Ah yes, Soundwave's original Cybertronian alt-mode .. a street light.

I like how Optimus just casually says “Thanks” to the little repair bot at 10:49

I love how starscream literally states to everyone about taking over, and yet he still is trusted to be on the team

Wheeljack will always have a special place in my heart. He has the honor of being the first transformer to properly appear on screen in the show, the first one to speak, and the first one to transform.

Starscream is literally the reason the autobots survived

"Fear not, Megatron! Cybertron will remain as you leave it." [four million years pass and it's completely identical] Gotta hand it to Shockwave -- he keeps his word.

Can we stop a second to say how cool SoundWave's voice is?

Congrats to Peter Cullen for expecting the lifetime achievement award for best voice over!

7:52 Optimus was so pumped, he turned into Megatron.

As a kid, walking home from school, passing by the local toy store, they would have Voltron, and most of the Transformers, proudly displayed in the window, in all their glorious poses... Every day, EVERY DAY, i would stop and fantasize of owning one of them, specifically Optimus... to the point that my parents were once stopped by the owners of the store and said to them "Please buy your son something, our heart breaks every time we see him standing there for 10-20 minutes looking at the window display".. :) lol, my parents bought me Optimus prime for my birthday, after months and months of me drooling for one, and make no mistake, I hinted nothing, it was the owners of the store who made this happen! :)

For such an old series, the animation is surprisingly detailed

13:49 How big do you want your blaster? Cliffjumper: YES

10:48 Prime is so immensely kind he thanks the repair drone immediately after regaining conciseness. He doesn’t stop to say “I’m alive? What happened?” He’s grateful, this proves Optimus is such an amazing character

Megaton was lucky it was Skywarp that was revived first and not Starscream lol

It’s amazing how the entire Beast wars series took place from 8:30 to 8:42

Starscream's first line is literally him bemoaning not being in charge. Glad to see nothing has changed in 40+ years ❤

"How do you know Cybertron still exists?" "It must exist"

Almost 40 years and the Transformers cartoons never gets old. Thank You :)

13:50 I love how Cliffjumper just shows up with this massive shoulder mounted rocket launcher, like he had it in it's back pocket the whole time. :P

The 80s were an amazing time to be a small kid. Cartoon animation and stories were at a peak . And NO internet to distract us from the tv. We all (kids) watched cartoons and truly cherished them. Now as adults we look back and realize how good we had it. Simpler times were the Best times!

Man, you listen Frank's voice here, and then when you hear his voice in Transformers: Prime, *you can definitely tell that the guy had been refining his voice acting skills to God Level Status.*

10:51 “Thanks” I know these were the early days of the franchise but it’s strange yet funny hearing Optimus say that rather than something like “You have my eternal gratitude.” The way he says thanks is like “Hey thanks I’ll buy you a beer later.”

11:20 Remember kids Rumble is blue Frenzy is red

Y'know, despite being a born 80s kid (born in 1983), I've never actually seen this first episode before- they just never aired a rerun of it when I was watching. And frankly I'm AMAZED at how well it holds up, both the animation and the voice acting, even if a lot of the concepts are hokey and absurd (three slightly smaller decepticons combine to transform into... a tiny handheld camera?). This show was a genuine classic of kids TV that managed to massively surpass its intended role as a giant toy commercial.

I like the fact that they left the "after these messages" 8:20 segments in! They bring back memories.

This always brings tears to my eye because they were my childhood.

Kudos to Hasbro for putting these online for more generations to discover. I was 10 when the toys hit America. They were literally the coolest things any of us had ever seen. Great era to be a kid!

I just love how Cliff just pulls a giant bazooka out of nowhere

I have always thought Energon Cubes look delicious

As a long time fan who has actually never seen G1, this is a momentous occasion. Thank you, Hasbro, for finally giving me this chance.

This show from the 1980s made my childhood. I am now an adult at 40 and still enjoying the show.

There are like 4 points that would make good What If… episodes: •What if the volcano never erupted •What if the Autobots were woken up first •What if Starscream didn’t shoot the mountain • And lastly What if Cliffjumper didn’t miss

Victor Caroli's narration is awesome. We need that back for the live action movies.

"Intelligent robots who could think and feel." The most important thing about this entire franchise, if you think about how much AI and robotics have advanced since TF first aired.

20:39-20:41 I like how they're using those pipes to fight

20:42, the fact that Ratchet is just dead on the floor had me fucking ballin

The ultimate irony... It was Teletraan One responsible for reviving the Decepticons first while Starscream gave a helping hand for restoring the Autobots.

After wondering for years where to get to watch the whole of g1....this is a dream come true for a relatively new fan...thank you Hasbro

3:48 ah yes, T pose light pole

It's incredible that technically the first transformer we ever saw was Wheeljack.

I turned 52 yrs old, 3 days ago... I watch this with a tear in my eye. The Good Old Days are are very long gone. Man do i miss them.

19:12 - Spike punching Rumble was the most hilarious moment of this episode 😃

8:41 my man, did you just tell me FOUR MILLION YEARS LATER?

This series is 40 years old soon, that’s crazy

It's about damn time that this content made its way to KZfaq in an official, quality format. Now it's time to bring the Japanese continuity over officially.

As a young transformers fan (I’m 15) I can greatly appreciate the original series thank you for letting me watch this masterpiece of a cartoon :)

"More Than Meets The Eye" is a three-part pilot episode in The Transformers G1 cartoon series back in 1984. Wheeljack and Bumblebee are the first Transformers appear at the beginning of the cartoon. The Autobot ship, the Ark, is a Vanguard-class deep-space interceptor, carrying a handful of Autobot survivors to Prehistoric Earth, 4 million years ago before reawakened in the present year 1984. Skywarp was the first Decepticon reformatted into an Earth alt-mode by Teletraan I. Hauler's only brief appearance in the episode and humans Sparkplug and his son Spike Witwicky introduced in the series.

“We can concentrate the energy into Energon cubes & store them in the new space cruiser.” The way Soundwave says this at 13:31 is so calming.

10:31 Starscream's greatest treachery: the entire series could've not happened if he hadn't tried to bury the Ark.

18:01 That transformation is spectacular, it has a lot of style. Jazz's vehicle mode fits him perfectly, the Porsche 935 Turbo is amazing...

This is extremely watchable as an adult. Very well put together and serious, seemed realistic and not goofy. Which is what I liked even as a kid. I hated goofy cartoons. I remember even playing with my toys and using the correct physics and speed. I remember this episode so well from when I was a kid in the 80's. I didn't realize there was really only 3 seasons and a few episodes of a 4th season. I thought it went on for much longer. I used to watch Transformers constantly after school. And had tons of the toys. I remember going to the toy store with my Dad and buying my first Transformer. The blue jet, Thundercracker, and my brother got Star Scream. It felt like it must have been 5 years or more. But really it was only two years I was seriously into it. By the time the movie came out I was in the 6th grade and didn't even see the movie or watch the TV show anymore. I think I saw a few episodes of the 3rd season with the new characters though. I didn't sell all my transformers until later in my high school years when it was time to get rid of the big box. I remember that matrix episode around the time the movie came out, I ran out of VCR tape and kept hitting record to try and get the last bit of the end. It would write over the last few seconds over and over.

6:17 guy playing the guitar got a bit fancy

I love how star scream talked about betraying Megatron in front of him

19:19 "Bike!!!" 😄😂

Optimus before: %50 serious %50 not serious Optimus now: %100 serious

The very beginning of Transformers? Heck yeah! Count me in!

The G1 Season 1-2 ending credits are still probably my favorite outro music from any show. It's just...energetic, upbeat. This isn't just nostalgia talking, for as silly as the rest of the show's elements could be I think the music *still* holds up and is still awesome.

To be 8 years old again, a golden age in the early 80s.

I think there was supposed to be a scene of Megatron commanding decepticons to attack at 7:52. 😂

Jazz and Soundwave were the two that always resonated with me the most

This pilot episode and first season are as perfect as you can get.

So good of Hasbro to release this. For free of all things!!! These cartoons are timeless. I hope new generation kids can enjoy and appreciated these original cartoons.

I will keep watching these cartoons and never grow up, Im 13 years old and I'm still loving this cartoon

8:54 how the floor of my room looked after opening the toy chest every Saturday morning.

Nearly 40 years. These adventures still feel like I just watched and enjoyed them for the first time.

Everyone can agree on this statement..."Our childhood started the day this show became the greatest thing ever that happened to the world."

This was the most incredible thing i had ever watched when i was a kid.... and it still is.

the reason why the war continued, Starscream is to be blamed 10:26

Peter Cullen, Scatman Crothers, and Casey Kasem. Man oh man, talk about distinctive voices. As a kid, you didn't even care, but now you just have an appreciation for such talent.

Great to watch these how they originally aired, with no silly added sound effects.

4:19-4:23 it's all about that jam, man!

My love for this Franchise will never fade it's amazing how well this hold up for it's time.

I wasn't born in the 80's, but I still consider this show apart of my childhood, since I was introduced to it at the age of 9 by a frenemy. I also loved it and rewatched the entire series a million times over.

Man, this pilot episode is near flawless. Later they had a lot of continuity errors. I guess the animation got rushed when they knew they had a hit and were pressured to pump out episodes. But this is immaculate!

2:20 why does Bumblebee randomly fire a shot in completely the wrong direction????

Where it all began. I will always love this show.

This is when Transformers G1 was at it's best and Grimlock was an actual badass.

“Autobots! Transform and roll out!” I love TRANSFORMERS.

Ghostbusters, GI Joe, Transformers are all free to view legally on youtube. All we need is TMNT 1987 cartoons and my life will be completed.

17:35 autobots roll out! 🚗🚙🚚🛻🚑

3:05 I just noticed that Bumblebee's cybertron mode actually has wheels and when he lost one after being blasted by seekers his right "wing" was scraping on the ground.

First thing the jet did was revive Megatron. First one Megatron revived was Soundwave. I always liked Megatron. He has a great sense of priorities.

15:46 "You shouldn't have missed." Lol

I'm 15 and just watched this. I've seen every film adaptation (except for the 1986 one) and have seen parts of some shows that are transformers. I just wanted to say that this was awesome, kind of surprising but awesome, and I'm more than lucky to be able to watch these on my PC from KZfaq. Thank you, Hasbro ❤‍🔥

7:57 and in comes Ironhide with an absolutely perfect dropkick to Soundwave!

0:40 "It is the year 2005..." Who else is going to watch Transformers the Movie later this month in theaters for the 35th anniversary?

After rewatching this, I can't get over the fact the Autobots could fly like the 'Cons, 20:06. What happened to that ability?! That would've changed so much!

I wonder what Megatron would do if he ever found out that Starscream was the reason that the Autobots awakened in the first place.

My father introduced this to me when I was little back in 2007 or so and I loved it. I'm so glad I can rewatch it. Thank you.

12:36 Rumble basically: megatron has no weaknesses Trademarks: *R U SURE ABOUT THAT?*

2:11 Thundercracker, Skywarp, and the Decepticon Seeker made their first appearances.

As I sit here watching this show and reading the comments of the older fans who remember watching this on TV in the 80s, it surprises me that there is a huge amount of respect for both the show and the younger fans who are just discovering this older version for the first time. Thank you. 😊 Also Peter Cullen is the best Optimus Prime & Frank Welker is the best Megatron!!!! So glad both have returned to their roles, from the videogames to the last couple of Michael Bay films!!!!!!

After only having seen the live actions movies until now I recently binged the whole first season of G1. I love it.

I was 8 in 1984, I grew up in the best time. The golden age of cartoons and toy figures.

Insert the entirety of 'Beast Wars' here! 8:27

Ngl if I was Hasbro KZfaq channel I woulda put an ad right at 8:30 and it would be the most well deserved ad break of all time

_So_ glad that people can actually comment on these episodes. The main audience for the G1 'toons is made up of the people that actually watched them as kids of the 1980's, after all. The bullshit with the supposedly-COPPA-enforcing algorithms _must_ end.

It's amazing how much they just got right in this series. The alien vehicles were cool and the fact they thought to do that at all was great. And the idea of searching for a resource rather then something more specific was a great way to keep the story open-ended to do so much. And to me energon will always be just a way of optimizing and storing energy, not an element.

7:55 My boy Soundwave took all the autobots at once, even getting drop kick he still stands his ground and fight

4:56 Starscream the Air Commander of the Decepticon Seeker made his first appearance.