In the United States, The Transformers franchise has been at least three things: a line of toys, a comic-book series, and an animated series. The franchise has existed simultaneously for most of its twenty-five-year longevity as an animated series and a line of toys, and recently as Transformers Animated. Currently the franchise is called Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with a live-action film and a line of toys. I have very few figures from this era.
In the early 1980s, Hasbro acquired the marketing rights to several lines of transforming, robot toys from Japan; these toys comprised the first Transformers line. Lacking in the Japanese lines, the marketing gimmick was good (Autobots) versus evil (Decepticons). Transformers was first marketed with a comic-book series from Marvel and, once the ban on toy-based TV shows was lifted, as an animated series produced by Marvel Productions and Sunbow Productions and animated by Toei Animation. Production of the toys was done with Takara.
The franchise diverged a little after The Transformers: The Movie, and Wikipedia states, "In late 1993, Hasbro relaunched the Transformers franchise with the Generation 2 line." Before Generation 2 (G2), the entire franchise and all sub-lines are informally known as Generation 1 (G1). I have a few figures from this era.
In 1995, Transformers went in a new direction. The alternate modes, from the robotic form, of all figures would now be an animal, thus Beast Wars: Transformers was launched. Beast Machines succeeded this line and was shown exclusively on the Fox Kids network. Both lines became animated series, but computer-generated imagery (CGI), produced by Mainframe Entertainment in Canada, was used instead of hand-drawn cels. Many of the characters and their stories carried from one series to the next, so many Transfans simply call this the Beast Era. I have a many figures from this era.
After Beast Machines but before the first live-action film (2007) and Transformers Animated (2008), both the writing and animation for the franchise went to Japan. Between 2000 and 2005, the animation alternated between hand-drawn cels and CGI by several production houses. These TV series were dubbed into English and were shown on the Fox Kids network and later the Cartoon Network. I have a few figures from this era.
Around 2002, some sub-lines in the franchise were sold without support from an animated series. Transformers: Universe consisted of new paint schemes on older molds. In Japan two lines are marketed to collectors: Binaltech, which featured die-cast construction of real cars in 1/24-scale and G1 character names; and Masterpiece, which featured G1 characters and their G1 alternate modes in a larger scale with higher detail and articulation. The Masterpiece name was left unchanged for the US, but Binaltech became Alternators. I have a few figures from this era.
Now I have said all that, I will introduce, in my opinion, the best image gallery on the Internet, "Masterpiece Convoy" by Benson Yee. For reasons discussed in forthcoming post devoted to the Transformers mythos, Optimus Prime is known as Convoy in Japan. Benson Yee is also credited as a Transformers consultant for episodes of Beast Wars: Transformers, including "Possession," "The Agenda: Part 1, 2, and 3," and "Optimal Situation."
The gallery poses Masterpiece Convoy with each iteration of Optimus over life of the franchise, like your girlfriend. My favorite image features Masterpiece Convoy and Air Attack Optimus Primal from Beast Machines. Optimus Primal appears to say, "Look who I'm getting my picture taken with!"
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