The Transformers franchise has legions of fans, many continuities, and thousands of characters. The property is so popular that most people know about Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and certain other robots in disguise. At the same, there are several bits of trivia that are only known by the franchise's most hardcore fans.
From the different versions of Generation 1 to how one iconic Autobot took on a new form, these concepts are far from mainstream facts about the Transformers. In fact, many of the continuities that these bits of information hail from weren't even available worldwide, making the characters involved fairly obscure. One common misconception even gets one character confused with Optimus Prime himself.
10 Generation One Continued In a Separate Anime Continuity
For fans of the original 1980s cartoon The Transformers, the adventures of the Autobots and Decepticons ended with an abrupt fourth "season." This wasn't the case in Japan, where this truncated season got replaced by an entirely new series. Titled Transformers: The Headmasters, it took the same concepts introduced in the American cartoon's finale but handled them much differently.
The Headmasters was only one of these Japanese G1 projects, which eventually diverged egregiously from the American canon. It was followed by Masterforce, Victory, and the one-episode OVA Transformers: Zone. These shows were exclusive to Japan, and the general storytelling and tropes reflected that.
9 The G1 Cartoon and Comic Book Were Much Different
As with fellow Hasbro franchise G.I. Joe, Transformers had a Marvel comic book that released alongside the cartoon. In both cases, however, these comics existed in a separate continuity from the Sunbow cartoons. This affected how certain characters were portrayed.
Grimlock and the Dinobots were notably more intelligent than in the cartoon. Likewise, Ravage and the other "primitives" (beast mode Transformers) could speak, whereas their cartoon counterparts simply growled. Different Autobots and Decepticons receive more focus, and the logical Decepticon Shockwave became a much bigger threat in Marvel's books.
8 The Original Transformers Toys Were Taken from Two Preceding Toylines
One of the biggest selling points for the Transformers franchise is definitely the toys, though these weren't original figures. The classic toyline from Hasbro and Takara took figures from two different Japanese toylines: Diaclone and Microman, namely the Micro Change line from the latter. Diaclone was the source for many of the vehicular Autobots. The toys for the gun-based Megatron, the cassette player Soundwave, and even his Autobot counterpart Blaster came from the device-based Micro Change.
Tranformers toys also drew inspiration from other franchises. For example, Takatoku Toys' figure for the VF-1 Valkyrie from the Macross anime franchise was used for Jetfire. Though not "made" for Transformers, these figures cemented the looks of iconic robots. Recently, past franchises such as Diaclone were revived in Japan.
7 Transformers: Cybertron Wasn't Supposed to Be a Sequel to Energon
In the early 2000s, the franchise was mostly defined by the "Unicron Trilogy" anime. These were Transformers: Armada, Transformers: Energon and Transformers: Cybertron. Ironically, these three shows weren't meant to all be connected to each other.
When Transformers: Galaxy Force (the Japanese version of Cybertron) was created, it was going to be an entirely original series with no ties to previous continuity. This is why its story and characters are incongruous with the events of the preceding shows. Nevertheless, the Japanese and American versions eventually tied to their predecessors in somewhat contrived ways.
6 Hot Shot Was Originally a New Version of Bumblebee
One of the main cast members in Transformers: Armada was Hot Shot, a young Autobot who transformed into a yellow car. With this role and color scheme, it's no surprise that he was, at one point, going to be a new version of Bumblebee. This was nixed, however, due to Hasbro lacking the rights to the "Bumblebee" name.
Armada also gave Optimus Prime a Mini-Con partner named Sparkplug who physically resembled G1 Bumblebee. When Transformers: Animated was being developed, the show's version of Bumblebee was going to be named Hot Shot. Due to the first live-action Transformers movie making Bumblebee popular again, however, this idea was dropped.
5 The Future of Beast Wars Had a Dark Fate for Humanity
Some of the secondary antagonists in the series Beast Wars: Transformers were the alien Vok. The writers envisioned these characters as a new form of The Swarm from the Transformers: Generation 2 comic books. This included a dark variant on actions The Swarm took in that book.
In the comics, The Swarm destroyed a large swathe of the human race. This was extrapolated by Beast Wars writer Larry DiTillio as the aliens destroying all of humanity eons before. As it turned out, the Vok's actions against some Transformers were actually to atone for these sins.
4 A Beast Wars Toy Combiner Was In the Cartoon
There were several toys in the Beast Wars toyline that never appeared in the Mainframe Beast Wars cartoon. This was due to how expensive it was to utilize CGI for all the characters. There was one Predacon trio who made an unlikely cameo in the show, however.
In Season 2 of Beast Wars: Transformers, a scene on Cybertron showcases the Tripedacus Council. These three Predacons were actually the characters who become the combiner Tripredacus in the toyline. Their ceremonial armor makes them look much different from the toys, however, and they're never individually named.
3 Transformers: Prime Had a Japanese-Exclusive Sequel
Much like G1 before it, the animated series Transformers: Prime had an anime-exclusive continuation. Transformers Go! took the place during the end of Transformers: Prime. The first anime in the series since Cybertron, it featured several unique new characters.
Many of these Autobots and Predacons had either entirely new designs or were based on characters exclusive to the Transformers: Prime toyline. Go! was never localized, including the toys. This made the new characters some of the most obscure Transformers ever.
2 Ginrai Isn't the Same Character as Optimus Prime
The latter days of the Western G1 Transformers toyline introduced Powermaster Optimus Prime, an upgraded form of the Autobot leader. In Japan, this toy was part of Transformers: Masterforce, but it wasn't a new form of Optimus Prime. Instead, it was merely a Transtector for the character Ginrai.
Ginrai was a human truck driver that combined with a lifeless Transformers body. This Transtector was meant as a new body for Optimus Prime. Given that Ginrai has rarely appeared since, this makes it a lot harder to tell him apart from the most mainstream Transformer ever.
1 Beast Machines Almost Got a Sequel
Beast Wars: Transformers was eventually beloved by fans, but that wasn't the case for its sequel. Beast Machines was highly contentious throughout its run, both for its cartoon and less than accurate toyline. Despite this, Hasbro initially planned on continuing the Beast Era with a new entry.
Titled Transtech, this would have combined several classic characters with a radical new aesthetic that built upon the events of Beast Machines. Due to that line's failure, however, Hasbro and Takara planned a more traditional revamp of the series that became Transformers: Armada. Beforehand, Car Robots was localized as Transformers: Robots in Disguise, filling the void left by the unmade Transtech.