Japanese :
183-526: Launched in 1984, the Transformers toyline by Takara Tomy and Hasbro was promoted through both a comic book by Marvel Comics and an animated series produced by Sunbow Productions and Marvel Productions with Toei Animation . Although the comic outlived the animated series by a number of years, the animated series is more widely recognised. With the original show's conclusion in 1987, original series exclusive to Japan were created which ran until 1990, and
366-434: A Maximal who transformed into a plant . The series concluded with a drawn-out battle between Primal and Megatron, which ultimately concluded with their deaths, allowing the planet-wide reformatting of Cybertron into a technorganic paradise. Beast Machines was not exported to Japan for several years, finally reaching the country in 2004 under the title of Beast Wars Returns . After the conclusion of Beast Wars Metals , it
549-425: A live-action film based on Transformers , with Steven Spielberg serving as executive producer. It stars Shia LaBeouf , Josh Duhamel , Megan Fox , and Tyrese Gibson in the lead human cast while voice actors Peter Cullen and Hugo Weaving voice Optimus Prime and Megatron, respectively. Transformers received mixed to positive reviews and was a box office success. It is the forty-fifth highest-grossing film and
732-542: A being known as the One. Transformers: Micromasters , set after the Ark' s disappearance, was also published. The real life universe was disrupted when Dreamwave went bankrupt in 2005. This left the Generation 1 story hanging and the third volume of The War Within half finished. Plans for a comic book set between Beast Wars and Beast Machines were also left unrealized. Throughout
915-583: A bonus feature on the last disc of the Australian release of Victory with Japanese audio and English subtitles. When the Transformers: Generation 2 toyline fully launched in 1993, it began with a small collection of original Generation 1 toys, redecoed in various ways, and equipped with ostentatious new gimmicks such as electronic sound boxes and large, firing missile launchers. Although the toyline itself would grow to include many brand new figures, and
1098-491: A collection of mini-series that re-imagine and reinterpret the G1 characters in various ways. To date, only one miniseries has been published, Hearts of Steel , placing the characters in an Industrial Revolution -era setting. The series was delayed as Hasbro did not want to confuse newcomers with too many fictional universes before the release of the live-action film . However, IDW and the original publisher Marvel Comics announced
1281-680: A comic book series titled The Transformers with a companion series known as The Transformers: Spotlight . The main series was broken up into several story arcs. Eventually, with IDW Publishing losing sales, the series was given a soft reboot. Beginning with All Hail Megatron , the series was set in a new direction, discarding the miniseries and Spotlight format with ongoing comics . By 2012 the series had split into three ongoing series; The Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye, The Transformers: Robots in Disguise (which later changed in 2015 to "The Transformers") and The Transformers: Till All Are One. In 2022, it
1464-579: A counterpart of the AllSpark). When Unicron attacks Cybertron in the midst of the chaos caused by a Mini-Con civil war, Sentinel Maximus and Omega Prime fight him off with the help of their allies. In the end Unicron is driven off, badly wounded, by Primus. In conjunction with the Unite Warriors line, Takara Tomy released a comic detailing how the Galvatronus combiner came to be. Following his defeat at
1647-501: A crossover in Action Force , the UK counterpart to G.I. Joe. The comic book features a resurrected Megatron, whom Furman retconned to be a clone when he took over the U.S. comic book, which depicted Megatron as still dead. The U.S. comic would last for 80 issues until 1991, and the UK comic lasted 332 issues and several annuals , until it was replaced as Dreamwave Productions , later in
1830-530: A crossover storyline with the Avengers to coincide with the film New Avengers/Transformers . The story is set on the borders of Symkaria and Latveria , and its fictional universe is set between the first two New Avengers storylines, as well in between the Infiltration and Escalation phase of IDW's The Transformers . IDW editor-in-chief, Chris Ryall hinted at elements of it being carried over into
2013-471: A duel that destroyed them both as Soundblaster and Twincast. Human Daniel Witwicky and his young Autobot friend Wheelie also played major roles in the series, serving as the youthful characters for the audience to identify with. More new characters continued to pour in when Galvatron returned to leadership and the Decepticons embarked on a space voyage, ransacking planets in a chain of stories that introduced
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#17328591025032196-619: A final move, Scorponok attempted the destruction of Earth, only to be foiled, thanks in part to a traitorous Sixshot. Never professionally released in the United States , The Headmasters was dubbed into English in Hong Kong for broadcast on the Malaysian TV channel, RTM 1, and later the Singapore satellite station, STAR TV , where it attained greater fame, leading it to often be referred to as
2379-561: A follow-up to Armada/Energon . The writers attempted to change certain plot elements from the Japanese version to remedy this, although this largely added up to nothing more than references to Unicron, Primus, Primes and Minicons. Just as Marvel produced a companion comic to Generation 1 , Dreamwave Productions published the comic Transformers Armada set in a different continuity from the cartoon. At #19, it became Transformers Energon . Dreamwave went bankrupt and ceased all publications before
2562-433: A leader before being succeeded by Rodimus Prime , while Megatron himself was recreated by Unicron as Galvatron . Many more of the old guard fell in battle as their toys departed store shelves to make room for a new cast of characters created for the film. 1986 also saw the start of the third season of the animated series, which took its cue from the film, picking up precisely where it had left off with Rodimus in command and
2745-613: A new physical form, and Galvatron's head takes control of his new minions to take on his new form of Galvatronus. Debuting in Transformers: The Last Knight , the six horns of Unicron began appearing out of the Earth in response to the approach of Cybertron. Unicron is noted by Quintessa to be another name for Earth, and Optimus Prime recognizes Unicron as Cybertron's ancient enemy. Quintessa plans to drain Unicron's energy to restore
2928-599: A new universe of annual comics adapted from Marvel, but also included elements of the animated. The Dreamwave stories followe the concept of the Autobots defeating the Decepticons on Earth, but their 1997 return journey to Cybertron on the Ark II is destroyed by Shockwave , now ruler of the planet. The story follows on from there and was told in two six-issue limited series, then a ten-issue ongoing series . The series also adds extra complexities such as not all Transformers believing in
3111-448: A power that gives the series its Japanese title, Transformers: Superlink - while the Decepticons possess "hyper modes" with excesses of weaponry. The series also introduces the aforementioned Terrorcons, and their Autobot counterparts the Omnicons , robots with the ability to handle and shape energon into power-enhancing stars and weapons such as spears and axes. Transformers: Cybertron
3294-483: A prequel to the first film, receiving positive reviews from critics. The movie was a box-office success. A sequel to Bumblebee , directed by Steven Caple Jr. and titled Transformers: Rise of the Beasts , was released on June 9, 2023 to mixed reviews from critics. Transformers: Animated is a cartoon that was aired in early 2008 on Cartoon Network in the United States . Originally scheduled for late after 2007 under
3477-514: A public-relations arm of the revitalized organization. Additionally, Ohshima's other major contribution to Transformers at the time, the 1-page Information Administration Teletraan 15 Go! Go! comic published in Dengeki Hobby magazine, also featured several tie-ins to the Kiss Players story. These primarily served to introduce readers to the Kiss Players story and characters when the line
3660-528: A scientist studying one of Unicron's horns to warn him not to touch the chaos-bringer and offers a way to kill him. Unicron appears in the 2023 film Transformers: Rise of the Beasts , voiced by Colman Domingo . In the film, he is a planet -eater who consumes them as fuel. Devouring the home planet of the Maximals, who escape with the Transwarp Key to Earth, he sends his Terrorcon servants to find it. After
3843-477: A select few of the most-highly trained constructed larger bodies called "Transtectors," to which they connected as heads. When a group of rebellious Headmasters led by Zarak joined with Galvatron's Decepticons in an attack on Cybertron, the Autobot Headmasters, led by Fortress returned to their home planet to aid in its defense. The situation soon went from bad to worse when it was revealed that Vector Sigma,
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#17328591025034026-623: A sought-after commodity in the war between the Autobots and Decepticons. Eventually, however, the Mini-Cons fled Cybertron in a starship, which warped into the Solar system and crashed on Earth. The series then begins in the year 2010, when three teenagers - Rad, Carlos and Alexis - find and reactivate the buried hulk of the Mini-Con ship, sending out a signal that brings Optimus Prime, Megatron and their troops to Earth. The Autobots and Decepticons begin scouring
4209-525: A strong sci-fi aspect infect the season as the Transformers' battles spanned many alien planets, while continuity between episode was tighter than ever before as plot concepts were revisited and expanded to truly flesh out the show's history. Running to 30 episodes, the third season ended with the two-part The Return of Optimus Prime , bringing the legendary Autobot leader back to life. Broadcast in Japan once again,
4392-625: A sub-faction of the Predacons on Earth, a potential reference to the return to the vehicle-based characters following the previous dominance of the animal-based characters of the Beast eras. It is a stand-alone universe with no ties to any other Transformers fiction, though some of the characters from Robots in Disguise did eventually make appearances in Transformers: Universe , including Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Side Burn and Prowl . The show
4575-601: A visit to the Savage Land . The Transformers TV series began around the same time. Produced by Sunbow Productions and Marvel Productions , later Hasbro Productions, from the start it contradicted Budiansky's backstories. The TV series shows the Autobots looking for new energy sources, and crash landing as the Decepticons attack. Marvel interpreted the Autobots as destroying a rogue asteroid approaching Cybertron. Shockwave
4758-456: Is a media franchise produced by Japanese toy company Takara Tomy and American toy company Hasbro . It primarily follows the heroic Autobots and the villainous Decepticons , two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms, such as vehicles and animals. The franchise encompasses toys, animation, comic books, video games and films. As of 2011, it generated more than ¥2 trillion ( $ 25 billion ) in revenue, making it one of
4941-638: Is high for the series to be released on DVD in North America; although available in the United Kingdom , it has yet to see a release in America due to the Walt Disney Company 's acquisition of Saban and its products. The "Unicron Trilogy" is so-named for the major role that the chaos bringer Unicron plays in each of the three series that comprise it. Taking place over a twenty year span from 2010 to 2030,
5124-438: Is later revealed to be prehistoric Earth with an artificial second moon, taking place sometime during the 4 million year period in which the Autobots and Decepticons were in suspended animation from the first episode of the original Transformers cartoon), which forces them to take organic beast forms in order to function without going into stasis lock. After writing this first episode, Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio learned of
5307-673: Is loyal to Megatron on the TV series, keeping Cybertron in a stalemate during his absence, but in the comic book, he attempts to take command of the Decepticons. The TV series would also differ wildly from the origins Budiansky had created for the Dinobots, the Decepticon turned Autobot Jetfire (known as Skyfire on TV ), the Constructicons (who combine to form Devastator ), and Omega Supreme . The Marvel comic establishes early on that Prime wields
5490-451: Is no change in size (compression or expansion) common among so many Transformers. One scene in the movie shows Jazz driving out of one of Unicron's eyes, just small enough to fit through them, though in another scene the Quintesson ship Hot Rod arrived in is tiny compared with the eye. Unicron is also small enough to stand on Cybertron's surface. The character Unicron first appears in
5673-444: Is planet Cybertron and fight his nemesis Unicron . Female Autobot Arcee also appeared, despite the comic book stating the Transformers had no concept of gender, with her backstory of being built by the Autobots to quell human accusations of sexism. Soundwave , Megatron's second-in-command, also breaks the fourth wall in the letters page, criticising the cartoon continuity as an inaccurate representation of history. The UK also had
List of Transformers animated series - Misplaced Pages Continue
5856-603: Is that the heroic Optimus Prime , the villainous Megatron , and their finest soldiers crash-land on prehistoric Earth in the Ark and the Nemesis before awakening in 1985, Cybertron hurtling through the Neutral zone as an effect of the war. The Marvel comic was originally part of the main Marvel Universe , with appearances from Spider-Man and Nick Fury , plus some cameos, as well as
6039-571: Is the anomaly of the Unicron Trilogy universe. Debuting in Japan in January 2005, under the title Transformers: Galaxy Force , the series was intended by its Japanese producers to be yet another complete reboot to the timeline, beginning yet another continuity from the beginning with no connections to Armada or Energon . It would not be until mid-2005, when Energon completed its run, that Hasbro would release Cybertron into their markets, modifying
6222-485: The Generation 2 comic book and Beast Wars TV series, which became its own mini-universe . Generation 1 characters have been rebooted multiple times in the 21st century in comics from Dreamwave Productions (starting 2001), IDW Publishing (starting in 2005 and again in 2019), and Skybound Entertainment (beginning in 2023). There have been other incarnations of the story based on different toy lines during and after
6405-484: The Beast Wars animated series soon began to grow, establishing its place as the future - and past - of the larger Generation 1 timeline. Running to 26 episodes, 1996's first season of Beast Wars began with an unintentional parallel to the original animated series, introducing the viewers to Maximal Optimus Primal , Predacon Megatron and their crews as their ships crashed onto an alien planet, where they warred over
6588-524: The Creation Matrix , which gives life to machines. In the second season, the two-part episode The Key to Vector Sigma introduced the ancient Vector Sigma computer, which served the same original purpose as the Creation Matrix (giving life to Transformers), and its guardian Alpha Trion . In 1986, the cartoon became the film The Transformers: The Movie , which is set in the year 2005. It introduced
6771-750: The Dinoforce , remoulded versions of the American Monster Pretenders. Micromasters also make their debut in Victory . Of the 38 episodes of Victory broadcast, six are clip episodes containing no new footage, leaving 32 main episodes, which comprise the DVD collection released in the United Kingdom in September 2006. Six further clip episodes were produced for video, taking the total to 44. Victory also received
6954-560: The Headmasters and Targetmasters , as well as several other characters. Concluding with the restoration of Cybertron's Golden Age, the Decepticons stole the final scene of the series to prove that their threat still lingered. It is unknown the exact reason the American series ended after the movie, though it is assumed that Sunbow had lost its contract to keep its cartoons running by 1987 (the final Transformers episode "The Rebirth" coincided with
7137-532: The Horrorcons and Autobot and Decepticon Clones. The return to Earth was no less momentous, as the Decepticon ninja six-changer Sixshot killed Ultra Magnus, and the Autobot Headmasters finished off Galvatron. When the Decepticons then returned to Master, refugees from the planet were caught in a plasma bomb accident that fused them to the arms of several Autobots and Decepticons, creating the Targetmasters, and in
7320-523: The Micro Change and Diaclone toys, and partnered with Takara . Marvel Comics was hired by Hasbro to create the backstory ; editor-in-chief Jim Shooter wrote an overall story, and gave the task of creating the characters to writer Dennis O'Neil . Unhappy with O'Neil's work (although O'Neil created the name " Optimus Prime "), Shooter chose Bob Budiansky to create the characters. The Transformers mecha were largely designed by Shōji Kawamori ,
7503-608: The Rescue Bots TV series, its sequel Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy , the Go! anime adaptation, and the 2015 series Transformers: Robots in Disguise . The video games that are part of this shared universe are Transformers: War for Cybertron (including its Nintendo DS version and the companion Transformers: Cybertron Adventures ), Transformers: Fall of Cybertron , the Prime video game adaptation , and Transformers: Rise of
List of Transformers animated series - Misplaced Pages Continue
7686-636: The Sweeps . Eventually, Rodimus Prime takes out the Matrix and destroys Unicron. In the United Kingdom, the weekly comic book interspliced original material to keep up with U.S. reprints, and The Movie provided much new material. Writer Simon Furman proceeded to expand the continuity with movie spin-offs involving the time travelling Galvatron. The Movie also featured guest voices from Leonard Nimoy as Galvatron , Scatman Crothers as Jazz , Casey Kasem as Cliffjumper, Orson Welles as Unicron and Eric Idle as
7869-451: The Technobots from pieces of Unicron's head, and one of their number, Strafe , severs enough of Unicron's neural connections to shut him back down. Although Unicron himself does not appear again, his origin in the animated series is later revealed. Unicron was created near the beginning of the universe by the diminutive genius known as Primacron, who intended for him to devour all life in
8052-613: The Transformers Generations: The Fall of Cybertron line in 2012. Several ideas introduced into the 2007 storyline focusing on the introduction of Primus into the Japanese cartoon's timeline have been revisited and expanded upon, which shares Kiss Players storytelling while attempting to fill in gaps of the timeline in the Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity. The Transformers Legends manga, while featuring lewd content and new stories and characters, also has
8235-469: The fifth highest-grossing film of 2007 , grossing approximately $ 709 million worldwide. The film won four awards from the Visual Effects Society and was nominated for three Academy Awards , for Best Sound Editing , Best Sound Mixing , and Best Visual Effects . The performance of Shia LaBeouf was praised by Empire , and Peter Cullen's reprisal of Optimus Prime from the 1980s television series
8418-539: The highest-grossing media franchises of all time. The franchise began in 1984 with the Transformers toy line , comprising transforming mecha toys from Takara 's Diaclone and Micro Change toylines rebranded for Western markets. The term " Generation 1 " (G1) covers both the animated television series The Transformers and the comic book series of the same name , which are further divided into Japanese, British and Canadian spin-offs. Sequels followed, such as
8601-515: The "Headmaster Juniors". But the Decepticons have Headmaster Juniors of their own, and as the conflict rages, events converge on the creation of the most powerful super-robot lifeforms yet - the Godmasters! The Godmasters are the Japanese version of the Powermasters, with human beings transforming into engines and combining with Transtectors to transform into robots capable of wielding "Chokon Power",
8784-433: The "StarTV dub" treatment - when the three Japanese series were broadcast on StarTV, it was under the umbrella title of "Transformers Takara", and all three were branded with Victory' s opening sequence. The dub was not released on DVD in the UK either. The Australian release includes the "StarTV" dub for the entire Victory series. Originally intended to be a full-length direct-to-video (OVA) series, 1990s Transformers: Zone
8967-475: The "StarTV dub". The dub is, however, infamous for its poor quality, full of mistranslations and incorrect names, clearly the work of a small group of individuals (literally, less than half-a-dozen actors fill every role) with little knowledge of the material. This dub has seen some DVD releases in the United Kingdom and Australia, and the entire series was released in a dual-language format in 2005. On July 5, 2011, Shout! Factory (publishers of G1 of DVD) released
9150-416: The "Unicron Trilogy". For most of the 2010s, in an attempt to mitigate the wave of reboots, the " Aligned Continuity " was established. In 2018, Transformers: Cyberverse debuted, once again, distinct from the previous incarnations. Although a separate and competing franchise started in 1983, Tonka 's GoBots became the intellectual property of Hasbro after their buyout of Tonka in 1991. Subsequently,
9333-421: The 2001 year. Renamed Transformers: Robots in Disguise (regularly referred to with the acronym of RiD by fans) the series stands alone, unconnected to any of the previous continuities as a complete, self-contained universe. Conceptually, the show united ideas from across the G1 and Beast eras by pitting the vehicular Autobots, led by Optimus Prime , against the bestial Predacons, led by Megatron , and through
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#17328591025039516-429: The 20th century. In 2009, Shout! Factory released the entire G1 series in a 16-DVD box set called the Matrix of Leadership Edition. They also released the same content as individual seasons. It was five issues of the G.I. Joe comic in 1993 that would springboard a return for Marvel's Transformers, with the new twelve-issue series Transformers: Generation 2 , to market a new toy line. This story reveals that
9699-511: The 20th century. The first was the Robots in Disguise series, followed by three shows ( Armada , Energon , and Cybertron ) that constitute a single universe called the "Unicron Trilogy". A live-action film series started in 2007, again distinct from previous incarnations, while the Transformers: Animated series merged concepts from the G1 continuity, the 2007 live-action film and
9882-453: The 354-page brand bible, "The Binder of Revelation". In August 2016, Machinima and Hasbro co-produced an animated series named Combiner Wars , simultaneously published on the website Go90 and YouTube . This was followed by two further installments, Titans Return and Power of the Primes . Eric Calderon was executive producer of the trilogy. The events of the series take place 40 years after
10065-737: The Autobot Matrix of Leadership , the only thing that can stand in Unicron's way. Thus, Unicron rebuilds Megatron into a new and more powerful body and rechristens him Galvatron . He then uses the battered bodies of the other Decepticons and creates Scourge, the Sweeps and Cyclonus . Unicron also gives Galvatron a vessel, and Galvatron begins to carry out his assigned task, although he is loath to do so. When Galvatron shows any signs of opposition to Unicron's will, Unicron inflicts agonizing torture in his mind to coerce him into obedience. Following Unicron's consumption of Cybertron's two moons, Galvatron obtains
10248-585: The Autobots and Decepticons discovering the powerful Mini-Cons on Earth, which are revealed by the end to be weapons of Unicron . Energon , set ten years later, followed the Autobots and the Omnicons in their fight to stop the Decepticons and the Terrorcons from resurrecting Unicron with energon. In Japan, the series Transformers: Cybertron showed no ties to the previous two series, telling its own story. This caused continuity problems when Hasbro sold Cybertron as
10431-522: The Autobots to collect enough Mini-cons to create a power-up mode for Optimus Prime. The player must chase Unicron as he orbits around Cybertron and enters his maw as he prepares to fire, blasting him with the Matrix Cannon until eventually Unicron is destroyed. Unicron is mentioned a number of times in Transformers: Prime – The Game . Eons ago, Unicron created Thunderwing to serve him and destroy
10614-418: The Beasts , and Atari 's 2004 Transformers video game . Unicron is a prodigiously large robot whose scale reaches planetary proportions, and he is also able to transform into a giant planet. Unicron's origin has expanded over the years from simply being a large robot to being a god of chaos who devours realities. He often employs the help of Decepticons in his work, and in some stories is considered part of
10797-502: The Dark Spark , that serves as a conclusion of the Cybertron series and crossover with the live-action film video game series. Four novels set within the continuity have been published: Transformers: Exodus , Transformers: Exiles , Transformers: Retribution , and Transformers: The Covenant of Primus . The first three were published by Del Rey Books , while Covenant of Primus
10980-555: The Decepticons in exile with Galvatron missing. The season opened with a five-part miniseries entitled Five Faces of Darkness which saw Galvatron return and brought to prominence the Quintessons , multi-faced aliens introduced in the movie who were revealed to be the creators of the Transformer race, and who became a recurring third factor as the season continued through its setting of 2006. The addition of Flint Dille as story editor saw
11163-465: The Decepticons. (Note: This appears to contradict background presented in the first two seasons of the series.) It is the Autobots who develop transformation. Due to popular demand, Optimus Prime is resurrected at the conclusion of the third season, and the series ended with a three-episode story arc. However, the Japanese broadcast of the series was supplemented with a newly produced OVA , Scramble City , before creating entirely new series to continue
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#173285910250311346-604: The G1 Transformers and began to use elements of it as a historical backstory to their scripts, establishing Beast Wars as a part of the Generation 1 universe through numerous callbacks to both the cartoon and the Marvel comic. By the end of the first season, the second moon and the Energon are revealed to have been constructed by a mysterious alien race known as the Vok . The destruction of
11529-434: The Headmasters before them. With the departure of the Autobots and Decepticons from Earth at the end of The Headmasters , a small group of Autobots remained to guard the planet, having hidden amongst mankind for thousands of years thanks to their "Pretender" powers, which allowed them to shrink down and adopt the forms of human beings. However, the sudden re-appearance of their formerly-defeated Decepticon counterparts, now in
11712-409: The Headmasters series on DVD for the US and Canada markets but the "StarTV" dub wasn't included as per Hasbro's request. The second of the Japanese-exclusive animated series, 1988's Transformers: Super-God Masterforce takes place some years after The Headmasters , introducing the Powermasters and Pretenders to Japanese fiction in ways even more different from their portrayal in the west than those of
11895-414: The Japanese version). 1986 marked a huge change for The Transformers with the summer screening of The Transformers: The Movie , which jumped the action forward in time twenty years to the then-future of 2005 and pitted both the Autobots and Decepticons against the menace of the giant planet-eating robot, Unicron . Optimus Prime met his end at Megatron's hands, and Ultra Magnus briefly replaced him as
12078-515: The Matrix as the " Autobot Matrix of Leadership ", as a fatally wounded Prime gives it to Ultra Magnus ; however, as Prime dies he drops the matrix, which is then caught by Hot Rod who subsequently becomes Rodimus Prime later on in the film. Unicron , a Transformer who devours planets, fears its power and re-creates a heavily damaged Megatron as Galvatron , as well as Bombshell or Skywarp becoming Cyclonus , Thundercracker becoming Scourge and two other Insecticons becoming Scourge's huntsmen,
12261-586: The Matrix from Ultra Magnus , believing he can use it to bring Unicron under his control. Attempting to open the Matrix to intimidate Unicron, Galvatron only prompts his transformation into robot mode and is swallowed by the planet-eater. Unicron lays waste to Cybertron, halted briefly when the young Autobot rookie, Hot Rod , crashes a Quintesson spacecraft through his eye. Finding Hot Rod inside Unicron's body, Galvatron suggests an alliance against their common enemy. However, Unicron inflicts his mental torture upon Galvatron, forcing him to fight Hot Rod. Hot Rod seizes
12444-421: The Matrix from Galvatron during the fight and becomes Rodimus Prime. Rodimus throws Galvatron into space, freeing him from Unicron's mind-control. Rodimus opens the Matrix within Unicron, destroying his body, leaving only his head, which becomes a moon of Cybertron. Unicron was voiced by Orson Welles . The third season of The Transformers animated series continues Unicron's story where the movie left off, as
12627-420: The Matrix of Leadership. After Unicron's demise, a meteor of Dark Energon with Thunderwing sealed within crashes on Earth. Optimus Prime comes across the meteor and finds Thunderwing who reveals that he is a minion of Unicron and his mission was to destroy the Matrix. Thunderwing seeks help from the Decepticons for the repairs needed. He fails thanks to the combined efforts of Prime and Jack Darby and falls into
12810-416: The Plasma Energy Chamber and Key to Vector Sigma. The naming of the Transformer ship, the Ark (and reference to 1984, the year the Transformers on board are revived), the character Ravage being shown as intelligent, and Cybertron having an organic core are elements taken from the comics. In 2011, Shout! Factory released the complete series of Beast Wars on DVD. In 2001, Dreamwave Productions began
12993-488: The Spy Changers, repainted versions of Generation 2 figures, and Tow-Line and Skid-Z, repainted Machine Wars toys), while on the Predacon side, only Megatron was a new mould, with his troops being repaints of Beast Wars Transmetal 2 toys. The trend continued into the second story arc, which introduced RiD' s version of the Decepticons - redecos of the G1 Combaticons and G2 "Laser Optimus Prime" toy - and Optimus Prime's bitter brother, Ultra Magnus . This led smoothly into
13176-484: The Terrorcons obtain the two halves of the key, Unicron emerges through a portal near Earth, intent on devouring the planet. However, Optimus Prime destroys the key, collapsing the portal and trapping Unicron in the other side. Unicron is among the characters appearing in the 2004 Transformers video game for the PlayStation 2 , and served as the main final boss in the game. Unicron begins attacking Cybertron, requiring
13359-547: The Transformers concept, today, it is not uncommon to find long-time Transformers fans - even those who have grown up with the franchise since 1984 - who consider Beast Wars to be their favorite Transformers series. Just as with the Generation 1 timeline, Japan was quick to get in on the act when Beast Wars took off. The first season of the North American animated series was imported and dubbed with an increase in humor, under
13542-556: The Transformers originally breed asexually , though it is stopped by Primus because it produced the evil Swarm . A new empire, neither Autobot nor Decepticon, is bringing it back, however. Though the year-long arc wrapped itself up with an alliance between Optimus Prime and Megatron , the final panel introduces the Liege Maximo, ancestor of the Decepticons. This minor cliffhanger was not resolved until 2001 and 2002's Transforce convention when writer Simon Furman concluded his story in
13725-475: The Transformers. Dreamwave's version reimagines the familiar G1 and G.I. Joe characters in a World War II setting, and a second limited series was released set in the present day, though Dreamwave's bankruptcy meant it was cancelled after a single issue. Devil's Due had Cobra re-engineer the Transformers to turn into familiar Cobra vehicles, and released further mini-series that sent the characters travelling through time, battling Serpentor and being faced with
13908-510: The Unicron Battles. The autobots successfully destroy Unicron, but Unicron manages to place his consciousness within Megatron. In the final episode, Megatron is corrupted by Unicron, leading to another confrontation with Optimus Supreme. Around this time, Primus, Unicron's sibling, creates an energon sun and attempts to trap Unicron's soul with it. Both he and Megatron are destroyed for good, and
14091-455: The basic story outline of each of the three lines, with the anime themselves then being written and animated in Japan, but in practice, the Japanese studios did not always follow Archer's design. While each series ran for eighteen months in Hasbro markets, lasting from mid-2002 through 2007, the three were annual affairs in Japan, running from January to December in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Launched in
14274-407: The beginning of 2004. Picking up ten years after the end of Armada , Energon focuses on the quest for the titular energy-rich mineral, the Transformers' power source. The Autobots and Decepticons, allied since the conclusion of Armada , have entered into an alliance with humankind in order to mine for energon on Earth, and now operate out of massive "Cybertron Cities" in strategic locations around
14457-405: The beginning, and although no manga was released for Zone (barring a single chapter available through mail-away which simply re-told the episode), its tale was completed through the story pages. These story pages were also used to provide supporting fiction for the remaining two years' worth of toylines - 1991's Battlestars: Return of Convoy and 1992's Operation: Combination. Zone is included as
14640-493: The capsule that Lio Convoy had sealed the Angolmois Energy into at the conclusion of the previous series. Beast Wars Neo is particularly notable for one reason - it features the first return of Unicron to animated continuity for a decade. In the course of the series, Angolmois Energy is revealed to be Unicron's life-force, and the series leads to his attempt to transfer it into Cybertron, that it may become his new body. With
14823-476: The cells and gained Kiss Player fusion abilities to partner with them. The three central characters were a younger version of Marissa Faireborn as a resistance fighter against the EDC partnered with Optimus Prime who while having died in the movie, his body body was recovered and restored to life in a new body resembling that of a Dodge Ram pickup by the same organization. Rodimus devastated by his guilt in his role of
15006-505: The combined menace of Cobra-La and Unicron . During this time, Cobra teams up with the Decepticons . IDW Publishing has expressed interest in their own crossover. The following year, IDW Publishing rebooted the G1 series from scratch within various limited series and one shots . This allowed long-time writer of Marvel and Dreamwave comics, Simon Furman , to create his own universe without continuity hindrance, similar to Ultimate Marvel . This new continuity originally consisted of
15189-487: The comic book which accompanied it was a continuation of Marvel's Generation 1 title, the Generation 2 animated series stuck very closely to the toyline's opening cascade of "rehashed G1." Around fifty Generation 1 episodes from seasons 1 to 3 of The Transformers were chosen and, as the show's narrator proudly proclaimed, "computer-enhanced" with the "Cyber-Net Space-Cube" - a gimmick that essentially consisted of inserting new, computer-generated borders and scene-changes into
15372-644: The conclusion of The Headmasters , Galvatron's icy tomb is discovered by Cyclonus, whose body Galvatron modifies to accommodate his own head in the chest compartment. Seeking a more fitting form, Galvatron directs Cyclonus to approach the disembodied head of Unicron, who is convinced to help Galvatron attain a combiner form with Cyclonus as its core. To accomplish this, Unicron opens dimensional rifts in order to bring Curse Armada Thrust, Zombie War Breakdown , and Wandering Roller into their world. To Cyclonus' surprise, Starscream makes an appearance, expressing interest in joining this new alliance. Unicron grants Starscream
15555-398: The conclusion of its first storyline in late 2007, Kiss Players moved into its second (and apparently final) phase, Kiss Players Position , which shifted focus to a distinctly more PG-rated theme, though it was still heavy on the "cute girls" theme. The Kiss Players this time are a pop idol singing group made up of the three girls and three original mini-cassette Transformers Glit, Sundor
15738-692: The creator of the Japanese mecha anime franchise Macross (which was adapted into the Robotech franchise in North America). Kawamori came up with the idea of transforming mechs while working on the Diaclone and Macross franchises in the early 1980s (such as the VF-1 Valkyrie in Macross and Robotech ), with his Diaclone mechs later providing the basis for Transformers . The primary concept of Generation 1
15921-454: The damaged Cybertron, killing life on Earth in the process. Simmons later helps Burton locate an ancient book containing details about Unicron, noting that the center-point of Unicron's horns (during the era when all of the Earth's continents formed Pangaea ) is Stonehenge . Megatron and Quintessa begin draining energy from Unicron but are foiled, and later Quintessa (disguised as a human) approaches
16104-399: The destruction of Tokyo stepped down as the then leader of the Autobots reverting to the previous name of Hot Rod in order to return to Earth to atone for his mistake. He's refitted into a vehicle resembling a Ford GT by his headstrong partner Shaoshao Li, a girl of Chinese descent and an estranged friend of Marissa and used to be one of the EDC's top Kiss Players until realizing that the EDC
16287-551: The end of Beast Wars Neo , the third season of the North American series had been completed, and it was subsequently combined with the second season and dubbed for Japanese release as Beast Wars Metals . As controversial as Beast Wars started out, it was nothing compared to the controversy that would result from the infamous Beast Machines . The series was the only Transformers animated series to be fully plotted from start to finish by Marty Isenberg and Robert N. Skir , writers unfamiliar with Transformers lore who sought to produce
16470-571: The end of the Autobot/Decepticon civil war, with the Transformers having returned to Cybertron and now being threatened by ancient technology. The trailer for Combiner Wars was released on July 26, 2016, along with four prequel episodes. Eight five-minute episodes of the series Combiner Wars were released weekly beginning on August 2. The cast of the Combiner Wars was predominantly made up of famous YouTube personalities. The first series
16653-551: The end of the first season, and served to provide Primal with the revelation that drove the second - that he had been wrong, and that the Oracle desired not the domination of one power over the other, but a balance between the organic and the technological. The second season of the show dove headlong into the storyline, with Megatron body-swapping repeatedly, and the concept of the show allowing for such left-field creations as an entirely organic Transformer that changed from beast to beast, and
16836-476: The energon sun recreates Alpha's planets that were destroyed long ago. In the Transformers: Prime storyline, Unicron (voiced by John Noble ) is the source of Dark Energon, a poisonous and corruptive form of Energon with the ability to revive the dead - albeit in a mindless, zombie-like "Terrorcon" state - also known by the name "the blood of Unicron". Unicron is believed to represent the Anti-Spark (most likely
17019-424: The energon they found there. While mostly a scattershot affair of episodic stories, the first season of Beast Wars focused heavily on characterisation, endowing its cast with consistent, developing personalities and naturalistic voice acting that brought the show to life. Additionally, amidst the one-shot adventures, a plot thread began to grow involving a race of mysterious aliens who were conducting experiments on
17202-638: The eponymous "Kiss Players" - who fuse with the robots and share their adventures. The plot starts with the Earth Defense Command being formed in 2003 as part of a cooperative human/Autobot effort. When a virus called the Cosmic Rust critically struck the Autobots later that year, the EDC kicked off the Binaltech Project to shore up its defenses. When Galvatron was hurled out of Unicron by Rodimus Prime in 2005, rather than immediately crashing onto
17385-487: The events of Super-God Masterforce (there is a common misconception that the series takes place in 2025), 1989's Transformers: Victory is the third Japanese-exclusive series, the final complete Generation 1 cartoon. Led by their new Supreme Commander Star Saber , the Autobots battle the Decepticons under the command of Deszaras for control of the galaxy's resources. In contrast to The Headmasters and Super-God Masterforce , both of which had an over-arcing plot direction,
17568-678: The events of the episodes to a human boy named Tommy Kennedy. The opening sequence comprised animation taken from contemporary toy adverts, and Prime occasionally referred to new toy characters like Cloudburst. Apparently never re-run after its original airing, the series aired More Than Meets the Eye Parts 1-3, Five Faces of Darkness Parts 1-5, Dark Awakening , the out-of-place Surprise Party , The Return of Optimus Prime Parts 1-2, The Rebirth Parts 1-3, and most notably, The Transformers: The Movie , split up and aired in five segments, with Stan Bush 's music video for " The Touch " included in
17751-477: The exclusive novella Alignment . The story focuses on a small group of Maximals (the new Autobots), led by Optimus Primal , and Predacons , led by Megatron , 300 years after the "Great War". After a dangerous pursuit through transwarp space , both the Maximal and Predacon factions end up crash landing on a primitive, uncivilized planet similar to Earth , but with two moons and a dangerous level of Energon (which
17934-541: The existence of Primus, corruption in the Cybertronian government that first led Megatron to begin his war, and Earth having an unknown relevance to Cybertron. Three Transformers: The War Within limited series were also published. These are set at the beginning of the Great War, and identify Prime as once being a clerk named Optronix. Beast Wars was also retroactively stated as the future of this continuity, with
18117-433: The existing episodes. CGI clips from toy commercials served to make up the show's opening sequence and commercial bumpers, while the episodes themselves were shown in no particular order. After the unremarkable performance of the Generation 2 line, Hasbro aimed to completely re-work the Transformers premise; the result was Beast Wars: Transformers , which featured robots with familiar names and organic beast modes. As per
18300-486: The extent that there was no Transformers animated series broadcast in Japan in 2001) and following both the conclusion of it and the second season of Beast Machines , Takara and Hasbro opted to co-produce the next series for the first time. With this decision made, Hasbro scrapped their plans for the Transtech series, and - rather than go a year without Transformers, as Takara had chosen to do - opted to import Car Robots for
18483-447: The final G.I. Joe episode "G.I. Joe: the Movie"). Additionally, a fifth season of sorts was aired in 1988, serving as a kind of "best of" collection of the series. The most notable feature of this twenty-episode run was the new intro and concluding segments added to the episodes, which consisted of Powermaster Optimus Prime (rendered in a mixture of puppetry and stop motion animation) relating
18666-494: The final part. Rather than import The Rebirth as a conclusion, Takara, the Japanese producers of the Transformers toyline, opted instead to continue the Generation 1 universe by creating the full-length 35-episode series, Transformers: The Headmasters (two additional clips episodes were produced after the fact for direct-to-video release). Supplanting The Rebirth' s position in Japanese continuity, The Headmasters occurred one year after The Return of Optimus Prime , introducing
18849-463: The finished product, including incorrect character names, flat, transliterated speech, and at times, utterly nonsensical dialogue that did not match the action onscreen. A companion comic book was included with the Japanese DVD releases of the series titled Linkage , which focused on the side story of a group of Mini-Cons whose adventures happened concurrently with the animated series. The comic takes
19032-487: The first season of Beast Wars (comprising 26 episodes) aired in Japan, the Japanese were faced with a problem. The second Canadian season was only 13 episodes long, not enough to warrant airing on Japanese TV. While they waited for the third Canadian season to be completed (thereby making 26 episodes in total when added to season 2), they produced two exclusive cel-animated series of their own, Beast Wars II (also called Beast Wars Second ) and Beast Wars Neo , to fill in
19215-474: The former is a spy and the latter shows compassion to both allies and enemies , and Rosanna who's the only heroic one out of the three . The group's purpose is to promote a positive relationship and friendship between humans and Transformers in the wake of the Tokyo disaster of 2005 and the subsequent rise and fall of the E.D.C.. They wear E.D.C. logos on their costumes as a group, appearing to be either sponsored by or
19398-425: The franchise once more through collaboration with Cartoon Network , bringing writing duties back to America, with animation being handled by Japanese studios. Hasbro also reacquired the distribution rights to the original series from Sunbow finally giving them the complete rights to the series based on their Generation 1 toy-line. Although initially a separate and competing franchise in 1984, Tonka 's Gobots became
19581-600: The franchise was later re-imagined with the fully CGI Beast Wars in the late 1990s. The 21st century saw a total reboot of the Transformers universe (first being Takara 's produced Car Robots , imported and retitled for Western release as Transformers: Robots in Disguise ), as Hasbro collaborated with Japanese Transformers producers Takara to create a new storyline with Transformers: Armada and its sequels, produced in Japan and then dubbed for English-speaking audience. In 2008, Transformers Animated saw Hasbro take control of
19764-592: The gap. Dreamwave retroactively revealed Beast Wars to be the future of their G1 universe, and the 2006 IDW comic book Beast Wars: The Gathering eventually confirmed the Japanese series to be canon within a story set during Season 3. Beast Wars contained elements from both the G1 cartoon series and comics. Attributes taken from the cartoon include Transformers that were female, the appearance of Starscream (who mentions being killed off by Galvatron in The Transformers: The Movie ), and appearances of
19947-428: The helm as story editors, it was planned for the show to start afresh, with no ties to anything that had gone before, but the off-handed reference to the "Great War" included in the first episode set the internet fandom ablaze. DiTillio and Forward became occasional posters on the alt.toys.transformers newsgroup, and through this back-and-forth interaction with fans, plus their own research of previous Transformers fiction,
20130-416: The inclusion of classic concepts such as Headmaster and combining technology; dubbed into English by Saban Entertainment , many fan-friendly references to the previous continuities were also added. The first story arc of the series is a series of episodic adventures introducing the majority of the cast - like the original animated series, it was very Autobot-heavy, with most characters being newly designed (bar
20313-535: The intellectual property of Hasbro after their buyout of Tonka in 1991. Subsequently, the universe depicted in the animated series and its follow-up film was established as an alternate universe within the Transformers Multiverse. The term "Generation 1", or "G1", is a retronym , coined after the advent of 1992's Transformers: Generation 2 . Although frequently used to simply refer to the original 1984-1991 Marvel comic series, 1984-1987 animated series,
20496-436: The intended target of the planet Thrull, he instead hurtled toward Earth. Landing in Tokyo, Japan, the Decepticon leader's impact decimated the city and scattered his Unicron-mutated cells throughout Earth's atmosphere. Following this catastrophe, the EDC was reborn as an organization dedicated to driving all Transformers off Earth. The organization built an anti-electron field (previously referred to as an Energon field) to make
20679-562: The intent to unify every Transformers media into one continuity. The name of this continuity however, is not official; it was adopted by the fans after Hasbro referred to it as an "Aligned Continuity". The toy lines derived from this continuity are Transformers: Generations , Transformers: Rescue Bots , and Transformers Go! The television series belonging to the Aligned Universe include Transformers: Prime (including its concluding film Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising ),
20862-451: The leader of the Junkions (Wreck-Gar, though unnamed in the movie). The Transformers theme tune for the film was performed by Lion with "Weird Al" Yankovic adding a song to the soundtrack. The third season followed up The Movie , with the revelation of the Quintessons having used Cybertron as a factory. Their robots rebel, and in time the workers become the Autobots and the soldiers become
21045-456: The main continuities, and that a sequel is possible. In June 2018 it was announced there would be Star Trek and Transformers Crossover being released in September 2018. Transformers: Kiss Players [ ja ] (トランスフォーマー キスぷれ, Toransufōmā Kisu Pure ), shortened to Kiss Players (キスぷれ, Kisu Pure ), is a Japanese Transformers franchise which began in 2006 to 2007 as was helmed by artist and writer Yuki Ohshima. By virtue of being
21228-521: The majority of Victory is directionless, returning to the episodic adventure tradition of the original American series which culminates in the much-threatened attack of Deszaras's planet-destroying fortress. In another difference, the characters and toys of Victory are predominantly unique to Japan, and those that are not are remoulded in unique, distinguishing ways - the series debuts the Brainmasters , Brestforce and Multiforce , all new toys, as well as
21411-404: The mega-computer at the planet's heart, was destabilizing, and Optimus Prime again sacrificed his life to save Cybertron. This soon proved to be only delaying the inevitable, however, when a bomb attack instigated by Zarak turned Cybertron into a burnt-out, inhospitable husk. Rodimus Prime departed to search for a new planet for the Transformers to live on, leaving Fortress in command, operating from
21594-413: The name Ne-04, a Autorooper built in the form resembling a Mazda RX-8 would shared the same feeling as she did though with the time they spend together their way of thinking would change throughout their relationship. While this plotline seems like a shift in demographics to little girls, it is said that this line was aimed at a much older adult male audience. The toys bear an "ages 15 and up" warning, and
21777-545: The only Transformers toyline and fiction released in Japan by Takara between the conclusion of Transformers: Cybertron and the live-action movie , it was also effectively the main Transformers line in the country for that time. It takes place in the Generation 1 cartoon continuity, specifically in the five-year milieu between The Transformers: The Movie and Transformers 2010 . The series derives its name from its controversial gimmick, which involves Transformers getting "power-ups" when they are kissed by human girls -
21960-559: The opening scene of 1986's The Transformers: The Movie , immediately making clear his goal by consuming the small world of Lithone. Subsequently, when the Decepticons Megatron , Skywarp , Thundercracker , and the Insecticons are set adrift in space and left to die following a furious battle with the Autobots , Unicron appears before them and offers Megatron a deal: in exchange for a new body, and new troops, Megatron will destroy
22143-810: The origin of the Decepticon forces. According to the Transformers lore, before the dawn of time, Order and Chaos exist within an extra-dimensional entity known as The One. To explore the fledgling universe, he creates the astral being known as Unicron, and then subdivides him, creating his twin, Primus. Unicron's size is never specified in any canon materials, aside from the vague term "planet size". In The Transformers: The Movie , Unicron's height appears to be anywhere from several kilometers (as when handling Galvatron ) to several hundred kilometers (as when attacking and destroying Lithone and Cybertron's moons, and attacking Cybertron). A planet-mode diameter of 1,000 km (620 mi) has been suggested and robot-mode dimensions can follow from that estimate, provided that there
22326-407: The original Transformers cartoon and 1986 animated movie, as well as characters only seen in comics and such, make special appearances and cameos throughout the show, with various voice actors (including Corey Burton , John Moschitta, Jr. , Susan Blu , and Judd Nelson ) reprising their roles. Hasbro, in an attempt to stop the wave of reboots that started in 2001, created the Aligned Universe, with
22509-451: The original toy packaging bios and mini-comic, the intention was originally to have the series be a direct continuation of the adventures of the "Generation 1" Transformers, but that would soon change with the advent of the animated series. Produced by Canadian animation house Mainframe Entertainment , the animated show was unlike any Transformers cartoons before it, both visually and in terms of story. With Larry DiTillio and Bob Forward at
22692-449: The planet Athenia. Meanwhile, Zarak replaced Galvatron - who had vanished in the explosion - as Decepticon leader, constructing a personal Transtector so that he could battle Fortress's own giant form, Fortress Maximus, and redubbing himself Scorponok. Although populated mainly with new characters, The Headmasters did continue to feature characters from all previous seasons, including new versions of Soundwave and Blaster , rebuilt after
22875-439: The planet Gaia - a future Earth, devastated by the power of the energy source the two factions seek, Angolmois energy . Although largely looked down upon for its very light-hearted approach when compared to the darker North American series, Beast Wars II proved successful enough to spawn a theatrical movie, consisting of three "acts". The first act was a recap of the original Beast Wars television show up to that point, while
23058-399: The planet is now under Megatron's rule, its cities deserted, its occupants stripped of their sparks. An encounter with the ancient Cybertronian computer, the Oracle, sees them reformatted into new technorganic bodies that blend their mechanical natures with the organic material they acquired on Earth, and as the story of the show develops, an organic past to Cybertron is steadily revealed, as is
23241-460: The planet that occasionally intersected with the Beast Warriors' stories. This eventually culminated in a two-part conclusion to the season, ending on a cliffhanger that led into 1997's 13-episode season. Many of the characters were upgraded into new " Transmetal " forms, and the conflict reached a new level with an exceptionally tightly-plotted story arc that included the revelation that the planet
23424-531: The planet to find the stasis panels containing the dormant Mini-Cons, thought to be located in Hellnoville, but soon, the existence of three powerful weapons - each formed from the fusion of three separate Mini-Cons - comes to light. Thanks to the schemes of the mysterious, allegiance-shifting Sideways , the weapons are formed and constantly shift hands, until, through manipulation of the self-doubting Starscream , all three are finally within Decepticon hands. Through
23607-489: The planet uninhabitable to Cybertronians, and created a team of 48 transforming robots known as Autoroopers (オートルーパー Ōtorūpā), a Japanese portmanteau of "auto" (オート ōto) and "trooper" (トルーパー torūpā) or Autotroopers (aka Autobot Troopers) in English, are a group of human-created artificial Transformers that serve the Earth Defense Command to combat any other Transformers that remained, recruiting young women who had been infected with
23790-707: The planet-eater's deactivated head settles into orbit around Cybertron. His head is visited by Cyclonus, who accesses the memory bank to discern the fate of Galvatron. Later, the ghost of the deceased Decepticon Starscream reactivates Unicron's head and enters into a bargain with him, performing three labors in exchange for the restoration of his body. Starscream (inhabiting and controlling Scourge's body) gathers for Unicron Metroplex 's eyes (breaking one and replacing it with one from Trypticon ) and Trypticon's transformation cog. He begins to connect his head to Cybertron, which would become Unicron's new body. Starscream demands that Unicron restore his own body so that he can complete
23973-416: The power of these weapons, the ancient evil, Unicron is reawakened, as the mysteries of the show, the origins of the Mini-Cons and the nature of the Transformers' war are explored in a final story arc entitled "The Unicron Battles." The English-language version of Armada is infamous for having been produced in haste for several reasons, most prominently the fact that Cartoon Network would not sign off on
24156-435: The present day. Dinobot leader Grimlock takes over as Autobot leader. There was a G.I. Joe crossover and the limited series The Transformers: Headmasters , which further expanded the scope to the planet Nebulon. It led on to the main title resurrecting Prime as a Powermaster. In the United Kingdom, the mythology continued to grow. Primus is introduced as the creator of the Transformers, to serve his material body that
24339-531: The primal energy of life. Most notably, their ranks include Ginrai , a character based on the Powermaster version of Optimus Prime, reinvented as a Japanese trucker, and the Japanese-exclusive character, Decepticon ambassador of destruction Overlord . Running to 42 episodes, Super-God Masterforce had six additional clip episodes made after the fact for video release, one of which, serving as an overview of
24522-554: The profile series More than Meets the Eye showing the Predacon Megatron looking at historical files detailing Dreamwave's characters and taking his name from the original Megatron. In 2004, this real life universe also inspired three novels and a Dorling Kindersley guide, which focused on Dreamwave as the "true" continuity when discussing in-universe elements of the characters. In a new twist, Primus and Unicron are siblings, formerly
24705-401: The radio dramas, manga, comic, and other materials) were recovered. This material was remastered and translated into English and released via torrent for download. First broadcast in Japan in 2000, Robots in Disguise was a single animated series consisting of thirty-nine episodes. It was exported to other countries in subsequent years. In this continuity, Megatron re-creates the Decepticons as
24888-491: The radio storyline in its second week and never mentioned again. Reactions ran the gamut from outright disgust to comedic derision, with most fans agreeing that the content such be included a children's toyline was distasteful. The fact that several Japanese fans were themselves openly decrying Kiss Players , fearing that American fans would think that it was somehow accepted as normal in Japan regarding its sexually suggestive material. Oshima himself even admitted that he crafted
25071-432: The required connections. Once Unicron does so, Starscream double-crosses him and refuses to finish the job. Unicron's head is subsequently blown off into space by an explosion instigated by the Autobots. Later, when searching for a new supply of positrons (anti-electrons), the Decepticons venture to Unicron's head, where Cyclonus and Scourge accidentally awake the slumbering demi-god. At the same time, Grimlock constructs
25254-514: The season, including the Triple Changers , the combining teams the Aerialbots , Stunticons , Combaticons and Protectobots , and more new Autobot cars and Decepticon planes, while many new ideas and concepts began to establish the history of the cartoon universe. These 65 episodes were exported to Japan in the same year, where their airing order was rearranged and the series was broadcast under
25437-467: The second moon releases mysterious energies that make some of the characters " transmetal " and the planet is revealed to be prehistoric Earth, leading to the discovery of the Ark . Megatron attempts to kill the original Optimus Prime , but at the beginning of the third season, Primal manages to preserve his spark. In the two-season follow-up series, Beast Machines , Cybertron is revealed to have organic origins, which Megatron attempts to stamp out. After
25620-452: The second was the undubbed, English-language episode, "Bad Spark" , from the show's second season, to serve as a showcase for the upcoming release of the season in Japan. The third act was Lio Convoy, Close Call! , a new, original story that saw Optimus Primal pulled forward in time to team up with Lio Convoy to stop the monstrous Majin Zarak. Even after the conclusion of Beast Wars II , there
25803-596: The series as, in Skir's words, a "religious epic novel for television". The series tackled the heavy philosophical concept of what it meant to live in an increasingly technological society, running to 26 episodes over two seasons, though in its native Canada, the show was aired simply in one long 26-episode run. As Beast Machines begins, viewers rejoin Optimus Primal and his Maximals as they return to Cybertron, amnesiac and unable to recall how they got there, only to discover that
25986-542: The series in this manner because he wanted to "make people's jaws drop." Many of its characters and ideas have made appearances in other Transformers media. The Autroopers appeared in Transformers: Animated in 2009 with an official toyline released in Botcon in 2011. The colors of white and blue used for Glit would inspire the Shattered Glass incarnation of Ravage . A new toy figure of Sundor would be released under
26169-474: The series prove popular enough to continue, which it did. A standard season's worth of 13 more episodes was commissioned, expanding the Transformers universe in which the Dinobots, Constructicons and Jetfire (then later called Skyfire in the series) made their debut. With popularity rising, the second season soon followed in 1986 at a mammoth 49 episodes (in order to bring the total up to 65, for syndication ). Dozens of new characters were introduced throughout
26352-441: The series was retitled Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: 2010 (or Transformers: 2010 for short), advancing its setting to the eponymous year. 1987 marked the end of the original American series, mirroring its beginning with a three-part miniseries entitled The Rebirth . Penned by regular series writer David Wise (who had previously written several of the series' mythology-building episodes), this finale story introduced
26535-447: The series without a certain number of episodes already completed. To meet this demand, the dubbing studio was forced to work with only partially complete episodes, with animation of a wildly varying quality, containing many errors that were later corrected for the Japanese broadcast. Additionally, there was rarely even enough time to produce more than a first draft of the translated script, leading to many errors in translation making it into
26718-511: The series, was selected to be broadcast as the 43rd and final episode of the series. The 42 main episodes received the same dub treatment as The Headmasters , but the dubbed version of the series was not included on the UK DVD release of the series in July 2006. The Australian version includes the "StarTV" dub on a few early and late episodes in the series. Taking place in an unspecified amount of time after
26901-417: The service of the mysterious energy entity Devil Z, means that the Autobots must drop their disguises and return to battle once more. But this is only the beginning of the most unusual Transformer war yet - as the battle escalates, human beings themselves take sides, and, imbued with the power of the "Masterforce", merge with Transtectors sent to Earth by the Autobots in space to become Transformers themselves as
27084-432: The show and using other media to establish its place in continuity (see the show's own article for more details). Concluding in Japan at the end of 2005, the series ran throughout 2006 in Hasbro markets, and once again, Takara had no animated product on Japanese screens for that year. Transformers Transformers (stylised as TRANSFORMERS , alternatively titled as TransFormers , or simply abbreviated TF ),
27267-577: The story of the Maximal's missing memories and friends. Influences from the original Transformers began to creep into the show as they had with Beast Wars before it, until more obscure concepts such as the key to Vector Sigma and the Plasma Energy Chamber played major roles in the series, each one exemplifying one of the mantras espoused - Primal's dedication to seeing the organic flourish, and Megatron's desire for unfeeling, unthinking technological perfection. The clash between these two powers marked
27450-614: The storyline could be completed at #30. However, the Transformers Fan Club published a few stories set in the Cybertron era. The storyline of Transformers: Universe , mainly set following Beast Machines , sees characters from many assorted alternate continuities, including existing and new ones, encountering each other. The story was told in an unfinished comic book exclusive to the Official Transformers Collectors' Convention. In 2007, Michael Bay directed
27633-430: The storyline, ignoring the 1987 end of the American series. The extended Japanese run consisted of The Headmasters , Super-God Masterforce , Victory and Zone , then in illustrated magazine form as Battlestars: Return of Convoy and Operation: Combination . Just as the TV series was wrapping up, Marvel continued to expand its continuity. It follows The Movie' s example by killing Prime and Megatron, albeit in
27816-435: The subject matter of the accompanying manga is far from child-friendly. The franchise itself consists of a toyline, a weekly radio drama series (featuring voice acting by Lyrian as Marissa, Yui Kano as Shaoshao, Satomi Akesaka as Atari, and Keiji Hirai as Ne-04 among others), and a three part manga, which together tell the story of the line in which the toys and manga all of which were also created by Ohshima. Following
27999-406: The summer of 2002, Transformers: Armada was the first series co-produced between Hasbro and Takara, with the intention of creating a toyline for simultaneous release in both North America and Japan. It was released in Japan six months later in January 2003, where it was known as Transformers: Micron Legend . The heavily promoted series was an attempt to re-introduce Transformers to the children of
28182-582: The term encompasses all Transformers fiction from 1984 to 1992. After the Federal Communications Commission did away with regulations that prohibited toy companies from broadcasting cartoons based on their products in 1985, The Transformers began with a three-episode miniseries that introduced audiences to Optimus Prime , Megatron and their armies, as they travelled from the metal world of Cybertron to Earth in search of new sources of energy. The final episode ended on an open note, should
28365-552: The third and final arc of the show, which saw Magnus and Prime merge into Omega Prime , and Decepticon leader Scourge began his plot to wrest the power of the ancient battle station, Fortress Maximus, away from both Megatron and the Autobots. Its airing schedule heavily disrupted by the 9/11 event , Robots in Disguise had to be re-edited in several ways for content, and several of its episodes aired out of order, or not at all in America. Although initially derided by some fans for its especially light-hearted, joke-filled nature, demand
28548-505: The third and final season in 1998, running to another 13 episodes, in which the Maximals had to defend their past and future against Megatron's attempts to alter history. Longtime Transformers comic scribe Simon Furman was brought on board to script the final episode, which concluded with the end of the Beast Wars, and the Maximal's departure for Cybertron. Although controversial among fans in its early days due to its complete re-imagining of
28731-511: The time to flesh out some unexplained plot points from the series, as well as providing an in-depth explanation on the nature of Mini-Cons. Whatever the technical failings of the Armada animated series, the line succeeded in its goal of reinvigorating the Transformers brand and reacquiring the recognisability the series had enjoyed in the Generation 1 heyday. Consequently, the process was repeated, and Hasbro and Takara debuted Transformers: Energon at
28914-580: The time, and featured a particularly large number of additional merchandise such as puzzles, games, cards, candy and a tie-in PlayStation 2 video game. In addition to drawing on and re-imagining familiar elements from Generation 1, such as the Matrix of Leadership, Armada 's defining trait was the introduction of a third faction of Transformers - the diminutive robots known as Mini-Cons (the eponymous "Microns" in Japan). Mini-Cons can "powerlink" to larger Transformers, increasing their powers, and consequently became
29097-463: The title characters to the Transformers universe in a different way. Whereas in western fiction, the Headmasters result from the merging of a Transformer with an organic alien being from the planet Nebulos, the Headmasters of the Japanese series are a group of small Cybertronians who departed the planet millions of years ago and crash landed on the inhospitable planet Master. To survive its harsh climate,
29280-597: The title of Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers , but due to the short length of the second season, it proved necessary to wait until both it and the third season were completed before any more could be broadcast. In order to fill the ensuing gap, 1997 debuted the Japanese-original cel-animated series, the 43-episode Beast Wars II (also known as Beast Wars Second or Beast Wars The Second ). The series featured an entirely new cast of Maximals and Predacons - led by Lio Convoy and Galvatron , respectively - fighting on
29463-405: The title of Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers . An OVA exclusive to Japan entitled Scramble City was released which cast focus on the combining teams and introduced Ultra Magnus , Metroplex , Ratbat , Trypticon , and Blaster's cassettes. This video does not perfectly fit into the continuity of the American series due to its different origin story for Trypticon (known as Dinosaurer in
29646-562: The title of Transformers: Heroes , Transformers Animated is set in 2050 Detroit (after crash landing 50 years earlier), when robots and humans live side by side. The Autobots come to Earth and assume superhero roles, battling evil humans, with the Decepticons having a smaller role until Megatron resurfaces. Main characters include Autobots Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Prowl, and Ratchet; Decepticons Megatron, Starscream, Blitzwing, Lugnut, and Blackarachnia; and humans Professor Sumdac and Sari Sumdac. Several characters that were in
29829-601: The toyline also featured another partner for them, Roadfire, who was not in the episode. The solitary Decepticons in the toyline were the Race Car Patrol, and Metrotitan , a redeco of the Autobot city Metroplex, neither of whom appeared in animated form. They absent parties did go on to appear, however, in the pages of the Japanese publication, TV Magazine - this monthly magazine had always included Transformers manga and "story pages" (splash page illustrations and prose text) from
30012-451: The trilogy is significant for being a co-production between Hasbro and Takara; the Japanese production team actually wanted to set the series in the Generation 1 continuity, post-"The Rebirth", but this was vetoed by Hasbro's head Transformers design director, Aaron Archer , in favour of completely rebooting the Transformers universe and introducing a brand new continuity for the second time (the first being Robots in Disguise ). Archer crafted
30195-417: The two returning and older characters of Atari and Shaoshao. Possibly as a result of the majority of fans trying to distance themselves from the series combined with the then general inaccessibility of the radio show to an English audience, there was minimal awareness of the specific details of the Kiss Players storyline in the Japanese fandom. However, on July 19, 2022, most of the original media (including
30378-639: The universe depicted in the animated series Challenge of the GoBots and follow-up film GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords was retroactively established as an alternate universe within the Transformers multiverse. Generation 1 is a retroactive term for the Transformers characters that appeared between 1984 and 1993. The Transformers began with the 1980s Japanese toy lines Micro Change and Diaclone . They presented robots able to transform into everyday vehicles, electronic items or weapons. Hasbro bought
30561-494: The universe, leaving a blank slate that Primacron could use as he saw fit. However, Unicron turned upon Primacron, deciding that he would rule the universe and subsequently set out to achieve that goal. Unicron would appear in Transformers Armada , voiced by Mark Acheson. In episode 23, several of the human allies discover Sideways within their computers, and attempt to stop him, but not before learning that his accomplice
30744-426: The world's store. Caught in the destruction of the planet, Star Saber is rescued by Dai Atlas , who then repels an attack by the Decepticons, and is appointed the new Autobot commander at the conclusion of the episode. The cast of Zone is heavily composed of Micromasters, who also made up much of the toyline. Dai Atlas is a "Powered Master", so named for his motorized gimmick, as is his combining partner Sonic Bomber -
30927-502: The world. But, out in the void of space, the damaged, deactivated body of Unicron now serves the staging base of the deranged alien being Alpha Q , who sends armies of robotic Terrorcons to steal Energon for his own purposes. But those purposes are not as sinister as they seem, and soon pale in comparison to the evil of the resurrected Megatron. The Autobots of Energon are empowered with the "Spark of Combination", which allows them to link their bodies together in various configurations -
31110-427: The years, the G1 characters have also starred in crossovers with fellow Hasbro property G.I. Joe , but whereas those crossovers published by Marvel were in continuity with their larger storyline, those released by Dreamwave and G.I. Joe publisher Devil's Due Publishing occupy their own separate real life universes. In Devil's Due, the terrorist organization COBRA Command is responsible for finding and reactivating
31293-400: Was Earth, the death of Dinobot and more alien conflicts. Story elements laid through the season once again came to a head with a three-part conclusion that firmly tied Beast Wars to the Generation 1 timeline, featuring guest appearances from Transformers of that era and displaying that the Beast Warriors came from their future, and were currently in the prehistoric past. This link proved key to
31476-603: Was Unicron within the mainframe acting as a failsafe. The final season depicts Unicron as the main antagonist. Called the Unicron Battles , the Transformers Earth groups return to Cybertron. The humans learn Unicron had made the Minicons to take control of Cybertron, but the Minicons revolted and become part of the Transformers' own civil war. Unicron appears in the sequel series Transformers: Energon , set 10 years after
31659-670: Was announced that IDW lost the publishing rights to Transformers. In January 2006, the Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club comic wrote a story based on the Transformers Classics toy line, set in the Marvel Comics universe, but excluding the Generation 2 comic. Fifteen years after Megatron crash-lands in the Ark with Ratchet, the war continues with the characters in their Classics bodies. IDW Publishing introduced The Transformers: Evolutions in 2006,
31842-406: Was cancelled after only one episode, making it the last Generation 1 animated project. Following on from Victory , the mysterious three-faced insectoid being, Violenjiger dispatches the nine "Great Decepticon Generals" - Devastator , Menasor , Bruticus , Trypticon , Predaking , Abominus , King Poseidon, Overlord and BlackZarak - to acquire "Zone Energy", destroying the planet Feminia to obtain
32025-457: Was conducting experiments behind her back on other girls. She was then rescued by Hot Rod and joins the resistance to combat the EDC and make amends with her former friend. Lastly, Atari Hitotonari of Japanese descent, who "recruited" into the EDC after the death of her parents while suffering from survivor's guilt . She would shortly become depressed and self-destructive. As she spoke aloud about her nihilistic feelings she would meet her partner by
32208-573: Was heavily censored in the U.S. due to its content of buildings being destroyed and terrorism references after the September 11 attacks on the United States and three episodes were cut altogether. These three lines, launched in 2002 and dubbed the " Unicron Trilogy " by Transformers designer Aaron Archer , are co-productions between Takara and (lesser extent) Hasbro, simultaneously released in both countries, each lasting 52 episodes. Armada followed
32391-678: Was included as a bonus feature on the Transformers: The Last Knight Blu-ray release. Unicron Unicron is a fictional villain from the Transformers media franchise. Designed by Floro Dery , he was introduced in the 1986 animated film The Transformers: The Movie and has since reappeared in Transformers: Armada , Transformers: Energon , Transformers: Cybertron , Transformers: Prime , Transformers Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising , Transformers: The Last Knight , Transformers: Rise of
32574-507: Was launched, and then later, to summarize the final few radio dramas when both series were drawing to a close. Information Administration Teletraan 15 Go! Go! also featured the first part of a story in which Starscream 's ghost possessed Atari (which was continued in the radio drama), and in the second year, notably incorporated the further adventures of the Kiss Players Position cassette trio, who were rather confusingly dropped from
32757-424: Was necessary for Takara to once again produce an original Transformers animated series and toyline, as Beast Machines had not yet amassed enough episodes to make importing it viable. To that end, the new cel-animated series Transformers: Car Robots (occasionally referred to by the misnomer, Transformers 2000 ) was produced for broadcast in Japan for 2000. The series, however, ultimately proved duly unsuccessful (to
32940-434: Was published by 47North . In addition, IDW Publishing has published several comic books, including graphic novels, while Titan Magazines published Transformers Comic UK , a 20-issue series from 2007 to 2014. The video games, novels, and television series contradict each other due to creative differences, miscommunications, constant team changes, and Aaron Archer being replaced with a different person that did not know
33123-401: Was released on June 27, 2014, which also grossed over $ 1 billion, though it received generally negative reviews. A fifth film, Transformers: The Last Knight was released on June 23, 2017 to similarly negative reviews. Unlike its predecessors, the movie failed to recoup its costs for the studio. Bumblebee , directed by Laika 's Travis Knight , was released on December 21, 2018, serving as
33306-422: Was still some time to go before the North American series had generated enough episodes to be aired in Japan, and the 35-episode Beast Wars Neo was produced to fill the 1998 gap. Still cel-animated and ostensibly even more light-hearted than Beast Wars II , this series introduced Big Convoy and Magmatron , new Maximal and Predacon leaders, the former in search of the missing Lio Convoy, the latter questing for
33489-522: Was well received by fans. A sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen , was released on June 24, 2009. It received mostly negative reviews, but was a commercial success and grossed more than its predecessor. A third film, Transformers: Dark of the Moon , was released on June 29, 2011, in 3-D and went on to gross over $ 1 billion, despite receiving mixed reviews. A fourth film, Transformers: Age of Extinction ,
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