TRANSFORMERS REVIEW
Transformers: More than meets the eyes
Welcome to the world of the Transformers. Starting in 1984, this cartoon series spawned sequels, comics, toys and even a movie. Considered one of the best and longest running series in the world, this cartoon has become somewhat a cult to the older generation. This is a cartoon worth mentioning as one of the first successful American cartoon in Japan. Here, I will give an overview of the first and second seasons of this incredible, if slightly badly drawn, cartoon. Enjoy!
They come from a planet known as Cybertron. They are the Autobots. Their mission, to defend the Universe from the evil Transformers, the Decepticons. The first three episodes of the first season, explains how the Transformers came to Earth and also depicts their first battle on the planet.
The story begins on Cybertron, the Autobots are losing and have very little energon left. Without energon, they will cease to exist because energon is their main source of power. Because of this, the leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime, leads a group of Autobots in the spaceship called the 'Ark' to seek out new energy sources. 
They are followed by the Decepticons, led by Megatron. The two factions later do battle with each other and fall towards a blue planet, the third from the sun of that Solar System. The Decepticons' spaceship is lost in space when they boarded the Ark while the Ark pummels to the planet and crashes into a volcano, killing all in it...
4 million years later, the volcano in which the Ark crashed into, erupts. This reactivates the Ark's comupter, Teletran One. The computer then sends out a 'Skyspy' to seek suitable vehicular counterparts for its occupents. The Skyspy then repairs the first Transformer its repair beam comes in contact with, a Decepticon. One thing leads to another as all the Decepticons are rebuilt. They leave the Ark to plunder the planet of its resources. Meanwhile, back in the Ark, the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime, is rebuilt.
The Decepticons steal construction material from a construction site to build a new spaceship so that they can return to their planet, Cybertron, with the new resources. The Decepticons then attack an oil rig and try to get the oil there. The Autobots appear and a battle ensues. The Decepticons destroy the oil rig and bury some of the Autobots and humans there. The Autobots try to save the humans and put out the fire while the Decepticons escape. After saving the humans, the Autobots make friends with two of them, Spike and Sparkplug Witwicky.
The Decepticons complete their new spaceship and prepare to return to Cybertron to take it over. 
Optimus Prime knows that he has no choice but to attack the Decepticons. All the Autobots join him in their desperate bid to stop the Decepticons and total chaos ensue. However, the Autobots fail to stop the Decepticons as the spaceship blasts off into space. Optimus Prime tries to stop them by flying after the spaceship, however, he is shot down and crashes back to Earth, the Universe seems doomed.
Meanwhile, in the spaceship, an Autobot known as Mirage has stolen aboard the spaceship. He is detected and fired upon. As he is able to turn invisible, the Decepticons blast the control panels instead and the spaceship pummels back to Earth. Mirage bails out in time and the spaceship crashes into the ocean. It is over.
The humans help the Autobots repair their spaceship, the Ark and gives them some energy so that they can win the war on Cybertron. Spike prepares to follow them to Cybertron. Then, the third episode of Transformers, ends.
However, it should have ended there and then as there was no suggestion that the series would go on. In fact, I suspect the cartoon should have ended. However, because it was so popular, the series continued on. Whether this is true, I'm not sure but watch the cartoon and you'll find that the fourth episode does not continue where the third one left off.
Here is a list of Transformers introduced for the first three episodes, as the series has not shown in Singapore for quite a while, I'm unsure if all the Autobots are listed, so consider it an incomplete list.
The Autobots: Optimus Prime (the leader)
Jazz (considered the second-in-command)
Bumblebee (the smallest Autobot yet is the best spy)
Ratchet (he repairs damaged Autobots)
Wheeljack (he builds stuff, but they usually backfire)
Prowl (his rank makes him the second-in-command but he isn't)
Cliffjumper (impulsive little sucker with a smart mouth)
Brawn (strongest Autobot besides Optimus Prime)
Windcharger (is able to catch metallic things via magnetism)
Hound (able to conjure holograms)
Trailbreaker (able to create forcefields)
Bluestreak (smart mouth ass who things too highly of himself)
Ironhide (oldest Autobot of the group who cannot get enough of
kicking Decepticon ass)
Sunstreaker (narcissis Autobot who thinks that others look at
him for his looks)
Sideswipe (Sunstreaker's brother but is nothing like him)
Mirage (able to become invisible and almost undetectable)
Gears (do not remember anything about him)
Huffer (small trailer Autobot who wants to go back to Cybertron)
The Decepticons: Megatron (the leader)
Starscream (unofficial second-in-command who wants to be the
leader)
Thundercracker (very loud Decepticon able to cause headaches)
Soundwave (communications officer and has a cool voice)
Ravage (jaguar)
Rumble (loud mouth little creep who can cause earthquakes)
Laserbeak (condor who spies on Autobots)
Skywarp (able to teleport)
Subsequently, the series continued with Autobots finding out that the Decepticons were alive and well and the war continued on Earth. The Decepticons tried to collect energy and take over the Universe, the Autobots trying to stop them. The Decepticons were able to make contact with their comrades on Cybertron and the viewers were introduced to Shockwave, the Decepticon leader after Megatron disappeared. The Autobots in turn, meet a former friend of Starscream called Skyfire who becomes an Autobot. He makes very few appearances and totally disappeared by season two. By the end of the first season, the Autobots create new allies and the first subgroup, the DINOBOTS! These new Autobots were stronger than most and invulnerable in dinosaur mode. They were made up of a group of five. They were: Grimlock (tyrannosaurus rex), Slag (triceratops) and Sludge (brontosaurus). They were not only strong, they were also very stupid and almost killed the Autobots in the first place. 
Thanks to Wheeljack, they managed to 'up their I.Q. just a little'. They later became 'Rogue Bots'. Later, two more Dinobots were built. They were Snarl (stegasaurus) and Swoop (pterodactyl). Although they helped the Autobots, they were not considered part of the mainstream group of Autobots and only made appearances in certain episodes.
In the second season, more Autobots were introduced. I am unable to confirm when these Autobots and Decepticons appeared or if they really appeared in the second season as TCS, then SBC (Singapore Broadcasting Coporation) did not show this show in chronological order. I will attempt to be as exact as possible.
The new Autobots for season 2: Powerglide (an Autobot who speaks like he's from
a TV show)
Beachcomber (a nature lover)
Cosmos (a flying saucer who does not like being
on Earth)
Omega Supreme (a guardian Autobot who at that
time, was the ultimate weapon)
Perceptor (an Autobot scientist)
Smokescreen (able to create a screen of smoke)
Tracks (makes very few appearances but is a smart
mouth ass)
Inferno (an Autobot who loves the heat)
Warpath (an Autobot with a speech problem who
loves to blow things up)
Hoist (another repair and build things dude)
Grapple (a builder who thinks all his constructions
are pieces of art)
Red Alert (I'm not really sure what he's like,
did not see enough of him to know)
Seaspray (an ocean lover)
Blaster (the Autobots' answer to Soundwave)
The new Decepticons for season 2: Frenzy (Rumble's brother, able to make high-
pitch sounds)
Buzzsaw (Laserbeak's brother, don't know much
about him)
Dirge (Decepticon aerial fighter)
Ramjet (ditto)
Thrust (again, ditto)
Kickback (an Insecticon, the Decepticons'
first subgroup)
Bombshell (ditto, only he's able to control
others minds)
Sharpnel (same as Kickback)
Astrotrain (a triplechanger, able to transform
to two vehicular modes)
Blitzwing (ditto)
The major turning point of Transformers, was when the Constructicons were introduced. Like regular Transformers, they had vehicular forms. But there was something more sinister. They could transform into a giant robot by combining with each other. This robot was known as Devastator 
and only Omega Supreme could stop him. Soon, the Autobots had their own combiners, the Aerialbots. The Decepticons retaliated with the Stunticons. While the Aerialbots were the first Autobots to transform into planes, the Stunticons were the first Decepticons to be cars. Later in the second season, Starscream created the Combaticons. They were created from five military vehicles and were defeated when Megatron and Optimus Prime teamed up. Later, Megatron reactivated them and the Autobots created the Protectobots, five vehicle who were rescue vehicles, to combat them. The Decepticons won the overall combiner wars when they introduced the Predacons. Five animals who were ferocious and dangerous to even the mighty Dinobots.
The Autobot combiners: Air Raid (fighter jet)
Skydive (fighter jet)
Fireflight (fighter jet)
Slingshot (a cocky fighter jet)
Silverbolt (leader with a fear of heights)
They combine to form Superion!
Streetwise (a police car)
Groove (a police motorcycle)
First Aid (an ambulance who hates to fight)
Blades (a helicopter)
Hot Spot (a fire-engine)
They combine to form Defensor! He has a personal forcefield.
The Decepticon combiners: Bonecrusher
Scavenger
Scrapper (a shover)
Hook (a crane)
Long Haul
Mixmaster (a cement mixer)
They combine to form Devastator! The first combiner
robot.
Dead End (sports car)
Breakdown (ditto)
Wildrider (a sports cars who thinks highly of himself.)
Drag Strip (a drag strip racer)
Motormaster (a trailer, similar to Optimus in configuration)
They combine to form Menasor! He has a sword.
Brawl (a tank who talks like a madman)
Blast Off (a space shuttle who thinks too highly of
himself)
Swindle (a jeep who is willing to betray the Decepticons
for a substantial amount of energon)
Vortex (a helicopter capable of creating mini-tornadoes)
Onslaught (I'm not sure what his vehicle mode is!)
They combine to form Bruticus! The second strongest
combiner of the second and third seasons.
Razorclaw (a lion)
Rampage (a tiger)
Divebomb (a vulture)
Tantrum (a bull)
Headstrong (a rhino)
They combine to form Predaking! The most powerful
combiner of the second and third seasons.
The series finally ended without any clear-cut winner. This however did not mean that the Transformers would disappear from the world, instead, a movie appeared to continue the saga.
MY TWO CENTS
There were a few episodes that were great like the first episodes, 'More Than Meets the Eyes!', 'Fire in the Sky', 'S.O.S. Dinobots', 'War of the Dinobots', 'Heavy Metal Wars' and so on. These episodes had great plots and were entertaining. However, as the series did have a long run, there were bound to be episodes that sucked. (Okay, okay, stop pelleting me with tomatoes.) I will not go into individual episodes but in overview of the weakness of the series. This is just my point of view, there is no reason for you to agree with me.
First, in the first season, although there was an effort to give all the Autobots individual personalities, the fact that not all of them were featured regularly made it hard to like all of them. The most common Autobots were Optimus Prime, of course, Bumblebee, Prowl, Jazz, Ratchat, Ironhide and one or two others. Most of the other characters usually didn't have much to do. In the case of the Decepticons, it was worst. Megatron and Starscream were actually the only ones to have proper personalities. (not counting Soundwave, I'm still trying to figure out his personality.) Most of the other Decepticons were too dumb, too back-stabbing or just plain loyal. 'So, they're just the bad guys' you'd say. However, if it weren't for the bad guys, where would the good guys be? Another thing, why do women find those Autobots so attractive? If you've watched, 'Sea Change' and 'The Girl who loved Powerglide' are the only(?) examples in the series. If this is so, could Decepticons have had human 'lovers'? If so, would they have had stopped trying to kill 'fleshlings' and steal Earth's energies? We'll never know, will we. There were a few stupid stories but they were watchable. I guess I'll leave it at that.
In the Japanese version of the series, the title of the cartoon was called 'Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers!' It was the first and second seasons of Transformers combined together and dubbed in Japanese. Some of the episodes were shown unedited while some mixed and match some episodes to create new episodes.
The Autobots were called 'Saibatoron' (Cybertrons) while the Decepticons, Desutoron (Destrons). They came from Seiberutoron (Seibertron). Optimus Prime was renamed Konboi (Convoy). Megatron was 'Megatoron' (Megatron). Other names were changed but I don't have an extensive list. If anyone does have it, I would gladly like some information. Thank you.
On to Transformers: The Movie
Return to Transformers page