But why would a kid even be interested in this line to begin with? Probably because the kid saw some marketing (if not an episode) of the cartoon. Or any Transformers cartoon for that matter. Why would a parent be looking at this line? Probably because their kid wants Transformers and most of this line is less than $15.
I think it’s no mistake that most of this line is centered around fairly iconic Transformers characters and concepts. I was looking to make a thread similar to this but…
I genuinely don't know how kids get into stuff today. I'm 37, and I teach high schoolers. How today's 7-12 demos find stuff, get hooked on it, and consume it is utterly lost on me.
I'd assume it all has to do with streaming and online content given that kids today are basically raised on the internet (I didn't get an computer with internet connectivity until I was 13), and I'm thinking Cyberworld being a YouTube thing is just basic internet economics.
Kids who may like Transformers stuff will get pushed to Cyberworld by the YT algorithm, ideally they like it, and want the toys of stuff.
Skibidi Toilet, a series of YT shorts that went viral, have toys now. Pretty much everywhere Transformers are sold.
So going the "get kids into this via YT" doesn't seem like the worst idea to experiment with.
Still, that's just me guessing. I'm very much not in the 7-12 age range in 2025 so I can't really tell you how they get interested in things. It's certainly not how like it was when you or I were that age.
We had to wait for our cartoons to come on! And it built character, dagnabit! Kids today with their streaming and their YouTubes...
I think recent trends have shown that “a cartoon” is maybe not AS necessary as some established powers deem it to be. In the case of Transformers, Hasbro has 40 years and a dozen shows AND feature films readily available in various flavors on every streaming platform short of Disney. Going to other established franchises, Batman hasn’t had a dedicated kids action cartoon since the end of Batman Unlimited in 2015. DC, in general, hasn’t had a kids action cartoon since the end of Justice League Action in 2017. Spider-Man hasn’t had a “core action” cartoon since the end of “Marvel’s Spider-Man” in 2020. Neither has Avengers since 2019, with the final season being more a Black Panther tie in than proper Avengers (the MechStrike series were promoted via shorts…aired on YouTube).
Batman and Spider-Man have new streaming animated series, but I don’t view either as being targeted to a younger audience the way more classic series have.
I don't think it's that cartoons aren't necessary, it's that what they are has changed. You mentioned Marvel's Spdier-Man, the last real long form animated Spider-Man show, which ran from 2017-2020.
That show also did a series of shorts that they release on YT and other social media platforms.
My guess is when that show's tenure was done someone at Disney or Sony or whoever realized that the show's social media shorts had a deeper impact with their target audience than the actual show did. And all the Spider-Man programming since has leaned into the "shorts" format.
Kids media is an outgrowth of media. Kids are trained how to consume media by the wider media ecosystem they're raised in. When you and I, and most people here, were kids television was built around programming blocks and shows that ranged from 22-45 minutes per episode.
And no shock, that's how we ended up consuming media meant for us.
But with most kids today growing up online, they're not being trained by the classic broadcast network model. They're being trained by the YouTube algorithm which is short content that catches attention quickly.
So the "cartoons" that are most effective with them aren't the shows that you or I would have watched at their age, but the shows that mimic the media environment they grow up in, fast paced, meme-y content that's over in five minutes tops.
Everything I’ve seen of Cyberworld points to a degree of “refreshed homogenization”. Optimus Prime looks pretty similar to a vast majority of animated Optimus Primes. Megatron might be a bull, but the robot mode has distinct “Megatron” aesthetics (particularly G1, Animated, and Evergreen and its derived series). Bumblebee is pretty dang similar to his myriad of post-movie styles with a dash of the G1 look in the head. Snarl is a robot dinosaur with a strong lineage In the franchise. Skybyte was last seen in Cyberverse, and is a shark car, there IS appeal there.
Elita 1 might be a boat, but her colors and design still evoke the character. Galvatron is a notable odd-ball, but he still maintains colors and stylings that evoke older Decepticon characters like G1 Scourge, RiD15 Overbite and Fracture (much less the Galvatronus Council), and Cybertron Scourge.
I don't think this matters.
On one level I kind of find it annoying that adult fans have been complaining about how same-y everything's been but the first time in a while Hasbro tries to shake things up it's "well it's not different in the right ways." Come on.
On another level though? If a seven year old is getting into Transformers... they're not going to know that Optimus looks like his usual self or that they just slapped a bull fur suit on a traditional Megs design. No elementary school aged kid is going to be roll his eyes and go "wow they can't let G1 go can they?"
They don't know who or what G1 or the Beast Era or anything else is!
Which goes to an earlier debate about why Hasbro sees value in doing new toy versions of characters from past media- all of this stuff is easily available out there. A kid could stumble on Cyberworld and if they like it they're not gonna get indignant that Megatron looks too G1-y. Likewise it's just as possible that a parent pulls up Animated, Cybertron, or Armada on Tubi to entertain the kids.
It's ALL new to the ideal target demo here and "I don't think they reinvented it enough" isn't a concern.