MICROMAN MICRO TRAILER G2 OPTIMUS SERIES
Ironic, given a strong advertising cartoon was a major contributor to the success of the original Transformers series over its biggest competitor. The lack of a proper, network-backed "advertainment" cartoon was also a factor, as the repackaged '80s-series episodes branded as " Generation 2" didn't advertise the majority of the actual toyline, and was stuck in syndication hell to boot where Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles got steady network play.
Being up against the then-new Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the still-popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (whose overall garish color schemes give lie to the idea that colors are what sank Generation 2), and the ever-growing popularity of home video game consoles that sucked kids away from all toys added to the line's woes. Kids simply weren't into robots that turned into "real" vehicles at the time, it seems, and the "older nostalgic" market (which can rarely sustain a major toy brand at nationwide retail even today) was downright microscopic at the time. Laser Rod Optimus Prime, the last Optimus toy of the line, all-new with a literal truckload of gimmicks.
Even the later new molds didn't help much, nor the little changes made as the line went on, such as removing faction symbols from the toys (supposedly kids didn't quite "get" them at the time, possibly due to the mix of symbols in the early line), or packaging frippery like the " Real Action Pop-Ups 3-D Transformer Trading Card"s that came with larger later toys. Some fans blamed color selections, but it seems far more likely that it was simply a case of bad timing combined with too much product "your older brother has in the attic". Unfortunately, the series debuted to lackluster sales, despite featuring many fan-favorite toys that hadn't been available for years. It put a much larger focus on keeping "main" characters (particularly Optimus Prime and Megatron) readily available on shelves with a variety of toys at different price points, as most of the successful competing toy lines of the '90s were focused on a core cast of characters, rather than the massive ever-changing casts of the '80s. Generation 2 also sought to follow changing trends in the toy market in a broader sense. But after that initial year, all-new product quickly outnumbered reworked old product, and the line pushed its design and engineering to levels far beyond the original series most notably, it was during the latter half of Generation 2 that the toys began to feature the kind of advanced articulation in robot mode that made the toys much more "action figures" than ever before (and far more posable than many "regular" action figure lines!), which has been a staple of the brand ever since. Initially, the line heavily featured re-releases of several "Generation 1" toys (as the pre- Generation 2 series quickly became known to the fandom), with tweaked decos and new accessories, alongside several molds that had been recently released as part of the European-market line. Optimus Prime's first G2 toy, essentially a re-release of the original toy but with a new soundbox and weapons. In a desperate bid to save Transformers from ending for good, Hasbro chose to end the line in its third year, and go in a completely new direction. Unfortunately, the revamping failed to give the franchise the jumpstart it needed, despite having created several benchmarks that Transformers lines still follow to this day. Generation 2 saw more-or-less simultaneous release in the US and European markets, but Japan would not start the line (or even have any Transformers product at all on shelves, for that matter) until 1995. With a mix of classic popular characters, vintage toys, all-new gimmick-laden molds, and bodacious 90s color schemes, Hasbro hoped to recapture some of the financial success that had been lost with age and competition. Two years after the original Transformers toy line petered out in the US, Hasbro revamped the series with late-1992's Transformers: Generation 2, the first "reboot" of the franchise.
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