The Transformers Generation 1 line of toys was a hit back in the early 1980's and continue to be popular to this day. For this reason Takara and Hasbro have attempted to recreate some of the more popular Transformers into a new line of toys, Transformers Masterpiece. This new line of Transformers was first released in 2003. To date there have been 8 releases of the Masterpiece line, all popular characters from the Generation 1 line of Transformers. The following is each release of the Masterpiece Transformers to this point:

• Optimus Prime (cardboard trailer)
• Ultra Magnus
• Starscream
• Optimus Prime (die cast/plastic trailer)
• Megatron
• Skywarp
• Thundercracker
• Grimlock

These toys each resemble their respective characters from the original line of Transformers with the differences being each is a bit larger and more difficult to transform from robot mode to vehicle mode.

Most of these releases have been in Japan so these toys can be quite expensive when compared toys of like size. Starscream Masterpiece was released in Wal-Mart at one point exclusively. There have also been accessories released for the Transformers Masterpiece series made by other companies with the most popular being a cape and crown for Starscream that is based on a scene from Transformers: The Movie. There have also been releases of the Transformers Masterpiece toys in Australia as Target exclusives. These releases were made by Hasbro.

Takara seems to be focusing on only releasing the most popular characters of the Generation 1 series of Transformer toys. Grimlock is the latest release for the Masterpiece series and hopefully there will be many more in the future. There is definite demand for the Masterpiece Transformers line and creating more characters for it would help grow the popularity of the Transformers toys.