Transformers is a US-Japanese co-production from day 1. It was commisioned by Toei from scripts & designs from the USA. It was originally based on a Japanese toy line from Takara, but this was not called Transformers (I don't know what it was called). It become Transformers (in name) once Hasboro licenced the toy for sale into Western markets.
Like Pokemon, Transformers is a series whose entire purpose is to promote the toy range (they make far more money on the toys)- what, you thought they make this crap for artisitic reasons
