Okay, this is a safe space, so I feel like I’m able to admit this to everyone… we know that the old Transformers cartoons were glorified toy advertisements, right? I mean, pretty much all of the cartoons for kids back in the eighties were glorified advertisements if we’re being honest. That being said, out of all the glorified advertisements, Transformers was my favourite. Obviously, I wasn’t able to watch it when it first came out, being born about 15 years too late for that. I was able to watch reruns on Boomerang (rest in peace, sweet prince) and that fostered my love for the Transformers franchise.
Considering 2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the original G1 Transformers cartoon hitting the silver screens all across the world, I thought I’d take a retrospective look back at the original four seasons of the cartoon and chat about some of my favourite episodes.
A list of best episodes for the Transformers would be remiss to omit the ones that introduced us to the concept of Autobots, Decepticons, Cybertron, Optimus Prime and Megatron. Within the first five minutes, we know all we need to know about our characters and setting.
Cybertron is dying, the Autobots are fighting against the Decepticons, and the Autobots have launched a ship to search for Energon to continue their war. The Decepticons find out and attack the ship, with both parties crashing onto Earth to continue their war millennia in the future.
As opening episodes go, this one is pretty standard in setting up all the players for the show going forward; however, when I watched it for the first time, I remember being awestruck at the animation quality for the time and how much I couldn’t wait to see what the next episode holds.
Okay, so hear me out. You’re a kid back in 1986. You’ve just watched your most anticipated movie based on your favourite TV show, the Transformers. Then by the halfway mark you’ve watched your favourite character, Optimus Prime, die in front of your very eyes and are an emotional wreck.
Now, if you were a TV executive trying to build excitement about a new episode of the TV show’s third season and traumatise kids yet again for some bizarre reason, what would you do? If your answer was anything other than bring Optimus Prime back to life as a zombie robot and kill him again, you need to go back to executive school and snort some more booger sugar until that is your answer.
This was an interesting episode for me in that it’s explicitly about letting go and saying goodbye to loved ones that have been lost, which I think is a pretty good message for kids in general because that’s something everyone needs to deal with. I also find it’s a great swan song and farewell to Optimus Prime and his voice actor. It is undercut a bit later on in the series but more on that later on.
The next entry on our list opens up with Rodimus Prime struggling with the pressure of leading the Autobots and feeling unable to get out of the long shadow of Optimus Prime. This doesn’t come out of nowhere, as we’re shown in Dark Awakening that Rodimus is quick to hand the Matrix of Leadership back to Optimus the first chance he gets.
In this episode, the Matrix is stolen by the Decepticons and Rodimus must confront his fears and reservations about leadership to reclaim the Matrix.
This is another episode with a good lesson for kids, especially the idea of facing your fears, confronting them, and not running away from them. Watching as a kid, I really latched onto that message and I try to do that for the most part with my own problems with varying degrees of success.
Now we circle back to tie off that little dangling thread from a couple of entries ago. So Dark Awakening was the final farewell to Optimus Prime, right? Well, you’ve read the title of this entry, so you know that isn’t true, but after watching it for the first time, the real question was how they were going to bring him back.
As this two-episode arc ended the third season of the show and the fourth season only had three episodes, this was essentially the end of the G1 Transformers show, and it’s a triumphant ending for the character of Optimus Prime and the series as a whole.
While this euphoric ending would be the one I would most like to award my favourite episode of the show, I cannot in good conscience finish off this article without mentioning…
Taking place directly after the events of the 1986 Transformers Movie, it follows the new leader of the Autobots, Rodimus Prime, as he encounters a new foe far more dangerous than any Deceptions… the Quintessons. The Decepticons have been decimated by the war, with only the might of Galvatron able to revamp their spirits.
However, Cyclonus discovers a Galvatron that is volatile and prone to violent outbursts. Can Rodimus overcome this new threat, or will the Decepticons reemerge from the shadows?
This was the first episode of the show I had watched (even before I saw the movie), and I loved the darker tones and themes in these episodes. It also gave fans a clear idea of where the Transformers came from and how they gained the ability to transform while also setting up a new ongoing villain for the series. It’s easily one of my favourite arcs for the series, and if you haven’t watched the episodes yet, be sure to watch them as soon as you can.
Do you have a favourite Transformers G1 episode? Is there another Transformer show that you prefer? Let us know in the comments below.
