is a Japanese

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

that is a part of the ''

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the heroic Autobots and the villainous Decepticons, two Extraterrestrials in fiction, alien robot fac ...

'' robot superhero franchise. It aired from July 3, 1987 to March 25, 1988, and its 17:00–17:30 timeslot was used to broadcast ''

Mashin Hero Wataru is a mecha multimedia franchise originally created by Sunrise and Red Company. The first series aired on April 15, 1988, replacing the 17:00–17:30 timeslot used for '' Transformers: The Headmasters''. Sunrise credited "Hajime Yatat ...

'' at the end of its broadcast. It serves as the first sequel series to the Japanese dub of the original 1985 ''

The Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the heroic Autobots and the villainous Decepticons, two Extraterrestrials in fiction, alien robot fac ...

'' cartoon series in the ''Generation 1'' franchise, followed by '' Transformers: Super-God Masterforce''.

Development

Initially,

Takara was a Japanese toy company founded in 1955. In March 2006, the company merged with Tomy, Tomy Company, Ltd. to form Tomy, Takara Tomy. The Takara motto was("playing is culture"). The company focused on traditional toys and board games. They cr ...

, the Japanese producers of the ''Transformers'' toyline, imported the American ''

'' cartoon series from 1985 to 1986. When the series came to an end with the three-part miniseries "The Rebirth" in 1987, however, Takara decided to continue the series themselves, declining to import ''The Rebirth'' and instead creating a full-length 35-episode

spin-off Spin-off, Spin Off, Spin-Off, or Spinoff may refer to: Entertainment and media *Spinoff (media), a media work derived from an existing work *''The Spinoff'', a New Zealand current affairs magazine * ''Spin Off'' (Canadian game show), a 2013 Canad ...

series, ''Transformers: The Headmasters'' (two additional clips episodes were produced after the fact for direct-to-video release). Supplanting ''The Rebirths position in Japanese continuity, ''The Headmasters'' occurred one year after ''The Return of Optimus Prime'', introducing the title characters to the Transformers universe in a different way. Whereas in Western fiction, the Headmasters result from the merging of a Transformer with an organic alien being from the planet Nebulos, the Headmasters of the Japanese series are a group of small Cybertronians who departed the planet millions of years ago and crash-landed on the inhospitable planet Master. To survive its harsh climate, a select few Cybertronians constructed larger bodies called "Transtectors", to which they connected as the heads.

Story

Six years after the decisive battle against

Unicron Unicron is a fictional villain from the ''Transformers'' media franchise. Designed by Floro Dery, he was introduced in the 1986 animated film '' The Transformers: The Movie'' and has since reappeared in '' Transformers: Armada'', '' Transform ...

, a group of rebellious Headmasters led by

Weirdwolf is a Japanese anime television series that is a part of the ''Transformers'' robot superhero franchise. It aired from July 3, 1987 to March 25, 1988, and its 17:00–17:30 timeslot was used to broadcast '' Mashin Hero Wataru'' at the end ...

join with

Galvatron Megatron is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the ''Transformers'' media franchise produced by the American toy company Hasbro and the Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. He is the tyrannical leader of the Decepticons, a villainou ...

Decepticon The Decepticons are a fictional faction of sentient robots in the ''Transformers'' multimedia franchise. Serving as the main antagonists in the franchise, their goals include conquering their fictional homeworld planet Cybertron, defeating ...

s in an attack on Cybertron. The Headmasters, led by Cerebros, return to their home planet to aid in its defense. The situation soon gets worse when it is revealed that Vector Sigma, the super-computer at the planet's heart, is destabilizing, and

Optimus Prime Optimus Prime, also known in Japan as is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the ''Transformers'' franchise. Generally depicted as a brave and noble leader, Optimus Prime is the supreme commander of the Autobots in their fight ag ...

again sacrifices his life to save Cybertron. This proves to be only delaying the inevitable, however, as a bomb attack instigated by Scorponok turns Cybertron into a burnt-out, inhospitable husk. Rodimus Prime departs to search for a new planet for the Transformers to live on, leaving Cerebros in command, operating from the planet Athenia. Meanwhile, Scorponok replaces Galvatron- who had vanished in the explosion- as Decepticon leader, constructing a personal Transtector and redubbing himself MegaZarak to battle Cerebros' own giant form, Fortress Maximus. Although populated mainly with new characters, ''The Headmasters'' featured characters from all previous seasons, including new versions of

Soundwave Soundwave or Sound Wave may refer to: * Sound, a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave * Acoustic wave, the wave which carries sound Festivals * Soundwave (Australian music festival), an annual music festival 2007–2016 * Soundwave Fe ...

and Blaster, rebuilt after a duel destroyed them both as Soundblaster and Twincast. Human Daniel Witwicky and his young Autobot friend

Wheelie A wheelie, or wheelstand, is a vehicle maneuver in vehicle acrobatics in which the front wheel or wheels come off the ground due to sufficient torque being applied to the rear wheel or wheels, or rider motion relative to the vehicle. Wheelie ...

also played major roles in the series, serving as the youthful characters for the audience to identify with. More new characters were introduced when Galvatron returned to leadership and the Decepticons embarked on a space voyage, ransacking planets in a chain of stories that introduced the Horrorcons, Autobot and Decepticon clones. Later, the Decepticon ninja six-changer Sixshot kills Ultra Magnus, and the Autobot Headmasters manage to destroy Galvatron, leaving Scorponok to become leader of the Decepticons again. When the Decepticons then return to Master, refugees from the planet are caught in a plasma bomb accident that fuses them to the arms of several Autobots and Decepticons, creating the Targetmasters, and in a final move, Scorponok attempts the destruction of Earth, only to be foiled, thanks in part to a traitorous Sixshot.

Adaptations

Not professionally released in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

until July 5, 2011, ''The Headmasters'' was dubbed into English in Hong Kong by the dubbing company Omni Productions, for broadcast on the

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

n TV channel, RTM1, and later the

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

satellite station, StarTV, where it attained greater fame, leading it to often be referred to (albeit erroneously) as the "StarTV dub". The dub is, however, infamous for its poor quality, full of mistranslations and incorrect names (for example, Saibertron is pronounced "Cyberton", Blaster becomes known as "Billy", Blurr is "Wally", Jazz is "Marshall", Hot Rod is "Rodimus" (pronounced "Roadimus"), the Matrix becomes the "Power Pack", Spike is "Sparkle", Soundblaster is "New Soundwave", Metroplex is called "Philip", and Fortress Maximus is occasionally called "Spaceship Bruce"), as well as stilted and even bizarre dialogue, such as ''"I'll send you express to hell!"'' and ''"Fortress Maximus has come himself"''. Also, Wheelie does not speak in rhyme (but seems to have a slight Scottish accent), the Dinobots speak normally (Grimlock does not say his famous ''"Me Grimlock"'' at all), Raiden is known as "Grimlock", and Blurr speaks abnormally slowly (though this at least can be chalked up to the difficulty of imitating John Moschitta's famous fast-talking style). Omni also dubbed the 1990s and 2000s ''

Godzilla is a fictional monster, or ''kaiju'', that debuted in the eponymous 1954 film, directed and co-written by Ishirō Honda. The character has since become an international pop culture icon, appearing in various media: 33 Japanese films p ...

'' movies and '' Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky'', both of which are often ridiculed for extremely bad and at times cheesy dubbing. This dub has seen some releases in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, when it aired on

AnimeCentral Anime Central was a short-lived British television channel owned by CSC Media Group. The channel launched on 13 September 2007. It was first announced on 5 August 2007, though its license first appeared on the Ofcom website in January (initially ...

from September 13, 2007. In 2005, the full series with the original Japanese audio with subtitles and the English dub were released over 4-discs on DVD in Region 2. The full series was released on DVD in North America by

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory, LLC, doing business as Shout! Studios (formerly doing business as Shout! Factory, its current legal name), is an American home video and music distributor founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases, issued i ...

on July 5, 2011, without the English dub. In 2008,

Madman Entertainment Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd., also known as Madman Films, stylized as MADMAN, is an Australian film and television production, distribution, entertainment, and rights management company headquartered in East Melbourne, Victoria, specialising ...

released the series on DVD in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

in Region 4, PAL format. A

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

based on this anime titled was written by Keisuke Fujikawa and released on August 25, 1987. An eight-chapter

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

adaptation of this anime was written by Masami Kaneda and illustrated by Ban Magami as part of their series.

Theme songs

* Openings # #* July 3, 1987 - March 25, 1988 #* Lyricist: Keisuke Yamakawa / Composer: Takamune Negishi / Arranger: Katsunori Ishida / Singers: Hironobu Kageyama #* Episodes: 1–38 * Endings # #* July 3, 1987 - March 25, 1988 #* Lyricist: Keisuke Yamakawa / Composer: Takamune Negishi / Arranger: Katsunori Ishida / Singers: Hironobu Kageyama #* Episodes: 1–35, 38 * Insert Songs # #* January 22, 1988, February 5, 1988, February 19, 1988, March 18, 1988 #* Lyricist: Shinobu Urakawa / Composer: Takamune Negishi / Arranger: Katsunori Ishida / Singers: Hironobu Kageyama #* Episodes: 24, 26, 28, 32 # #* February 12, 1988, February 26, 1988 #* Lyricist: Keisuke Yamakawa / Composer: Takamune Negishi / Arranger: Katsunori Ishida / Singers: Hironobu Kageyama #* Episodes: 27, 29 # #* Lyricist: Keisuke Fujikawa / Composer: Takamune Negishi / Arranger: Katsunori Ishida / Singers: Korogi '73, Mori no Ki Jido Gassho-dan #* Episodes: None # "TRANSFORM!" #* Lyricist: Keisuke Yamakawa / Composer: Takeshi Ike / Arranger: Katsunori Ishida / Singers: Hironobu Kageyama #* Episodes: None # #* Lyricist: Keisuke Fujikawa / Composer: Takamune Negishi / Arranger: Katsunori Ishida / Singers: Hironobu Kageyama #* Episodes: None # #* Lyricist: Keisuke Yamakawa / Composer: Takamune Negishi / Arranger: Katsunori Ishida / Singers: Hironobu Kageyama #* Episodes: None # #* Lyricist: Keisuke Fujikawa / Composer: Takamune Negishi / Arranger: Katsunori Ishida / Singers: Hironobu Kageyama #* Episodes: None # #* Lyricist: Keisuke Yamakawa / Composer: Takeshi Ike / Arranger: Katsunori Ishida / Singers: Hironobu Kageyama, Ikuko Noguchi #* Episodes: None

Episodes

Video game

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

based on the series was released by

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

for the

Family Computer Disk System The commonly shortened to the Famicom Disk System, is a peripheral for Nintendo's Nintendo Entertainment System, Family Computer (Famicom) home video game console, released in Japan on February 21, 1986. The system uses proprietary floppy disk ...

(FDS). It has

single-player A single-player video game is a video game where input from only one player is expected throughout the gameplay. Video games in general can feature several game modes, including single-player modes designed to be played by a single player in add ...

and

multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

modes, and it uses a

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...

for the

save game A saved game (also called a game save, savegame, savefile, save point, or simply save) is a piece of digitally stored information about the progress of a player in a video game. From the earliest games in the 1970s onward, game platform hardw ...

feature. Players control one of the Autobot Headmasters through four planets – Earth, Cybertron, Master, and Chaar fighting the Decepticons. Unlike its predecessor, '' Mystery of Convoy'', players cannot switch between robot and vehicle mode, as they are predetermined by level. Players also cannot choose which Autobot player character to use. Players must collect them throughout the game, because they will be flown in by helicopter and will replace that Autobot when they die.

References

External links

* * *
Transformers Japanese Collection: Headmasters
' at

''The Headmasters'' at the Transformers Wiki
{{Portalbar, Japan, Anime and manga, 1980s, Children's literature 1987 anime television series debuts 1987 Japanese novels 1987 Japanese television series debuts 1987 manga 1988 comics endings 1988 Japanese television series endings Adventure anime and manga Children's manga Interactive television Transformers: Headmasters Transformers: Headmasters Transformers: Headmasters Transformers: Headmasters Japanese television series based on American television series Light novels Manga series Mecha anime and manga Nippon Television original programming Space opera anime and manga Television series set in the 2010s Anime and manga set in the United States Toei Animation television Headmasters Transformers: Generation 1