Optimus Prime's heroic Autobots and Megatron's evil Decepticons leave their metallic homeworld of Cybertron to search for new sources of energy to revitalize their war efforts, only to crash-land on Earth, where they remain entombed and offline for 4 million years. Awakening in the year of 1984, the Decepticons set about pillaging the energy sources of Earth, while the Autobots—aided by human father and son Sparkplug and Spike Witwicky—attempt to protect the new world on which they find themselves.
Tropes
- All There in the Manual: The Seeker's first appearance was scripted for them to be generics. While this explains Starscream having a far different voice than Chris Latta's (The line is by Dan Gilvezan), Thundercracker and Skywarp's first lines are provided by John Stephenson and Frank Welker, implying the scene was reworked to feature at least those two.
- Animation Bump: Being a pilot, this features some of the best and most fluid animation of the series (though not necessarily regarding the artwork, which can look quite off at times). Of note the fight at the dam in Part 2, and Part 3 in its entirety.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Probably more of an audio error, but Starscream has a very deep voice when he says, "AUTOBOTS! STOP THEM!". But just minutes later, he has his usual voice. This is due to the fact that the script just called for a generic Seeker.
- The Autobots can fly. This gets dropped before the Three-Episode Pilot ends.
- Spike narrates about his experiences with the Autobots and writes a bit in his diary in the middle of part 2 and at the end of part 3. A concept that was never used in the rest of the series.
- The Autobots are a lot more ineffectual, not stopping the Decepticons until Mirage sabotages their ship at the end of part 3.
- The Decepticon army in general has a bunch of Seekers, cassettes and Reflectors among their ranks.
- The Autobots have no clue what Energon is, to the point where Hound just says it's "some kind of cube". This would be dropped starting with "Masquerade" when the Autobots imprison the Stunticons with Energon bars.
- Spike's primary autobot companion is Hound, rather than Bumblebee.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Bumblebee's is playing the optimist.
- Starscream's is expressing his desire to be the new leader of the Decepticons, claiming that if he had been calling the shots the Autobots would've lost a long time ago.
- Shockwave's is committing loyalty to Megatron and affirming to stay on Cybertron.
- Five-Episode Pilot: A three-episode pilot, but the concept is the same.
- Insane Troll Logic: Despite four million years passing since they left Cybertron, Megatron's only reasoning for trying to return to it is "It must exist!"
- Near-Villain Victory: The Decepticons actually manage to escape Earth on a ship full of Energon, and not even Optimus Prime himself is able to stop them. If not for Mirage sneaking on board and Starscream trying to betray Megatron (again), the Decepticons would've won.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Cliffjumper tries to snipe Megatron, but misses, gaining the Decepticons' attention.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: After waking up and hijacking the Autobot ship's repair systems, Megatron decides to leave Optimus and his team to die... except Starscream's reckless shooting into the canyon starts an avalanche that strikes the ship, with the rumbling knocking Optimus into the repair beam, reactivating him, and allowing him to repair the other Autobots.
- Road Block: The Seekers implement this on Wheeljack and Bumblebee, but aren't successful.
- Say My Name: Optimus screams Megatron's name as the Decepticon's ship blasts off in part 3.
- Spanner in the Works: Mirage, who sneaks in and sabotages the Decepticons' ship once it has taken off, making them crash and singlehandedly saving the day.
- Time Skip: A four million-year time skip.
- The Starscream: Starscream's aspirations are first mentioned in part 1 and made clear in part 3.
- Unexplained Accent: Wheeljack suddenly develops an inexplicable southern drawl at the end of part 2 when he's giving Sparkplug the bomb. This accent never shows up again after this.
