Transformers

This is a /co/ related article, which we allow because we find it interesting or we can't be bothered to delete it.

And these are just your characters from G1!

"More Than Meets The Eye" - the tagline, for more than like half the brand

Transformers is a series of Robot Toys created by Hasbro and Takara Tomy that typically turn into cars and other vehicles. Robots are cool, cars are cool and so they became popular. In 1984 they made some comics and a cartoon show. The comics show created a lot of toy sales and the toys kept the shows and comics popular. Over the years they changed things up to sell more toys and new series were made, some worked quite well (Beast Wars, Prime) others did not (Armada, Energon, Cybertron).

Why has there never been a roleplaying game about this shit? Only comics, cartoons, anime, and finally video games. An upcoming RPG has been announced. So much potential. Seriously, it's a setting about sentient, shapeshifting robots fighting a war that spans motivations from political to racial to theological. Fuck, there weren't any tabletop Transformers games beyond the usual tie-in bullshit until 2018 when Hasbro announced an official Transformers TCG. How the fuck has nobody realised the money-making potential there?

Main Guys

As the series come and go, a certain bevy of characters seem to be archetypal to the Transformers. Not helped by the fact that, ever since the flop of Beast Machines and the riotous financial successes of the Bay, Hasbro seems to only ever stick with recycling Generation One, with some other characters jumping continuities. These are the Transformers who appear in some form or another in every iteration of the setting.

• Optimus Prime: Leader of the Autobots, Lawful Good to the computer-core, the Big Red Hero-bot himself. There's always an Optimus leading the Autobots, and he usually turns into some kind of red truck or hauler. His name is the Latin words for "best" and "first", and he really is both. In the original show (and in the Michael Bay movies -- one of the decent things about them -- and Transformers Prime and the Cybertron games), he was voiced by Peter Cullen, whose awesome deep voice you probably hear in your head whenever you read any of his dialogue. Check it out: "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings." Also has the record of dying the most times out of anyone ever, making one wonder how the hell the GM lets him get away with it each time. Might be because he always goes out fighting, never like a punk.

• Megatron: If there's an Optimus Prime, there's always a Megatron, the Evil (of some flavor, depending on the series) to his Lawful Good. Megsy remains pretty consistent throughout his appearances, usually varying only in what level of honor he has (which usually depends on his backstory; sometimes he started as a charismatic gladiator turned freedom fighter against the corrupt Cybertronian government -- Angron, anyone? -- but sometimes he's just nuts) and/or how much of a cold-blooded psychopath he is. He used to turn into a gun (which could inexplicably shrink down to be small enough to be wielded by another Decepticon or even the occasional human), with the barrel scope giving him a wicked arm cannon in robot mode, but nowadays he usually turns into a tank or a jet. He was first voiced by Frank Welker, whose versatile voice was also used for just about every other Decepticon except for Starscream (and probably at least one role in just about every cartoon made in the English-speaking world in the last half-century). David Kaye did a bang-up job voicing Predcacon Leader Megatron in Beast Wars, Yeeesss.
  • Galvatron:Whenever there is a Megatron there is a Galvatron. He's everything you love about the M taken up to eleven. This guy is seriously bad news, he's probably insane and violent enough to give Doombreed pause and he's probably the strongest non-god transformer there is in G1 comics it takes a friggin' time vortex to finally put him down. After a dying Megatron found himself adrift in space, he had a lovely chat with the Cybertronian physical god Unicron, who reconstructed him into this indentity. Didn't work for long though; Galvy kind of went off the rails pretty quickly.

• Bumblebee: The yellow kid-friendly one, he's usually the main one to interact with the resident token humans. He usually turns into a compact or sports car depending on if they want to portray them as the cute kid or the young hero growing up. Can be surprisingly badass in some adaptations -- his Beast Wars counterpart, Cheetor, went on to basically take Optimus Primal's place as leader of the Maximals in Beast Machines. In the Michael Bay movies, he became a mute who talks only in radio quotes/beeps and boops like a 60s robot which just got ANNOYING is kinda cool. His Prime Counterpart retained the mute quirk, but his voicebox was eventually repaired by the time of the sequel series. Then he starred in a prequel film which was so awesome, Hasbro decided to just reboot the Transformers film franchise. Way to go, little guy!

• Ironhide: Optimus's number one in most storylines. He's typically an older bot, and a little hotheaded, always ready to bust some decepti-chops. Usually transforms into a van or pickup of some kind.

• Jazz: His form is typically a very high end sports car, either a DP racecar or a European GT car. Jazz is VERY into Earth culture, especially music. His Soul Brother-tier cool attitude seems at odds with Optimus's lofty noble warrior schtick, but he's competent enough as a fighter to get away with doing everything with panache.

• Ratchet: The Autobots' Medic. Usually some flavor of Kind yet Grumpy. Naturally his alt form is usually some kind of ambulance, often the same kind of van Ironhide is only painted white and red with emergency flashers bolted on.

• Grimlock: A fuckmothering robot Tyrannosaurus that usually breathes fire. He's the leader of a pack of other robot dinosaurs called the Dinobots. He's not exactly smart (well sometimes, he's either a stupid beast or a no nonsense leader with a speech problem), but who cares about that? HE'LL FUCKING EAT YOU. No seriously he once ripped Shockwave's arm off and ate it.

• Arcee: The Girl Robot. Her form and role in the story can often be seen as a barometer to how women are treated in fiction. I.e.: G1 Arcee was mostly there to be pink and pretty, while Prime Arcee was more of a kickass Big Sister-type. Speaking of which, Arcees tend to have soft spots for young human males. Maybe they should change her name to Ara-Aracee.

• Jetfire/Skyfire: His most basic description is "Autobot flyer", and is often shown as being a friend to Starscream before one of them switched sides. His most defining legacy, however, is his character design -- The original Transformers line was taken primarily from two Japanese toylines; "Diaclone" and "Microchange". But they also grabbed other cool-looking transforming toys and threw them in. And the one they chose for Jetfire was none other than a VF-1S Valkryie with FAST Packs from the anime Super Dimension Fortress Macross, a.k.a. Robotech(you Battletech fans may recognize this as the Unseen basis for the Phoenix Hawk BattleMech). Naturally, when the time came for the cartoon, the Japanese toymakers didn't want to feature a design from a rival toy company, so they changed the name to "Skyfire" and altered his design to get around copyrights. But since then, 90% of all following Jetfire toys, even though they're all original, tend to have attachments like the Macross FAST Packs.

• Windblade: Another prominent Autobot Flyer, after Jetfire and the Aerialbots. Another rare female Autobot, she debuted in the IDW comics, and has appeared fairly steadily in toylines and cartoons since, usually with no deviation from her original design.

• Sentinel Prime: Typically the former leader of the Autobots before Optimus. Needless to say, he didn't do a good job of it, thus the "former" part. Often portrayed, especially recently, as arrogant, condescending, and/or a jackass.

• Omega Supreme: The Autobots' Bigger Beat-Stick. He is typically depicted as having an arm cannon on one arm, and a claw (usually with another cannon) on the other arm. His alt forms are typically a large space transport, and is usually used by the Autobots for that purpose. Because of his size and power, writers are constantly sidelining him in order to maintain the Decepticons' threat, or taking him out of action early to establish their present threat.

• Hot Rod/Rodimus(Prime): A brash and hotheaded young Autobot who, in G1, became Rodimus Prime and took over command of the Autobots after Optimus Prime died. Since he wasn't that popular, later series' tend to switch off between keeping him as Hot Rod, or making Rodimus a secondary leader, typically off somewhere else.

• Starscream: Megatron's loud-mouthed, whiny, scheming, sneaky, backstabbing second-in-command who always wants to lead the Decepticons. He is neither strong enough to bump Megsy off, smart enough to trick him to his death, or charismatic enough to persuade others he's a better boss; and to boot, he knows if Megatron can't beat Optimus he sure as hell can't either, so he's basically looking for any chance to get Megatron to die killing Optimus... so he can take over. Sometimes Megatron himself wonders why he keeps Starscream around, but (when the writers remember) he is actually an extremely competent air commander who leads The Seekers, Decepticons who are typically recolors of him with the most prominent being Skywarp(black and purple) and Thundercracker(blue and red). In Animated, the Seekers were replaced by actual clones all named after classic Seekers with the only one original to the series being Rule 63. Starscream usually turns into the latest and greatest fighter jet (unless he's turning into some Cybertronian future-jet) historically an F-15, F-16, or F-22. In the original cartoon, his catchphrase (delivered in the classic 80s-villain screech as his first voice actor also voiced the similarly screechy Cobra Commander in G.I. Joe) was probably "Decepticons, RETREEEAT!" Was also voiced by fucking Tom "Spongebob Squarepants" Kenny in Animated; man, is that a blow to your dignity. Nowadays, though, he's more consistently competent (and given a more menacing voice by Steve Blum in Transformers Prime). Is such a total backstabbing traitor that "The Starscream" has entered pop-culture as a term to describe someone who seems more dedicated to fucking his own team over in ostensible pursuit of power than to actually beating the guys he's supposed to fight.

• Soundwave: A major character for the Decepticons as Megatron's legitimately loyal number two. Is also the biggest source of nostalgia because he turns into a fucking tapedeck. Even though he lacks a personalitySOUNDWAVE SUPERIOR; PAGE WRITER INFERIOR, he manages to be awesome merely through dogged determination and because he's the one guy who'll never give anyone any bullshit. He has a number of minions who turn into cassettes (or goddamn guitars in Animated's case), but the main ones are Rumble (Whose arms turn into piledrivers so he can cause earthquakes), Frenzy (Who has a sonic scream), Ravage (A fucking robot jaguar who turns into a cassette), Laserbeak and Buzzsaw (robot birds), and Ratbat (a robot bat). The IDW comic gave him an origin about how he used to be homeless due to his mind reading powers until Laserbeak and Ravage found him and helped him control them. In the Marvel G1 comics he acted as toady to whichever Decepticon had usurped Megatron that month while steadily scheming to increase his own power, making him like Starscream but actually competent. He also spoke in complete sentences and had a functioning mouth.

• Shockwave: The real mad scientist of the Decepticons, whose arm is a gun and also turned into a gun in G1 (a giant flying gun)(Modern incarnations either turn him into a tank like Megatron, or a flying vehicle with a huge gun stuck on the front). While he's also pretty loyal to Megatron, he's nowhere near Soundwave levels because his true loyalty is to pure logic. The three watchwords for him are Brilliant, Competent, and Utterly Amoral. There are several times where he became a bigger threat than Megatron, requiring both Autobots and Decepticons to stop him. Most series have him involved with the Dinobots, either by creating them, or just they have major beef with him (he doesn't give a shit as he has better things to do). He's another guy who happened to be blessed by Steve Blum in the Cybertron series. The IDW comics gave him an origin about how he used to be an idealistic Noblebright senator (and Optimus' BFF) until he got unpersoned and mutilated by the corrupt Cybertronian government. Ouch. His Prime adaptation is fucking badass and intimidating, both in voice work and design, but unfortunately he suffers from Villain Incompetence Syndrome whenever the good guys show up, like so many other good bad guys.

• Unicron: Unicron was originally introduced as the big bad for the '86 movie, a planet-sized, planet-eating bringer of doom (basically, if Galactus was the Death Star), voiced by the Orson Welles in his last role. The third season episode "Call of the Primitives" revealed his original, long since abandoned, origin as a planet-destroying creation of an alien mad scientist. Later media, beginning with the Marvel comics, changed his origin to Transformers' Satan, a god-like destroyer tricked into trapping himself inside a planet, but learned how to possess the world and reshape it into his own image. That fucking anime trilogy not only pulled this interpretation back, but made it "official", saying there's only one Unicron in the entire multiverse - at least, they tried. The comics pay more attention to it, but the shows tend to avoid it; witness Prime, where Unicron is actually sleeping at the heart of Earth instead of running around eating planets.

• Primus: The Emprah to Unicron's Chaos God, except he's an actual god... who actually transformed into a planet and fell asleep for a fuckton of years. In this form, he became Cybertron and created the Cybertronian race. Like his evil counterpart, Unicron, he hails from the 80's comics and didn't make an appearance on screen (other than references to a pseudo-Bible named the "Covenant of Primus" in Beast Wars) until the Energon Trilogy, which is where he's stayed.

Cybertronian Races

With a franchise over 30 years old, there is an abundance of material, so We'll try and summarize up what we can. With races, an individual Transformer can belong to multiple categories, like the character of SixShot (Six Changer and Beastformer), or the Predacon Special team (Beastformer and Combiner) from g1. In the fiction of the IDW comics, what alt mode one takes is basically their race in the Functionism Caste system. Drill tank guys belonged to the manual labor Caste, with bulldozers belonging to the Construction Caste. And In the G1 cartoon the Autobots and Deceptions were two races, one literally built for war and the other for peace. There is even more examples of TF races but this is already pretty long, just check out the tfwiki if you need more examples.

Humanoids': The standard appearance for a Transformer in fiction, most of the guys above fit Into this category. In some stories, the lack of a mouth, the presence of claw hands, or a monoeye can Indicate the individual has broken the law.

• Primitives/Beastformers: Transformers that have beast modes have had different origins and features from continuity to continuity. In the original g1 continuity many beast form Transformers all had the same origin, being batch built by their creator. Meanwhile In Beast wars, the Presence of beast forms was explained as a defense against the high levels of Energon present on the planet. Beast forms aren't all normal looking either. The Fuzors from Beast Wars had a signature look combining two animals together, resulting in shit like flying shark birds, scorpions with cobras for tails, dragonfly-winged lizards, croco-turtles or Wolf Eagles. After humanoids they're the most encountered in fiction, and they've been there since the beginning.

• Combiners/Gestalts: When a daddy TF and a Mommy tf love each other very much....these guys are the result of multiple Transformers (between 2-infinity) becoming one guy. The classic combiners from g1 were usually 5 guys all themed around a certain theme such as planes, Military (How TF a spaceship fits a military theme is anyone's guess) or racing. This power up carries with it some unfortunate side effects, akin to retardation, schizophrenia, or other forms of mental disease. In games or series this can translate to a weakness the enemies can exploit, usually via Taunts. The fewer parts in a Combiner can also help.
  • The smallest known combiner/gestalts are the "fuser" type Transformers, which consist of two Transformers who can merge into a single form together. Dreadwind and Darkwing, G1 Decepticon Powermaster jets who can fuse into a super-jet, are old-school examples, while the Unicron Trilogy had a number of characters (such as their verisons of Jetfire and Ironhide) that could combine with one robot forming an upper body and the other the legs. But TF:Animated's Jetfire & Jetstorm have them beat by fusing into a super-jet that can then become its own ultra-robot, Safeguard.
  • The awkwardly-named Multi-Component Transformers are kind of a reverse of the Combiner, being a singular Cybertronic intelligence that can split into two (or sometimes more) independently functioning alternate modes. Sky Lynx, who can be either a shuttle, a mechanical dragon, or a robo-bird AND a robo-panther at the same time, is the most recognized old-school example of this branch, but the toyline had others, even a two-bot Decepticon miniteam called the Duocons who had this as their central gimmick.
  • Headmaster and Targetmasters*: This variation on combiners has smaller robots, or human(oid)s in what is essentially power armor, that transform into the larger robot's head or primary gun. Hey does this make Megatron a Targetmaster?
  • Powermasters/Godmasters: A variant of the Headmaster/Targetmaster, in this case the smaller guy turns into an engine, which not only can supercharge the performance of their bigger buddy, but also has to interlink with them before they can actually transform.

• Triple Changers+: Triple changers are usually treated as special troops in fiction, having multiple forms suited to different tasks. The g1 triple changers usually had one land and one air based mode, but individuals like Broadside buck the trend entirely. Transforming Into an aircraft carrier, one has to question if it's in scale with his jet mode. Beyond triple changers there exists Six changers, who possess six modes! But Beyond two or three of them the rest are a stretch. You call that a tank? And then beyond that there's RID2001 galvatron who had around 11.

• Titans/Cityformers: The biggest you can go before you reach planet scale, these guys are usually between the size of a couple city blocks to the size of Manhattan. If you needed a robot to wrestle a tarrasque, they would work handily. Notably, with the Titans Returns Series & Toyline, these guys became giant cities that fly through space, kind of like a smallish Eldar craftworld.

• Minicons: These were introduced in Transformers: Armada, and despite the mixed reception that series got, the toyline as a whole has embraced them wholeheartedly, using them normally or as Head- or Targetmaster partners. Minicons are similar to Powermasters in that they can power-up a bigger bot by attaching to it, but usually have actual vehicle alt-modes(albeit without the size-changing, so a Minicon who transforms into a truck will become a tiny three-foot-long truck) instead of simply turning into components. Some groups can combine into gestalt robots or even powerful weapons.

Generation One

The original, the alpha iteration, the place where it all to began. Sometimes mockingly called Geewun because of the nostalgia fags who hate on everything that come after it. No matter how good they are. At the time, it was just called "The Transformers", with a "four-issue limited series" from Marvel that ended up running for 80 issues, a cartoon by the same name for three seasons (and three more seasons in Japan) from 1984-87 and the animated film "The Transformers: The Movie" in 1986. The movie's soundtrack is awesomely 80's, and it features the amazing song "The Touch" when Optimus Prime fights Megatron. Quite literally, this movie shit all over Bay's multi-million crappers... and that's the problem; the movie was so good that it marked the peak for the young franchise and it began a downhill slide from there, with the show scrambling to cope with all the losses (yeah, lots of people died here, even Optimus), while the toys began getting gimmickier without getting better. One of the most memetic Low Points of the Toyline was the Action Masters, Transformers figures with increased articulation... at the cost of not being able to transform.

The "Generation One" title was applied retroactively after Hasbro released the "Generation 2" line in 1993. By the way, G2 was the reason Transformers was considered dead for most of the 90's. The comic was that cheap sort of "gritty for no real reason" the 90's was infamous for and the toys had pretty much burned themselves out and no gimmick could really help them on that. There was also a short-lived "Transformers G2" show, but it was just G1 with new CGI openings/endings and scene changes, so it only lasted a few episodes before flopping.

It should also be mentioned that the G1 universe is typically implied, if not shown outright, to exist concurrently with GI Joe. the original cartoon showed side characters that also appeared in GI Joe: A Real American Hero, like Hector Ramirez(whom also appeared in many of Sunbow's other shows), the use of the Cobra-produced song "Cold Slither", and mentions of their Joes' Soviet rivals the Oktober Guard. The Post-Movie season went a step farther, with the introduction of a Human ally named Marissa Faireborne. It should be noted that one of the Joes, Commander Flint, is named Dashiell R. Fairborne. One episode had an enemy attempt to lure her with an image of her father, who while unnamed, looked like an older Flint and shared the same Voice actor. But the most famous unofficial crossover was the episode "Only Human", where a crime boss enlists the help of "Old Snake", who is obviously Cobra Commander, in an attempt to fight the Autobots with the help of Cobra's Synthoid technology. Comics made the crossover even more overt, with Marvel, Devil's Due, Dreamwave, and IDW all doing direct crossovers, to the point that for a time the (former)Decepticon Skywarp was actually a member of GI Joe during IDW's run.

Of note is that if you want to experience G1 without having to dig up the eps from some torrent or Netflix, you can get the video game Transformers Devastation, which is essentially a G1 ep in vidya form produced by PlatinumGames, the guys responsible for balls-to-the-walls hypefests like Metal Gear Rising, Bayonetta, and The Wonderful 101 (aka /m/ the game). Most of the actors are present, there's murderfests and speed, and big bosses. Also you get to run idiots over (but no pedestrians). Only letdown is the short length of the game and the lack of a Decepticon story and Abominus. However, as of now, Hasbro have officially released all of G1 on Youtube for free, minus the movie of course.

Marvel's The Transformers

What a lot of people who weren't kids in 1984 may not remember is that the first piece of long-form Transformers fiction ever was not the cartoon, but the Marvel comic book, produced in direct partnership with Hasbro as an expansion on the toy bios and character names that Marvel had already written to jam the random designs that had been licensed from Takara into a cohesive toyline. Most of the themes and tropes that people think of as "Transformers" were developed by Marvel, from the idea of living robots coming to Earth in search of energy to the most common origin for the planet-eating Unicron. Sometimes, Marvel published gripping stories exploring the dynamic of mechanical life forms adapting to an entirely alien environment and the humans caught in their crossfire. Sometimes they published stories about robot professional wrestling and evil car washes. Still, the stories had soul, and the comic ended up lasting a full year after the toyline it was made to promote ended in America. (As a sign of the times, one of the reasons the comic was canceled were its low sales of 70,000 copies an issue.)

British kids got an additional treat in the form of original stories from Marvel's UK division, printed in between serialized edits of the US issues in weekly installments. Most of these were done by the inimitable Simon Furman, who went on to write the US Transformers comic as well and has become the most prolific writer of Transformers fiction in the world.

Japanese G1

In the West, The Transformers ended after season 3, save for a failed 3-episode season 4 multi-part pilot episode called "The Rebirth". In Japan, however, the series was continued on into three more seasons, each with their own unique title. A defining characteristic of Japan's G1 is that it's much more influenced by mecha anime of the time, which wasn't always a good thing. All three were dubbed into English, with the attempt being legendarily awful, which has contributed to their obscurity.

The first season of Japanese G1 is Transformers: Headmasters. Taking the basic concept from "The Rebirth" as its basis, this series sees the war between Autobot and Decepticon continued with the introduction of a new faction; the "Masters", an offshoot race of miniature Cybertronians who have learned to compensate for their stature by building mindless giant mecha bodies called Transtectors that they can interface with and control. Whilst the animation was generally better, continuity was more solid and the story was overall darker and more serious, the series also had a notorious tendency towards Dragon Ball Z-esque overly complicated and flashy fight scenes. They also killed off Optimus Prime, AGAIN!

The second season of Japanese G1 is Transformers: Super-God Masterforce. Officially, this is the sequel series to Headmasters, but continuity is a mess. This series revolves around a long-lost Cybertronian subrace, the "Pretenders", who can disguise themselves as organic beings and who have been living on Earth for eons - the monstrous Decepticons, who were sealed away in ancient monoliths, and the faux-human Autobots. When the Decepticons escape captivity, the Autobots rise up to battle them. Both forces begin recruiting human children, who can fuse with Transtectors (mindless, non-living Cybertronian bodies) as either Headmasters or Powermasters (called "Godmasters" in the Japanese) to become powerful new warriors for their respective sides. Built upon Headmasters efforts at developing the continuity and character development angle.

Lastly, there's season three: Transformers: Victory. No gimmicks here, just straight up Autobot vs. Decepticon conflict, albeit featuring a brand new cast of heroes and villains, Including the fabulous Star Saber. Why, if it weren't for the fact the Autobot leader has an adopted human ward whose parents were killed by Decepticons, you'd hardly tell this was a Japanese G1 series! Unfortunately, it's noted for having some of the flattest, most boring characters of the Japanese G1 shows.

Beast Wars

This guy caused some very stupid flame wars back in the day for not being a Truck. Let it never be said that fanboys are not incredibly stupid.

The first Western-released sequel to G1 (Other than the G2 comic mentioned above), a CGI show created by Mainframe (also responsible for ReBoot and War Planets). Set up as a "loose sequel" to G1, it involves new transformer races called "Maximals" (Autobots) and "Predacons" (Decepticons). The show's singular most influential element is the idea of the Spark; a Transformer's soul being an actual physical object.

A Predacon terrorist leader styling himself after the original Megatron, including taking his name, hijacks an artifact with a mysterious connection to Megatron the first and goes on the run into deep space with a band of terrorists, planning on restarting the Great War and this time causing a Predacon victory. A Maximal deep-space exploration vessel commanded by Optimus Primal attempts to intercept, and both vessels end up stranded on a mysterious alien world, where an overabundance of raw energon forces them to adopt the forms of local fauna to preserve themselves. The two forces promptly start trying to wipe each other out and then escape the planet. There's also a sideplot involving an ancient alien civilization that ends itself just before the Season 3 finale.

They would eventually find out that this strange world was actually Earth, which was where Megatron II was trying to get all along, and they find the wreckage of the Ark of the original series, when new Megatron decides to headshot Prime in order to change the future for his benefit. It kinda flops when Primal takes old Optimus's spark and holds onto it while they repair his body, gets another upgrade, and becomes sorta-truck. It inspires Megatron II to try the same trick with his namesake, turning himself into a huge firebreathing dragon-bot.

Though Hasbro would mostly consign this story to oblivion after Beast Machines, the characters of Blackarachnia (sexy spider-bot who changes from evil to good thanks to love) and Waspinator (the walking punching bag who the heroes almost invariably blow up only to be fixed later), along with the concept of the Spark (essentially, Transformers' souls) would be re-used in later eras. More importantly, this show saved the franchise after Generation 2 almost killed it.

There's also a Beast Wars II in Japan, but it has absolutely no ties to the original, with a Lio Convoy sharing only physical similarities with Primal and a Galvatron that looks like some sort of dragon but isn't related to either Megatron.

Beast Machines

Sequel series to Beast Wars. On returning to Cybertron, our heroes are attacked by armies of transforming cookie-cutter drones. It eventually turns out that Megatron broke free from the Maximals' prison and flew back to Cybertron before them; he infected the entire planet with a cyber-virus that put them all into comas, ripped out their hearts/souls and stashed them in some hidden bunker, and melted down their bodies to rebuild them into mindless robot slaves.

Awesomely grimdark concept, but hampered by two huge flaws. Firstly, a super-annoying green aesop, which was very clumsily handled because this is a planet of talking robots, not nature. More importantly, major character derailment - it was made by a different team to Beast Wars, and they weren't even allowed to watch the first series to familiarize themselves with how the Maximals were supposed to behave, so it'd be "more accessible".

Probably the reason why Hasbro only recycles G1 instead of trying to do its own thing with new shows, the way these two shows did. Even though it was their own damn fault, because they made this series into what it was. Time has been kinder to it, though, after the initial rage and denouncement. It is kind of like the Alien/Terminator 3 of Transformers. On its own its really damn good. As a sequel to what most people think is the high point of its respective franchise? Its a goddamned insult.

Robots in Disguise (2001)/Car Robots

An obscure anime that came out roughly a few months before Armada. Best known for its gag dub and general comedic focus that makes it surprisingly laughable, and certainly more fun to watch than any of the Energon Trilogy. Usually forgotten about, except for the fact that Megatron here has six fucking modes of transformation (ten after upgrading to Galvatron, eleven if counting the Japanese version). In this series Decepticons are instead Predacons like Beast Wars with actual Decepticons being created mid-series, starting with an evil clone of Optimus called "Scourge". General consensus is that it's far from the best or worst series, it's just "meh."

Energon Trilogy

Comprised of the shows Armada, Energon, and Cybertron, which are also called the Unicron Trilogy due to the antagonist's return to the spotlight after being virtually nonexistent since The Movie. Anime reinterpretation of G1, decaying from "poor but watchable" to "completely unwatchable drek" for all the reasons people hate /a/: bad dubbing(though many people did like Gary Chalk, now voicing Optimus Prime after doing Primal for the Beast series'.), overly lengthy scenes of nothing, a shift to crappy CGI, and a plot that is so terribly paced and search-questy that you'd be praying for your GM to be railroading this. On the plus-side: competent badass Starscream (who unfortunately inspired a whole generation of Linkin Park listening wannabes). On the downside: far too much focus on humans and not enough on giant robots trying to kill each other. Kicker, from the later series, is considered one of the worst human sidekicks the Transformers have ever had. It has been said that, for all the failings of Beast Machines, at least it's better than Armada and Energon.

Linkage

Linkage was a short manga packaged with the Japanese DVD release of Armada. It's about a young woman named Stella Holley who befriends a team of Minicons, and gets involved in a lot of the things that the background minicons are doing through the second half of the series.

Transformers (Prelude to Energon)

This PlayStation 2-era game from Atari was not so much part of the Energon Trilogy as it was inspired by it. Essentially the Armada cartoon retooled as a third-person action game, the player took control of Optimus Prime, Hot Shot, and Red Alert and searched the world for Mini-Cons, fighting an army of Decepticlones and full-fledged Decepticons(Starscream, Cyclonus, Tidal Wave, and Megatron) as Boss Fights. In addition to Mini-Cons, you could also find Data-Cons that provided production artwork, background information, and some unaired Transformers versions of the old G.I. Joe. PSAs, complete with "And knowing is half the battle" catchphrase. It was actually a good game, especially by Transformers standards, and considered the best video-game adaptation until War For Cybertron came along.

Galaxy Force

Transformers Galaxy Force, The show that was butchered into Transformers Cybertron is more fondly remembered by fans. As it made of the strange choice of dubbing a male character into a woman. While butchering most of the series by making it a gag-dub by giving alien robots stupid accents. Also inserting dialogue over scenes that didn't require them. The kids are also less annoying while the dub shoehorned in older versions of the Armada and Energon brats at the last minute during the final episode. This is because Gonzo created it as an independent entry until Hazblow retconned it into the Energon trilogy. Years later the Japanese would follow suit and retconned it into a trilogy as well.

Michael Bay Films

The dark force known as Michael Bay brought Transformers back as a series of live-action + CGI movies. Considered the Matt Ward of the Transformers universe, Bay's movies are rage-inducing fails that have far too much focus on annoying human characters and on lowbrow humor. Seriously, in the first movie, we don't get to see an Autobot for, like, thirty minutes while dealing with very bland characters who get billed way too much, and we have to facepalm our way through an awful gag about Bumblebee basically pissing on a guy. The second one is no better with two black/redneck stereotypes as heroes, a gag about balls, and a two-for-one gag about farting/incontinence - from a Transformer, no less. Real classy, Bay.

About the only shallow redeeming qualities it has is that the CGI Transformers look amazing (even if some neckbeards have cracked up over how they're "not accurate" to the G1 character modes), the fight scenes are suitably glorious for giant alien death-machines ripping each other to pieces (when you can see it clearly), and most importantly is it has introduced Transformers to a whole new generation of fans, who can hopefully be shown the good stuff instead of thinking this garbage is the true representative of the setting.

After the trilogy Bay made a fourth movie which actually manages to make some considerable improvements (not that it was that hard), like a lot more of focus on Optimus Prime, killing the scrappy comic relief during the first part of the movie and more consistent fighting scenes, plus DINOBOTS! charging the enemy. There is also more grimdark as Optimus finally decides enough is enough after having tried to protect mankind for more than five years while having his whole team slaughtered by those he sworn to protect, and pulls a gun against a human frakker who was teaming up with the mercenary Lockdown to kill Autobots and use their remains to make their own giant robots that turn into cars (except instead of literally creating Galvatron last time, this time it's like the T-1000 where they turn into nanobot swarms). On the downside, though, the humans are still pointless tagalongs (though this is a new set of humans, no Shia Lebouf to be found here, Thank God for that), there are more pointless stereotypes (Like Weeaboo Samurai-bot Drift, Crosshairs who gets a fucking trenchcoat when he transforms, and Hound, who somehow has a cigar and a wire-beard), the Dinobots don't even show up until the last few minutes of the movie, and there's this ridiculous need to hammer in the "us vs. them" mentality between the humans making their own Transformers and Lockdown trying to kill Optimus because he's betrayed their makers by siding with the humans. Than everything goes to shit during "The Last Knight". While ripping off the "Earth is Unicron" thing from Transformers Prime. Not even the return of Evil Police car Deception Barricade can save this movie.

Then, in 2018, Bumblebee got his own spinoff movie about him crashing on Earth, losing his voice, making a friend and running from two decepticons and John Cena. To put it lightly it's one of the best Transformer films; the transformers themselves are accurate to their G1 forms, the storyline is coherent and the acting is spot on. This indicates that the film series may finally be going in the right direction. Shame that the series seem to be canceled.

Suddenly, a new trilogy of movies was announced, starting with Rise of the Beasts (coming out June 2023!) including the Beast Wars characters and a RID2001 inspired Scourge. The toy line has been leaked and sadly it seems that the Predacons are not there, instead replaced by the Terrorcons. Apparently, Bumblebee will actually be in canon with this series.

Animated

G1 inspired series with notoriously unusual but smooth animation. This time, Optimus Prime and his crew are lowly space construction workers who stumble across a superweapon from the Great War and have to defend it against Megatron (GIVING HIM A GODDAMN ENGLISH ACCENT FUCK YES), who seeks to use it to restart the war and this time ensure Decepticon victory. This version's Optimus is much younger and less experienced than usual; funnily enough, he was voiced by the actor who voiced Megatron in Beast Wars. Generally noted for having the best human sidekick (who turns out to really be part-transformer anyways). The other Autobots also tend to have some interesting characterizations from "Complete dumb muscle who surprisingly knows everything about building Space Bridges" Bulkhead to "Weeaboo Robo-Ninja" Prowl to "MY EGO IS AS BIG AS MY CHIN AND MY ASSHOLEITUDE IS EVEN BIGGER!" Sentinel Prime. The Decepticons sometimes do better vis ze German schizophrenic Blitzwing, the borderline-religiously loyal Lugnut, badass robo-Clint Eastwood Lockdown, and a GLORIOUSLY hammy Starscream played by Spongebob Squarepants of all people.

The series was weird in that alongside the Decepticons were also some gimmicky human villains, from a Shakespearean Robin Hood knockoff, to a cute little girl who's a mad scientist, to another mad scientist who rips off Transformer heads to replicate an old G1 gimmick. These villains were a bit ridiculous, but it helped break up the monotony of the constant 'con fighting, especially when Megatron was reduced to a state worse than Abaddon as a head. The creators came up with the idea to emphasize just how dangerous the 'cons are, compared to their Autobot opponents; when one 'con shows up, it's an emergency that takes the whole team to try and pull out a win. Hell, Starscream could beat up the entire Autobot team in his first few appearances before they figured out how to handle him. Using human bad guys kept the Decepticon threat "fresh" for longer; even when the Autobots got to the point where they could(kinda) face a Decepticon one-on-one, they remained a serious threat all the way up to the end. The series also borrowed the first film's idea of an Allspark that could bring Earth technology to allow them to introduce new transformers. Some were unexpected results of Megatron's original schemes to build himself a new body, while others came about by accident.

And hey, it gave us Weird Al Yankovic as everyone's favorite Junkion! "I AM WRECK-GAR! AND I APPROVE THIS MESSAGE! [accordion solo]"

Cybertron(a.k.a. Aligned) Series

There were many, MANY, video games made for every part of the Transformers, but most of them ranged from forgettable to utter shit to memetically terrible. The closest we got to a good original game series (so no whining about the Movie-Games) were the games War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron, both made by High Moon Studios.

These games act as the Horus Heresy to G1's 40k by explaining how Optimus became a leader and how Megatron became a dictator while the war between the Autobots and Decepticons eventually reduced to ruins the Transformers homeworld. While the gameplay itself isn't much more than a basic third-person shooter with its classic tropes, the vast amount of references to the rest of the series and the rather well-written story and characters make it stand out. Fall of Cybertron may be considered one of the most grimdark settings to see wide release, while not being as totally ham-handed with it as Beast Machines, the games put you at ground level fighting a generations long world war which is reducing Cybertron to a dead planet while all sort of of nasties such as prisoner experimentation, weapons of mass destruction, genocide and totalitarianism 1984 style is seen through the campaign. although attenuated with the classic Transformers sense of humour and heroics in order to avoid falling into outright grim-edgy. It also helps that the second game got some bonus variety in some segments by giving you a level as MOTHERFUCKING GRIMLOCK, and another where you get to play as a Combiner (who has an awesome helicopter-arm, but is otherwise not very memorable besides being huge.) Overall good writting, great fights, no crappy human sidekicks, an awesome OST and all the grimdarkness needed to make any neckbeard enjoy it quite much, also ESCALATION mode will ensure you endless hours of good bloodless robot carnage.

Why we don't have a tabletop skirmish game based on this shows there is no justice in this universe.

There is a (sorta) third game called Rise of the Dark Spark, which decides to make the stupid decision of merging this series to the Bayformers continuity. It was released as tie in game with fourth movie and has less of budget, clearly shown with its number of glitches, lack of variety in levels (mostly just enemies till the game lets you move on) and downright ugly environments for the levels set on Earth. The only thing to remember is that the Cybertron segments are still awesome, while later parts will just shoehorn you with mutebee and Drift (who at least has an awesome special attack), with one level playing as Grimlock again and lacking any Decepticon plot post-Cybertron. There is also the 3ds version with mostly the same story but is otherwise a turn based strategy game kind of like a really old and obscure mid-late 00s IOS game except you have to deal with Bayverse shit.

The games formed the basis of what was called the "Aligned Continuity". Basically, each series in the continuity was canon to each other, but only in very broad strokes. The best way to explain it would be if you had three authors write a story using the same outline, then read the first act of one story, the second act of the second, and the third act of the last. You'd have the overall gist of the entire tale, but each part would most likely be vasty different in writing style and/or tone.

Prime

G1 inspired CGI series that somehow salvages the fairly decent elements of Michael Bay's crapfest movies (e.g. Peter Cullen and Frank Welker reprising their respective roles, artstyle, some character elements/background lore, Rip and Tear), takes place in the same universe as the Cybertron games and crafts an awesome show out of it. Animation is fucking amazing, with fight scenes that rival if not trump the Michael Bay films. Very dark and gritty as well, where one of the Autobots (voiced by the Rock himself), gets whacked in the first episode. The Autobots are not only outnumbered and outgunned by the Decepticons, but they also have to contend with MECH, a human terrorist organization that seeks to cannibalize Cybertronians for their advanced technology.

The biggest problem with this series is Miko, who competes with Kicker (from the abovementioned Energon Trilogy) for the title of worst human character in Transformers history. Obnoxiously gung-ho and always charging off into danger, even when told not to, invariably making things worse for the Autobots in the process. Still, this series easily has some of the best human characters otherwise, most notably Agent Fowler, who in the company of giant alien killing machines manages to be a badass in his own right. Even Miko managed to get better as the series went on, learning from her mistakes and not being such a load. She even managed to take out a Decepticon at one point.

Then there's Predacons Rising; the made-for-tv movie meant to serve as a series finale... it was questionable at best. Plot holes everywhere, very little focus on the actual Predacons in the title, and characters doing stupid and random things to simply fit the plot. It was basically a segue into the next series; Robots in Disguise. There were some Dinobot focused IDW comics in between. They are pretty awesome. And mostly ignored. Because we don't deserve good things in Transformers.

Rescue Bots

Yes, this preschool-oriented series is technically part of this continuity. More on that below.

Robots in Disguise

In this series Prime's relegated mentor-figure role, while Bumblebee (once again with a voice) has to take command of an ex-con, a stickler, and a slightly-smarter Grimlock in helping some kid and his dad's junkyard and detaining runaway Decepticon inmates, all of whom aren't related to the main bads, so this series was more original than most of the kiddie-aimed series. There was a 'con in it called Slapper. The show really doesn't become good until the Starscream miniseries after season three, and the Soundwave/Autobot Counsel arc of the fourth season. Which also introduces combiners into the Prime/Cybertron continuity.

Than after their defeat it just ends because writers ran out of ideas and Hasbro hates continuity .It failed because kids didn't watch Prime while teens and adults are at school or working. Also didn't help that it moved to Cartoon Network from The Hub between seasons at a 5am timeslot.

Cyberverse

G1 inspired CGI series jam packed with references all across the franchise. Season one centers on Bumblebee's friend, Windblade (which Hasbro has been shilling throughout the past few years as she is a fan vote designed transformer) trying to help an amnesiac Bumblebee regains his memories (conveniently framing Cybertron's past history up until now) and locate the rest of Optimus' crew that went missing on Earth searching for a powerful artifact that the Decepticons also want their hands on.

Season two has the crew returning, Bumblebee regaining his memories (and his voice), the appearance of a Beast Wars character, Cheetor, Starscream doing his own things again, and with the Autobots finally securing the artifact towards the end of the season, they must race the Decepticons back to Cybertron. Season 3 let's loose with the largest Cybertron centric plot in awhile (that means no Humies) , featuring the Quintessons Conquering the planet and forcing Bots and Cons to ally with each other to save the day.

IDW

IDW Publishing is responsible for three major continuities of Transformers; the second being one of the longest and most elaborate to date, and the current one which follows the toyline oriented towards older teens and adult collectors, the War For Cybertron series (not to be confused with the game series of the same name). The latter ties into the cartoon series on Netflix.

Unfortunately, IDW will be losing their licenses for Transformers (and G.I JOE) by the end of 2022, but not for other Hasbro properties.

Oddities

There have been a lot of Transformers series out there. Many of them are just spinoffs of G1 or silly throwaways like Transformers Mr. Potato Head, but some of them are good enough or just weird enough to be worth mentioning here. For full details, see TFWiki below.

Transformers Rescue Bots

The 30-minute toy commercial for the preschool-focused "Rescue Bots" toyline. In the same continuity as Transformers Prime above, which would lead to much lulz if the writers ever had the balls to let them cross over to any significant degree. Features four young Autobots who slept through the whole war in stasis and were recalled to Earth by Optimus Prime; being too inexperienced to handle the rigors of war with the Decepticons, they were assigned to the Eureka-esque island of Griffin Rock, where they perform rescue operations with their human partners. Instead of open combat, the 'bots and their human partners battle with out-of-control inventions and mundane disasters; the only true antagonist of the series is the steampunk gentleman-scientist Doctor Morocco, voiced by Slaanesh Tim Curry. Surprisingly watchable for a kids' show due to solid humor, Rescue Bots has the distinction of being the longest-running Transformers cartoon ever, with four full seasons and a sequel series on track to air in 2019.

Transformers: Devastation

This game for the Playstation(3 and 4), PC and Xbox(360 and One) by Platinum games is basically a G1 throwback, using several of the original Sunbow voice actors(not just Cullen and Welker), and menu and UI work that looked a lot like the toy packaging. The player could choose between Optimus, Bumblebee, Wheeljack, Sideswipe, and Grimlock as they battle Decpticons in a New York City that is being slowly Cyberformed. In addition to the endless army of Decepticons grunts and boss battles, there were also battles against the massive combiners Devastator and Meanasor.

Unit: E

In the third season of Transformers Prime, the writers started dropping references to other Hasbro properties like M.A.S.K. and G.I. Joe in connection with a government agency called "Unit E." This was intended to be a "backdoor launch" to a whole shared universe in the vein of the massively profitable Marvel Cinematic Universe, consisting of just about every brand Hasbro owns that has ever been remotely popular with any demographic, ever. These ranged from the sensible (M.A.S.K. was another transforming-toy brand from the 80s that Hasbro absorbed, and G.I. Joe has a long history of Transformers crossovers) to the oddball but justifiable (Jem and the Holograms was Hasbro's big new girl-toy push in the 80s and was occasionally used as a sight gag in the G1 cartoon) to blatant halo-effect attempts that made no sense at all (Dungeons & Dragons? Stretch Armstrong? Candy Land?!) The framing device for this insanity was the eponymous Unit: E, a group of explorers who scanned the multiverse for "the Eerie, the Else, the Eternities of Infinity" from an installation placed in the "slipstream" outside of reality. (Sounds kinda familiar, don't it?)

Perhaps fortunately for all involved, this product of Marketing's cocaine-fueled fever dreams did a faceplant into the sun and nothing came of it except for a one-shot comic book released at Comic-Con and the aforementioned namedrops in Prime. Hasbro never let go of the idea of seeing if their properties would blend, though, and in 2016 IDW was given the green light to weld their previously-separate licensed comics (including Transformers, Joe, Micronauts, Rom: Spaceknight, and yes, Jem) together through a Secret Wars-style crossover event called Revolution. From this point IDW's comics are set in the Hasbro Universe, with such fiction-bending events as the Decepticon Skywarp joining G.I. Joe and a multi-property superhero team called the Revolutionaries joining forces.

Except now said universe is being rebooted while currently going FULL TOMINO via our pal Unicron and some really stupid ass deaths in the crossover comic with the Visionaries of all fucking things. YET NO GODDAMNED INHUMANOIDS WHICH IS HASBRO CALL OF CTHULHU BUT WITH POWERED ARMOR SCIENTISTS FIGHTING THE EVIL UNDER THE EARTH. Kup shouldn't die to a goddamn Visionary. Not when motherfucking D'Compose exists. Goddamnit now I want an Inhumanoids mod for Call of Cthulhu....

Transformers: Kiss Players

After the ignominious conclusion of the Energon Trilogy, Takara decided to make their next installment of the Transformers franchise smaller and more adult-focused. Welding the bits of their various G1-sequel lines (including the "collector's choice" Binaltech line and the grab-bag Robotmasters line) with the G1 cartoon and their own anime into a single (confusing as all hell) timeline, Transformers Kiss Players takes place immediately after the events of the 1986 movie. After Unicron exploded in 2005, the broken body of Galvatron was sent hurtling towards Earth where it (what else?) destroyed Tokyo. In response, the Earth Defense Command was formed to kick the Transformers off the goddamn planet before they blew up any other national capitals, which they did with a Transformer-hostile energy field and using the tech from Galvatron's corpse to make mass-produced Autorooper mecha. Unfortunately for them, Galvatron's reentry scattered fragments of his and Unicron's life-force into Earth's atmosphere, fragments that activated in 2006. The "Galvatron cells" fused with whatever they touched, turning them into biomechanical monsters called the Legion. Humans who came in contact with the Galvatron cells inexplicably did not turn into monsters, but instead could fuse with both Autoroopers and Transformers by kissing them.

You see, Kiss Players was written by longtime Transformers fan and freelance toy designer Yuki Ohshima, who took Takara's desire for an otaku-targeted series as an invitation to freak the fuck out of people and gave them a freaky-ass magical girl horror story in the vein of Narutaru and Madoka Magica that just happened to have Transformers in it. A bunch of suspiciously young-looking women got dropped into a psychosexual nightmare in the name of shock value, and the Western Transformers fanbase crapped their pants over "pedophilia" showing up next to "their" childhood toys, accusing Oshima of wanting to diddle the kiddle. The Japanese fans, for their part, were mostly apologetic towards the Western fanbase and confused as to why the hell Takara thought that Freudian horror and moe were at all compatible with giant robots whaling on each other. The second part of the line (Kiss Players Position) dumped the original fiction's baggage in favor of taking cute girls on a whirlwind tour of the Transformers universe, but by that point the Western fans had already made up their mind. To this day Kiss Players is still the go-to acceptable target for "at least it's not as bad as..." jokes on TFWiki. The toys themselves were decent at least, being retools of the well-received Binaltech/Alternators collectible toys with vinyl loli figures packaged in the box, so picking those up is perfectly fine if you're willing to deal with faggots calling you a weeb.

Bot Bots

The unholy lovechild of Transformers and mystery pack figures (not like other Transformers series haven't done similar before, but this is the first series to explicity focus on it). If Rescue Bots was passable for adults as little kids media, this isn't. Created in 2019, the story basically has the items of a random ass mall get turned into Transformers by mysterious Energon mist. It's notable in that it completely fucking broke any notions of a limit on what Transformers could have as alternate modes. Seriously, rotten food and gardening gear are just part of what insanity is created. These Transformers are organized into gangs based on where in the mall they originate.

Omni Productions Dub

The Japanese Gen1 series Headmasters, Victory and Zone had no English dubs for quite a while, due to this, Omni Productions, a Hong Kong based company decided to try their hand at it, but ended up creating a dub so horrible that it became incredibly funny. For some reasons a lot of characters were renamed, Blaster became Billy, Metroplex became Philip, Blurr became Wally (maybe a nod to Wally West) and Sixshot became the 'Ninja Consultant' instead of the 'Ninja Commander'.

Tabletop Games

Despite not having a licensed RPG Transformers is no stranger to tabletop games. None have been particularly amazing or well-known in the past, but Hasbro has aggressively been expanding the brand in the late 2010's and going towards the 2020's have managed to finally make a success.

• The usual "palette swap" games :

Monopoly, Risk, Chess, Stratego, Connect 4, Uno, memory cards, playing cards, you know the drill.

• Heroclix

You fucking know what these are. Enjoy your game of Optimus Prime, Harley Quinn, Jean Grey, and Drizzt VS Master Splinter, Freddy Krueger, a Xenomorph, and Bilbo Baggins. Wait, that does sound cool actually...

• Transformers Robot Warrior Game

Released in 1985, its redeco Snakes/Chutes & Ladders except you have two pieces to divide die rolls between, and an outer board to progress around as a vehicle before transforming to robot mode and making your way through as usual. Since all players control cars, its technically all Autobot players trying to reach their base during a battle with the Decepticons

• The Transformers Game

Released in 1986. Despite impressive wargame-style box art, its a very simple game for small children. No real strategy, both players are trying to reach the end goal to destroy the enemy base and all movement is determined by dice rolls after the first move where you choose to go left or right (both ways are mirrored, offering only the illusion of a choice), and after that point you only decide whether to move forward or back. The board resembles outer space and the enemy base is on Earth, and all pieces are Seekers meaning both players are Decepticons interestingly enough. When a piece for both players land on the same space they draw cards from a deck which interestingly all depict Autobots, highest number wins and best of three wins the battle. Winner transforms to robot mode, loser goes back to start. Only robot modes can enter the enemy base. First player to have all three of their team in the enemy base wins.

• Transformers Adventure Game: Defeat the Decepticons

• Transformers G1 Decoys Board Game

• Transformers: Beast Wars

Released in 1999 in Japan, based on the entire Beast Wars line at the time (including the Japanese-only cartoon).

• Transformers Armada: Battle For Cybertron

A redeco of Star Wars: Epic Duels, with some rules simplified and new modes. Generally considered a casual strategy game, with a lower learning curve. Instead of one hero and two minions, you only have one hero. Four characters per faction, each having their own combat deck and rules. They aren’t equal in strength, Megatron and Optimus predictably outclass everyone. There are four different maps to fight on with their own cover and terrain, and character start locations mitigate the strength difference in characters to a small degree. 2v2, faction mixing, and FFA game modes are available.

• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Robot Heroes Game

• Transformers Revenge Of The Fallen Missile Mania

• Jogo Dos Transformers: Una Aventura Emocionante Com Os Robos-Herois Do Futuro

A licensed Brazilian Transformers game made by Estrela. Estrela made up its own Transformers continuity based entirely on Minis. The game is extremely rare, so good luck finding the rules, let alone a copy.

• Transformers Trading Card Game

Deserves its own page. This is that aforementioned success.

• Battlechanger.

A pair of RPG's designed to emulate and recreate transformers in IP neutral, (IE: Don't sue us we just have transforming robots from other planet that are in two factions and are locked in a war but there not called Autobots Decepticon). Battlechanger uses a unique Diceless RPG engine to run it's system, while Battle Changers: Ironworks uses a variant of the D&D 3.5 ruleset while also being pathfinder comparable. So what's the catch? Well they were both made by Otherverse Games. Yes: the Black Tokyo People. Thankfully there is no cross contamination between the two, while Battle Changes show up in Black Tokyo, Black Tokyo definitely does not show up here.

• COMMANDROIDS: A WORLD TRANSFORMED

A tabletop roleplaying game by Nerdy City that can be found here, compatible with their other 80's franchise expy games (just in case you wanted your Transformers/He-man/GI Joe/Stephen King crossover campaign). Mostly centered around not!Tranformers, with some elements of similar things like Voltron, Exosquad, and Macross/Robotech thrown in as the players see fit. Players create a human and Commandroid character who are bonded together, which can take the form of piloting or merging with the robot similar to the various _____master Transformer toys. There are rules for classes of machines and vehicles, as well as Combiners and Titans. The game uses the Nerdy City gaming "Omnisystem" which has rules for character relationships, leveraging time for player activities they will not want to roleplay through, and the ability for players to have "solo adventures" which don't take place at the same time in-universe but are played that way. As an aternative it functions as an add-on module for the FATE System.

• Transformers Roleplaying Game

An official Transformers RPG has been licensed by Hasbro through a company called Renegade Game Studios using their EssenceD20 system. It released in March 2022, learning from some of the inconsistences from its Hasbro predecessors, the Power Rangers and G.I. Joe games, both of which used the same engine. The engine works by having d20+Stat, but you also add another dice to the roll based on your training in a certain skill, so you can have a roll of d20+3+d6 to beat a DC 14. So far, the response seems to be decent, giving you a bit of freedom in determining personalities, alt-modes, gear and classes with two differing paths.

Brave Series

Of minor note(as far as this page is concerned, anyway) is the franchise Takara made after Generation 1's Japanese run finished. Making a deal with Sunrise(the makers of the Gundam anime), the Brave(Yuusha) series began in 1990 with Brave Exkaiser, and continued until 1997's King of Braves GaoGaiGar, which received an OAV finale in 2000, and a Web Novel sequel running from 2016-2021.

A series of Super Robot anime, the Brave series is notable here for the common recurring elements of intelligent transforming robots that often fought alongside or even as the Hero's mecha. Some were aliens, others built on Earth. But nearly all of them could easily be lost in a lineup of G1 Transformers in appearance (and the Autobots in general). So if you see a group of Transformer-looking robots that aren't Transformers, it's probably one of them.

See Also

The idea of "giant robots turning into vehicles" is so cool that lots of homebrew and independent mecha RPGs include mechas or characters that are "totally not Transformers" to fill the void that Hasbro has seemingly refused to fill themselves. For example:

• Giant Guardian Generation
• Horizon - Mechamorphosis is literally "Transformers with the serial numbers filed off, done by way of Dungeons & Dragons 3.5".
• Mechagenasis - Another "Transformers with the serial numbers filed off" game, this time done for True20.
• Battlechangers - Blatantly Transformers-based RPG, in both an original version and a Pathfinder version (Battlechangers Ironworks).
• Mekton - Extremely flexible with what it can do: the rules for transforming are simple (as far as Mekton goes anyway) and adapting to a Transformers setting is as easy as actually reading up on them, but the game's hilariously broken.
• Rifts - Some homebrew stuff floating around on the net for playing Transformers exists. Pity it relies on the godawful RIFTS mechanics...
• Codex: Transformers - A case of 1d4chan getting shit done, adapting Transformers into yet another Warhammer 40000 faction.
• Setting:Transformers - A tie-in article to the above trying to develop the lore to explain why Codex: Transformers is a thing.

External Links

• TFWiki.net, the unofficial Transformers wiki.