The title explains it all imo.

 

Here's how I'd rank the shows I've watched so far (I'm still in the process of watching BW Neo, but so far, it is a strong contender to be placed between Zone and BW).

1) Beast Machines
2) G1 seasons 3 and 4
3) RiD01
4) Victory
5) Zone
6) Beast Wars
7) RiD15
8) Cyberverse
9) Rescue Bots
10) Masterforce
11) G1 season 2
12) BWII
13) Cybertron
14) G1 season 1
15) Armada
16) Cyber Missions
17) Energon
18) TFA
19) Headmasters
20) TFP
21) Prime Wars Trilogy

 

I’m not including cybertron because I haven’t watched more than 15 episodes so far.

1. Prime/animated
2. Beast wars
3. Beast machines
4. Cyberverse
5. Rid01
6. G1
7. Rid15
8. Potp
9. Earthrise
10. Siege
11. Combiner wars
12. Titans return
13. Armada

 

1. Beast Wars: Slow start and weakish ending aside, it has the best characterization and middle of the show is some of the most solid story telling. Animation’s dated but detailed.
2. Animated: Characterizations are exaggerated to the point of almost being painful and the show’s artwork can be weak but both those elements work with the lively show it was intended to be. Lots of character depth and solid story arcs.
3. Beast Machines: Overly somber, slightly repetitive and unclear in causes for major character changes drag down a show with great ideas for character arcs and story lines, the likes of which the franchise has never seen outside of it. Solid animation.
4. Cyberverse: Boring start but gets progressively more interesting with each season and becomes very ambitious. Short episode length means earlier installments don’t overstay welcome, but later ones are rushed.
5. Rescue Bots: Solid characterization. Different from all other version of TF. Pity it’s aimed at such a young audience. Passable animation.
6. Cybertron: Great world building, passable characterization, decent story. Often underwhelming villains. Poor animation.
7. RID2001: Very simplistic. Some decent characters and the story picks up, towards the end. Villains are largely garbage. Decent animation.
8. RID2015: Cliched, repetitive and has a final season with too many stories that don’t go anywhere. Creative in its initial premise and variety of villains.
9. Prime: Phenomenal start but just gets weaker and weaker. Quickly becomes little more than edgy, melodramatic grandstanding. Animation is good, but the handling of it’s limited assets is embarrassingly bad.
10. Armada: Decent ideas for characters and story, held back by garbage animation and a garbage dub.
11. Energon: Not as bad as people say, but close. Awful animation and dub. Very poor story.
12. Siege: Poor animation and awful voice work meets an overly edgy, poorly thought out script.
13. Combiner Wars: Basically has the same problems as Siege, but worse.

 

1- Galaxy Force/Cybertron
2- Micron Legend (Armada? No way)
3- Car Robots
4- Beast Wars II
5- Prime
6- Superlink
7- G1
8- Cyberverse aka Bumbleverse
9- RID2015 aka Bumblebee in Disguise
10- Beast Wars Neo
11- Earthrise
12- Siege
13- Power of the Primes

 

- THE "I ACTUALY HAD FUN" CREW -

Beast Wars- Still the best story telling a cartoon of the franchise has had, tight scripts and great character dynamics
Rescue Bots- Deceptively well written, absurdly crisp character development and humor, genuinely surprised me and even though it is not my personal favorite due to the lack of elements like the Decepticons I have to give it heavy props for being a show for toddlers that still took itself with a lot of care and heart
RID2015- Very simplistic and formulaic story, but great storyboarding and coreography with charming characters and sense of humor
Cyberverse- Weak voice acting and animation budget sadly keep this from shooting upwards, but I really did love all of the characters and the sense of humor, with a story that was significantly better than the two other shows before it
Animated- Great voice acting, but the writing did not stick the landing as it tried to get "more complex" and the artwork was completely hamstrung by a clearly weak budget. Had great supplemental material though with that Almanac and killer toyline that enchanced the fun.

-IT'S "NOT WORTHLESS BUT IT WAS BORING" GANG-
Prime- Great voice acting and great artwork, completely wasted on melodramatic and phony writing with absurdly thin character dynamics. My second hand embarassment everytime theusaurus usage became obvious as characters spoke was heavy.
Beast Machines- I appreciate the very well thought out plotline, but the glut of unlikable characters, hideous art direction for the main characters, horrible repetitive soundtrack and frankly the betrayal of the characterization on some old favorites from Beast Wars made less likable
Various Competent Animes - Japan doesn't get Transformers, combine that with very clearly rushed and cheapo dubbing and it was all just hard to sit thru. Basically finished it out of historical value alone;

- IT'S TERRIBLE, WHOEVER MADE THIS SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO MAKE MORE THINGS-
Combiner Wars
War for Cybertron
Energon

 

Of the ones I've watched in full:

1. Animated
2. Beast Wars
3. Armada
4. Beast Machines
5. Prime
6. Cyberverse
7. Robots in Disguise 2001
8. Robots in Disguise 2015
9. Prime Wars Trilogy
10. War for Cybertron Netflix (I feel pretty confident putting this here since I don't think Kingdom is going to massively redeem the series)

I kinda haphazardly put this list together in like two minutes so it's probably not my definitive ranking but eh.

 

These are the ones that I've watched, but here's mine:

1. Beast Wars
2. Animated
3. Micron Legend
4. Cybertron
5. Beast Machines
6. RID2001/Car Robots
7. RID2015
8. TF: Prime
   
9. Sunbow G1
10. Armada (I'm counting Micron Legend and Armada separately; It has its charm but doesn't change the fact that it's a shoddy dub, that does a major disservice to Micron Legend's reputation)
    
11. Netflix WFC Trilogy
12. Superlink/Energon

 

1.Cyber Missions- Peak fiction...

2.Animated- best balance between great characterization and development while showing a clear love for the franchise and fan service. Prowl, Bulkhead, Jazz, Lugnut, Blitzwing, Wasp, and Lockdown were the standouts imo but every "main" character were great and memorable.

3.Prime- Despite having a rushed and somewhat lackluster 3rd season, prime was tons of fun and easily had the best action and voice acting of the franchise. The show stumbled in a few areas, but it was truly cinematic and engrossing for me as a viewer... and had the potential to be #1 if it had a better ending.

4.G1- This series is still the most fun imo, and still somehow has the most likeable incarnations of most of the characters.

5.Beast wars- While undoubtedly having some of the best characters in the franchise (Dinobot, Rampage, Rhinox, and Rattrap) the show has many problems people seem to ignore like the incrediblely slow and almost tedious first half of season 1, the rushed, flat out poorly written at times 3rd season, and a pathetic cast of villains that all get blown away like vehicons which makes it impossible to ever feel fear for the heroes... despite this, the 2nd season is still one of the best pieces of transformers out there and it's a really enjoyable series overall. Just overrated imo.

6.Beast Machines- A shorter series with a clear story to tell and really interesting philosophical moments and neat reinvention of a few characters, fixed many problems from beast wars like the slow, boring individual stories in favor of serialised storytelling and a cast of villains that are actually intimidating... The vehicons in general are fantastic. Despite that, it also ruins multiple characters from beast wars (Primal, Silverbolt, Rhinox, and Megatron), has the worst designs of the entire franchise, and kind of crappy and repetitive action.

7.Rid01- tbh, I've found this series fairly forgettable as time has passed... but I remember it being tons of fun and one of the funnier series in the franchise.

8.Kingdom- A shockingly enjoyable finale to the wfc trilogy with solid animation, solid characterization (besides Beast megatron and g1 prime), and a decent voice cast for the beasts. I really liked what they did with Starscream and blackarachnia, Dinobot was a pretty good reinvention of the character, and I wouldn't find seeing a 4th season to wrap things up.

9.Armada- It suffers from an almost irredeemably bad first half and the worst humans in the franchise... but manages to pull it back around and deliver some truly great transformers in the unicron battles. If only the rest of the series kept to that standard.

10.Cyberverse- Despite having a horrible first season and almost ruined by its 10 minute runtime, which leads to no storyline getting time to breath or depth to be anything more than a concept... It slowly digs itself out of the ground and delivers a below average, but fairly enjoyable, second season and a really solid 3rd season. It has awful voice acting, but the creators seem to truly have a love for the franchise and it gave a lot of characters a chance to shine that really deserved it.

11.Siege- I'll be honest, I think this series is a little overhated! The voice acting is pretty horrible, but I found a majority of the characters entertaining and true to form, the show has a fast pace and I wasnt really bored, and the animation is actually pretty solid. Its by no means perfect, barely even passes as good in fact, but not horrible either.

12.Cybertron- holy christ this show is boring... dosent help none of the characters particularly standout and the animation is awful... I also found the voice acting significantly worse than armada and the cyber key gimmick was just kind of stupid.

13.Earthrise- A significantly worse plot than siege, the voice acting somehow got worse, straight up ruined all the pre-established characters they introduced, felt meandering and almost as if there wasnt a plot at all, and had really bad action.

14.Rescue bots- Just not for me, I'm sure small children would like it.

15.Energon-Ugh

16.Prime wars Trilogy- Double ugh....

16.Headmasters- Please, just kill me.

 

Including the ones I've fully/mostly seen
(Most of this is off the top of my head)

1.) Beast Wars - while the animation may not fully hold up over time the things that do hold up are its great characters, great story, great voice acting and great dynamic's between the characters

2.) Animated - a little bias since this was the TF show I grew up with alongside the 07 movie, but the show has a lot of great stuff to it being a fun enjoyable series with new ideas (Blitzwing having 3 faces, etc.), voice acting concepts, redesigns, and new characters like the GLORIOUS Lugnut hope someday we get updated figures from that show like BW is getting and what Prime will get for next year

3.) G1 - where it all started, while being an 80's Saturday morning cartoon with a lot of generic plots and being well a 80's kid's cartoon it's got a charm to it that a think helps it hold up

4.) Cyberverse - while its first season wasn't great, it was much better than RID 2015 showing bots go offline, having good character, and a good sense of humor, and had a solid S2 and S3 which some unique new characters

5.) Prime - Has some great things in it, and good characters but I personally don't think it's the best TF series ever

5.) Cyberverse - while its first season wasn't great, it was much better than RID 2015 showing bots go offline, having good character, and a good sense of humor, and had a solid S2 and S3 which some unique new characters

6.) Seige - got its problems, bad voice acting (with some of them not being as bad as others) and could be way better, but I seem to be one of the few that liked it and I do think it's a bit overhated (but we'll see how it and the whole WFC trilogy are viewed in the future)

7.) Earthrise - weaker story than Siege, very obvious most of its budget went to Kingdom

8.) RID 2015 - cliched, repetitive, not very solid writing, a little too kiddy, not a good sequel to Prime

9.) POTP - the best of the Prime Wars trilogy by no competition, but still has problems

10.) TR - better than CW but still got most of its problems especially very slow animation

11.) Masterforce - not good, but I do like the robots for the Seacons, Ginari, and Minerva

12.) Headmasters - probably better than Rebirth but not IMO, has a lot of problems (but New Soundwave is of course not one of them)

13.) CW - best thing about the show is Megatron and how much he doesn't care

 

The Greats
Beast Wars
Animated
Rescue Bots

These were able to surpass their shaky first impressions with amazing characterization and writing. They also all have a real strong identity, both in aesthetic and the world they build.


Some Really Neat Bits
Armada
Cyberverse
G1
RiD2001
Beast Wars II

A lot to love, even if as a whole the shows aren't all that great.


Eh....
Beast Machines
Cybertron
Beast Wars Neo
RiD2015

Meh.


Bitter Disappointment
Prime

This one actively pisses me off. Strong start, but it systematically destroys itself about halfway through. Ugh.

 

1. Beast Wars: Great show with clever writing and an amazing cast of characters. Truly a remarkable gem from one of the first cg cartoons to be produced. Filled with an amazing overarching story, hilarious humor, and epic story to bootin up cold.

2. Transformers Animated: Despite having some misgivings about the art style at first. The show one me over with its blend of lightheartedness and seriousness. The main autobot cast are believable characters with their own interesting motivations, past stories and personality. The show is also one of the rare shows where continuity is well preserved as actions from previous episodes are felt in episodes right after. Not only is it one of the best transformers cartoons but one of the best in animation period. It just won’t bump off BW for because of nostalgia.

3. The Transformers G1 cartoon. While I didn’t grow up watching it in the 80s. I can still appreciate the show giving us the iconic cast of characters we know and love. Despite being very cheesy and clearly made to sell toys. The show has a lot of fun moments and the character interactions between the bots is always something you look forward to.

4. Transformers Cyberverse: While of it is more lighthearted then most TF shows that except rescue bots. Cyberverse manages to tel an interesting story arch through the span of its three seasons. I do not think the 11 minute time limit for each episode is ideal as it hurts the pacing. Voice acting is fine enough except for some characters. Humor can be a hit or a miss.

5. Transformers Armada: I think the show has wonderful 2D looks for the cybertronians that has been discarded for more cg puppets in later installmanets (except for animated). I consider the minicon of the week sthick to be tiring in the first half, but the show improved once Sideways enters the fray. I consider this show to have the best version of Starscream due to his character arc. What made Armada good are the character arcs revolving around Starscream, Hot Shot, and Wheeljack. Armada is flawed since it was rushed, but still stands out to me as the best in the UT.

6. Robots in Disguise 2015: I like this show due to trying to be a bit different with Bumblebee taking the spot light as leader of a small group of Autobots hunting Decepticons. It is a bit more light hearted then prime which works in its favor since Prime was too grim dark for my tastes. However, I’m not fan of the mix of cg and cel shaded. The Decepticons of the week gets old pretty fast and I do not like the constant bickering between Sideswipe and Strongarm. Good to watch but at the end it’s pretty forgettable.

7.TFP Like it’s successor series. TFP was just as much as forgetable to me. To its credit I do like the fact it brought back Peter Cullen and Frank Welker together, giving us Knockout as he is indeed awesome, and the best incarnation of Ratchet who is done well by Jeffery Tombs. The show however is too serious for my book, and there hardly any light hearted moments. The second season is not great due it being a series of fetch quests with the artifacts. Most of the humans are annoying with the exception of Silas and Fowler. Prime also has good action scenes. Not a bad show but not something I would rank so high.

8. Beast Machines: Like animated I wasn’t won over by the character designs, and unlike animated I never saw my opinion of them changed. I can commend the show for following a more cohesive story arc of then BW. But changing the personalities of beloved characters to the point of them being ridiculous made me dislike the show. It is not terrible in my opinion but as a follow up to one of my favorite cartoons ever, it leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

9. Robots in Disguise 2001: Another oldie I watched during my childhood. While I didn’t see enough of RiD to have a complete opinion, I thought it was ok. It is not as good as Armada but better then the other seasons it follows after.

10. Energon. I will be frank. If it weren’t for nostalgia, I would prob not like it as I do now. I honestly never found kicker annoying and I thought it was good to an extent but I was young back then and I haven’t seen it since. After hearing about why it is bad, I can’t help but place is really low on my list. I can’t in good faith place it higher then a show like TFP because at least TFP is well made to an extent. Energon with its lack of a focused story sounds like a mess. The cg models and animation for the bots also look bad but aaa bad for my hated show in the series.

11. Cybertron: I never finished this show due to several reasons. The human kids were annoying, the terrible cg models and the puppet animations. Those reasons alone may not make it bad to some, but to me it is what turned me away from it. As the final
Series to the Unicron trilogy. It truly disappointed me. Oh well.

 

I'm just gonna rank my Top 10.

1. Transformers Animated

2. Beast Wars

3. Transformers G1

4. Rescue Bots Academy

5. Rescue Bots

6. Cyber Missions

7. Transformers Cyberverse

8. Transformers Armada

9. Beast Machines

10. War for Cybertron Trilogy

And as a side note, I had a raging internal debate as to whether I should put Prime at 10, or the War for Cybertron trilogy, but even the worst of War for Cybertron couldn't compare to the hellish banality of Miko.

 

From best to worst:
1. Transformers Victory
2. Transformers Animated
3. Beast Wars
4. Armada/Micron Densetsu
5. Beast Wars II
6. Beast Wars Neo
7. RID2001
8. Transformers Cybertron
9. Beast Machines
10. Transformers Prime
11. G1
12. RID2015
13. Prime Wars Trilogy
14. Energon
15. WFC Trilogy

 

1. Cybertron
1.5 animated
2. Beast Wars
3. RID01
4. Beast Machines
5. Cyberverse

 

• Animated
• Beast Wars
• Rescue Bots
• Victory
• Beast Wars Neo
• Cybertron/Galaxy Force
• Car Robots (Car Robots, not RiD)
  
• Go!
• Superlink (Superlink, not Energon)
• G1
• Cyberverse
• Masterforce
• RID 2015
• BWII
  
• Headmasters
• Beast Machines
• Prime
• Zone
• Armada

 

Beast Wars -
Classic. Dated visuals but solid voice acting and excellent storytelling.

Prime -
Has its ups and downs but most consistent quality of the shows. Still solid voice acting and a really good score. Visuals hold up well.

Machine Wars -
Dialog can be preachy but still solid story telling and voice acting. Visuals still dated.

Masterforce -
Points for the only show to properly integrate the human cast, literally. Less cheese than most japanese shows.

Animated -
Artwork was eye cancer and Sari Sumdac was unbearable. However storytelling was good and voice acting was aces.

RID2001 -
Solid art and good voice acting. Had some of that japanese cheese and kids save the world but the villains were great. Skybyte rules and Scourge is still No.1

G1 + Headmasters -
Nostalgia. Had enough episodes for some good story and development. Can be boring. Hard to watch without falling asleep.

Unicron Trilogy -
A lot of ups and downs but with good voice acting and decent visuals. Like G1 has enough episodes to make for some interesting content.

Victory -
Good art design super super japanese cheese. Clearly geared for a much younger audience.

RID 2015 -
Some good standalone episodes. Terrible art and mediocre voice acting. Overall story was bump.

Prime Wars Trilogy -
Some good voice acting with a subpar story and boring visuals. Occasionally the special effects looked nice and shiny.

War for Cybertron -
Bad voice acting, bad story telling, visuals at best match the worst of Unicron trilogy. Battles are boring. The video games did it better. Fan made stop motion has done it better.

Cyberverse -
Unwatchable. I have tried. I'm not the target demographic and that's okay.

Rescue Bots -
Never watched. Don't care to.

 

1. Prime
2. Beast Wars
3. Animated
4. G1
5. Cyberverse
6. Rid2001
7. Kingdom
8. Rescue Bots
9. Cybertron
10. Power of the Primes
11. Armada
12. Rescue Bots Academy
13. Seige
14. Earthrise
15. Rid2015
16. Beast Machines
17. Combiner Wars
18. Titans Return
19. Energon
20. GogogoBots
21. Cyber missions
22. Universe
23. G2
24. G1 Season 5

Haven’t finished these or are only technically Transformers
Honorable Mentions
Victory but really like it so far
Like Zone but it’s one episode
Brave Exkaiser is good but it’s not really transformers but whatever

Mentions
Gobots
Robotix
Have not seen BW2 or BW Neo or Masterforce

Dishonerable Mentions
Headmasters, Go!, Is nezha out what’s up with that? Is it still coming out?

 

I thought I should update my list After watching kingdom

1. prime/animated
2. Beast wars
3. Beast machines
4. Cyberverse
5. Kingdom
6. Rid01
7. G1
8. Potp
9. Rid15
10. Siege
11. Earthrise
12. Combiner wars
13. Titans return
14. Armada