You remember the theme tune. You know who the big red good-guy one is. At least one boy in your class at school had an enormous one. Go on admit it, you're reading this full of 80's nostalgia and thinking 'yeah that new movie trailer does look awesome' and making 'krrr-krrr-chh-chhht' noises with someone looking at you like you've just arrived from a small metallic world from light years away!
Yeah, thought so. You see deep down, everyone's a Transformers fan.
GOING JAPANESE, I THINK I'M GOING JAPANESE!
In the USA and UK, the 3 Part Mini Series 'The Rebirth' (retrospectively referred to as Season 4 on DVD) introduced the Headmaster & Targetmaster characters from the 1987-88 toy line. While further stories were apparently in the pipeline, Hasbro ordained that enough was enough and so Transformers as an animation series ended, at least as far as the western world was concerned.
Takara, Hasbro's Japanese partner in Transformers, wanted more episodes for its domestic market; there were still plenty of new toys to sell as far as they were concerned. Spurning the 'Rebirth' trilogy and the 'dub a new soundtrack to the US originated stories' method they had employed up until now, Takara went their own way. Three series showcasing a wealth of characters (most of which never made it to these shores in toy form, let alone on screen) were created to follow on from Season 3 or Transformers: 2010 as it was known in Japan.
The 'Transformers: Takara Collection' is available on DVD in both original Japanese and an unintentionally hilarious English dub that was produced in Hong Kong for screening on TV in Singapore and Malaysia. If you're planning a Transformers themed party and want more of those drinking games, go for the 'StarTV Dub' - If you want to enjoy the story as it was intended, go for the Japanese voice track with English subtitles!
The first series, '
Headmasters' introduced a new element in Transformers lore, the Transtector; larger, more powerful vehicles that when transformed to robot mode, were controlled by the smaller transformer by converting in to the head (or in some cases later in the series, weapon) of the bigger robot. The headmasters quickly replaced the Season 3 cast (Rodimus Prime leaves, Optimus dies again!) and the series, as is common with Japanese animation, has an overall running storyline throughout the thirty-five episodes. The Cyberton (Autobot) Headmasters return to Seibertron (Cybertron) hot on the tail of a rogue group of headmasters who were expelled from their adopted home planet of Master. These rogues have sided with Galvatron's Destrons (Decepticons) for now, but their mysterious leader Zarak has sinister plans of his own. It's up to Fortress Maximus and his Cybertrons to save the day - but not with out some casualties and treachery along the way!
Headmasters could quite probably have been accepted in to the Western Transformers cannon; the 1988 series '
Super God Masterforce' marks the start of a move in to a wholly different, indeed wholly Japanese sphere of existence that sits less comfortably with what western fans think to be 'Transformers'. Very different than what had gone before, the story goes that having driven the Destrons away from Earth the Cybertrons leave a small squadron of 'Pretenders' behind to safe guard earth. These transformers have powers that allow them to shrink in size and take Human form. When Destron forces begin to appear on Earth again, they come out of hiding and battle resumes!
During the story's run, lifeless Transtectors are sent back to Earth by the departed Cybertrons and Destrons. Human characters align themselves with both transformer factions and bond with the transtector bodies using the mysterious power of 'The Masterforce'. New Headmasters and Godmasters (the latter known in the West as Powermasters) are the result. Again, a long running story arc encompasses the 42 episodes. And Optimus Prime returns again as Powermaster Optimus Prime! Only, it's not Prime because he's actually a human truck driver named Ginrai, but the transtector body he inhibits sure looks a lot like the former leader - Straightforward it isn't but regardless, it's great fun to watch.
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Transformers: Victory' is the last of the 'G1' continuity cartoons, and goes back to it's Western roots somewhat by way of it having less of an overall narrative and more episode-by-episode action; the sleek and powerful StarSabre now commands the Cybertron forces against the Destron forces lead by Deszaras. Victory is the Transformers series acknowledged by most fans as having the slickest animation, and there are numerous giant bot battles that showcase this wonderfully. Japanese toys make up the majority of the character roster for this incarnation, including the slightly odd sounding Breastforce and Brainmasters. The Micromasters, human sized Transformers appeared for the first time too - a spin off of these would feature in a later series. A pilot for a fourth series, 'Zone' was made but no further episodes in this storyline were made and Transformers seemed to have shifted shape for the last time; however a little while later, Hasbro brought their bots back from Japan and gave them something of a makeover - of course Transformers wasn't over!
BEAST WARS - TOMORROW IS YESTERDAY TODAY
Having not done much with Transformers for the best part of ten years (short of a recycling of old characters for a 'Generation 2' range of toys and CGI 'enhanced' past cartoon episodes) Hasbro took the decision to completely re-work Transformers. The result was 1996 series '
Beast Wars: Transformers'', with the giant mechanoids trapped in a pre-historic world where two small teams of Heroic Maximals and Evil Predacons continue the battles their Autobot and Decepticon forbearers began. Adapted to their hostile surroundings by their crashed spaceship's on board computer, the maximals and predacons take on forms derived from animal DNA found on the planet, and so trucks and jets are replaced in this iteration with gorillas, rhinos and even rats!
Beast Wars featured a tight cast with strong evolving characterisations. At the time, the CGI animation was cutting edge for a weekly cartoon, graphics of this calibre were usually reserved for full length features. But incredibly the eye catching visuals played second fiddle to the excellent story telling in the series. At the end of the first of three seasons, it is revealed that the planet the bots are marooned on is in fact Earth, during the period in which the original Autobots and Decepticons were lying inert aboard the Autobot's crashed spaceship! In conjunction with some input from a mysteriously alien race known as the Vok, the Predacon leader Megatron attempts to destroy the off-line Optimus Prime, but thankfully the Maximal leader Optimus Primal is able to intervene, in the process absorbing Optimus Prime's spark, his life force, and is himself transformed in to Optimal Optimus. This storyline, which originally wasn't going to happen as Beast Wars was intended as a clean 're-boot' of the franchise, brought a lot of G1 fans in to the fold, and assured Beast Wars it's place in fan's personal transformers timelines.
At the end of the saga, a new series following on from the end of Beast Wars was given the go ahead. '
Beast Machines' was apparently the first Transformers series (in the West at any rate) to have its entire storyline mapped out from the very start and gave us a new spin on the history of the Cybertronians. Optimus Primal and his Maximals were re-formatted by The Oracle as Technorganics to battle against Megatron's Vehicons who now dominated Cybertron. Some fans were outraged at the sweeping changes to the Transformers mythos and history that had been established so long elsewhere. CGI graphics superior to those of Beast Wars however help Beast Machines appeal to the more mature fan who can at least accept it in a 'what if' scenario, rather than as Transformers cannon. After the allotted 26 episodes, there would be no US originated Transformers for a further six years.
A NEW GENERATION
At the start of the new millennium, Transformers has been reborn for a new generation of fans, with many old names and faces brought bang up to date. While not their flag-ship product by any means, someone at Hasbro must have known having Transformers around in one guise or another was always a good idea, and so in an ironic twist a Japanese series was imported and re-dubbed for Western markets!
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Transformers: Robots in Disguise' was a dub of Japanese series 'Car Robots', in itself a slightly odd title as in this series it was the admittedly vehicular Autobots battling against the predominantly beastly Evil Predacons! Seemingly Takara had taken a shine to the Beast modes created by Hasbro for Beast Wars, and having created their own Beast Wars characters and series, they then went on to feature more similarly styled bots in their 2000 series, which sparked some chatter amongst fans because Optimus Prime was not a Truck but a Fire Engine! While it exists in its own little universe as far as TF lore is concerned, RiD has produced some fan favourite characters, including evil Optimus Prime look-alike Scourge!
2002 saw the first joint Transformers animation production between Hasbro and Takara. A complete re-boot of the title, the 'Unicron Trilogy' comprising Transformers '
Armada', '
Energon' and '
Cybertron' featured new tricks such as 'Powerlinking' where two Autobots could combine to form new and exotic robot combinations to defeat the Decepticons. The Minicons were similar to Transformers: Victory's Micromasters but were able to directly augment the powers and abilities of their larger transformer bretheren. And the villainous demi-god Unicron made a return to Transformers lore, and this time Megatron got the better of him - or did he? Utilising traditional anime (Armada), Cell Shaded CGI (Energon) and a hybridisation of the two (Cybertron), the trilogy featured episodes similar in style to the original G1 but married to loose fitting series-long story arcs. Along with the script writing and numerous characters introduced throughout each run, the shows have a unique style suited to younger fans, particularly given the prominent standing given to young human characters in each of the shows. This was to the chagrin of some older fans, but then isn't the joy of Transformers that it can make any of us feel like we're 8 years old again!