Animated continuity family Animated Toyline Cartoon Commercials Comic Manga Books DVDs Video game Arcade games Merchandise

TheAnimated continuity family is the umbrella term for the television show and ancillary media produced by theTransformers Animated franchise, which primarily ran from2007 to2009. The fifth-largestcontinuity family is notable for its distinct, highly characterful art style, and its unique approach to the widerTransformers mythos—pulling from both the2007 film and the originalThe Transformers cartoon, but also incorporating many characters and concepts from across theTransformers franchise into its story.

Although this broad-minded approach made theAnimated cartoon something of a fandom darling, the franchise did not enjoy the same level of support as otherTransformers endeavours, despite strong sales—due to a variety of factors, the show was not renewed for a fourth season. A few remnants of the franchise persisted into the early 2010s with the release ofIDW Publishing'sAllSpark Almanacs, but beyond thatHasbro andTakara have shown little interest in revisiting this particular continuity.

Within the fictionalTransformersmultiverse, theTransTech classify everyAnimated continuity as a part of the "Malgus"universal cluster.

Major continuities

As of 2023, we identify two major continuities in this family. The lists below are not meant to be complete guides to every work in that continuity, but provide a quick overview of that continuity's most notable media.

Animated cartoon

Main articles:Animated cartoon continuity and Transformers Animated timeline

• Transformers Animated (2007-2009)
• Transformers Animated: The Arrival (2008)
• The AllSpark Almanac (2009)
• The AllSpark Almanac II (2010)
• "The Stunti-Con Job" (2011)
• The AllSpark Almanac Addendum (2011-2012)
• "The Return of Blurr" (2015)

TheTransformers Animated cartoon debuted in December2007, riding on the popularity of that summer'swildly successful live-action film.Animated begins four million years after the end of theGreat War between theAutobots andDecepticons; the victorious Autobots controlCybertron and have banished the Decepticons to the galactic rim. However, when a youngOptimus Prime and hisAutobot maintenance crew discover the life-givingAllSpark on a distant asteroid, they find themselves under threat fromMegatron, who pursues them through aspace bridge toEarth. After reactivating in the 22nd century, the Autobots take up residence in the city ofDetroit, robotics manufacturing capital of the world; with the help of the eccentricSari Sumdac, they contend withhuman supervillains, science experiments run amok, and the Decepticons.

IDW Publishing released a number of tie-in books:The Arrival tells stories set before and during the cartoon's first season, while theAllSpark Almanacs are lavishly illustrated, extensively researched guidebooks to the entireAnimated universe and featurecharacter models, backstories for just about every character to ever appear in the show, and literally hundreds of easter eggs andTransformers in-jokes. In2011,Fun Publications returned to the universe for a one-off story, which followed the dysfunctional members of "Team Stunticon" as they attempted to spring Megatron and his underlings from prison, andagain in 2015.

Unusually for tie-inTransformers media, almost all of these stories were produced with some level of input from the television show's production crew, most prominentlyMarty Isenberg andDerrick J. Wyatt. For this reason, we consider all of these stories to be in canon with the television show itself, rather than occupying a closely-related but separate continuity like most ancillary media.

The Cool comic

Main article:Transformers Animated: The Cool

• Transformers Animated: The Cool (2010-2011)

Naoto Tsushima wrote and drewTransformers Animated: The Cool, an anime-inspired take on theAnimated cartoon to tie in with the Japanese release of the series in2010. The comic was a more-or-less faithful retelling of the cartoon, but featured a number of differences from the source material—for instance, thefinal issue does not includeProwl dying, as he did inthe finalAnimated episode.

Minor continuities

Continuities that comprise multiple books, issues, or instalments, and so are notmicro-continuities, but are far less significant.

Toy bios

As with basically allTransformers toylines, theAnimated toyline featured a number ofbios providing backstory for toyline-exclusive characters andredecoes that are irreconcilable with the cartoon continuity. Bumblebee's "Elite Guard" redeco, for instance, is supposedly based on Sari painting Bumblebee inElite Guard colors, while his "Patrol Bumblebee" toy depicts a timeline in which Bumblebee adds stealthy tactics to his arsenal.

Be the Hero books

Main article:Be the Hero

• Prime Suspect (2009)
• Quest for the AllSpark (2009)
• Web of Deception (2009)
• Time-Quake (2009)

A number of "choose your own adventure" books set in an alternate continuity.

Titan Magazines

Main article:Transformers Animated (Titan)

• Transformers Animated (2008)
• Transformers Unvierse (2008-2009)

In 2008,Titan Magazines launched aTransformers Animated-themed magazine in the hopes of piggybacking off the success of theirongoing movie comic. The magazine took place in some version of the cartoon's second season, but featured a number of major and minor continuity discrepancies that render it largely irreconcilable with the cartoon: in this universe, the Autobots are joined by the new characterAfterburn, who is ultimately revealed as a Decepticon spy. The comic evidently did not perform very well, because it was cancelled after a whopping three issues, and the four remaining stories were folded into Titan's more successfulTransformers magazine in issues#17,#23,#24, and#25.

Animated shorts

• Animated shorts (2008-2009)

Studio 4°C produced a number of comedic short films advertising theTransformers Animated cartoon. Their placement in theAnimated cartoon continuity is debatable at best, andat least one cannot fit anywhere into the cartoon timeline.

Transformers Animated: The Game

• Transformers Animated: The Game (2008)

A video game set in an alternate version of the cartoon's second season, which sees the Autobots foil Megatron's plans to build aspace bridge. AlthoughMarty Isenberg penned the game's script, it cannot fit into the main continuity for several reasons.