

The series depicts a war among giant robots that can transform into vehicles and other objects. Goldbug also makes a brief appearance in the fourth and final season of the series, defending Autobot City and Cybertron against a massive Decepticon attack. The Transformers is the first animated television series in the Transformers franchise. Goldbug travels with Optimus Prime to the planet of Chaar in order to secure a heat-resistant alloy that can protect him from the plague, only to be infected on the mission and later cured when Prime uses the power of the Matrix to purge the plague. Visit the official Cartoon Network Transformers: Robots in Disguise microsite and find out more about Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Sideswipe, Grimlock. In his new, shiny body, he comments that he has gone beyond just being plain old Bumblebee, and is now a " gold bug", prompting Optimus Prime to redub him Goldbug. The little Autobot has been so severely damaged, however, that he requires an entire reconstruction and is rebuilt as a Throttlebot.

A member of the alien race called the Quintessons subsequently repair and restore Optimus Prime to life, so he can stop the "Hate Plague" and repair Bumblebee. Entering the lab, some of the Transformers are exposed to rage-inducing alien spores that cause them to run wild, and although Bumblebee avoids infection, he is seriously damaged by the rampaging Superion. When the body of the deceased Optimus Prime is recovered from space by a pair of Transformer-hating human scientists who intend to use it to lure the Autobots into a trap, Bumblebee is part of the rescue team led by Rodimus Prime to recover it. He later befriends Sparkplug's son Spike, but on their first adventure together they are both kidnapped by the Decepticons, and Bumblebee is brainwashed into luring the other Autobots into a trap. Awakening in 1984, Bumblebee helps Ironhide quell a raging river and uses his small size to help Sparkplug Witwicky plant explosives in the midst of a Decepticon mining operation. Bumblebee is subsequently among the Transformers aboard the Ark as it set off searching for new worlds and new energy sources, which crashed on Earth, causing the Transformers within to be trapped in stasis for four million years. These two characters were seen often together in the first season and beginning of the second season, sometimes going on missions. Bumblebee holds the distinction of being the second character to appear on-screen in the original Transformers animated series, while on a mission to recover a small clutch of energy conductors with Wheeljack, illustrating the energy crisis holding sway over their home planet of Cybertron.
