Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2001 cartoon)

Robots in Disguise was the first dubbed Transformers show a US audience had ever officially received (dubs of various Japanese G1-era series made it to the US, but none had been produced by Hasbro or Sunbow). It aired from September 2001 to March 2002, during the gap between Beast Machines and Armada. The premise returned the Transformers to their origins and brought the robots-as-cars back to the fandom and toyline.

Car Robots was the original Japanese series, and premiered in Japan in 2000. Originally, the series was not going to be imported from Japan, but when the debut of the Armada toyline and series was announced for 2002, Hasbro comissioned Saban to create an American version to fill the gap between the end of Beast Machines in 2000 and Armada.

Animation in the series was cel-based, moving away from the CGI that had been a hallmark of Transformers television series in the US since 1996. It was heavily influenced by standard animé stylings, replete with overdone facial expressions, comic effects like bubbles surrounding a character's head to signify confusion or consternation, and the traditional streaked background behind the character for high-action shots or transformation sequences. An unfamiliar cast of voice actors was used for the American dub. This combined with the simplistic quality of the storylines - a far cry from what US audiences had become accustomed to during the Beast-era series - led to a generally poor reception among the fandom. Recent efforts to rehabilitate the show's image cropped up in the mid-2000's and have, as of early 2006, met with limited success. Because the series is regarded as outside of the continuties established by G1/Beast Wars and the Armada trilogy, it is viewed as contributing little to the overall Transformers mythos. One aspect that fans did generally appreciate was the use of humor within the series, especially from fan-favorite Sky-Byte.

All 39 episodes were scheduled to run during the afternoon Fox Kids programming block on the Fox television network. The third episode, Bullet Train to the Rescue, was scheduled to air on September 11, 2001, but was preempted because of the terrorist attacks in America that day. Later episodes were re-edited to remove scenes that might be jarring to a sensitive viewing public, causing these episodes to air out-of-order. Other episodes were cut entirely and were not seen in the US. This episode guide follows the order that the episodes appeared in Japan and on the UK DVD release.