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The toy maker started the Transformers franchise with a Japanese partner in 1984. The concept — robots disguised as everyday objects — was originally aimed at 5-year-old boys. But as those boys have grown up and had children and even grandchildren, Hasbro has expanded the brand into other media and added new toy lines to appeal to everyone from toddlers to adults.

Take Rescue Bots, for example.

The main Transformers brand contains mature themes, with big robots battling for control of the planet. To engage children ages 3 to 7, Hasbro introduced Rescue Bots in 2011, featuring toy robots as first responders.

"The goal there is to take what you have and bring an age-relevant message, which is to get away from the battle and the fighting and focus on the heroic nature of Transformers," said Jay Duke, global vice president for the Transformers brand at Hasbro.

That was enough to convince Ryan Yzquierdo, who has been a Transformers fan since he was 7, that Rescue Bots were a good way to introduce Transformers to his 3-year-old daughter.

"Each toy focused on a different motor skill, which was a big selling point for me and my wife," said Mr. Yzquierdo, who started a Web site, Seibertron.com, devoted to Transformers in 2000.

When buying toys and games for their children, parents often look to favorites from their own childhood. Their nostalgia for beloved toys from their past helps create a bonding experience with their little ones.

Toy makers have long tried to build enduring brands that can be passed down to the next generation. Those intellectual properties are cheaper to develop because the toy companies do not have to pay a licensing fee to an outside partner. They also bring in added revenue through licensing fees paid by other companies, like makers of apparel and school accessories.

In Transformers, Hasbro has one of the most valuable brands among toy makers. In 2011, the year the third Transformers movie was released, Hasbro recorded $960 million in sales from products related to Transformers and Beyblade, a spinning top game, according to the company's latest annual earnings report.

When it was developed in 1984, Transformers consisted of a toy line and an animated television series.

But in 2007, Hasbro began a new strategy to build the brand into a worldwide franchise that now includes live-action movies, video games, publishing and even theme park rides.

"There are not a lot of brands like that in the world that have that strong emotional resonance across generations," said John A. Frascotti, global chief marketing officer at Hasbro.

For older boys, Hasbro has extended the brand into mobile apps, video games and comic books. For adults, the company has licensed an annual Transformers convention called BotCon and organizes events at conventions like Comic-Con International in San Diego.

But the growth of the Transformers franchise has had its pitfalls, too. When there is not a Transformers movie rumbling through theaters, the toy line stumbles. Hasbro reported net income of $130.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2012, a 6.3 percent decline from the previous year. Sales in its boys business fell 23 percent in the quarter from the same period in 2011, the year the last Transformers movie came out.

Analysts say it is important for Hasbro to keep the Transformers brand fresh in non-movie years.

"Hasbro focuses on these big, home-run movies. When they don't have one, they get punished for it," said Jaime M. Katz, an analyst at Morningstar.

Investors expect sales in the boys category to decline this year as well, but to rebound in 2014 when the next Transformers movie is released, said Felicia R. Hendrix, a Barclays analyst. "The real problem around this is that their boys' line seems to be very movie-driven," Ms. Hendrix said, adding that Hasbro should try to make the brand more evergreen.

Toward that end, the company showed previews of two new Transformers toy lines, Beast Hunters and Construct-Bots, last month at the annual Toy Fair in New York. The Beast Hunters theme, which features robots that morph into predatory animals, will encompass several areas, including television, toys and licensing, while Construct-Bots will allow boys to build their own Transformers.

Hasbro has used its multiplatform, multigenerational strategy as a template for other brands, including My Little Pony, a 30-year-old property for girls ages 3 and up. In 2010, the company revamped the brand with a television series called "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic."

The series attracted legions of adult fans to the My Little Pony franchise. They obsessed about the characters in fan-generated fiction, artwork and videos. Adult male fans, who call themselves Bronies, even bought ad time on the Hub, a cable television channel co-owned by Hasbro, to thank the company for producing the show.

In response, Hasbro expanded My Little Pony as a lifestyle brand, with 200 licenses in 15 categories, including publishing, apparel, bedding and digital gaming. To celebrate the brand's 30th anniversary this year, the company plans to introduce a new extension this fall called Equestria Girls.

But adult fans have also pushed to take more control of the brand, creating unauthorized digital games and plush toys that company executives eventually quashed.

"They don't mind having this fan base, but they can't forget their core market," said Jim Silver, editor in chief of timetoplaymag.com, which covers the toy industry. "These are waters you have to navigate very carefully."

Mattel, the world's largest toy company by revenue, has several established intellectual properties, including die-hard brands like Barbie and Hot Wheels and newer ones like Monster High. Like Hasbro, Mattel has taken a multiplatform approach, expanding its brands to television, the Internet, publishing, video games and licensing.

Smaller rivals have also taken notice and are starting to build their own properties in the hopes of creating a brand that will eventually cross generations. Last year, Jakks Pacific, which traditionally makes licensed toys, introduced an intellectual property called Monsuno, which included a toy line, trading cards and an animated television series, a first for the company.

After three years of exploring ideas, the time had come for the company to invest in building an intellectual property, said Jeremy Padawer, executive vice president of marketing at Jakks Pacific.

"I would love to say that 20 years from now, there is a whole generation that loved playing with it as kids," he said.