More than meets the eye.
A long running franchise consisting of a toy line and many
Animated Series'. Reduced to its simplest terms,
Transformers is the story of an eons-old battle between two factions of a race of
transforming robots, usually called the Autobots and Decepticons, whose battles frequently take them to
Earth. Originally, the Autobots primarily transformed into cars, while the Decepticons transformed primarily into military hardware and innocuous items such as cassettes and cameras, though this became less distinct over time.
Considering it's origins
as a toy line, the show is highly
Merchandise Driven, each incarnation serving to pimp a line of transforming toys. The original toy line sold in America was originally several disparate Japanese toy lines, primarily "Diaclone" and "Microchange". The piecemeal origins of the individual toys are largely responsible for the enormous disparity in scale and style of the early toys (the original Optimus Prime, for example, has a cockpit designed to hold a Diaclone action figure, while the original Jetfire's toy is easily recognizable as a Valkyrie from
Macross). When brought together as a single toy line, they were given the
Transformers brand and established the 'sentient robot' aspect of the story.
After the original toy line, further incarnations were designed specifically for the mega-hit Tranformers brand, creating a more internally consistent style.
Recurring character archetypes of note across the various series include:
- Optimus Prime: Leader of the Autobots. In the original continuity, he appeared to be the supreme leader of all Autobots by a sort of divine right. In later incarnations, he is reduced to the role of a high-ranking military leader that answers to an Autobot High-Council. In Beast Wars, he was replaced by Optimus Primal, a sort of cousin, who transformed into an ape. In the third season of the original series, his successor was Rodimus Prime. A version of Rodimus (sans Prime) reappeared in Energon, as an Autobot general of comparable rank to Optimus. In the latest series, Transformers: Animated, Optimus Prime is actually a lower-ranked Autobot and "Prime" is actually a military title rather than a personal designation. Optimus Prime is often portrayed as a conflicted pacifist shouldering the burden of military leadership.
- Megatron: Leader of the Decepticons. Often portrayed as quite mad, but usually brilliant as well. His original form was a semiautomatic pistol. This was back in the days when children were allowed to play with realistic firearm toys. Later characters with the same name transformed into a tyrannosaurus, a dragon, a tank, several kinds of space fighter jets, and an attack helicopter. In Generation 1, Robots In Disguise, and Armada, he was eventually upgraded and renamed "Galvatron" (Though in the latter, he was the only one who called himself that).
- Starscream: Megatron's lieutenant. Starscream is highly treacherous, and often tries to seize power (except in Energon, where he is little more than a puppet). In Armada, he briefly became an Autobot, but was unable to overcome his own nature. Except for Beast Wars, Starscream always transforms into a jet. The "spark" of the original would later annoy the Maximals and Predacons in Beast Wars.
- Bumblebee, though the actual name would change with the different timelines. A young brightly colored Autobot character, usually the closest with their human allies and/or has some childish exuberance. Characters include Bumblebee (a bright yellow Volkwagon beetle, or Camaro in the 2007 movie), Hotshot, Cheetor and Hot Rod (mostly red with yellow flames), who eventually makes good and becomes Rodimus Prime.
- Primus: In the later series, the effective "god" of all transformers: their individual sparks were split off from Primus. Primus actively serves as Optimus's superior in Robots In Disguise and Armada, but is semi-mythical by Cybertron. His name was originally used as an Unusual Euphemism. Probably the same entity known as "Vector Sigma" in Generation 1.
- Unicron: A planet-eating giant transformer. In Transformers: The Movie, he is destroyed by Rodimus Prime using the Matrix, though his disembodied head continues to work evil machinations throughout the third season of Generation 1. Unicron appears at the end of Armada, and is destroyed again, but is resurrected in Energon by Alpha Q, in an attempt to recreate its home planet (in this incarnation, Unicron is able to recreate anything it has consumed). Supplementary materials to the Transformers universe suggest that Primus and Unicron are incarnations of rival gods.
The
Transformers franchise has known the following incarnations on American TV, divided into several continuity lines:
Generation One premiered in 1984 and featured the Autobots in the midst of a war against the Decepticons, after which both sides crashed on prehistoric Earth and remained in stasis until they revived in 1984. To blend in with their surroundings, they took on vehicle forms from their surroundings. After two seasons, in 1986
a feature film was released, advancing their timeline to 2005. Optimus Prime and most of the original Autobots were killed off, passing the torch to a new generation led by Rodimus Prime. The movie featured the voice talents of Judd Nelson, Leonard Nimoy, and Eric Idle, as well as the last screen performance of
Orson Welles (as Unicron, a Transformer the size of a planet; the irony did not go unnoticed). Following the movie, seasons three and four continued the story of this new group of heroes, and notably resurrected Optimus Prime.
A fifth season was aired in 1988, but this season simply consisted of major episodes from the previous seasons and the Movie with with new linking narration done by a CGI-enhanced
Powermaster Optimus Prime action figure.
After the
Generation Two toyline came out, the
Generation One animated series was re-re-released, substantially edited (specifically, intercuts were often replaced with insets) with new CGI scene transitions. These G1 episodes (shown in random order and without regard for whether or not the characters in the episodes even had corresponding figures in the new toyline) were advertised under the
Generation Two name, but met with limited success.
Beast Wars is technically a distant future continuation of Generation One. It was animated in CGI and produced by the same studio that made
ReBoot. At first it was controversial simply for the change into transforming into animals. (Refered to as
Trukk Not Munky) But after time the story direction was praised and the series as a whole is well regarded, but the more die-hard fans disliked the abrupt change of the classic Generation One. Treating the events of Generation One as historical legend, it featured a determined Maximal crew fighting a rogue band of Predacon criminals on what turned out to be prehistoric Earth (see
Planet Of The Apes Ending, except about halfway through the series).
Beast Machines, the sequel series to
Beast Wars, was animated by the same company, and saw a return to Cybertron, but was received poorly by most, as the "spiritual" aspects and themes of nature vs technology didn't play well. It's part of the
Dis Continuity of many fans, and one of the voice actors that worked on the series referred to it on one occasion as "the bad thing that happened". Still having its good points, the general hatred has died down with time.
Robots in Disguise rebooted the series continuity, with the Autobots facing off against their perennial rivals, the Predacons (The Decepticons in this continuity are a group of Autobots subverted by the Predacons). The series was somewhat unpopular with fans who expected the seriousness of
Beast Wars, instead of the borderline-self parody that
RiD actually brought to the table. Nevertheless, a few characters remain fan favorites (Optimus Prime's
Evil Twin/clone Scourge, and the hapless but loveable Sky-Byte)
RiD is also notable due to several episodes of the series being pulled from American airwaves after the September 11th attacks, as they featured footage of collapsing buildings.
Transformers: Armada rebooted the series yet again, restoring much of the original mystique as the world's smallest armada (Autobots: 3, Decepticons: 4) duke it out to dominate a race of smaller transforming robots, the Minicons.
Transformers: Energon and
Transformers: Cybertron are sequels to this series, the three collectively referred to as the
Unicron Trilogy. This incarnation is probably the most philosophical entry in the franchise; one particularly stirring scene in
Transformers: Energon reveals that Megatron has no understanding of the concept of death as it applies to humans -- the transformer "
spark" (soul) can't be destroyed.
Of note is that
Cybertron was not intended as a sequel to
Energon, the original Japanese
Transformers: Galaxy Force, took place in its own universe. Though Hasbro designer Aaron Archer had intended it to continue the earlier shows. Interestingly enough, recent material released in Japan seems to have retconned Galaxy Force into the same universe as Armada and Energon.
As well, there have been several Japan-only anime series:
- Transformers: Scramble City, an OVA taking footage from the Animated Movie and intended solely for Japanese audiences.
- Transformers: Headmasters, Transformers: Super-God Masterforce, Transformers: Victory and Transformers: Zone ignored the Grand Finale of the Generation One and continued from there.
- Transformers: Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo were two traditionally animated series, tentatively set within the Beast Wars timeline.
Transformers, a
live-action film with a new continuity, was released in 2007, directed by Michael Bay. The hype of the movie was enormous, with many fans upset over the stylistic changes (dubbed
"Bayformers"). Critically, those praising the movie liked it for being a sit back and enjoy "
Rule Of Cool" feature. Those criticizing it were mostly for the same reasons, though some of the hate was more of Michael Bay then the movie itself. The plot was patterned like a disaster film, except with giant alien robots. It made a lot of money, bringing in the current fans and even the nostalgic crowd; a sequel was guaranteed days before it opened.
The only thing really confirmed of the sequel is the title
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the appearance of the surviving Autobot characters and several returning human characters. Other then that, we can expect it to have more robot combat.
Transformers Animated debuted in early 2008 to ride the popularity of the movie. Despite severe fan reactions to the character designs and animation style, the show's story and scripting (and a healthy respect to the saga as a whole) have won over many converts in short order. Like it's predecessors, it featured the Autobots facing the Decepticons on Earth. What sets this series apart is that Optimus Prime and his crew are a construction detail, lacking combat experience and proper weapons. Megatron was almost destroyed in the pilot, reduced to a head in a lab and his attempts to return to operating condition formed the undercurrent of the first season.
There was also a short-running Manga series entitled
Kiss Players, in which the Autobots derived their power from kisses from scantily-clad,
underage-looking girls, while a Megatron-like character sought to consume said girls with his phallic prehensile tongue.
Seriously.
A standard gimmick across most of its incarnations was the scene-change effect: the emblem of the side featured in the previous scene would pull back, then flip over to reveal the symbol of the side to be featured in the next scene. It has been parodied in many instances in modern media.
For more information, you might want to consult
Teletraan-1
, the
Transformers wiki. Its informality is similar to that of TV Tropes, so you should feel right at home.
This series provides examples of:
- A Boy And His X (Sam and Bumblebee in the 2007 movie)
- Adaptation Distillation (Animated may be heading this way)
- Alien Among Us (Alien robots, but aliens nonetheless, the series has many elements of this plot)
- The Aragorn (Optimus Prime in the 2007 movie)
- Ascended Fanboy (Benson Yee, frequent convention visitor and operator of a popular Transformers web site. He was approached on Generation One expertise for Beast Wars. He received a "Consultant" credit on certain episodes.)
- Ass Kicking Pose
- Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance (Not surprising since they can choose their alternate forms, but each invariably picks a vehicle that suits them very well)
- Author Catchphrase (Furmanisms)
- Big Bad (Mostly Megatrons, but the Marvel comics gave Shockwave and other Cybertronians chances to gloat)
- Beware The Nice Ones (Rhinox in Beast Wars and Bulkhead of Animated are both fairly gentle, if large transformers, but are also the ones to avoid getting angry)
- Big Damn Heroes Take your pick of series or characters. Subverted in the 2007 movie when Starscream shows up and beats up Ratchet and Ironhide, stopping their protection of Sam.
- The Bumblebee (Trope Namer)
- Butt Monkey (Beast Wars' Waspinator)
- Catch Phrase ("Autobots! Transform and roll out!" among others)
- Cool Car (Barricade in the 2007 movie is a Ford Mustang, Jazz is a Pontiac Solstice, Bumblebee is a 1976 Chevy Camaro who later becomes a 2008 Camaro...)
- Cuckoo Case ("Transmorphers, whose title also copied the classic font and was release after the movie's)
- Cyber Cyclops (Shockwave)
- Dumb Muscle (The Dinobots, especially Sludge)
- Equivalent Exchange (When using Time Travel)
- Five Episode Pilot
- Flanderization (Grimlock, who goes from a "Brawn over Brains" thug to a mentally-challenged child between season 2 and The Movie.)
- Fun Size (Galvatron)
- Hate Plague (The Trope Namer. It first appeared in the Generation 1 cartoon, and reappeared in a more virulent form in Beast Machines.)
- Humongous Mecha
- Idiosyncratic Wipes
- Introdump
- Live Action Adaptation (The 2007 movie)
- Mexican Standoff (Between the Army rangers and Sector Seven agents in the 2007 movie)
- Martyr Without A Cause (Optimus Prime)
- Masquerade
- Meaningful Name
- Merchandise Driven (but, as the entry on that page states, Transformers fans generally embrace the merchandising aspects)
- The Movie (Twice, 1986 and 2007)
- Never Say Die ("destroyed", "sent to oblivion", "offline" etc; interestingly, the characters in Generation 1 freely used the words 'die', 'dead', and 'kill'.)
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Just being a Transformer makes you a giant, alien, transforming, robot. Then there's the ones that are also things like ninja, dinosaurs, bounty hunters, and wolves.
- Not Quite Dead
- Obfuscating Stupidity (Grimlock in most of the comics, who still talks in the caveman dialect of his animated counterpart, but is one of the Autobots' most brilliant leaders, often coming off as a sort of brutally cunning Josef Stalin to Prime's FDR {or Prime's Churchill if you're reading the one from Marvel UK}.)
- Only One Name
- The Pikachu Effect (The fight between Megatron and Optimus Prime in the first movie)
- Planet Of Hats (Cybertron revolves around five planets. Cybertron and Earth are both hatless, but on the Speed Planet, all anyone cares about is racing, on the Jungle Planet, everyone is obsessed with strength, and on the Giant Planet, the only thing anyone does is build stuff)
- Praetorian Guard (The Wreckers, for Emirate Xaaron)
- Robot Buddy (reversal: the Transformers have human buddies.)
- Robot War
- Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense Of Scale (Cybertron appears to sometimes be in the same solar system as Earth, and goes from being a tiny planet with buildings jutting out into space in G1 to resembling Coruscant in the Beast Era. Also, exactly how big individual Transformers are varies radically based on the needs of the plot. Scale in Transformers is, not to put too fine a point on it, screwed.)
- Also, partly due to the Time Dissonance described below, the Transformers backstory typically has Optimus and Megatron chasing each other around the galaxy for literally millions of years before crash-landing on Earth.
- The Scrappy (Wheelie and most of the human characters)
- The Starscream (Trope Namer)
- Time Dissonance (All Transformers are immortal unless killed, and see time differently)
- Telescoping Robot (All Transformers have this ability, not to be confused with the one's who were telescopes, though.)
- Transforming Mecha (Of course)
- Twenty Minutes Into The Future (The later seasons of Generation 1 and Energon are both obviously set in the near-future (G1 after The Movie is explicitly set in 2006). Cybertron, despite being explicitly set in the same continuity ten years after Energon, appears to be contemporary.) Animated is set in the 22nd century.
- Unpleasable Fanbase (Even they are aware of it, having a better sense of humor then most fandoms. Such phrases as "Ruined Forever!" and "Trukk Not Munky!" are evidence of this)
- Unusual Euphemism (the word 'slag' seems to be a Transformer equivalent to the human word 'shit/crap'. Transformers Animated has fun with this, featuring such gems as "You'll have to pry it from my cold, offline servo!")
- Verbal Tic (Beast Wars Megatron, yeeees.)
And many,
many others, due in no small part to sheer longevity.
