Sometime in May (according to TFW2005 users) -
The Transformers toyline launches, starting an 8-year line of gimmickry, bricks, and more
May 8th, 1984 -
The Transformers (US) issue 1/
The Transformers (UK) issues 1-2 is published, kicking off the original Marvel comic
September 17th, 1984 -
The Transformers season 1, episode 1, "More than Meets the Eye, Part 1" is released, beginning the original 4-season animated series
January 12th, 1985 -
The Transformers (UK) issues 9 - 12, "Man of Iron," are released as the first original stories for the UK Transformers comic (and boy, did more come)
August 8th, 1986 -
The Transformers: The Movie is released to a) sell toys, b) traumatize children, and c)
be awesome
July 3rd, 1987 - instead of "The Rebirth" (see below), Japanese Transformers fans witness the airing of "Four Warriors Come out the Sky," the first episode of
The Headmasters and the beginning of the incredibly complex Japanese G1 universe (seriously, learning the timeline is no joke)
November 11th, 1987 -
The Transformers season 4, episode 3, "The Rebirth, Part 3," is released, giving us a truncated ending to the classic cartoon (after 98 episodes) and finally ending the mass
toy advertisement character introductions (after
3 episodes)
Sometime in 1990 - the Transformers toyline comes to an end in the US, going out without a bang with a new assortment of Micromasters and the brand-new,
non-transforming Action Masters
July 21st, 1990 -
Transformers: Zone's first and only episode, "Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!", is released as a direct-to-video special, concluding JG1's time as a series of TV shows (it didn't end, because they're still producing stories for it
to this day)
September 29th, 1990 - the Marvel UK comic publishes its final original story, "End of the Road!" (issue 289), and from here on in, they only reprint US issues
May 1991 -
The Transformers (US) issue 80/
The Transformers (UK) issues 331 and 332, "End of the Road!" is released, bringing the comic to an end... until "Another Time & Place,"
Generation 2,
Classics, and
Regeneration One all come out over the years to provide various alternate continuations
Sometime in 1992 (probably February or later, since that's when the story pages began releasing) - the
Operation: Combination toyline launches in Japan, serving as the final set of "classic" JG1 figures before
G-2 in 1995 (
Brave came into being while they waited)
Sometime in 1993 - the Transformers toyline's final assortment (Axelerators, Skyscorchers, Aquaspeeders, Stormtroopers, Lightformers, Trakkons, and Obliterators) is released in Europe, ending the line for good as the first year of
Generation 2 figures is released over in America