G1 Autobots/Cybertrons

The consumer goods and military hardware bots renamed themselves as Autobots and Decepticons. However, the Decepticons wanted war. No match for the superior firepower and battle prowess of the Decepticons , the Autobots developed transformation technology (possibly with the help of the Dark Guardians) to win the war, bringing about the Golden Age of Cybertron. Eventually, the Decepticons also developed transformation and begun the third Cybertronian War. They would have succeeded in completing their conquest had not more time-displaced Autobots blown up an energy warehouse and brought its workers to A-3, now renamed Alpha Trion, as the new defenders of Cybertron.

For five million years, the Cybertronians warred over the remaining energy that was left. With this crisis, the Autobots, headed by Optimus Prime, made an expedition to find new energy sources. But the Decepticons intercepted them, causing the Autobot ship Ark to crash-land on Earth. The spaceship crashed into what is today called Mount St. Hilary, where the Autobots and Decepticons on the Ark lay dormant for four million years, until in 1984 the volcano erupted and activated the shipboard computer which then revived the Transformers on board. (Mount St. Hilary is fictional, although it was presumably modelled on the real-life Mount St. Helens, which erupted in 1980). Through use of Spy Satellites, Teletraan created new alternate forms for the Transformers out of earth vehicles. The Decepticons were revived first and then the Autobots due to Starscream's carelessness. The Autobots made an alliance with the local humans, thus beginning the Great War.

Generation 1 lasted for 3 seasons in the United States from 1984 until 1986.

Mini-spies

The Japanese series of Generation 1 took on its own flavor than the USA version.