Launched in 1984, the Transformers toyline by Takara Tomy and Hasbro was promoted through both a comic book by Marvel Comics and an animated series produced by Sunbow Productions and Marvel Productions with Toei Animation. Although the comic outlived the animated series by a number of years, the animated series is more widely recognised. With the original show's conclusion in 1987, original series exclusive to Japan were created which ran until 1990, and the franchise was later re-imagined with the fully CGI Beast Wars in the late 1990s. The 21st century saw a total reboot of the Transformers universe (first being Takara's produced Car Robots, imported and retitled for Western release as Transformers: Robots in Disguise), as Hasbro collaborated with Japanese Transformers producers Takara to create a new storyline with Transformers: Armada and its sequels, produced in Japan and then dubbed for English-speaking audience. In 2008, Transformers Animated saw Hasbro take control of the franchise once more through collaboration with Cartoon Network, bringing writing duties back to America, with animation being handled by Japanese studios. Hasbro also reacquired the distribution rights to the original series from Sunbow finally giving them the complete rights to the series based on their Generation 1 toy-line.

Although initially a separate and competing franchise in 1984, Tonka's Gobots became the intellectual property of Hasbro after their buyout of Tonka in 1991. Subsequently, the universe depicted in the animated series and its follow-up film was established as an alternate universe within the Transformers Multiverse.

The term "Generation 1", or "G1", is a retronym, coined after the advent of 1992's Transformers: Generation 2. Although frequently used to simply refer to the original 1984-1991 Marvel comic series, 1984-1987 animated series, the term encompasses all Transformers fiction from 1984 to 1992.

After the Federal Communications Commission did away with regulations that prohibited toy companies from broadcasting cartoons based on their products in 1985, The Transformers began with a three-episode miniseries that introduced audiences to Optimus Prime, Megatron and their armies, as they travelled from the metal world of Cybertron to Earth in search of new sources of energy. The final episode ended on an open note, should the series prove popular enough to continue, which it did. A standard season's worth of 13 more episodes was commissioned, expanding the Transformers universe in which the Dinobots, Constructicons and Jetfire (then later called Skyfire in the series) made their debut. With popularity rising, the second season soon followed in 1986 at a mammoth 49 episodes (in order to bring the total up to 65, for syndication). Dozens of new characters were introduced throughout the season, including the Triple Changers, the combining teams the Aerialbots, Stunticons, Combaticons and Protectobots, and more new Autobot cars and Decepticon planes, while many new ideas and concepts began to establish the history of the cartoon universe.

These 65 episodes were exported to Japan in the same year, where their airing order was rearranged and the series was broadcast under the title of Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers. An OVA exclusive to Japan entitled Scramble City was released which cast focus on the combining teams and introduced Ultra Magnus, Metroplex, Ratbat, Trypticon, and Blaster's cassettes. This video does not perfectly fit into the continuity of the American series due to its different origin story for Trypticon (known as Dinosaurer in the Japanese version).

1986 marked a huge change for The Transformers with the summer screening of The Transformers: The Movie, which jumped the action forward in time twenty years to the then-future of 2005 and pitted both the Autobots and Decepticons against the menace of the giant planet-eating robot, Unicron. Optimus Prime met his end at Megatron's hands, and Ultra Magnus briefly replaced him as a leader before being succeeded by Rodimus Prime, while Megatron himself was recreated by Unicron as Galvatron. Many more of the old guard fell in battle as their toys departed store shelves to make room for a new cast of characters created for the film.

1986 also saw the start of the third season of the animated series, which took its cue from the film, picking up precisely where it had left off with Rodimus in command and the Decepticons in exile with Galvatron missing. The season opened with a five-part miniseries entitled Five Faces of Darkness which saw Galvatron return and brought to prominence the Quintessons, multi-faced aliens introduced in the movie who were revealed to be the creators of the Transformer race, and who became a recurring third factor as the season continued through its setting of 2006. The addition of Flint Dille as story editor saw a strong sci-fi aspect infect the season as the Transformers' battles spanned many alien planets, while continuity between episode was tighter than ever before as plot concepts were revisited and expanded to truly flesh out the show's history. Running to 30 episodes, the third season ended with the two-part The Return of Optimus Prime, bringing the legendary Autobot leader back to life. Broadcast in Japan once again, the series was retitled Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: 2010 (or Transformers: 2010 for short), advancing its setting to the eponymous year.

1987 marked the end of the original American series, mirroring its beginning with a three-part miniseries entitled The Rebirth. Penned by regular series writer David Wise (who had previously written several of the series' mythology-building episodes), this finale story introduced the Headmasters and Targetmasters, as well as several other characters. Concluding with the restoration of Cybertron's Golden Age, the Decepticons stole the final scene of the series to prove that their threat still lingered. It is unknown the exact reason the American series ended after the movie, though it is assumed that Sunbow had lost its contract to keep its cartoons running by 1987 (the final Transformers episode "The Rebirth" coincided with the final G.I. Joe episode "G.I. Joe: the Movie").