A "Transformer" is a large humanoid (although not all are humanoid and not all are huge) robot that is able to reconfigure itself into the form of a more common and innocuous machine, such as a car or an airplane. The tagline "More than meets the eye" reflected this ability for disguise.
Transformers originally featured two main factions of "transformers" warring for control of their home planet, Cybertron. The noble Autobots were led by Optimus Prime, and the evil Decepticons were led by Megatron.
The Transformers series also spawned a comic book series, as well as a feature-length movie, Transformers: The Movie. The original series was followed by a number of spin-offs with varying levels of popularity.
Floro Dery was responsible for the look and feel of the Transformers cartoon series and was the visual creator of the Transformers: the Movie. He interpreted the toy box art and created the models that would become the visual guidelines both for the comics book and the animated cartoon.
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In the original U.S. television series (known as "Generation One" or "G1", Prime transformed into a semi-trailer. His friends included Jazz, Ironhide, and Bumblebee. His enemy was Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons.
In Transformers: The Movie, Prime was killed due to injuries sustained in a battle with Megatron, and leadership of the Autobots fell to Hot Rod, who was transformed by the leadership matrix into Rodimus Prime.
Toward the end of the television series (the final season of which was set after the movie), Prime was resurrected through the offices of the Quintessons and resumed leadership of the Autobots.
In subsequent editions of the Transformers toy line, it has become tradition to name the leader of the Autobots (or good-guy equivalent) Optimus Prime or a similar name such as Optimus Primal.
The same naming tradition also extends to the Decepticon leader, Megatron. (Megatron, interestingly, often undergoes a resurrection after his inevitable death in the accompanying cartoon television series into Galvatron, with accompanying toy.)
In March 2003, a man from Ohio in the United States, legally changed his name to Optimus Prime. See Optimus Prime for more information.
The Decepticons are led by the cunning and mighty Megatron, who is obsessed to a fault with power and domination. Their role in the original television series begins four million years ago on the Transformers' home planet of Cybertron. Ravaged from the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons, Cybertron was almost completely drained of its energy resources. Neither side had enough energy reserves to continue the battle, which led to a stalemate. The Autobots, with their leader Optimus Prime, leave their home planet to seek new sources of energy. The Decepticons pursued them and boarded the Autobot starship (the Ark). During the ensuing fight they crash-landed into a volcano on prehistoric Earth. Awakened in 1984 when when the volcano erupts, the Decepticons are repaired by the ship's computer and flee, leaving the still-deactivated Autobots behind. Megatron soon discovers that Earth has nearly limitless energy resources. Hoping to tip the war's balance in favor of the Decepticons, Megatron plans to transfer Earth's energy to Cybertron even if it means ruining the Earth in the process.
Unfortunately, the Decepticons made a fatal mistake by leaving the Autobots behind. Just after the Decepticons were awakened, the Autobots were still deactivated and among them on the Ark. In a twist of fate, the Decepticons failed to terminate them when they had the chance. Upon fleeing, the Decepticons blasted the rocks around the ship to seal the entrance. The jolt moves an Autobot into the Ark's repair beam. The remaining Autobots are subsequently revived and rise up to become the protectors of life on Earth and the Decepticons' nemesis.
Megatron is the leader of the Decepticons. His arch-nemesis is Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots. Megatron is often in conflict with the Autobots and tries to destroy them. Whenever he is defeated he says, "Decepticons, retreat!"
A list of the Transformers TV series
Autobots
Optimus Prime
Optimus Prime is the leader of the Autobots by right of his possession of the "matrix of leadership". In some versions of Transformers continuity, he is only the most recent Autobot leader ("Prime" is akin to a title, not a surname).Decepticons
Megatron
External links