History YMMV / Transformers

* BrokenBase/{{Transformers}} (also covers {{Base Breaking Character}}s)
* CommonKnowledge/{{Transformers}}

* EnsembleDarkHorse/{{Transformers}}
* Fanon/{{Transformers}}
* FranchiseOriginalSin/{{Transformers}}
* MagnificentBastard/{{Transformers}}

* MoralEventHorizon/{{Transformers}}
* NeverLiveItDown/{{Transformers}}

* BaseBreakingCharacter: There's a whole cavalcade of characters, many of whom cause strong emotions in people.
** Bumblebee. Intially, he was a decently popular character, [[KidAppealCharacter especially among children]], until the movies expanded his role and introduced him to a wider audience. His unexpectedly good reception, which rivalled that of Optimus Prime himself, caused Hasbro give him a heavy presence in later series. This led to backlash from people who wanted Hasbro to give some focus to other neglected characters, which the movies were guilty of downplaying in favor of Bumblebee. Combine this with his movie characterization [[RetCanon becoming the norm]] for later adaptations and you've got oversaturation of a character that had strayed too far from the source material.
** Unicron, he's either a fearsome GodOfEvil that provides neat EnemyMine situations or the biggest GenericDoomsdayVillain the franchise has to offer. There's also his robot mode, which is either awesome or makes no sense (why does a planet that can eat planets whole need to turn into a robot that loses this ability?).
** Alpha Bravo, Offroad, and Rook. Many fans see them as [[ReplacementScrappy Replacement Scrappies]] for Slingshot, Wildrider, and Groove of the Aerialbots, Stunticons, and Protectobots respectively while others believe that they bring variety to the teams in Alpha Bravo and Offroad's case.[[note]]Being the sole helicopter on a team of jets and the 2nd truck on a team of (mostly) cars respectively.[[/note]] In Rook's case, many of his defenders state that it is more logical for a [=SWAT=] vehicle than a motorcycle (that has to be made larger) to make up a limb of a gestalt, despite not usually being a problem otherwise. Further, unlike Alpha Bravo and Offroad, Rook only replaces a limb, as Groove is still on the team, just relegated to a chest piece. Not to mention Rook is considered one of the best Combiner Wars molds in his own right.
*** While this is averted with the Combiner Wars version of the Combaticons, many fans are not happy with Blast Off's appearance as a redeco of Quickslinger (aka Slingshot) instead of his iconic appearance as a space shuttle and that the low-flying AV-8B Harrier jet in particular is a poor fit for the character, since his entire personality and name is about being physically and in his mind metaphorically above other robots. Others argue that his new appearance is more practical for someone who is part of the ''Combat''icons, again, despite not being an issue otherwise.
*** Even if some fans don't mind Blast Off's alt-mode, others have found contention with the use of Slingshot's head instead of Firefly's despite the two of them being mold mates and Firefly's head being closer to Blastoff's in appearance due to having a mouthplate. Others think the Quickslinger's visor is a better approximation of Blast Off's visor, and that is the more important feature.
** Generations Devastator: the return of the original combiner was divisive to say the least. One side loves him, as a massive solid figure, and the perfect recreation of the green giant whose flaws pale in comparison to how good it is. The other side takes issue with all the sacrifices made to achieve the mold such as hollow plastic, and dumbing down the Constructicons themselves to get a better Devy (most infamously are the elbows, with Hook and Mixmaster's being uncomfortably thin, Long Haul's elbows only bend sideways, and Scrapper has no elbows). There is also the matter of Mixmaster's vehicle type being changed so that the mixer faces forward, leaving Devastator's foot as the smaller back engine block rather than the cab section, a change some have questioned since the other five remained faithful to their original designs. His size is either praised for giving him the towering presence he deserves, or criticized for not being in scale with all the other combiners (being half a foot taller than them). Then there's his price tag of a solid $160, with his parts sold in box set. Some feel this is an acceptable price for such a massive popular toy, others feel Devy should have been smaller and more affordable.
*** The Unite Warriors release in Japan then went and gave the toys proper elbow joints- one common fan defense of Scrapper's arms was that they "had to" be straight for stability, yet Tomy's retool handled it just the same. The set also included individual guns, though did not change Mixmaster's design. It was, however, a lot more expensive to import. Hasbro's decision to use the original toolings for the late 2020 reissue again brought up the fan debates.
** The Thirteen as a concept are known to spark debates. Fans enjoy them for their cosmic importance and grandeur, their beautiful character designs, and the mythic scale they add to Cybertron and its origins. Detractors find the lore and stories attached to them to be decidedly underwhelming and the Thirteen themselves bland StockGods without much to care about. That they tend to show up a ''lot'' from the beginning of Aligned onward and have gotten into more than one ContinuitySnarl only makes the debate louder. (And let's not even get into the idea of Optimus being one of them...)
** Primus, rounding off the divine figures of the lore: he's either the heart of the larger mythos who deserves respect as a creator deity should and gives the franchise a genuine scope and gravity beyond just war stories and cartoon antics and an awesome planet-sized robot to boot, or an utterly bland entity who's barely even a character at all, whose larger mythos only serves to crowd out the actual interesting stuff, and who doesn't even have the decency to be [[EvilIsCool cool like his brother]]. Creators have gone back and forth between positioning him at the center of the cosmos to proclaiming that he straight-up doesn't exist. Not helping things further is that the most prominent form of him in recent years, [[spoiler:[[ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye Rung]]]], is ''radically'' [[DoingInTheWizard different from the standard take]]--either this is the only time since his introduction that Primus has been remotely interesting, or it's a slap in the face to the whole concept. The one thing people universally agree on is that his ''Anime/TransformersCybertron'' toy was pretty great.
%% ** Optimus Prime has become divisive in later years, mostly because of his {{Flanderization}} from a baritone FatherToHisMen to an IncorruptiblePurePureness robo-Jesus who has lost [[TheStoic his ability to emote]]. One group feels he should always be portrayed as the BigGood who would never do anything morally questionable in ''any'' situation, while others feel this simply makes him incredibly boring, especially since historically people have reacted [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks very vocally]] if he's either portrayed as anything other than a perfect leader or replaced by someone else who isn't as morally upstanding as Optimus is. Not helping matters is that even the G1 version had his morally questionable moments[[note]]Willing to bury the Dinobots alive because their initial reaction to sentience was to attack the Autobots, his clear intent to execute Megatron in the movie before Hot Rod intervened, etc.[[/note]] that are often ignored while the moral grayness of other versions is criticized for being DarkerAndEdgier and/or OutOfCharacter, and his tendency to [[DeathIsCheap "die" before eventually being brought back]] having become extremely predictable over time. In short, Optimus Prime is either an unreplaceable face of the franchise who some writers just don't understand, or a bunch of goodness tropes pretending to be a character that has become TheArtifact kept alive by NostalgiaFilter.
* BrokenBase: It's a franchise steaming past 30 years so there's bound to be divisions.
** Repaints and Retools. Due to cost reasons, toys are frequently repainted and in some cases altered (most prominently given a new head) and sold as another character. This has been going on since the beginning of the franchise and it causes a bit of consternation. On the one hand, many repaints go on to be accepted as their own character and fans happily anticipate the mold's reuse; the Seekers are the biggest example of this. On the other hand certain fans feel the practice is lazy and extensive use of repaints can decay the mold used to create the toy leaving later produced figures more prone to breaking. In addition there are the outliers who feel other characters are more deserving of remolds than some of the ones chosen. Finally there's the issue of factory errors. If a figure has a design flaw and the retool doesn't fix it, fans are left with two toys with the same problem (such is the case of Generations Blitzwing's infamous shoulder flaw that carried over to his retool, Doubledealer).
** The more mystical aspects of Transformers lore, are they out of place or do they fit in well with the sci-fi? Such a debate plagues even the writers and toy designers.
** When toylines are released which makes the better figure/gives the better paint job: Hasbro or Takara? Adding onto that, many opinions, both positive and negative, of the color scheme or toy designs seem to heavily depend if they're "[[NostalgiaFilter G1-Accurate]]."
** RIRFIB and FIRRIB: what colors are Rumble and Frenzy? Due to switching them for the cartoon Rumble (whose toy was red) became blue and Frenzy (whose toy was blue) became the red one. The Japanese dub of G1 switched the character names so they would match their toys, and since then the debate has taken off reaching memetic levels and producing countless jokes. Different comic series, books, video games, all assign colors to them and there's no set consistency. The Tfwiki has a humorous [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/FIRRIB article]] on it. One of the few consensus on the matter is that ComicBook/TheTransformersIDW made a mistake by making Rumble red and Frenzy blue, and then changing it around for no reason before changing it back, confusing everyone.
** How should the toys be designed? Stickers vs. Paint Applications, and with the stickers, self applied vs. factory applied? It all depends on which you think will last longer, what looks better, whether or not you think applying them just gives room for error. Balljoints vs. Ratchets? Articulation is a must, but which provides smoother movement? Which one lasts longer? Which one is more prone to errors in quality control?
** The "Ask Vector Prime" feature, which ran on the official Website/{{Facebook}} page from April 2015 to February 2016. The feature allowed fans to ask questions of writer Jim Sorenson, in-character as GuardianOfTheMultiverse Vector Prime, with the answers becoming part of official ''Transformers'' canon. Fans are split on if it was a clever way to resolve mysteries that likely would have no answers otherwise (like the names and fates of minor characters) or a sad excuse for fans to add their own FanWank to canon by asking leading questions of Vector Prime. In particular, a large edit war erupted on Website/TFWikiDotNet when Vector Prime was asked a series of questions that resulted in ''WesternAnimation/ChallengeOfTheGoBots'' (an old competitor of the Transformers brand that it later bought out) being officially added to ''Transformers'' canon, and how the Wiki should address this.
** Primus vs. Quintessons: Some fans prefer the Marvel Comics origin which says that Cybertron is a shell around an ancient god named Primus, with Unicron also being an ancient god. Primus created the Transformers as a means to fight Unicron some day. Others prefer the cartoon origin which says the Quintessons colonized a dead asteroid, building a mechanical factory planet on it, and building the Transformers as mere consumer goods to be sold to alien races. The machines eventually developed intelligence and ran their creators off to escape slavery. Unicron is also a giant WMD created by the monkey-like alien Primacron, merely an oversized robot that became too powerful for its creator to control. Fans of the former prefer its mythic scope and scale and the cosmic conflicts it inspires, and lambast the Quintesson origin as silly, boring, and mundane, while fans of the latter find Primus and his lore to be stuffy and self-important, and prefer the idea that the Transformers are just robots and don't need a cosmic purpose. There's also a third faction that believes that, while the Primus origin isn't necessarily ''bad'', it's become massively overused in new continuities and should be retired
** "Third Party" Transformers toys made by unlicensed companies. Not the typical bootleg toys, mind you -- new toys designed to mimic or update franchise characters, add-on sets for existing toys, etc. The mentality behind these is "if they won't make it officially, WE will!". This can range anywhere from unofficial Masterpiece toys(we have seen 3P toys based on Mirage and various other characters that have yet to see official toys, and Shockwave had TWO unofficial updates before the official release!), IDW characters or designs that may not get official toys, or "artist interpretation" designs. The fandom is highly split on this issue because of the legality(these toys are being made with no license or permission) with some taking a strong pro-corporate stance and others going with the "if Hasbro won't make it, I'll buy from someone who will" line of thought, or just liking how the third party figures aren't as restricted by the budget and safety concerns of official figures. Hasbro themselves have been unusually quiet on the issue, taking no real legal action against these companies(granted, many of them are located in China which could make things difficult, and some new designs are so different that Hasbro may have little legal ground -- considering they themselves often do unauthorized homages in their toy lines. One exception was an unofficial Unicron figure that was announced when Hasbro announced a backer-funded Unicron figure and understandably didn't want the unofficial alternative to hurt their campaign), failing to go after online stores that carry them, etc, with a sort of "we're okay with add-on kits that require buying our toys" quiet approval of that part of the market. However, Takara HAS gone after online retailers, at least in Asia, and the management of Botcon was very strict about not allowing ANY such toys at the conventions (including threats to confiscate any toys people bring, even personal copies -- which they may have no actual legal authority to do).
** The Masterpiece line has created a few major broken bases:
*** The first is MP-01 Optimus Prime vs. MP-10 Optimus Prime. Proponents of MP-01 consider it the best Transformer ever, loaded with gimmicks, articulation, and a great deal of die-cast giving it a fantastic heft. Those that like MP-10 more think MP-01 is overrated, the die-cast detracts from the figure, its alt-mode is terrible, and MP-10's proportions are better.
*** Beginning with MP-27 Ironhide, Takara's design philosophy on Masterpieces have torn the fandom asunder. Basically, Takara has begun making the figures look as animation-accurate as possible. While you wouldn't think that this would be contentious, detractors lament the fact that in doing so they make the figures look flat and dull, with large portions of completely undetailed plastic, and often use lots of fake KibblesAndBits in robot mode to achieve the right proportions that make transformations overly-complex. Others like the "straight from the screen" look, and feel that the effort needed to get them completely animation-accurate is an accomplishment in of itself.
** The ''Generations'' Deluxe Class Blast Off toy. While most of them would actually think that his new alt mode actually made sense to his "Combaticon" moniker, some of them would prefer the original Space Shuttle alternate mode. The other side of the criticism is the head, which is reused from Slingshot's/Quickslinger's. And then there's the ''Unite Warriors'' Deluxe Class figure (later released in the US as an Amazon exclusive figure), which restores his original Space Shuttle alternate mode.
** The ''Authentics'' line. While [[EnsembleDarkhorse Megatron & Starscream (somehow, but still disliked by fans due to his nap time-ish undercarriage on his alt mode) toys is excellent on their own]], Optimus Prime & Bumblebee's toys are not well received due to their overly-simplified transformation schemes (with fake chest & limited articulations), and not helping to the fact that they're the size of a Scout Class figure, and they're recently upscaled into Voyager-sized (with some added arm joints) as well. While some of them are fine with it since it was only aimed for very young Transformers fans, most of the fans believed that Hasbro might have also went to the knock-off route.
** In most of the franchise's fictions, human characters tend to get a ''lot'' of hate, to the point that some fans straight-up ''detest'' the idea of ''any'' humans showing up outside of being fodder for Decepticons to mow down. The hate isn't universal, mind, and in a lot of cases the hate for humans is more a case-by-case basis (for example, Daniel was hated back in ''Generation 1'', but his father Spike was well-liked; Sam and most of the humans in the Bayformers movies are ''very'' hated, but Charlie in ''Bumblebee'' was considered one of the highlights of the film). For some, the franchise doesn't even ''need'' to be set on earth and they'd much rather see the war fought on Cybertron and follow the bots, but for others part of the franchise's appeal is they're robots ''in disguise'' which somewhat requires they be on earth and around humans. And while many humans tend to be TheScrappy, it really just makes the ones who ''aren't'' all the more likeable by contrast, and their bond with the robots can often help humanise the bots and showcase why the Autobots are the good guys in works where the Autobot/Decepticon war is less BlackAndWhiteMorality.
** Heavily-simplified figures made for small children like One-Step Changers. One side approves of them for letting very young fans be able to enjoy transforming toys without having to struggle with figures that would be too complex for them and argue that they are harmless since they are usually accompanied by traditional figures of the same characters. The other side criticizes them for having wonky proportions and low articulation (simplistic transformation and durability in the hands of a small child are prioritized) and feel that they take up shelf space that could be given to more traditional figures.
** Works that modernize G1 (comics, ''Bumblebee'') versus works that reinvent the franchise (''Unicron Trilogy'', the first 5 live-action movies). Supporters of the former argue that the elements set up by G1 don't need to be changed much in order to work in modern times and that reinventing the franchise is just [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks breaking what doesn't need fixing]]. Supporters of the latter argue that merely adjusting the G1 setting [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks is giving up the opportunity to make something new]] and enjoy the unique takes the reinventions have.
** Non-transforming figures (such as Action Masters and the R.E.D series). Some fans like them and argue they allow for greater accuracy and articulation since they don't have to deal with KibblesAndBits and other compromises for the vehicle mode, while others hate them and find them to be pointless since they strip away the very thing that makes ''Transformers''...well, ''Transformers''.
** Action Masters. The last wave of G1, they were widely blamed for killing the franchise (the line was on its last legs long before then, so this is admittedly unlikely), and their mere status as "[[OxymoronicBeing Transformers that don't transform]]" largely guaranteed they'd be disliked simply for abandoning the franchise's main gimmick. However, they have picked up some pretty strong defenders who argue that Action Masters had their own charm (they were some of the more posable and screen-accurate toys of the era, and did come with transforming accessories), and the Action Master ''characters'' seem to be well-liked enough. The concept was also VindicatedByHistory somewhat when other sublines showed that "remove transformation to focus the budget on making one really awesome robot mode" was actually a concept that could work really well.
** The Classics Seeker Mold. When the Classics launched to fan acclaim, the Classics Seeker mold was considered the de-facto mold for the Seekers, updating the animation models with modern technology to produce Starscream and the rest of his posse, the retools even giving the Coneheads accurate functional toys. However now fans question if the mold has been overused; with Hasbro churning out figure after figure of obscure Seekers or special edition Starscreams (and that's not getting into the accusations of mold degradation from repeated uses). While the mold was eventually retired fans are split between the argument over whether it was one of the best uses of a mold with so many G1 accurate figures from it, or whether it was an overdone mold whose age shows in its mid 2000s tooling.
*** The ''Earthrise'' voyager seeker eventually replaced it, but that toy itself caused fandom headaches as, out of 8 uses of the toy, only ONE of them (Starscream) was sold at general retail. The rest were limited exclusives, with production further hindered by the COVID crisis, causing some of them to be scalped online for $100 or more apiece.

** The Classics Seeker Mold. When the Classics launched to fan acclaim, the Classics Seeker mold was considered the de-facto mold for the Seekers, updating the animation models with modern technology to produce Starscream and the rest of his posse, the retools even giving the Coneheads accurate functional toys. However now fans question if the mold has been overused; with Hasbro churning out figure after figure of obscure Seekers or special edition Starscreams (and that's not getting into the accusations of mold degradation from repeated uses). While the mold was eventually retired fans are split between the argument over whether it was one of the best uses of a mold with so many G1 accurate figures from it, or whether it was an overdone mold whose age shows in its mid 2000s tooling.
*** The ''Earthrise'' voyager seeker eventually replaced it, but that toy itself caused fandom headaches as, out of 8 uses of the toy, only ONE of them (Starscream) was sold at general retail. The rest were limited exclusives, with production further hindered by the COVID crisis, causing some of them to be scalped online for $100 or more apiece.
** Action Masters. The last wave of G1, they were widely blamed for killing the franchise (the line was on its last legs long before then, so this is admittedly unlikely), and their mere status as "[[OxymoronicBeing Transformers that don't transform]]" largely guaranteed they'd be disliked simply for abandoning the franchise's main gimmick. However, they have picked up some pretty strong defenders who argue that Action Masters had their own charm (they were some of the more posable and screen-accurate toys of the era, and did come with transforming accessories), and the Action Master ''characters'' seem to be well-liked enough. The concept was also VindicatedByHistory somewhat when other sublines showed that "remove transformation to focus the budget on making one really awesome robot mode" was actually a concept that could work really well.

** Not that their aren't aversions, of course. Pretty much everyone, regardless of their personal opinions, can universally agree that ''Kiss Players'' was a travesty, the ''Energon'' anime was garbage (though ''Website/TFWikiDotNet'' has massively cut down on the complaining on its article), and that Pat Lee is a horrible human being.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The obscure-for-a-reason manga ''Kiss Players'' was basically pure concentrated {{Squick}} created purely for shock value. However, its plot is something that could've been amazing if taken seriously: Galvatron's cells infect machines and turning them into techno-organic {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, the Earth Defense Command creates artificial Transformers to fight them, but pilots also infected by Galvatron's cells are needed to power them up to their fullest. Enter... random people who happened to have them take hold instead of anyone you'd logically pick for this, including someone so timid as to make Shinji Ikari look like Jack Bauer by comparison, someone so psychotic as to make Hannibal Lecter look like Shinji Ikari by comparison, and others - thankfully we've got the truly heroic Marissa Faireborn along. All led by someone who seems to mean well, and is downright motherly to her troops... but more and more clearly has ulterior motives. What's down that stairwell that only Commander Amao has access to? And who's that mysterious girl that sometimes appears? The first to find out ends up in a Vat Of Science Goo being experimented on! It all just deserves better than to be nothing but licensed TrollFic. The second year of the line actually tried to undo some damage by turning it into a time-travel story packed with references to fan favorite moments and eras, but by then the damage had been done.

*** Bonecrusher has an undocumented ability to take off part of his head. And he was released in the same wave as the Movie 1 Optimus Prime.

** Bumblebee has become this, due to his [[Film/{{Transformers}} Movie]] and [[WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime Prime]] incarnations being overpacked in case assortments and, especially in Movie BB's case, having too many just-slightly-different versions of the same toy.

* FirstInstallmentWins: For better or worse, G1 is the best known of the series, and only the live-action movies can stand up to it in terms of general recognizability. It gets the most callbacks, most parodies in popular culture draw from it, Peter Cullen and Frank Welker are considered the best Optimus and Megatron, the comic series that are produced in the present day draw from the G1 reference pool far more than others, and future series base their characters more on the old designs than any others. Even the toylines feature the most homages to G1, and the old toyline has the most figures given updates with modern toolings. The Masterpiece series, aimed to the collectors, features a predominant Gen 1 cast.

* FriendlyFandoms: Somewhat surprisingly with ''Series/DoctorWho'' of all things. It helps that many of the better-regarded writers for the franchise are also Whovians; also of note is that EnsembleDarkhorse Death's Head (originally from the Marvel UK Transformers comics) made the jump ''from'' this franchise ''to'' the mainstream Franchise/MarvelUniverse via an encounter with The Doctor.

* HarsherInHindsight: When Mojo pees on Ironhide in the [[{{Film/Transformers}} 2007 film]], he worries about rusting. In ''[[Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon Dark of the Moon]]'' [[spoiler: this is what happens to him as he dies.]]

** One of the alternate faces and pairs of hands for Masterpiece Ultra Magnus allows you to recreate the iconic pose of him... failing to open the Matrix of Leadership and cursing at it as he's blasted to pieces by Galvatron's forces. Doubling down on this, his ''Studio Series'' figure has dedicated engineering that allows you to pull his arms and legs off.