1991 was a strange year for The Transformers. Without the support of a strong storyline anywhere in the world, the line's releases lacked coherence. Without the US market to fund bulk development of new toys, the remaining markets also lacked volume of new toys.
Japan's 1991 Transformers were part of Return of Convoy, which oddly featured exactly zero Decepticons. The line was functionally a continuation of Zone, focusing on Micro Transformers and larger figures that they could interact with. Many of the Micromaster Combiners from the US 1990 release were included, sold in sets of four, however the Combiner playsets were not released.
Meanwhile, the European market floundered. The bulk of the 1991 releases were additions to the Classics subline, now spanning 1986 combiner teams and 1987 Throttlebots in addition to their first and second series offerings. Some all-new additions were managed, however, in the form of Action Masters, their vehicles, and a small series of (somewhat) transformable Action Masters called Elites. It is likely, however, that these figures only appeared because they had been designed with an intended North American release, so many of the development costs were already invested. Many of the new Action Masters featured bright, garish color schemes that would become standard throughout the early 90s.
