YMMV / Transformers: Generation 1

• Accidental Aesop: Always wear your seatbelt, even when riding in an Autobot. In The Ultimate Weapon, Danny is in the driver's seat of Rodimus Prime (with a temporary paint job), Vortex, picks up the Autobot leader and shakes him until Danny falls out into a canyon and has to be rescued.
• Accidental Innuendo:
  • Megatron turns into a gun to be wielded by another Decepticon, usually Starscream. The implications are staggering. In case your mind wasn't dirty enough to get it at first: Starscream holds Megatron in his hands, then pulls Megatron's trigger, making him shoot out. And to FURTHER add to this, the original Megatron toy had his trigger for his crotch, a point that Robot Chicken made.
  • This gem from "Enter the Nightbird," when Megatron and Starscream debate the merits of the titular android ^note  TFWiki dubbed the exchange "the words that launched 1000 fanfics" .
    Starscream: She's not so hot!
    Megatron: She's hot enough to replace you whenever I choose!
  • In "Prime Target", Optimus Prime comments, "Amazing. A booby trap that actually catches boobies!" If you can stop snickering, it's referring to a stupid person (or rather bot, seeing as it's Blitzwing in the trap that was meant for Optimus).
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Overlapping with Depending on the Writer, thanks to the numerous and conflicting (even back in 1984) continuities and depictions of Generation 1 characters, it's rare that you'll find more than two portrayals of the same character that match up perfectly, so how certain characters act all depends on your continuity of choice.
  • Is Shockwave loyal to Megatron as he is in the cartoon, or a logic-obsessed Starscream that's more effective than Starscream himself as in the comics and his original toy bio?
  • Decepticons: stone cold evil or Well Intentioned Extremists?
  • Ratbat. He's a voiceless servant to Soundwave in the original cartoon, but he becomes Decepticon leader for a time in the original comics. Later continuities have tried to meld both interpretations for one backstory, where Ratbat is usually of high power before becoming a servant of Soundwave.
  • Starscream: does he want Megatron's position, or Megatron's respect? Was it Megatron's abuse that made him into an impudent backstabber as a defence mechanism, or was he was always a disloyal schemer that whittled down Megatron's temper?
    • On that note, is Megatron really trying to keep Starscream in check? Or is he actually grooming Starscream to succeed him, knowing deep down he's not as invincible as he believes?
  • Speaking of, why does Megatron keep Starscream around despite his blatantly treacherous intentions? There are numerous theories, but the in-universe explanation (at least some of the time) is that, while Starscream is a traitorous schemer, Megatron keeps him because he reminds Megatron of the need to watch his own back and keep his power protected at all costs. There's also the fact that early in the series (though it was never really brought up), the Decepticons are actually severely outnumbered - there are 18 Autobots, and only 11 Decepticons (13 if you count Reflector's other two bodies as separate fighters) ^note this applies to the named Decepticons, as a rabble of nameless Decepticons using Starscream's character model were frequently used to fill out Decepticon ranks and make the Autobots look like the underdogs. They need everyone who can fight.
  • Does Starscream have a point in thinking Megatron should be overthrown given his failure rate in the cartoon, or simply acting on his own ego and nothing else?
  • Is Grimlock really stupid? Or does he just pretend to be stupid to throw his enemies off guard? Another interpretation is that Grimlock is quite intelligent but is unable to speak properly due to a malfunction in his speech processor, giving him a variant of Broca's aphasia^note In the show, Grimlock was pretty much portrayed as dumb, while the comic took the "he's smart, he just can't speak well" approach.
    • In "Grimlock's New Brain", Grimlock becomes very intelligent, and he still uses the same speech patterns as he did before. However, his new intellect is reflected in the way he uses those speech patterns; for example, he says "I, Grimlock" rather than "Me, Grimlock".
  • Soundwave is popularly seen as Megatron's loyal Yes-Man, but his toy bio paints him as an unscrupulous blackmailer who prides on digging up dirt on people and using it against them. Then there's his speech - sometimes his speech is written like his cartoon Machine Monotone talk, while other times his speech patterns seem no different to other characters.
• Awesome Ego: Megatron/Galvatron and Starscream, all the way. Also Grimlock when his intelligence gets temporarily boosted.
• Awesome Music: The series' soundtrack as a whole was made mostly with a full orchestra (half of the soundtrack for the third series was mainly made using synthesizers, with some of the older orchestral tracks popping up every now and then). And it sounds epic.
• Badass Decay:
  • Devastator seemed to cop this with the arrival of new Combiner teams who applied The Worf Effect on the Constructicons. Justified, if you think about it, as Devastator is frequently portrayed as the first Combiner and a prototype.
  • Menasor was one of the most powerful combiners, taking down his counterpart Superion in their debut, and only losing when facing both Superion and Omega Supreme. His next appearance had him take down Bruticus (though in Bruticus' defense, Menasor sucker-punched him in the back); come Season 3, a few shots to the back took him down.
  • The Dinobots. There's no question they're all dumb, but they were threatening in the first two seasons. Ever since the movie, while still strong, they would be relegated to comic relief, moreso Grimlock who became a comedic sidekick to the rest of the season 3 Autobots.
  • Scourge and the Sweeps in Season 3. In the Movie, they tore apart Ultra Magnus, in the series, Scourge is either Galvatron's punching bag or a Starscream clone who's a bit more successful, while the Sweeps are just Cannon Fodder.
  • Optimus in "The Rebirth", where he comes off as a bit of weary old man and never really engages in battle like he did before. The bad part about this is that it could've easily been worked into a character arc, with him being shaken by dying and coming back. Except the season 3 finale beforehand had Prime get over it and save the day all but singlehanded in one of the show's biggest Awesome Moments, so there was no longer any excuse. Even more pathetic, this means that Prime lost control of Cybertron within just one episode of having it, while the far less experienced Rodimus retook it in the movie and held it for the entire prior season. ^note Had the show continued, Optimus would've been upgraded into a Powermaster, so perhaps such a character arc was planned.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Megatron - viewed by some as a menacing, badass villain, and criticised by others for being a General Failure (at least in the series pre-Movie). Some even go far as to like him because of the latter, with his more clownish, cheesy persona, Zany Schemes, and of course, bickering with Starscream Like an Old Married Couple making him stand out against the increasingly sinister takes on the Decepticon general later on.
  • Galvatron, Megatron's upgraded form, gets this because there were essentially two characterizations of him: in the movie, he's basically Megatron but more ruthless and competent, while in the TV series, he's The Neidermeyer and completely nuts. Fans tend to go back and forth on whether his little lava bath sucked all the peril out of a potentially threatening villain and left him a lunatic who shot his own men, or made him incredibly entertaining because he was a lunatic who shot his own men. There's also the people who like Galvatron on his own, but don't like the idea of him being Megatron—to the point that, in the early days of the fandom, it was widely claimed that either they weren't the same guy, or there was some continuity out there where they weren't the same guy, despite every version prior to IDW being fairly straightforward on the idea that Galvatron is just Megatron with a new body.
  • Arcee is either praised for being the first notable female Autobot in the franchise who is a regularly appearing character or is loathed for the feminine cliches she's often subjected to.
  • Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime is probably the most divisive character in G1 - there's very little middle ground between the people who see him as whiny, ineffectual, shiftless, a total hypocrite, and basically responsible for Optimus's death, and the people who see him as one of the best (if one of the few) developed characters in the series and a fascinating contrast to Optimus who proved himself as an effective leader at every turn, while having to become leader in the shadow of Optimus, a Legend In His Own Time.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The surprise reappearance of the supposed-to-be-reformatted-into-the-Sweeps Insecticons in "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1" certainly counts. Kickback and Shrapnel suddenly show up out of nowhere and try to munch on leftover Energon before being shot at by Cyclonus and the Sweeps, which causes them to fly away. This is never mentioned again^note Probably an animation error, due to the episode being animated by AKOM, of "Carnage in C-Minor" infamy, where other characters that were dead show up for quick crowd shots.
• Bizarro Episode: Quite a bunch, most notably Carnage in C Minor (where the Decepticons try to collect the three notes of a harmony that can destroy the Autobots from a race of aliens that always sing when they speak) and the notorious B.O.T. (a pair of extremely rude high school boys and a nerdy girl they are partnered with create a crude robot for their science project and inadvertently give it the brain of the Combaticon Brawl).
• Broken Base:
  • While G1 is the most iconic incarnation of Transformers apart from the live-action film series, the Transformers fanbase is up in arms over whether it was a legitimately good cartoon, a deliciously corny Guilty Pleasure, or a poorly-made toy commercial that is blindly supported due to nostalgia. Debates of this type also include how it compares to other Transformers series. Despite this, modern G1-based material tends to be of fairly high quality in order to appeal to more discerning adult fans.
  • "Carnage in C-Minor". It's either one of the series's worst episodes with far more animation errors and technical problems than usual as well as a bunch of annoying aliens with tedious "sing-song" voices. Or it's a fun and silly romp that's not nearly as bad as other episodes (frequently being compared favorably to B.O.T.) that has Soundwave's last big role, especially since nearly all of the Season 1 Decepticons had either died or become Demoted to Extra at that point.
  • Soundwave's most famous depiction as having Undying Loyalty to Megatron originates from here and stretches across continuities to be his most distinguished trait. Fans are split whenever future writers try and take him in a different direction (like say the opportunistic snitch that his toy bio was). Is it an acceptable reimagining seeing as nearly all characters receive changes and the fandom's become known for a negative attitude towards change or is Soundwave without the Undying Loyalty just not Soundwave anymore? Some fans are also willing to make the case that Soundwave wasn't totally unflappable in his loyalty in G1 to begin with (using examples such as The Movie where he does little to prevent another Decepticon overthrowing Megatron).
  • Megatron's gun mode. Was it a great design born from his toy, that turns into a pretty cool weapon for others to use? Or is having Megatron turn into a small gun for others to fire ill-fitting to somebody who's supposed to be the powerful Big Bad? It's telling that unlike Optimus, who's almost always reimagined as a truck, Megatron changes radically depending on the continuity, with even his later toys referencing G1 choose a vehicle over a gun. That and the strict toy laws in some countries make it next to impossible to re-release him, since Megatron is a realistic firearm replica; for example, in Australia, one has to be a registered member of a gun club to even own a Masterpiece Megatron.
• Character Rerailment: "Webworld" acts as an explanation for future episodes reining in Galvatron's madness somewhat to make him more coherent as a character. Within it, he's taken to Torkulon, a sanitarium planet, and subjected to mental health practices both healthy and inhumane, before managing to literally offload some of his instability into Torkulon's computers once they try to lobotomize him and drive the entire planet insane. Though still a bloodthirsty despot, he had his moments of acting more lucid, up to and including accepting a truce between the Autobots and Decepticons to rebuild after Optimus Prime cures the Hate Plague.
• Common Knowledge:
  • Optimus Prime and Megatron use energon weapons to fight, with the former using an axe and the latter preferring a flail. It's technically true, they did use them... once. But since this one battle is among their best-remembered ones the weapons are iconic enough to reference in later media, which in turn gives the impression they carried them everywhere. The main reason is that the Japanese opening theme used mostly clips from the pilot, which included that battle, leading to it becoming particularly iconic in Japan and the axe and flail being basically mandatory in any collector-grade Optimus or Megatron.
  • A longstanding, and still-prevailing in some circles, rumor that it's an anime, not a cartoon. This is often backed up by three contributing factors — The toys themselves were imports of multiple franchises including Diaclone, Microman and Macross; the animation being largely done in Japan, with several noted future names like Satoshi Urushihara and Masami Obari as animators; and that several episodes aired in the country before their American release date. In actuality, the series was always American-produced, and simply outsoruced to Japan (with Toei Animation in turn outsourcing the brunt of the work to Korean companies like Sei Young) before shifting duties over to AKOM by Season 3. Not to mention the fact that other places, such as the Atlantic provinces of Canada, also aired episodes well before their US release dates; with the opening pilot storyline dropping almost a week before their official US airdates. Despite this, there's still a healthy Broken Base about its status, not helped by sites like Anime News Network having it listed among the actual anime of the franchise^note And this is before you take into consideration that ANN documents all entries of the franchise, regardless of if it's one of the anime entries, cartoons or even the live action movies.
• Complete Monster: See here.
• Continuity Lock-Out: The movie was never released in Japan until 1989, making the viewers wondering what happened during season 2 and 2010. Oddly enough, Toei Animation didn't try to explain this when they made the movie. It gets the point where the three Japanese exclusive Generation 1 series (Transformers: ★Headmasters, Transformers: Super-God Masterforce and Transformers Victory) had a heavy dose of Continuity Snarl, namely characters who were killed in the movie (Prowl, Ironhide, and Wheeljack) showing up and acting like nothing ever happened to them (not helped by the staff of those later anime entries barely overlapping with the cartoon's crew, let alone the writers). Later media explained that the Prowl and Wheeljack that appear in these shows are actually different versions of the characters who came from the BT World, and that their original versions did indeed perish in the movie; Ironhide's brief cameo in Headmasters, meanwhile, can be chalked up to an animation error.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • The episode "Webworld", which involves the Decepticons trying to get Galvatron to a therapist. This goes about as well as you might expect.
    Galvatron: "I'll destroy everything here—everything! And THEN, I'll destroy the Autobots!"
    Therapist: "Yes...tell me about the Autobots."
    Galvatron: "I hate Autobots! I hate Cyclonus! And I'm not very fond of you, either!"
  • The episode "Dark Awakening" brings Optimus back from the death, but the episode also handles him in the most offensive way possible... before killing him off again even more violently than last time. It's either the most backhanded Author's Saving Throw ever, or some on the production team thought "Team, I think we can traumatize even more kids if we just try harder".
• Draco in Leather Pants: Starscream. What could it be? The squeaky voice, Megatron constantly harming him, the fact that he's vaguely more humanoid than other Decepticons? Or was it just the flashy paint job? The world may never know.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: See here
• Ethnic Scrappy: Abdul Fakkadi, the leader of the offensively named country of Carbombya in the episode "Thief in the Night", is generally disliked for being an offensive stereotype of Arabs as well as a colossal Jerkass. Doesn't help that he's also a painfully unsubtle jab at real-life dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
  • Especially bad since a previous arabic character, Hassan (later revealed to be Prince Jumal) from season 2's "Aerial Assault" was portrayed as helpful, competent, and with the non-stereotypical hobby of repairing old cars.
• Evil Is Cool: The Decepticons tended to have alt modes that would seem more interesting to the toy line's target audience like fighter jets, giant robot bugs, and even guns the kids could hold in their own hands. Plus, whenever it wasn't some new figure series both sides got at the same time, they were always the first side to get the really creative concepts like a guy with a bunch of smaller robots he could release from his body, triple-changers, and a subfaction whose members could all combine into one great big robot.
• Fandom Rivalry: With the Transformers Film Series. While G1 fans have many justified complaints about the film franchise, the sheer vitriol with which they bash the movies and glorify the series they grew up with has prompted a lot of Critical Backlash from fans of the movies.
• Fan-Disliked Explanation: Very few like the explanation that Unicron was built by Primacron, a simple alien scientist. It's been since retconned to oblivion in most G1 material and practically no adaptation uses this origin. However, starting in the 2010s, the origin story has been making a comeback due to Hasbro deciding to get rid of all multiversal singularities (including Unicron), meaning that the story is canon again and The Transformers: Unicron used the alien scientist creates Unicron story (though much more tragic in the comics) while Primacron serves as an antagonist in the Japanese G1 web mangas.
• First Installment Wins: Until the live-action movies came along and caused Adaptation Displacement, Generation 1 was synonymous with the Transformers brand itself; even to this day, it's the most well-known incarnation apart from the movies, and there are many fans who attest that it remains the most iconic and definitive - a hard argument to contest, as most recurring characters from later shows are based on the characters from here^note For example, you usually have (at least) Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron, and Starscream, they usually look enough like the G1 characters that they are recognizably a version of that character, their personalities are usually similar (Starscream is almost always, well, The Starscream), their alt-modes are an updated version of the original, etc..
• Franchise Original Sin: The show was Merchandise-Driven, and it showed with plots catering to selling new toys. That was clear from the beginning when episodes would often introduce new characters out of nowhere and the show would just treat them like they were always there. The decision to kill off existing characters in The Movie just to make room for a bunch of new characters who were introduced out of nowhere for the third season has gotten considerable flak, but the fact is the movie was just an example of a problem that had already been plaguing the show. The fact that the cartoon usually just moved the characters into the background, while the film outright killed them doesn't help matters.
• Growing the Beard: Season 2 showed a lot of signs of improvement, with stronger and bigger scale plots, more backstory, more spotlight episodes and characterization, and better animation. The last few episodes of the season and season 3 however, fall under Seasonal Rot, bar a few really stand-out episodes. Note however that there are some who feel season three has merit.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The series and the toyline was so popular in Japan that Takara decided against dubing the american Season 4 (The Rebirth parts 1, 2 and 3) and instead they worked with Toei Animation to produce three more season for the japense market: The Headmasters, Super God Masterforce and Victory.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • At the end of "Only Human", which takes place in the then-future year 2006, "Old Snake"^*who is all but stated to be a future version of Cobra Commander laments that "they simply don't make terrorists like they used to..." as the episode's villains are taken away. Even beyond 2006, real life has proven that they do make terrorists like they used to.
  • In "Fight or Flee", Rodimus convinces Sandstorm to evacuate Paradron in preparation for the planet's destruction because the residents can live on Cybertron. In Transformers: ★Headmasters, Cybertron is destroyed and Rodimus leaves to find a new planet the Transformers can call home.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In "Hoist Goes Hollywood," Hoist and several other Autobots get to be in an action movie. Unfortunately for them, the human characters initially take precedence over their bit parts, the director makes changes to the Autobots to make them look more alien, and there's a good deal of pyrotechnics in the movie. Sounds familiar.
  • The references to Brawn being a Robot Chicken in "Fire on the Mountain". Quite a few Robot Chicken sketches involved Transformers characters.
  • In "B.O.T." there's a junkyard operator who really looks a lot like Luigi.
  • The episode "Heavy Metal War" has Megatron take the powers of all the Decepticons to use in battle against Optimus Prime. Three years later, the world saw another robot with "Mega" in his name do the same thing with other robots.
    • That same episode, albeit in a deleted scene, saw Megatron transform into a jet mode instead of his usual gun mode as a result of the aforementioned power taking. Nowadays, Megatron toys often give him a jet mode (when they don't go for a tank) owing to toy guns being frowned upon in the 21st century.
  • In "Only Human", human Arcee borrowed a motorcycle. Later iterations of Arcee, such as in Transformers: Prime, transform into motorcycles themselves.
  • The episode "Autobot Spike" is pretty hilarious to watch after seeing the movie and the third season for two reasons. One is that the doctor seen tending to the injured Spike Witwicky bears a striking resemblance to Spike's adult self. The other reason is because the episode ends with Bumblebee asking what would happen if an Autobot's mind was put into a human body, with the aforementioned "Only Human" having some of the Autobots becoming human.
  • A group of toyline-exclusive characters known as the Motorvaters were released in 1991, preempting Van-Pires by six years. (For those who have never heard of Van-Pires, the heroes' team name in it was "the Motorvaters").
  • In "The Girl Who Loved Powerglide", Powerglide at one point says "It's hero time".
    • Speaking of "The Girl Who Loved Powerglide", Astoria Carlton-Ritz seems like a parody of Paris Hilton... but Paris was only four years old at the time it aired.
  • Optimus, Mirage, Windcharger, Jazz, and Sideswipe disguised themselves as the Stunticons in "Masquerade", and attempted to combine into Menasor. 30 years later, the Combiner Wars line would introduce an Autobot combiner made up of Stunticon repaints (and thus, a Menasor repaint), with Optimus and Mirage among the components.
  • A scene in Age of Extinction where Prime demands loyalty from the Dinobots at swordpoint was criticized for going against Prime's "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings". The funny thing is, here when the Dinobots - sentient, living creatures - show they have free will by attacking the Autobots, Prime orders them sealed in a cave with no intention of ever letting them out. Only once they beat up some Decepticons on his side, he feels they have earned their freedom.
  • "Kremzeek!" revolves around the titular character - a yellow, electric creature who only says his own name, and has to be caught. All that's missing are red cheeks.
  • "Carnage in C-Minor" features an animation error where seven Constructicons form Devastator instead of the usual six. The toyline for Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen had an option between a Devastator with six components, and one with seven.
  • The third season/entry of a Space Opera causes controversy among fans by explaining the space-traveling Eldritch Abomination Big Bad of the series is just a runaway AI made by aliens. Surely that would never happen today.
  • This frame from episode 5, "Roll for It", which first aired in 1984, looks alarmingly like the "Yes Chad" meme that would become popular on the Internet around 2019.
  • Octane's original toy bio states that he can't be trusted any further than Megatron can throw Devastator. Come The Transformers: Titans Return, and Megatron nigh-effortlessly throws Devastator a massive distance. Consequently, the original bio now sounds like Octane is one of the most trusted Decepticons around.
  • The above mentioned Fan-Disliked Explanation involving Unicron being an alien scientist's creation became this after Fun Publications used their Another Light to get rid of all multiversal singularities including Unicron meaning that Unicron's backstory is now canon. In addition, IDW's original run for Transformers concluded with Transformers: Unicron and it was revealed that...Unicron was the creation of an alien scientist! (Although, the comic did the story way way more tragically than the cartoon).
  • Hasbro attempted to create a Unicron toy◊ after the movie in which he his planet body ends up taking a third of with with weird arms and long legs (then a Mythology Gag toy created by the company Super7 was made in 2023). Then in 1988, Galvatron creates what is possibly the funniest design◊ in Transformers history.
• Ho Yay:
  • Rodimus Prime admits to dreaming about Optimus. His own voice actor (jokingly) claimed the character was gay, despite many incarnations of the character being romantically linked to Arcee.
  • There's also Megatron and Soundwave. Soundwave is slavishly loyal to Megatron and is the sole person that Megatron never abuses or insults (in fact he heaps praise on the guy). This extends to after Megatron became Galvatron, including a scene where the two hold hands as they fly. It's common for fans to joke that the two are secretly lovers.
  • And then there's Megatron and Starscream, who fight and bicker like an old married couple, with Starscream as the whining nagging wife to Megatron's ever agitated husband. Taking the aforementioned subtext between Megatron and Soundwave into account one has to wonder if Megatron effectively dumped Starscream for Soundwave and Starscream simply never got over it. At one point Starscream actually asked Megatron "Aren't you happy to see me?"
• Hype Backlash: The way the series is idolized can hit an interested Transformers fan hard when they actually watch it. The animation is plagued with issues, the plots are often random, several episodes are clearly trying to sell toys, the scale issues can be really distracting, the backstory was pretty slim, and several of these issues would only be fixed by the animated film. It is easy to see why it would be popular as a saturday morning cartoon, but decades of small improvements to the lore, characters and motivations combined with a shared agreed-upon backstory, modern adaptations feel like the writers know what they want to do with them.
• I Knew It!: A long-standing fan theory was that the reason for the seemingly endless supply of Sweeps is that, because Unicron reformatted the corpses of the Insecticons into the Sweeps, the Sweeps retained the cloning abilities of the bodies which they were created from. Flint Dille eventually confirmed this to be true at TFCon 2016.
• Jerkass Woobie: The Constructicons, who are only evil because Megatron reprogrammed them against their will. Well, sometimes. The show's continuity was a bit non-existent. According to another episode, they built Megatron. Don't think about it too much.
• Magnificent Bastard: See here.
• Memetic Badass: Grimlock here to save universe!
• Memetic Loser: Thanks to DR. SMOOV's parody videos, many refer to Shockwave as the worst shot in the galaxy.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "You destroy everything you touch, X!" ^ExplainationOne of Optimus Prime's lines from Episode 2 during his fight with Megatron on the dam that is pretty popular for snowclones (among fans of G1, it's commonly used as a Take That! against Michael Bay and his Transformers films).
  • "Soundwave superior. Constructicons inferior." Which in turn led to "Soundwave superior, [insert name] inferior."
  • Also from the Evil Twin episode: Which Prime is the real Prime? LET'S HAVE A RACE.
  • GEEWUN, a fan term describing those who overglorify G1 (usually due to nostalgia) and bash most other Transformers incarnations, most infamously the Transformers Film Series. Notably, this term cross-pollinated into the Pokémon fandom as "Genwun", and is used to describe fans who are similarly attached to the earliest incarnations of the franchise to the exclusion of others.
  • On the inverse is REEDUN, for fans who insist everything be constantly changed and whine incessantly when any new toy, fiction or anything else calls back too heavily to the original series. Yes, they can be almost as bad.
  • Starscream constantly declaring himself the new Decepticon leader every time Megatron so much as trips.
• Moral Event Horizon: Megatron famously crossed it in the movie when he killed Optimus, though one could say he crossed it far earlier with the Robo-Smasher (aka. the device he used to horrifically brainwash the peaceful Constructicons into Decepticons and destroy Crystal City). For Blitzwing at least, the deal with the Quintessons was the point of no return for Galvatron.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • The transformation noise.
  • Soundwave's voice.
• Narm:
  • Megatron transforms into a pistol for his alt mode, which means that in many large-scale fights the terrifying badass leader of the Decepticons transforms into a gun and lets a subordinate shoot him, rather than fight himself. Worse, it's a gun smaller than the cannon he already has attached to his own forearm (which presumably shrinks to form the scope of the pistol). Bonus silliness for it often being Starscream who does so. The writers for the first live-action movie noted this idea never sat well with them, and compared it to Darth Vader turning into a lightsaber and letting one of his Stormtroopers wield him. It also proved to be Awesome, but Impractical when his real life toy constantly ran into legal problems for looking like a realistic handgun, a big no-no for toy manufacturing laws in numerous countries^note To this day, toys based on the G1 Megatron cannot be purchased in some countries without a license, if at all. Hasbro themselves seemed to realize the gun thing really didn't work, as a lot of future Megatron appearances, including the G1 expanded universe, make him into a tank or aircraft instead (even G2, which was otherwise almost entirely repaints of G1 toys, made the effort to create an entirely new toy for him where he transforms into a tank, which has become his most popular alt-mode).
  • In one episode, the Decepticons drink energon cubes and become intoxicated. Since several episodes revolve around Megatron trying to get said cubes from various dangerous sources, it really comes off like the Decepticons are trying to destroy the Earth to get drunk.
• Narm Charm: Some fans love the show for this. The inconsistent animation and silly writing make it So Bad, It's Good at times, but it's part of what made G1 what it was, and won over the fans for it.
• Never Live It Down: Red Alert's spotlight episode happened to be one in which he spent most of the time running around with brain (processor?) damage due to an accident. The manic paranoia stemming from said damage was taken as the norm and run with by the fandom even though it had been fixed by the end of the episode. (Not to say he isn't legitimately paranoid, though - it's there in his tech bio. And let's face it, you kind of want your security director to be at least a little paranoid)
• Newer Than They Think: The main thing the modern adaptations take from this show is the character names; most of the franchise lore originates from the 1986 movie, and some elements (such as less focus on humans) come from some of the later shows.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Soundwave laughing! No, you read it right. Still sceptical? Here's proof.
  • This... thing. It might have been a very early Prime, but looks more like a Quintesson judge. What is that thing?
• Nightmare Retardant: Megatron, you know that scope that turns into his iconic black hole gun? That scope and other accessories aren't from a real Walther P38 but were made up by the prop department of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., which means the most fearsome Decepticon of them all either turns into a TV prop, or more likely some kid's toy based on a TV prop.^note This is actually made explicit in the original Japanese Microchange toy he's based on, where they're all tiny aliens who disguise themselves as toys and other household objects in a little boy's bedroom. Soundwave, Rumble/Frenzy, Laserbeak/Buzzsaw, Ravage, Blaster, and Perceptor also came from this line, as did an unproduced Planet-Robo that eventually became Unicron. Incidentally this is also why the original Bumblebee and the other 1984 Mini-Cars (IE Cliffjumper, Brawn) had such goofy, Penny Racer-style proportions, since they were meant to represent toy cars.
• Once Original, Now Common: The cartoon was huge and served as the basis for many later works in the franchise's long history. However, because of the improvements later Transformers works have made within that time, this show can come off as basic to a modern Transformers fan with its relative lack of the detailed lore post-movie works enjoyed, inconsistent animation due to its age, and odd plots and very weak continuity born from the writers focusing mainly on selling toys over story. People still enjoy it for what it is, but also believe that other shows have since done things better.
• One-Scene Wonder: Hauler's appearance in cartoon was very brief. However, his similarity to both Grapple and the Constructicons led to various theories about his origins, before the character got an official background story which depicts him as a rogue member of the Constructicons (or rather, the only Constructicon that didn't go rogue), complete with an E-HOBBY exclusive redeco of Grapple.
• Only the Creator Does It Right: Many fans of the cartoon prefer the way the writers handled the franchise better than later installments did.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Whenever "Thief In the Night" gets discussed by fans these days, it's mainly about the episode's less-than-flattering portrayal of Arabs, which offended Lebanese-American voice actor Casey Kasem so much that it drove him to leave the show.
• Periphery Demographic: Season 3 is perhaps the least popular part among younger audiences of the time, due to killing off/writing out most of the old cast in favor of new toys, drastically changing the setting and style, and the animation becoming worse than ever. At the same time, however, it has a much larger fanbase among viewers of older ages, with a few seeing it as a worthy improvement over the previous 2 seasons in some aspects. A lot of elements in Season 3 are also more appealing to older viewers, such as the more interesting Sci-fi setting, more ambitious storylines with a darker tone, the more ambiguous morality of several characters, a smaller but more fleshed out main Autobot cast, and the addition of another faction in the form of the Quintessons. And for those who don't hate Rodimus, there were several episodes that had him dealing with the fact that he had to take over as leader from Optimus, who was beloved by his troops, and an impossible-to-live-up-to legend.
• Replacement Scrappy:
  • Rodimus Prime is hated for replacing Optimus Prime while failing to replicate the traits that made him such a popular character. He never developed his own leadership style and lost the more interesting Hot-Blooded personality that he had as Hot Rod. It really doesn't help that, in-story, he was never even supposed to be the leader since Optimus explicitly named Ultra Magnus as his successor, not Hot Rod. Then you have episodes like "Fight or Flee", in which he blows up Sandstorm's peaceful planet just to stop the Decepticons getting it, then saying he prefers Cybertron for not being so "perfect" to Sandstorm's face as he's grieving which he's never gets called out on this. Fans almost universally consider his best decision as leader to be reviving Optimus and than stepping down from his position. Yeah. Other versions of the character aren't this hated, but they either don't replace Optimus or keep the "Hot Rod" personality and just change their name.
  • Daniel and Wheelie are hated for replacing Spike and Bumblebee as the Kid-Appeal Characters, but falling into the exact pitfalls that Spike and 'Bee avoided, like being too young and having annoying voices. That being said, Daniel isn't treated as harshly as Wheelie despite the general dislike of the two.
  • Galvatron generally gets the least of this (possibly because he is Megatron, just in a new form), but many still prefer Megatron due to feeling that Galvatron came off as less competent and didn't have as many interesting dynamics with his troops.
• Retroactive Recognition: Brad Garrett, aka Robert Barone, as Trypticon.
• Ron the Death Eater: Hoo boy, Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime gets this pretty bad. Many fan fics tend to portray his involvement in the death of Optimus as less of an accident and more as an intentional act of spite (either them assuming that he's a Decepticon spy or assuming that he wanted Prime to die so that he could become leader) when there's no traces of this in canon. There's also some exaggeration of his more morally gray acts, most notably the destruction of Paradron. In the episode itself, there was no other choice and the residents of the planet were evacuated to live on Cybertron (this second bit of information is what convinces Sandstorm after his initial objections). Yet with the way some fans talk about the episode, you would think that Rodimus' first instinct was to blow up the planet while it was still fully-populated.
• Rooting for the Empire: While the Autobots are hardly unpopular (especially Optimus Prime as demonstrated below), the Decepticons sell as many toys and are often considered more developed and less gimmicky or bland characters than some of the heroes. Megatron, Soundwave, Starscream, Galvatron, and Cyclonus especially. That the Autobots and some of their allies were prone to odd moments of objectionable morality exacerbated this a little.
• Sacred Cow: Transformers G1 was a rather infamous example during the height of popularity of the Transformers Film Series. The Michael Bay movies suffered from a lot of They Changed It, Now It Sucks! from fans and, starting with Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, would receive extremely negative reviews from critics. As a result, many nostalgic G1 fans would look back at the cartoon/comic series and hold it up as an incorruptible, perfect piece of work due to nostalgia and the heavy criticism that the Bay movies were getting in comparison, resulting in the "GEEWUN" meme often used by other Transformers fans to point out the most ridiculous stereotypes of the G1 fandom. However, this has died down together with the popularity and corresponding backlash of the Bay movies, and fans instead look back at G1 as an above-average Merchandise-Driven kids' franchise that left a notable legacy behind, though this hasn't stopped hate directed at the movies.
• Saved by the Fans: Optimus Prime is probably the most famous example of this, being brought back after the massive backlash from being Killed Off for Real in the movie. Though in this case it was less "Saved by the fans" and more "Saved by letters of complaint from the angry moms of traumatized children". They did this in spite of the cartoon being Merchandise-Driven, as when Optimus was resurrected, he had no toy on the shelves (bar any unsold Optimus Prime toys, or the fact that the toy was actually still in production due to its popularity, but not publicly advertised beyond voice-overs in commercials providing narration for the new Autobot toys). Optimus would not get another toy until the 1988 Powermaster toy.
• The Scrappy:
  • Roland and Martin from the infamous episode "B.O.T." are generally disliked for being far more obnoxious and mean-spirited than the Autobots' other human allies. They are even nicknamed "future serial killers" on the Transformers Wiki.
  • Wheelie was as unpopular as can be when he appeared in Season 3. Not helped by the fact he actually SOUNDED like Scrappy-Doo in his first commercial appearance or the fact that his initially present survivalist traits got played down in favor of being the cute kid of the team.
• Seasonal Rot: Season 3 is widely considered a step down from the previous two seasons due to killing off/writing out most of the old cast in favor of new toys, drastically changing the setting and style, and the animation becoming worse than ever (which can be laid at the feet of South Korean studio AKOM, which often produced subpar artwork and numerous coloring, model, and continuity errors, though with a slightly higher frame rate than Toei-animated episodes). However, the season still produced some fan-favorite episodes ^note  including Chaos, Dark Awakening, Webworld, and The Ultimate Weapon and some parts of the fandom feel that Season 3 actually made some improvements over Season 2, like having a more manageable cast size or bigger scale plots. In addition, Toei churned out episodes with VERY beautiful art (including the aforementioned The Ultimate Weapon and The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 2)^note that said, even Toei wasn't immune to producing substandard efforts, as episodes like Nightmare Planet and The Hardest Burdon to Bear showcase, and the episode "Call of the Primatives" remains the best-animated episode of the series; too bad the studio who animated it is still unidentified to this day (at least until 2020, many fans believed either Tokyo Movie Shinsha or Ashi Productions was behind it before it was revealed that Toei themselves animated it with some outside help).
• Signature Scene: Optimus Prime vs Megatron atop Sherman Dam from the second episode of the series. While the movie is the iconic fight between the two, the fight on the dam is the second-most referenced and well-remembered confrontation they had. It's also the only time in all G1 that Optimus wielded his energon axe and Megatron his energon mace, and they became iconic weapons for the characters in other incarnations.
• So Bad, It's Good:
  • The cartoon in general; similar to Star Trek: The Original Series, it brought a lot of memorable characters and performances despite its low production values. Although more nostalgic fans tend to view it as awesome.
  • In particular, the episode "Carnage in C-Minor". Sure, it has no end of animation, technical and continuity errors, but it has a good plot (as well as a little Fridge Horror at the end) and the errors have nothing to do with the plot itself (in fact, one of the early TF fan sites - Zobovor's, if you want to know - would catalog animation mistakes, and noted that "Carnage" had about the same number of mistakes as any other - they were just incredibly blatant).
  • "A Prime Problem" is another example because the plot is completely ludicrous (everyone has the Idiot Ball) and Optimus Prime hilariously flubs Spike and Trailbreaker's names (Spike as "Splick", and Trailbreaker as "Trailblazer"; the latter case is Hilarious in Hindsight, though, as the name "Trailblazer" was used interchangeably with "Trailcutter" when Hasbro lost the trademark to the name "Trailbreaker". At least neither are as bad as "B.O.T.". Given one Prime is actually controlled by Megatron and none of the other Autobots can tell which of the two "is real" until The Reveal (Megatron's "Prime" angrily remarks about a captive Spike, "HE'S UNIMPORTANT!" which get the Autobots to see he's "phony"—the "Real Prime" would have dropped everything for Spike), it's understandable.
  • "B.O.T" qualifies as well, if not for just plain bad, due to the plot around three of the dumbest humans to ever exist and their stupidity seemingly affecting the rest of the cast as the episode goes on. (not that it excuses the Decepticons' own bout of stupidity at the beginning, but still...) Two of the humans, Roland and Martin, are the most unrepentant Jerkasses in the series, dragging the third human (Elise) around (at the end of the episode, they tape her mouth shut and drag her away while the Autobots do NOTHING) and using a laser that can kill people as a prank.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • More often than not combined with Off-Model. Much of this was caused by the low-budget Korean studio AKOM in three second season episodes, much of season three, and all three fourth season episodes. Toei was also just as guilty at times, with episodes like "Attack of the Autobots" and "Nightmare Planet" looking particularly troubled in the visuals. The latter episode even having incomplete animations and having to be filled out by two "Secret Files of Teletraan II" segments to make up for it being shorter than usual.
  • The episode "Child's Play" as a whole is nothing but animation flub after animation flub, ending with one of the most infamously animated moments in the series (if not animation as a whole) as the Autobots board the shuttle and seemingly defy physics by clipping through it.
  • The releases by Rhino Entertainment in the early 2000s boasted the use of the original film elements instead of the (finalized) broadcast elements. Unfortunately, this proved to be a curse as these versions were ones that were incomplete. Some episodes, like "S.O.S. Dinobots" and "Heavy Metal War" were greatly affected as a result. And the company's attempts to fix these errors were either slapdash at best, and non-existent at worst.
  • Animation for transformations is generally... not good. It's pretty blatant most of the character models had no actual transformation sequences planned out as they tend to have body parts morph into other shapes onscreen or tuck away for another identical part to emerge elsewhere, and like everything else, AKOM managed to bungle it up worse than Toei. "The Burden Hardest to Bear" features a particularly egregious and infamous instance of this where Scourge simply melts into his alternate mode instead of having his wings wrap around his body to form the vehicle shell like they should (though given he had become a walking, borderline melting Eldritch Abomination thanks to the Matrix by that point, it's more forgiving). Even the movie has this issue in spite of its larger budget.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • The cartoon set the benchmark for Transformers series to come and the G1 cast continues to be used to this day. Numerous debates are had about the changes to the setting, characters, and attempts to do different non-G1 shows.
  • Frank Welker's Galvatron is usually seen as a poor follow up to Leonard Nimoy's. Nimoy had a smooth threatening baritone whereas Welker went with a shrill screech. While Welker's Galvatron voice does sound like an evolution of his Megatron voice, it was much more grating and not nearly as iconic (though it kind of fits Insane!Galvatron better than Nimoy's Sane!Galvatron voice would have).
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Due to having a strict Black-and-White Morality among the cast, some of the more complex/grey characters aren't as interesting as their toy bios would have you believe. For example, Thundercracker may be an elitist jerk, but he has doubts about the Decepticon cause, and Bluestreak is haunted by the memory of Decepticons destroying his home city, which he tries to hide with fast talking and an upbeat attitude. None of these traits come up in the cartoon ^note Although Thundercracker's loyalties did get into the script for "Fire on the mountain", but didn't make it into the final episode, as they're both clear-cut evil/good guys with almost no depth.
  • The production bible for the series noted that Shockwave could create holographic copies of himself; this idea never materialized, until Transformers: Devastation made it a part of his boss fight 31 years after the show started. Shockwave himself, for some reason, ended up with the production bible completely omitting his stated character traits in his bio and comic appearances, meaning he went from one of the most dynamic and interesting characters in the Marvel comics to a bland Yes-Man for Megatron, essentially a poor man's Soundwave. It's quite telling that even Dreamwave, which drew heavily from the cartoon, still ran with the interpretation of Shockwave as a Straw Vulcan Wild Card.
  • After "Five Faces of Darkness", Blitzwing leaves the Decepticons and Rodimus offers him the chance to join the Autobots. As "Starscream's Ghost" was rescripted to focus on Octane rather than Blitzwing, this plot point is never followed up on and Blitzwing's only appearances afterward are being mistakenly-placed in Decepticon group shots.
  • It's clear that most of the development of the characters introduced in season four was focused on the Headmasters and Targetmasters, as the rest end up feeling tacked on. Characters with awesome gimmicks like Punch and Sixshot get about a minute of screentime each and don't contribute much. Transformers: ★Headmasters gives them more of a chance to shine.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Starscream being resurrected by Unicron and then being blasted into space is the last we see of him. One favorite fanfiction topic has Starscream returning and creating trouble for Galvatron, or creating his own Decepticon splinter faction (technically he did turn up again, in Beast Wars).
  • Season Four seemed like it was setting upon a return to the classic formula, with Optimus Prime returned for good and Galvatron rerailed closer to his more lucid and cunning Megatron self. Unfortunately all but a three part special came of it. Headmasters at least played with it a little longer.
  • Despite the various hints both shows inhabited the same universe, we never got a full-fledged crossover with G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, the closest being a disgraced Cobra Commander appearing as "Old Snake" in season 3.
• Unnecessary Makeover: When the Throttlebots and Bumblebee are re-built in The Return of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee is also given a new design. He sees it as an improvement and is renamed Goldbug to complete the change. Those who liked Bumblebee's moderately cute, kid-appeal persona may not have been as pleased with the rebuild. As Goldbug, his head was redesigned to look tougher and more impersonal,^note Curiously, the new head design re-used that of the head of the original Bumblebee toy. his anthropomorphic face being replaced with one with a mouthplate and his distinctive realistic horns with small stubs.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Cerebros. Unlike First Aid, whose own pacifist beliefs were written in a way that made him sympathetic, Cerebros just comes off as whiny and self-centred. Throughout the "Rebirth" trilogy, he refuses to lift a finger to help his fellow Autobots, and shows no guilt over it (at least First Aid showed some regret over the fact that his non-violent ways were of little help to the Autobots), putting his own desire not to fight over their very survival. Though he does show a more respectable side when he agrees to be part of Fortress Maximus in order to help Spike save Daniel, the act does imply that he cares more for humans than his own kind.
• Values Dissonance:
  • Yeah, see if a fictional Arab nation called "Carbombya" is getting on TV these days.
  • A minor one, but in Season 1, Spike gets into a relationship with a girl named Carly. While Spike is supposed to be a teenager, Carly is established to be in college, which would make her a young adult.
• Values Resonance: Regardless of the brief Values Dissonance, some of the themes brought up in some of the episodes are still deeply relevant.
  • The Quintessons using subliminal messaging to achieve a goal by making everyone hate each other has become much more relevant with large corporations becoming more powerful and gaining more influence over the media.
  • While the war between the Autobots and Decepticons is portrayed as a war that is necessary, with the Decepticons portrayed as irredeemably evil, the war between Xattaxiss and Lanarq in "The Quintesson Journal" is portrayed as a war that is a senseless waste of life, simply because the two don't like each other, and the Quintessons are the only winners (in this episode, they are basically arms dealers - for both sides). It hammers home a message that war is truly horrible that should only occur if absolutely necessary. It also portrays hatred as an emotion that destroys simply everyone who engages in it and shows the cost of what it can do.
• Vindicated by History:
  • The third season. It was once the most derided season in the fandom, but since coming out on DVD and being made widely available alongside the rest of the series, many fans have taken another look at it, and now many episodes of the season are regarded as some of the series' best. Check any top ten list of G1 episodes and season three episodes will make up almost half of the list, at least. Also characters like Rodimus Prime, Galvatron, Cyclonus, et al have become much more popular, and are seen as interesting characters in their own right.
  • "Dark Awakening" in particular got a lot of hate for a while, due to dredging up a lot of bad memories of the movie. When people started rewatching it, they found it to be probably the biggest Tear Jerker of the entire original run.
  • Back in the early days of the fandom, the cartoon's choice of origin—the Transformers were created by the Quintessons initially, and went through a Robot Uprising—was seen as laughably stupid (some variant of "THEY WERE BUILT BY SPACE SQUIDS" was common), and fans consistently stuck to the Primus explanation in the comics for what the "canon" origin should be. Even DK's The Ultimate Guide largely dismissed the idea (though Simon Furman having written it may have been a factor there). Now that the Primus explanation has become almost inescapable in the franchise's lore, a surprising number of people seem to look back on the Quintesson origin more fondly, seeing it as more interesting and lacking the pompous grandiosity and overt mystical themes of the Primus story, as well as informing the core Autobot-Decepticon conflict rather than overshadowing it.
  • Toy-wise, the original Diaclone and Microman toys became this before Takara decided to rebrand most of their Diaclone and Microman figures into a single line. The first toyline failed due to lack of interest when Takara tried to release them in the west. What makes them unique is when you can actually have a human figure and the drivers/pilots can interact with them. This is why Optimus has work stations, a 4-man buggy, and Prime himself has two seats inside him meant for the small drivers. Ultra Magnus' helmet and chest guards can combine into a vehicle, and his carrier can be used as a base, repair bay, and (if you have planes) a plane launch hanger. Megatron's accessory parts can be rearranged into a mounted cannon for a Microman to use. The 1984 and 1985 Autobot Cars, the Seekers, the Dinobots and the Insecticons all had cockpits for drivers. And the Autobot Minibots were all squat vehicles meant to evoque Penny Racers. However Takara saw it fit to relaunch Diaclone but without its Transformers connection. Toy reviewers and collectors now look back at their original Transformers and see what made the toys so unique in the first place.

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