The Energon Pub

Like how much percent of the entire Transformers franchise is American, and how much percent of it is Japanese? Basically, the question that I am getting at is that, did Transformers originate in Japan just like Power Rangers, because Power Rangers is Super Sentai over in Japan, Voltron is Beast King GoLion over in Japan, and Armored Fleet Dairugger, but then they rebrand it over here in America, the Western world, change the plot a bit. Which Transformers characters originated in America, and which originated in Japan?

these CHARACTERS originated in America. The G1 cartoon was shipped over to Japan later. The toys, though, are from Japan. Other series such as RiD and the Unicron trilogy are from Japan. But the Beast Era and Animated cartoons, as well as the upcoming Prime, are american. So, The Transformers are American.

Well, I'd say the US, since the franchise actually started there and became famous there. Japan had merely provided the toys. However, what I'm most thankful for is that there's a special connection between Hasbro and TakaraTomy, which allowed the brand to expand when the Diaclone and Microman toys ran out.

The characters are all American, except for the Japanese exclusive series: Masterforce, Victory, Zone, Return of Convoy, Beast Wars II and Neo, and Robot Masters. Characters shared between the two countries had tweeks between each. Ignore the fact the toys are sometimes the same between countries.

The Unicron Trilogy is special because Hasbro and TakaraTomy were actively working together on it. The animation is Japanese, but (badly) dubbed over, but characters were still shared.

but in the first season of G1, for example, Optimus Prime and Megatron, they originated in Japan right? like their designs, colors?

It owes its existence to Europe! We continued to get toys when America gave up at the end of G1.

The US no doubt.the toon was a massive part of the success of the line and the toon was American.plus the characters we all know and love were forged in the US.

but I assume the people who created the original Optimus Prime and Megatron, they are Japanese right?

yes. the original optimus prime and megatron likenesses are japanese from the Diaclone line. (I believe that the seekers were the good guys in diaclone, lol)

the characters are american
as well as the tweeks made to make them look good on TV (ironhide as an example)

the first toys designed by the americans for the line are the 86 movie characters (these could have some design cues from Japan though)
but they were the first toys designed to be Transformers and not something else.

were all the second gen Combiners designed in Japan?Bruticus,Defensor,Superion,Menasor,Computron and Abominus?or were they American designed.

I know 4 of the teams debuted before the movie onscreen but were their toys out before the movie?

hmm. I didn't think about them. I feel that they were but I don't know for a fact.

For most purposes, credit is due to different people/ countries for different elements that made up Transformers.

Yes America started things off, decades back with GIJoe, which while in America became the ARAH toys, in Japan evolved into the Microman toys. Those in turn developed the Diaclone line of transforming piloted robots that converted into vehicles, dinosaurs, and others.

Hasbro officials noticing the potential acquired the rights for these and similar toys, and set forth to developed them into something that would sell in American. They partnered with Marvel Comics to create a storyline, assign names and bios and such.

Those developments became the basis for G1, created by elements from both America and Japan. After the success of the line and cartoon in America, Takara Japan retooled their own releases from the original lines into Transformers as well.

Further developments that has created the Transformers of today are joint operations of Hasbro and Takara-Tomy.

Editor wrote:For most purposes, credit is due to different people/ countries for different elements that made up Transformers.

Yes America started things off, decades back with GIJoe, which while in America became the ARAH toys, in Japan evolved into the Microman toys.

I didn't know about that part. hmm so it all comes from the old 12 inch GI Joes.

Japan invented the Microchange and Diaclone, but Diaclone never went anywhere. It wasn't until Hasbro discovered Diaclone and proposed their joint venture with the brand renamed "Transformers", and that is when the franchise received worldwide fame. So, I can't really put my finger on one or the other, but I will say this:
Japan invented Transformers
America "Transformed" it into success and got the brand off the ground

yeah, I believe the Constructions/Devastor originated from Japan, so did Sky Lynx, Omega Supreme, and the Dinobots as well. Also, Jetfire/Skyfire was from Bandai right?

Skylynx was another company all together.
I can look at his belly when I get home. XD

My Theory on this is that the original 'Transforming' robot concept was very much an original Japanese concept. Without that initial concept, Hasbro could never have developed the characters for that first iconic series.

My take on the matter is that while the japanese certainly came up with the idea of tramsforming robots, Hasbro actually takes most of the credit for actually creating the Transformers brand.

Thus it's the North Americans to which the concept of Transformers came from.

I would say neither, as the transformers were not produced by a government, but by corporations trying to get a return on an investment. I wouldn't discount consumers either, if they don't buy the product,then it's heading for extinction.

I don't think he meant the government. But you are correct all of us. And the children keep it going.

All the original toys (most of the first two years worth) were designed and made in Japan, but not as Transformers. As Microchange, Diaclone, and a few assorted figures from other robot lines.

The characters those toys came to represent, as well as several of their new paint jobs (Skywarp, for example, was not a colour design available in the Diaclone F-15 robots) were decided by guys at Hasbro (with a lot of ideas from Bob Budiansky), who combined these various transforming robot toys into one single franchise called The Transformers.

So to answer the question of which country the franchise owes most thanks, and it's existence to, I'd say the country that created the Transformers Franchise itself, America.

so it's basically a collaboration between America and Japan?

I think that sums it up
Japan designed the first toys. And the US marketed them as characters. With out one or the other it wouldn't exist.

Here's my take on the whole deal (apologies if I get any incorrect info in this).

In the late 1970s/early 1980s, Japanese toy company Takara had developed two different toylines that were running concurrent to each other at the time.

One was called Diaclone. Diaclone was a line of various vehicles, ranging from realistic-looking to futuristic-looking, that were able to convert into robotic forms and were each piloted by tiny human figures. The story with this line told how the Earth-based Diaclone Taskforce would pilot several transfoming mecha to do battle against a race of alien invaders known as the Waruder, who had their own mechs.

The other was Microman. Microman was something kinda like a sci-fi space version of the old G.I. Joe toyline. It consisted of mostly astronaut soldiers with chrome heads. There also existed a subline of this toyline called Micro Change, which consisted of toy robots that could change into small handheld objects like cassettes/players, guns, boomboxes, microscopes, cameras, etc.

When American toy company Hasbro took awareness of these two toylines, they requested permission from Takara to import several specific figures from both the Diaclone and Micro Change toylines. These figures, along with a select few from other Japanese non-Takara toylines, were to be rebranded with new names and identities, to be sold collectively under a new unified toyline label. And in 1984, the first 28 of these action figures were released in America and The Transformers toyline was born.

In 1983, during the development of creating this new line of toys, Hasbro had contacted American comic book company Marvel Comics with the proposal of them creating a comic book for this toyline, so as to breathe life into these characters and keep them from being merely another set of action figures. It was comic writer/editor Bob Budiansky who took upon the task of not only working on the comic book story itself, but being the one responsible for creating most of the names, bios, and personalities of the first 28 figures in the line, as well as many more to follow in proceeding years.

What started as a four issue mini-series grew on to become a full 80 issue comic book series. In the United Kingdom, because comics were released there on a weekly schedule instead of the U.S.'s monthly schedule, comic scribe Simon Furman took up the task of producing many more in-between story issues to the comic that were exclusive to the U.K. story, totaling out the number of comic issues there to be a grand number of 332 U.K. issues. Furman also took over the U.S. comic, at Budiansky's request after Budiansky's departure from the series, starting at U.S. issue #57 all the way through to the end at U.S. issue #80.

In addition to the comic book, Hasbro also sought to have an animated production created as well. Writing and distribution were handled in a joint effort by American production companies Marvel Productions and Sunbow Productions. Animation for the show was produced overseas by several Asian animation studios like Toei Animation and AKOM Productions. Like the comic book, what began as a simple three-part mini-series in 1984 expanded into a 98 episode animated series, spanning four seasons, plus a full length threatrically-released animated feature film.

Due to the growing popularity of the Transformers toyline in the West, the Diaclone and Micro Change toylines had by then died out and, in 1985, Takara decided to bring the Transformers toyline and cartoon over into Japan, where it was just as (if not more) successful. The cartoon had been split apart into two series. The first two seasons were merged and retitled as Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers (Tatakae! Chō Robotto Seimeitai Transformers), while the third season became known as Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers 2010 (Tatakae! Chō Robotto Seimeitai Transformers 2010).

As far as the Transformers series goes as being an anime, while the original cartoon was indeed animated by Asian companies, it is not an anime. The concept and production for the series were developed in the U.S., and it was intended for American audiences. Many Western cartoons used Asian studios to create their animation, but they are still not considered anime. A few examples of these kinds of shows would be G.I. Joe, Ninja Turtles, Batman: TAS, X-Men, Spider-Man, Tiny Toon Adventures, The Simpsons, and others.

The years 1984 and 1985 consisted solely of toy molds that originated from Japan and had each been part of the Diaclone line ,the Micro Change line, or some other Japanese toyline. However, starting in 1986, many new U.S.-produced molds had come into being. In the following years, the line was dominated by mostly the new U.S.-oringated toys molds, with only a few Japanese molds sparsely remaining... in the U.S., that is. There were still some Japanese-exclusive molds being produced, but these ones were made primarily for the Transformers line and did not originate from some pre-existing line like Diaclone or Micro Change.

So is the Transformers franchise just as popular in Japan as it is in America? do you think some Japanese view the Transformers kinda as their own creation, just like Godzilla, Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, Ultraman, etc.?

The toys- to the Japanese.
The stories - America!