EpisodesEdit
Note: These
episodes are listed in production order rather than original airdate.
In a few instances, this means that episodes are not in the correct
chronological story order, the specifics of which are noted in their own
articles. Note that Season 3, in particular, suffers from this—the Kid Rhino
DVD release of the season reordered the episodes in question so that
they were in order, but also reordered many episodes that did not have
any placement problems, throwing off the whole shebang. Conversely, the
Region 2 Metrodome release of the season just reorganized the problematic ones.
- For further information, see: List of Generation One episodes
Season 1: 1984Edit
The first season is primarily set on Earth, with a few excursions to Cybertron. It started with the 1984 toys as its characters, and introduced the early wave of 1985 toys as it progressed—the Constructicons, Dinobots, Insecticons, and Skyfire.- "More Than Meets the Eye, Part 1"
- "More Than Meets the Eye, Part 2"
- "More Than Meets the Eye, Part 3"
- "Transport to Oblivion"
- "Roll For It"
- "Divide and Conquer"
- "Fire in the Sky"
- "S.O.S. Dinobots"
- "Fire on the Mountain"
- "War of the Dinobots"
- "The Ultimate Doom, Part 1"
- "The Ultimate Doom, Part 2"
- "The Ultimate Doom, Part 3"
- "Countdown to Extinction"
- "A Plague of Insecticons"
- "Heavy Metal War"
Season 2: 1985Edit
The very long second season greatly expanded the cartoon's scope and cast. The second season tends to feature more character-driven episodes than the first season, with many characters getting their own "spotlight" episode. It also features a recurring theme of the Autobots assimilating Earth culture, such the Autobots playing basketball and football and even watching a soap opera. Excursions to alien civilizations popped up occasionally as well. The second season also saw the introduction of concepts and characters that would spread out to other fictions, including the mystic Alpha Trion, the ancient Vector Sigma supercomputer and its circuit key, and the first appearance of Female Transformers within official fiction.The second season also marked a move from weekly airings (usually on Saturday mornings) to a "stripped" show, aired Monday through Friday, either in the morning or afternoon. Some markets also scheduled it in conjunction with daily episodes of G.I. Joe.
Season Two breaks down very roughly into three segments:
- The first dozen episodes feature (primarily) the Season One cast.
- A large second batch of episodes brings in the remainder of the 1985 toys.
- The final ten episodes introduce the four combiner teams that formed the early entries in the 1986 line.
- "Autobot Spike"
- "Changing Gears"
- "City of Steel"
- "Attack of the Autobots"
- "Traitor"
- "The Immobilizer"
- "The Autobot Run"
- "Atlantis, Arise!"
- "Day of the Machines"
- "Enter the Nightbird"
- "A Prime Problem"
- "The Core"
- "The Insecticon Syndrome"
- "Dinobot Island, Part 1"
- "Dinobot Island, Part 2"
- "The Master Builders"
- "Auto Berserk"
- "Microbots"
- "Megatron's Master Plan, Part 1"
- "Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2"
- "Desertion of the Dinobots, Part 1"
- "Desertion of the Dinobots, Part 2"
- "Blaster Blues"
- "A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court"
- "The Golden Lagoon"
- "The God Gambit"
- "Make Tracks"
- "Child's Play"
- "The Gambler"
- "Quest for Survival"
- "The Secret of Omega Supreme"
- "Kremzeek!"
- "Sea Change"
- "Triple Takeover"
- "Prime Target"
- "Auto-Bop"
- "The Search for Alpha Trion"
- "The Girl Who Loved Powerglide"
- "Hoist Goes Hollywood"
- "The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 1"
- "The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 2"
- "War Dawn"
- "Trans-Europe Express"
- "Cosmic Rust"
- "Starscream's Brigade"
- "The Revenge of Bruticus"
- "Aerial Assault"
- "Masquerade"
- "B.O.T."
IntermediateEdit
The Transformers: The Movie is in continuity with the cartoon series, occurring 20 years after the end of Season 2. It was the single biggest turning point for the series, and remains controversial. The movie saw the introductions of Unicron, the Quintessons, and the Matrix of Leadership, all of which would play important roles in Season 3. It made radical changes to the show's cast, killing off many characters and introducing new ones—a shock to young viewers who were used to their heroes driving off into the sunset at the end of every adventure.Despite its unconventional place in the cartoon canon, it remains the best-known representation of the cartoon series among fans.
Season 3: 1986Edit
Season 3 transformed the whole premise of the show. Gone were the two teams stranded on Earth, along with many of the characters that composed those teams. In their place was a galaxy-spanning tale of battles on alien worlds. With the Autobots in firm control of Cybertron, the Decepticons, though still a threat, were somewhat reduced as villains; new enemies in the form of the Quintessons were introduced. Plots often centered on the ultra-powerful city bots, Metroplex and Trypticon.Season 3 has a mixed reputation. It contains some of the most mistake-laden episodes of the entire franchise ("Five Faces of Darkness", "Carnage in C Minor", the introduction sequence at left) most of which can be laid at the feet of AKOM. But some of its episodes are among the best as well, both in animation and scripting; "Dark Awakening", "Chaos", "Webworld", "Dweller in the Depths" and of course "Call of the Primitives" are all heavy fan favorites.
Late in Season 3, as in Season 2, the forerunners of the 1987 toy line were introduced: the Terrorcons, Technobots, and Throttlebots, and (very briefly) the cassettes Slugfest and Overkill. The season concluded with the resurrection of Optimus Prime, spurred on by a massive campaign on the part of fans, who were displeased by his death and subsequent "evil" resurrection.
- "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1"
- "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 2"
- "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 3"
- "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4"
- "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5"
- "The Killing Jar"
- "Chaos"
- "Forever is a Long Time Coming"
- "Fight or Flee"
- "Thief in the Night"
- "Starscream's Ghost"
- "Ghost in the Machine"
- "Surprise Party"
- "Madman's Paradise"
- "Nightmare Planet"
- "Webworld"
- "Carnage in C-Minor"
- "The Big Broadcast of 2006"
- "The Quintesson Journal"
- "The Ultimate Weapon"
- "Dweller in the Depths"
- "Only Human"
- "Grimlock's New Brain"
- "Money is Everything"
- "Call of the Primitives"
- "The Face of the Nijika"
- "The Burden Hardest to Bear"
- "Dark Awakening"
- "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1"
- "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 2"
Season 4: 1987Edit
How the truncated Season 4 came about remains a mystery, though presumably the short version is that Hasbro pulled out its funding support. Whether anything further was ever planned is not known; see Urban legends about Transformers for more.As it is, the "season" consisted of a single three-part episode, that somewhat hastily brought in thirty or so new Transformer characters as well as Nebulan partners for 22 of them, and attempted to provide a satisfactory conclusion to the series as a whole.
The previous three seasons each feature fully original opening credits. For Season 4, however, the opening credit sequence is a mishmash of existing animation, combining high-quality animation sequences from some of the 1986 and 1987 toy commercials with segments of the Season 3 and Transformers 2010 opening credits, which were of a visibly different art style.
Season 5: 1988Edit
Season 5 did not feature any new episodes, but rather consisted of 15 episodes from the previous seasons and The Transformers: The Movie broken up into five episodes, for a total of 20 episodes. New opening and closing footage was added to each episode, which portrayed an animatronic puppet of Powermaster Optimus Prime meeting regularly with a live-action human named Tommy Kennedy to tell him old Transformers stories.- "More Than Meets the Eye, Part 1"
- "More Than Meets the Eye, Part 2"
- "More Than Meets the Eye, Part 3"
- The Transformers: The Movie (Day 1)
- The Transformers: The Movie (Day 2)
- The Transformers: The Movie (Day 3)
- The Transformers: The Movie (Day 4)
- The Transformers: The Movie (Day 5)
- "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1"
- "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 2"
- "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 3"
- "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4"
- "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5"
- "Surprise Party"
- "Dark Awakening"
- "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1"
- "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 2"
- "The Rebirth, Part 1"
- "The Rebirth, Part 2"
- "The Rebirth, Part 3"
Regular CastEdit
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Japanese releaseEdit
With the success of Transformers proven by Hasbro, Takara elected to cut short their plans for a new Diaclone line in 1985 and import the Transformers toyline and cartoon instead. To play catch-up with Hasbro markets, Takara combined the first two years of toys and cartoon into one series, which was given the excessive (but typical of Japanese cartoons) title of Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers. Although two episodes out of these sixty-five were cut ("Attack of the Autobots" and "Day of the Machines"), an additional nine clip episodes were created, comprised entirely of re-used footage taken from various episodes, bringing the total number of Fight! episodes to seventy-two. Additionally, the broadcast order of the series was significantly reworked, with most of the episodes featuring Jetfire being pushed to the end of the run (presumably owing the character's shaky status as a Bandai toy in Japan).In 1986, after the release of the OVA Scramble City (but not The Transformers: The Movie, which was not released in Japan until 1989) the series was rebranded as Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers 2010. All thirty episodes from the third season were dubbed for 2010, and two additional clip episodes were produced, bringing the total to thirty-two. The number "2010" was originally added into the title in order to make the series feel more futuristic to the audience. However, "2010" eventually became the year in which the series took place.[January, 2008]
These clip shows include the following:
- Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers
- 14. "Birth of the Transformers!"
- 55. "War Without End"
- 56. "Desperate Battle on Dinobot Island"
- 57. "Devastator, the Giant Warrior"
- 58. "Neverending Struggle"
- 69. "Earth's Greatest Crisis"
- 70. "Seek the Cybertonium "
- 71. "Stunticons vs. Aerialbots "
- 72. "Mutiny of the Combaticons"
- Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers 2010
- 29. "Daniel's Adventure"
- 30. "The Desperate Struggle of Justice"
"The Rebirth" was not broadcast in Japan, in favor of producing a brand new series to continue the story of the animated continuity, beginning with The Headmasters. In later years, however, "Attack of the Autobots", "Day of the Machines", and "The Rebirth" were all released on laserdisc, and all the episodes were eventually included on DVD as well. Curiously, while the Japanese dub of "Attack of the Autobots" and "Day of the Machines" retained the unique Japanese names and terminology, the dub for "The Rebirth" used standard English-language names and terminology in a more selective manner (for example, "Optimus Prime" remained "Convoy" while "Hot Rod" was not changed to "Hot Rodimus" but retained his English name).
EditsEdit
The Japanese release of the three American seasons were edited by Takara before their broadcast in Japan. These edits were made not for content, but for length so that the show could accommodate longer opening and ending sequences.The combined length of the U.S. opening and ending sequences was about one minute and ten seconds. The combined length of the Japanese opening and ending sequences, however, was about two minutes and twenty seconds. This resulted in roughly one minute and ten seconds being cut from every single episode.
A few examples of "unnecessary" scenes that were cut to make space for J-pop:
- "Roll for It". The scene where Spike and Bumblebee first reach the laboratory and meet the southern-accented security guard that gives them clearance.
- "Divide and Conquer". The scene where the Autobots first return to Shockwave's base and he opens fire on them.
- "Megatron's Master Plan, Part 1". The scene where Spike, Sparkplug and Chip cheer for the Autobots during the Autobot Day parade.
- "Only Human". The scene where the informant tells Victor Drath that Old Snake is down the street pacing back and forth, and gets punched in the face as payment.
DVD releasesEdit
Kid Rhino (US)Edit
- Transformers First Season Collector's Edition
- Transformers Season 2 Part 1
- Transformers Season 2 Part 2
- Transformers Season 3 Part 1
- Transformers Season 3 Part 2/Season 4
Shout! Factory (US)Edit
- Transformers - 25th Anniversary Matrix of Leadership Box Set (entire series)
- Transformers The Complete First Season 25th Anniversary Edition (episodes 1-16)
- Transformers Season 2 Volume 1 25th Anniversary Edition (episodes 17-29)
- Transformers Season 2 Volume 2 25th Anniversary Edition (episodes 30-49)
- Transformers Season 3/4 25th Anniversary Edition (episodes 50-79)
Madman Entertainment (Aus)Edit
- Transformers Collection 1 — Season 1
- Transformers Collection 2 — Season 2 Part 1
- Transformers Collection 3 — Season 2 Part 2
- Transformers Collection 4 — Season 3 Part 1
- Transformers Collection 5 — Season 3 Part 2
- Transformers Collection 6 — Season 4
- The Best of Transformers Generation One
- Transformers Generation One — Complete Collection
Maverick Entertainment (UK)Edit
- Transformers — Original Series, Vol 1 (Season 1, episodes 9–13)
- Transformers — Original Series, Vol 2 (Season 1, episodes 1–6)
- Transformers — Original Series, Vol 3 (Season 1, episodes 7, 8, 14–16)
- Transformers — Complete Original Series (complete Season 1)
- Transformers — Five Faces of Darkness
- Transformers — The Rebirth
Metrodome (UK)Edit
- Transformers — Season 1
- Transformers — Season 2 Part 1
- Transformers — Season 2 Part 2
- Transformers — Season 3 & Season 4
- Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection
- Transformers — Generation One Bumper Special
- Transformers — The Classic Episodes
Pioneer LDC (JP)Edit
- Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers DVD-BOX 1 (episode 1–35)
- Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers DVD-BOX 2 (episode 36–63, and the other two episodes)
- Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers 2010 DVD-BOX (Season 3, Season 4)
- Note: These Japanese DVD are released without the additional summarized episodes.