With its debut in 1984, The Transformers began with a three-episode miniseries (later titled More Than Meets the Eye) that introduced audiences to Optimus Prime, Megatron and their armies, as they travelled from the metal world of Cybertron to Earth in search of new sources of energy. The final episode ended on an open note, should the series prove popular enough to continue, which it did. A standard season's worth of 13 more episodes were commissioned, expanding the Transformers universe in which the Dinobots, Constructicons and Jetfire (the latter called Skyfire in the series) made their debut. With popularity rising, the second season soon followed in 1985 at a mammoth 49 episodes (in order to bring the total up to 65, for syndication). Dozens of new characters were introduced throughout the season, including the Triple Changers, the combining teams the Aerialbots, Stunticons, Combaticons and Protectobots, and more new Autobot cars and Decepticon planes, while many new ideas and concepts began to establish the history of the cartoon universe.

These 65 episodes were exported to Japan in the same year, where their airing order was restricted and the series was broadcast under the title of Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers. An OVA exclusive to Japan entitled Scramble City was released which cast focus on the combining teams and introduced Ultra Magnus, Metroplex, Ratbat, Trypticon, Blaster's cassettes although it does not perfectly fit into the continuity of the American series due to its different origin story for Trypticon (known as Dinosaurer in the Japanese version).

1986 marked a huge change for The Transformers with the summer screening of Transformers: The Movie, which jumped the action forward in time twenty years to the then-future of 2005 and pitted both the Autobots and Decepticons against the menace of the giant planet-eating robot, Unicron. Optimus Prime met his end at Megatron's hands, and Ultra Magnus briefly replaced him as a leader before being succeeded by Rodimus Prime, while Megatron himself was recreated by Unicron as Galvatron. Many more of the old guard fell in battle as their toys departed store shelves to make room for a new cast of characters created for the movie.

1986 also saw the start of the third season of the animated series, which took its cue from the movie, picking up precisely where it had left off with Rodimus in command and the Decepticons in exile with Galvatron missing. The season opened with a five-part mini-series entitled Five Faces of Darkness which saw Galvatron return and brought to prominence the Quintessons, multi-faced aliens introduced in the movie who were revealed to be the creators of the Transformer race, and who became a recurring third factor as the season continued through its setting of 2006. The addition of Flint Dille as story editor saw a strong sci-fi aspect infect the season as the Transformers' battles spanned many alien planets, while continuity between episode was tighter than ever before as plot concepts were revisited and expanded to truly flesh out the show's history. Running to 30 episodes, the third season ended with the two-part Return of Optimus Prime, bringing the legendary Autobot leader back to life. Broadcast in Japan once again, the series was retitled Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: 2010 (or Transformers: 2010 for short), advancing its setting to the eponymous year.

1987 marked the end of the original American series, mirroring its beginning with a three-part mini-series entitled The Rebirth. Penned by regular series writer David Wise (who had previously written several of the series' mythology-building episodes), this finale story introduced the Headmasters and Targetmasters, as well as several other characters. Concluding with the restoration of Cybertron's Golden Age, the Decepticons stole the final scene of the series to prove that their threat still lingered.

Additionally, a fifth season of sorts was aired in 1988, serving as a kind of "best of" collection of the series. The most notable feature of this twenty-episode run was the new intro and concluding segments added to the episodes, which consisted of Powermaster Optimus Prime (rendered in a mixture of puppetry and stop motion animation) relating the events of the episodes to a human boy named Tommy Kennedy. The opening sequence comprised animation taken from contemporary toy adverts, and Prime occasionally referenced new toy characters like Cloudburst. Apparently never re-run after its original airing, the series aired More Than Meets the Eye Parts 1-3, The Ultimate Doom Parts 1-3, Five Faces of Darkness Parts 1-5, Dark Awakening, the out-of-place Surprise Party, The Return of Optimus Prime Parts 1-2, and most notably, Transformers: The Movie, split up and aired in five segments, with Stan Bush's music video for The Touch included in the final part.

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