What are the best elements of the Transformers Franchise

I'm curious to hear about it from a large number of people. What are the best elements and characters introduced in each of it's iterations (G1, Beast, RID, Unicron Trilogy, Animated, Prime, ect)

G1-The starting foundations of the transformers franchise and the best movie of the series

Beast Wars: More fleshed out characterizations of the robots and better animation.

Unicron Trilogy: *crickets chirping*

Animated: Showing an inexperienced optimus prime lead the autobots

Prime: Modern Reimaging of transformers mythos, while adding some twists

Optimus Prime and Megatron

The toy-line. If it wasn't for those Diaclone toys there would be no Transformers that and the whole reason a cartoon and a comic existed was to sell the toy line they have always being a massive part of the franchise the toys built the franchise. Hasbro were originally selling it as a toy line and was not expecting Transformers to catch on and become the popular and incredibly huge and iconic franchise it is.

The toy-line of course accompanies pretty much each iteration of Transformers. If I had to name the best toy lines that have come out of the TF brand Id have to say Beast Was just due to its unique line that and the Beast Wars figures could actually move and had articulation as opposed to just being brick like in G1. The Movie line for each movie as a whole also has some very impressive and fun toys. Animated too just due to how well the stylized looks of the character transitioned onto the toy line.

So the toy line is really the big thing that is the best of each iteration of Transformers since even though they may bring a crap cartoon out you can always be sure of some spectacular toys. Just look at the Unicron Trilogy toy lines as an example , the Cybertron line in particular is many fans fave toyline despite it being based on the Cybertron cartoon.

Okay so the best elements from the cartoons themselves? Alright.

G1: Many of the voice actors roles, such as Peter Cullen as Prime Chris Latta as Starscream and the best voice actor Frank Welker he voiced a very large volume of the characters of course he is known as Megatron but also Soundwave, Ravage, Lazerbeak and so many more. It is a great example of his and other voice actors talents. And the 86 movie is the best thing from the G1 series. It is the closest we will ever get to the Marvel comics run of the Transformers back in the 80s.

Beast Wars: This show just how deep and character driven the storyline could go not just for a Transformers cartoon but cartoons in general. They had more mature and interesting themes such as philosophy and morality Dinobot for example in the episode Code of the Hero at the beginning was contemplating suicide and later on in that episode he sacrificed himself. Dinobot was such an interesting character due to his sense of honor which meant he was not really at home with Megatrons Predacons but then due to his warrior and cold attitude he did not always fit with the Maximals and would often clash with Optimus Primal. Primal himself was also a stretch from the perfect G1 Prime he did struggle to keep his own team together and was not really cut out for leadership. There is Megatron himself who right from the start was always ten steps ahead of everyone else and manipulated events to achieve his goals which was revealed to be an attempt to change time in its entirety since it is later revealed how Beast Wars tied in with G1. Whilst many of the other Predacons also had there own agendas such as Blackarchnia who eventually defected to the Maximals. The treacherous Tarantuals too who was really a mole working for the Tripredicus Council he also had cannibalistic tendencies and was batshit crazy. Rampage also known as Protoform X was a victim of a Maximal experiment in an attempt to create a super soldier of sorts, this showed that the Maximals were not just clean cut good guys since as a result of the experiment Rampage was a creature of pure hate and destruction who was also being chased down by Depth Charge who became obsessed with tracking him down. I could go on in detail explaining how every character is brilliant and how great the storyline is but just do yourself a favour and watch it for yourself.

Robots in Disguise: Not much was great about this. SkyByte was an interesting character I suppose.

Unicron Trilogy: As a whole this series was crap. There were a few characters that were interesting and had potential but really never went anywhere. In Armada I always found Demolisher interesting and the direction they went with Starscream was um unique idea too. Energon Scorponok had potential and Shockblast was insane which made for a fun character. Cybetron eh Vector Prime was interesting I guess Scourge too since his allegiance was ambiguous.

Animated: Really liked the stylized animation they went for. Highlight characters are Optimus who is inexperienced Prowl was cool as a ninja like character Lugnut and Blitzwing were entertaining too. Just a shame it ended so abruptly. It as a whole blended very new things with a stylized animation with some nice references to past series's.

Prime: Like the animation alot again like Beast Wars they have a smaller cast. Megatron here is my favourite interpretation on screen he is just right and is voiced by Franks Welker again! and he just shows how well he can voice Megatron and proves that he was perfectly capable of being Megatron in the movies. The fact we have Cullen and Welker back as Prime and Megatron again in a TF cartoon is also fantastic. Dreadwing I found an interesting character too due to his ambiguity . Starscream is also very well played and acted with the best voice for him by far to date. Soundwave is just slick and I really like how he is silent too. I like Ratchet and how he is a balance of G1 Ratchet and the Animated version the fact he is also voiced by Jeffery Combs is very fitting. I like Bulkhead and how much more serious he is here Wheeljack is also interesting. Ultra Magnus is in which is also a bonus and of course Predaking. Transformers zombies are also an awesome addition too. And I like the twist that it turned out Unicron technically created the earth.

@mrdecepticonleader: I do thank you for the overview. I am a fanfiction writer on FF.Net who will be doing a X over story with a version of the transformers, and I am just wondering what elements are best to use. I grew up on the Unicron Trilogy and the series, particularly Armada and Cybertron, has a special place in my heart.

So far, I have down a noble demon Megatron with the Beast Wars voice and the Prime backstory with a destroyed Cybertron in his back story with a Armada like Starscream as his second in command. Animal based transformers like the Dinobots and the beast war crew are in the development stage plot wise, and I want to throw Sari in there somewhere, same with Combiners.

Are their any elements I shouldn't use at all? I mean, I know that Kicker is a definate no, and Unicron must not be made by a monkey. Should the Dinobots be made more like the Beast Wars crew design wise, or should I just depict said Beast Crew as Transmetals to maintain consistency?

You are welcome :) Any opportunity to talk about Transformers is always a good one.

I see that sounds very interesting and intriguing. Really Id go with the elements you like and enjoy. As for what design you should go with for the Beast Crew Id go with Transmetals personally because I dig their designs more that is what I would go with if I was doing it then they fit more within the Dinobots because the Transmetal forms are very much like the Dinobots due to them being mechanical beasts.

That is what I would do.