What began as a series of different Japanese toys that only had mild success, the Transformers toys have become one of the most iconic toy brands in the world. From Optimus Prime’s iconic red and blue trunk to Megatron’s gun form, the series has no shortage of memorable toys. The popular toys quickly gained an animated TV show aimed at children, called The Transformers. The show was a massive hit, leading into a theat🔴rical movie and sequels. The toys beca🐲me even more popular after the show began airing, and the brand continues to this day.
However, that almost wasn’t the case. There was a time that brand almost petered out, and it is mostly due to some really poor design chooses. Around the time of the late 80s, after the original Transformers TV show was canceled, there were more experimental toys being released. There was the Pretender toy line, and later the Generations 2 brand. While they weren’t all super failures, interest in the Transformers brand was clearly waning by the time the early 90s hit. It wouldn’t be until Beast Wars hit the airwaves that the franchise was able to bounce back. Beast Wars would lead into the Unicron Trilogy shows, the live action movies, the Transformers Prime series, and now Cyberverse.
Most of these shows and movies that followed Beast Wars have become financial hits. Despite the series’ endurance, it still doesn’t stop toy designers from creating truly awful toys. Beast Wars particularly still had some pretty terrible robot designs, though to be fair there are many bad Transformers toys in all the brands. That is why I’ll be going over 25 Transformers Toys That Should Never Have Been Made.
25 McDonald’s Happy Meal To🍸ys
There is already an ethics issue with McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys, and a series of awful Transformers toys certainly don’t help. Giving a kid a toy as “reward” for eating unhealthy food is a bad thing to teach children. These Transformers toys have the infamous robots turn into fast foods like burgers and fries. It’s not the worst idea for a toy, though what kind of kid would want their meal turning into small robots? They are not the worst Happy Meal toys based on Transformers brands, as Beast Machines had particularly bad ones too.
24 Generation 1 Pretender Cloudburst ♑
Towards the end of the classic brand of Generation 1 Transformers toys, the toy manufacturers started experimenting with new, out-there ideas. The Pretenders were probably the worst idea they could have thought up. Pretenders were Tran💎sformers who disguise themselves as normal humans. The toy versions of these Pretenders weꩵre really lame looking. They just look like humans with stupid looking armor. Inside the toys was a little robot, and the robots look really cheap. Cloudburst was one of the first Pretenders released, and he exemplifies why they're bad. He just looks like an out-of-shape guy in armor.
23 Nike Shoe Optimus 🐲Prime
In a weird cross-promotion, Hasbro, the toy manufacturers of the Transformers, decided to team up with Nike to create this abomination. You’re probably wo𝕴ndering if Nike Optimus Prime is wearable. The answer is that he is not, which makes you wonder, what’s the point? Nike Optimus Prime toy is actually a sought out collectible among hardcore Transformers enthusiasts, with a few reviews on Amazon praising the details on the toy. However, for the amount of money you have to spend to get it now, it isn’t worth it. And it is still a ridiculous concept.
22 Nike Shoe Megatroꦺn ♛
Optimus Prime wasn’t alone when he turned into a Nike shoe. His sworn enemy, Megatron, also has a Nike toy version of himself. It’s not any better than the Optimus Prime toy, honestly, even though the black coloring on the Nike shoe is pretty cool looking. 🙈In fact, Nike Megatron would have worked better just as a normal Nike shoe. Nike has done normal shoes with matching colors of other Transformers characters, and shoe version of Megatron would ha𓆉ve worked better simply as a normal shoe.
21 Beast Wars Injector ඣ
The Beast Wars TV show had a relatively small cast, with a simple handful of Predacons and Maximals on both sides. The series never matched the number of characters in the original Transformers TV show. Because of the relatively small cast of the show, I was h🌞onestly surprised to realize there were a lot more toys that were never adapted into the show. Injector was one of those toys; he was a Fuzor, meaning he was a Transformer who can turn into a creature that was a fusion of two animals. In his case, a lionfish and a hornet.
20 ไ Generation 1 Pretender Stranglehold
Who put He-Man in my Transformers toy? Another disgusting Pretender toy, Stranglehold looks like a rejected barbarian that you’re more likely to see in He-Man or Conan the Barbarian. His robot form, weirdly enough, transforms into an animal. Some of the Pretenders were able to turn into animals; however, most of the animal forms of these Pretenders were too simple. His robot and animal form really lack details. They also lack creativity, and it doesn’t help🦄 that Stranglehold looks more likely to wrestle a rhino rather than turn into one. At least Stranglehold has a stellar mustache.
19 Beast Wars Air Hammer ♔ 🎐
Good thing Air Hammer wasn’t named Land Screwdriver, or else his beast form wouldn’t have been as convenient. Air Hammer is another Fuzor robot from the Beast Wars line, meaning his beast form is the fusion of two different animals. Air Hammer, as his name coincidently implies, can turn into a hawk with a hammerhead shark’s head. Yup, that was a real thing, and it looks as stupid as it sounds. In case you haven’t seen the Beast Wars show yet, don’t worry. Air Hammer fortunately doe𒈔s not make an appearance.
18 🅘 ✨ Generation 1 Pretender Monsters
The Pretender Monsters are a little bit more complicated than normal Pretender toys. The Pretender Monster were disguised as, well, monsters. The monster forms of these Pretenders are appropriately gross, which I guess is meant to be the point. Thei🐭r robot forms are pretty lame though, lacking detail. The robot forms were also tiny. The Pretender Monsters’ robot forms can combine together to become one giant robot called Monstructor, who is perhaps one of the lamest combiners ever in the franchise. ඣThese toys are not complete failures; however, they lack the charm that the very early Generation 1 toys had.
17 Generatio♏n 1 Wheelie 𝐆
If this was a list of the worst Transformer characters, Wheelie would be somewhere at the top of that list. A small Transformer that was first introduced in The Transformers: The Movie, Wheelie had this annoying habit of talking in rhyme. It was pretty grating to listen to. His toy is possibly worst, especi𒁏ally since his toy hardly looks like the character in the movie.
Side note, Wheelie’s entire page in the Transformers fan wiki is in rhyme. It is pretty gloriousꦍ, as even the toy descriptions and wiki 𓄧notes are in dumb rhymes.
16 Beast Wars Terragator ♈
The concept of Fuzors is actually a pretty neat idea. Having a Transformer turning into an unholy creature made up of two existing animals can lead to very unique and cool ideas. The few Fuzors that the Beast Wars TV show had were pretty cool. With that said, there are many dumb ideas as well. Air Hammer and Injector were simply some of the many idiotic ideas for Fuzors. Terragator is another ridiculous idea for a toy. Again, as his name coincidently implies, he can transform into an💦 alligator with a snapping turtle shell on his back. His robot form also looks stupid.