The origin of the Transformers brand actually starts with G.I.Joe. In 1964, Hasbro launched the 12-inch fighting man -- the very first "action figure" since the term "doll" wasn't exactly desirable even though Joe essentially became the Barbie for boys. Joe proved to be an incredible hit, ever evolving to fit with the times. In the '70s, the powerfully mixed emotions sparked by the Vietnam War caused Joe to change from a traditional military fighting man to an international adventurer, complete with Kung Fu grip. Also, the '70s Joe's popularity was spreading beyond the U.S., and Hasbro worked out a deal with Takara to export Joe to the Japanese market.

Takara began tinkering with the line to offer a unique product to the Japanese audience. They took Joe's very posable body and cast it in a clear plastic, complete with simulated mechanical innards, turning the adventurer into a toy suitable for sci-fi. Economics, oil prices and other factors contributed to Takara shrinking this translucent cyborg figure into a much smaller scale, and by 1974, this tiny Joe offshoot became the basis of the Microman series. The concept was inspired -- this little figure wasn't meant to represent an imaginary full-sized man. No, your toy was supposed to represent a 1-to-1 scale tiny robotic figure, so it was perfectly okay to use the living room fern, the coffee table, the family dog or any other trappings of your household to represent your toy's surrounding. That's how big your imagined character was supposed to be. The Microman toyline would eventually make its way to the US, licensed through Mego, as the Micronauts.

Anyway, the Microman line evolved in the 80s and began including a subset of everyday devices that could transform into robots to fight alongside (or against) the Joe-like micros. These included such things as microcassettes, cassette players, cameras and microscopes. They were dubbed the MicroChange collection.

At this time, transforming robots wasn't anything entirely new in Japan. It was already a popular concept in animation and comic books (manga). Capitalizing on that popularity -- and seeing a dearth of transformable toys in the marketplace -- Takara developed a toyline called Diaclone in 1980. The premise was that an alien force was invading the planet Earth, and the last line of defense was a specialized team of humans that drove vehicles that could transform into user-operated robots. The Diaclone Car Robot series was particularly popular, since it took cool car designs of the era (Datsun Fairlady Zs, Lambourghini Countaches, Porche 935 Turbos) and made them into cool looking toy cars that could turn into cool looking toy robots. Literally two toys in one. A few of these early models actually made their way outside Japan under the name Diakron.

Also in 1980, Takara had a smash hit toyline called Choro-Q. Choro-Q cars were cutesy super-deformed cars with pull-back motorized action. These would be marketed in the US first by Tonka as "Penny Racers." Takara eventually folded the Choro-Q super-deformed styling into their MicroChange collection, producing cutesy-fied cars like Porches, Volkswagen Beetles and Camaros that could transform into robots.

Thus the stage was set for Hasbro to introduce a new line to the US market. Seeing the success and potential in Takara's various transforming robot toys, Hasbro executives decided to combine all these various toylines into a single collection, complete with an underlying story that connected it all (developed by Marvel). This saw the creation of the Transformers, and helps explain why the design of the initial series of the toyline seem somewhat schizophrenic.

Ever wonder why your Dinobots or Insecticons had what looked to be driver's compartments? That's because they were originally operator-driven robots from the Diaclone collection. Why do Bumblebee, Cliffjumper and Huffer have such odd proportions for their car modes? Because they were Penny Racer-type cars from the Choro-Q line. Why do some Transformers turn into 1-to-1 scale devices like Soundwave and his cassette minions? Because they were part of the MicroChange line.

Even after that first year of success, Hasbro licensed products from other toy companies to fill out the Transformer ranks. The Deluxe Insecticons (1985) were Takotoku's Beetlus collection, which would eventually be acquired by Bandai. This prevented these characters from ever being depicted in the animated series. Likewise, the toy design for Jetfire -- obviously based on a Macross Valkyrie fighter -- was also owned by Bandai, which prevented Hasbro from showing the jet in their cartoon or comic. As a work-around, Marvel designed an entirely new look for the character (named Skyfire in the cartoon) so as not to infringe on Bandai's design. Luckily, such restrictions weren't in place for Shockwave and Omega Supreme, two toy designs from outside companies (ToyCo and Toy Box respectively).

So Transformers was really a hodgepodge of inspirations, a stew of different toylines connected together by a brilliant concept provided by Marvel Comics, to eventually become the iconic toy hit of the 1980s.

Click here for a gallery of "pre-Transformer" Transformers from a variety of toylines.