Continuity
A continuity is a fictional universe or timeline that is characterized by recurring characters and settings and an internal consistency with regards to characterization and depicted events. Typically, stories that are produced by a particular licensor (such as IDW) in a particular form of media (such as comic books) are in continuity with each other, meaning that they are meant to all take place in the same "world".
This is not, however, always the case -- for example, the IDW comic Transformers: Evolutions consists of stories that are explicitly set in different universes than the other IDW comics. The various coloring books published by Marvel in the 1980s might all take place in the same universe, but there are no direct ties between them, and they could easily each be "in their own little world".
Still, even in cases such as these, there are important similarities. Even though Evolutions' first story, "Hearts of Steel" can't fit in the same world as Transformers: Infiltration, they are alternate worlds in a relatively minor sense -- the same Transformers characters are present in both, they just interact with humanity at a different point in time. Marvel's coloring books disagree on many points with the Marvel comic books, but they agree on many points as well. Thus, although the coloring books and the comics are not in continuity with each other, their similarities allow both to be categorized as being Generation 1 continuities.
Multiverse
Moreso than most science-fiction franchises, Transformers has been, from the very start, a collection of many varied continuities. Even before the G1 cartoon premiered, there was the Marvel comic series and an array of Marvel-produced storybooks which cannot be reconciled with each other. A truly exhaustive list of Transformers continuities would be nearly impossible to complete. However, it is relatively easy to list the major continuity "families".
There is a subjective component to all of this, and each fan decides for themself how "fine-grained" they want their own personal list of continuities to be. Ultimately, it could be argued that almost every story exists in its own exclusive continuity -- even different stories that were intended to be set in the same universe. For example, two episodes of the G1 cartoon series that make no explicit references to events in each other, but are both "descendants" of the episode "More Than Meets the Eye", could arguably exist in different universes. There may be no particular reason to assert that they don't share continuity, but there is also no clear evidence that the events of one affected the world of the other. They may be set in different branches of a timeline that started with MTMTE.
The most inclusive perspective is to consider all Transformers stories as existing within a multiverse which contains all possible alternate universes. Some of these universes are more closely related to each other than others, but they are all part of the same whole.
Major continuities
At this time, there are three primary continuity families in the Transformers multiverse. These are: Generation 1/Beast Era, Robots in Disguise, and Unicron Trilogy. Every (or nearly every) Transformers story can be easily fit into one of these three.
The G1/Beast continuity covers all Transformers stories from the beginning in 1984 until the end of Beast Machines in 2001. The BW cartoon soundly established itself as a successor to earlier work, and further, the BM cartoon is a direct followup to BW, as well as having many of its own explicit ties to G1. Even though there are some glitches in trying to reconcile BM with various flavors of G1, they are too well-connected to totally dismiss. At worst, one can say that Beast Machines is set in a version of Generation 1 continuity which has never been depicted in fiction, but which is, nonetheless, similar in most respects to the G1 cartoon.
The G1/Beast continuity is the largest and richest Transformers continuity, spanning 17 exclusive years of stories and four incarnations of the Transformers brand. Further, even after other major continuities have been established, G1 and Beast Era stories continue to be published at a rate almost equal to that of wholly new material.
The second major continuity is also the smallest, with its fiction (outside of Japan, at least) consisting of just a single television series and one short comic story: Robots in Disguise. This was the first complete reboot of the Transformers universe, telling an all-new story about Transformeres and their contact with Earth.
Finally, the Unicron Trilogy is a second reboot. It spans three Transformers franchises (Armada, Energon, and Cybertron) and includes three animated series and two comic book series, plus an array of licensed storybooks and supplemental material. The inclusion of Cybertron in this continuity is somewhat problematic, however, as the Cybertron cartoon is a localization of the Japanese Galaxy Force cartoon, which was written as a reboot instead of the originally-planned continuation of the previous two series. Despite this, Hasbro decided to stick with their original intent and as such the Cybertron cartoon is -- clumsily, at times -- still officially considered part of the UT story.
Prominent G1 continuities
Within G1 there are an almost uncountable number of established alternate universes. Some of these continuities are extremely obscure, such as the timeline which houses the second Transformers video game for the Commodore 64 home computer. On the other hand, the G1 cartoon is so widely-known that many members of the general public (i.e., not fans) would be familiar with it, and quite possibly unaware that there even are other Transformers stories.
Following is an incomplete list of some of the prominent G1 continuities and their relationships to each other. For the purposes of this list, only G1-proper will be considered, and not the extended-G1 that includes G2, MW, and the Beast series.
- G1 umbrella continuity
- Cartoons (Japanese) - Includes the American cartoons as well as three additional TV series and an OVA.
- Cartoons (American) - A subset of the Japanese cartoon series.
- Marvel UK comics - Includes the American comics as well as nearly 100% more material that was published exclusively in the UK until being reprinted internationally in the 2000s.
- Marvel US comics - A subset of the UK comics. Includes Transformers, Transformers: Headmasters, and the character profile series Transformers Universe. The comic book adaptation of Transformers: The Movie is out of continuity with the other Marvel comics.
- Dreamwave G1 comics - A new continuity with much of the flavor of the original cartoon series, but a very different history. Includes the three "G1" volumes as well as three volumes of The War Within and a Micromasters miniseries.
- IDW G1 comics - Begins with Transformers: Infiltration, published in 2005.
- Transformers Universe - A meta-continuity (see below) created by 3H Productions to house stories related to characters created by the convention organizers.
- Cartoons (Japanese) - Includes the American cartoons as well as three additional TV series and an OVA.
Meta-continuities
There have been two official attempts to create an overarching structure to the Transformers multiverse: Transformers: Universe and Transformers: Timelines. Both of these attempts have been helmed by organizers of the official Transformers convention, BotCon.
The first attempt, Transformers: Universe, was a project of 3H Productions. Story material from the convention starting in the year 1997 was directly incorporated into TFU, although it wasn't until BotCon 2002 that the term Transformers: Expanded Universe appeared on a BotCon toy box, and the name was then shortened to just Transformers: Universe afterwards. The TFU toyline eventually became the home of not just convention exclusive toys, but also other repaints and store exclusives that were sold in normal retail outlets. The bios for the TFU characters were primarily the responsibility of 3H.
The TFU meta-continuity established the idea of a Transformers Multiverse and pulled together many elements from other Transformers continuities, focusing heavily on variations of Beast Machines and Generation 1. 3H's comic book series, Wreckers and Universe are the primary sources of information about this meta-continuity, although character bios published in convention programs, fan club newsletters, and on the 3H and Hasbro websites also contribute.
Among other things, the Universe universe makes some reconciliation between conflicting origins for Cybertron and the Transformers that were presented in the G1 comics, G1 cartoon, and BM cartoon. It also incorporates the otherwise ignored sub-toylines Beast Wars Mutants and Dinobots into its fiction, and is the earliest example of a story that asserts (or implies) that there is only one Unicron who travels from one universe to another, rather than an infinite array of Unicrons in different universes.
The second attempt to create a meta-continuity is still very young -- it is Transformers: Timelines, created by Fun Publications, the new holders of the official Transformers fan club and convention license. Like 3H's Universe, Timelines brings together characters from different continuities, some pre-existing and some new. The comic story being told in the pages of the fan club newsletter has this same multiversal character, although it is titled Transformers: Cybertron rather than Timelines, and includes characters from the Unicron Trilogy instead of only G1 and Beast characters. It is unclear whether this comic will ultimately tie in with Timelines.
Japanese continuities
In Japan, every Transformers cartoon until the release of Car Robots (the original, Japanese title for Robots in Disguise) can be fit into a single unified continuity, much like the American G1/Beast continuity. The difference is that Japanese fans have had five additional cartoons that were never aired in North America: Headmasters, Masterforce, Victory, Beast Wars 2nd, and Beast Wars Neo. Despite this additional story material, they can all be fit together.
In Japan, then, Car Robots was the first full reboot. Following CR, Micron Legend and Superlink are connected into a third major Japanese continuity, and then -- as noted above -- Galaxy Force starts a fourth.
Nearly every Japanese TF franchise has had ancillary manga published in magazines such as Comics Bon-Bon. The relationship between the manga and cartoons varied. For example, the manga associated with the first two years of Transformers (pre-movie) could easily fit into the cartoon continuity, but nor would they contribute much of substance to the timeline. Some of the later G1 manga, however, such as those associated with Masterforce and Victory contradict the cartoons bearing the same names.
