US Transformer Television Continuity
By: Thomas Conner (Fotress_Maximal@thetransformers.net)
Version 2.1
Created On: 1/12/02
Revised: 7/31/02

This timeline includes Generation 1, Beast Wars, Beast Machines, and Robots in Disguise and explains how/where RiD fits into continuity. This is a combination of facts from the television series, comic books, and other timelines. Before you panic, the comic book was used to add more detail in parts of the origin of certain that were never explained.

The author wishes to give credit to isoner@sprintmail.com, for inspiring the creation of this timeline and for laying the ground work.
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After the dawn of time, Unicron and Primus are created. The two machine-gods, the ultimate yin-and-yang, battles lay waste to universes and even create several beings (one in fact being Unicron's Quintessons) in their wake. During one of their battles, Primus, near death, is hurled onto an asteroid. Primus then inserted his essence into the asteroid that he formed into Cybertron.

The Quintessons use Cybertron as a manufacturing plant for robots who would become the children of Primus, the Transformers; a race of sentient robots that would be able to alter their physical appearances to be 'robots in disguise.' However, the race is used as slaves by the Quintessons.

A rebel leader, A-3, begins a series of campaigns to free his people from the Quintessons.

Cybertron's Transformers become two distinctive groups; the slave Autobots and the war machine Decepticons. (It is also presumed that within this time frame, the two Books of Primus are written and the Autobot Matrix of Leadership is created)

The Decepticon leader, Megatron, appears and leads the Decepticons in a revolution against Cybertron. The battles began with small, guerrilla strikes.

Orion Pax, a worker robot, is injured during one of Megatron's strikes. The dying robot is rescued by time traveling Aerialbots. They take him to Alpha Trion, the Autobot elder and formerly A-3, who rebuilds Orion Pax into Optimus Prime and Ariel (Pax's girlfriend) into Elita One. (It is speculated that Pax's best friend, Dion, was rebuilt into Ultra Magnus)

Optimus Prime is given the Matrix, thus becoming the new leader of the Autobots. Under Prime's leadership, the Autobots were turned them into an army capable of fighting Megatron.

The conflict grows into an all out civil war.

Four million B.C. (Earth time, roughly), the war between the Autobots and Decepticons has depleted virtually all of Cybertron's energy and resources. Optimus Prime assembles a crew aboard the Autobot flagship, the Ark, and leaves the planet in search of another source of energy. Megatron with his crew follows and attacks the Ark in the Nemesis. During the struggle, both ships crash on Earth with all aboard being knocked into stasis lock.

In 1984 the Transformers are reactivated by Teletraan 1 (the Ark's computer) and given alternate forms based on Earth machinery. What would be come to known as the 'Great War' begins with the Autobots fighting the Decepticons over Earth's resources. During this time, the Autobots befriend humans. Namely Sparkplug Witwicky and his son, Spike.

The war lasts several years, during which the humans establish ties with the Autobots.  Also during the war the Dinobots, Constructicons, Aerialbots, Combaticons, Stunticons, and other Transformers are given life.

During the war, it is discovered by the Autobots and Decepticons that Cybertron has an organic core. This discovery eventually leads to the theory that Cybertron has not always been a planet of technology.

Around the 1990s, with the help of the humans, the Autobots defeat the Decepticons on earth and prepare to return to Cybertron, with seven humans, aboard the Ark II. The Ark II mysteriously explodes in the atmosphere and the Transformers are scattered across the Antarctic. One of the seven humans aboard the Ark II was Sparkplug Witwicky. Several years later, a man known as Lazaurs finds them and tries to use them as war weapons. The Transformers are reactivated, the Great Wars begin again.

(Dreamwave, yes, I know. But I think it works)

The Autobots build Autobot City on Earth and elect Ultra Magnus as city commander. Meanwhile, Megatron schemes for a full take over of Cybertron.

During the course of this new war, Ultra Magnus builds the powerful Scramble City that would become Metroplex. The Metroplex is just a smaller section of the larger Autobot City, a 'living core' if one would. (Japanese G1 continuity, but it could be used to bridge the gap for America too.)

In the year 2005, the treacherous Decepticons have conquered the planet Cybertron. But from the two of Cybertron's moons, the valiant Autobots prepare to retake their homeland. Megatron, learning of the plan, hijacks an Autobot shuttle headed for Autobot City. The strike on the city would then become known as the 'Autobot City Massacre.' During the heat of the battle, several Transformers are killed and Optimus Prime and Megatron have their final stand; delivering fatal wounds to the other. The surviving Decepticons escape and while in space, jettison their weaker comrades to lighten the load for the journey back to Cybertron.

Optimus Prime dies, and the Autobot Matrix of Leadership is passed on to Ultra Magnus.

The chaos-bringer, Unicron, resurfaces and summons Megatron, reformatting him and some of his fallen troops. Megatron then becomes the feared Galvatron. Galvatron's mission is to bring the chaos-bringer the Autobot Matrix, the one item the dark God feared. Succeeding in his mission, Galvatron attempted to use the Matrix to destroy Unicron. The massive planet, however, returned his herald's treachery by attacking Cybertron.

While inside Unicron, during a struggle to reclaim the Matrix from the grasp of Galvatron, (young and impulsive) Hot Rod freed the power of the Matrix and transformed into Rodimus Prime. Rodimus Prime defeated Galvatron and used the power of the Matrix to destroy Unicron.

In 2006, Rodimus Prime takes command of the Autobots and protects Cybertron, Earth, and the entire universe from Galvatron and the Decepticons. The battles between the two fractions rages on as new subgroups appear on the warfront, one of which being the combiners known as the Predacons.

An astronaut team finds Optimus Prime's body in a space craft and repairs him, planning to use the dead leader to destroy the Autobots. Unknown to them, an ancient 'hate plague' was released and infected the entire universe. In return for his safety, a Quintesson reactivated the legendary Autobot. Opening the Matrix, Optimus puts in end to the plague, but left the Matrix empty.

Galvatron orders an attack on Cybertron to secure the Key to Vector Sigma. While trying to protect the Key, a team of Autobots crash-land on Nebulos. The planet has two fractions; the Hive, evil Nebulons who use mental powers to control machines, led by the Lord Zarak, and their opponents who hate machines and want to live in peace.

While on Nebulos, Headmasters and Targetmasters are developed by the Autobots and Decepticons allowing them to bond with humans, and other similar, organic races. With the help of Headmasters, such as Spike and Fortress Maximus, the Autobots drive the Decepticons off of Cybertron and enter a great Golden Age.

(The ending of the war between Optimus Prime and Galvatron are unknown. One could either see the Japanese series, read the comic books, or use theories on how the war turned out. The below paragraph is pure speculation based on the Botcon Wreckers comic book)

Three centuries later, the Predacons have embraced a minimizing process concept and greatly increased their numbers while reserving their energy. The Decepticons effectively died out, retired, or upgraded to the new Predacon format. The same thing happened to the Autobots, only they were being replaced with a group known as Maximals. These new Transformer have embraced organic (such as animals or plants) modes over machinery.

A Predacon General calling himself Megatron steals a Golden Disk containing instructions from the Megatron of the past. He follows these instructions, which led him and the perusing exploration ship commanded by Maximal general, Optimus Primal, through a time warp, to...

Four million B.C. (Earth time), on the prehistoric planet the century's old truce between fractions is broken as the Maximals and Predacons begin a struggle what would become known as the 'Beast Wars.'

As the war goes on, many Transformers are brought online from protoforms.

During an electrical storm, the immortal spark of Decepticon general Starscream invades the body of Predacon Waspinator. The infamous traitor takes command of the Predacons, only to be defeated later on and have his spark sent back into the darkness of space.

An ancient alien race known as the Vok, interferes in the Beast Wars constantly, calling the planet their 'experiment' and the Transformers a 'contamination.' In an attempt to destroy the planet, the Vok uses one of the two moons as a giant heating laser. Primal sacrifices himself in destroying the massive cannon. The resulting explosion caused a Quantum surge to radiate the planet and upgrade most of the Transformer into new forms called, Transmetals.

A new species of beast Transformers known as, Fuzor, enter the war as Rhinox retrieves Optimus Primal's spark and uses a blank, transmetalised protofrom to restore him. The Beast Wars continue.

During the course of the battles, it was discovered that the planet the war was fought on was actually Earth! The Maximal Dinobot sacrifices himself in a valiant effort to stop Megatron from killing the prehistoric humans.

The war rages on until a reformatted Decepticon Ravage appears to put in an end to the Beast Wars and capture the Predacon criminals, under orders from the Tripredacus Council. At first, he allies himself with the Maximals, until the captured Megatron reveals to the Decepticon a hidden plan of the original Megatron. The former servant of the megalomaniac, switches sides as the Predacon leader enacts his plan.

Megatron sinister plans finally come into fruition by finding the legendary Ark! Entering the Autobot command ship, the Predacon delivers a fatal blast to the stasis locked Optimus Prime, putting him near death...

A violent TIME STORM rages through the universe...

(At this point the timeline can account for the birth of a "multiverse" meaning, anything TF that does not fit with in the main continuity could be explained from this point onward. Such, all the comic book variants, [the Japanese adaptation of] Beast Wars, and the TF anime.)

After the dawn of time, Unicron and Primus are created. The two machine-gods, the ultimate yin-and-yang, battles lay waste to universes and even create several beings (one in fact being Unicron's Quintessons) in their wake. During one of their battles, Primus, near death, is hurled onto an asteroid. Primus then inserted his essence into the asteroid that he formed into Cybertron.

The Quintessons use Cybertron as a manufacturing plant for robots who would become the children of Primus, the Transformers; a race of sentient robots that would be able to alter their physical appearances to be 'robots in disguise.' However, the race is used as slaves by the Quintessons.

A rebel leader, A-3, begins a series of campaigns to free his people from the Quintessons. (It is also presumed that within this time frame, the two Books of Primus are written, the Autobot Matrix of Leadership is created, and the powerful Fortress Maximus is built and lost.)

A-3's battle esclate into an all out civil war against the Quintessons. Without the Aerialbots to save him, Orion Pax is killed during one of these battles. To save the young Autobot, A-3 uses the AllSpark, Vector Sigma, along with the bodies of Orion Pax and his friend Dion to build two new Autobots; Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus. Prime's personality was founded on righteousness whereas Magnus' personality was one that burned with weakness; such weaknesses as rage and jealously.

Fractions under the command of Prime and Magnus, turned the Autobots into an army capable of fighting the Quintessons. The fight grew into an all out civil war. During the war, both Prime and Magnus gained fame. Despite their equal qualities, the Autobot Matrix of Leadership chooses Prime to be its bearer.

Sometime afterward, the Transformers split into two groups; Autobot and Predacon. The Predacons thirst for power ignite an all out war between the two fractions.

By about 4 million BC, the war between the Autobots and Predacons has used up virtually all of Cybertron's energy. Optimus Prime assembles a crew aboard a ship and leaves the planet in search of another source of energy. The ship crash-lands on Earth and the Transformers inside enter protoentity form.

In 1941, six Autobots are sent to Earth to reactivate the hidden Fortress Maximus and find Optimus Prime and his crew. Their ship crashes and they are never heard from again.

In 1984, the Transformers are reactivated. The ships computer, Teletraan 1 gives the Transformer alternative forms based on earth machinery form. Due to the damages the system sustained in the crash, Teletraan downloades and updates itself, creating a new program; the T-A.I., the Tactical Artificial Intelligence system. 'She' would be dubbed as the 'daughter of Teletraan 1.' (Right here. We get the fire truck Optimus and the different police car for Prowl and so on...)

Around this time, a crazed Predacon loyalist begins gathering armies and taking over planets in various parts of the universe. This loyalist would eventually master a six-mode transformation and call himself Megatron.

Optimus Prime and his Autobots elect to stay on Earth to protect it in secret. To better assist this, the Autobots effectively go into hiding, while secretly establishing bases and an underground road network, which would be known as the Global Space Bridge.

In 2001, all seemed peaceful until the Predacons under the leadership the self-imposed Predacon Emperor, Megatron, and with orders from the Predacon Council, attack Earth. The attack forces Optimus Prime and his Autobots to reveal themselves once again to save their adopted planet. Megatron kidnaps the planet's leading energy scientist, Dr. Onishi. To make up for not saving the doctor, Optimus befriends the doctor's son, Koji.

The battles do not seem to go in the Predacons’ favor, having used all their resources to get to Earth and having to leave most of his troops on his captured planets, Megatron is seriously outnumbered.

During a battle, Megatron discovers the protoforms of the six Autobots who were lost in 1941. Using their protoforms, he creates the Decepticons from an army base's machinery. In the process of formatting the last Decepticon, Megatron accidentally creates a clone of Optimus Prime from an oil tanker. Known as Scourge, the 'copy' of Optimus takes command of the Decepticons.

The war scales begin to tip to both sides. The Autobots score a major victory when Megatron's second-in-command, Sky-Byte, inadvertently brings Onishi back to the Autobots.

Ultra Magnus arrives on Earth to seek revenge on and take the Matrix from Optimus Prime. While Optimus rested on an 'oil spring' island, the Decepticons attacked and Magnus came to his 'brother's' aid. During the course of the fight, Magnus forced Prime to fuse with him and create the ultimate energy combiner, Omega Prime. Magnus thought by in doing this, he had secured the Matrix at long last. But Prime's personality proved the dominate and Omega Prime thus became his own individual.

Magnus would continue to help the Autobots many times, he even discovered he held some of the Matrix's power by upgrading three Autobots into "supercharged" forms. After several more battles, Magnus finally join the Autobots in their cause.

The legendary O-Parts are found and they form the globe that leads the Autobots to the Orb of Sigma; which will eventually lead to the key of Fortress Maximus, the Transformer Cerebros! During the mission to find the Orb of Sigma, Megatron undergoes a significant power upgrade and becomes Galvatron.

The Autobots unearth Cerebros, the key to the Fortress Maximus. However, he is captured by the Predacons and used several times to try and gain Fortress Maximus under their control. The Autobots eventually regain Cerebros.

The Predacons and Decepticons discover the Autobot base and draws them out into a final showdown. During the final battle, Galvatron harnesses the power of Earth's children. Galvatron is defeated by Omega Prime and his Matrix Blade, and Galvatron and his army are taken to Cybertron by Ultra Magnus and Fortress Maximus.

(The rest is speculation)

In 2005 Cybertron is attacked by Unicron, who is defeated by the two Matrix chambers (or the Matrix Blade) of Omega Prime.

Three centuries have passed and the Predacons have embraced the minimizing concept and greatly increased their numbers. The same thing was happening to the Autobots, only they were being replaced with a subgroup called the Maximals. These new Transformer have embraced organic modes over machinery...

(TIME STORM ENDS)

To save the life of the legendary Autobot leader, Optimus Prime, Optimus Primal takes in his Matrix contained spark and upgrades to Optimal Optimus. The time storm and fluxes cease. The Maximal, Rhinox, uses the Ark's computers and systems to repair Prime.

(The Beast Wars begin and end up to this point same as it did before, however, most of the characters had very different personalities due to not having heard tales of the Great Wars as children.)

The Beast Wars take on a greater meaning as the Maximals fight to protect the Ark and it's passengers from the evil Megatron.

In these times, Megatron prefects a cloning process by creating a Transmetal 2 clone of Dinobot and steals the Spark of the original Megatron, thus upgrading him self the way Primal did.

The Vok uses to the bodies of captured Transformers, Tigatron and Airrazor, to create their own Fuzor; Tigerhawk. The powerful Fuzor tips the war in the Maximal favor until...

Megatron unearths the Decepticon vessel, Nemesis, and attempts to end the Beast Wars. Due to the valiant battles of Depth Charge, Tigerhawk, and Primal the Nemesis is brought down and crashes into an unknown location.

Megatron looses the Beast Wars, and is captured by the Maximals. The Maximals return to their home-world Cybertron with an Autobot shuttle from the Ark. (I am aware of the scene that shows BW Megatron returning the spark of G1 Megatron exists, since it was cut and not shown to general audiences, it will be ignored.)

Meanwhile, the Predacon Waspinator remains on earth and is treated like a king by the prehistoric humans. After growing bored with the ordeal, the Predacon uses what he can from what the Maximals left behind and finds a way back to Cybertron. (Never shown, so I don't know if he built a rocket and strapped a firecracker to his butt.)

On the way back to Cybertron, Megatron escapes and enters a warp tube.

Megatron arrives on Cybertron ahead of the Maximals. The ordeal and having two sparks in him for such a prolonged time, drives Megatron insane. Using his scientific knowledge, he creates a plague that wipes out virtually all life on Cybertron. But, instead of killing all Transformers, he stores their sparks in case he should need them. Along with the plague, he mass-produces the sparkless, mindless Transformer race known as Vehicons.

The Maximals and Waspinator arrive on Cybertron, and are all infected with the plague. The plague causes memory glitches and the inability to Transform. After arrival, Waspinator, Silverbolt, and Rhinox are captured. Optimus Primal, Cheetor, Rattrap, and Blackarachnia are reformatted by the Oracle to save them from the plague. This new breed of 'techno-organic' Maximal is described as the perfect blend between machine and organic components.

Primal embraces the Oracles ideal, becoming a zealot as he fights back against Megaton's dreams of a purely technological Cybertron. When both sides coined ancient weapons (the Plasma Energy Chamber and the Key to Vector Sigma program), the energies meshed and turned the planet into a lifeless orb. Primal sacrifices himself to restore the planet to the technological. While within the Matrix, he discovered the Oracle's true goal; to create a balance between the technological and organic. He returns and the Maximals create a techno-organic flower orchard.

The war on Cybertron rages on, as the Maximals gain new members and the Vehicons get new generals.

During their last battle, all of the Cybertronian Sparks are consumed by Megatron, and all of Primal's and Megatron's troops are killed or absorbed. Primal then attacks Megatron, in an attempt to reformat him. Both fall into the core of Cybertron, thereby reformatting the planet itself.

The reformatted Techno-organic planet recreates the Transformers; the sparkless Transformers and both general's crew are reawaken. A Golden Age of Cybertron returns as the planet enters a period of peace...

(I would TRY to fit Armada into this, but I'll wait for the premiere...)