Checklist – Transformers G1

In the early 1980s, a trend for transforming toys took off in Japan; the toy company TAKARA had two lines with these features: Diaclone and Micro Change.

The American toy company HASBRO wanted to bring these toys to the Western market, so it reached an agreement with TAKARA to acquire these transformable toys and sell them jointly outside of Japan.

HASBRO knew that the best way to sell toys was to create a backstory for them, so it teamed up with Marvel Comics to create a line of comic books and an animated series featuring characters based on TAKARA’s toys.

They got right to work, and the result was the creation of one of the most recognizable franchises of the 1980s.

The central plot of Transformers revolves around two factions of alien robots capable of transforming into vehicles and everyday objects. These two factions are the “Autobots,” who seek peace and coexistence with humans, and the “Decepticons,” who crave power and domination.

The franchise was and remains a huge success, and over the years several more Transformers collections have been released. This list reviews the first ones to hit the market; this collection is known as Generation 1 or by its abbreviation G1:

1984 – Autobots:

The first year of the Transformers line brought us several figures of various sizes from the good guys’ faction, the Autobots led by Optimus Prime:

1984 – Decepticons:

The evil Decepticons, led by Megatron, also had several figures in the collection’s first year, though not as many as the Autobots:

Mini Vehicles:

Mini-vehicles are members of the Autobots; they are a sub-line featuring much smaller pieces, their transformation is usually much simpler, and most do not come with accessories. They were sold separately at a price much lower than that of the larger figures: