[8] The primary concept of Generation 1 is that the heroic Optimus Prime, the villainous Megatron, and their finest soldiers crash-land on prehistoric Earth in the Ark and the Nemesis before awakening in 1985, Cybertron hurtling through the Neutral zone as an effect of the war.

[12] Shockwave is loyal to Megatron on the TV series, keeping Cybertron in a stalemate during his absence,[13] but in the comic book, he attempts to take command of the Decepticons.

The extended Japanese run consisted of The Headmasters, Super-God Masterforce, Victory and Zone, then in illustrated magazine form as Battlestars: Return of Convoy and Operation: Combination.

[36] Soundwave, Megatron's second-in-command, also breaks the fourth wall in the letters page, criticising the cartoon continuity as an inaccurate representation of history.

Though the year-long arc wrapped itself up with an alliance between Optimus Prime and Megatron, the final panel introduces the Liege Maximo, ancestor of the Decepticons.

After a dangerous pursuit through transwarp space, both the Maximal and Predacon factions end up crash landing on a primitive, uncivilized planet similar to Earth, but with two moons and a dangerous level of Energon (which is later revealed to be prehistoric Earth with an artificial second moon, taking place sometime during the 4 million year period in which the Autobots and Decepticons were in suspended animation from the first episode of the original Transformers cartoon), which forces them to take organic beast forms in order to function without going into stasis lock.

[49] After writing this first episode, Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio learned of the G1 Transformers and began to use elements of it as a historical backstory to their scripts,[50] establishing Beast Wars as a part of the Generation 1 universe through numerous callbacks to both the cartoon and the Marvel comic.

The destruction of the second moon releases mysterious energies that make some of the characters "transmetal" and the planet is revealed to be prehistoric Earth, leading to the discovery of the Ark.

The Dreamwave stories followed the concept of the Autobots defeating the Decepticons on Earth, but their 1997 return journey to Cybertron on the Ark II[56] is destroyed by Shockwave, now ruler of the planet.

The series also adds extra complexities such as not all Transformers believing in the existence of Primus,[58] corruption in the Cybertronian government that first led Megatron to begin his war,[59] and Earth having an unknown relevance to Cybertron.

[52] In 2004, this real life universe also inspired three novels[62] and a Dorling Kindersley guide, which focused on Dreamwave as the "true" continuity when discussing in-universe elements of the characters.

Rodimus devastated by his guilt in his role of the destruction of Tokyo stepped down as the then leader of the Autobots reverting to the previous name of Hot Rod in order to return to Earth to atone for his mistake.

The Kiss Players this time are a pop idol singing group made up of the three girls and three original mini-cassette Transformers Glit,[81] Sundor[82] the former is a spy and the latter shows compassion to both allies and enemies, and Rosanna[83] who's the only heroic one out of the three.

The group's purpose is to promote a positive relationship and friendship between humans and Transformers in the wake of the Tokyo disaster of 2005 and the subsequent rise and fall of the E.D.C..

These primarily served to introduce readers to the Kiss Players story and characters when the line was launched, and then later, to summarize the final few radio dramas when both series were drawing to a close.

[84] Reactions ran the gamut from outright disgust to comedic derision, with most fans agreeing that the content such be included a children's toyline was distasteful.

[88] Possibly as a result of the majority of fans trying to distance themselves from the series combined with the then general inaccessibility of the radio show to an English audience, there was minimal awareness of the specific details of the Kiss Players storyline in the Japanese fandom.

The show was heavily censored in the U.S. due to its content of buildings being destroyed and terrorism references after the September 11 attacks on the United States and three episodes were cut altogether.

[89] These three lines, launched in 2002 and dubbed the "Unicron Trilogy" by Transformers designer Aaron Archer,[90] are co-productions between Takara and (lesser extent) Hasbro, simultaneously released in both countries, each lasting 52 episodes.

The writers attempted to change certain plot elements from the Japanese version to remedy this, although this largely added up to nothing more than references to Unicron, Primus, Primes and Minicons.

[91] The storyline of Transformers: Universe, mainly set following Beast Machines, sees characters from many assorted alternate continuities, including existing and new ones, encountering each other.

The performance of Shia LaBeouf was praised by Empire, and Peter Cullen's reprisal of Optimus Prime from the 1980s television series was well received by fans.

[93] Bumblebee, directed by Laika's Travis Knight, was released on December 21, 2018, serving as a prequel to the first film, receiving positive reviews from critics.

Headed by FJ DeSanto, a veteran of Transformers animation having previously worked on two installments of the Power of the Primes trilogy, the series tells the origin of the civil war between the Autobots and Decepticons.

Instead of the entire Transformer civil war, this series focuses on the two leaders once again and the crews of their starships as Optimus seeks to flee Cybertron and find the missing Allspark.

[138] Transformers: BotBots is an animated comedy streaming television series developed by Kevin Burke and Chris "Doc" Wyatt for Netflix comprising 20 episodes.

[140] In a departure from the traditional conflict between the Autobots and Decepticons seen in most continuities, the series focuses on the BotBots, small robots organized in groups of tribes who can transform into everyday objects, and primarily follows the efforts of the Lost Bots, who try to find their own place amongst the others.

[141] EarthSpark is notable for prominently featuring humans after being mostly absent in various media of the franchise in the late 2010s such as Cyberverse, the 2019 IDW comics and War for Cybertron Trilogy, and uses a union voice cast for the first time since 2018.

[142][143] The film is directed by Josh Cooley, who oversaw the story treatment by Barrer and Ferrari with additional script contributions by Eric Pearson.

[146][147] Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry lead the film's ensemble voice cast as Orion Pax and D-16 respectively, alongside Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Jon Hamm and Laurence Fishburne.