History Anime / TransformersHeadmasters

* TheTeam
** BigGood: Optimus for the first three episodes, Rodimus for episodes 4-10, and Fortress from episode 11 onwards.
** TheHero: Chromedome
** TheLancer: Highbrow
** TheBigGuy: Hardhead
** TheSmartGuy: Brainstorm

* TheHero: Chromedome, the second in command of the Headmasters, is the one who gets the most focus out of all the characters, despite Fortress being the leader.

* ThePowerOfFriendship
* QuirkyMinibossSquad

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: For a kids' show with full of nonsensical plot elements, occasionally an event makes total sense.
** If a planet is going to get blown up inevitably, acting like a hero to sacrifice yourself in a futile effort to stop it doesn't help at all. Running away and warning others of the planet's impending destruction is a better option.
** Telling your most loyal and competent subordinate that you plan to use his body parts to augment yourself into a planet-sized Transformer [[SarcasmMode won't get him to abandon you in your time of need. No sir, it won't]].
*** Similarly, once Scorponok abandons Sixshot and orders him to attack Fortress Maximus on his own, and is promptly abandoned, Sixshot is very suspicious of his motives as immediately before, they had a violent argument, despite the fact that Scorponok is the emperor because Sixshot betrayed Galvatron, though he ultimately brushes it off as the emperor tries to claim he had no choice and could trust on Sixshot making it back. When Scorponok makes a clear assassination attempt on Sixshot's life, Sixshot immediately abandons the Decepticons.

* CharacterRerailment: Galvatron is much more like his personality in the movie, being a genuinely threating villain and a clever strategist, rather than the comic relief villain from Season 3.

The show received a [[SoBadItsGood hilariously bad]] English dub by Omni Productions in Hong Kong, which gained notoriety after being broadcast on [=StarTV=] in Singapore. While the dub was perfectly comprehensible, it did contain some BlindIdiotTranslation, which spawned a few short-lived {{meme}}s. If you were English, Mindwipe's hypnotism somehow became 'magic', proving that whoever translated the show didn't even read the title before they started. There was also no attempt to replicate the G1 voice actors in English despite the Japanese dub doing so, resulting in characters like [[TheOtherDarrin Dummy!Blurr and Intellectual!Grimlock]]. And though the Japanese Galvatron still sounded suave and leaderly in Japanese (whether you understand Japanese or not) in English he sounded like somebody who kicks people in the balls for a living. The series has since received several fandubs that are much more professional-sounding.

* DubNameChange: Some rather hilarious ones in the Omni dub. You can find the name changes on the [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Omni_Productions Omni entry on TFWiki]].
** Of note: Blaster -> "Billy"; Jazz -> "Marshall", Blurr -> "Wally", and Spike Witwicky -> "'''Sparkle'''". Then, there's Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime, who was called "Rodimus Prime" (with a long O, sounding like ''Road''imus) in both forms. Bear in mind, these are ''all characters from [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers the original series]]'', which was shown in Singapore in its original American broadcast form.
** Perhaps the best (read: most amusing) invocation of this trope comes from Twincast and Soundblaster, the rebuilt versions of Blaster and Soundwave respectively. The dub calls Twincast "Blaster", thereby getting his new name wrong by finally getting his original name correct. Meanwhile Soundblaster is quite literally called "New Soundwave", which is spoken so quickly in dialogue that it sounds as if it's a one-word name ("Newsoundwave")

* ExtremeDoormat: In [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie the movie]], Arcee at least makes an ''attempt'' to be useful. Here she goes to being the HouseWife.

* GoodIsNotDumb: In the original G1 episodes, it is often Soundwave and his cassettes that are spying on behalf of the Decepticons and the Autobots never seemed to have any intel of their own, merely reacting to situations started by the Decepticons. In Transformers: Headmasters, the Autobots finally came up with the idea of planting a double agent Counterpunch among the ranks of the Decepticons, and Punch/Counterpunch actually did a relatively good job (For a kids' show) of feeding intel to Fortress Maximus on the Decepticons' key moves without getting caught.

* LosingYourHead: Duh.

* ExtremeDoormat: In [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie the movie]], Arcee is TheChick and at least makes an ''attempt'' to be useful. Here she goes to being the HouseWife.

** Springer appears in a grand total of two episodes... and then never appears again.

* Headmasters are a group of small Transformers who left Cybertron in the distant past to avoid the Great War. Settling on the planet Master, they built themselves larger bodies in order to survive. The small Headmaster units transform into larger heads which attach to the robot form of the larger ''Transtector''. The Transtector itself transforms into a vehicle or an animal, which can then be piloted by the Headmaster.

After a three episode pilot during which Optimus Prime died ''[[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_many_deaths_of_Optimus_Prime yet again]]'', the show settled back into the generally episodic format of its predecessor. Continuity was much stronger in ''Headmasters'' than in ''Generation 1'', with the result that even though the majority of episodes are self-contained, they still have to be watched in the correct order. Unfortunately, long stretches of time spent with the characters standing around doing not very much, and the fight scenes seem to be present to pad out the episode and resemble more of an impromptu laser dance party than an actual fight.

Currently the fan group "Prime Productions" is working to create a proper dub of the series, with completely new voice overs and a new team of writers. Information on the project can be found on the group's [[https://www.youtube.com/user/PrimeProductionsULTD/featured YouTube page]].

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Galvatron, who previously survived being at ground-zero of a planet destroying explosion, is killed when the headmasters... drop an iceberg on him.

* GoodIsNotDumb: In the original G1 episodes, it is often Soundwave and his cassettes that are doing the spying on behalf of the Decepticons and the Autobots never seemed to have any intel of their own, merely reacting to situations started by the Decepticons. In Transformers: Headmasters, the Autobots finally came up with the idea of planting a double agent Counterpunch among the ranks of the Decepticons, and Punch/Counterpunch actually did a relatively good job (For a kids' show) of feeding intel to Fortress Maximus on the Decepticons' key moves without getting caught.

* MoreSeniorSubordinate: Early into the series, Autobot supreme commander Convoy ([[DubNameChange Optimus Prime]]) is killed [[HeroicSacrifice preventing the super computer at the heart of planet Cybertron from going berserk]]. However, mid-way through the series Cybertron is destroyed anyway, and Rodimus Convoy/ Rodimus Prime resigns as leader of the Autobots and departs to seek a new homeworld for the Transformers. His successor is Fortress Maximus, who only recently left his homeworld of Master alongside his fellow Headmasters to seek out the Autobots. More senior Autobots like Ultra Magnus and Metroplex accept him as their commander for the remainder of the series.
* MultipleHeadcase: Doubleheader, the Monsterbot, has two heads in his dragon mode. These heads have their own personalities, and tend to bicker with each other during fights.

* OffModel: While the animation never dips into the level of Creator/{{AKOM}} from the third season of the Cartoon, the animation is an obvious downgrade from Toei's own work on that season, with flatter and duller coloring and drawings on the whole that gets worse as the series soldiers on. It also continued the Cartoon's tradition of using the wrong character for the wrong moment, such as [[https://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:HM9_Aerialbots_charge_with_Superion.jpg Superion being shown with his own components charging into battle]].

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Surprisingly, [[spoiler:Rodimus Prime]], a good guy example of this trope who never returned to "[[BigDamnHeroes save the day]]". After [[spoiler:Cybertron was destroyed, Rodimus Prime pretty much gave up trying to lead the Autobots, casually passed on his leadership to Fortress, and left to find a new homeworld for their people]]. This is largely due to the writer's intention to replace him with the Headmasters as main protagonists.

* SpiceUpTheSubtitles: The subbed versions of the episodes before Shout Factory's released would often spice up the swearing when a character swears. The Shout Factory versions went a bit tame with it by simply using the term "scrap".

* TheStrategist: Galvatron shows some serious strategic skill when he embarks on a planet plundering expedition by having Sixshot pose as him using his powers, along with previous episodes where he tries to neutralize the Autobots through science rather than a head on fight. Scorponok in his first stint as leader forces the Autobots to keep focused on Earth until he decides to destroy Mars and when his weak spot is exposed, avoids fighting, preferring underhanded methods until he can flee. If he hadn't grasped the VillainBall his plot would have worked.

** Trypticon, previously portrayed as nigh-unstoppable to the average 'bot, gets taken out by frikken Wheelie tricking him into stepping on a suspension-bridge.

--> '''Scorponok''': Fortress for your death today, you're gonna die!