History YMMV / Transformers

** 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.

** On the other end of the spectrum, one idea common in the Japanese side of the brand is Transformers that turn into bullet trains: see the Trainbots, Team Bullet Train, Sixliner, and Optimus Exprime. In Japan, being a RailEnthusiast is borderline mainstream, and the country's heavy and widely-used public transit is something of a point of pride. In America, it's niche at best, and public transit is much less central, with the ''shinkansen''-style bullet train being almost unheard of. The Trainbots were the only combiner team Hasbro never bothered to import in ''G1'', Team Bullet Train (despite being well-liked by fans) sold poorly enough that its ''Universe'' redeco was cancelled, and in general, the only train-based character to feature in American-made media is Astrotrain, who is a Triple Changer and [[SteamNeverDies typically doesn't turn into a modern train.]] Conversely, when Takara started working on a series with no intention for it to be broadcast in America, they made ''[[Anime/ShinkansenHenkeiRoboShinkalion Shinkalion'', a series about ''nothing but'' robots that turn into bullet trains. This meant that when Takara announced that the first ''Masterpiece''-style combiner team would be the G1 Trainbots, Japanese fans were enthusiastic, while American fans were baffled.

* AmericansHateTingle: Though it's not outright despised by any means, Japan's relationship with ''Transformers'' has been far more mixed than America's. This is mainly because ''Transformers'' is very much out-of-step with the traditional tropes of the {{mecha}} genre: most SuperRobot shows have themes of empowerment and HumansAreSpecial, which Transformers don't have since they lack pilots and come from an alien world with no human involvement, and most MerchandiseDriven boy-aimed toylines place far more focus on the good guys than the bad guys (to the point that the bad guys often don't get toys at all), when ''Transformers'' has always kept the two on relatively equal footing. Consequently, Japanese-aimed media tends to just shrug and treat the whole thing as an outright farce aimed at small children, with GagDub reworks and goofy spinoffs, and more than a few shows and toylines that did reasonably good business in America outright bombed in Japan (''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' being the most noteworthy).

* AmericansHateTingle: Though it's not outright despised by any means, Japan's relationship with ''Transformers'' has been far more mixed than America's. This is mainly because ''Transformers'' is very much out-of-step with the traditional tropes of the {{mecha}} genre: most SuperRobot shows have themes of empowerment and HumansAreSpecial, which Transformers don't have since they lack pilots and come from an alien world with no human involvement, and most MerchandiseDriven boy-aimed toylines place far more focus on the good guys than the bad guys (to the point that the bad guys often don't get toys at all), when ''Transformers'' has always kept the two on relatively equal footing. Consequently, Japanese-aimed media tends to just shrug and treat the whole thing as an outright farce aimed at small children, with GagDub reworks and goofy spinoffs, and more than a few shows and toylines that did reasonably good business in America outright bombed in Japan (''Anime/TransformersPrime'' being the most noteworthy).

''For the 2007 movie of the same name, see YMMV/TransformersFilmSeries''.

* 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 MarvelUniverse via an encounter with The Doctor.

%% ** Optimus Prime has become divisive in later years, mostly because of his {{Flanderization}} from a BadassBaritone 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.

** 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, and that Pat Lee is a horrible human being.

* CrossesTheLineTwice: At some point in human history, Takara Tomy thought it would be a good idea to release a recolor of Masterpiece Optimus Prime as ''he was flatlining''. You know, that one scene that traumatized ''thousands'' of children and made them lock themselves in their rooms? It still manages to become funny just for the sheer ridiculousness of it. [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:MP4Sconvoysleepmode.jpg And he still looks pretty badass,]] if you ignore the whole "corpse" thing.
-->'''Website/{{TF Wiki|DotNet}}''' "Remember that scene from the [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie movie]] that made you cry and traumatised you as a kid? Well now you can display me doing just that!"
** And then Amazon went and recolored the Earthrise Prime in those same colors, even adding the damage to his head and waist as additional retooling, and having the outer box be a view through his windscreen of his death scene. Also it is an Amazon exclusive. Thanks.
** A similar thing happened when Ultra Magnus got the Masterpiece treatment. One of his alternate faces and hands 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.
** What was released as number 69 in ''[[Toys/TransformersStudioSeries Studio Series]]''? A box set of ''Revenge of the Fallen'' Devastator, who had an enormous set of brass balls during the movie, because of course.
*** From the same line, 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. It seems like this is a trend.
*** Then when the Leader Class figure of The Fallen was made for the line, he was not only designed to have his face taken off like Optimus did to him in the film, it's an actual advertised feature.

** Officially, ''Transformers: War for Cybertron'', its sequel ''Fall of Cybertron'' and ''Transformers Prime'' are in the same continuity; [[https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Aligned_continuity_family the aligned continuity family]]. While the developers of both franchises tried to add some interconnectivity, [[ContinuitySnarl it doesn't quite work]], and many fans choose to view them as separate universes.
** Likewise, the concept of [[https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Multiversal_singularity multiversal singularities]] (certain characters who share their name with an alternate universe counterpart are actually the same being traveling between them) is also generally seen as awkward for similar reasons. Thankfully, Hasbro realized the concept was difficult to write around, and was eventually done away with.

* SugarWiki/DevelopmentHeaven: The designer interviews are always fascinating because everyone involved [[RunningTheAsylum seems to love the source material and working on it]]. The engineers even love just coming up with designs, [[WhatCouldHaveBeen even ones that might never be seen]], such as a [[Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 Soundwave whose minions leap out of his chest in sequence and transform in mid-air]] or [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Rhinox]] as a [[BigBudgetBeefUp voyager, just because he could use the extra mass and design budget]], or a line of [[ShownTheirWork real-life military vehicles at 1:24th scale]], which would result in toys the size of computer towers that would cost over 60 dollars apiece. And, in defiance of rising petroleum costs and geometrically increasing complexity, [[InflationNegation a Transformer purchased in 2011 costs about the same as it did in 1996.]]

*** 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.

** What was released as number 69 in Studio Series? A box set of ''Revenge of the Fallen'' Devastator, who had an enormous set of brass balls during the movie, because of course.

* 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.

** 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 one's 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).

''For the 2007 movie of the same name, see YMMV/TransformersFilmSeries''

** 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 "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 Wiki/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.

-->'''[[Wiki/TFWikiDotNet TF Wiki]]''' "Remember that scene from the [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie movie]] that made you cry and traumatised you as a kid? Well now you can display me doing just that!"

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: One of the most infamous fandoms for this - the Wiki/TFWikiDotNet were first to describe the behaviour, and term, of DarthWiki/RuinedFOREVER. The fandom's full of differing opinions so now all changes are met with criticism by a certain group, and the changes back are met with criticism by other groups. It's gotten to the point of parody, and beyond, so now there are tons of fans making fun of this mindset mixed in with those who actually do dislike the changes, leading to a severe case of PoesLaw.

** ''Kiss Players'' is infamous for how incredibly ''not'' kid-friendly it is. To give an idea of how bad it was, ''Kiss Players'' is a ''Sailor Moon''-esque MagicalGirl manga. Wiki/TFWikiDotNet compares it to '''Manga/ShadowStar'''. The writer/artist of the manga has explicitly said he [[{{Troll}} deliberately designed the comic to shock people for kicks]].

* LGBTFanbase: The franchise is very well loved by LGBTQ+ fans thanks to the balance of attractive characters (both male and female), the emphasis on friendship and found family in the shows, and the ''many'' HoYay (as well as FoeYay and LesYay) moments within and between the Autobots and Decepticons.

* Estrogen Brigade: It’d be easier to list the Transformers shows who ''didn’t ''have armies of fangirls who find these dang robots hot.

* LGBTFanbase: The franchise is very well loved by LGBTQ+ fans thanks to the balance of attractive characters (both male and female),the emphasis on friendship and found family in the shows, and the ''many'' HoYay (as well as FoeYay and LesYay) moments within and between the Autobots and Decepticons.

** Specifically, ''Transformers'' has a very huge fanbase of women and girls who grew up with the shows and collect the toys.

** In the IDW comics the Autobot government ''was'' evil (well corrupt at least) and the Decepticons were laid off blue collar workers living in slums until this one miner showed up... (Most of the story is set millions of years later, by which point they're rather less sympathetic.)

** Despite being released years apart, the franchise shares one with ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse''.

** The Transformers Wiki itself is another instance. Some see it as a necessary archive of information about the numerous iterations of the brand. Others are put off by the "witty" captions, seen as being on par with something such as Encyclopedia Dramatica, and the owner's "my way or the highway" attitude on wiki content have also put people off, not aided whatsoever by the owner being rather disliked by some of the fandom and supposedly even Hasbro and IDW are fed up with him to the point they have a "do not interact with" order in place. Some would prefer it if Hasbro were in charge, considering the wiki only even allows official content(the owner is strongly against 3rd party toys and other unofficial material).

** In the ''VideoGame/TransformersWarForCybertron'' continuity, Megatron was initially a gladiator who rebelled against an oppressive, caste-based society ruled by the Autobots, so initially it was the Autobots themselves who were the Empire and you should have rooted against. But Megatron became too prideful and ruthless, to the point his ideal of a caste-less society was buried by his desire to rule. Transformers seems to have been moving over the years from "Decepticons evil, Autobots good" to an almost ''StarWars''-like setup, where Cybertronian society badly needed shaking up but the Cons went too far and the necessities of war turned the Autobots into the casteless society the Decepticons wanted, while the Decepticons [[TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget became too obsessed to remember their original intentions]].