Transformers - Television Tropes & Idioms

More Than Meets The Eye.

If you're looking for the first film in the recent live-action movie trilogy, see (Film) Transformers. For the original animated film, see Transformers The Movie (1986).

A long-running franchise consisting of dozens of toy lines, many Animated Series, quite a few Comic Books, and a couple of live-action movies. 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 (with both becoming innocuous items such as cassettes and cameras), though this became less distinct over time.

Considering its 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 came about when Hasbro imported several disparate Japanese toy lines, primarily Takara's "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 Transformers brand, creating a more internally-consistent style, though still with inappropriate sizes between toys.

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 often reduced to the role of a high-ranking military leader that answers to an Autobot High Council. 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 Beast Wars, he was replaced by Optimus Primal, a sort of cousin, who transformed into an ape. 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. His alternate form is usually an eighteen-wheeler truck cab of some kind, but a fire truck is also slowly gaining acceptance.
Megatron: Leader of the Decepticons. Often portrayed as quite mad, but usually brilliant as well. His original form was a Walther P38 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, a "futuristic" (i.e. brightly-colored toy-style) pistol, and an attack helicopter. In Generation 1, Robots In Disguise, and all three Unicron Trilogy series, he was eventually upgraded and renamed "Galvatron".
Starscream: Megatron's lieutenant. Starscream is highly treacherous, and is quick to seize power when the opportunity arises (except in Energon, where he is little more than a puppet). The only reason he is tolerated is because he is an excellent soldier and is otherwise afraid of confronting Megatron directly. In Armada, he briefly became an Autobot, but was unable to overcome his own nature. Starscream always transforms into a jet fighter of some kind; the Beast Wars equivalent was the pterodactyl Terrorsaur, though the "spark" of the original would later possess the Predacon flyer Waspinator to annoy the Maximals and Predacons. Of course, this character has so many examples in this franchise he's his own trope.
Bumblebee: A young, brightly-colored Autobot character with kid appeal, he's usually the closest with their human allies and/or has a childish, exuberant personality. Early in the original series, this slot was naturally filled by the original Bumblebee, who also showed up in the live-action movie and Transformers Animated. He's always bright yellow, and turns into a Volkswagen Beetle, a Camaro, or a generic but Beetle-esque hatchback. Other characters in this mold include Hotshot in the Unicron Trilogy, Cheetor in Beast Wars, and Hot Rod from the G1 movie 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. He originally showed up in the UK Marvel comics before being imported to the US line and, eventually, other continuities altogether. His name is often used as an Unusual Euphemism. In some continuities, he's linked to the Transformer-creating computer Vector Sigma, from Generation 1.
Unicron: A planet-eating giant transformer, sort of a Eldritch Abomination/Satan-esque counterpart to Primus. In Transformers: The Movie, he is destroyed by Rodimus Prime using the Matrix, though his disembodied head continues to work its 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. And it gets more complicated with the Transformer "Multi-Verse" storylines. He is totally not Galactus.

And besides all of these, there are usually other members that fit into the Five Man Band / Five Bad Band mold. Of the Autobots there is also usually a Ratchet (The Smart Guy / The Medic), a Jetfire (Heel Face Turn member), and/or an Ironhide (The Big Guy). For the Decepticons there is often a Soundwave (Evil Genius), Shockwave (The Wild Card) and/or a Devastator (The Brute).

The Transformers franchise has known the following incarnations in television, anime, film, and comics:

Note: Descriptions here are to be kept brief; for detailed information, see the individual series pages. Please do not apply formatting to the bulleted titles, as this screws up the indexing.

Generation 1 continuity family

Generation 1, originally just called The Transformers, premiered in 1984. It ran for three series, and featured the Autobots in the midst of a war against the Decepticons. Members of both sides crashed on prehistoric Earth and remained in stasis until they were revived by an erupting volcano in 1984. To blend in with their surroundings, they took on the forms of common Earth vehicles and other machines.
Transformers: The Movie opened in 1986, between the second and third series of the cartoon. The timeline jumped to to futuristic 2005 and 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, Robert Stack (Of Unsolved Mysteries fame) 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).
Scramble City, an OAV released only in Japan and using primarily footage from the animated movie. It introduced the movie characters, as the movie itself wouldn't be imported for several more years.
Transformers Headmasters, an anime continuation that ignores the last season of G1.
Transformers Super God Masterforce, another anime, continuing on from Headmasters.
Transformers Victory, a third anime, continuing from Masterforce.
Transformers Zone, which was basically a series of illustrated text stories. Followed by Return of Convoy and Operation Combination.
Kiss Players, which we don't like to talk about. It was a short-running manga and Radio Drama 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.
Generation 2: A comic and a manga which follow on from where the comics left off, ignoring a fair chunk of established continuity. There was also a cartoon entitled Transformers: Generation 2, but it was simply selected G1 episodes with some CGI added.

The Generation One Transformers comics series were well respected compared to the "original" G1 continuity.

The original Marvel comic came before the first episode (indeed, the first animated appearance of the Transformers was a TV commercial for the comic). The comic creators created many of the names, character bios, and concepts now considered integral to the franchise (such as Primus).
The US Transformers was a monthly comic, written initially by Bob Budiansky, which would run 88 issues. The backstory was more detailed (for instance, the volcano was "Mount St. Hilary", a topical reference to the Mount St. Helens eruption), but the stories would eventually go off in different directions (instead of skipping forward to 2005, the comics received time-travelling versions of the new characters). It also occasionally featured Marvel characters like Spider-Man, which has thwarted attempts to reprint some issues.
In the UK, Transformers was a weekly comic at half-size, meaning new material was required to fill in the gaps. Despite being filler, these tended to be longer, arc-based stories with better characterization. In general, they're considered superior to the US version. Simon Furman, writer of the UK version, eventually took over the US comic, and still works in Transformerdom today. This run would eventually end at 332 issues.
The Transformers: Generation 2 comic was also written by Furman. It moved to a more cosmic stage, with a galaxy-spanning Cybertronian Empire, the mysterious, all-devouring Swarm, and the shadowy machinations of the ancestor of all Decepticons. It only lasted 12 issues.
Later, Dreamwave rebooted the continuity, with the first Transformers series to use "Generation One" in the name. This title focused on the modern era. The Decepticons were defeated, only to have the Autobots lost when the spaceship built to carry them home exploded. Years later, the Autobots and the Decepticons slowly reappear and the war begins anew. Dreamwave also did The War Within, a prequel series long before they came to Earth. Unfortunately, these series only lasted a few years before the company folded.
Afterwards, IDW picked up the license and did a complete reboot, starting with the Infiltration miniseries. Here, the Autobots and Decepticons are scattered across the galaxy, having already reduced Cybertron to a lifeless husk. The "Robots in Disguise" angle is for once stressed, with both sides fighting over less-advanced worlds while keeping their presence a secret (until it's too late, in the Decepticons' case). On Earth, however, the discovery of a potent form of Energon is throwing the usual rules of warfare out the window. These comics are still ongoing, in a "series of miniseries" format.

Beast Era

The Beast Era is a break from the usual presentation, featuring Transformers with animal altmodes instead of vehicles, and Maximals and Predacons replacing Autobots and Decepticons. It is in continuity with the Generation 1 family, but the toys and fiction are distinct enough to be considered on their own.

Beast Wars (1996) was animated in CGI and produced by Mainframe Entertainment, famous for the first CGI television show, ReBoot. At first, Beast Wars was controversial simply for the change into transforming into animals. (This culminated in the 'Trukk Not Munky' meme.) But over time, the depth and direction of the story was praised, and the series as a whole is currently very well-regarded. Treating the events of Generation One in Broad Strokes as historical legend, it featured a determined Maximal crew fighting a rogue band of Predacon criminals on what turned out to be prehistoric Earth (a Planet Of The Apes Ending halfway through the series). It also introduced several plot points that would go on to greatly influence future fiction, notably sparks.
Beast Machines (2000), the direct sequel series to Beast Wars, was animated by the same company, and saw a return to Cybertron, but was received poorly by most. It had a massive change of the writing staff, and it shows; the characterization of established characters, "spiritual" aspects and themes of nature vs. technology didn't play well with the previous series. It's part of the discontinuity 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, the series had its good points — the aforementioned spiritual themes were deeper than anything the franchise had seen before — and the general hatred has died down with time.
Beast Wars II, a traditionally animated show set far into the future of Beast Machines but broadcast in Japan between the first and second series of Beast Wars to fill the gap while the second series was being dubbed.
Beast Wars Neo, which continued after Beast Wars II and was broadcast between the end of Beast Wars II and the start of the second series of Beast Wars. There are fandubbed episodes of this series and Beast Wars II at TFCog.net. They're pretty good.

Robots In Disguise

Robots in Disguise (2002) 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 first Japanese Transformers series to have major Western distribution, the series was somewhat unpopular with fans who expected the seriousness of the American-penned Beast Wars, instead of the borderline-self parody and younger target demographic 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, among others). 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.

The Unicron Trilogy

The Unicron Trilogy (2003-2006) was also a reboot of Generation One, but was more faithful to the original story, and was intended as a full saga with an expansive toy line. It featured three anime series that were dubbed into English and aired on Cartoon Network.

Armada restored 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. The Minicons can link up to their larger counterparts to give them power upgrades, having obvious Merchandise potential. Transformers: Energon and Transformers: Cybertron are sequels to this series, the three are retroactively referred to as the Unicron Trilogy, concerning the reboot of the Generation One Movie villain Unicron and a new take on his presence. 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. Hasbro designer Aaron Archer had intended it to continue the earlier shows, so this is a case of conflicting sources. Interestingly enough, recent material released in Japan seems to have retconned Galaxy Force into the same universe as Armada and Energon.

Dreamwave also did a Unicron Trilogy comic. Armada focused on the plight of the Mini-Cons as born to serve the larger robots, then did an abrupt turn into the characters fending off Unicron. Energon had several ongoing plotlines, all of which were cut off when Dreamwave went bankrupt.

Live-Action continuity family

A live-action film franchise consisting of two movies and a third film on the way (each directed by Michael Bay) and plenty of expanded universe comic books.

Transformers (2007) introduces the new continuity, featuring an origin of the Transformers in a mystical artifact known as the All Spark. 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 mix between a disaster film and an Alien Invasion. It made a lot of money, bringing in the current fans and even the nostalgic crowd; a sequel was guaranteed days before it opened. Part of the film's success comes from a general respect to the franchise, the impressive CGI for the title robots and the casting of the original voice actor for Optimus Prime, Peter Cullen.
The sequel (2009) Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen continues directly from the first movie, delving deeper into the Transformer mythology. Because of the first film's success, many new robots were introduced and it has broken records both financially and with computer graphics (a rumor has spread around that in rendering Devastator it melted one of ILM's computers). Critical response was mostly negative but the general public seemed to love it.
IDW has done prequel, adaptation, and sequel comics for the movie and is also working on comics tied into Revenge of the Fallen. Titan Magazines also does a series based on the movie, with issues that fit around IDW's, much as Marvel UK did for Marvel US.

Transformers Animated

Transformers Animated had its pilot in late 2007 to ride the popularity of the movie, and was the first American-written series since Beast Machines, seven years earlier. 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. It is set in its own continuity, but besides this it is actually much closer plot-wise to Generation One than any of the other adaptations. Like its predecessors, it featured the Autobots facing the Decepticons on Earth.

Transformers: Shattered Glass

This Official Fanclub-specific comic/toy series takes place in a Mirror Universe where the Autobots are evil and the Decepticons are good; Optimus is a megalomaniac, Starscream is a loyal officer, Ravage is the embodiment of Lolcats, etc. It started out as an April Fool's joke gone horribly wrong, then came the official, grimly serious comic that accompianied the BotCon exclusive line of toys, and finally a still-going series of Fanclub-exclusive text stories that strike a balance between the two extremes of silly and serious. The fans so far have gobbled it up, making it one of the very few franchises bearing the Transformers name that isn't subjected to Fan Dumb. It remains to be seen how long its popularity will last, especially considering it's not leaving the confines of the Fanclub elite any time soon, but suffice it to say that it'll be riding that victory wave for as long as it can.

A standard gimmick across most Transformers incarnations is the scene-change effect: the emblem of the side featured in the previous scene pulls back, then flips 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 the ''Transformers'' wiki

. Its informality is similar to that of TV Tropes.

Tropes Across The Entire Franchise:

Adaptation Distillation (Beast Wars changed a lot of the structure but kept the same basic conflict. Animated may be heading this way, with almost every character and concept an update of something from a previous series.)
Alien Among Us (Alien robots, but aliens nonetheless, the series has many elements of this plot.)
Alien Invasion (Technically, almost every series, but the 2007 movie and the IDW comics focus most on this trope.)
All There In The Manual: Many characters have all or most of their characterization provided in toy bios or profiles.
Alternate Continuity (Currently, 5 different "main" continuity lines. When you go into the comics, on the other hand,◊ talk about Continuity Snarl.)
Ancient Keeper
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)
Autobots, Rock Out! (the Trope Namer)
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. Inverted in the 2007 movie when Starscream shows up and beats up Ratchet and Ironhide, stopping their protection of Sam in what could be called a "Big Damn Villains" moment.)
Broken Aesop IDW's series "All Hail Megatron", featuring new writer Shane Mc Carthy replacing longtime scribe Simon Furman, spends a hefty portion of the book having the Autobots realize that "acceptable losses" in their war against the Decepticons to save Earth as a whole was wrong and that all life should be saved. The character Sideswipe in particular delivered a speech about how it was "their duty to value the sanctity of life, all life". However, at the end of the series, Sideswipe happens upon longtime human companion Hunter O'Nion who's been dissected by the Decepticons and is hooked up on life support, and rather than practicing what he preaches and find Ratchet or human doctors to save him, pulls the plug and lets him flatline. Yeah.
- If you look carefully at the scene, Hunter is missing an arm and both legs, and has numerous tubes and wires attached to him. And according to Transformers Continuum, Hunter's mind is gone after all the torture Bombshell put him through. There's nothing left for the Autobots to save.
Brother Chuck (Happens to many characters who aren't killed off when their toy is discontinued.)
The Bumblebee (Trope Namer)
Butt Monkey (Beast Wars' Waspinator)
Canon Immigrant (The Transformer "Spark" concept introduced in Beast Wars has continued and become a vital part of Transformers mythology.)
Catch Phrase ("Autobots! Transform and roll out!", among others.)
The Chew Toy (Four words: "Why universe hate Waspinator?!?")
The Collector Of The Strange (Autobot Pipes collects interesting human knick-knacks.)
Cool Car (Kind of a given, but the live action movie had to use real cars. 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, Revenge of the Fallen is showcasing a one-of-a-kind Concept Corvette that will not actually reach consumers.)
Copycat Cover (Transmorphers, whose title also copied the classic font and was released just after the 2007 movie.)
Cue Cullen (Trope Namer, after the announcement that Peter Cullen, the original voice of Optimus Prime, would be reprising that role in the live-action movies.
Continuity Snarl
Cyber Cyclops (Shockwave)
Death Is Cheap: Let's just say "destroyed" doesn't necessarily mean "dead" and leave it at that.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu (When Unicron is a robot Eldritch Abomination, they come across this trope in order to win.)
Dropped A Bridge On Him (Nearly all of the cast from the first two seasons is killed off during the movie, as well as Optimus and Starscream albeit temporarily.)
- Beast Wars was sometimes almost careless with how they killed certain characters; a few times they were intended to be dead but Hasbro insisted they bring them back.
Dueling Shows (Transformers Generation 1 vs. The Go-Bots)
Dumb Muscle (The Dinobots, especially Sludge.)
- Devastator in the original, Tidal Wave in Armada
Eldritch Abomination (Unicron)
Equivalent Exchange (When using Time Travel in the Marvel comics.)
Executive Meddling (Tons and tons and tons, relating to marketing and the usual reasons. Recent example: the Grand Finale to Simon Furman's Myth Arc comic series was cut from 12 issues to 4 so that IDW could publish All Hail Megatron instead.)
Expy (Kicker from Energon is basically Gao Gai Gar's Mamoru with added Wangst.)
Fetish Fuel (Inevitable for a franchise about both transformations and robots; it even has its own page.)
Five Episode Pilot
Flanderization (Grimlock, who, in the original cartoon, goes from a "Brawn over Brains" thug to a mentally-challenged child between season 2 and The Movie.)
Fun Size (Galvatron)
Hammerspace (It's been an accepted Hand Wave that transformers have this to explain Robots changing size from what would logically fit into their alternate form, most famously Megatron and Soundwave from G1. 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.)
Hanging Judge (The Quintesson judge would actually often find the defendant innocent. Too bad that the Quintessons throw you to the Sharkticons either way.)
Hate Plague (The Trope Namer. It first appeared in the Generation 1 cartoon, and reappeared in a more virulent form in Beast Machines.)
Hold Your Hippogriffs: Plenty of human proverbs Recycled In Space:
- "You can stuff it up your ~~ass~~ exhaust pipe."
- "Do you ever think you could be ~~destined~~ programmed for something bigger?"
- "~~Mind~~ Processor over matter."
- "He eats ~~babies~~ protoforms!"
- "I've got one foot in the ~~grave~~ scrap heap."
Humongous Mecha
Idiosyncratic Wipes
Introdump
Just A Machine
Just Here For Godzilla (Fans generally only want to see giant robots turning into cars and beating each other up. Everything else is window dressing and human characters tend to be automatic Scrappies.
Kill Em All (The Original Movie was deliberately plotted to kill off as many characters/toys as possible, traumatizing kids who expected a continuation of the TV show.)
Lights Off Their Eyes - Whenever a Transformer ~~dies~~ "goes off-line".
Live Action Adaptation (The 2007 movie)
Martyr Without A Cause (Optimus Prime)
Masquerade
Meaningful Name
The Merch
- Official Cosplay Gear
Merchandise Driven (...but, as the entry on that page states, Transformers fans generally embrace the merchandising aspects.)
The Movie (Twice, 1986 and 2007)
The Multiverse (The franchise spans many different universes, sometimes implied, sometimes explicitly.)
Name Tron (Megatron, Cybertron, Galvatron, etc.)
Never Say Die (Depending on franchise. The characters in Generation 1, for instance, freely used the words 'die', 'dead', and 'kill', but other series have used 'destroyed', 'sent to oblivion', 'offline', and so on.)
- Can't forget "We're all gonna die..."
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.)
Ninety Percent Of Your Brain (The book Project Brain Drain)
Non Lethal Warfare (Mostly)
No One Should Survive That
Not Quite Dead
Obfuscating Stupidity (In most of the comics, Grimlock acts like this. He 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 Marvel UK).)
Omnicidal Maniac (Unicron)
Only One Name
Phlebotinum Muncher (Energon)
The Pikachu Effect (The fight between Megatron and Optimus Prime in the first movie.)
Planet Eater (Yet again, Unicron)
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.)
- A robot planet full of robots is hatless?
- Just as much as a human planet full of humans.
Praetorian Guard (The Wreckers, for Emirate Xaaron.)
The Poochie (New character Drift. Lengthy explanation is on the trope page.)
Promoted Fanboy (Benson Yee, frequent convention visitor and operator of a popular Transformers web site. He was approached on Generation One expertise for Beast Wars and received a "Consultant" credit on certain episodes.)
- Then there's Don Figueroa, who built his own meter-tall custom Transformers from scratch before becoming a fan-favorite artist and toy designer.
  - And even more promoted fans beyond that.
Quirky Miniboss Squad (Before making an appearance in The Movie, The Fallen created one of these in the War Within comic series. Decepticon mystics Bludgeon, Bugly, and Mindwipe made a very effective one, too.)
Refuge In Cool (The entire franchise is all about this.)
Ret Con (G1 presented the Transformer origin as being created by a squid-robotic race called the Quintessons as slave labor. Most later incarnations, including G1 versions, have ignored that origin story in favor of the Primus-God version.)
Rhymes On A Dime (Wheelie and Blaster.)
Ruined FOREVER (a wiki for Transformers is the Trope Namer, mocking the way fans react as though every change will destroy the franchise)
Robot Buddy (Reversal: the Transformers have human buddies.)
Robot War
Running Gag: Optimus Prime has a terrible habit of dying to the point where it's not even considered a spoiler to say he does. Dirge and afew of the Seekers overall seem to share this trait.
Running The Asylum (Arguably, it's one of the few series that has benefited from it.)
Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense Of Scale (Space travel varies depending on needs of the plot. Cybertron appears to sometimes be in the same solar system as Earth.)
- 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.)
Series Continuity Error (Cybertron is sometimes a tiny planet with buildings jutting out into space in G1 to resembling Coruscant in the Beast Era and everything in between.)
Sigil Spam (Nearly every incarnation of Transformers abuses the faction symbols to some degree)
Signature Style (Simon Furman has a series of phrases that make their way into virtually every comic he writes, referred to as Furmanisms. The most famous is either "like some vast, predatory bird" or "It never ends!")
The Starscream (Trope Namer)
Steampunk (The Hearts of Steel miniseries)
Take That (The comics feature a lot of jabs against the mostly-forgotten competitor to the original, Challenge Of The Go Bots.)
Tank Goodness (A bunch of Decepticons.)
Telescoping Robot (Highly prevalent in G1, where the 30-foot tall Soundwave became a stereo, amongst plenty of other examples. Later installments avoid this for the most part, simply consenting to change size off camera. Not to be confused with the Cybertronians that turn into telescopes.)
Time Dissonance (Transformers are immortal unless killed, and see time differently.)
Transforming Mecha (The entire concept.)
Truce Zone (Maccadam's Old Oil House )
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.)
Twenty Minutes With Jerks (An endemic problem with the franchise is that the first installment - the 2007 film, Armada, Infiltration - will sometimes focus excessively on the less-than-likable Puny Humans and ease into the robots. Infiltration is a case of this backfiring spectacularly, with the humans' development inspiring enough annoyance and boredom that the next arc, Stormbringer, was advertised as "Nothing but ROBOTS on CYBERTRON!")
Unpleasable Fanbase (Even they are aware of it, having a better sense of humor than 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 BAM! KAZOWIE! Warpath. I am Wreck-Gar!)
Villain Decay (Usually dealt with by upgrading the villains to new forms (with new toys, naturally). Animated intentionally made the Decepticons much more powerful than the heroes, and used them sparingly, filling in the gaps with human supervillains.)
Who Wants To Live Forever (Subverted, as the Transformers have a lifespan where they are effectively immortal, but this doesn't seem to bother them in the least. They can and do die in combat, naturally.)