The other day, DC and Warner Bros. announced plans for the female-only DC Super Hero Girls multimedia project, targeted specifically at young girls with the aim to promote the idea that superheroes and action figures aren’t just for boys… because they aren’t. Now Hasbro is jumping on the bandwagon, with a plan to unveil a new, female-only line of Transformers.

Traditionally, Transformers supposedly don’t have a specific gender identity, although they have all typically been voiced by men. There have been some female Transformers characters over the years, including Chromia, Firestar and Moonracer, though those are not characters that are very familiar to most fans. Sarah Caroll, the senior brand manager for the Transformers line at Hasbro, told USA Today that the new female-centric project is in response to demand from the girls in their audience, saying, “To have them be represented as well is something that’s only natural.”

Carroll explained that their new female Transformers, while highly-fictionalized robots, are as relatable and realistic as possible when it comes to their personalities:

Our female characters really do have faults. They have things that they aren’t necessarily always good at and they have things they’re trying to overcome, and that makes them real people with a real drive.

Like DC’s new Super Hero Girls project, Hasbro is aware that to create good, relatable characters for girls means that these women need to have flaws just like anyone else. The flawless “strong female character” archetype is simply unrealistic.

Back in 2013, Hasbro opened their doors up to fans to crowdsource a design for a new character — that process resulted in a new Transformer named Windblade, who has become a major player in the IDW comics. Windblade makes her animated debut on a new episode of the Cartoon Network series Transformers: Robots in Disguise. Along with Strongarm, Windblade allows young girls to see themselves and their voices represented on the traditionally male-driven series.

Hasbro will launch their new female-only Transformers team in July via IDW Publishing’s Transformers: Combiner Hunters comic series. The new team of Autobots will be able to combine their forces to form one mega Transformer known as Victorion.  Not much else is known just yet, but we’re excited to see more companies responding to their young female audiences by delivering new characters and stories just for them.

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