TV SERIES · 2010–
Transformers Prime
66 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (66)
- #001
Peter Cullen and Frank Welker reprise their roles as Optimus Prime and Megatron in the first weekly Transformers series since the 1980s (1984).
- #002
Character designers abandoned Arcee's classic pink and white color scheme because they felt it would be "too girly" for the cartoon. Instead, they made her blue.
- #003
Initially Ironhide was to appear in the series instead of Bulkhead, but the writers changed the character after realizing that his portrayal would suit Bulkhead better.
- #004
This is one of the few Transformers continuities in which Cliffjumper not only does not look like a slightly modified, red-colored Bumblebee, but also has a very distinct design of his own.
- #005
According to the Art of Prime art book, the Vehicons' car forms were based on the Batmobile.
- #006
The concept of Bumblebee being mute was taken directly from Transformers (2007). This stands in complete contrast to his noisy portrayal in Transformers: Animated (2007), where his staying silent would have been unusual.
- #007
According to producer Jeff Kline, the Japanese computer animators love Miko (who is herself Japanese) so much that they animate her doing actions that were not scripted in advance, just for fun.
- #008
Airachnid's head design was deliberately based on Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty (1959).
- #009
Since the original Transformers (1984), Frank Welker has voiced Megatron in the second Transformers cartoon.
- #010
As in most Transformers shows, the robots visibly change size when they transform; this is especially noticeable in the case of Arcee, who transforms from a nearly human-sized motorcycle into a robot about 15 feet long. The cartoon never addresses this, but it does not count as an error because mass displacement is a very common way of taking artistic license with characters.
- #011
The producers discussed the idea of including the classic Transformers theme song in the series' opening theme but dropped it, claiming they were aiming for a more "epic" and "cinematic" feel for the series. Instead, they opted for an instrumental orchestral version of the "More Than Meets The Eye" melody.
- #012
Airachnid is a sadistic trophy hunter who wants to capture and kill Jack for blowing up her spaceship and add him to her collection of alien species. However, in the more cheerful Japanese dub aimed at the series' younger audience, she wants to keep the young boy as part of her male harem, and her teasing of him is by nature far more "romantic." At one point she even sings a Japanese folk song about raping men, played in the Japanese dub for laughs. In Japan, Airachnid is a creepy pervert rather than a vengeful sadist.
- #013
Makeshift was originally planned to survive the introductory episode, but the creators felt that his special power, the ability to take the form of other robots, would give him too much of an advantage over the other characters. Therefore, he first appears and dies in the same episode.
- #014
One of the reasons the series ended was that its budget spiraled out of control: producing later episodes cost roughly $1.6 million each. Other reasons included poor toy sales and the limited availability of the series' main channel, the now-defunct Hub, in many regions.
- #015
"Scrap" appears to be a Transformer swear word. Before this series, the most common Transformer curse was "slag."
- #016
According to the character designers, the Transformers in this series have no noses because they are robots and therefore do not need to breathe. Some noted that, along with their strange, lipless mouths, this made them look quite eerie. To compensate for their alien appearance, some were given large, prominent eyebrows so they could express emotions better.
- #017
Ratchet's grumpy personality is inherited from Transformers: Animated (2007).
- #018
The creators' original story plans, initially expected to span three seasons, ran out by the midpoint of the second season. In interviews, they expressed surprise at how quickly they burned through all their ideas. This is why the second half of season 2 shifts abruptly from short stories and standalone episodes to multi-part storylines, as the writers quickly prepared more story material for the rest of the series.
- #019
Starscream's design was heavily influenced by how his namesake appeared in Transformers: Animated (2007), with flashy lines, sharp fingers and a long, narrow face with a large jaw.
- #020
The figures Miko wore on her belt were supposed to actually be small Decepticon spies. This idea never appeared in the finished cartoon.
- #021
Sumalee Montano (the voice of Arcee) is the only actor who appeared in all 26 episodes of season 1.
- #022
Miko became a Japanese exchange student because the writers initially wanted to make an episode in which she returned to Japan with her Autobot partner Bulkhead. Since that episode idea was scrapped, her Japanese origin is never brought up in the finished series, except for a brief scene in which she talks with Jack about her life in Japan. Although her eagerness to stay with her new friends is a very important part of the story, the fact that she will have to return to Japan when the school year ends is never addressed.
- #023
MECH was originally going to be a steampunk-style organization.
- #024
When the designers were told that Dwayne Johnson would voice him, Cliffjumper's design was made to look bulkier.
- #025
Insecticons mostly communicate through animalistic growls or screeches and rarely speak. In the Japanese dub, however, they speak constantly in a comical, droning tone even with their mouths closed. Their voices are in fact provided by the Japanese voice actor for Waspinator in Beast Wars: Transformers (1996) and Transformers: Animated (2007).
- #026
Little effort was put into the design of Jack's mother, June Darby, because the character designers initially did not know whether she would be a main character.
- #027
Dark Energon appears to have the same effect on inanimate machines as the All Spark in the live-action Transformers films: it brings them to life.
- #028
The introduction of the Beast Hunters concept was a last-minute addition to the series' third season at the order of the toy company Hasbro. The writers initially intended to keep focusing on the story they had planned in advance, but because Hasbro insisted on promoting the new Beast Hunters toy line, the season had to be largely rewritten in a very short time. This is why the Beast Hunter concept is suddenly pushed aside at the end of the season in favor of the originally planned series finale. Some of the dangling plotlines were later completed in the film Transformers Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising (2013).
- #029
The Autobot headquarters was the first set designed.
- #030
Optimus Prime was originally meant to kill Predaking in the final episode, symbolizing the classic image of the knight slaying the dragon. The idea was abandoned once the writers learned that the series would not end and that Transformers Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising (2013) would follow instead.
- #031
According to the backstory, the Decepticon ship is actually the giant dinosaur-like robot Trypticon, locked in the form of a ship. A reference to this was supposed to be made in the series, but the writers forgot to include it.
- #032
This is the second time in Transformers history that Optimus Prime has both swords and guns as weapons. He first used them in the live-action Transformers films.
- #033
The creators of Transformers Prime expressed their affection for Transformers: Animated (2007) and carried over several of its features. Bulkhead, a character who first appeared in Animated, is one of the series' regulars.
- #034
Starscream's body resembles the head of his live-action counterpart. The two red dots on its sides represent eyes, the upper part of his chest resembles the helmet design, the yellow middle section resembles the latter's complex mouth mechanism, and the groin area resembles the lower jaw. According to its designer, however, this is a coincidence.
- #035
One aspect the series' creators repeatedly emphasized is that if they kill off a character, that character stays dead. To illustrate the point, Cliffjumper, seemingly introduced as an important character by the first marketing materials, is killed in the first few minutes of the first episode, then brought back as a zombie and killed again. However, this "rule" was in fact broken several times at the end of the series: Bumblebee, Optimus Prime and Megatron are clearly shown being killed at certain points, only to be brought back to life shortly afterwards.
- #036
Season 3 carries the subtitle "Beast Hunters." This was actually the working title of Beast Machines: Transformers (1999).
- #037
Decepticon soldiers were initially referred to as Eradicons in promotional materials. The series' creators later rebranded them as Vehicons. "Vehicon" is not actually a new term: the enemy drones in Beast Machines: Transformers (1999) were the first to bear the name. Besides the name, another similarity is that the new soldiers come in various forms, such as ground-based and flying vehicles. The new Vehicons differ, however, in that they are individuals rather than mindless drones led by a small group of living Vehicon generals.
- #038
When choosing a new alternate form in Beast Hunters, Fowler tells Optimus Prime that the vehicle is from the MASK episode. MASK was another popular toy line Hasbro launched alongside TF in the 1980s.
- #039
The character Cosmos was supposed to appear in the series and take on a flying saucer shape while scanning a B-movie set. This idea was also proposed for the cancelled fourth season of Transformers: Animated (2007).
- #040
The production team that took over the series in its third season discussed various details with Hasbro, such as plot, characterization and the appearance of various characters. Toy designers were also frustrated that the Transformers figures they had developed for the toy line did not appear in the season.
- #041
All four Iacon Relic episodes in the second season begin with the letter T: Tunnel Vision, Triangulation, Triage and Toxicity.
- #042
This is the second time in Transformers history that Megatron has a Cybertronian jet mode along with a fusion cannon and a sword as weapons. He was also a Cybertron jet in the first live-action Transformers film, but in the sequel he had a different alternate mode and a weapon arm with a sword. Megatron was also initially a Cybertron jet with a fusion cannon and twin swords in Transformers Animated.
- #043
This is the first animated Transformers setting in the last five years to depict the villainous Unicron as an existing force, and also the first time he is shown as one with Earth rather than as a separate entity.
- #044
As concept drawings released to the public on DVD also show, Soundwave was initially designed with four legs, resembling a centaur.
- #045
Initially the third season would have been entirely different. The second season was to end with the planet Cybertron being resettled by Transformers, including the Maximals (animal-based Transformers first seen in Beast Wars: Transformers (1996)). The third season would have introduced the pirate Thundertron (who was in fact released as a toy) and had a "wild west" feel. All these plans were cancelled when a different team took over production.
- #046
Airachnid's fate remains uncertain at the end of the series. In Transformers Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising (2013), she was supposed to team up with Unicron and the revived Megatron, but this never happened.
- #047
Smokescreen's design was based on Prowl from the cancelled Transformers Universe online game.
- #048
A handful of characters' appearances were based on how their live-action counterparts looked in Michael Bay's Transformers films, though the stylistic elements of Transformers: Animated (2007) are also clearly visible.
- #049
At Hasbro's request, the transformations are fast and instantaneous. The writers were specifically asked not to include any "half-transformations," such as a robot arm emerging from the side of a car or a robot's feet turning into wheels.
- #050
Arcee's CGI animation model appears to have variations that change inconsistently between episodes. Alongside a regular look, it has an alternate color scheme in which pink lines adorn some parts that are normally entirely blue, particularly the chest plates. The reason for this is unknown.
- #051
A handful of episodes were censored when they aired and when broadcast in different countries. Some of the more graphic shots (for example, robots "bleeding" Energon) and a few questionable pieces of dialogue were removed.
- #052
After José López was announced as the series' character designer, some fans immediately warned him to prepare for a difficult relationship with Transformers fans, who are known to be aggressive and hard to please, especially when it comes to the visual representations of their favorite characters.
- #053
Raw Energon takes on a cubic form, similar to the crystals seen in Beast Wars: Transformers (1996).
- #054
The role of Cliffjumper was originally going to be filled by Smokescreen. He was also going to die at Megatron's hands in later episodes of Season 1.
- #055
The series features generic Decepticon drones or soldiers, called Vehicons, a concept rarely used in most other Transformers shows.
- #056
The Vehicon soldiers have no mouths because they were originally conceived as non-speaking, mindless drones.
- #057
The series was not popular in Japan. The Transformers franchise was largely seen there as a property aimed at small children, and the series' relatively serious tone and violence did not appeal to viewers. The Japanese dub tried to turn the series into a cheerful comedy by replacing the orchestral music in the intro with a cheerful pop song and allowing the voice actors to improvise cheerful dialogue. The series was pulled from television after Season 2, and its ending was rewritten into the entirely Japan-exclusive Transformers: Go! show (2013), which replaced Season 3. Hasbro's statistics showed that even American children responded to the series with less enthusiasm than expected, which explains why later Transformers cartoons broadcast on television, such as Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2014), had a lighter tone and targeted a younger crowd.
- #058
This was Brian Tyler's first music for an animated series.
- #059
There has been countless debate among fans about the cartoon's relationship to the popular video game Transformers: War for Cybertron (2010). Originally the video game was to be a prequel to the original Generation 1 story, but those plans changed. Hasbro stated that the cartoon was the true sequel to the video game, then said it was actually a sequel to the Transformers novel 'Exodus', roughly based on the aforementioned game and detailing (according to its description) the "true" events that took place on the planet Cybertron. However, there are clearly many continuity errors between these two media (and the novel has also contradicted itself many times), which has led some people to believe that Hasbro was only trying to shoehorn the cartoon's continuity into the novel's continuity. It seems plausible that the two stories are actually connected, representing only two separate "branches" in the same universe.
- #060
As of 2017, the series' final episode, Deadlock (2013), which had previously aired heavily censored, was banned by Cartoon Network's European broadcasters along with numerous episodes from the channel's other programs. The episode in question contained uncensored violence and the killing of two main characters, though both were later resurrected, one of them in the same episode. The Hungarian-dubbed version of the episode also contained profanity (Starscream says "Fuck your logic!" to Shockwave), but it is unclear whether this had any effect on the ban.
- #061
Neil Kaplan, who voiced the Autobot commander Optimus Prime in Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2000), stated during an online chat with a Transformers fan that he wanted to have at least a cameo role as someone's voice in the series.
- #062
Silas's surname was originally Sumdac, a reference to Professor Isaac Sumdac from Transformers: Animated (2007). In the finished series, his real name was changed to Leland Bishop.
- #063
Hasbro's new design director initially wanted Optimus Prime to be green in the series' final season.
- #064
Both Josh Keaton and Tania Gunadi appeared in Disney Channel's Even Stevens (2000) alongside Shia LaBeouf, who played Sam Witwicky in the first three live-action Transformers films.
- #065
The writers considered having Seaspray survive by getting off his ship before it blew up in "Loose Cannons" and then appear in the third season. However, time constraints prevented more Wreckers from being included in the series. The character resembled Quint from Jaws (1975) and whistled to strike fear into his enemies.
- #066
Episodes 21 through 23 first aired in Canada more than a month before their release in the US, while episodes 24 through 26 reached Singapore a few weeks before the US.
Continue through the archive
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb kaydı
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work