Is there anything cooler than giant robots? Maybe dinosaurs and dragons, but fortunately Transformers also has dinosaurs and dragons, automatically making it the coolest thing in the whole world. What started out as a cheaply made animated show to sell toys, the Transformers is now a multi-billion dollar franchise. The entire franchise centers on the classic formula of good vs. evil, Autobots vs. Decepticons. After the initial breakout success of the original Transformers TV show, which has since been lovely dubbed as Generations 1, there have been several TV sho👍ws based on the robots.
Many young children (mostly boys) grew up watching a variation of the Transformers cartoon shows. Personally, I grew up with the Unicron Trilogy of the Transformers TV shows; thos🤪e set of shows meant so much to me as a kid that it made me a fan for life. With so many different shows based on the different kinds of transformers, there are a lot of hidden details that people tend to overlook or forget.😼 The franchise is over thirty years old, and within that timeframe, there have been a lot of interesting tidbits of focus around the numerous TV series.
This is why we are now going to go over the 25 Shocking Things You Didn’t Know About Transformers Cartoons. From Generation 1, to Beast Wars, to the Unicron Trilogy, we will be going over the most surprising facts about the various the TV shows based on the Transformers.
25 😼 Japan Always Gets The Be🏅st Toys
What would eventually become the Transformers actually started out as a series of different Japanese toys that were owned by the same company. Takara of Japan had several different lines of toys in their catalo♒gs during the 80s. Two of them were called the Diaclone, and Micro Change. Both sets of toys featured robots transforming into real-world objects. Hasbro, a leading developer iꦏn the US, saw potential in the toys.
Hasbro decided to buy the American distribution rights for both the Diaclone and Micro Change toys. They decided to combine the two set of toys to form a new brand. The brand would be called Transformers, and it would end up becoming one of the most successful toy brands in the world. The Transformers line of toys would release in the US in 1984. The first TV show would start airing that 🍌following September.
24 Marvel Hero Optimus Prime♉
Hasbro recognized that the toys had unique designs and could be a hit with children. The only issues were the names. The toys that would one day end up being Optimus ൩Prime and Megatron were initially called Battle Convoy and MC13 Gun Robo P38 U.N.C.L.E in Japan. Safe to say, these names were terrible, so Hasbro decided to come up with new names and backstory for all the toys.
Hasbro asked the then editor in chief of Marvel Comics, Jim Shooter, to come up with a compelling backstory for the characters. Another Marvel writer and editor, names Bob Budiansky, was also in charge of writing all the biographies for the character that came written with every toy. Both Shooter and Budiansky would come up with the names and terms of almost every character and setting of Transformers. This includes naming Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Cybertron, the Transformers home planet. Marvel Comics were also publishing the original Transformers comics during the 80s, even having the Transformers crossover with their Marvel heroes.
23 ❀ Guess We Better Roll Out
Peter Cullen is the original voice actor for Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. A prolific actor since the 80s, Cullen is also well-known for providing the voice of Eeyore from Winnie-the-Pooh. Eeyore is the depressed donkey, always saying something gloomy. It's almost💞 the complete opposite from the heroic Prime in the classic cartoon.
Peter Cullen would be the voice of Prime in most media, most notably the live action movies and the Transformers: Prime TV shows (and sequels to Prime). Other actors who voiced Optimus Prime are Neil Kaplan, David Kaye (Transformers Animated), and Jon Bailey (Transformers: Combiner Wars). Garry Chalk is Optimus Primes’ second most common voice actor; Chalk voice Optimus Prime in all three of the Unicron Trilogy shows, as well as providing the voice of Optimus Primal in Beast Wars and Beast Machines. Even though Chalk will ಌforever be my Optimus Prime, Cullen’s Prime is without a doubt the quintessential voice of Prime.
22 I'll Get You Next Time, Opt♈imus Prℱime!
Frank Welker, the voice of the evil Megatron in the original series, is one of the most prolific voice actors of all time. Having gotten his start with shows like The Jetsons and Scooby-Doo in the 60s, Welker has performed in nearly every iconic cartoon series since then. He is Dr. Claw in Inspector Gadget and has provided voices for characters in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, Dexter’s Laboratory, Powerpuff Girls, Gargoyles, Ducktales, G.I. Joe, The Real Ghostbusters, and countless others.
He’s been the voice of Fred Jones from Scooby-Doo since the very first series, and still voices the character to this day. Welker has also been one of Megatron’s more consistent voice actors, having voiced him in the original show, Transformers: Prime, and several video games. He also voices a great many other transformers in the original show, including✨ Soundwave.
21 The Starꦐscream Commander
G.I. Joe and Transformers have a lot in common. They are both owned by Hasbro, they both had hit TV shows in the 80s, and their toys have sold millions. While one show is about a military group and the other is focused on alien robots, there have been some crossovers. The comics have had the G.I. Joes and Transformers face off against each other several times. Cobra Commander, the leader of the Cobra terrorist organization, also guest starred in a season three episode of the Transformers show ("Only Human").
Fans noticed that Cobra Co🙈mmander has an eerily similar voice to the Decepticon Starscream. It turns out that both Cobra Commander and Starscream had the same voice actor at that time. Christopher Collins, also known as Chris Latta, was the voice of both characters. Collins was known for some unusual behavior, sometimes having to be bailed out of ༒jail for unknown reasons. Collins passed away in 1994 from a cerebral hemorrhage.
20 ♏ S⭕hut Up, Blurr!
Blurr was the fast-talking, blue Autobot introduced in The Transformers: The Movie. He transforms into a futuristic car and is well remembered by fans for how fast he talks. While some believed that his audio was simply sped up, in reality, his voice actor was actually speaking that fast. John Moschitta Jr., Blurr’s voice actor, held the Guinness World Record as the World’s Fastest Talker. He had the ability to speak about 586 words a minute. He was well known outside of Transformers for his FedEx and Micro Machines commercials. His record would later be surpassed in 1990 by Steve Woodmore. Moschitta would reprise the role of Blur in Transformers: Animated, the 2007-09 cartoon series.
19 𒐪 Transformers: Animated Had A Lot Of Generation 1 References
With the first Transformers movie out and the end of the divisive Unicron Trilogy, fans were clamoring for a new type of Transformer show. Transformers: Animated was released at the end of 2007, the year the first live-action Transformers movie came out. In many ways, it was a return to form with the series, after several year꧋s of the series going through its Anime phase.
Animated was a loving tribute to classic Transformers, with many Easter eggs and cameos from Generation 1. Spike, Carly, and Daniel Witwicky, the human leads of OG Transformers, make several background cameos throughout the show. The Animated version of Soundwave temporarily became a tape recorder, just like his G1 counterpart. Most notably, however, is that Weird Al Yankovic, famous musician and parodist, voiced the transformer Wreck-Gar in Animated. Weird Al did a song for the original Transformers: The Movie, where Wreck-Gar first appeared in – the role of Wreck-Gar was a reference 🐻to his song “Dare to Be St♒upid”.
18 Some Die So That Othꦍers May Live
As mentioned, The Transformers: The Movie was known for how volatile it was, especially compared to the TV show. Most fan favorite Transformers from the first two season of the show met their end in the film, including Optimus Prime, Starscream, Ironhide, Ratchet, and several more. The larg✱e causality rate in the movie was because those characters’ toys were going to be discontinuing, and Hasbro wanted to use the movie to cleanse the pallet clean and start fresh with new characters and toys. The move was controversial, to say the least, with Optimus Prime’s death being the most vocal.
Parents sent letters in droves to the animation studio that produces the show about how traumatic the movie was towards their young children. Children openly wept for Optimus’ death – the backlash was so intense that the writers of TV show chose to bring Optimus back to life in the season 3 finale. Meanwhile, G.I. Joe was preparing to have its own movie. G.I. Joe: The Movie was originally going to end with the death of Duke, ostensibly the lead of the show. When Hasbro started receiving the complaints about Optimus’ death in the Transformers movie, they force the writers of G.I. Joe to spare Duke.
17 A Rather Confusing Ressurection 🧜
Season three of Transformers, which was a direct continuation of the movie, was not nearly as popular as the first two. The change of direction, both in tone and cast, weren’t as popular with fans. The death of Optimus Prime was stil𓆏l hanging over the show, so Hasbro made the decision to bring back the beloved leader of the Autobots. You would assume that for such momentous occasion in the series, that the writers would craft a carefully constructed story about the resurrection of the greatest Autobot who ev♉er lived.
Howev♏er that did not happen, instead, the writers made a series of episodes that made no sense. First, Optimus Prime was originally resurre🥂cted as a mind-controlled zombie, who tried to lure the Autobots into a trap. He ends up getting back control of himself, and sacrifices himself when his ship explodes.
Except, apparently his ship didn’t explode, at least not right away, and several human astronauts rescued him before the explosion. While the explosion was instantaneous in the first episode, somehow the astronauts 🧸had enough time to save Prime. Optimus Prime was also a rotting zombie in the original episode, somehow his body was perfectly fine in the later episodes.
16 An Explﷺanation Never Aired
Beast Wars was a popular variation of the Transformers in the 90s that focused on a group of transformers that turn into different beasts rather than vehicles. The show lasted for three seasons, and has🌊 a fairly satisfying ending, with most major plot points resolved. One plot point that was not properly explained was the heel turn of the clone Dinobot. You see, the original Dinobot was an honorable transformer, whoꦑ had a very noble death protecting ancient humans in season 2.
In season 3, Megatron cloned Dinobot, lacking the honor of the original, so he was more merciless. He shared a spark, pretty much the souls of transformers, with another transformer called Rampage. When Rampage died in the series finale, somehow the old Dinobot persona started forming inside the clone. It is never properly explained in the context of the finale how the old Dinobot’s personality ended up in the clone. Apparently, there was a never-produced episode of Beast Wars tꦛhat explains how Rattrap, a comrade of the original Dinobot, was able to plug in the core consciousness of Dinobot into the clone. The plan does not bring back the original Dinobot, however, it does explain the clone’s change of heart in the series finale.