[Rebel]

I thought the toys where actually made by Takara, Later by Hasbro, later spanning in to a series that was kinda changed in to a semi-Animé american cartoon medium.

If I am correct, you have the character counterpart names, such as Optimus being known as Convoy in Japan. I am not sure whether it was made in Japan first then imported to the US where it panned out, or whether it was an American invention then Japan thought it was cool to improve upon it.

as I said above, the characters such as the Destrons and Leo Convoy and so on were only toys with backstory, there was no TV series. And yes Takara did make them. The show was an american idea while collaborating with the Japanese who came up with the toys. they got new, niftyier names, and then Hasbro marketed the toys.

Then when it died in the mid 90's here, Japan picked up on it, then again with Beast Wars, and there hasnt been an american made transformers show till the movie comes out in July. Sure, americans have worked on the latest shows because we know lots about the original, but it's still japanese originated.