Transformers - Television Tropes & Idioms

More than meets the eye.

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 Decepticon flyer Waspinator to annoy the Maximals and Predacons.
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.

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

Generation One

Transformers: Generation One premiered in 1984 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. The original title of the series was The Transformers; Generation One was coined after Generation Two came out (see below).

After two seasons, in 1986, Transformers: The Movie, an animated feature film was released, advancing their timeline to futuristic 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, Robert Stack 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, planting the seeds for a running gag around the time the Internet came about.

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.

The Generation Two toyline came out, partially an effort to keep interest in the brand with modified versions of the original characters. 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.

Other animated series in the Generation One continuity include:

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.
Operation Combination/Return of Convoy, a pair of short mangas
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.

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 Budainsky, 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 Wars

Beast Wars (1996) is technically a distant future continuation of Generation One. It 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).

Beast Wars can be credited with reinvigorating the brand and pulling it out of the slide into obscurity that many '80s series suffered. In fact, Beast Wars created a few new concepts to the mythology that has resonated since, especially the concept of The Spark, the soul of a Transformer that makes them intelligent and more then just machines. It also effectively RetConned all of Generation One characters as having Sparks as well. This also led into ideas concerning the Transformer afterlife called "The Matrix." These concepts became major plot points in Beast Machines.

Beast Machines (2000), the 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 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, 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.

Japan produced a Gag Dub for Beast Wars as well as a few anime based off of these two shows two make up for the longer production periods between seasons.

Beast Wars II, a series set far into the future of Beast Machines but broadcast in Japan between the first and second series of Beast Wars.
Beast Wars Neo, which continued after Beast Wars II but was broadcast between the end of Beast Wars and the beginning of Beast Machines.

There are fandubbed episodes of both these shows at TFCog.net

. They're pretty good.

Transformers: 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 presense. 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.

The Live-Action Movie

Transformers, (2007) 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. Part of the films 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 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.

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 ealier. Despite this, it is set in its own continuity. 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 its predecessors, it featured the Autobots facing the Decepticons on Earth.

What sets this series apart is that Optimus Prime and his crew are a low-ranking construction detail, lacking combat experience and proper weapons; it usually takes the whole team to defeat one or two Decepticons. Beginning long after the original war with the 'cons, Prime and his team stumble upon the coveted Transformer artifact, the Allspark. In short order the small crew find themselves running from the Decepticon leader Megatron and his crew. After escaping their reach they find themselves crash landing and stranded on Earth near Detroit. They make friendly relations with the humans, but the Decepticons are not far behind.

IDW does two Animated comics, one adapted from cartoon episodes and assembled out of screenshots, and one featuring original stories that take place in and around the aired episodes. Titan Magazines reprints the former and also does original stories of their own.

Transformers: Shattered Glass

An April Fool's joke gone horribly, horribly wrong, this Botcon-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. A short teaser comic was printed, to sell the prank, but the fans gobbled it up, proving to be 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 Botcon 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 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 the ''Transformers'' wiki

. Its informality is similar to that of TV Tropes.

This series provides examples of:

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.)
Alternate Continuity (Currently, 5 different "main" continuity lines. Gundam has nothing on Transformers.◊)
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.)
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)
Catch Phrase ("Autobots! Transform and roll out!", among others.)
The Chew Toy (Four words: "Why universe hate Waspinator?!?")
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.)
Continuity Snarl
Cyber Cyclops (Shockwave)
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.)
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)
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.)
Humongous Mecha
Idiosyncratic Wipes
Introdump
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
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.)
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. He 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.
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.)
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 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, and is sometimes 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.)
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 probably "like some vast, predatory bird".)
- Ahem. "It never ends!" anyone?
The Starscream (Trope Namer)
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.)
The Collector Of The Strange (Autobot Pipes collects interesting human knick-knacks.)
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.)
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.)
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. )
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 has 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.)