Transformers 1

Transformers is the name of a line of toys produced largely by Takara and sold outside of Japan by Hasbro from 1984 onwards.

A Transformer is an intelligent machine that is able to "transform", reconfiguring itself into a common and innocuous form, such as a car, aircraft, or animal. The taglines "More Than Meets the Eye" and "Robots in Disguise" reflect this ability.
There have also been a number of spin-offs based on the toys including a Marvel comic book series, an animated television series that began airing in 1984 (Transformers series) and a feature-length movie, The Transfomers:The Movie.

The original series was followed by a number of spin-offs with varying levels of popularity.

An upcoming live-action movie is slated for July 4, 2007 and will be directed by Michael Bay.
Transformers originally featured two main factions battling for control of their home planet, Cyberton. The heroic Autobots (Cybertrons in the Japanese version) were led by Optimus Prime (known in the Japanese version as Convoy), and their opponents, the Decepticons (Destrons in the Japanese version), were led by Megatron, later Galvatron, a pattern which has repeated in nearly every subsequent series.

The Autobots were mainly cars in warm colors, while the Decepticons were planes in cool colors, with some exceptions.
The Transformers toyline was developed by Hasbro after they met up with Takara representatives at the 1983 Tokyo Toy Show and proposed to combine and re-brand Takara's Diaclone and Micro Change toylines into the Transformers for release in the United States.

Thus began a long and successful collaboration between Takara and Hasbro on toy development for the Transformers line, a collaboration which has grown increasingly close.

Currently, Hasbro does the vast majority of the concept work and character creation, while the actual manufacture of the toys continues to be controlled by Takara.

Hasbro markets and sells the toys internationally, while Takara sells them in the Japanese market. The current design director for the Transformers brand is Aaron Archer.
The basic backstory of the toyline and subsequent comic books and cartoons was developed by the Marvel Comics writers Jim Shooter and Dennis O'Neil (O'Neil actually giving Optimus Prime his name).

Most of the subsequent character names and profiles throughout the original run were done by the primary Transformers US comic book writer, Bob Budiansky.

Floro Dery was primarily responsible for the look and feel of the Transformers cartoon series and was the visual creator of Transformers: The Movie. He refined some of the initial season one animated character models done in Japan, and subsequently interpreted the toy box art for further characters, creating the models that would become the visual guidelines both for the comic books and the animated cartoon.
Most Transformers come with tech specs which detail the Transformer’s characteristics.

Older Transformers come with Robot Points which could be redeemed for special Transformers which were not sold in stores, such as the Omnibots or the Deception triplets known as Reflector (which featured heavily in the early episodes of the television series, despite not being easily available as toys).