The Transformers has had many shows over the decades, but fans on Ranker have their own opinions on which shows are the best of the best.

For nearly 40 years, Transformers has captured the hearts and minds of fans all around the world. Spinning off the popular action figure franchise have been numerous TV shows that serve the franchise well in attracting more fans.

Obviously, with the number of Transformers series out there, some shows are bound to be better than others, and fans are more than happy to share their opinions. A Ranker list does a great job with helping fans figure out which of these shows is the best of the best.

Note: Ranker lists are fan-voted, live, and continue to accrue votes, so some rankings may have changed after this publishing.

Kicking off the Prime Wars Trilogy, Transformers: Combiner Wars takes place 40 years after the Great War. Cybertron is now ruled by a three-bot ruling council, and Optimus Prime and Megatron have both disappeared, with a new threat in the form of the Combiners threatening to shatter the long-fought-for peace.

Related: 10 Most Inspirational Quotes From Optimus Prime

What drew fans into this series was its animation style and its nods to the original series in character designs, though the original voice actors of the characters wouldn't return until the sequel series, Titans Return. Many fan-favorite characters such as Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream and Rodimus Prime make appearances alongside new characters like Windblade. Though criticized for its short episode lengths, Combiner Wars was a promising start for a new digital series in the Transformers franchise.

From the start of the Prime Wars Trilogy to its endgame. Power of the Primes focuses on Megatron and a small team of Transformers trying to stop the evil Megatronus from destroying all Cybertronians forever.

What makes this series better than Combiner Wars boils down to characters. Megatronus has been able to some of the strongest Transformers in the franchise, including both Megatron and Optimus Prime, making him a powerful foe to defeat. This series also showed off more characters like the Dinobots and Optimus Primal, as well as brought back original voices actors like Peter Cullen, Gregg Burger, and Judd Nelson to reprise their roles in this epic finale to the trilogy.

Acting as a sort of conclusion to the 2000s Unicron Trilogy, Transformers: Cybertron follows the Autobots and the Decepticons race to find the four Cyber Planet Keys before a monstrous black hole consumes the entire universe.

Where Cybertron fails is due to behind-the-scenes shenanigans, where the series wasn't originally going to be a sequel to the previous series, Transformers: Energon. As such, the series suffered from continuity issues. But the characters and the plot make up that. The human characters are likable, and even big names like Optimus Prime see some character development. The prominent theme of family seen throughout the series also helped Cybertron find a place with the fans.

After the disappointing reaction to Beast Machines, Transformers eventually came back with Armada to kick off the Unicron Trilogy. This series shows the Autobots and the Decepticons battling for control over Mini-Cons, small Transformers that can grant them special powers.

Despite starting a new era for Transformers, Armada's plot was practically nonexistent in the first half of the series, only kicking into gear for real when Unicron began to make his presence known. Despite this, many fans still hold the series to a certain degree of nostalgia, and some negative opinions on it have become unpopular. Many fans can agree that the portrayal of Starscream and his story arc, which turned him into an anti-hero, was one of the series' few high points.

The latest Transformers series to be released on television rather than online, Transformers: Cyberverse's three seasons each had a different main plot. But in general, each season follows Bumblebee and the Autobots as they fight against the Decepticons and threats from beyond their universe.

Related: 10 Transformers Episodes That Never Got Made

Fans enjoyed seeing a crisp, new look to the characters they all knew and loved, combined with multiple flashbacks that showed Cybertron before the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons began. While the short, 1o minute runtime per episode has left fans wanting more, the series' twists and turns have surprised even die-hard Transformers fans as it pays homage to the original Generation One timeline in more ways than one.

After Transformers: Cybertron, Hasbro decided to reboot the franchise yet again, this time featuring Optimus Prime and his team as younger warriors protecting the city of Detroit from various super criminals and Earth itself from the Decepticons. That series became Transformers: Animated

What made Transformers: Animated unique was that it included many antagonists that weren't Decepticons. More often than not, especially in the first season, the Autobots were forced to fight against what can only be described as supervillains, making the series have a superhero feel to it. While a few people criticized the childish nature of the characters, many fans hold this series in the highest regard as the series that got them interested in Transformers in the first place.

In the many years of Transformers content, few cartoons have depicted the war on Cybertron to a larger extent. All anyone had seen, for the most part, is the Transformers leaving Cybertron at the end of the war. Then Netflix's War for Cybertron Trilogy came.

Seeing the closing days of the Cybertronian war was a big hit to fans, especially as the series creators adapted styles and characters from both the original cartoon and Beast Wars. The overarching villain, Unicron, makes his presence known in the latter two parts of the trilogy, setting up for further stories in this universe in the future. What the Netflix series did right is tie together important parts and moments from all over the franchise and put them in an epic plot and story. Fans were more than happy to give their support.

Beast Wars was an attempt to breathe new life into the flailing Transformers franchise, and it delivered. Set several hundred years after The Transformers, the series features the Maximals and the Predacons, descedents of the Autobots and the Decepticons, fighting on a myserious planet in the form of beasts rather than cars and jets.

Related: 10 Best Episodes of Beast Wars: Transformers, According To IMDb

Beast Wars instantly captivated audience's hearts by introducing new and exciting characters that they could fall in love with, most notably the honorable and complex Dinobot. Fans kept tuning in to unravel the mysteries of the world the two factions had landed on, and as the series progressed, it was obvious that this was a well-crafted series. Even as the episodes became a little convoluted over time, the groundbreaking CGI animation, combined with well-rounded characters, saved Transformers from obscurity.

The series that began a franchise. The Transformers, often referred to in the fan base as "G1," sees the heroic Autobots battle the evil Decepticons on the planet Earth for the fate of their entire race.

Despite the many technical errors, fans both young and old have loved the visual effects of The Transformers. While the plots for each episode largely became the same — Megatron comes up with a scheme, and the Autobots thwart it — fans still hold this series to the highest regard. After all, this was the series that started the franchise. Without this series, the franchise would never have taken off the way it did. It's for those reasons that The Transformers still is a must-watch series today.

Transformers: Prime is a series that took the franchise in a darker direction, featuring a team of five Autobots struggling to protect Earth from an entire warship filled with Decepticons led by Megatron.

Right from the first episode, fans realized that Transformers: Prime was going to be dark, particularly when Starscream brutally kills the Autobot Cliffjumper. What the series also did phenomenally was build onto previously established Transformers lore and incorporate elements from previous installments in the franchise, such as the Star Saber from Armada and the Omega Lock from Cybertron. With a story driven plot and characters with their own emotional baggage, it's no surprise while Ranker voters rated this series the best of the best.

Next: 10 Best Human Characters From The Transformers Franchise, According To Reddit.

Matthew Demchak is a writer, gamer, and epic hat wearer obsessed with topics like Marvel, Star Wars, Transformers, and more. He lives in Indiana following his graduation from Ball State University with a degree in English concentrated in Creative Writing. He is extremely passionate about writing and creating stories and believes that the most important parts of a story are great characters and a fleshed-out plot. Much of his current work in novel writing tends to have a superhero theme to it. Matt plans on publishing these novels one day.