The Transformers (TV series) out of the gate. Japanese designer Shōhei Kohara was responsible for creating the earliest character models for the Transformers cast, greatly humanising the toy designs to create more approachable robot characters for the comic and cartoon. His designs were subsequently simplified by Floro Dery, who went on to become the lead designer for the series, creating many more concepts and designs in the future. The three-part pilot miniseries (retroactively titled "More than Meets the Eye") first aired in the United States in September 1984. The story follows Optimus Prime's heroic Autobots and Megatron's evil Decepticons as they leave their metallic
Transformers (toy line) the title "Beasties". Long-time Transformers fans noticed the prominence of the words "Beast Wars" over "Transformers", the latter appearing in small type under the former. The Transformers' fan base splintered into two groups as a direct result, with the one enjoying Beast Wars for what it was and the other refusing to accept it as official canon in the Transformers mythology. The success of Beast Wars and the change in storyline resulted in its second phase: Beast Machines. Like Beast Wars, the name Transformers was used only as a secondary title. While still a success, the storyline and direction borne