Transformers is a media franchise produced by the American toy company Hasbro and the Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. It revolves around the battles between sentient, autonomous robots, primarily the Autobots and the Decepticons, who can transform into various forms such as vehicles and animals. The franchise includes toys, animated series, comic books, video games, and films. By 2011, it had generated over ¥2 trillion ($25 billion) in revenue, making it one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.

The franchise began in 1984 with the Transformers toy line, which rebranded transforming mecha toys from Takara’s Diaclone and Microman lines for Western markets. “Generation 1” refers to both the original animated television series “The Transformers” and the accompanying comic book series, which spawned Japanese, British, and Canadian spin-offs. Subsequent sequels included the Generation 2 comic book series and the “Beast Wars” TV series, which developed into its own mini-universe.

Generation 1 characters experienced two reboots with Dreamwave in 2001 and IDW Publishing in 2005, with a third reboot commencing in 2019. Other versions of the story emerged from different toy lines during and after the 20th century. The first was the “Robots in Disguise” series, followed by the “Unicron Trilogy,” which consisted of three shows—”Armada,” “Energon,” and “Cybertron”—that formed a single cohesive universe.