NTFA - Generation 1

The Original Series

It is a world transformed, where things are not what they seem. It is the world of the Transformers... a world of Heroic Autobots and Evil Decepticons!

The story:
For many years the planet Cybertron has been the battleground for an ugly war between two different breeds of transforming robot. The peace-loving Autobots, led by their hero, Optimus Prime, fought off the evil Decepticons, ruled by the warrior, Megatron.

The Autobots' struggle for peace was useless. Eventually their only option was to flee their planet in search of freedom. And so the Autobots blasted off in a vast spaceship called The Ark, unaware that they were being followed by the Decepticons. The Decepticons boarded the Ark, but during the battle that ensued the spaceship malfunctioned and crashed into Mount St. Hilary, a dormant volcano on Earth. It remained there for four million years until the volcano erupted unexpectedly, breathing life again into Autobots and Decepticons alike.

Using their powers of transformation to blend into their new environment, the Autobots decided to disguise themselves as cars, lorries and motorbikes, believing them to be Earth's inhabitants. The Decepticons also adopted Earthen guises - aeroplanes to match the Autobots.

And so the fight continues on Earth...

Background:
The Transformers toyline's origin is found in Japan, where in 1982-83 the Japanese toy company Takara had a few toylines with transforming robots called Diaclone and Microchange (the latter a subset of another toyline called New Microman).

In 1983 Hasbro decided to import and market these toylines in America under the name Transformers, and they made a deal with Marvel Comics to develop a story for the toyline. Marvel's Jim Shooter and Denny O'Neill developed the treatment and a few characters, but the bulk of the characters were named and developed by Bob Budiansky, who would eventually become the first editor and later on the writer on the Transformers comic book. Bob actually developed almost all of the first five or six years' worth of characters.

The toyline was launched sometime in early 1984, with the comics starting in May and the cartoon in September. Some European countries got the toyline the same year, but it seems the Nordic Countries had to wait until 1985 to get the first toys.

The original series - today often referred to as Generation 1 - was immensely popular, and even had a feature film in the cinemas in 1986, but toward the end of the 1980's the interest vaned and in the USA the toyline was actually cancelled in 1990! That was not the case in Europe though, where rereleases of the initial toys and imports of Japanese toys helped keep the interest up until the parent company in the USA was ready to re-start the series in late 1992, under the name Generation 2.

The original Transformers series in the Nordic Countries:
The Nordic countries got about two thirds of the figures up to 1987, and most of the toys from 1988 and onwards. Starting in 1987 the four Nordic countries got translated versions of the comics, but only Sweden got the full American run. In Denmark the book was cancelled after about half the American run, and Norway and Finland missed out both on the early issues and the last 5-12 issues
Nordic TransFans were able to follow Transformers on Sky Channel from the autumn of 1985, and Super Channel a few years later.

This page was created by Lars Eriksson, groundsplitter@ntfa.net.
The last revision was made on Wednesday, September 10, 2003