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Transformers: Generation 1 - TV Tropes

  • ️Sun Apr 22 2012

Transformers: Generation 1 (Franchise)

The original robots in disguise.

The Transformers! More than meets the eye!
Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons!
The Transformers! Robots in disguise!
The Transformers! More than meets the eye!
The Transformers!

— Main theme song

Transformers: Generation 1 (originally simply The Transformers) is the original incarnation of Transformers, and regarded as the most iconic incarnation by some. If you say "Transformers", it's more than likely people will believe that you're talking about this one (or the live-action movies, depending on the audience). It began in 1984 as a way to advertise Hasbro's Transformers toy line, which was made from altering Takara's Diaclonenote  and Microchange lines through retools (mild alterations) and/or redecos (repaints), plus some licensed from other toy companies.

The original Japanese toys were not intelligent robots but remote controlled mechs used by human pilots. Under the Transformers brand every toy was a sentient robot, and the story was written to accommodate that. Characters were created that eventually became legend and are closely associated with further Transformers continuity lines. Such include Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream, Bumblebee and others who form general character types.

Since Transformers first aired, the FCC has enforced stricter regulations around children's programming; among other rules, a program may not use on-screen talent or 'identifiable program characteristics' (or display website addresses) to advertise during or adjacent to the 'host' program, even if the website contains primarily non-commercial program-related material. While these regulations have not substantially affected toy-related shows, they have largely curtailed the practice of creating a toy-related show specifically to promote and market a toy.

The Transformers cartoon

See main article: The Transformers

The show was initially written by Marvel Productions, and later Marvel in collaboration with Sunbow. Animation was done mostly in Japan by Toei Animationnote  and in South Korea by AKOM (In one of their earlier projects), Mihahn and Sei Young, with several by an unknown studio.

The show concerned the war between two factions of sentient robots - the heroic Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, and the evil Decepticons, led by Megatron. In the three-part opening, the Autobots fled their home planet of Cybertron after the war drained it of much of its energy. The Decepticons followed and, after a short space battle, they crash-landed on Earth, where they lay dormant for four million years.

When they were revived, the Transformers took on the appearance of Earth vehicles as a form of disguise. The Decepticons immediately set out to steal all of Earth's energy and the Autobots, being generally good guys, tried to stop them. Most episodes involved the Decepticons either coming up with a new Evil Scheme to steal Earth's energy, or coming up with a new Evil Scheme to destroy the Autobots forever. Naturally, they failed every time.

It is this specific synopsis that tends to define what is meant by "Generation One," as more specific details are subject to change between mediums or even within one work. Other continuities may go into more detail on the civil war itself or drop the Time Skip and have the battle continue on Earth uninterrupted.

Season One and Two

The first season was broadcast on Saturday mornings, and followed the above formula to a T. When it proved extremely popular, the show was given a weekday afternoon timeslot for the second season. This season still followed established conventions, but also mixed things up occasionally with excursions to alien worlds. A large number of new characters were introduced in this season, with the result that very few episodes featured all the characters. Instead, each episode focused on a few Autobots and Decepticons as a way of giving exposure to all the toys without making the episodes confusing. During this period, many characters had Day in the Limelight episodes; these are often considered to be the best episodes made.

When the show proved popular in America, Takara cancelled its plans for a new Diaclone line in favour of importing the American toys and cartoon. The cartoon was rebranded as Fight! Super Robot Life Form Transformer! and made a few changes, most notably changing Shockwave from a very cool, calm and logical robot to an angry, psychotic being. Additionally, one minute of footage was cut from each episode to incorporate the longer opening theme.

Transformers: The Movie (1986)

See main article: The Transformers: The Movie.

At the end of Season 2, an animated film was made, simply titled The Transformers: The Movie (1986), which was written so that it could be easily split into four 22-minute segments for subsequent TV broadcast. The movie skipped forward to the then far-off year 2005, by which time the Decepticons had conquered Cybertron. The plot concerned the Autobots' struggle to liberate their home planet and later save it from the Planet Eater, Unicron.

The movie introduced several plot elements which would go on to become important to the whole Transformers mythos — Unicron; and the Quintessons, a race of incredibly sinister and evil tentacled aliens who originally created the Transformers and were still bitter about being kicked off Cybertron after 11 million years, though their role with the creation of the Transformers has changed depending on the continuity. The movie also brought the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, an artifact carried by the Autobot leader which grants power and great wisdom, into the cartoon continuity.

The movie is infamous for killing off a large number of characters in order to give screen time to new toys. The deaths of Optimus Prime and Starscream in particular caused such consternation among fans that both characters were brought back in season three, after a fashion (Optimus was brought back by fan outcry, while Starscream came back because his toy was still available). And the replaced characters/toys such as Hot Rod and Ultra Magnus are subsequently disliked by some for being inferior copies of the older characters (Ultra Magnus, in particular, is essentially Optimus Prime painted white with a car carrier trailer that he can combine with to form a Super Mode). Interestingly, both of the aforementioned characters' deaths and revivals established now-time-honored traditions in Transformers fiction—that Starscream has an immortal spark (in G1 and related continuities) or is immortal by some other token (for example, in Animated, where he manages to stay alive because of an Allspark shard lodged in his forehead), and that Optimus Prime is prone to making Heroic Sacrifices from which he will fairly quickly return, to the point that Optimus dying and coming back has become expected and something of a Running Gag.

The movie would not be released in Japan until 1989, and so an OAV by the name of Transformers: Scramble City was made to introduce the new characters. As a consequence of the movie not being released until 1989, several characters who died in the movie (ie Prowl, Ironhide, and Wheeljack) inexplicably show up alive in the Japanese-exclusive series The Headmasters and Victory (later fiction, though, would rectify this by saying that yes, Prowl and Wheeljack still die in the Japanese cartoon continuity, but they were replaced by their dimension-hopping counterparts from the BT World; still doesn't explain Ironhide's cameo, though).

Seasons Three and Onward

The third season (rebranded as Fight! Super Robot Life Form Transformer! 2010 in Japan) was released in 1987. This followed on where the movie left off, and focused on the new characters. In this season, the Autobots had reclaimed Cybertron, while the Decepticons had been exiled to the dead planet of Chaar. It began with a Five-Episode Pilot in which the Quintessons manipulated the Decepticons into attacking Cybertron as part of an Evil Scheme to destroy all Transformers, during which several new toys made their screen debuts.

They failed, and after that things settled back into the generally episodic format from the first two seasons. While the Decepticons were still a major threat, the Autobots tangled with the Quintessons just as often as their traditional enemies. This season also departed from the previous two by not having any faction restricted to Earth. Instead, the characters' adventures took place all over the galaxy, incorporating many strange alien worlds. At the end of the season, Optimus Prime was resurrected following fan complaints. This was unprecedented, as Prime's toy had been discontinued and could only be obtained via mail-order flyers that came with the toys, and he wouldn't have a new toy until the Powermaster Optimus Prime figure came out in 1988.

After this, the American and Japanese continuities diverged. In America, a fourth season began, and pretty much ended, with a three-part episode entitled "The Rebirth". During these episodes, the action moved to the planet Nebulos and introduced the new Headmaster and Targetmaster toys as partnerships between Transformers and the native Nebulans. However, this season was aborted after the introduction despite some promising new characters and plot details, primarily due to waning interest in the cartoon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) being poised to catastrophically cut into Transformers' market share.

General Features

Like most shows made in the 1980s, Transformers: Generation 1 did not have especially strong continuity, which was at least partly due to the short production time per episode. However, there was a light storyline, with a few episodes building on events from previous ones. This continuity was strongest in season 3, which made the fact that episodes were routinely aired out of order all the more frustrating.

In 1992, selected episodes of the cartoon were re-edited and aired as the Generation 2 cartoon (which gave birth to the Generation 1 name). They were identical to the G1 episodes, save for the fact that instead of the classic "Autobot symbol zooms in and flips over to reveal Decepticon symbol" (or vice-versa), scenes were transitioned between by the "Cybernet Space Cube". There were additional gaudy CG effects added throughout the episodes, mainly borders and transitions, though in the case of "More than Meets the Eye, Part 1", it actually rectified a continuity error in the scene where the Decepticons board the Ark.

What made the show really special was the incredible quality of the voice acting. The huge number of characters made it difficult to firmly establish a distinct personality for each one. However, each character had a distinct, very fitting voice, which subtly indicated their personalities without needing to devote an entire episode to them. In fact, Peter Cullen's role as Optimus Prime was so respected that, when it was announced he would be reprising his role in 2007's live-action Transformers movie, fans immediately stopped complaining and started supporting the film (in fact, the And the Fandom Rejoiced trope was for a short time known as The Cullen Effect due to this).

Most episodes were produced in a very short space of time, with the result that a large number of animation errors crept in. Characters were often drawn the wrong size, sometimes for effect or by accident. Another constant problem was characters being drawn in the wrong colours, which was very confusing as many of the characters were identical save for different colours (they were often simply repainted toys). This problem was particularly bad in season 3, as many of the episodes were animated by AKOM, a Korean animation company which, while cheaper than Toei and produced animation with a slightly higher framerate, was also considerably sloppier, with characters using outdated animation models, Hanna-Barbera-esque shortcuts, rampant miscolorings. "Carnage in C-Minor" is the most egregious example, even using characters for background shots that were dead at that point.

Several episodes in the second season were produced by an unknown animation studio thought to be based in the Philippines; with three long-thought to be AKOM-animated episodes — "The Core", "City of Steel" and "The Autobot Run" — being handled by Mihahn. While the third season episode "Call of the Primitives" had a distinct, and notably more anime-esque art style, initially thought to have been animated by TMS Entertainmentnote  or Ashi Productions, who animated several Season 1 and 2 episodes for Toei. In 2020, it was finally confirmed that it was instead done by semi-frequent Toei subcontractor Studio Look. They, in turn, passed the work along to an employed batch of students from a Tokyo vocational school called The International Animation Institute (Kokusai Animēshon Kenkyūjo), also known as the Yoyogi Animation Academy. All this to say; the production on the cartoon was a bit of a mess. Toei would use other contractors, including the above-mentioned Sei Young and Ashi Pro, which also lead to the show's inconsistant animation quality.

Japanese Continuity

In Japan, after the show ended in America, they continued the story and rebranded into Transformers: ★Headmasters, which was essentially a spinoff. This gave a completely new origin story for the Headmasters. They also continued with Transformers: Super-God Masterforce, Transformers Victory and Transformers Zone.

Comics

As well as the cartoon, there have been several comics published over the years.

Marvel

The first of these was published by Marvel Comics. It is sometimes stated that the comic came before the cartoon; while issue 1 of the comic hit the newsstands quite some time before the first episode of the cartoon aired, the cartoon went into production long before the comic.

The comic was initially set in the main Marvel Universe, but soon moved to a separate Alternate Universe along with the G.I. Joe comic to prevent Executive Meddling from Hasbro interfering with Marvel's own characters. It was initially written by Bob Budiansky; he and his successor, Simon Furman, would end up having more influence on the overall Transformers mythos than anyone else. During this time, instead of simply telling the artists what to draw, the writers simply gave them a plot outline and let them draw a strip. Budiansky and Furman then took the strip and added Speech Bubbles; this arrangement meant that the artists had much more influence on the story than is common nowadays.

In America, the comic was first published as a bimonthly miniseries, before being developing into an ongoing monthly title. It was printed on higher-quality paper than most other comics, and as a result was also more expensive. While it used the same characters, setting, and premise as the cartoon, it told a significantly different set of stories. In particular, while the Transformers in the cartoon were built by Quintessons, in the comic, they were created by the god Primus, a part of canon later cartoon series adopted.

In the UK, the comic was published weekly for most of its run, and the American comics were commonly split in two in order to stretch the material. These were interspersed with original stories, mostly written by Simon Furman, which were where concepts like Primus which later migrated to the US title made their first appearance. These stories usually fit in with the American continuity, albeit with occasional twisting. After Budiansky suffered Creator Breakdown as a result of trying to keep Hasbro happy, Furman was brought on to write both the US and UK comics. His focus on story arcs and Character Development was considered the high point of the comic's run; however, due to a communications breakdown, the UK comics at this point drifted out of sync with the US publication. They also stopped doing full length original stories and began printing even less American material in each issue, splitting the original issues into three or four parts. To make up for the dramatically shortened length, the UK comic also featured a secondary, backup strip in black and white, written by Furman.

It finally ended after 80 issues (in America) or 332 (in Britain) due to declining interest in Transformers, though Marvel would later publish the short-lived Generation 2 comic. In 2012, IDW Publishing announced The Transformers: Regeneration One, a relaunch of the Marvel Transformers continuity picking up 21 years after where issue 80 left off. This series ran for 22 issues (including #80.5, given away for Free Comic Book Day 2012, and issue #0, set between #94 and #95), concluding definitively with issue #100 in March 2014.

Dreamwave

In 2002, a new comic was published by Dreamwave Productions, alongside an adaptation of the Unicron Trilogy (Armada, Energon, and Cybertron); this is the first to officially use the title Generation One. Simon Furman was brought back to write parts of it, as well as several lesser-known writers. It began as a set of mini-series which gave rise to a short-lived ongoing title. Ideas were taken from both the cartoon and the Marvel comic.

The main draw of the Dreamwave comic was the highly detailed, manga-influenced artwork of Pat Lee - which, as it turned out, included a lot of Dull Surprise and vaguely sexual poses. However, most of the actual drawing, colouring, and inking was done by uncredited and frequently unpaid guest artists while Lee was buying fast cars and sponsoring his girlfriend's Miss World campaign. Following a series of unethical business practises, scandals, and outright crime, Dreamwave declared bankruptcy, leaving both the G1 and Unicron Trilogy stories unfinished.

For better or for worse, this was the first American Transformers comic to be published in Japan.

IDW

In 2005, IDW picked up the license, and began by reprinting available stories originally published by Marvel and Dreamwave.

They also began publishing a new continuity, alongside stories based on Beast Wars, the live-action films and Animated. In a break with tradition, this series sees the Transformers as recent arrivals on Earth instead of having been in stasis for several million years beforehand.

The comic consisted of a series of Limited Series, primarily written by Simon Furman. In this continuity, the disguise aspect of transformation is emphasized for once, as Transformers use it to infiltrate the societies of other planets and manipulate governments to their own ends. Combat is much more cloak-and-dagger than usual, with both sides going to great measures to avoid detection - at least, that's the plan.

As well as the limited series, there have been a number of 'Spotlight' issues, which follow the adventures of a single Transformer. These usually occur elsewhere in space or time, and tie into the main plot in some way. They tell a side story about the expanding Dead Universe, which eventually took over the main story.

Furman's stories were followed by All Hail Megatron!, a 16-issue maxi-series. The first twelve issues were written by Shane McCarthy and take place on an Earth under Decepticon control. This was an attempt to draw in new fans who were put off by the complexity of Furman's series, though sales have been largely unchanged and fan reaction has not been kind to some of the changes introduced. For example, many 80s characters in this series were given modern altmodes as part of the whole "stealth" aspect, but reverted to 1985 designs for All Hail Megatron. A particularly egregious case is Astrotrain—under Furman's run, one of his altmodes was a modern train, but McCarthy reverted him to the steam train he had used in the cartoon, which was anachronistic in 1985!

This era of the IDW brand ended with an ongoing book set three years after the events of "All Hail Megatron". The series was written by Mike Costa, and featured the return of Don Figueroa as artist. However, the positive fan reaction to Figueroa as an artist was quickly diminished when he revealed a new, vaguely movie-ish art style that has been the subject of very violent backlash. The main series is accompanied by several concurrent mini-series, such as solo stories focusing on Bumblebee and Ironhide, The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers and the Cross Through Infestation.

Finally, as noted above, in 2012 IDW launched Transformers: Regeneration One, a 20-issue series that continues after the end of the Marvel comic book series, going from issue #81 to issue #100.

What became known as "Phase Two" of this continuity would begin in 2012 with the debut of two series - The Transformers: Robots in Disguisenote  and The Transformers: More than Meets the Eyenote , written by John Barber and James Roberts, respectively. After the end of the Great War with an Autobot victory, Cybertron faces an uncertain future with lingering resentment between Autobots and Decepticons, as well as neutrals who fled Cybertron ahead of the war but now demanded it back for themselves. Hotshot Autobot Rodimus led a crew of Autobots and other misfits to the stars in More Than Meets the Eye on a quest for the legendary Knights of Cybertron, while Bumblebee and others remained on Cybertron to try to keep the new peace in Robots in Disguise. After each book's first "season", they united for the Dark Cybertron cross-over event that shook up the status quo for Phase Three in 2014. While Rodimus's crew returned to their quest, Optimus Prime led a team to defend Earth from new threats while Mairghread Scott would pen the adventures of newly created character Windblade as she tackled the regime of Starscream, who had been made the planet's leader. Phase 3 also incorporated the nascent Hasbro universe, crossing Transformers over with other Hasbro properties like G.I. Joe, ROM, and more. Phases Two and Three became notable in both the Transformers franchise for its' increased representation for the LGBTQ community, with several same-sex relationships and the first openly transgender characters, earning the franchise notably mainstream attention for its' progressive steps forward. Ultimately this continuity would conclude with the entire non-Lost Light universe uniting against the threat of Unicron in the eponymously titled The Transformers: Unicron in 2018.

However, it never ends, and soon after the conclusion of IDW's initial G1 continuity, a new one would be made for 2019. However, this time it actually ended as after 2022 passed, IDW lost the license to publish Transformers comics.

Skybound/Image

In June 2023, Skybound Entertainment released thru Image Comics Void Rivals, a highly anticipated sci-fi comic written by Robert Kirkman about two hostile alien races trapped on the same planet. Midway thru the first issue it is discovered that they share the planet with Jetfire, signifying that Skybound has gained the Transformers license. The issue's back matter announced that the book is set in the Energon Universe alongside an upcoming TF book and two G.I. Joe-based titles.

Fun Publications

The official fanclub for Transformers has also on occasion created its own stories under its Transformers: Timelines label which use Generation 1 series as a foundation for new continuities. Classics uses the US Marvel comic as a jumping point, ignoring Generation 2 and the UK issues and instead continuing the storyline from the events of issue 80. Wings of Honor, meanwhile, uses the cartoon as its source, with both prequel stories involving the new Elite Guard that take place long before the first episode, and "Generation 2 Redux" sequel stories which take place after season 3, ignoring "The Rebirth" and the Japanese series.

Toyline

The toyline was, to say the least, eclectic. Most of the toys were originally from Takara's Diaclone and Microchange lines of transforming robot toys. Diaclone was a series of vehicles that transformed into Humongous Mecha, to be piloted by the Diaclone action figures. When Diaclone was converted into Transformers, the story involved sentient robots, and the pilot figures were not sold outside Japan. This meant that a lot of early Transformers toys had mysterious cockpits which drove many young boys (and some girls) to madness as they tried to figure out the purpose of these. (An epic retcon planned for Beast Wars, the eventual sequel to G1, was that these cockpits were the locations of the Cybertronians' "sparks", their equivalent to souls, which would be shown as tiny glowing humanoid figures in the cockpits. Hasbro, the toy company, scrapped this idea due to fears that children would think that the sparks were people and that the robots were just regular, piloted mecha.)

The Microchange line was a line of robots which transformed into 1:1 scale household items and guns. They had far greater articulation than the Diaclone toys. When Microchange was combined with Diaclone to create Transformers, the result was guns the same size as trucks and bigger than tanks, who were supposed to transform in order to disguise themselves. The cartoon got around this potential Plot Hole by showing characters clearly changing size as they transformed, which ended up being a minor plot point in a few episodes. However, this usually just raised more questions than it answered. Even more disconcerting are the Minicars, part of the Microchange line as 1:1 representation of Choro-Q toys (also known as Penny Racers in America). This resulted in a military jeep (Hound) being larger than a Range Rover (Brawn), and Jazz and Cliffjumper (both Porsches) being wildly different sizes, even in vehicle modes in the cartoon (where Cliffjumper's proportions made him look more like Bumblebee).

As well as Diaclone and Microchange, quite a few other, completely unrelated transforming robot toys were brought into the Transformers line by Hasbro. For example, Jetfire is easily recognisable as a Valkyrie from Macross (with the original commercial advertising him being the only time one was depicted as such in non-Macross fiction). This served to make the toys even more eclectic. As part of Hasbro and Takara's distribution agreement, toys not originally made by Takara (in particular the Bandai licensed ones) could only receive limited screentime to avoid advertising rival products at best. But most of them were simply not adapted into the show and instead were utilized in the comics.

After the movie, HasTak started producing the first toys designed specifically for the Transformers line, such as Rodimus Prime and Galvatron. Plenty more of Takara's toys would be adapted into Transformers, but from then on, the majority of new toys would be designed as Transformers from the beginning.

In 1987, the Headmaster and Targetmaster toys were introduced. These were the first gimmicks originally designed for the Transformers brand. Headmasters consisted of two robots, a small robot that transformed into a head and a larger, headless robot that transformed into a vehicle. These had to combine to form the complete robot. Targetmasters were small robots that transformed into guns; each gun could be used by most Transformers, but was generally associated with one particular full-sized one.

In 1988, the Powermasters (known as Godmasters in Japan) and Pretenders were introduced. Pretenders were simple but well-articulated Transformers who came with an outer humanoid or monstrous plastic shell for disguise. Powermasters, like Headmasters, comprised two robots. The small robot transformed into the engine of the bigger one, which could not transform without its smaller partner. A few of the American toys were missing from the Japanese Transformers: Super-God Masterforce line, which in turn had its own group of exclusive toys.

The 1989 line introduced increasingly complex Pretenders, as well as the very small Micromasters, who were primarily sold in teams. Few American toys from this year were sold in Japan, which got its own mostly exclusive Transformers Victory line. The European release also got the Motorvators, redecos of the Japanese Brainmasters which were not released in America. This was another two-robot gimmick; in this case, the smaller robot fits into a compartment in the bigger robots chest, and when the compartment is closed, a face concealed inside the smaller robot is pushed up into the larger robot's head.

In 1990, the Action Masters were introduced; since these didn't transform at all, the line did fairly poorly. (Yes, Transformers that didn't transform.) The Japan-exclusive Transformers Zone line introduced Transformers with motors, but also did fairly poorly. New Transformers would not be seen for two years, with the appearance of the Transformers: Generation 2 comic, though G1 toys have continued to be re-released right up to the present day.

Commercials

Yes, the show and comic themselves were basically commercials. But there were also much, much shorter, animated commercials that aired, usually with original animation, showing the next cool toy. The Generation 1 commercials are fondly remembered, although the Generation 2 commercials are mostly remembered for their (early) (bad) CGI and raps. Example:

His Gatling gun

This Decepticon bomber's

A three-in-one villain

That's chillin'!

A note on the title: Both the cartoon and comic were originally just called The Transformers. However, when the Transformers: Generation 2 comic was published, fans began using Generation 1 or G1 to refer specifically to the original cartoon and comic as opposed to Transformers as a whole. After a while, Hasbro and Takara started using the term themselves, making it official.

Transformers: Prime Wars Trilogy takes place in Generation 1.

This series provides examples of:

  • Adapted Out:
    • The Diaclone pilots were intentionally taken out of the toyline because Hasbro believed the robots themselves as sentient beings at war with each other was more marketable than the original's Badass Army that could pilot several vehicles that can transform into Gundam-esque mechs and at war with the Warudos, an invading alien species using their own robots (the Insecticons originated from them).
    • The same can be said to Microman, the other transforming toyline series unrelated with Diaclone. They were smaller humans that can possess toy items, and make them transform (such as Megatron the gun, Soundwave a cassette tape deck, Shockwave a laser gun, Perceptor a microscope, and Reflector a camera). With the exeception of Perceptor, the aforementioned four robots were subjected to Adaptational Villainy.
  • Adaptational Villainy: Some Diaclone and Microman figures were initially heroes in their own toyline (Starscream for example is based off of Jet Robo in the Diaclone line). Famously, the Microman gun Transformer would become Megatron.
  • Adaptational Wimp: Most of the Autobots don't posses the ability to fly. In the original Diaclone toyline they originated from, the '84 Robo robots, along with Powered Convoy (Ultra Magnus' original incarnation) were capable of flight. The Autobots such as Optimus, Tracks, Jazz, and Prowl, can't fly, and the latter two's car doors in their robot modes were supposed to be wings (and Tracks' wings originally weren't for show in robot mode either).
  • Alternate Universe: The core foundation for the animated series, Marvel U.S., Marvel U.K. and neo-G1 incarnations, such as Hearts of Steel all co-existing as "Generation One". The Binaltech storyline resulted in the creation of a new parallel universe.
  • Audience Shift: Most current material based on Generation 1, specifically comics, toys, games (such as Transformers: Devastation) and re-releases of the animated series, is aimed towards fans who grew up with the franchise rather than the children that it was originally intended for. The comic series by Dreamwave and later IDW are particularly Darker and Edgier, with frequent character deaths and even different characterizations.
  • Beard of Evil: Scourge and the Sweeps (and Unicron) sport something resembling a goatee and they're either evil Decepticons or a robot being that wants to destroy everything.
  • Bizarro Universe: G1 Cliffjumper finds himself in the Shattered Glass universe, which is primarily (but not entirely) derived or influenced by G1.
  • Blood for Mortar: The Constructicon foreman Scrapper likes to take the bodies of fallen Autobots and make them part of whatever construction he's currently working on.
  • Car Fu: It's not uncommon for many transformers (especially Optimus and Motormaster) to ram into things in their vehicle mode.
  • Cassandra Truth: Starscream falls victim to this numerous times. He'll warn Megatron that his latest Evil Plan is doomed to fail, and even though he ends up being right most of the time, Megatron continues to ignore him.
  • Co-Dragons:
  • Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Autobot guns fire yellow energy bolts, while Decepticon guns fire purple energy bolts. In addition, Autobots have blue eyes and Decepticons have red. And of course, the traditional colour for Autobots is red, whereas for Decepticons it is purple, as shown in their insignias.
  • Combining Mecha: Comes in many forms. The most common variation is four small limb robots merging with one large torso 'bot (often the leader) to form a Humongous Mecha. Meanwhile, Devastator, the first and most iconic combiner, is comprised of six equally-sized robots. There are also examples like Sky Lynx and the Duocons, who are individual characters formed from multiple animal/vehicle units combined together.
  • Competing Product Potshot: A commercial took part in ripping into their competitors (mainly The GoBots) by devoting an entire commercial to it. With Megatron, Optimus Prime and the announcer outright proclaiming that only they deserve the right to be called Transformers.
  • Continuity Drift: The Movie (or "Five Faces of Darkness" right after it) establishes the Quintessons as the creators of the Transformers. When Primus was established as the origin of the Transformers, the Quintessons being the creators was dropped, and were more interested in their destruction.
  • Cool Car: Most of the Autobots transform into real world cars such as a Volkswagen Beetle, a Lamborghini Countach, a Porsche 935 and a Toyota 4WD Hilux. Also all the Stunticons have alt modes based on more real cars, except Motormaster, who transformed into a truck.
  • Cool Plane: Most of the Decepticons as well as the Aerialbots transformed into real life planes or sci-fi aircraft. The original Seekers transformed into F-15s, for one.
  • Cool Train: Astrotrain is a Decepticon who can transform into a steam train or a space shuttle.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Abraham Dante of the Machination works with Skorponok to expand his business empire... which he and Skorponok both intend to become a far more LITERAL empire.
  • Creepy Old-Fashioned Diving Suit: Octopunch is a Decepticon Pretender (in other words, a villainous robot inside an organic power shell). While Autobot Pretender Shells were designed to look like humans in armor, Decepticon Shells were designed to look like monsters. Octopunch's shell is designed to look like a man-mutant hybrid in an old-fashioned diving helmet with a horrifying visage barely visible beneath it and he's known as "the terror of the deep."
  • Death Is Cheap: Optimus Prime dies and eventually comes back at least once in every continuity.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Gears and Huffer are both unceasingly grouchy because they frankly couldn't care less about the war and absolutely hate the lush, green landscape of Earth almost as much as they hate the people who live there. They're the good guys, by the way. It's worth noting that, according to his tech specs, Gears does this intentionally as a form of mood-leavening. A satire of Huffer and Mirage's own apathy towards organics?
  • Depending on the Writer:
    • Comic writers tend to portray Shockwave as being a cold-blooded usurper who constantly is plotting against Megatron AND SUCCEEDING, while the Gen1 cartoon portrayed him as super-loyal servant of Megatron.
    • Speech patterns for characters also depend on writer; Blurr, the various Dinobots, and Weirdwolf most notably.
    • Soundwave and Blaster's cassettes are either attack drones used to gain an edge in battle or individual robots waiting to be ordered.
  • Dirty Coward: Decepticons are known to ditch the field the moment they lose their advantage.
  • Dumb Muscle:
    • Most combined robots, but also the Dinobots, Slugfest, and Overkill. And Headstrong, Tantrum, Rampage, the Firecons (except for Sparkstalker), Beastbox, Brawl... Note that almost all of these are Decepticons.
    • It is claimed that Menasor (the combined form of the Stunticons) would be the ultimate Decepticon weapon if it wasn't for the fact he is a combination of a nihilist, a psychopath, a paranoid schizophrenic, and an egomaniac, held together by a sadistic bully whom the other four despise and fear.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Energetic and Soft-Spoken Duo: Siren is an exuberant Autobot with No Indoor Voice. His Headmaster partner Quig is a very quiet former librarian who jumps whenever Siren begins to speak in his ear-splittingly loud voice.
  • Excited Title! Two-Part Episode Name!: All over the place in the Japanese series. The original cartoon even gets renamed to "Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers".
  • The Faceless: Several Transformers lack human facial features. They have a faceplate instead of a mouth (like Optimus), or a kind of "visor" instead of individual eyes (Trailbreaker). The prize winner is Shockwave, who only has a hexagonal cylinder for a head with a single yellow eye.
  • Faux Action Girl: Arcee. Touted as "a forceful female Autobot", but she only fires her gun twice, and misses both times. Just to add insult to injury, being a girl AND pink meant Hasbro, who viewed Transformers as a boy's toy, canclled Arcee's toy during production due to the assumption that boys would see Arcee as a girl's toy. Still, that's better than what Headmasters did to her.
  • Fictionary: The universal greeting. "Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong!"
  • Flying Car: Tracks has wings that extend from his car mode to fly. The Omnibot Overdrive also has retractable wings that presumably allow him to fly.
  • Frankenslation: The original toyline rebranded the unrelated Microchange and Diaclone toylines. Transformers was soon re-imported to Japan, where it proved much more popular than the source toys.
  • Friendship-Hating Antagonist:
    • The original toy bio (and expanded bio) of Megatron painted him as being one of these, to the point his other famous quote besides "Peace through tyranny" is "Everything is fodder." In The Transformers, despite Soundwave being his most consistently useful subordinate even he isn't spared from a harsh rebuke in "The Key To Vector Sigma" where Megatron calls him a fool for tripping and dropping the titular Key. Later series (e.g. Transformers: Animated, Transformers: War for Cybertron, Transformers: Prime) would sometimes paint Megatron as a Fallen Hero or Dark Messiah with at least a few key followers he's genuinely close to (most often Soundwave and Shockwave).
    • The Insecticons Shrapnel, Kickback and Bombshell zigzag this. They're quite loyal to each other, but it's also normally made clear that this is because they recognise they're at their most effective together rather than any genuine friendship or affection. However, they happily mock friendship and bonds other beings have for each other. Their original toy bios imply they get a bit of a thrill out of twisting concepts like bonds and friendship, as Kickback is described as a charmer who befriends others only to suss out blackmail material and Bombshell outright brainwashes people into betraying even their most trusted loved ones.
  • Genius Loci:
    • Unicron and Cybertron. The former is the physical manifestation of the God of Evil in the form of a transforming planet. The latter is the dormant shell of Primus, the creator of the Cybertronian race; Vector Sigma is believed to be an interface that allows Cybertronians to communicate with their sleeping god.
    • The Dead Universe is a living sentient death, an all consuming darkness with shades of Eldritch Abominations that acts through the luckless Cybertronians that stumble into it.
  • Hammerspace: Each Cybertronian has access to a personal subspace pocket where they can displace their weapons, alt-mode parts (most notably Optimus Prime's trailer), and even mass during size-changing transformations.
  • Heroes Prefer Swords: Inverted. Originally, Optimus only ever uses an axe as a melee weapon, while many other characters, such as the anti-heroic Dinobots and several Decepticons including Megatron himselfnote  do use swords.
  • Heroes With Bad Publicity: The Autobots are frequently afflicted with this in the comics, as the humans often fear them as much as they do the Decepticonsnote . In the humans' defense, it isn't always easy for them to distinguish between the huge, destructively-powered robots that want to enslave them and the huge, destructively-powered robots that want to protect them. Needless to say, the Decepticons actively exploit this by causing chaos and then framing the Autobots for it.
  • Heroic Canines, Villainous Felines: Inverted with the Decepticon Sixshot and his Good Counterpart Quickswitch, who transform into a wolf and a puma respectively.
  • Humongous Mecha: Taken to greater and greater levels with the Gestalts (combiners), the fortress robots Metroplex and Trypticon, the even larger city Transformers Fortress Maximus and Skorponok, and the final ridiculous level with Unicron, a robot the size of a planet.
  • Joker Immunity: Starscream. Even killing the bastard doesn't keep him down.
  • Kibbles and Bits: Prowl has door wings hanging off his shoulders, Scavenger has a shovel "tail", Hot Rod has a big spoiler on his back. It's easier listing characters who don't have kibble (though many fans would argue that this helps add character to their appearances).
  • Kidnapped for Experimentation: While mostly avoided in the first series (probably due to the target audience and those pesky censors), later series had this trope pop up semi-often (most notably in Transformers: Prime, where the terrorist organization MECH became a little too interested in Earth's resident Cybertronians.
  • Killed Off for Real: If your name isn't Optimus Prime or Starscream, consider yourself dead.
  • Kitsch Collection: Pipes's love of Earth culture lends itself directly to this. He collects everything of Earth's fascinating technology he can find (nose hair clippers, patent rulers, compasses) and proudly displays his collections to his fellow Autobots, who humor him because he's an alright guy besides all that.
  • Lady of War: Elita One, the leader of the female Autobots and Optimus Prime's girlfriend.
  • Least Is First: In a children's novelization, Bumblebee, the smallest and weakest of the Autobots, is the first to volunteer for Optimus Prime's space mission, which will eventually bring the Transformers to earth.
  • Magnetism Manipulation: Several Transformers had magnetic abilities that they used for various purposes.
    • Ravage uses it to cling to objects in his tiny alt-mode, making him an excellent spy.
    • Windcharger actually has a relatively realistic portrayal: he can make each of his arms the pole of an electromagnet and use it to manipulate metal. The closer the metal is, the more powerful his pull.
    • Tailgate has a powerful magnet in his front bumper, which he uses to follow other vehicles while saving fuel.
  • Mechanical Lifeforms: Pretty much the entire "ecosystems" on Cybertron, Junkion, and Quintessa consist of these.
  • Merchandise-Driven: To an even more ludicrous degree than G.I. Joe. Apparently, Hasbro wanted to repeat the formula used for the latter.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: Mindwipe's tech specs state that he'd rather try to contact the electromagnetic essences of long-dead Decepticons than speak to a living one.
  • Palette Swap: A lot of characters are just recolors of each other. There's Starscream/Skywarp/Thundercracker, Rumble/Frenzy, Laserbeak/Buzzsaw, Bumblebee/Cliffjumper, Prowl/Bluestreak/Smokescreen, and Ironhide/Ratchet (though some of these pairings slightly subvert the trope by having very minor differences in head or face shape, or having different accessories such as police/ambulance lights). More than made up for by all of these pairings, except maybe Rumble and Frenzy, having radically different personality types that even the cartoon did a relatively good job of playing up.
  • Parental Abandonment: We never hear about Spike's mother/Sparkplug's wife.
  • The Pig-Pen: Terrorcon member Blot, in most incarnations, leaks noxious fluids & revels in dirt to the point the other Terrorcons don't even like merging with him to form Abominus.
  • Planet of Hats: Planet of the giant mechs who make a rather awesome toy franchise.
  • Product-Promotion Parade: Happens several times in both the original Marvel comic book series and the Marvel/Sunbow animated series.
  • Ramming Always Works: Ramjet transforms into a jet and is reinforced to allow him to ram into enemy fighters without seriously hurting himself.
  • Rank Scales with Asskicking: Receiving the Matrix of Leadership usually results in the new Prime receiving a much stronger body (Orion Pax/Optronix becoming Optimus Prime, Hot Rod becoming Rodimus Prime).
  • Real Men Wear Pink: Scourge and the Sweeps have pink claws, and Depending on the Artist, pink toe tips as well.
  • Rhino Rampage: Headstrong and Ramhorn have alt modes or robot modes based on a rhinoceros and they're the most destructive bots around.
  • Robo Family:
    • Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are considered brothers.
    • Quickswitch was said to be Sixshot's son, in the commercial that introduced him.
  • Robo Speak:
    • Soundwave: superior. Rumble, Laserbeak, Ravage: Eject. Operation: Sell toys.
    • Mention of Omega Supreme: not immediately visible. Problem: rectified.
  • Robot Buddy: Inverted - the Transformers have human buddies.
  • Rogue Planet:
    • Cybertron wanders through space without an orbit, which is why the characters tend to rely on a teleportation device to make it back and forth.
    • Unicron's vehicle mode, itself a planet, flies through space of its own volition.
  • Same Power, Different Flavor: Both Hound and Mirage have hologram projection abilities, but differ in their application. Hound specializes in projecting illusions, while Mirage utilizes holographic cloaking, though he sometimes creates illusions when Hound isn't around to do it.
  • Serial Escalation: Hasbro tried to top a number of their own gimmicks. For example, in 1985, Hasbro introduced the Triple Changers — toys that had three transformation modes (one robot mode, and two vehicle modes) instead of the usual two. In 1987, they introduced Sixshot — a toy that had SIX transformation modes! Then there came Ten!
  • Sham Supernatural:
    • The Pretender Bomb-Burst sells himself as a terrifying, vampiric hunter who stalks the night, helped by his monstrous Pretender shell (a form of bio-technological body armour that hides a Transformer in a biological shell). In fact, his Pretender shell is actually quite energy inefficient, so he has to hunt down and prey on unsuspecting Autobots. On the other hand, he is a genuinely stealthy, cunning and powerful hunter (his Pretender shell even gets stronger the more Energon it drains from a victim).
    • The Decepticon Headmaster Mindwipe likewise sells himself as a terrible creature of the night, helped by his bat alternate mode. He claims to be a master of dark mystic arts, trying to get in touch with ancient spirits but unaware he's actually picking up reruns of old sitcoms. He's genuinely dangerous, as his special power is to hypnotise an enemy simply by making eye contact. Luckily, he's also a bit of a Dirty Coward.
  • Shout-Out:
  • The Starscream:
    • Provides the Trope Namer. Starscream is constantly trying to usurp Megatron's positon as leader of the Decepticons.
    • Several combiner teams have at least one member who also behaves this way internally.
    • According to the More Than Meets The Eye profile books, there are at least two Micromaster teams that consist entirely of one leader and three Starscreams.
  • Stealth Pun: Warpath is a tank who randomly makes exclamations. Looks like he has Tourette's, which is a homophone for "turrets."
  • Take That!:
    • The comics by IDW and Dreamwave feature a lot of jabs against the forgotten competitor Challenge Of The Go Bots, mostly in the form of background characters resembling the Go Bots being killed in various ways. A few wrecked Gundam bodies can also be seen during a scene in the Movie.
    • The concept of rubsigns (originally a gimmick in and of itself) was one to its competitors and knockoffs. With the commercial going out of its way to proclaim "Only the Transformers are real Transformers". This was due to the fact the rubsign decals were costly to produce back in the 80s. Now, not so much, since anyone can buy reproductions of them anywhere and the actual bootleg copies of the old toys have them too, so when they're used officially it's more for a nostalgia gimmick
  • Tank Goodness: Tank Transformers tend to be powerful bruisers; Warpath, Blitzwing, Brawl, and G2 Megatron have battle tank alt-modes.
  • Technology Marches On:
    • In many ways. What the Transformers themselves had as technology then is fairly standard to us now, and in relativity, artists and writers have had to go to much greater lengths to make Transformers appear more advanced than we are.
    • Soundwave's alternate mode is a perfect example. He turns into a cassette player; a useful disguise back then, nowadays not so much. Of course, some more... nostalgic fans (luckily a minority) disagree with any attempt at modernization.
  • Transformation Conventions: In the later years, many Decepticons tended to transform into beasts and monsters, while most Autobots turned into vehicles as usual. The Monsterbots, a trio of Autobots with terrifying monster modes, existed to flip this trend.
  • Unlikely Hero: Brash "teenager" Hot Rod becomes the new Autobot leader, Rodimus Prime.
  • Verbal Tic:
    • Me Grimlock and other Dinobots speak like cavemen.
    • Shrapnel repeats the last word of every sentence, sentence. Sometimes even the last two syllables of every sentence, whether they form a single word, or two.
    • Wheelie speaks in rhyme every single time.
    • Blurr talks really fast and often repeats himself because he's so fast and the speed at which he talks reflects the speed at which he moves and by speaking so fast he gets a lot of words in due to speaking so fast but he often doesn't have a lot to say so he ends up repeating himself while speaking real fast.
    • Omega Supreme: giant. Favorite punctuation mark: colon.
    • Talk in backwards Yoda speak Weirdwolf loves to.
    • Warpath is BAM!! fond of putting loud POW!! exclamations into his BOOM!! sentences. This could be considered Robo-Tourette's syndrome.
  • Villainous Exit Denied: Played straight, then Subverted later. In "The Core," Megatron has a makeshift space-bridge to Cybertron ready as a getaway when his drill punctures the core of The Earth. He tries to use it when the mental-tampering of Devastator by both sides turns the Combiner berserk, only for Devastator to burst out from under said bridge before he gets there. Later, when it looks like Devastator can't stop the drill in time, Megatron manages an actual exit.
  • Volcano Lair: In both the cartoon and Marvel comic, the Autobots establish a main base of operations out of the volcano their ship crashed into (named Mount. St. Hilary in the latter). It's mostly dormant, save for the initial eruption that awakened the Transformers and reignited their war.