Transformers: Cyberverse (cartoon)

Cyberverse » Toyline Cartoon Home Video Video Game

"This, Bumblebee, is my archive of all the experiences you've begged me to remove from your life. I call them 'Bumblebee's Mind Blowers'!"

Transformers: Cyberverse, later rebranded as Transformers: Bumblebee Cyberverse Adventures for its final two seasons, is a computer-animated series developed by Boulder Media Studio. It debuted on the Cartoon Network app and website on August 27, 2018, and made its television premiere on Cartoon Network on September 1, 2018. The story is divided into chapters: Chapter One ran for 18 episodes in 2018, Chapter Two ran for 18 episodes in 2019, and Chapter Three ran for 26 episodes in 2020. The show concluded with a shortened fourth Chapter of two quadruple-length episodes in November 2021. Unlike nearly every prior Transformers TV series, episodes are only 11 minutes in length as opposed to 22 minutes.

The series is intended to "focus more on characters and their mythology", featuring a stronger emphasis on serialized storytelling, and utilizes the "evergreen" character designs. It is set in a new continuity and is not a sequel to any previous series.

Storyline

During the war on Cybertron, Optimus Prime and a team including Bumblebee have left the planet to search for the Allspark. The Decepticons catch wind that the ancient artifact is on Earth, and leave to investigate, which forces Windblade to take a one-way space bridge journey there herself. Unable to find any trace of the Ark or Optimus Prime, she manages to find her old friend Bumblebee. However, he is suffering from amnesia and has no recollection of who he is or how he got there. With the pair being pursued relentlessly by the Decepticons' Seekers, Windblade must help Bumblebee unlock and repair his damaged memories of the war and his journey to Earth so that they can locate Optimus and the Allspark before their enemies do.

In the second season, several decades later, the revived Autobots and the recently arrived Decepticons now battle over the fate of Earth thanks to the knowledge that the Allspark is somewhere on the planet, protected by its guardian. The conflict escalates when Starscream, believing he has been chosen for a higher purpose, makes his own bid for power that puts both sides at risk. Thus it falls to the Autobots to not only retrieve the Allspark but to escort it safely back to Cybertron.

In the third season, the Autobots manage to retake Cybertron from the Decepticons, but otherworldly invaders arrive and take control of the planet. With everyone else imprisoned, a ragtag resistance group made up of Bots and Cons alike must band together to save their friends, Cybertron, and potentially the entire universe. Even after the day is saved, Cybertron stands as a divided government, with Windblade's mind scattered in shards across the planet and Megatron preparing for the coming of an enemy from another universe.

In the final season, the Autobots and Decepticons prepare for a new Cybertron without conflict, though their peace treaty is interrupted by Mercenaries seeking revenge and fortune. With Cybertron frozen in time, Grimlock and a group of strangers from another planet must combine their efforts to save the day. Unfortunately, the Cybertronians cannot enjoy peace for long, as the forces from the other universe return, threatening to reignite the Great War anew.

Characters

* Has changes in allegiance.

Episodes

For further information, see: List of Cyberverse episodes

Chapter One (2018)

Chapter Two: Power of the Spark (2019)

Chapter Three (2020)

Chapter Four (2021)

1. "The Immobilizers"
2. "The Perfect Decepticon"

Japanese release

Unlike the English version, which uses voice actors new to their roles, several Transformers alumni voice characters in the Japanese dub. In some cases, this borders on role reprisal, such as "Aligned" Starscream's voice actor voicing his Cyberverse counterpart or Bumblebee's voice actor having voiced four different versions of Bumblebee. In others, there are nods to their previous characters, with both Optimus Prime and Megatron's voice actors previously voicing Optimus Primal and Megatron in the Japanese dub of Beast Wars.

Like many other Japanese dubs (including Beast Wars, Beast Machines and Transformers: Prime), the Japanese dub of Cyberverse takes a more "humorous" tack towards the show. For example, in the episode Sea of Tranquility as Starscream attacks Windblade he cheerfully goes, "Hello, Starscream here!" Even more serious characters like Optimus Prime aren't spared, as at one point he complains, "I was still talking!" when Megatron punches him.

Other typical Japanese dub additions include characters yelling "Transform!" as they, well, transform. The occasional special attack name is also called out; for example, in "Bad Moon Rising", Megatron cries out, "Punishment Cannon: Fusion Cannon, FIRE!" when he blasts Starscream.

Personality-wise, some characters are effectively transplants of their previous incarnations. Starscream, for example, is basically Prime Starscream right down to his mannerisms. Megatron and Optimus Prime are basically their G1 counterparts with Japanese dub Beast Megatron and Optimus Primal's personalities. Other characters have quirks unique to previous Japanese dubs, like Shockwave punctuating his sentences with "shock!" similar to his Prime counterpart and being much more expressive compared to the stoic and clinical English version.

In lieu of an opening theme, Cyberverse has characters talking over the opening credits to pump up the kids watching the show. For the ending, the same character will talk over the English credits commenting on events in the episode, and afterward, the Japanese credits will play over stills of highlights from said episode.

Home video releases

Main article: Transformers: Cyberverse (cartoon)/home video

Australia

• Transformers: Cyberverse - The Journey (2019)
• Transformers: Cyberverse - Terminal Velocity (2019)
• Transformers: Cyberverse - King of the Dinosaurs (2019)

France

• Transformers: Cyberverse - Intégrale Saison 1 (2019)

Notes

• According to showrunner Randolph Heard, the team couldn't come up with a good name for the show, so Hasbro chose "Cyberverse" since they already had the trademark.
• The first season of Cyberverse draws some concepts from the Bumblebee film, released a few months after Cyberverse debuted; in particular, the plot point of Bumblebee's amnesia is lifted directly from the film, as is the "honeycomb" design of Bumblebee's internal readouts.
• Unlike previous Transformers series, the characters in this show are modeled with only four fingers. The Cyberverse characters are also known for the "Energon vein" designs in many of their joints (mostly the hips). Much like Animated, the Cyberverse characters also have an overwhelming design tendency to have large boot-like feet.
• While most of the cast make use of evergreen designs, several characters who don't have toys in the accompanying toyline use stylized versions of recent toy or fiction designs. For example, Cyberverse Chromia's appearance is based on her 2014-2018 IDW comic design while Cyberverse Bludgeon is modeled on his 2017 Robots in Disguise toy. The Seekers are a special case, generally using modified versions of Starscream's design (which is based on his evergreen design). This does slightly affect show-accuracy in regards to toys: most of Slipstream and Thundercracker's toys are straight redecoes of Starscream's whereas in the cartoon itself the differences between Screamer and his subordinates are more pronounced.
• Compared to past Transformers cartoons set on modern-day Earth, the presence of humans in the series is extremely limited. Aside from a kid in "Teletraan-X", some unseen voiceovers in "Sea of Tranquility", and silhouettes and drawings in "Wild Wild Wheel", no humans appear in the series at all. This was a conscious decision by the staff since the beginning, as the limited episode runtime was not conducive to the "B plots" that tend to come with the addition of human sidekicks.^[1]
• The show's premiere episodes, "Fractured" and "Memory," were both put up on Cartoon Network's mobile app and website several days before their U.S. television premiere. All subsequent episodes of the season were uploaded the day before they were aired on television, followed by a release on Hasbro's YouTube channel the day after, region-locked to United States users; following a weekend without any videos due to American Thanksgiving, the YouTube release moved to the next Sunday after airing starting with episode 13. Cartoon Network's app/website split each episode into two separate parts, each with a generic title card, and were numbered as such. By the second season, the Cartoon Network site began putting up episodes over a week before they would hit the airwaves, and Hasbro's YouTube uploads returned to their one-day delay schedule, now unlocked for all regions. By the time of the third season, Cartoon Network was airing 2-4 new episodes at a time while Hasbro continued to upload just one per week, falling significantly behind by the time they had finished airing on TV; the final episode ultimately didn't hit YouTube until 3 1/2 months after its US airdate. The Cartoon Network site kept up with the TV schedule, still splitting episodes into two parts, though they were now locked for people without a Cartoon Network cable account. Hasbro later pulled the Season 3 episodes down for unknown reasons, and didn't begin uploading them again until April 2021, presumably to reintroduce the series to viewers in advance of Season 4's release that November. On that note, in a bit of an unexpected inversion to cap this whole thing off, both the Season 4 specials ended up getting released to YouTube weeks ahead of their Netflix premiere dates.
• While the first season was aired at a rate of one episode per week in the United States, Canadian network Teletoon aired two episodes every week in a half-hour block. Consequently, "Megatron Is My Hero" through "Maccadam's" all premiered on Canadian television ahead of their US broadcasts. In fact, the entire rest of the first season was initially scheduled to debut in Canada over the following weeks, but it was all pulled and replaced with re-runs, presumably because someone US-side didn't like how far ahead they were getting! However, the show still couldn't catch a break, as the next two episodes premiered on the Xfinity X1 service more than two weeks before they aired on television, with the remaining Chapter One episodes each airing in Singapore at least a week ahead of their US broadcast. This unfortunate scheduling continued during Chapter Two's broadcast, with the season premiering in multiple countries (including Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and France) two weeks ahead of its US broadcast and airing at a rate of four new episodes each weekend, finishing out the season as the US was only just starting it. Chapter Three followed suit, with UK channel POP TV airing daily broadcasts of four new episodes in a row; as a result, they aired the entire season in the span of only a week and a half, completing it before a US airdate had even been announced. And as a final button on this string of scheduling snafus, all of Chapter Four ended up airing on Teletoon (and the first episode on YouTube, as previously mentioned) two weeks before its Netflix release.
• In a Q&A session, concepts and characters that writer Mae Catt expressed a desire to feature in the series which ultimately didn't come to pass included: Obsidian, Ultra Magnus/Minimus Ambus, Jazz (who would have been female), Rumble, Frenzy, Knock Out, Transmutate (who would have been a visual amalgamation of her Beast Wars: Uprising and original Beast Wars designs), Thunderclash, Lightbright, Nickel, various combiners, crossovers with other Transformers continuities (examples including "Aligned", Animated, Shattered Glass, and the classic Generation 1), and a redemption arc for Starscream (who would have survived the events of "The End Of The Universe", suffered amnesia, and carried a psychic shard of Windblade). Catt also noted that the crew wanted to avoid a storyline featuring Unicron because of how repetitive it had become.^[1]
• While the first two seasons were dubbed into multiple languages ​​besides English, seasons 3 and 4 have not been dubbed in every language. For example, the French broadcast stopped after the end of season 2. As the channel decided not to broadcast the next ones, no dubbing was ordered.
• The Cyberverse voice cast recorded individually rather than as a group ensemble, due to recording studios in New York City being much smaller than those in other cities such as Los Angeles. In fact, many of the cast didn't even meet each other in person until they started going to Transformers conventions after the show's end.

Foreign names

• Portuguese: Transformers Cyberverse: As Aventuras de Bumblebee (Brazil, "Transformers Cyberverse: The Adventures of Bumblebee", Chapter Four only)
• Japanese: Cyberverse (サイバーバース Saibābāsu)
• Mandarin: Sāi Bó Tǎn Chuán Qí (China, 塞伯坦传奇, "Legend of Cybertron")
• Korean: Cyberverse (사이버버스 Saibeobeoseu)

References

External links

• Complete Transformers Cyberverse playlist on YouTube
• Transformers Cyberverse playlist on TakaraTomy's YouTube channel (JP only)
• Cyberverse first teased at Hasbro Media And Investor Day 2017