Generation 1 cartoon continuity

As a subset of the overall Generation 1 continuity family, the Generation 1 cartoon continuity incorporates the events of the original The Transformers cartoon, the 1986 animated film, and a number of side stories set in, around, or otherwise spinning off from these events.

Although many subsequent Transformers stories owe at least some inspiration to the various idiosyncrasies of the Generation 1 cartoon and its tie-in movie, fewer have directly revisited the original The Transformers cartoon to tell new stories set in between pre-existing instalments. However, some stories have revisited the interquel years between the end of season 2 and the movie, and others have used the events of The Movie as a springboard for various "what-if" adventures.

Major continuities

The Transformers cartoon

Main articles: The Transformers (cartoon) and Generation 1 cartoon timeline

• The Transformers (1984-1987)
• The Transformers: The Movie (1986)

The original The Transformers cartoon ran from September 1984 to November 1987, and chronicled the exploits of the Autobots and their human ally Spike Witwicky as they foiled Megatron's various energy-gathering schemes. Although the first season largely restricted the action to Earth with occasional visits to the Transformers' home planet of Cybertron, the second season of the show featured an expanded cast of characters and an increasingly diverse set of locales—alien planets, an island of dinosaurs, and even medieval England. Although the show did feature some multi-part storylines and a number of recurring characters, most instalments were generally episodic, self-contained adventures.

In 1986, Hasbro released The Transformers: The Movie, an 85-minute feature film set twenty years after the show's second season, in the then-future year of 2005. While the film is notable for introducing the planet-eating Unicron to the overall Transformers mythos, the film is perhaps best-remembered for its brutal opening act, which features the deaths of Optimus Prime and many other supporting characters, before pivoting to focus on Hot Rod, Ultra Magnus, and many other new characters with new toys to sell. The Movie ends with Hot Rod claiming the Autobot Matrix of Leadership and becoming "Rodimus Prime"; this status quo continued into the third season, which saw Rodimus and the other Autobots contend with both the Decepticons and the manipulative Quintessons. Ultimately, however, backlash from young viewers meant that the third season ended with Rodimus surrendering the Matrix after Optimus Prime returned to life. The show's truncated fourth season consisted of a single three-part miniseries titled "The Rebirth", which introduced the Headmasters and endeed with the final defeat of the Decepticons and the revitalization of Cybertron.

While no new episodes were produced, the show did return for a fifth season, after a fashion: pre-existing stories were augmented by bookend segments in which a live-action puppet version of Optimus Prime told stories of his adventures to a young human named Tommy Kennedy. Twenty episodes received this treatment, including The Movie, which was recut into a five-part miniseries. Additionally, Marvel Comics published a comic adaptation of the movie which depicted some of the events differently.

Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity

Main articles: Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity and Japanese Generation 1 cartoon timeline

Although Transformers mania eventually fizzled out in the United States—resulting in the aforementioned truncation of Season 4—the brand maintained a strong presence in Japan. Rather than import and redub "The Rebirth", Takara opted to commission its own series, which continued on from Season 3 and ignored the events of Season 4. The Headmasters starred the eponymous Headmasters, young warriors from the planet Master, and their battles against the villainous Scorponok. Future instalments—Super-God Masterforce, Victory, and Zone largely followed along the same lines, each one depicting the battles between a new wave of gimmick-powered heroes and villains.

Because the Marvel comic was never imported in Japan, these cartoons formed the basis for many works of Japanese-exclusive Transformers fiction going forward. By the late 2000s, Takara and its licensees began using then-contemporary stories such as Robotmasters and Kiss Players to plug gaps in the timeline and connect previously-unrelated stories. To this day, contemporary Japanese Transformers comics such as Legends and Generations Selects have continued to play in the margins of this vast and sprawling universe, fleshing out the universe by telling stories set in the distant past or the far-flung future.

In addition to the "main" Japanese Generation 1 continuity, a number of other universes branch off of from, or run parallel to, these events. Notable continuities include the BT World, a splinter timeline created through time travel from just before The Movie, the extradimensional Legends World, and various lesser stories such as the Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers manga.

Wings Universe

Main articles: Transformers: Wings Universe and Wings Universe timeline

In 2009, Fun Publications announced that the theme for that year's BotCon convention would tie into the Generation 1 cartoon; that year, the convention-exclusive comic "Wings of Honor" told a story about Kup's younger days as a rookie member of the Autobot Elite Guard. However, FunPub was careful to note that their stories were not directly set in the same universe as the original cartoons, but instead took place in a very closely related timeline, almost—but not quite—identical to the original cartoon universe. ^[1]

The prose stories and comics initially tied closely into backstory from The Transformers cartoon—some stories set up character motivations or plot points from the show, while others told original stories featuring characters that didn't appear in the series, such as the Action Masters. Additionally, Japanese-exclusive characters such as Deathsaurus and Leozack received new roles and backstories. As time went on, however, the Wings Universe shifted away from prequel stories in favor of an original storyline set several years after the events of "The Rebirth", which chronicled the aftermath of the Great War, the subsequent Machine Wars, and the eventual ratification of the Pax Cybertronia. In 2014, the universe again jumped forward many hundreds of years to tell a story set many centuries after the events of Beast Machines, involving the rise of Shokaract.

Minor continuities

The Transformers (PS2)

• The Transformers (2003)

The game's story, titled The Transformers: Call of the Future, takes its cue from the original cartoon, even specifically referring to the events of several episodes. It is (presumably) set in 2003, the year it was released, but, via time travel, also features characters from an alternate future which branched off from cartoon continuity in late 2010 (after the events of "Webworld", but before "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1"). It does not seem to be officially considered part of the Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity, however; it features several anachronistic appearances by characters who are not time-travelling (the Headmasters, for instance, are shown to be working with their respective factions, when they will not leave their homeworld to do so until 2011), and its events were not included in the painfully comprehensive 2007 timeline.

Transformers Legends

• "Redemption Center" (2003)
• "Collect and Save" (2003)

The Transformers Legends novella anthology features several stories set within the cartoon continuity: a short story set at some point after the episode "A Prime Problem," and a prequel to The Movie starring Wreck-Gar.

The Transformers

• The Transformers (2007)

In 2007, Madman Entertainment and IDW Publishing collaborated on a short tie-in comic set four years before the events of The Movie, in which Hot Rod defends the Matrix of Leadership from Soundwave on the future site of Autobot City.

"Rodimus vs. Cyclonus"

• Rodimus vs. Cyclonus (2011)

As part of the Reveal the Shield toyline, IDW Publishing released a brief comic set during the events of The Movie. While this interquel comic seamlessly fits in-between the events of the film, the comic's merchandising-focused nature means that many of the characters who appear are drawn to resemble their then-recent toys, rather than their cartoon character models.

Mars Attacks: The Transformers

• Mars Attacks: The Transformers (2013)

This light-hearted comic was released as a part of IDW's "Mars Attacks" cross-through event, which saw a number of one-shot specials in which the Martians of Mars Attacks fame invaded various comics the company was publishing at the time, including The Transformers. Set in a nonspecific version of the Generation 1 cartoon continuity, the comic takes the opportunity to riff on some of the various tropes and writing conventions endemic to the original The Transformers cartoon.

Echoes and Fragments

• "Echoes and Fragments" (2016)

This prose story, published as a part of "Ask Vector Prime", sees a version of The Movie disrupted by extradimensional mischief-makers Gong and Sideways—what begins as the normal Autobot vs. Decepticon war becomes a battle between the Autobots and Cy-Kill's Renegades, then Leader-1's Guardians versus the Decepticons, then finally a four-way melee, before Vector Prime intervenes and sets things right.

Deviations

• Transformers: Deviations (2016)

Released as part of IDW's Deviations cross-through event, Transformers: Deviations is a "what-if" story where Optimus Prime survived the events of The Movie.

Notes

• The Generation 1 cartoon continuity is notable in that it occupies a shared universe with several other concurrent Hasbro television shows, most prominently G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. While the show didn't feature any direct crossovers with these other brands, the season two episode "Prime Target" had a cameo from Oktober Guard member Daina, "The Killing Jar" revealed that Marissa Faireborn is the daughter of G.I. Joe mainstay Flint, and "Only Human" had the characters encounter a criminal named "Old Snake", who is all but revealed to be an elderly Cobra Commander. "Prime Target" also featured a cameo from Hector Ramirez, who'd previously appeared in several other Sunbow shows. Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac II canonized the common fan interpretation that all these shows existed in a single universe, which included Transformers, G.I. Joe, Inhumanoids, and Jem. According to writer Buzz Dixon, a scrapped scene from My Little Pony: The Movie would've featured cameos from Optimus Prime and Shipwreck. ^[2] Few stories set in this continuity have really done anything with this concept, although the Japanese cartoon continuity did feature cameos from several Joe-adjacent villains.

References