Transformers Generation 1/YMMV

• Alternate Character Interpretation - Is Shockwave loyal to Megatron, or a better Starscream than Starscream himself? Cerebros and his Humongous Mecha Fortress Maximus, or Fortress Maximus and his remote-controlled drone Cerebros? Ironfist: geeky Ascended Fanboy, or Dumb Muscle? Decepticons stone cold evil or Well Intentioned Extremists? All these and more depend entirely on your choice of continuity.
  • Another of the more noteworthy ones is Ratbat. He's a voiceless servant to Soundwave in the original series, but he was Decepticon leader for a time in the original comics. Later continuities have tried to meld both interpretations for one backstory.
  • DR. SMOOV has created a video made from scenes from the G1 cartoon that reinterprets Shockwave as a comically poor marksman and buffoon who was left on Cybertron because Megatron wanted him out of the way.
• Badass Decay: Devastator seemed to cop this with the arrival of new Combiner teams who applied The Worf Effect on the Constructicons.
  • Justified, it you think about it, as Devastator is frequently portrayed as the first Combiner and a prototype.
• Base Breaker: Megatron - viewed by some as a menacing, Badass villain, and criticized by others for being a General Failure (at least in the series pre-Movie).
• Broken Base: Some fans like only the G1 cartoon and ignore all other iterations of the franchise. Other fans (especially younger ones) view the show as a campy Merchandise-Driven Saturday Morning Cartoon for small children, and dismiss it in favor of newer franchises such as the Movieverse and Animated. Most of the fanbase appears to be somewhere in-between, judging G1 and other franchises based on their actual quality rather than for Fan Dumb reasons.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: The Japanese theme song.
  • The entirety of the movie's soundtrack.
• Draco in Leather Pants - Starscream. What could it be? The squeaky voice, Megatron constantly harming him, the fact that he's vaguely more humanoid than other Decepticons? Or was it just the flashy paint job? The world may never know.
• Ear Worm: That damn theme song...
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Just about every supporting character has his/her/its own share of fans. Notable ones include Starscream, Soundwave, the Dinobots (Grimlock especially), Ratchet, Nightbeat, Bludgeon, and Shockwave. Adaptation Distillation contributes to a lot of this.
• Fan Dumb: The infamous GEEWUNNERS, who are stereotyped as viewing the G1 series through rose-colored nostalgia goggles and viewing any non-G1 series with unreasonable cynicism. Responsible for such catchphrases as "TRUKK NOT MUNKY" and "MICHAEL BAY RAPED MY CHILDHOOD!".
• Fan Nickname - Starscream = Screamer, Optimus Prime = Robo Jesus, Megatron = Megs
  • Although Skywarp did call him "Screamer" in one episode.
  • And Megatron has been referred to as "Megs" on occasion. We're still waiting for someone to call Optimus "Robo Jesus".
• Fanon Discontinuity - Fans all over the world prefer to ignore Kiss Players.
• Foe Yay: Megatron never did punish Starscream that much for his disloyalty... Until he became Galvatron, that is.
• Hell Is That Noise: In "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1," Cyclonus and Scourge intend to bring back Galvatron and they begin their search at his last known location: Unicron's floating head.

Cyclonus: There's nothing to fear. Unicron is dead.
(They hear a groan)
Cyclonus: Must be the wind.
Scourge: There is no wind in space.
Cyclonus: Quiet!

• Hilarious in Hindsight: In "Hoist Goes Hollywood," Hoist and several other Autobots get to be in an action movie. Unfortunately for them, the human characters initially take precedence over their bit parts, the director seems to have little respect for the Autobots (at least early on) and there's a good deal of pyrotechnics in the movie. Sounds familiar.
• Ho Yay: Rodimus Prime admits to dreaming about Optimus. His own voice actor (jokingly) claimed the character was gay. (In actuality, it was because Rodimus constantly feared whether or not he measured up to Optimus.)
• Memetic Mutation - "Soundwave superior. Constructicons inferior."
  • Also from the Evil Twin episode: Which Prime is the real Prime? LET'S HAVE A RACE.
• Most Wonderful Sound: The transformation noise.
• Narm Charm: Some fans love the show for this.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In the cartoon episode The Key To Vector Sigma, Shockwave apparently defeated Omega Supreme in battle (offscreen).
• Replacement Scrappy: Rodimus Prime
  • Daniel.
• So Bad It's Good: The cartoon in general. Although more... nostalgic... fans tend to view it as So Cool Its Awesome.
  • In particular, the episode "Carnage in C-Minor". Sure, it has no end of animation, technical and continuity errors, but it has a good plot (as well as a little Fridge Horror at the end) and the errors have nothing to do with the plot itself.
  • "A Prime Problem" is another example because the plot is completely ludicrous (everyone has the Idiot Ball) and Optimus Prime hilariously flubs Spike and Trailbreaker's names. At least neither are as bad as B.O.T.
• So Cool Its Awesome: The voice acting. Say what you will about the series' quality, but no one is willing to dispute the phenomenal voice acting it had^[1]. For a series where Status Quo Is God, Peter Cullen, Frank Welker, Chris Latta and the rest of the cast made major and even minor characters memorable based on their performances alone. Taken Up to Eleven with the movie, which also added Robert Stack, Eric Idle, and even gargantuans Orson Welles and Leonard Nimoy to the mix.
• Squick - Kiss Players, which contains not only lolicon, but penis tongues.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks: some members of the fandom watch later incarnations of the series for the sole purpose of complaining endlessly about their being an insult to the holy perfection that is G1.
• Unfortunate Implications: Carbombya, a fairly offensive version of Libya that caused Casey Kasem to quit the series in disgust.
  • The ending of "B.O.T.", the nerdy girl who built the eponymous robot, comes up with the idea of possibly building another one. At which time, her classmates, Roland and Martin, gag her mouth with duct tape and drag her away, while the Autobots just watch.
• Villain Decay - particularly prevalent with combiner teams, but also with characters representing other gimmicks, such as Triple-Changers. Devastator was unstoppable in early episodes, and in more than one episode unbeatable even by the entire Autobot team. Later, he could be broken up by a single shot from Perceptor. This effect was largely symmetrical, as Autobot combiners were also brought in to replace the formerly formidable older ones. Multiple Autobot characters have been referred to as their "last line of defence", including Omega Supreme and Metroplex.

1. ↑ apart from Megatron and the various Scrappies