Virtual Transformers TV

If you were around during the 1980s, you probably remember the abundance of quality "kid cartoons": He-Man, Jem, Rainbow Bright, G.I. Joe, Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony, She-Ra, Gummi Bears, Duck Tales, Smurfs, Robotech, Captain N: The Game Master, Inspector Gadget, Thundercats, Voltron, Dungeons and Dragons, and many more. One of these cartoons, however, which started in the Fall of 1984, dealt with the story of sentient, self-aware, and alien robots, fighting a never-ending civil war on their home-planet of Cybertron. These robots could transform into various vehicles, animals and other machines, and eventually took their war to the planet Earth in search of more energy. With the fate of the galaxy at stake, this show was known as The Transformers.

The show was made by both Sunbow Productions and Marvel Productions LTD., and had two factions: Autobots (heroic robots) and Decepticons (evil robots). The Autobots were led by the courageous, kind, and wise Optimus Prime. The Decepticons were led by the evil and ruthless Megatron. Over time, however, different Transformer characters would come and go, including the leaders themselves. Because of this, the ending of the "Robot Fad", and the omitting of old characters from previous seasons, the show lost it's original popularity. It finally ended in the Fall of 1987, with a season 4 that was only three episodes: The Rebirth, parts 1-3 (see the episode listings page for a full list of episodes). The toyline, and everything else tied to the '80s TF line managed to keep charging-along until 1990.

But what if things had happened differently? What if the line's toy company owner, Hasbro, hadn't cancelled the show in '87, and kept it going until its proper end in 1990, still continuing along with the toy line it was supposed to support? What if they hired new writers and other staff, including YOU, to continue the show from where the last staff had left off? And what if Hasbro decided to be more lenient with its writers about what characters could be used (besides Optimus Prime coming back at the end of season 3), while still adhering to the rules of introducing and developing new toy characters into the show? What would the show have possibly been like? This virtual show's purpose is to answer these very questions, by writing fanfic, virtual "episodes" that continue the program to its rightful end.

New and old fans alike have been treated to the next Transformers toy-based cartoon incarnations that followed, such as Beast Wars and Beast Machines, two computer - animated Transformer shows produced by Mainframe Entertainment from 1996-2001 that told of the war between the descendants of the original Transformers. Next came Transformers: Robots In Disguise, a cel-animated, Japanese animation TF cartoon imported from Japan, which aired on the FoxKids Network Saturday mornings and weekdays from 2001-2002. It was set in its own continuity, with Autobots fighting Predacons and Decepticons. The next Transformers cartoons, Transformers: Armada, then Transformers: Energon, and then Transformers: Cybertron, also imported from Japan, made up another new continuity known as "The Unicron Trilogy." Here, Autobots and Decepticons battle over small-sized, "power-up" Transformers called "Mini-Cons." In Summer of 2007, the first live-action Transformers movie, Transformers, was released in theaters, directed by Michael Bay. This would be followed by a new cartoon debuting in late December that same year called Transformers Animated, the first American Transformers cartoon released since Beast Machines. Both the cartoon and movie were each in their own individual continuitites. In June of 2009, a live-action Transformers movie sequel was released, called Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, also directed by Michael Bay. There is currently a new TV station called The Hub, formerly the Discovery Kids Channel, now bought-out by Hasbro, which is currently showing the latest Transformers cartoon, Transformers: Prime.

Episodes currently air (For 5/13/12 - 5/19/12):

Monday at 5:30PM EST/2:30PM PST, 8PM EST/5PM PST and 11PM PST

Tuesday thru Wednesday at 2AM EST, 5:30PM EST/2:30PM PST, 8PM EST/5PM PST and 11PM PST

Thursday at 2AM EST and 5:30PM EST/2:30PM PST

Friday at 2AM EST, 5:30PM EST/2:30PM PST, 7PM EST/4PM PST and 7:30PM EST/4:30PM PST (LAST NEW EPISODE REPEATED)

Saturday at 7AM EST/4AM PST (LAST NEW EPISODE REPEATED), 8:30PM EST/5:30PM PST (NEW EPISODE), 11PM EST/8PM PST 11:30PM EST/8:30PM PST (NEW EPISODE REPEATED)

Another new Transformers show premiered on The Hub late 2011 called Transformers: Rescue Bots, and is aimed at a younger audience.

Episodes currently air (For 5/13/12 - 5/19/12):

Sunday 9:30AM EST/6:30AM PST and 10AM EST/7AM PST (NEW EPISODE REPEATED)

Friday at 2PM EST/11AM PST (LAST NEW EPISODE REPEATED) and 2:30PM EST/11:30AM PST

Saturday at 9:30AM EST/6:30AM PST (NEW EPISODE) 10AM EST/7AM PST (ANOTHER NEW EPISODE)

Both of these shows are each yet another new Transformers story-continuity. The Hub is also airing the original Transformers cartoon, from which this project is a virtual-continuation of. See the Episode Guide page for a times-listing. Finally, the third live-action Transformers movie, Transformers: The Dark of the Moon, again directed by Michael Bay, which came out last year, was part three of its story. While some of these other shows and movies are decent stories, they all fail to answer an important question: What happened between the end of the original show, and the Beast Wars and Beast Machines era ... a question we hope to answer here ourselves.