R"Us |  |
"Special Edition" Deluxe
In 2018, during the course of Power of the Primes, Hasbro released three exclusive Deluxe Class figures in premium-style boxes, each with a Prime Master, to commemorate the Prime Wars Trilogy. Each figure represents one part of the trilogy. Special Edition Repugnus was exclusive to Amazon in North America but available at general retail in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Amazon
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Compatible toys in other lines
Legends
The Titans Return line did not see release in Japanese markets; TakaraTomy instead elected to roll its toy molds into the concurrent Transformers Legends toyline. Legends releases were differentiated by their markedly different colour schemes, often including newly tooled faces and helmets, generally attempting to replicate each character's appearance as seen in the original Generation 1 anime series, rather than Hasbro's focus on Generation 1 toy aesthetics and color palettes. For example: Hasbro's releases utilized stickers on some of the Voyager and Leader Class figures, based on the sticker details of the Generation 1 toys, while the Deluxe Class and lower toys often had paint applications and tampographs based on Generation 1 sticker details, with some figures, such as Blurr, being about as monochromatic as his Generation 1 toy was—an aesthetic not shared as much by his character models—the basis of which TakaraTomy used for their deco choices. In Titans Return, Hasbro also opted for boxier helmet designs for the Leader Class toys, such as Overlord, which was based on his Generation 1 toy, whereas his TakaraTomy Legends release opted for a more animation-accurate helmet based on his Super-God Masterforce character model.
With the absence of a dedicated Titan Master Class price point, Legends released the single-packed Titan Master toolings split up as pack-in partners with larger toys; examples include the Titans Return Loudmouth toy, which became the separate robot Goshooter and vehicle Cargot, and the Titans Return Terri-Bull toy, which became Bullhorn and Tankette. This even extended to Titan Master Repugnus; for Japanese fans to get a complete "Repug", they had to purchase his head and body/vehicle separately with Gong and Broadside, respectively. As the line proceeded, the amount of retooled parts increased from merely new faces to dedicated new Titan Master molds, extensive changes to the toy's appearance, and even one completely original Leader-sized toy.
Associated fiction generally repurposed the Titan Masters as Headmasters and Godmasters (with larger Transtector bodies), though in toy terms, they remain cross-compatible with the Titan Master head swapping gimmick. The Titans Return compatible toys in Legends are as follows:
Others
Evidently thinking they'd mastered the concept, Hasbro and Takara would frequently dip back in the Titans Return well whenever a toy necessitated Titan Master engineering. The toyline for the live-action movie The Last Knight, which overlapped with the tail end of Titans Return, introduced a pair of molds to represent new Titan Master-compatible characters. Elsewhere, existing tooling would be used to represent anything from new takes on old characters to real-life Japanese celebrities. New toy designs based on Titan Master engineering were still being produced for the War for Cybertron Trilogy toylines in 2020, four years after the debut of Titans Return; of these, Earthrise Snapdragon would herald a sea change in terminology, with his product copy referring to his small partner Krunk as a Titan Master and Headmaster interchangeably. The Generation 1 nomenclature was retained for the subsequent Retro Headmasters line, which brought certain Legends toolings to Western audiences, and it also appeared in the product write-up for Buzzworthy Bumblebee Fangry and Brisko.
Titan Master-compatible toys in other lines include:
Power of the Primes
Following Titans Return, the next and final installment of the Prime Wars Trilogy was Power of the Primes. This line featured the unified gimmick of "powering up", whether that meant gaining the abilities of one of the original Thirteen Primes, combining, or evolving to Primehood.
Prime Masters
The line introduced the Prime Masters – small robots directly based on the engineering of the Titan Masters. Instead of transforming into heads, the Prime Masters could become "spark modes" to slot into the Prime Armor of various figures, or into the Matrix handles included with the larger toys (see below). These spark modes were essentially Titans Return head modes, but with the front faceplate replaced by the insignia of that particular Prime; this meant that Titan Master heads could fit into the aforementioned Prime Armor, and Prime Master spark modes could be used as heads for Titans Return compatible figures — though with the latter, your mileage may vary on how well each Prime insignia resembles a face.
| Prime Master Class | Pack-in partners
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Special Edition
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Enigmas of Combination/Matrix cores
Deluxe and Voyager Class toys in Power of the Primes revisited Combiner Wars-style combination, augmented by the addition of "Prime Armor" accessories that could house Prime Masters (and by extension, Titan Masters and Headmasters) in any of their configurations. Each Deluxe figure included a Prime Armor chestplate that could form a combiner hand; each Voyager figure came with a pair of bracers that could double as combiner feet, as well as an Enigma of Combination accessory to slot into the mounting port of any of the Prime Armor pieces.
Meanwhile, toys in the Leader Class price point each included a two-piece Matrix accessory, consisting of a frame in the shape of the Matrix of Leadership's handles and a block designed after its crystalline core. The Matrix cores were, surprise surprise, the same general shape as Titan Master heads, Prime Master sparks, and the Enigmas of Combination, so each of those things could be mounted into the Matrix's handles. Do you want your Rodimus Prime to open his chest to reveal a Matrix with an effigy of his own face? Now you can!
We mention all these accessories on this page because, despite not turning into little robots, both the Enigmas of Combination and the Matrix cores feature the characteristic neck post compatible with the Titans Return play pattern, meaning you can plug them right in and give your robots greebly cyclopean heads with no neck articulation. You know, if you wanted to.
Enigmas of Combination
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Matrix of Leadership cores
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Other Matrix cores
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Notes
- As has been noted at the beginning of this page, Titans Return started out under the working name "Titan Wars". That earlier title was featured in schematics on display during BotCon 2015, which constituted the first public hint of the successor to Combiner Wars, as well as in a leaked internal Hasbro sheet for the San Diego Comic-Con 2016 exclusive version of Fortress Maximus.[6] According to former Hasbro Global Brand Development Manager Mark Weber, the cause for the name change were unspecified "legal restrictions".[7] The final name "Titans Return" was first officially used at New York Comic Con 2015. As can be expected, the early name was still used by many retailers around the world (particularly European ones) in official advertising and on store receipts, with annoying persistence.[8] Even worse, the old "Titan Wars" logo was still very prominently featured in an official Hasbro exhibit at ABRIN (the Brazilian Toy Fair) as late as April 2016.[9]
- Technically, the first figure specifically designed for the Titans Return play pattern that got released was Legends Class Buzzsaw, who was given an early release under the Combiner Wars subline imprint. In fact, comparing the product code and assortment numbers of the first two waves' worth of figures strongly implies that Hasbro originally intended to simply continue the Combiner Wars assortments with Titans Return product, rather than relaunching them as new assortments. Under this line-up, Stripes and Rewind would have presumably been released as part of wave 6 of the Legends Class assortment alongside Wreck-Gar while Wheelie would have been released in the subsequent wave together with Ravage and Rumble, and Laserbeak in the wave after that. Blaster would have been released as part of wave 6 of the Leader Class assortment (following wave 5's Skywarp) with Powermaster Optimus Prime released in the subsequent wave. The Deluxe and Voyager line-ups would have presumably remained unchanged.
- Early in the toy line's life cycle, Hasbro Australia promoted the Titans Return figures with three different full-scale advertisement posters (alternatively depicting Powermaster Optimus Prime, Fortress Maximus, or Galvatron) found at numerous public transport stations. This form of public advertisement is pretty much unprecedented for Transformers toys in general, and for a "collector"-oriented line in particular![10]
- Beginning with wave 3 figures, the pictograms on the tech-spec cards went through some minor cosmetic changes from the previous waves; the strength icon changed from a whole muscular torso to just a muscular arm, the 'motion blur' effect on the running humanoid figure which marks speed changed from triangles to striations, the intelligence icon switched from a human brain to a Cybertronian's head silhouette with gears inside, and lastly the firepower icon changed from just a bullet to a bullet followed by a blast effect.
- Another change that occurred with the wave 3 figures was that the default packaging design was now "Decepticon"-themed, after having previously been "Autobot"-themed ever since the Age of Extinction line in 2014, prompting some people to incorrectly assume a packaging design error.
- Listings in Toys"R"Us's internal systems and on Amazon Germany's public website indicated that Wave 5 would also include Optimus Primal and Toraizer Titan Masters, but no such toys ever materialized, with Ramhorn being the only new wave 5 Titan Master. Listings on Walmart's public website for the UPCs assigned to those figures also exist, but now read "discontinued by vendor".
- Titans Return is, to date, the last Generations sub-line to have differences in toy deco or tooling between the international Hasbro releases and Japanese TakaraTomy releases; the subsequent Power of the Primes toyline had identical toys released by both Takara and Hasbro.
- An AR (Augmented Reality) game for mobile devices was seemingly considered to be made to tie into the toyline, as seen from concept art on the Artstation page of concept artist Rob Wiggins. This game even featured a new design for Omega Supreme. Unfortunately, all of Rob Wiggin's Transformers-related posts have been taken down.
- In 2024, design director John Warden expressed an intent to update many of the characters he'd worked on during Titans Return—in particular, those which used the Titan Master gimmick but were never originally Headmasters.[11]
References
- ↑ It should be noted, though, that most of the Titan Master heads for the Leader Class figures are basically just larger-scaled "faces" that look incomplete without a corresponding helmet, which results in the smaller-scaled full heads of the other Titan Master figures looking rather obviously out of scale when used on a Leader Class figure.
- ↑ November 24 2016 photo
- ↑ There truly is nothing that can stand in the way of Trypticon. With your votes, he smashed his way to becoming the next Generations Titans Return Titan Class toy. Mark your calendars, and look for him to hit shelves late 2017.
- ↑ From the packaging of Special Edition Repugnus.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Decepticon Nitro, Thundercracker, and KSI Boss all feature neck sockets compatible with Titan Master head modes, but their own disconnected heads do not transform.
- ↑ Leaked internal Hasbro sheet for the SDCC exclusive version of Fortress Maximus at TFW2005.
- ↑ The Full Force Series 4 Episode 9
- ↑ Just a small selection of official retailer listings still using the name "Titan Wars" as of this writing: Titan Masters assortment listing at Amazon Germany; Legends Class Rewind, Voyager Class Galvatron and Leader Class Blaster listings at Amazon Mexico; Titan Masters and Deluxe Class assortment listings at Spielwaren Kroemer; Legends Class Wheelie, Deluxe Class Hardhead, Scourge and Blurr listings at Intertoys; Titan Masters, Legends Class, Deluxe Class and Voyager Class assortment listings at Faix; Voyager Class Sentinel Prime and Galvatron listing at Toys"R"Us France; Voyager Class assortment listing at Toys"R"Us South Africa; Legends Class, Deluxe Class, Voyager Class and Leader Class assortment listings at A.B.Gee.
- ↑ Hasbro exhibit at ABRIN 2016, featuring the outdated "Titan Wars" logo.
- ↑ Titans Return bus stop adverts high resolution images at TFW2005
- ↑ "So I know Mark is very much into the posability and filling voids of previous Transformers, you know there’s some characters that we – like in Titans Return during when I was on the brand, that are definitely in due of a remake, whether it’s because of the Headmaster figure or whatever. I think it depends, you know, some of those characters had a Headmaster gimmick and they weren’t actually Headmasters."—John Warden, TFW2005, "SDCC 2024 Hasbro Interview – John Warden’s Return, Generations, Studio Series, Combiners, More!", 2024/08/03
