Being a fan of any long-running franchise nowadays means accepting that fictional properties sometimes need to reboot, to restart canon and start fresh. It wasn’t always that way; stuff like Star Wars and Star Trek maintained fairly strict, if messy continuities for decades and there was the inevitable wailing and gnashing of teeth when they had to eventually reset.
I guess I was lucky in that Transformers started this cycle earlier than almost any other fictional franchise I was a fan of and so I got used to it pretty quickly. Transformers fans basically get at least one new continuity every year on average and because of this, I can pretty comfortably make this list.
These are my top ten favorite Transformers continuities and you can bet I’m going be fairly specific in what they include in my eyes. I’ll also include my favorite versions of characters from that continuity, plus an honorable mention and my LEAST favorite Transformers continuity at the end! So here we go with the HONORABLE MENTION!
HONORABLE MENTION-
Kid’s Stuff
This is a nostalgic pick mostly, but there are some memorably-bizzare elements to this series of six listen-and-listen books released in 1985. I owned the first two books and cassettes, written by John Braden and narrated and voice-acted by him and who sounds like an uncredited Earl Hammond.
Probably the most memorable aspect of this series of books IS that Megatron (at least for the first couple installments) sounds EXACTLY like Mumm-Ra (Megg-Ra? Mumatron?) and it kind of seems like Hammond is voicing Optimus Prime too, although this has never been strictly confirmed.
This is a continuity where Megatron is obsessed with drilling for oil, causing mass-casualty events amongst human populations in the doing, and creatively belittling Soundwave at every opportunity. Seriously, he’s got some sick burns on Soundwave in here- my favorites being “You blundering, tape-filled idiot!” and “You cassette-stuffed wimp!”
Conversely, Optimus Prime solves most of the problems from behind a computer screen, using scientific ingenuity and non-violent methods to foil Megatron’s plots. Prowl serves as the “Robin” to his Adam West-flavored Batman, eagerly digesting Prime’s detailed explanations about the density of liquefied razon gas compared to that of crude oil.
One time, Megatron and Soundwave bribe a single human to help them doom humanity to extinction in exchange for… a new jeep. Suffice to say… these stories are a trip and I have a nostalgic affection for this micro-continuity despite its… unique properties.
